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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.
