dm_derelict_beta
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Re: dm_derelict_beta
Posted by Jacfu on Fri Feb 16th at 7:20am 2007


Here's the first map I've done to reach the 85% fin. stage. I'm busy adding a room/ground floor into the building where the rpg resides. Some have said that the map is too small but I think it's better to try and complete your first release.

weapons: all

spawn points : 10

water : no

teleports : no

hdr : no

............................................................................................................





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Re: dm_derelict_beta
Posted by Natus on Fri Feb 16th at 11:00am 2007


It looks nice, maybe add some more variation in lightning, and more rooftop stuff and wall details.

For example the area in the second screenshot would look much more interesting with wires going across the rooftops, antennas on the building in the end, maybe a ladder on the wall, not necessarily a usable ladder but having a ladder going to a little platform where a door leads into the building would make it look like the map is bigger (unless you can already enter the building).





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Re: dm_derelict_beta
Posted by Orpheus on Fri Feb 16th at 12:11pm 2007


Put a space between those images. You borked my screen with a sidescroll.



The best things in life, aren't things.



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Re: dm_derelict_beta
Posted by Jacfu on Fri Feb 16th at 1:29pm 2007


soz about borking your screen -



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Re: dm_derelict_beta
Posted by Orpheus on Fri Feb 16th at 1:48pm 2007


Image 1: A bit to cluttered for my taste.
Image 2: /me likes. A bit dark but screenshots aren't the best gauge for light quality.

Is there more than 2 areas?





The best things in life, aren't things.



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Re: dm_derelict_beta
Posted by reaper47 on Fri Feb 16th at 3:38pm 2007


It's a pretty complex, yet compressed map. I like it a lot so far.

A couple of things I noticed:

- The doors blocked by wooden boards could turn out to be obstructive in the heat of battle. You might want to simplify or even remove some of them.
- It sometimes wasn't 100% clear which places you could jump to (the skybox near the wooden boxes) or crouch under (bathroom hole) resulting in some frustrating tests on the player's side. Maybe make these more obvious.
- The interiors are rather tight. I don't know how this could be changed, but where ever you feel you could get rid of a wall, try deleting or opening it up.
- lighting is even better than it looks on the screens. I'd still try some even brighter lights for the outside. For example making the two yellow lights near the statue brighter to cover a bigger part of the shady half of the yard. Of course you could experiment a little more with some of the other lights as well.

I can't say much about item placement before I played the map on a server. But this is a really impressive achievement. Especially (but not only) because it's your first release.






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Re: dm_derelict_beta
Posted by Orpheus on Fri Feb 16th at 4:08pm 2007


/me notices point of origin.

/me hopes its not another Jimmi account.





The best things in life, aren't things.



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Re: dm_derelict_beta
Posted by Jacfu on Fri Feb 16th at 4:48pm 2007


I'm busy putting a ground-floor into the building with the rpg, just to give a little more dimension to the map. That building with rpg is the last thing I worked on in the map, and I find it to be a little one-dimensional/filler/unoriginal etc. Maybe adding a ground floor could just make it more involved.

"The doors blocked by wooden boards could turn out to be obstructive in the heat of battle. You might want to simplify or even remove some of them."-Reaper47-

soz Reaper, but which wooden boards are you talking about? all the boards blocking doorways are breakable.

Making some of the interiors less tight is a good idea; I'll see where I can get away with removing some walls etc. I'll intensify the outside lights aswell.Thanks for the feedback.

Orpheus, soz for not understanding, but what is a Jimmi account?





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Re: dm_derelict_beta
Posted by fishy on Fri Feb 16th at 5:26pm 2007


it's when your IP is the same as the one used by a member that went by the name of Jimmi. he had loads of other names too, and they all showed up on the little IP checker button that the admins have, as originating from the exact same place.

cool button, btw.

<img src=" SRC="images/smiles/icon_wink.gif">




i eat paint



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Re: dm_derelict_beta
Posted by reaper47 on Fri Feb 16th at 5:30pm 2007


What I meant about the wooden boards was that it can take a while to break them one by one. It's the 3 seconds it takes for someone to throw a grenade.





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Re: dm_derelict_beta
Posted by Jacfu on Fri Feb 16th at 7:12pm 2007


thanks Reaper, I c what u mean. I'll remove some of them.

K. Put a darn hole in the building - and added a space inside the groundfloor. Now you can drop down to the ground level through the hole.





