Released Skeleton Coast 1.1

Just relaxing on the Beach and taking in the fine scenery

My screenshots here do not do the wave foam justice when you see it moving in and out on the sand...beautiful work.

...and on the way home I had a small crash...to busy looking at the scenery



Each screenshot has had some 'Dodging & Burning' within Photoshop to slightly enhance the visual contrast

 

He Murokmakto, I use the trailers of Fun Physics, and he made some big loads for his flatbed trailer, but I had a problem with it, if I wanted to start from the harbor, so I opend the edior and changed some thing, may be an idear for following update? Having a lot of fun with your map, hopefully you can make more of this

ps. I made the change very quick, with my poor understanding of the editor, so I did not change the power lines, but you can see the problem ;>)

 

Time to get onto upgrading the engine on the work truck, set up a scene in one of the Garages in the small 'Squatter's Mine' area.

Extra lighting has been added within World Editor to illuminate the interior of the Garage better.



Each screenshot has had some 'Dodging & Burning' within Photoshop to slightly enhance the visual contrast

 

Best map of Africa

 

So the best map of Africa should have a lot of roleplaying carskins, so I made a fuel tanker, and a water tanker skin for the map, If there are more idears, let me know.

 

The Fuel tanker with a 42 feet trailer, have to find out how to make also a 28 feet trailer.

 

I see what can be done about that. But didnt you get stuck in the town somewhere aswell? around some corners etc?

I really like how you find those small places like the workshop and make more out of them, cool series.

Oh perfection. I will add them to the map in the next update (which is already in the making..). Water truck skins make totally sense on the map as for all the large water towers and reservoirs around the map.
only a little thing... there´s a typo on the truck... its skeleton coast, not "sceleton" but thats an easy fix I suppose..

 

With the last update from FP Loadmaster trailer, it has streering wheels, it has to be done manualy(two keys), but great to use in tide corners.

I also made SC Fuels trucktanker, and trailer(42") as I did for the water trucktanker and trailer.

 

link Here's a link to the resource if you want to add the railway to your map.

 

Maybe this is also something for the roleplaying skinpack for this map. Not sure, and not final

Made some changes and some other stuff.

Lots of cars are white, so I wanted some color in the map ;>) Cosmo steel and hardware MD cargo blue, KO Foods supermarket van yellowisch.

And was playing with the editor, to make some changes to the harbor, maybe Murokmakto sees the fun of it, and add it to the map?

Mean while, I keep adding cars to the skinpack for his beautifull map.

 

when i played the map all i saw was no textures everywhere

 

Then there is a problem on your side, maybe deep clear the cache, that often solved problems.

 

That is surprisingly wide, but cool! Glad to see the town roads are based on Google Earth measurements Maybe they just look extra wide because of the lack of angle parking (like in your pic).

I'm a little confused by the highway road widths though. I did a bit of research, and it looks like the standard highway lane width is 3.7 m in South Africa (page 20 of this PDF), with highway lane widths in Namibia being as narrow as 3.3m (page 21 of this different PDF). Do the wide (~6-7m) highway lanes include an unmarked shoulder that is 2.5m wide?

 

this is a totally valid point and might be a subject for the next map update. But let me explain whats going on and why some lanes are so wide:
- The road on your screenshot is by far the widest, and there are only a 3 with this width in the city. all other lanes/roads are narrower. The "lower" part of the city, so the flat area by the sea, is based on the real town of Swakopmund. There are no real standardized lane widths there, I measured between 3m and 6m on google earth. However, some of these very wide lanes are actually 2 but they lack the markings. Such is in Vogelsangbay. Some roads lack the markings for the parking spots and so they appear to be much wider than they actually are.

- Most roads in Swakopmund are 23m wide from the buildings on one side of the road to the other. So the widest roads in vogelsangbay are ~22m wide. This is about correct to real life.

- The road with the wide lanes on your screenshot was originally supposed to be 3 lanes. In the end I only made it 2 lanes. however, in real Swakopmund roads do exist with a lane width of over 5m. So its not too far off tbh. But I agree that it kind of looks weird and for the next update I will probably either change the number of lanes or arrange the parking spots differently to have narrower lanes.

