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2010. Sixteen years after the Chernobyl disaster, it happened again. This time in the vast Sahara Desert. An entire city now lays abandoned but neighbouring countries are fighting over the technology in radiation-shielded tanks.
Enter Sand Blaster.

Updates to version 1 of this map include the North West corner, which now features a nuclear reactor complex. There are also many optimizations, minor changes, and the new cool gold-edged pyramids. The mountain lake now has 2 windows and a ledge. The mass-driver (aka tank canon) is now more smooth in operation too.
Tanks are now 40% faster and the radar range has been optimized.

Name: Sand Blaster V2
Size: 74 KB
Earliest Recommended Client: 2.0.0
Date Submitted: Wednesday, June 7th

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Very cool...very nice touch with the edged pyrs..

i think the pyramids look too bright compared to the sandy, misty environment around. but maybe it's only me.

First of all, credits to Trepan for the gold-edged pyramids idea. During testing he's send me a very nice concept I liked, and I made a very low poly version of it.

Too bright? Could be, I used the standard gold material definition I used for the domes. But of course, the domes are high up and not so dusty, the pyramids should be. Then again...this is BZFlag and not supposed to be too realistic Anyway, I'll play around with the color a bit. Tx for the feedback!

the golden edges are cool, but i was thinking the pyramids needed another base color, like something closer to the color of sand or soil. but in that case it would probably be difficult to differenciate them from the surrounding.. i have just checked the map again. the smoother gold color seems to have solved that brightness problem now. but again maybe it was just me. anyway, thanks again for this masterpiece-map..

Yeah it looks cool but that big thing in the background looks like a power plant! It might just be me but it looks like the funnel things from power plants. If there's a laser in this map that means A LOT of kills for people who fire it because there's quite a bit of walls.

The big funnel thing in the background actually is a cooling tower, not a powerplant. It is typically used to aid nuclear power plants in cooling. The actual nuclear plant is usually a squarish type of concrete reinforced building.
Here's a great article on cooling towers, with a nice shot:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cooling_tower

There is one laser, but its doing fine cause besides having pyramids for deflection, there are also some slanted walls to help

Dutchrai, this is a marvellous 2.x map. Great job.

MonsterMan++ wrote:Yeah it looks cool but that big thing in the background looks like a power plant! It might just be me but it looks like the funnel things from power plants. If there's a laser in this map that means A LOT of kills for people who fire it because there's quite a bit of walls.

Dutchrai wrote:2010. Sixteen years after the Chernobyl disaster, it happened again. This time in the vast Sahara Desert. An entire city now lays abandoned but neighbouring countries are fighting over the technology in radiation-shielded tanks.
Enter Sand Blaster.

Chernobyl was a nuclear power plant in the Soviet Union (edited) (not sure where it is now, and not going to look it up). It did have a core meltdown and all of the surrounding area is radioactive. The story line is that it happened again, so yes it SHOULD look like a power plant.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chernobyl

it was in 1986. in the former soviet union, now ukraine. millions of people in the surrounding regions and countries were effected, thousands suffered/are suffering from cancer (including my mother who has survived a thyroid cancer). say NO to nuclear power! And YES to renewable energy!!!

And thats what happened. Even today in Chernobyl, you still can't get too near the reactor. Radio-active readings are off the scale. A nasty place for hundreds of years to come due to the rather long half-life of uranium (thats where the game half-life got its name from...nuclear physics).

As for Sand Blaster: The North-West corner facility IS the nuclear power plant, with the squarish building just North of the tank-canon representing the actual reactor. The cooling-tower I already mentioned, it's the enormous off-the-map deco thingy. There are also 3 vessels for holding some liquids (coca cola maybe..dunno), and a power transformer. Oh well...in the end it's just a story and a theme, what really matters is the gameplay around it

Nuclear fusion is the way forward. as soon as we invent nuclear fusion we are pretty much on easy street. No nuclear waste, no carbon emmissions, no environmental issues as such. the main products are the completely harmless helium and hydrogen. and it produces tons of power. we just need to find a way of sustaining the reations.

nuclear energy is actuall renewable

Most of the disaster at Chernobyl could have been prevented, easily. The soviets were a bit stingy on the containment structure and thus the by-products of the meltdown escaped into the atmosphere. Not all meltdowns can be prevented, but they CAN be contained, like at threemile island, for instance.

