Post by sP1Sp0pD on May 18, 2015 7:13:33 GMT -5
As my first Q2 mapmaking project I've decided to port Phrantic by Richard "swelt" Jacques (nodm11/cpm24 in Q3, swd3dm1 in D3, swq4dm1 or q4cmp3 since patch 1.4.2 in Q4). I didn't know about this map before Q4 though. :-) It caught my attention mainly because of absence of RG and its rather compact, hermetic style (and of course I just adore that greenish e2u3/floor2_8 texture).
Strangely enough, I failed to find a Q2 version of this map (be it official or unofficial; please point me to if you know of one, maybe my google-fu sucks). While not every good Q3 (or any other game FWIW) map could (and even should) be easily ported, there are two IMHO sound reasons why I believe Q2 version of Phrantic makes sense.
1. When watching skillful players fight on it in Q4, I've found it's a little too fast paced to my liking, especially with those through-teleport shooting of Q4. Another thing which bothered me was RL being weapon of choice too often, which makes battles and kills less varied. Slow rockets of Q2, I think, theoretically might improve weapon balance on this map and fun of play (for instance, I'd love to see some nice SSG and HB frags). Henceforth we're talking about original cpm24, not swq4dm1/q4cmp3 which is quite different.
2. Another reason to port Phrantic is that, being originally a Q3 (CPMA) map, it yet does not use some exotic shaders or Bézier curves (patches) of Q3, and vast majority of its textures have their nearly identical versions in vanilla (base) Q2 texture pack! That said, and given its size, porting it deemed quite doable even for an inexperienced mapper like myself.
I'm now releasing the first beta to the public. It does not feature any major structural or item placement changes (with an obvious exception of PG/LG which absent in Q2, and new "brushed" jumppad fan), being rather faithful representation (direct conversion) of cpm24, and certainly offers a lot of room for improvement and optimization. There are no clip or hint brushes for the moment, some brush overlaps still remain (leftovers from initial map decompilation), soundwork is missing, etc. which would be taken care of in the next release(s).
Weapon replacement: Q3 has only one version of SG, which should naturally be SSG in Q2 (simply renamed the entity). How to place PG/LG vs. HB/CG was not immediately obvious to me, but after some consideration I've decided to replace PG with HB and LG with CG. Here's why: HB is easier to get as it lies on the first floor, and can be picked up quickly from several spawn points. Au contraire, CG is located on the second floor, at the end of tight passage (cannot stop thinking of grenade spamming :-) with only one spawn point nearby (not counting teleport destination at the top).
CG can also be grabbed via strafe jump from the spawn point near GL, but it must be performed accurately (read: not as easy as getting MH on q2dm1, yet not as hard as reaching RG from the bridge on q3dm6); probably not an issue for a pro, but for casual player this makes CG less accessible than HB. This, in turn, helps to compensate for CG's higher damage rate. Second floor generally offers more possibilities for weapon pickup control in that area, ergo more powerful CG suits it even better.
There are one of each ammo packs for both (bullets and cells) in the jumppad/fan room (near lower YA). I fear it might not be enough though, particularly for CG — maybe adding another bullet pack there or near the CG itself is in order.
I'd like to get general feedback (please be hard on me, I love critics) on the conversion overall, its playability and weapon/item placement and balance. Feel free to nag me about texturing and lightwork as well. Enjoy, and thank you for your attention!
All credit goes to Rich (with an exception of that jumppad fan perhaps); I just did the grunt work of converting his awesome map to Quake II, changing as little as possible, for a start.
Grab the map: Attachment Deleted, or use alternative download. Obligatory screenshot (from info_player_intermission point):
Attachment Deleted
P.S. I realize that Pentagram does not really suit Q2, but I cannot come up with a better idea for the fan decoration right now (open for suggestions). I hope eventually to replace it with something else, leaving it for QW map version (if it ever appears).
P.P.S. Developed with GtkRadiant 1.5 on FreeBSD, compiled with Q2Map v1.0 (comes bundled with the Radiant). Used 35 textures (including origin, sky1, and trigger) from the standard pool.
Update: Known issues with beta1:
Strangely enough, I failed to find a Q2 version of this map (be it official or unofficial; please point me to if you know of one, maybe my google-fu sucks). While not every good Q3 (or any other game FWIW) map could (and even should) be easily ported, there are two IMHO sound reasons why I believe Q2 version of Phrantic makes sense.
