reclamation

Too dark to see much. Wasn't Xen brighter? Agree with more structures.
Plus, get a new rubble + crumble texture (Half-Life's crumble texture
is so low-res and bleh) There should be plenty of surplus from Day of
Defeat and such if you look hard enough. Looks like it's shaping up
though.

Yeah this is really dark.. and your using a bit to much blue. And I agree with CJunkies and ReNo's comments.

Hehe, 'crumble' :smile: THe roof on that area is very thick, is it some sort of bomb shelter?

Reno: I'll try to add detail above, but if I stand back a bit and look slightly to my left I can get 700+ w_poly's. yay for prefabs :biggrin:

CJ: Good idea about the rubble, I had forgotten all about dod textures.

crackerjack: I thought it was too blue myself, but people earlier didn't like the less-blue skylighting

A_S: I'm not sure exactly what its supposed to be, which is why I decided destroying part of it was a good idea...

As for all your lighting comments, is it really too dark, or is the skylight just too blue? Or both? It is dark, for sure, but some of that darkness is because I'm using a dark gray ceiling and a dark blue flooring, along with a dark gray wall. Maybe retexturing is in order :sad:

I going on the basis that the view models are barely lit, and therefore other player models will barely be lit, making the game probably very hard to play. I'm all for keeping the sky lighting blue, but if you are going to have that then you shouldn't rely on it it alone to light up areas, as that tone of blue isn't great as functional lighting. Atmospheric yes, good for playing in, I doubt it.

An idea for lighting up the rubble area: Have a construction looking like (one on a stand) so it looks like they were trying to clean it up. And lighting should be alot better in that area.

As for the new screens, the hallways look a bit boring, but that maybe due to your R's not sure. The arched area looks real nice.. maybe some alpha textures for detail?

ok, thanks guys. work continues unabated!

Wow! Very nice job!!! I love the Xen vines. Nice job with that. The blue and yellow lighting is good contrasts! You're doing a wonderful job with this map, can't wait to see it finisehd.

Here's the final area. It's not completed and is way too bright, but eh. I've got a lot of work to do to finish by the deadline, but here's hoping!

That's awesome, link me. :wink:

Doesn't look way too bright to me mate, I reckon it could use more light :razz: The central expanse of floor seems to be lacking any sort of illumination judging from the screenshots. While there are loads of nice accenting light fixtures, there is a real lack of functional lighting I'd say. Perhaps a nice arrangement of light spots on the floor could look good.

I'd be interested in doing a critique if you want - PM me a link or tell me to go to hell, your call :smile:

Critique away!

http://yak_fighter.tripod.com/reclamation_beta5.zip

Some things to remember as you're running around:

-layout isn't complete, since I haven't made a bunch of connecting hallways

-most of these hallways are there only as visblockers, I really hate hallways myself :\

-the dead grunts on the ground are there to show how the lighting will play on entities

-my gamma is set at a little over half on the slidy bar in steam

-the tank area is getting changed

-r_speeds are no worry at this point

1. This roofline is still a bit flat. At the very least put something behind it.



2. This bit kicks ass and chews bubblegum but then it ran out of bubble
gum and stole some from a well lit but dead soldier but it was too busy
kicking ass to chew properly. True story.



3. That yellow light has gone horribly wrong. Open hammer, select the
texture and press the 'fit' button. I can make a tutorial if you want.
:razz:



4. Inexplicable texture transition. Why does the floor magically change colour?



4. These are really cool.



5. I'd give this a bit more depth and maybe add a small red light near it.



6. Ooh baby.



7. These lights don't looks right at all due to having the trim texture on the sides.



8. You can jump through this giant spagetti tangle but you can't get past any other ones I tried.



9. This is a just a tad too large. Scale it down a smidge!



10. Raise this wall up by about 64 units as you can't see that much of it from below.



11. What were you thinking?



12. Reno made me do this so his map would win. :sad:



13. The smoke here is a bit thick. Thin it out or have it rise higher into the air.



Overall the map is great but to be honest it's a little dirty and messy
in places. You could have at least swept all the rubble into one
corner. I won't even start on all the goop lying around. I wish I could
find more wrong with it, but I couldn't. I'll have another run around
at a later stage though.