- Yes, the Highway outside of the town is too wide. I made it a bit wider on purpose so its better for driving at really high speeds. Yes, it is arguable that shoulders are included here. roadmarkings are often not that clear in southern africa. Though, most highways in real namibia are narrower than on the map.

here´s a screenshot from google earth with a real 2 lane road thats 12m wide in Swakopmund.



I am also in the team of people who think that forza horizon - like roads kind of break the immersion. But this place really has some wide roads (especially for europeans). Thats why I made many other roads rather small and narrow, there are also parts of the town you can´t get to with a big truck because the roads are so narrow.

Highway is not going to change. technically not possible anymore and I think its a very important feature of the map to be able put up new land speed records between the two towns and therefor the very wide highway is totally reasonable.

So; rearranging the lanes and parking spots on these urban roads (more lanes, different parking spot layout to make it narrower) a valid fix for the map for all of you who think the roads are too wide?

 

I understand it comes down to personal preference, and I’m more than happy with the current road widths. I think it’s important to let the artists bring their own visions to life.

Thoroughly enjoying this map.

 

Thanks for the detailed reply! I think if the roads are based on what exists IRL in Swakopmund, then it's totally fine to leave them as is. Perhaps the "real 2 lane road that's 12m wide in Swakopmund" in your pic could have AI traffic set to use two lanes per travel direction (4 lanes total), since that what seems to happen IRL despite the lack of lane markings.

Totally fair, especially if technical constraints prevent it from being re-done. It is quite fun to race at 300+ km/h without crashing into a car every few seconds.

After your thoughtful explanation, I think the "roads are too wide" comment from people like me is mostly due to being ignorant of reality in southern African towns. I think it's totally fine to keep the roads as they are, but if you decide you want to make a few roads more realistic for SA/Namibia by making the lane markings / AI paths match what is there IRL, that would be fine too!

 

This is a video project I have been working on for a few weeks utilizing this map, as I was first drawn to the derelict 'Squatter Mine' within the map as this gave me 'District 9' the movie, vibes.

A big thanks to Murokmakto for supplying his Skeleton Coast map for free and allowing artists to create with it.

The Story...
Centuries ago, they came to Skeleton Coast in silence…searching for the rare minerals that power their kind.

Now the resources are gone, the mines are empty, and the last traces of their presence must be erased.

Deep within the desolate Skeleton Coast, in a forgotten outpost known as Squatter's Mine, one final operative remains, Astra Veyra, a lone cyborg technician tasked with the Mines final cleanup. Her only companion is a loyal Security Drone, she calls 'Dot', who is linked directly to the distant Mother Ship slowly approaching from deep space.

With one light-year left before extraction, Astra passes the time restoring an old D-Series pickup truck, learning to fly a Helicopter and roaming the windswept coastlines and abandoned sites of a planet her people once harvested.

But one place draws her back again and again…
A lonely beach where the first landing attempt centuries ago ended in disaster, leaving no survivors.

As the Mother Ship closes in and the last evidence of their existence fades,
Astra must finish her mission...remove all traces of our existence

The final departure is coming.
And when she leaves…no one will ever know they were here.

No evidence. No survivors. No history.

 

It´s great to see the story behind all the screenshots you posted over the last weeks! It really puts the map and the scenery in a different mood than what it normally is. great. I immediately thought it would be cool to have an alternative version of the map, in a mad max setting or similar, where everything has been destroyed or abandoned a long time ago.

 

Yes, it's always interesting what other people see when they view your artwork, play on created maps etc. and thanks for taking the time to view and respond.

Skeleton Coast is a big map, can you utilize some of the space in that for a destroyed / adandoned city...fill it up for an action packed map...lol

However, what ever you decide, it will be awesome.

...oh, is there more work to be done on Skeleton Coast?...or this is it, moving on to the next project.

 

There will be one or two updates in the next weeks. Some new stuff aswell as many fixes and changes to things that have been asked a lot for or were simply missing in the first version. Nothing crazy but it will be a better experience overall and, as often, lies the devil in the details and thats where a lot of work went into.