|
Post by cocerello on Apr 13, 2015 6:29:37 GMT -5
JohnnyDean, that's a common behavior of bots on lots of maps, even more if buttons, elevators, ladders or windpads have been used, or the flow requires jumps. Try my first map with bots and you'll get the same behavior.
you have to do a chain file (.chn) for them to work. The chain file has the info on where they can go on how and which routes can be taken and in which order. How to make it, depends on the bots you are using.
|
|
|
Post by cocerello on Apr 13, 2015 6:05:49 GMT -5
Good to see you so active and answering! How is the improved version going? I am eager to see it. Two sounds? You're off by a factor of 10. Haha, no. I said two different sounds (bell and birds' chirping), no two target speakers. Would be hard to miss so many different sounds. Regarding the misaligned textures, are you just referring to the rock? I had to scale that up in a few areas to make the map compile (good old MAX_PATCHES error). I guess I could make the scale more uniform so it's consistent. I wanted to have more detail near the playable space, though. I spent many hours aligning textures, so saying there are many misaligned textures makes me wonder if something went horribly wrong somewhere. yes, its mainly on the side of the rocks. there is one or two in other places, but not that i remember now where. About the quantity, i would say that some more than 10, but 4 or them are already on the entrance to the cave, from the castle's side. Given the amount of faces one map has, 10 or 20 faces aren't a lot, so don't worry, you did well. In 10 or 20 different places would be a very different issue. As much as I would love to have really organic terrain, it doesn't really work well in vanilla Q2 (you lose control walking down slopes). I had to add walls and fences to keep people from falling off the map where I did have sloped terrain, so I kind of kept that to a minimum. More than doesn't work well, the problem is because they aren't used, because we aren't accustomed to control the movement in those circumstances, so its harder than what it seems,. It's like the first time you play an ice level in a platformer's videogame: you fall lots of times, but you barely do when you finish it. Its hard to move, but after you finish the level can control the awkwardness and even use it to your advantage. The problem is that its a circle: its a problem to move because we aren't accustomed to that, but we aren't accustomed to that because its a problem to move. Apart from this, the issue has a solution, make the differences in height small, no more than 16 units per 128-192 units of length and width. The changes will be noticeable, even more in indoors, and the drawbacks will be kept to the minimum. Or make those height changes as mounds, near the walls or corners, where they won't interfere with movement but still can be seen. yeah, i dropped to death several times due to the slopes, but its something normal, so i haven't commented about that. Regarding the indoor lighting, I actually did add a lot of light sources to light the indoor areas while trying to keep things looking natural. The only place I didn't was the cave, so maybe that's where you're referring to. I kind of ran out of time there and just decided to leave it (maybe people would find the dark cave interesting to explore/hide in). You shouldn't need to turn, though -- you can just walk straight forward through it -- you can see one end of the cave from the other. I can certainly lighten that up, though. Oh, I guess there's another area leading to the steps within the wall. I should probably remove that little dead end. What are your brightness settings? Seeing your comments on giftdm6, I'm wondering if you're playing with really dark settings, since that map looked plenty bright to me. I was talking mainly about the stairs near the castle's gate, and the path to the blue cave, the blue cave itself is good enough. On the stairs, i had to rotate myself to see where to go now. The fact that one of those paths (the one for the GL on the top of walls) have an small dead end in the darkness made it harder. About my settings, when reviewing and making suggestions for the maps in the contest i talk comparatively to Id DM maps, as when taking into account that the disparity in brightness settings Quake 2 community is huge, doing it another way would be pointless. When playing them i tweak the brightness settings for each map, as each one has its own very different intended settings, and without doing this one can't get a decent look or even play the maps well. Don't remove that dead end, it isn't even a secondary route, and even less people will notice or even use it, so it isn't an issue. Housing placement is mostly done for technical reasons, blocking line of sight and such to keep r_speeds down and avoid the sky overlapping visible geometry. That's not to say I couldn't do more with them, but it's a little more complicated than copy/paste/move/rotate. By placing houses to block vis, even with that in mind there is always options. I said it mainly because most houses are in the middle, without touching each other or the walls, so it seemed that there wasn't much planning, hence having more room for improvement. But if that's our decision after planning them, that's good enough and i retract myself from my words. Sky overlapping visible geometry? Whats this? How it affects brushes so afar from it? First time i hear this, but from those clues all i can think is when the visibility is too high, and the furthest brushes begin to disappear from sight. Regarding the MH door, I do have angled clip brushes around it to help guide players into it. Once I added those, it didn't really seem like a problem getting in. Maybe I could make them a bit larger: I mostly agree with what you're saying about areas inside of buildings, but since the MH is a critical item that's often placed in hard-to-reach areas (ex: q2dm1), I felt this was reasonable. yeah, as its an special items, that issue isn't important there, that's