1. When watching skillful players fight on it in Q4, I've found it's a little too fast paced to my liking, especially with those through-teleport shooting of Q4. Another thing which bothered me was RL being weapon of choice too often, which makes battles and kills less varied. Slow rockets of Q2, I think, theoretically might improve weapon balance on this map and fun of play (for instance, I'd love to see some nice SSG and HB frags). Henceforth we're talking about original cpm24, not swq4dm1/q4cmp3 which is quite different.
2. Another reason to port Phrantic is that, being originally a Q3 (CPMA) map, it yet does not use some exotic shaders or Bézier curves (patches) of Q3, and vast majority of its textures have their nearly identical versions in vanilla (base) Q2 texture pack! That said, and given its size, porting it deemed quite doable even for an inexperienced mapper like myself.
I'm now releasing the first beta to the public. It does not feature any major structural or item placement changes (with an obvious exception of PG/LG which absent in Q2, and new "brushed" jumppad fan), being rather faithful representation (direct conversion) of cpm24, and certainly offers a lot of room for improvement and optimization. There are no clip or hint brushes for the moment, some brush overlaps still remain (leftovers from initial map decompilation), soundwork is missing, etc. which would be taken care of in the next release(s).
Weapon replacement: Q3 has only one version of SG, which should naturally be SSG in Q2 (simply renamed the entity). How to place PG/LG vs. HB/CG was not immediately obvious to me, but after some consideration I've decided to replace PG with HB and LG with CG. Here's why: HB is easier to get as it lies on the first floor, and can be picked up quickly from several spawn points. Au contraire, CG is located on the second floor, at the end of tight passage (cannot stop thinking of grenade spamming :-) with only one spawn point nearby (not counting teleport destination at the top).
CG can also be grabbed via strafe jump from the spawn point near GL, but it must be performed accurately (read: not as easy as getting MH on q2dm1, yet not as hard as reaching RG from the bridge on q3dm6); probably not an issue for a pro, but for casual player this makes CG less accessible than HB. This, in turn, helps to compensate for CG's higher damage rate. Second floor generally offers more possibilities for weapon pickup control in that area, ergo more powerful CG suits it even better.
There are one of each ammo packs for both (bullets and cells) in the jumppad/fan room (near lower YA). I fear it might not be enough though, particularly for CG — maybe adding another bullet pack there or near the CG itself is in order.
I'd like to get general feedback (please be hard on me, I love critics) on the conversion overall, its playability and weapon/item placement and balance. Feel free to nag me about texturing and lightwork as well. Enjoy, and thank you for your attention!
All credit goes to Rich (with an exception of that jumppad fan perhaps); I just did the grunt work of converting his awesome map to Quake II, changing as little as possible, for a start.
Grab the map: Attachment Deleted, or use alternative download. Obligatory screenshot (from info_player_intermission point):
Attachment Deleted
P.S. I realize that Pentagram does not really suit Q2, but I cannot come up with a better idea for the fan decoration right now (open for suggestions). I hope eventually to replace it with something else, leaving it for QW map version (if it ever appears).
P.P.S. Developed with GtkRadiant 1.5 on FreeBSD, compiled with Q2Map v1.0 (comes bundled with the Radiant). Used 35 textures (including origin, sky1, and trigger) from the standard pool.
Update: Known issues with beta1:
- Lights in SSG and GL alcoves are too bright, they should emit at 120 instead of 160 — fixed (will appear in the next beta)
- e1u3/metal3_1 should be replaced with identical e1u1/metal3_1 for consistency with other metal textures — fixed (will appear in the next beta)
- Two brushes in the lower YA room (374 and 683) must be reshaped to avoid strange ceiling texture flickering (not due to z-fighting) — fixed (will appear in the next beta)
- Not very neat brushwork of the first floor in central area (inherited bug) — fixed (will appear in the next beta)
- One light (entity 83) near the RA room (below "broken" flickering light) is too high/bright, causing bogus flare on the ceiling — fixed (will appear in the next beta)
- Boring default teleports, oversized fan, tawdry(?) Pentagram — TBD ;-)
- Unhidden spawnpoints, remaining brush overlaps, missing soundwork, potential ammo shortage — unfixed yet, or pending feedback
I took a look and I like it, you've done the ground work, looks really solid gameplaywise and visually for a standard Q2 map. Since it is a popular map in several games I'm guessing everything regarding item placement etc is in place. LG -> CG is the way to go yes, It's the closest to a lighting gun 
Maybe some experienced Q2 dueler could have further insight?
you could lower it 10 units as well and then put some fancier brush work ontop to symbolize a teleporter. (If you are going for the standard q2 look then keeping it isn't wrong either)
