Map Progress Update: Creeks, Critters, and Construction

Good evening, No Creek fans. Time for a map progress update as many are anticipating the release of beta 4.0. The first thing to address is when that will happen. No Creek Beta 4.0 will be released on Friday, June 26th. That is later than I had hoped for, but one of the things I start running into is how much longer it takes to zip up and upload the file now that it is approaching 1 GB in size. I'll also be gone this upcoming weekend and want to clean up and finish several things with regard to the map. Like I always try to do, this version will be a big step forward from Beta 3.0.

I've been working a lot lately on some of the tedious features that may not be a big deal to some, but, in my opinion, they make a map so much more immersive. I have added dozens of flowing creeks like there were in Ray County, but made them better. In Ray County, the water flowed all the time. On No Creek, I was able to add a script that makes the water only flow after a certain amount of rain and continue to flow for up to several hours of game time after the rain stops. One of the things I have always hated about setting visual parameters in Giants Editor is that the object appears or disappears as soon as the event that you assigned it to starts or stops. For example, if you have a snowman set to show up when it snows, that snowman will instantly appear when the first flake falls and disappear immediately when it stops actively snowing; not very realistic. Same with anything you set to show up for any other weather event. This script makes flowing creeks much more realistic and I'm really happy with the immersion that it has added. Here are a couple snapshots of some of the creeks. You'll have to really explore the map to find them all!

Another feature that I have been asked about a lot was whether or not I would be bringing the static deer and turkey to No Creek like you see on Ray County. Since it seemed to be a big hit, the answer is, yes! I took the time to add well over 100 deer, turkey, ground blinds, ladder stands, and elevated blinds. The animals are set to show up for short periods of time throughout different times of the year. You could play the map for hundreds of hours and probably find less than half of the animals because you have to be in the right place at the right time. I also added alfalfa food plots to several secluded areas on the map. I think many enjoyed the surprise of seeing a large buck or strutting turkey skirting the edges of the timber as they went about their day.

In addition, there has been a lot of construction occurring around the map. I modeled the bridge we built over No Creek that we would cross with our three/four wheelers to check the cows on the other side when the water was too high for the low water crossing as well as the dock we made to swim and fish off of on one of our ponds. I plan to make more stuff like this that just makes the whole thing come to life.

If you are a part of the Discord server, you probably participated in a poll about a bridge construction project. Those of you who played the original No Creek for FS17 will remember that one of the bridges on a gravel road had been washed out, and you had to use the low water crossing instead. I got to thinking about the potential of having a bridge "under construction" for a portion of the year and have a completed bridge for the rest of the year. When I created the poll to ask if people just wanted a permanent bridge or the one that was under construction, you overwhelmingly chose to have the bridge be under construction.

I must confess that when it was obvious that the poll would fall that way, work started on the project because I was so excited for it. Making this work visually was no problem at all. In Giants Editor you can make an object appear/disappear by setting parameters for days of the year or even minutes of day. The problem is, there is no way to do that with the collisions for an object. You might have noticed in the past that any seasonal object (pumpkin, straw bales, snowman, etc.) had no collisions to it. If I was going to make a bridge be under construction throughout the course of a year and then be a functional bridge when complete, you have to be able to turn collisions on/off or else your vehicle falls through the bridge deck or the player is able to drive over an invisible bridge when the visuals are hidden.

After a lot of trial and error with scripting, I was able to get it to work. So, now you will be able to visually see several stages of the bridge being built over the course of a few months and then have a functional bridge for about half the year. When the bridge is being built, you will have to use the low water crossing beside it (remember, No Creek will rise and fall, so there are times the low water crossing will not be an option either). I was also able to make the low water crossing go away when the bridge is completed since there is no longer any need for it and that would be what they would do in real life. The script also works no matter how many days per month you prefer to play on so whatever you choose all of the visuals and their collisions coincide with one another.

The construction project has multiple other objects involved as visuals just to add more realism. I custom made "Road Closed" signs that you would see on a project like this as well. The project will reset itself year after year (there's no way around this) and I thought that would be enough of a deal breaker for people not to want the feature at all. To be honest, the whole thing is so cool, I think most will be glad to see it year after year. It took quite a bit of work, but it is one of neatest little features that I've ever put in a map. I'm not going to spoil it with a bunch of pictures; you'll have to check it out for yourself.

That's a rundown of the major work that is being completed; lots of other things still to finish, add, and clean up before beta 4.0 is ready. I appreciate your support, testing, and most of all, your patience while work continues on the project.

No Creek Farms