why i said it as a possibility. Well done there with the clipping, should have done the same in some parts in mine, but that's a thing i don't like to do. More than the door's frames itself, i have more problems with the fences on the sides of the stairs. Making the stairs wider could solve it ... but they are easy to jump over or run on top of them, so it isn't important. You make several comments about the brushwork being simple. Do you have an example of a map where you think the brushwork is detailed? I didn't have time to make the rocks look as nice as I wanted to, but I do feel like there was quite a bit of brushwork detail in other areas (window frames, ivy, railings, fences, chimneys, arched door frames, rooftops, etc.) I couldn't go TOO crazy, since the map is so open and r_speeds would be a problem, but there's certainly stuff more complex than the stairs. If you read it again you'll notice than i am talking about the castle and sides of the rocks there. Mainly because theres lot of big on axis faces (mainly the castle, rocks and houses) and that's for sure simple brushwork. It doesn't mean that is bad or that you haven't worked enough on it, as that theme doesn't ask you to make more advanced brushwork or texturing to look decent. For example, if you made a ruined castle, the theme would ask you to make more advanced and detailed brushwork or more detailed texturing. Doing it so would give you less benefits than to others but could add enough. I usually say in these cases simple but effective brushwork and texturing to reflect that, but seems that i forgot to do that this time. Also, take into account that i try to be as objective as possible on the first paragraph of the reviews to make them blunt data. More info on that on the linked thread that comes with the review-suggestions. When giving suggestions, i don't usually take into account limitations, except if they are too obvious. First because if i limit myself my ideas will be restrained also, avoiding some ideas that you can find a good way to use that i haven't thought of, second, because i don't have the source nor i do know the map as well as you, third, because suggestions are ideas, possibilities. no one knows if they are going to work till one tries them out. Thanks for taking the time to write up detailed feedback! OK, so you are thankful to me ... hehehe. Then you won't mind returning the favor back by writing for me some review, feedback and suggestions for my maps, won't you? Nah, i am just joking. Some suggestions with an explanation on why those parts should be changed would be more than enough. I prefer for the second over the first map. Thinking about it, if every person someone gave feedback to gave it back would make the subforum very lively ... Not that its going to happen, but dreaming is free.
|
|
|
Post by cocerello on Apr 12, 2015 13:25:47 GMT -5
For more general details, info on the story behind this and how this information works and how its made, go to:
leray.proboards.com/post/27943/thread
Items found:
4th floor : RG, RL+ 1ammo, HB+ 2ammo, adrenaline, backpack, Health, Lhealth 3rd floor: none 2nd floor: RL+1, MG+ 3ammo, shells, yA, 1 shell pack 1st floor: yA, SSG+ 1ammo, health, Lhealth Review:
Overall, its a basic map with barely any polishment: nothing outrageously bad but nothing special. Basic brushwork, OK layout thanks to the elevator, misaligned textures. Lighting is darker than ID maps, even more in the 2nd and 3rd floors. ''OKish'' gameplay, scarce number of items for the amount of room there is to move, and room for improvement on their placement and choice. Found no sounds. The map could give some decent combats as it is, but with some improvements can give good combats for some minutes. Liked the placement of the RG and the flooded floor as an option and not enforced to the player. Visually, looks like a dark Wolfenstein 3d map. The action revolves around the highest loor, with the third as a transition between the places where one gets the weapons and as a place to use them. Macanah said that this was meant for 12+ players, but i can't see how can be done, given the small amount of weapons provided, so my suposition is that he plays with weapons stay option ON, if not this map's gameplay would be over who can get a weapon first, to kill poor blaster users. Suggestions:
- Make the map brighter, or at least, make that in some parts it is, if you want to keep the map dark overall. Would be a good idea to make those brighter areas the places where the MG and RL's are, so anyone can see who's getting those weapons and hunt him down. - Change the placement of items, and add some more. The yA in the first floor for a RA, the adrenaline afar from the RL. But overall, place the worse weapons in a place were they have the advantage or the better where the have less advantage: the SSG in a place surrounded by cover, the HB in an open area surrounded by cover, so there is less room for the enemy to move and evade the shots, the RG in a place more open but with cover afar so their opponents can get cover and harras the RG and the MG in a more open place. More rewards for those that venture on the flooded floor would be better too. - I have seen from your previous maps that you don't like to make more than simple brushwork and lighting. There is ways to make more advanced brushwork with a lot less effort: make setpieces. Take for example my first map. The place where you begin is made of three setpieces with lights grouped, that get repeated several times, so i had only to work to make each one and the rest was just copy and paste. To avoid being repetitive, i rotated them. Then used them again with small variations on the upper part. Saved me a lot of time. This is also good for keeping your map coherent and cohesive and give it a stronger theme. - Give more character to each room, so they are remembered for more than the items placed: make them so they can be remembered easily. It can be with a change of textures, brushwork or lighting, or a unique gimmick. Imagination is the limit.
