8. Kitsune - kitsune_moon_base - m'vorian moon base (355 P)

[Null]

m'vorian moon base

Name	Textures	Originality	GamePlay	Items	Extras	Lighting	Sounds	Flow	Technical	Subjective	Total	Map
Kitsune	37	40	33	33	38	40	38	30	32	34	355	kitsune_moon_base - m'vorian moon base

www.mediafire.com/download/1w3l0ctf8jw48cz/kitsune_moon_base.zip

[Null]

Map WIP thread:
leray.proboards.com/thread/3611/kitsune-valleys-contest-maps

Please post your feedback below. Thank You!

Apr 3, 2015 11:07:10 GMT -5 WizardExt said:

kitsune_moon_base (my score: 3/10)
I love the creativity in this map, great job! Cool theme. Teleportation room is very confusing, took me a while to connect the map in my head. Also with the identical side-corridors with trains. Some really stressful environments, mainly the middle-room with the floor/ceiling using scrolling textures.

Suggestions:
Remove the isolated teleportation room. Make the middle room smaller. This will connect the map better and make side-corridors shorter. Remove the scrolling texture from the floor and ceiling of the middle room, instead use more pillars that has the same theme. In the middle room, have the ceiling show the sky. Make a difference between the side-corridors; only one of them using the train theme. The other one can be indoor corridor or outdoor. Different.

[NIN-Kitsune]

Apr 7, 2015 21:13:52 GMT -5 Null said:

Map WIP thread:
leray.proboards.com/thread/3611/kitsune-valleys-contest-maps

Please post your feedback below. Thank You!

Apr 3, 2015 11:07:10 GMT -5 WizardExt said:

kitsune_moon_base (my score: 3/10)
I love the creativity in this map, great job! Cool theme. Teleportation room is very confusing, took me a while to connect the map in my head. Also with the identical side-corridors with trains. Some really stressful environments, mainly the middle-room with the floor/ceiling using scrolling textures.

Suggestions:
Remove the isolated teleportation room. Make the middle room smaller. This will connect the map better and make side-corridors shorter. Remove the scrolling texture from the floor and ceiling of the middle room, instead use more pillars that has the same theme. In the middle room, have the ceiling show the sky. Make a difference between the side-corridors; only one of them using the train theme. The other one can be indoor corridor or outdoor. Different.

All fair points wizardext! While I feel I did succeed in some interesting visual themes and happy it made the top ten, I was always aware of many troublesome issues with the map, most notably that it was too freakin' huge for it's layout and took forever to navigate large open rooms , but I was too far into the contest to pretty much redo the entire map on that drastic of a scale. But now that the contest is concluded and once I'm finished with some current assignments I can see about overhauling all these aspects that dragged down the gameplay and other enjoyability factors as well as add in a few things I wanted to but didn't have time for. This map doesn't even play well for WOD-X, that's how big it was unless large amount of players or I split the map with an override so I understand the reason for a rather low score in regards to that.

I have quite the love affair for symmetry in my designs, but I also realize it's as much a curse as it is a blessing in mapping to have that tendency and overdo it on a grand scale. Each room and area should have indeed been more varied and different, I realized it even got confusing to know which side of the map or direction I was going in say the train tunnels, I could definitely try to completely redo or replace one tunnel and also shorten. Same can be said of the rooms connected to each train tunnel and should be varied more somehow.

As for the mid room, it was definitely time consuming to navigate through even in WOD-X with all it's hook and sonic speed dash commands . The scrolling texture I also realize did seem a little distracting because of the speed of flow, but it was something I really did feel looked cool because it was an effect of stretching plus warp creating a neat fluidic shimmering I had not seen accomplished in any map before, but I suppose it somehow could use a change to make it less distracting. A lot will have to change in this map but hopefully I should be good enough now in mapping skill to make it not lose too much in the process and hopefully gain a lot more game play appeal in the end by correcting all these issues as best I can.

This map really suffered mainly from the fact it was created as a quick from scratch test I did when I got Trench Broom 2 right when the contest started and was something I just kept throwing things into without even having planned it as a contest quality map from the start and so it inherited a sort of flawed foundation to build upon. I only went so far with this one because it started becoming something interesting when it was just a single room pretty much that had no advanced planning, but felt easy to add to compared to a couple other side maps I was trying to make into contest quality, but I ran out of ideas for them while inspiration was easier on this one to keep flowing. I plan to finish those maps as well sometime so they will be released eventually, taking lessons from this maps issues as well!

Thanks for the feedback and will do my best to consider it! I value any additional opinions or critique by anyone else as well! I have learned a lot since then!

[spirit]

This map has some gameplay issues, but they have already been mentioned so I'll skip that.

You can see from the screenshots already that it looks pretty cool and has some creative elements and good brush work, but I really liked the moving textures you cannot see in the screenies. They made me feel like I really was in a moving space ship, which added a lot to the theme.

My advice for the author: leave this map as it is, you won't be able turn the layout into a great playing map. Go play some Quake 2 instead. Look at the maps you like because they play great, and learn from them to improve the gameplay of your maps. Everything else, like technical stuff, textures, theme/design -- you already know how to do that it seems to me.

[cocerello]

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.

[MaRiNe [Q2C]]

This was my personal favorite map of the contest. I love the aesthetic theme of the moon base and how creatively you've used stock textures in order to make it look more unique and alien. The moving textures are part of what sold it to me, but also the attention to detail (having those totem-like structures outside of the base, for example, as well as the rails). I enjoyed the different gameplay experience it offers compared to conventional Quake II levels as well, so it's even fun to play! The environment pic you've chosen also really fits with the overall look of the level.

My suggestion is to improve the rooms with the rails a bit and make them more interesting and detailed. Perhaps have them use the same texture theme(s) you used for the main open rooms, or maybe add windows on the walls there.