A simple arena style map. I had hoped to finish it before my work hiatus ended, (hence the name), but having failed that, I still want to finish this one and move on. My goal here is hopefully to bridge the gap between killboxers and more detailed, well crafted map lovers.
Thanks for the replies all. Maze you make some very good points to consider for the final.
Posted by mazemaster on
Mon Nov 26th 2007 at 7:45pm
Layout looks interesting with multi-level vertical areas and layers of paths. Super-connected super-3D maps create great gameplay IMO. Everything looks a little bit too big though? Oh well.
Your technical skills have improved a ton since your earlier maps, but you still definitely have your own style. I can see elements of mausoleum, klingon, and stonepark all in the map, except in a more advanced form. This is good, you are bring something new to the mapping world! Some mappers do so much emulation of other mappers and styles that they lose their own style, I am glad you have not done this.
As for some crits, It looks a little sparse. One way to add detail without having it look fake or trying too hard is to go around your map, and ask little questions like "what is holding up this block of concrete"? And then you add a column. Or "what is powering this electrical thing"? And then you add in some wires and pipes, connecting to a metal electrical box prop. etc etc.
Try to have 1 "visibly interesting thing" visible in each room, and then add in the supporting details to make that "interesting thing" reasonable. It doesn't have to be a prop that you place in there, for example in the 3rd screen the "interesting thing" is the huge half-cylinder concrete architecture. In the 4th screen it is those 2 lighting things on the wall. In the 5th screen it is the way the straight hallway cuts into the circular shaped building. In the first and last screen, the architecure could make it great, except you need to use the lighting to bring out the 3d aspect of the crazy architecture and paths going on there. In the 2nd screen the special effects look cool, but they are coming out of a bland cylinder. Doh!
This map came a long way. Congrats on going final (I assume?).
Reading your description taught me a couple of very interesting bits of mapping wisdom. I wish we could collect little bits of knowledge like .wav filenames being required for Linux servers, rotating lights crashing servers and reducing FPS by 40... it wouldn't even fit in any proper tutorial...
Maybe if Gwil really does the changes to the Snarkpit he mentioned, there should be a place to collect all this info.
So much to learn! ^^
Creating work for me already :wink: Good idea though!
It will be in the rotation on "FFJakes funhouse of Horror" in December. They're good servers. No whiners, no troublemakers tolerated. Just good ol' DM and quite a few very good players. Check it out.
This map came a long way. Congrats on going final (I assume?).
Reading your description taught me a couple of very interesting bits of mapping wisdom. I wish we could collect little bits of knowledge like .wav filenames being required for Linux servers, rotating lights crashing servers and reducing FPS by 40... it wouldn't even fit in any proper tutorial...
Maybe if Gwil really does the changes to the Snarkpit he mentioned, there should be a place to collect all this info.
OK after the last post I still had problems with the map crashing the FF Clans Linux server. I had hoped to resolve this by beta 9. Then me and ff.FNDR.Jake_Brake were running around looking for problems in the map yesterday. He had an idea that it was the spinning point_light entities at either end of the map. We were standing there together when they stopped spinning just before the map crashed. So I deleted them, re-compiled and lo-and-behold, we had a solid map which did not crash the server. I don't know what the problem was, but not only did removing the spinning lights fix the map, my FPS went up an average of 35 to 40 everywhere in the map. So, barring any glaring errors, I will consider this map finished unless I get some great ideas/suggestions for changes. I know there were'nt any responses to my last post, and that may well be the case here again. Either way I am ready to move on to another project soon.
PS.... I got the sounds working in Linux servers as well. Had to use the file paths with .wav on the ends and they started working. Thanks for having a look!
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