[WIP] Maz Kanata's Castle

[Idren]

Hey everybody! I've decided to undertake making a map for Maz's Castle from Episode 7. I thought there was just an absence of mods/maps for Episode 7 content.

Planned Features:
1. Custom textures/loadouts for the 2 sides (resistance/first order): I've got a decent re-skin of a stormtrooper that (to me) matches the original game's art style pretty well. There's also a re-skin of the rebel pilot to give him a red jumpsuit and a black helmet to match the Ep7 pilots.

2. Custom common.lvl: This will be a dc:loaded common.lvl so it should work fine as just a standalone mod without having to alter your own game's common.lvl (this is mainly for the First Order's holo insignia)

3. The map layout will be featuring Maz's Castle exterior, the forest Rey runs into, Kylo Ren's landed shuttle, some TIE f/o flyers, some stormtrooper dropships, and various ship landing pads like where the falcon lands in the film.

4. An updated Bowcaster ODF that's more like the scene where Han takes Chewbacca's bowcaster and blasts some troopers (sending a couple of them into the air upon impact)

5. I'm hoping to make the castle itself destroyable, and also take my first plunge into creating an AnimatedBuilding like the Technounion ships so that I could have the tallest tower collapse and destroy Maz's statue like in the film.

6. I'd like to have one of the bases be near that big yellow ship that Finn almost leaves on with the pirates, (meaning I'll have to model that ship as well)

7. Clone Wars support is planned, but I don't plan on making any alterations to the map really as my main focus is definitely on the Ep7 content.

Anyways, here's an image of my progress on the castle! (with a comparison of a screenshot from the film) Sorry my rendered image turned out to be a lot smaller/poorer quality than I was anticipating upon upload.

[spoiler][/spoiler]
[spoiler][/spoiler]

My other hope is that someone has already made a T70 X-Wing that's available for use in mods so that I don't have to figure out making my own (I'm not familiar with making flyers) - let me know if there's one floating around out there!

Wish me luck!

[Led]

Nice.   

Looks a bit Yavin-ish

[Idren]

Nice.   

Looks a bit Yavin-ish

Actually the current texture I'm using is just one of the Yavin brick textures that I edited in GIMP to make to colors match the film better -  good eye!

I'll be able to post some more photos in the near future once I get some stuff done.

[Giftheck]

Looking pretty neat there! Maz's Castle does call back to Yavin IV anyway, so that's no bother from what I can see. The exterior looks pretty good so far and I can't wait to see what you do with this map.

[Idren]

Here's some images from ingame testing I've been doing (no mapping has been done really, just testing out objects/skins/etc. for functionality) so far everything's working! 

Kylo Rens' Shuttle:
[spoiler][/spoiler]
Stormtrooper Dropship: (it looks a bit blue for my tastes - i'll be making the texture more gray)
[spoiler][/spoiler]
Stormtrooper Reskin (and a ep7 TIE reskin in the background):
[spoiler][/spoiler]
Bowcaster Upgrade Effect:
[spoiler][/spoiler]
and an Old version of the castle ingame:
[spoiler][/spoiler]

[Triops]

Looks very nice . I am looking forward for your map. It's good to see that there are new modders for swbf1. Good  progress Triops


P.S.: Do you know, that EA plans a Takodana map for SWBF2/EA
()
Looks like EA is "stealing" our ideas (just joking)
First Serejas Theed, now your Kanata's Castle

[Giftheck]

A few tidbits from the SWBF2 beta that might help you:

The First Order's sniper is armed with the DLT-19D (of which I have made a model you can download on here). I think DEVISS made the F-11D and FWMB-10 if you're not already using it. Resistance snipers use A180s in sniper configuration.

[Idren]

Looks very nice . I am looking forward for your map. It's good to see that there are new modders for swbf1. Good  progress Triops


P.S.: Do you know, that EA plans a Takodana map for SWBF2/EA
()
Looks like EA is "stealing" our ideas (just joking)
First Serejas Theed, now your Kanata's Castle

lol I actually had no idea they had one - I haven't been following the EA games - hopefully I'll get to see some good screenshots of the game to make my castle more accurate - currently my only reference photos are screenshots from the film, and a (distant) showcase of the castle object made by ILM they used in ep7. I've been following Sereja's Theed production (which is absolutely incredible) and I'm hoping to get my map as close to his level of quality as I can - I'm horrible with creating textures though, my materials rarely look very good.

A few tidbits from the SWBF2 beta that might help you:

The First Order's sniper is armed with the DLT-19D (of which I have made a model you can download on here). I think DEVISS made the F-11D and FWMB-10 if you're not already using it. Resistance snipers use A180s in sniper configuration.

Thanks for the tips! I'll look into getting those models for the weapons! I haven't really fleshed out the sides yet other than some attempts at re-skinning troops.  I've had trouble creating my own models for troops - not sure what I'm doing wrong in XSI, but something's still going over my head.
Do you know if all those weapons are hosted here?

[Idren]

Update! Alright I've been pretty busy lately, so I haven't been able to get too much more done - but I've done a lot more modeling/editing for the castle itself.

I found a reference video made by ILM showcasing their model for Maz's Castle, and I've got the buildings set up correctly now.  Still no flags yet - but I've got a destroyed version of the castle just about completed! I haven't done UVW Mapping yet - so the textures are all just stand-ins and stuff. The next big part of getting the castle completed is figuring out how to create an animated death sequence where the tall tower gets destroyed like it does in the film - where the top comes off and destroy's Maz's statue.  I've also got a barebones interior working as well (with animated doors) with a spiral staircase going to the basement where Rey finds the lightsaber, and up to the roof. (The interior needs a lot of work still).

Anyways, here are a few images of the castle exterior before/after destruction (the different sections are destroyable one at a time, this is what it'll look like once all the buildings have been destroyed.) Currently the interior is still accessible after destruction - though I may change this.

[spoiler][/spoiler]
[spoiler][/spoiler]
[spoiler][/spoiler]
[spoiler][/spoiler]

[Triops]

Hi Idren,
Are you still working on your map?
Your map could get really nice.
The world needs more maps for swbf1. 

[Idren]

I recently graduated college and am in a whirlwind of job-searching after having (half) moved as well and my modding desktop is currently across the U.S.

I was able to finish the castle's before/after destruction modeling and materialing before packing up, but I won't be able to continue working on it in earnest for at least several months - I might be able to work on some other models for the map - but i'm not sure if my laptop can handle 3ds Max.

But I am still planning on getting this map finished - i'm just in a crazy transitioning time at the moment
(i'll upload some model showcases semi-soon to show where i'm at.)


[EDIT]
Here's one of the reference images I have from the film of the Meson Martinet - one of the ship models I'm trying to create for the map.  Unfortunately, it's also the ONLY view of the ship in the whole film, or anywhere else on the internet for that matter - (there is a non-canon depiction of it in the Lego Star Wars Force Awakens game, but the ship could look cooler in my opinion) so there's a bit of creative license for the front half of the ship.  I haven't even been able to find any concept art anywhere either.

Anyways, here's the reference image:

[spoiler][/spoiler]

And here's the beginnings of the model I'm making for it (postponed due to not having my modding machine...):

[spoiler][/spoiler]

I wasn't able to get any images of the finished castle exterior (non-destroyed and destroyed versions), but I'm pretty happy with how they turned out!

Sorry to anyone waiting for this map! I won't have access to anything for at least a few months..  Thanks for bearing with me though  this community's one of the best