|
|
|
Post by cocerello on Apr 12, 2015 13:21:33 GMT -5
For more general details, info on the story behind this and how this information works and how its made, go to:
leray.proboards.com/post/27943/thread
Items found:The map is unplayable, and that task is too hard without the source file, so i pass on that. Review: UNPLAyABLE
Completely symmetrical map with severe issues that make the level unplayable on the original engine, even with noclip on, so this map doesn't follow one of the rules of the contest, and works badly on other engines i tested it in. - Very Quake 2 like theme, decent complexity in brushwork, overall good choice of textures, mostly well placed and aligned textures. -Decent and strange ''corridorish'' layout with an introduction for each spawn, with barely any choices, that works like two almost isolated maps. - Very bland lighting, so much that at first i though this only had minlight and no lights used even on default or darker brightness settings, the brightness of that lighting is mainly like the outdoor one in q2dm1. - Overloaded in items, mainly in health, armor shards an ammo, no special items as far as i could see, even if the mapper intended for the player to not run out of ammo it is overboard, nothing special in their placement, but nothing too bad either. - No sounds seem to be placed. The map is unplayable because it has so many items that the engine can't handle them, so the engine doesn't let the player to exit the start areas. The map is divided in two zones, an arena and two corridors that surround it. It has the good idea of adding places for the ones on the corridors to snip into the arena, but would be even better if some of the gaps around the map were a bit wider to allow for some variations in gameplay and layout, which has some of the strongest weapons. Weapons don't seem to obey in their placement to some sense or tactic, they are placed symmetrically to each other which leads to easy pick of lots of them in the arena. The brushwork is at a good level with only some questionable texture choices in the areas around the blue rooms. Suggestions:
- First of all, make it playable. Half, or even a third would be more than enough items, even if you want to overload the player with them. The second option would be to add lots of visblockers, but that way you would need to isolate visually the arena from the side areas, and curve or add turns, corners or curves to the corridors to reduce visibility of items. - Work at least a bit on lighting, something with some noticeable contrast. - Break a bit the symmetry, just some small changes in height like i did in my map's first map which has also symmetry or change the size of some rooms, would be enough. - Add some variation (small steps) or details (setpieces, lights, ...) to the floor. - Add some side areas for the fun of them. - This is optional: widen some of the gaps between the corridors or between them and the arena to open new paths. - This is my personal preference, but i would add some special items (quad, MH, adrenaline) in side or hidden areas to make the map more dynamic and add variations to the symmetry.
|
|
|
Post by cocerello on Apr 12, 2015 13:18:05 GMT -5
For more general details, info on the story behind this and how this information works and how its made, go to:
leray.proboards.com/post/27943/thread
Items found:
One weapon each except BFG, LOTS of ammo, 4 yA, 4 RA, 4 backpacks, 4 power suits, lots of health and large health packs, one Quad damage Review: --- UNPLAyABLE --- Symmetrical arena map with severe issues that make it so the map isn't even loaded on the original engine like it was requested in one of the contest's rules, and works badly in other engines. Good looking and simple symmetrical arena for RG/RL games with some cool ideas (the backpack placement, the lava an the item on it). Decent brushwork, colorful choice of textures, all aligned. Ring shaped layout. Bland lighting in brightness level around ID maps or a bit darker. Big amount of items, almost overloaded for the size of the arena, probably intended so they won't never run out. Symmetrical placement, but tactically placed, with the stronger one at the center. No sounds seem to be placed. Liked the general look and ideas of the map, but it doesn't work in the original engine due to too much items on the same room. Would be good for some fast paced RG games, but not with the current weapons, due to complete lack of variation in brushwork or ideas to provide some advantage to half the weapons and balance a bit the combats. Liked the placement of the power suit and that you can get out of the lava, but it isn't obvious that that is possible, so i expect most people to die silently there till they notice that, if they ever do. The pieces used to place the weapons look cool but are hard to navigate. Also, i found another issue, after getting any backpack, the player can't get out of the water without a rocket jump, becoming the backpack a trap worse than lava, as the player can't die till someone helps him to. Suggestions:
- First of all: make it playable, my advice is to get rid of the ammo on the outer reaches, and reduce to half the rest, or make the water deeper and place some of the more powerful items there to hid them from the rest of the map. - Improve the lighting, as it is too homogeneous. Use all the light fixtures, ou have there good places to do that. - Most weapons are almost useless in that map (SG, SSG, MG, HB, GL, grenades), so would be better to get rid of them. My suggestion would be to put RL and maybe CG on the outer and middle, and RG on the interior. Consider the posibility of adding a BFG somewhere, maybe in the water. Also consider the possibility of giving one ammo pack less per RG than for the rest of weapons to balance the gameplay. - Add some extra areas in the water or below the stairs but above the water and place something interesting there. - A wild idea: how about placing a insta-death trap with a quarter of the recharge time of the Quad on the Quad area activated by a button? Or maybe that activates when a number of seconds pass and there is way to know how close it is to activate? To balance it and to add more gameplay. If it is the second idea should affect the area the red armors are placed too.
|
|
|
Post by cocerello on Apr 12, 2015 13:15:07 GMT -5
For more general details, info on the story behind this and how this information works and how its made, go to:
leray.proboards.com/post/27943/thread
Items found:
One weapon each and 6 ammo packs for each, 5 RA, 1 MH, 1BFG and 4 extra cell packs hidden 1 power suit, 1 backpack, and 1 RA for each player's spawn Review:
Decently looking small map with some nice ideas and hidden rooms. Brushwork in Id quality or lower, good choice o textures and alignment, symmetrical layout with some twists on the central area, and all the weapons except the BFG on the areas on the sides, corridors and rooms are a bit tight, decent lighting, though a bit, just a bit bland due to the lack of detailed brushwork on walls, balance between vertical and horizontal combats, symmetrical placement of items, in good quantities except overload of ammo for all weapons. No sounds seem to be placed. Liked this map, has a feeling of both Quake and Quake 2, with some unique ideas and several hidden areas. It relies on the use of an introduction to the players, done in some unique way. Gameplay seems to be very fast paced and chaotic due to the limited room to move. The problem comes from, given the type of combat it provides, the chance of getting the items at the introduction isn't one hundred percent, leading to some disadvantages and the player waiting for them to respawn, as those items are almost impossible to get later (maybe with a good rocket jump). Like a lot the use of hidden areas, so this one gets a few more points from me because of that. In this case they aren't any special compared to those used in many singleplayer maps but are good nonetheless, well placed and with adequate rewards. Suggestions:
- Add another way to get from the central area to the areas on the side. - Make the areas half a time wider for better navigation. - Add some more detail in brushwork, and to add some shadows, some in-outs would be enough. As the map is compact and a bit tight, it won't affect r_speeds in a noticeable way no matter how you do it. - Try to add some ways to make small changes to the symmetry, and if your idea wasn't to make a chaotic map, give a different feeling to each area on the side. Even an small change would be enough. - Make those light textures cast some more light, to help the lighting on to add some visual variations by themselves.
