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. Ammo for all those, and a backpack.
GA, 2x yA, 6x armor shards
10x health packs, 10x large health packs, MH, 7x small health packs
Review:
Colorful, solid and compact small to medium sized map. Good mainly cubish brushwork with lots of variety with cubishness and simplicity well hidden by textures and with some nice setpieces (and and pipes outside), textures used are very busy and colorful, with some nice pick for lights' textures. Layout is compact, in 2 and a half floors, with three elevators conecting the top with the middle and one to connect the bottom with the middle, the middle floor has lots of height changes in mainly stairs and ramps.
Lighting is brighter than Id DM maps, but as the textures are dark, it becomes a bit darker than most q2dm1 indoor areas, light textures help at this, but grey textures counterbalance that. Combats are fast paced and with a mix of both vertical and horizontal types, with several sniping places, and tend to be longer than usual due to a high amount of health packs, even without considering the size of the map. looks to be geared towards 4-8 players. Five kinds of sounds have been placed: ans, wind, and 3 for machinery/computers.
This is quite a solid compact map, with plenty of options to go and places to reach, with lots of different heights on the middle floor and things to do, several items placed on the sides on a different height to get at, some arguably texture choices, placement, and alignment, places to investigate and for adventure (fans, upper part), compact in item placement ( items per size of the map), harder to know and orient oneself than most due to too much everywhere, variety in rooms, nice details to look at (fans, outdoor) or to hear, some places to explore with reward on and a bit limited vertically,
Suggestions:
- Add some more brightness on those light textures: as explained before the textures make the map a bit dark than recommended, so a little tweak is needed there.
- Reduce the number of textures used, of give them some better reason for existing (a role) or use them only in an specific room, as they make the map chaotic at sight, and hard to recognize each room, adding more time to learn the map. Also you use several textures for elevators, making harder to know where and which they are. Go with just a few, and add rules on where they are used. Another option would be to give more character to each room.
- There is some unaligned textures or don't go well where they are: the side of the stairs near the HB, or the side of the ramp near the GL, or example.
- Less grey textures, as the grey they use is quite bland and has no character (no warm, no cool either) and looks like it comes from a black and white TV.
- Add another floor, even if it is smaller than the bottom one, and connect it with an elevator/ladder: so many small ramps and stairs make it so its easier to make an interesting map with less floors, but gets old easily and disorient the player, like being in a roller coaster. or raise one part of the middle floor and connect it with an elevator.
- Less items to make the map less busy.
- Add a border or something to the floor on the bottom floor.
- PLEASE, put higher the player spawns or hide them completely. As they are right now look like randomly unaligned brushes.
- Add some brushwork at the bottom of the tunnels that fit the teleporter.
