Posted by Orpheus on Mon Jan 30th 2006 at 1:52pm

1st off, the maps progression is phenomenal. You advancement from your earlier works is obvious.

That said, I am getting the distinct impression that you are centering your concerns on vista's again. Your earlier works did this. You seem overly concerned with long lines of sight. I think/feel that you should concentrate a tad bit more on your inside, short line areas more. The outside looks so good that I would (just looking at the images) say its on par with many of the big gaming title releases. However, the inside areas look as if they were added begrudgingly. I realize that that sounds a bit harsh, but as I said, I can only judge by the screens.

Look at all the screens that are less grand in distance seen. They are all bland, or nearly bland in comparison to "The Fifth Element" scenes of the outside section. The outside has architecture to spare. The inside has... boxes. The outside has colors and moving/animated scenes, the inside has boxes.

At the very least, add some color inside and many of the animated scenes, possibly via televisions or monitors. It has been my experience that movies and maps of this theme that are successful have inside areas full of advertisements with flashy bits and bobs.

I feel that this map will fall short of the expectations if all of its areas are not equally addressed. A picture may have launched a thousand ships, but many more pictures have sunk to the depths of obscurity because of short sightedness.

/2 cents

Posted by MisterBister on Mon Jan 30th 2006 at 8:16am

Progress:
It has been a long time since i updated you with some pics, but now im here again.
Since the last update ive been working mainly on learning photoshop and adding colours to the map. Enough said, heres the images:


First off is an overview. Ive lighten it up a bit and added more colour. Here you can also see the clouds ive been working with, however im havinga real hard time adding the same spritebased clouds in the 3D-sky. They just wont show up. Ive tried func_smokevolume aswell, but then i just get an error saying that the material hasnt been precached or something like that.


An overview from another angle. The most notable thing is the blue and red screens, however ive also added two big holes on the "bridges".


Same scene from another angle (again..). Here you can see some of the spotlights added in the 3D-sky aswell as ads in the 3D-sky. They will be replaced with something more appropriate in due time.



Ive added the red area to make this tunnel more interesting. The crate textures is actually made by me aswell.


Ive added some textures in here aswell. The crate textures are all made by me. Not the most pretty work you have seen i guess, but they work =P.


Ive added the red area aswell. You can actually jump down there and get yourself healed and get armor with suitcharges. The bad thing is that people can easily drop down grenades when you heal up, and since its difficult to get out of that area you will probably get killed trying to get out of there if you are discovered.


A pic of the 3D-sky. Ive added the glow to the lights aswell as new textures to the buildings.


This area is shaping up pretty well. I dont remember showing a pic of this area until now.

Posted by MisterBister on Sun Jan 22nd 2006 at 2:03am

Progress:
Im currently working alot with textures and have given most of the map textures. However some areas, like the warehouse, is almost untouched at present. Im also experimenting with cratetextures that ive made. Perhaps ill keep them, perhaps not. Ive also added lots of small detail, and areas, that will increase the fun-factor. Im also working on the lighting to make it more colourful. Hopefully ill give you some images in about a week.

I dont intend to make the map HL2'ish.

Ive had lots of feedback regarding the windows (even from my girlfriend). Ill try to make new windows by myself which will variate more in colour and be more separated and detailed. Im trying to create spaceship-lanes, thats why they are so non-random.

Ive been playing with of floating billboards, however im not sure if ill use them.. Ill have to do some more tweaking before i decide anything.

Well, I really prefer good gameplay. However, its not easy to have good gameplay when you have nobody who whats to test the map. Luckily, ive got my friends and we have been gametesting a few times. And its been real fun, Im adding elements to increase the fun-factor right now.

Thanks, as i said, im working on the windows. As for the spaceships, I don't agree.

Posted by jeffjohnvol on Thu Jan 19th 2006 at 4:29pm

I'm only partway through the article myself, and I agree with the author about gameplay trumping visuals.

My favorite mp map is ofc_beach5, but I read some reviews that the textures looked off and that it was a rush job etc., with no consideration to how much fun it is. When you're running around a corner who cares if if a rock was used several times. Plus, the plethora of secret areas in the map always keeps you guessing.

I don't care what chinese food looks like as long as it tastes good. Same with mapping. A map can look brilliant, but its not fun to play, who cares. I think there are 2 camps of critics, those that judge whether the visuals and theme really look nice, and those that are concerned with gameplay (and some of both I'm sure). Personally, I prefer the latter. I do have a lot of admiration for those that make maps look so professional though.

Posted by BlisTer on Sun Jan 15th 2006 at 2:50am

somehow the windows in the skyscrapers seem too small to me, but maybe i'm not seeing the proportions right. In the 3rd pic, the stream of spaceships seems too non-random. maybe draw some spaceships in a different shape / color and unequally spaced apart. also dont forget to add some sort of (background/soft) noise for the stream of spaceships, would be weird without it i think. nice idea though, and idd cheap " SRC="images/smiles/icon_smile.gif"> wonder how the effect ingame is.