Arras Map updates for mission builders

[Hamaha15]

Lost places – furnishing No-Man’s-Land (and adding churches to the Arras map)

 

Hello all,

I recently acquired Flying Circus and first aerial reconnaissance brought evidence: like the Rhineland map, the Arras landscape looks great but is appallingly empty. I.m.o. this becomes even more evident when flying the slow-moving biplanes of 1918.

 

The extent of devastation caused during the Great War can be sensed better if you see that many towns including even larger cities like Albert or Armentières were absorbed into the moonscape of No-Man’s-Land.

There’s nothing as typical of the countryside in France profonde as the sight of steeples in a distance. And there’s NO French village without one (I found one singular exception on the map though).

 

Please find attached two downloadable template files to remedy the situation a little. Firstly, towns and villages that vanished inside No-Man’s-Land. The selection is made along the maps and descriptions of Osprey Campaign books covering the WWI Western Front. And secondly, churches provided to all existing towns and villages on the map. In a few cases I added Chateaux and extended the villages too for better matching the prototype.

 

Enjoy

 

Arras-map_NML&Churches.zip

 

Armentières                                                                                  Somme Front looking South

Aire                                                                                                Bailleul in the distance

Edited June 14, 2022 by Hamaha15

[RNAS10_Oliver]

Nice. Just took a look at Theipval and Saint Leger and their location looks pretty much bang on.

Edited February 21, 2021 by Oliver88

[SYN_Vander]

Excellent! Can I use this to upgrade the template in my mission generator?

 

See: https://sites.google.com/view/il2-great-battles-emg/

 

 

Edited February 21, 2021 by SYN_Vander

[Hamaha15]

Yes, go ahead please.

 

If you find the space you may mention my modest contribution...

[SYN_Vander]

2 minutes ago, Hamaha15 said:

Yes, go ahead please.

 

If you find the space you may mention my modest contribution...

 

Of course! and thnx.

[Hamaha15]

36 minutes ago, Oliver88 said:

Nice. Just took a look at Theipval and Saint Leger and their location looks pretty much bang on.

 

Yes, all the maps are - almost - to scale. Using Google maps as a reference you'll be able to locate any spot with good accuracy.

[Chief_Mouser]

Excellent. Anything that can improve the Arras map is fine by me! Thanks for doing it. ?

[RNAS10_Oliver]

6 hours ago, Hamaha15 said:

 

Yes, all the maps are - almost - to scale. Using Google maps as a reference you'll be able to locate any spot with good accuracy.

 

Oh yes I know been doing a bit of this recently. Using these instead of google though;

 

British First World War Trench Maps, 1915-1918 - National Library of Scotland (nls.uk)

WWI Trench Maps & Aerial Photographs | McMaster University Library

Edited February 21, 2021 by Oliver88

[Hamaha15]

Thanks for the link to your reference. I'm lacking contemporary WWI (and WWII) aerial photographs indeed. The French portal is scarce with them, they don't cover the whole country. A complete aerial survey is available from the 1950s on only.

 

The reference maps I use are the French ordnance survey maps of 1866. Although there's no more recent issue available they can be considered as a useful approximation. Except for the major cities there's not much difference between the maps of 1866 and the photographs of the 1950s! The railway system, however, had grown considerably in the meantime...

 

https://remonterletemps.ign.fr/

 

I use Google maps for calibrating the places of interest relative to prominent landmarks found on the simulation's maps. Since these maps are quite accurate it is possible to recreate a true model of the prototype - within the limits dictated by the objects library though...

 

Cheers

Edited April 21, 2021 by Hamaha15

[blue_max]

Awesome work! Through the quick mission generator, I will be seeing it a lot

[hsthhsth]

@Hamaha15,

 

This looks great! Is it possible to include your groups into the Arras All group?

 

And would that also make these towns & churches visible in all QMB missions?

 

I play only SP so I don't care so much about mods on/off.

 

Thanks.

[Hamaha15]

Hello hsth...,

 

logic says yes, however, I don't recommend to do so for two reasons:

 

Firstly, all files with names created by the developpers and released officially like the 'Arras_All' may be overwritten by a future update. All custom made changes would be lost. I suggest to keep the churches- and no-man's-land-files seperately and import them individually when creating a new mission in the Quick Mission Builder. A matter of seconds...

 

Secondly, the Arras_All file from the Template folder where we have access to is not the one called by the Quickmissions from the games menu. This becomes evident when looking at Amiens city: the quick missions reproduce a faulty city layout where a number of Blocks are not at their right place. The buildings don't match the ground texture and Amiens Cathedral is missing. The same flaw doesn't occur when importing the Arras_All file into the mission builder.

 

These are the reasons why I didn't include the two groups into the main group. Maybe the developpers pick up the idea because they have access to all files.

 

You don't need to consider the MOD switch. No ground texture added - for the moment...

 

Cheers

 

 

Amiens flaw produced by a quick mission

Edited March 10, 2021 by Hamaha15

[hsthhsth]

Thank you for the explanation!