|
|
|
Post by cocerello on Apr 12, 2015 13:11:32 GMT -5
For more general details, info on the story behind this and how this information works and how its made, go to:
leray.proboards.com/post/27943/thread
Items found:
On ground level: SG, MG, CG, GL, 3x RL, HB, high amount of ammo, power suit, health and Large health packs On the ventilation system: armor shards, small health packs, 2x RA, SSG 3 shells packs, 3 bullets packs, 2 rockets packs, 1 grenade pack, 1 cell pack, adrenaline, MH Review:
Interesting theme in a very linear two floored map. OK ''cubish'' brushwork below in quality and complexity to Id maps, decent use of textures with some questionable ones, some misaligned also. Tree shaped simple layout, that end on some room and an outdoor simple area. Contrast in lighting: some bright areas with the rest around or darker than ID maps, but mostly flat. Not much variation in combats due to the layout, but the ventilation system works for some interesting ambushes. Item placement is decent, with some tactical placements (CG and RL in the outdoor, SSG in the ventilation system) but the rest as they come, due to the layout and brushwork, its quantity is high but most of the time nothing outrageous. An small amount of sounds were used, but nothing special. The theme of this map is interesting, but it needed more corridors with better connectivity to work better. Also curving that LONG corridor, that makes the spine of the level would be good. The ventilation system help to reduce this but not that much. The ventilation itself is as large as the ground part which i good and bad at the same time. The brushwork is ''cubish'', and even though its OK, the rocks are very flat, the shape of the outdoor part is too simple and there is barely things to use on combats or provide some amusement (more rocks, variation in height, details here and there ...), and the interior rooms look like they are just to enclose the things there is in there, one can't see an objective or reason in those room's walls. On the other side, some models were used well (the rocket's racks, the spaceships). Suggestions:
- Add more lighting on those corridors and ventilation system, and deflat the lighting in the ventilation system. Use some brushwork to add some places to cast some shadows on the outside. Its sometimes hard to see the ladders, you should work on lighting there. - Find some reason of existence to the walls in the interior rooms. - Add more corridors connecting the existing ones. - Reduce the size of the ventilation system, or make it so it takes less time to go through one entrance to the next, or make it so one can walk straight on those. Adding some room that can only be accesed through them with all those goodies you provide in the ventilation (RA, MH and adrenaline). Even better if those rooms can be seen from some other normal one but can't be reached from there. - Add something to the outdoor area: changes in height, a ramp, the closed entrance to another base, more rocks, a bit more varied rockwork, ... - Better brushwork on those computers, and try them to look realistic, not in shape, but in placement, by themselves, and between each other. - Align the textures better, and change the ones used on the floor and ceiling of the ventialtion system. - Wild idea: would be possible to put a monster in MP in a cell like if it were a trapped alien? The one that charges forward would be perfect. Maybe with just the model with the trick to use an model on an item, on a dark room with a glass so you can't light it with a weapon and can't see if the enemy is dead or alive. As a third option, putting the corpses of several of those. At least one spawn point is too low and resulted in me being stuck. Isn't that something that happens at random if the mapper lower the spawn points? I got that in several maps, but it didn't happened to me more than once per spawn point.