Nuclear energy can be hazardous, just like any technology, but it's perfectly safe when handled right, and it's getting better all the time.

...the map kicks ass, but everyone knows that

The Red Baron wrote:nuclear energy is actuall renewable

only theoretically. uranium on earth is limited and all western countries have closed their breeder reactor programs. if it were profitable and safe enough they would probably have not.. nuclear fusion is interesting, but unfortunately so far only a dream.

the cooling tower outside made the map look even cooler. no wonder they call it the cooling tower. but somehow i liked the sun panels better. well we still have the two tesla towers and the plasma cannon to balance the evil reactor.

Lol...is this a scientific discussion right here in the BZFlag forum? Sand Blaster seems to be kicking some dust (pun intended of course)

I guess its a dangerous thing to add storylines to maps when all that should be done is play around in them. Remind me not to do this again

I'm so cross!!!! Our Prime Minister is now getting a power plant! He said they're going to make it safe! That's impossible, for one what the hell are they going to do with the waste!

dutchrai, speaking of the story.. who really were those people in the vast sahara desert having access to advanced technology? the berbers? the tuaregs? did they have ties to the ancient egyptians? lost civilizations? or were they time-travellers from our future? inquiring minds wanna know! .....

I came to the conclusion that time travel will never happen.

Look at it this way, if you can travel through time, wouldn't we already be doing it..?
Surely if Time Travel is "invented" in the year 'whatever', wouldn't someone have visited another person from the past billion years in their time travel machine?
And if that was the case, wouldn't we have the technology to travel in time now?

Sure, going back in time (from the future to the present day) to tell folks about time travel and how to do it would muck up history completely, but I'd sure as heck have a go at it, even if I'd turn into a digital wristwatch.

Then again, in an infinite universe, there are infinite possibilities, so in theory, it could be that time travel does exist but nobody told us about it.


So, back on topic:
Nice changed to the map, dutchrai. I really like it. Infinitely better than some of those other new maps that have come out recently and consist entirely of camping spots...

Time travel HAS happened if you think that the movie: "Back To The Future" is real life and Michael.J.Fox went back in time!

Time for today's quick fact!! The initial 'J' in Michael.J.Fox stands for Andrew!! That's actually true

Back to the topic; Will it really be like that in 2010?

MonsterMan++ wrote:Time travel HAS happened if you think that the movie: "Back To The Future" is real life and Michael.J.Fox went back in time!

Films
are
not
real.

CannonBallGuy wrote:

MonsterMan++ wrote:Time travel HAS happened if you think that the movie: "Back To The Future" is real life and Michael.J.Fox went back in time!

Films
are
not
real.

I think his brain has trouble grasping this concept....

Now my head really hurts. Have mercy on me!

Green Manalishi wrote:dutchrai, speaking of the story.. who really were those people in the vast sahara desert having access to advanced technology? the berbers? the tuaregs? did they have ties to the ancient egyptians? lost civilizations? or were they time-travellers from our future? inquiring minds wanna know! .....

Er...I think it wasn't the berbers or tuaregs or aliens, but a couple of new warfaring nations that will emerge somewhere between now and 2010. There are 5 such nations, and they're called rogue, red, green, blue and purple.

MonsterMan++ wrote:Back to the topic; Will it really be like that in 2010?

Er...most definitely. So if you live somewhere in Africa, better build a nuclear fallout shelter or move to Europe or something

Win Xp wrote:

CannonBallGuy wrote:

MonsterMan++ wrote:Time travel HAS happened if you think that the movie: "Back To The Future" is real life and Michael.J.Fox went back in time!

Films
are
not
real.

I think his brain has trouble grasping this concept....

Only this one?

Dutchrai wrote:Er...I think it wasn't the berbers or tuaregs or aliens, but a couple of new warfaring nations that will emerge somewhere between now and 2010. There are 5 such nations, and they're called rogue, red, green, blue and purple.

thanks for the explanation. i think i can sleep well again tonight.. rogues can't be a nation though, they must be more like small guerilla bands.