1. I'll try. Hope no one cares about r_speeds!
2. Thanks! One of those rare moments of genius I guess, as it wasn't planned.
3. :razz:
4. I'll get rid of that.
4A. Thanks!
5. I'll change that thing around a little bit to add detail. A red light is a good idea too.
6. :cool:
7. I'll fix that too.
8. I wanted to allow people to go through that one. I'd change the texture to differentiate, but there aren't many other options in the xen.wad
9. I'm going to have to remake that thing to make it look cooler than a 6 sided brush.
10. What's wrong with a little subtle detail :razz:
11. I don't know...
12. ouch
13. That's just a cycler_wreckage. I haven't quite figured out if I can change it but I'll try...

Thanks for the critique. I appreciate it :biggrin:

Nice idea with the missile launcher thing. Really like Screen 4 too. But the rubble/crumble
texture is still so blurry and stuff. Concerning lighting - this map
has the same problem as Thanto does, I think. So many light fixtures
but not that much light. They just end up kind of looking like little
trim lights. Nice broad spotlights focused on certain parts of the
rooms could do wonders and bring some more shadows/contrast into play.
But then is the map too dark already?

Oh, and do the dead grunts show up in multiplayer? I assume you're using monster_dead_hgrunt or something, right?

Well I'd gladly change the crumble textures, but I haven't figured out a way to break open the GCF files as the program on the pit gives me errors. I should get more lighting contrast as it's a bit flat. It's not too dark in my opinion, but then again I used to play HLDM with an old monitor that made everything dark :biggrin: . If I have the time I will look into brightening up some areas of some rooms, but I am trying to make the map somewhat dark, as this is supposed to be a spooky and destroyed human base or something. And yes, the dead grunts do show up in mp, as do the dead hevsuits, barneys, and scientists.

It's done. sorta. The lighting is probably still too dark, and if I bother with a revision that'll be what needs fixing the most. The weapon placement is probably horrible, since I did it in about an hour without any testing. But other than that... I am proud to say that the r_speeds do not go above 910 anywhere in the map, and that's even when looking from corners and such. The area in the bottom pic is less than 900, which is awesome for how much I crammed in there.









http://yak_fighter.tripod.com/maps/reclamation.zip

The map looks pro. Good job.

Sounds vey intriguing. Maybe I'll finally get to see a well done xen map. Give me a shout whenever you have a beta up.

Sounds vey intriguing. Maybe I'll finally get to see a well done xen map. Give me a shout whenever you have a beta up.

In my limited time running around it (20 maps to check out, time was limited!) I found the layout to be confusing, but had no doubts it would be great once learnt with a wealth of route options open from any give area. Weapon placement seemed good, in particular the gauss placement, which was in exactly the same sort of trough location I was going to give it in Angelic. To top it off, it looked lovely, which was especially impressive given the overall low r_speeds and the feeling of integration that the layout suggested.

Despite these positive points, the map wasn't flawless. The theme was a good one but under-developed, with only certain limited areas feeling particularly over run or even touched by Xen infestation. While this wouldn't be counted as an outstandingly negative point in normal circumstances, given the theme of the contest it became more important. Lighting was, in my opinion, overly dark from a playability point of view, and even from a visual standpoint.

Despite these failings, Reclamation felt like the map most reminiscent of the great HLDM maps, and I've no doubt that it will be one of the under-rated gems of the contest that those whom give a chance and actually play, will be pleasantly surprised with.

This is definately a real gem of a map, with the screens doing the map little justice. The map layout and style of play reminded me of the golden age of HLDM, when it was the funnest game around, and maps like this one ruled the servers. Fun, well constructed and polished, excellent weapon placement and great to look at, this map is definatly an underated contender in the competition. Very nice work Yak.

As i told dave, i have been remiss, i forgot to come and score your maps after the competition.. i will rectify that oversight now