|
|
|
Post by cocerello on Apr 12, 2015 13:07:02 GMT -5
For more general details, info on the story behind this and how this information works and how its made, go to:
leray.proboards.com/post/27943/thread
Items found:1 weapon each, excluding BFG, one more MG, lots of ammo for each one small health, health and Large health packs, armor shards backpack, MH, Quad damage GA, 2x yA Review:
Interesting realistic castle map. ''Cubish'' but effective brushwork, decent choice of well aligned textures, even though the ones used for trims and corners look a bit too ''cartoonish'' compared to the stone ones, mostly symmetrical in one axis layout, with several floors and types of rooms, lightning is OK due to the brushwork, but too dark in several places, darker than the MG room in q2dm1. Items are well placed overall in appropriate places, with some hidden good ones. Looks like that it could work for very ample number of players. No sounds seem to have been placed. Liked the map overall, layout, theme, combat opportunities, variation in rooms, some details here and there, hidden places, It's very complete. What it is lacking is polishment (mainly in brushwork and lighting) and tweaking. I tend to like hidden places and this one has variety and quality, but couldn't find for now the way to reach the HB, will make another search later. The weapons aren't really where they are suited to the most but that's minor. The windpads were used well, and add a lot to the connectivity, but another texture would be better to make it clearer that those are what they are. The MH and Quad are well placed and liked even more the placement of the RG. What found weird is the way to the Quad, is a bit hard to reach on a bad way. Some improvements on brushwork efficiency would reduce your r_speeds a lot. Good idea on making not so easy to reach the windpads for the RL. Laughed a bit at the small health pack at the top of the crate, as usually can be seen better rewards on top of crates, but i know also that you did it on purpose, as it is the crate that is the easiest to reach. There is lots places where one get falling damage but there is always alternatives nearby, so there is no problem, except maybe from the HB and RG. And finally, good idea with the texture about the contest and the sound at the beginning, those add a lot to the map. Suggestions:- Darkness: The only area that is acceptable being so dark is the corridor where the GL is. In the rest one should know what is in front of him, so you need lots of work there. - Believable sources of light: currently you depend on light that comes from no place and you need to show the player that it comes from somewhere: As there is no models that can be used with this theme, maybe some not noticiable light textures from those that were used by ID in Quake 2 (those sized 16x16) could go well with the theme. If not you'll probably need brushwork here, by making candles, lamps (even a wedge could work in this case), braziers, ... They don't need to be detailed, and you can place them higher so they can't be seen clearly, and you get a believable source of light. - Make it so no one can touch the skybox. It is silly to hit an invisible wall. Currently you can get there with just normal jumps from the HB, RG and CG platforms. - Change places between the HB and CG, and then put the HB in the place of the MG or SG, or put a RL were the CG was, and pass the HB to another place, maybe below the well or in the middle of the outdoor part, near the well. The HB is useless there, as that weapon works better in middle distances in the same floor, better if the target hasn't too much room to move. Also, add another ammo pack for the CG new placement. This is so the position up there is so good that people will try to get there to take you down, and that place isn't just a place to hid some weapons. Adding too a large health pack there would be probably overkill but fun. To make the RG position better, you could put a very good item on the middle of nowhere (RA or BFG), near the well, so the people will come out into the open. - Work more on brushwork: add some supports to the floors that have not, add some curves and some details here and there. Nothing complicated, just what you would like to. - Add some wood to the fire, and fix it a bit, it makes the sound of water for a reason i can't understand. - Add some dim lighting on the teleporter to the Quad, as is hard to see it even when you have it nearby. - Change the texture of the windpads, so its more noticeable what they are, or put an effect on them to show that they aren't just some planks on the ground. Something like the light you used on them but more noticeable. - Give some meaning to the red lights (braziers maybe). - you need to hide a bit those stairs with brushwork, by putting a ramp below them and a wedge on the side. The reason is that they create many splits on faces that affect even on long away faces, and thus increasing a lot vis time and r_speeds. you can see what i am talking about if you look at them after typing the gl_showtris 1 command on the console. - The stairs on diagonal near the GL have some weird lighting on them, fix it. - Needs more brushwork in the lower room, after getting rid of the darkness, the room feels a bit empty.
|
|
|
Post by cocerello on Apr 12, 2015 12:54:10 GMT -5
For more general details, info on the story behind this and how this information works and how its made, go to:
leray.proboards.com/post/27943/thread
Items found:
SG, SSG, MG, CG, HB, RL, RG, no ammo of an type RA, Quad, silencer, 7x Armor shards, 4x small health packs, 1 large health pack Review:Quake 3's influenced void small map. Simple but effective brushwork with some original ideas like the structure were the RA and RG are, simple but well chosen and aligned textures that fit the theme well but seems that it is missing some that aren't in .wal format. Mainly ''corridorish'' with different heights levels layout with some opportunities for varying it by dropping to lower places. Very dark lighting and flat at it, even darker than the MG room in q2dm1, good placement of items, but very low quantity: no ammo of any type and barely any health packs, fast paced combat with some interesting spots. Seems to be for an small quantity of players (2-6). No sounds seem to have been placed. Good looking fast paced map, one can see lots of influence from Quake 3 here, so it isn't exactly original, but its good. Liked the layout and new ideas here, and the opportunities to reach new places, and hinting that with the Quad in a good place. Theme is strong and small touchs and details are well done. Would probably need some details on the floor. The darkness is a big issue here, and looks almost pitch black, and it needs the brightness to be raised a lot. Good placement of the silencer. Suggestions:
- Get better lighting out there. It looked than apart from the skybox, the red and blue textures, there is no other source of light. you need some more. - Add some ammo, even if you want to have low ammo, this is too much, and blaster fights aren't very enjoable, even with this amount of health packs. The worst case is with the CG which is almost useless. Add one pack for each weapon if you want to keep the ammo low, placing the one for the RG far away. - The uppermost area can be reached with normal jumps. you could maybe want to clip it better, as i have seen it has some. - I would change the SG for a GL, probably. Or the RL where the MG is, the MG where the SG is, and the SSG where the RL is. But that's minor. - Add an item to the red structure near the RL, maybe another large health pack. - Would be better to change the red pyramid properties: instead of water would be better mist, as the water sound there doesn't sound right. And it did have some major connectivity / flow issues, for sure. It has, yes. So its good that at least it has the option to drop down to another route to mend that a bit.