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Re: dm_derelict_beta
Posted by Jacfu on Sat Feb 17th at 5:21pm 2007


here's the new busted wall entrance. Don't want to put more debris outside though - enough allready!

and a view from the inside: it's still way too dark in there and it's gonna take a while to make it seem convincingly messed up. Don't think this place will see a lot of action though as this by far the tightest spot on the map, but I put another crossbow in there since this map has the dreaded rpg! :





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Re: dm_derelict_beta
Posted by Naklajat on Sat Feb 17th at 9:28pm 2007


This map is shaping up to be a very solid first release, but I did notice some issues that break the believability of the space that wouldn't be too hard to fix up. First: very shortly after I loaded the map up I noticed the constant ambient screaming and moaning (slowed down burning zombie?) that really doesn't fit the theme at all, it's more annoying than anything else.
Leaving the ambient sound like that would be like <img src=" SRC="images/smiles/grenade.gif"> for this map, IMHO.
There are also invisible walls in a few places that make the map feel constricted; invisible walls should generally be avoided like the plague, if the path needs to be blocked add a visual cue that it's blocked.

This smoke looks very unnatural, in reality smoke doesn't accumulate into a ball in open air, heat makes it rise and it gets carried off by the wind.
image

This ceiling doesn't look like it would support much, it would need heavier support beams running opposite the floor boards.
image

The debris in this area sometimes blocks the player and has to be jumped onto.
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image

This invisible wall gives no indication that it's impassable, it actually looks like you should be able to jump right over. With the smashed building next to it maybe you could use some debris to show that this way is blocked.
image
image

You can stand on the very edge of this ledge, and with a high-value item there I suspect I'm not the only person who would try to jump onto it. I'd suggest cutting this ledge back to make it unreachable, rather than just correcting the invisible wall.
image

Last one: I really like this vista, the scale of skybox is very good, and it makes everything blend together and really look like a larger space, but it would be much more visually appealing if there were some more buildings of varying height, right now it's basically a horizontal line across the screen. It also might not be a bad idea to add a few structures further back to fill in the cracks where you can see sky between buildings. The courtyard below could also use some work, as right now it seems like 'the rather empty dead-end courtyard' would be a good name for the area.
image

Overall the map is looking very good. I think the layout works as it is, and if you add too much more play area it'll just start feeling like a maze. That's just my opinion though.

Also, a belated welcome to the Snarkpit <img src=" SRC="images/smiles/icon_wink.gif">



=o



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Re: dm_derelict_beta
Posted by Jacfu on Sun Feb 18th at 9:40am 2007


Thank you for the critique Baron. I also think that I'm going off on a tangent now by adding rooms in rpg building, making the main roof of the building accessible etc. So I've decided to keep it simple and fix those things you pointed out - it's so easy to lose sight of where a map is heading without objective feedback, so thank you again. dm_derelict_ extended version will have to wait me thinks.



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Re: dm_derelict_beta
Posted by reaper47 on Sun Feb 18th at 5:26pm 2007


I agree with everything Baron von Snickers said, so I won't repeat it. But here's the more thorough look at the level I promised. It's pretty much everything I could think of. Sorry for the huge load.

image

image

image

image

image

image

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image

image

image

image

image

image

image

image






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Re: dm_derelict_beta
Posted by Jacfu on Sun Feb 18th at 6:26pm 2007


eish! thanks Reaper. Busted wall in bathroom fixed. Fire and smoke removed. slam removed from next to explosive barrel. I'll get to the rest asap, pity the weekend is over though

Thank you for pointing out little things I missed/ I'm now messing around with buildings in the skybox, extending the horizon a bit more aswell, and I'll hav to create func-detail buildings for it cause the skybox props are so limited. Struggling to get ideas for the courtyard though, I don't want to clutter that area too much. This map is changing quite a bit. I wish I could just spend a whole week on it and get it sorted.





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Re: dm_derelict_beta
Posted by Jacfu on Tue Feb 20th at 11:21pm 2007


Opening up the rooftops and high areas opens up a whole new range of possibilities:





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Re: dm_derelict_beta
Posted by FatStrings on Mon Feb 26th at 3:44pm 2007


wow, from here it looks to show promise, /me downloads



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Re: dm_derelict_beta
Posted by Jacfu on Mon Feb 26th at 4:04pm 2007


Thanks Fatstrings. This map is gonna be released in two versions: small and a bit bigger. Seems everybody wants me to make it bigger before even considering putting it on our local server. sigh. Will post a new map thread for the extended version sometime soon.



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Re: dm_derelict_beta
Posted by Jacfu on Fri Mar 2nd at 7:50am 2007


K. It seems that the only way I'm gonna get this map on our local server is to make it bigger. So I have, kind of, not by going sideways but upwards

Will upload the new version today or sometime this weekend.






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