 

I always get confused about the term "Quick Mission Builder" because there is the Quick Mission in game and there is the standalone Mission Editor. And only in the ME you can add these templates, not in the in game QM.

 

We can only hope that one day the devs will allow (or make possible) to select templates in the QM. I'm glad that SYN_Vander has included your templates in his mission generator.

 

I'll we enjoying your work in these missions from now on!

[Hamaha15]

Out of reach, not out of sight - Ypres on the Arras map

 

Another void filled: the wrecked city of Ypres...

 

Enjoy

 

Ypres.zip

 

 

Ypres in the distance - seen from an altitude of 1000 m, flying North of Bailleul

Edited March 14, 2021 by Hamaha15

[JGr2/J34b_Matthias]

Some great work and reference links dropped in this thread.  You can tell that they used modern google/aerial surveys in order to create the underlying map, which causes some geographical features such as the Scarpe to be inaccurate for the period and towns that were important then, but are just sort of swallowed up now or were destroyed in no-mans-land were just not added. 

 

Every city and town that gets added back in and corrected for scale/position/layout is a small but important step forward. 

Also, great to see others finding and looking at the McMasters trench maps repository.  Can't recommend that resource enought.  I just wish editing the trench substrates and textures in game hadn't turned out to be such a pain in the rear.

 

 

[Hamaha15]

Closing the gaps step by step...

 

...by adding the town of Hazebrouck, another major railway hub in Northern France close to the front line.

 

Please note that the attached files include the buildings only, not the surface mods. These may be shared later when more of the area will have been populated.

 

Enjoy

 

Hazebrouck.zip

 

 

 

Edited April 21, 2021 by Hamaha15

[352ndOscar]

This is a great project Hamaha15.  How far has it progressed?  Are more updates available?

[Hamaha15]

Good evening,

 

Yes, there are updates in the pipeline: full detail added to a radius of 5 km around the airfields of Serny (RAF) and Treizennes (RAF). The latter hasn't been completed yet.

Can't indicate a timeline as when the work will be ready to share. Currently I'm working on the autumnal Netherlands...

 

Cheers

Edited August 13, 2021 by Hamaha15

[slipper]

Hi

 

I would like to do three things, and was wondering if anyone could explain, or point me to a tutorial please? I have found a map making tutorial but it did not semm to cover what I want.

 

1) Open a blank Arras map

2) Add the groups I have downloaded from here (I have done this stage to an already existing arras mission)

3) add some more static groups of my own

4) save these new groups to be used again, but also as part of one larger 'group' map that I can keep adding to

 

 

Thanks for any help

 

slipper

[Hamaha15]

Good evening slipper,

 

I understand that you want to put static objects into groups for repeated use in different missions.

 

The solution of choice in this case is to combine these individual groups into one map related parent group and save it as a template in the 'data\Template' directory.

 

If imported from this directory the objects (including child groups) inside a group will always be placed at the same position. The parent group will be lost but the child groups remain. You can add more objects, group them and save all groups again as a template, now updated.

 

I created a specific subfolder for each map in order to keep the custom made templates apart from the official ones, e.g. 'date\Template\Add-Ons\Arras'.

 

Cheers

 

[slipper]

Thanks Hamaha15

 

I think i am getting there slowly. One thing I can not work out though.

 

If I load a map and place some objects on it that I want to use as a group, how do I do that please? I have tried just renaming it to .Group instead of .Mission but that does not seem to work

 

 

thanks again

[Hamaha15]

Hi,

 

select the objects you want to group by 'Ctrl+left mouse' or drag your cursor over them. The 'right mouse' button opens a dialogue which offers the options 'Group Objects...' or 'Save Selection to File'. The latter option creates a .group file that you will find behind the 'Groups' button of the object library. The group can then be placed repeatingly like an object. If you save the selection to the 'data\Template' directory it'll be always placed at the same position if imported from this directory into a new mission.

 

A comprehensive manual to how to use the mission editor has been published here:

 

https://forum.il2sturmovik.com/topic/26303-il-2-sturmovik-mission-editor-and-multiplayer-server-manual/#comment-413193

 

Although five years old and not up-to-date with the latest functions it covers most questions regarding mission editing.

 

Cheers

 

Edited December 28, 2021 by Hamaha15

[slipper]

Thanks 

 

That's great. Yes I did find a mission builder manual, but I couldn't see anything about creating and saving groups, although I don't think it was the same manual you posted.

 

Anyway. thanks to you I think I have it now. Thanks for taking the time to explain.

 

regards

 

slipper

[jollyjack]

Hamaha, are you an atheist? Bombing Churches .... daredevil.

BTW a line from  the traditional Country song Arkinsaw Traveler: ""Hello stranger, don't you fear the Lord?  "No, i take my gun wherever i go !".

[Hamaha15]

I'm a Gospel man.

 

No one has the intention to bomb churches! To the contrary.

Please remember: the Operation Oyster mission is lost if you hit a nearby church or Eindhoven's Binnenziekenhuis hospital next to the Philips plant.