|
|
|
Post by cocerello on Apr 12, 2015 12:52:18 GMT -5
For more general details, info on the story behind this and how this information works and how its made, go to:
leray.proboards.com/post/27943/thread
Items found:
1 of each weapon besides BFG, 1 pack of slugs, 2-3x for the rest of types 3x health packs, MH, 3x armor shards, GA, 2x yA Review:
Decently compact solid typical Quake 2 deathmatch map. Decent to good mostly ''cubish'' brushwork, effective at what it does. Good choice of textures, but the brushes are not adequate in size to the textures used sometimes. Good solid DM layout with several good ideas in 2 floors. Well done lighting, in a brightness similar to most Id maps or a bit higher, good use of colors too. Interesting combat situations. Looks to be geared towards 6-10 players. No sounds seem to be used. Quite solid map, probably only those used to DM can find noticeable flaws on its flow and gameplay. Has some cool ideas, like the tiny room with the crate and the window, the or the placement of one of the yA and the CG. Even though it has only two floors, it keeps going up and down to minimize that. It has some issues with textures also. Suggestions:
- Fix the issues with textures: The blue texture doesn't go well there, and as a movable one is bad, as its tiling is noticeable, also the ceiling texture used in the middle part of the map, in the room where the two yA are, or the one used on the top of the stairs and in the platform near the lowest part of the ladder aren't of a good size with relation to the texture used on them. - you textured like the ceiling a brush that was intended to be used as a light, on the room with the yA near the slug pack. - Place better the light brushes on the ceiling, the brushes that are used for light on the ceiling just above the RL need to be placed in an specific place that goes with the texture on the ceiling. - The red lights in the room with the SSG, on the opposite side of where the weapon is look like someone dropped tincture on the area, instead of looking like red lighting. - The room with the crate and the window is asking for an item, probably a health pack. - How about putting something on the pond in the room with the SG? - A hidden room or hard to reach place, please, to complete the pack.
|
|
|
Post by cocerello on Apr 12, 2015 12:47:13 GMT -5
For more general details, info on the story behind this and how this information works and how its made, go to:
leray.proboards.com/post/27943/thread
--- Played the version for the contest, so i'll avoid talking about the lighting. ---
Items found:
5x SSG, CG, 2x GL, BFG, 3x shell packs, 5x bullet packs yA, 11x armor shards 4x health packs, 19x small health packs Review:
Brick town? themed compact small map. Brushwork is ''cubish'', simple but effective with several details mainly geared towards gameplay and layout. Textures are well used overall and chosen, with some stretched ones. The textures used seem to come from Rygel's texture pack for Quake, a pack developed for some Quake engines that support higher resolution textures.. Layout is varied in two floors around several rooms that are in the two floors, with frequent changes in height and connectivity, and some side areas. Combat is similar across the map, but varied in each room, mainly in close quarters and very short due to the choice of weapons and size of the map itself. Good planned placement of weapons and items, ammo only for two weapons is supplied. Looks to be geared to 2-6 players. One eerie sound was used. Welcome to the on your face arena! The size and scale of the map and the choice of weapons makes it so most of the combats are almost at close combat quarters, which makes for some very fast and intense combats. In contrast to that there is some steps for precise movement which open new paths and routes and like a lot, the health pack beyond the teleporter, and a side area that needs the player to crouch for 32-64 units. Items are well placed across the map. That eerie sound adds a lot to the ambient, but given the amount of sound the weapons will do in a map of this size, i doubt it will be heard. Only if the map was double the size with the same number of players it would have some real impact on the ambient of the map. Apart from this, the map has nothing special nor nothing too bad. Biggest issue it has is being a bit cramped, and several streched metal textures. Also, i noticed that the brick textures look a bit stretched or crushed sometimes. Suggestions:
- Make the scale half a time bigger. - Use the textures from Quake Retexture Project instead of Rygel's, as these are better looks wise and performance wise (also, if i remember right, Rygel's textures doesn't have those that come from Quake's official expansion packs, which could be good for your future maps). Get them at qrp.quakeone.com/retexture/ - Fix the stretched textures around the area between the elevator with health pack is and the SSG with a backpack nearby. - Add some bars near the yA so the player can't hit the skybox. The bars will make it so one can't take a look around but will give a believable place to stop. - Make the skybox a bit bigger, around the brushes so its less boxy.
|
|
|
Post by cocerello on Apr 12, 2015 12:41:14 GMT -5
For more general details, info on the story behind this and how this information works and how its made, go to:
leray.proboards.com/post/27943/thread
Items found:
1 weapon each except BFG, plus 1 extra RL and MG Id like quantity of ammo, large health packs, and armor shards MH and Quad Review:
Solid outdoor open industrial map. Id like or higher in brushwork type and quality, good use and choice of textures and well aligned, open mainly 2D layout but with tonnes of going up through windpads and ramps and going down by well placed crates, and some unexpected ways to the top of some buildings, with mainly 3 floors. The lighting is very good and fits the theme, providing its own ambient, but even with that a bit brighter light on the texture lights would have been better. Lots of possibilities for combat situations are provided. Ammo placement is good and well spread, but in some places would have been good to place some items, its quantity makes the map feel a bit lonely, but thats good if this map is played with 4-8 players because of the ambient and theme of the map, but it looks to be geared more to 6-12 or more. Sounds have been used well in this maps, except some on the SSG side that i got thinking, why this light emits this noise and not the other group nearby? Pretty good map, felt more like an UT map than Quake 2 in several parts. To note the Quad placement, the windpads, the possibilities to climb to the buildings, the tower with the RG and its several ways to get there, the extra items on top of crates. What is lacking, some gameplay on the sides without buildings on more than the ground floor, the lack of block to the skybox, the ground floor is too flat, even considering the theme, the visibility is too big, and the MH as it is there doesn't give any feeling, is that just if someone dropped it there in the middle of nowhere at random. Suggestions:
- Add some more lighting through those light textures (increasing overall brightness through other methods (Ex: argrad compile options) would look blander). - Block the players' way with brushwork so they can't touch the skybox, or at least not so easily as now. Hitting an invisible wall is always lame. - Ground floor would look better with some detail in its floor. As it is now fits the theme quite well, but some areas feel lonely. With just some broken or out of place tiles could be done, if you want to go to the ruins' route. - The visibility is so big that when looking at one side from the other it dissapears, even more if you look from one corner to the opposite one. The map should be reduced. As it is, doesn't look like this reduction would affect the map much that missing room, the middle of the map can be more or less easily being reduced. - Maybe move the SG as it is in a place where won't get much use, but haven't found a better place for it, mabe instead of the MG near the Quad, but that wa the two MG would be in front of each other. - Finally, three routes to get to the RG are too much, given that seems to be designed for the guy in there to snipe the people. The position shouldn't be solid so the guy with the RG would trench himself there, but three is impossible to defend against, except if this were team DM. Probably better to delete the one in the front, just below it. - Have you tried other textures that would look more of a windpad than the one you used? That texture is for lights by tradition since Quake, and can cause that the pads are treated as lights for a while. - Add another target_speaker with the same wind at the top tower, to cover it in its entirety, as right now looks like the wind its originated and dies in the same place. I was going to write an article about it, but with my overall poor scoring and placement, I put that idea on ice. Not sure how I feel about it.. or if there is value in it. If there is anyone interested in reading about the lessons learned and process of creating Rebirth/wizq2dm6, let me know. I would, those kind of things are interesting to read. Go on, the placement shouldn't be an issue. You can try #q2cafe on irc.enterthegame.comIt's a new channel, so not many know about it yet. I'll be adding ops there soon once we get more users. I also recommending idling on #tastyspleen, and #tastyspleen-live which relays msgs live from Quake 2 servers. This way you can know exactly what's going on all the servers on the TS network including our test server Whale. You can watch players connecting live from IRC, and whenever you feel like jump straight into the game. Thanks. I would love to, but as i am using a semi-public connection, that will be impossible.
|
|
|
Post by cocerello on Apr 12, 2015 12:38:01 GMT -5
For more general details, info on the story behind this and how this information works and how its made, go to:
leray.proboards.com/post/27943/thread
--- Played the version for the contest, so i'll avoid talking about the lighting ---Items found:
10x SSG, MG, 2x CG, 2x GL, HB, ammo for all of them GA, 9x armor shards 15x health pack, 19x small health pack Quad damage Review:
Medium to large sized base themed mainly indoors map. ''Cubish'' good brushwork, add lots of shadows, there isn't any advance constructions but it isn't simple, except maybe in indoors base's walls. Textures have been well chosen and used, except some misaligned ones here and there. Layout is mainly 2D in two floors of similar size, connected by two elevators, one windpad, and two teleporters, and several steps to drop down without harm, and with some nice items placed there. Lighting is dark, way darker than the other two Margaal's maps. Combats are almost all the time in corridor-like rooms and in outdoor rooms in 2D. Both floors are largely isolated from each other and barely any combat between them will happen. Items are spread all over the map and balanced, choice o weapons is planned instead of placing most or all of them and balancing them by change the map later. Looks to be geared for 12-18 players. Several sounds have been well chosen and placed, except one ... that raises high the player's urges to kill. I want to kill, i want to kill, i want to kill those seagulls!!!!! On the off-topic side, this map is a good large map with plenty of places to go to. The indoor upper part is a mix of rooms in a building and corridors-like rooms, with some changes in height with stairs, and some jumps to lower areas of the second floor, but height changes are mainly in the outdoor areas. One SSG is placed on each spawn's places, and the rest well scattered through the map. The outdoor areas and lower floor are probably the best parts of the map, with more variety in looks and combats. The outdoor areas lack vertical cover, except the pillars, but have some nice horizontal cover, balancing the combats against the CGs and providing some fun for SSG combat. Quite neat and coherent idea the addition of the number of the floor, and to give it some sense of realism too. It's also a good break from the 2D layout the addition of steps with items between the floors. Good placement of the Quad. The addition of armor shards and small health packs on top of crates scattered around the map looks cool, but doesn't have use gameplay wise. Good idea the one on how one can get to one of the two GLs and CGs. Well done work on those floating objects that go up and down simulating moving water. and adding more beliabelity to its flotability. I found something with a light that hurts me on one of the outdoor areas, from the sound it makes i can only suppose that its a campfire made from a model. Suggestions:
- PLEASE!!! Let me kill those seagulls or kill them yourself!!! That sound repeating all the time i am at those areas can drive any man mad if heard enough. - Add another floor, even if small, like the simulated one where the CG is, and make a hole in one of the outdoor areas from where one can drop down to it. - Add one curve, to add variety to the map, and so that room stands out from the rest. - Use another texture for the walls, used as a mix with the other, or for details. Those indoor walls look a bit flat, even with the bricks out of the walls. - Fix the misaligned brushes. That i can remember, on the side of the floor on the second floor on the hole with the elevator. Also happens with several of the bricks that go out of the walls or on the side o brush below the Quad. - Add something in the middle of one of the outdoor areas, and only in one, that can work as vertical cover. - If that model you used can't be seen in some engines, it would be better to delete it completely. EDIT: Quake 2 won't load those models, but base on those screenshots, i can say that you went overboard with the number of models.
|
|
|
Post by cocerello on Apr 12, 2015 12:34:56 GMT -5
For more general details, info on the story behind this and how this information works and how its made, go to:
leray.proboards.com/post/27943/thread
Items found:
1 weapon of each type except BFG, plus one SG, 2x MG and one RL ammo spread all over the map for each weapon MH, Quad, RA, yA, 2x GA, armor shards 7x health packs, 3x large health packs, small health packs Review:
Haha, Fifth, you really love DM-Deck, it is the second time you do a remake or based of it as far as i know, being the first the DM and SP one for Quake. Small to medium sized compact base themed map. ''Cubish'' Quake 2 style brushwork with plenty of angles, good use and choice of well aligned textures, that even though they are a bit repetitive, blend better than expected due to the scale on the height mainly. The layout consists on four floor joined in vertical by elevators and 2 ladders, with only one stair, that revolve around a single room. Lighting is very good and varied, with the only drawback that was pointed one month ago about the ceiling in the central room being too bright for the lights there are around there. Combats give options, both horizontally and vertically. Item placement is good and one can see some reasoning behind each placement, ammo is spread all over the map. Looks to be geared towards 6-12 players. No sounds seem to have been added. It is a good solid map, has lots of options for moving and choices, an epic scale in some parts, balanced gameplay, places to jump at, like the MH, the yA or the slugs near the HB, an hilarious in the good way placement of a spawn in the one near the MH, a good use of stairs, a coherent use of a theme, but lacks a bit in giving enough character to each room, in giving each room a name, not the laboratory or the engine room, but a name that defines it by what it is instead of what item it holds. Suggestions:
- Lower the brightness on the lights on the uppermost part of the central area. - Add some supports for the bridges, at least for the biggest ones, as they currently are supported by air. - Add some more places to go down between the floors to add more gameplay. Theres lots of potential at that, for adding new routes and also ambushes. - Change the yA and RA placement, or maybe the RA with the GA at the top, or with the MH, so the Quad isn't nearby the most powerful armor. - Add some details on the floor. - Add one characteristic detail in some rooms, that would give them more character. - Tweak the ladder on the uppermost area a bit, so it isn't used sideways. - Add a hidden area or a part that moves.
|
|
|
Post by cocerello on Apr 12, 2015 12:32:22 GMT -5
For more general details, info on the story behind this and how this information works and how its made, go to:
leray.proboards.com/post/27943/thread
Items found:One of each weapon, plus 2x CG, one RL and one BFG, ammo for all in Id like numbers related to size of the map or lesser. GA, 3x yA, 4x power screen, power shield, armor shards 12x health packs, 4x large health packs, adrenaline, small health packs 2x silencer, 2x backpack, Quad Review:
Very open original UT like base themed map. Quake 2 like brushwork on BIG faces and BIG scale, with some nice setpieces and details, sense of place and character for each room, well done texture choice and alignment, simple arena-like layout with one side area in three floors, gameplay happens mainly in one of them, some teleporters have been used to vary it. Well done lighting, a bit darker than Id maps overall. Mainly 2D combats with some sniping between floors. Item placement is varied, with some areas with a high concentration of them and others with ample room between them, quantity around Id maps in item per size of the map. Looks to be geared for 12+ players. A small variety of sounds were well chosen and used. I like this map overall: out of the box theme and way of doing things, some nice setpieces and details in the core, the names of the rooms, the well defined character of each room, well done rockwork, the outdoor obelisk, the detail with the moving textures, the details on the floors, the water part, ... ON the other side, the scale is too big, there is some lonely parts, the lighting needs some tweaking, the weapons could have some better placement or change them to some more suitable for this kind of map, and falling damage is common on the central area. Suggestions:
- Tweak the lighting. Add more lights on the rail rooms or add more brightness to the one on the rail's textures. Add one or two sourced lights on the outdoor area for contrast. Brighten the map a bit overall, just a bit. - Reduce the size of the rail's rooms, make them narrower. - Reduce the size of the main room a bit, mainly in horizontal. - Add some details to the floor or wall on the rail's rooms. - Probably should change the SG and SSG for a MG and a CG or RL respectively, or at least the SG, as it isn't suited to this kind of map. The HB has its issues too but could be good for the uppermost part and named areas. - Some brushwork detail, or better, a setpiece, a model, or just something that stands out on the water. - Give some means to avoid falling damage, even if they aren't optimal or direct, when getting out of the uppermost area. - Maybe the quantity of powerful items on the center of the uppermost area is overkill, but would have to check their respawn times to see how they affect the gameplay. - Put the adrenaline in a harder to reach or more dangerous place.
|
|