dm_oasis_castle

The map is dm_oasis_castle, and consists of a large medieval-type fortress surrounded by a moat in a green oasis, which is in turn surrounded by desert hills. There are eight separate towers in the map, a central castle, and two residential brick buildings, all of which can be entered. The central castle has three levels...four levels, if you count the tiny underground room beneath the castle. Two of the the curtain wall towers have three levels, as well.

The map is basically finished, except for completing the desert scene in the skybox, and for changes to details such as lighting, overlays and props that I will make based on feedback from players actually playtesting the map. I am not looking for feedback on basic architecture anymore, but I thank those that gave useful feedback on this map over the past month, and apologize for any suggestions I was not able to implement, but I only have so much time, and so this is basically the last version that will be released. Later on, there will be a special version of this map, with team based spawns, and the ability for teams to capture and hold individual towers, which will giving the holding team special limited benifits. The more towers a team holds, the higher the benifits (with a cap, to prevent one team from becoming too powerful to defeat). The current version available for download, however, is a standard deathmatch map.

Note: This is the new thread for this map, since the old map attached to the old thread became disabled.

Isn't this already posted? I remember seeing the screens somewhere.

Did you not read the last line?

looks very blocky, and HL1ish.. the stairs seen in one of the pics seem
to have pretty high steps. try to make em 4 or atleast 8 units high and
perhaps a bit wider steps too. the architecture is also a bit
blocky. . make it less blocky is my advise.

Moron

It might not be the best or more detailed feedback you'll ever receive,
but its better than nothing. Don't brand people who give you their
thoughts (and on request might I add!) morons, or you'll just see less
people bothering to comment.

Another pillar of the community here, I see.

What does the theme song to Law and Order go like again? - oh, that's right:

ban ban BAN ban - ban ban ban ban bannn

I liked the song with the BANanas and stuff.

I think the incredibly subtle hint they're trying to give is that you need to be a lot nicer.

People lost all respect and desire to evaluate your map and help you out when you said "moron". That was your mistake.

Try to be a better guy or bad things will happen.

<DIV class=forumtext>The lighting is terrible, and their are no outstanding original features in this.</DIV>
<DIV class=forumtext>sorry I could'nt help myself.
</DIV>

Thats a little harsh :razz: Map doesnt look awful, its just got that
"newbie
mapper" vibe going on. The lack of variety in lighting is the real
offender but also the general scale of the map (hugely open in a "nothg
there" sense is a give away sign). The castle interior shown in the 4th
shot has a pretty nice style going on; I'd work more along those lines
and less along the 5th screenshot area, which really looks nothing like
a castle and far to generic to be interesting. Shots 2 and 4 remind me
a lot of one of the maps in the original UT actually, which is both a
compliment and a criticism I guess!

Everything looks just too plain, especially the outside, add some boulders or thorwable rock and stuff, the inside look sbetter but still need more detail, patinignts on teh walls maybe, or maybe some garbage laying on the floor.

See, now this is real feedback that ReNo and rs6 are giving...and I thank them for it.

They are not, for instance, just thinly disguising flames as feedback which they cut and pasted from another thread (Im talking about Janneman and Varsity, not Juim: Juim is innocent, and his post was kinda cute :wink: ).

I scolded Varsity for coming on with the comment about him thinking this thread already existed, when I had already explained in very simple terms why a new thread was started.

Varsity, being unable to accept any well-deserved repremands, then logged in as Janneman(or got his buddy Janneman to log in), and simply copied what Morpheus had legitimately said about this map a month ago. He posted negative for the mere sake of posting negative feedback, in other words. Hey, kinda like cassius does all the time, cept cassius is less personal...he flames anyone that isn't a long time board member. Notice I didn't say new...someone could have been a successful mapper for years, but still be new to this particular board.

Well there we go. Anyway...

Meh. Cassius' unsubtle "ban" remarks can still be damned funny at times...

As for the map, it looks promising, but three things:

decals

overlays

prop_physics

As has been mentioned before, add some rubbish to the ground with
decals, some stuff to chuck around or blow up, and you can get the map
"off the ground" as it were. Nice brush work on the towers, just add a
load of detail. The aplha blending in the first shot also seems like a
good idea, but you might want to extend the blend a bit more, as
although the edge has been blurred, it looks like it needs a bit more
blourring. Sorry if I haven't explained it very weel - basically, try
putting a couple of points with half the alpha blend in between the
sand and the grass to reduce the "edges" effect.

Thanks, yeah, there are very few decals and overlays in the map at this time, and the physics props in this map are random at best (Ie: doesn't seem to be any real plan to them. This is because there aren't really many physics objects that fit the theme).

I also agree with what Reno said too...the lighting in my map is lame. I seem to be lighting challenged though...I look at the lighting, its bad...I change it...its still just as bad, I change it again...its becomes worse, lol. At the least I'll change those red lights in the tower tops to something else. Of course, then the lighting will become even more redundant, but the red just doesn't seem to fit very well, as one poster on VERC said.

Basic Architecture-wise, this map is locked. Yeah, I realize the areas outside fortress area are too open and quite boring in their layout...however, the problem is a fundimental one in the basic map design, which can really only be fixed by rebuilding the map over from scratch. This, I in fact intend to do eventually, and my third map will be based on some of the elements from this map, but will have a completely different overall layout.

While there are some maps out there in rotation that are worse than this map, there are also many that are a whole lot better. This is really not a map I'm looking to see put into rotation on any of the good servers. My only hope is that enough people will try it out that I get my name out there, so that when I do get around to making a map really worth playing on an on-going basis (probably after I graduate in a few months), people will really try it out.

Look at as much refrance material as you can. Its hard for me to
tell with my s*th monitor but are those hl2 textures or custome ones?
if not I would suggest you pick up some custom textures.

as far as lighting, I would try and open as many windows as you can and
find a great env_light then you wont have to worry as much about indoor
lighting becuase your natural light will take care of it.

I resent what you said about Cassius, to be honest he was extreamly nice to me and I dont think our member numbers are that far apart...

Yeah, they are just standard hl2 textures unfortunately, except for the
textures on the custom lamps "models", and the logo on the roof of the
castle in the center of the map.

I'll try to add at least a couple more custom textures for this
map...but it won't be until I rebuild the map from scratch a few months
from now (as basically a whole new map) that I'll go all-out with lots
of custom materials and models.

<DIV class=quote>
<DIV class=quotetitle>? quote:</DIV>
<DIV class=quotetext>See, now this is real feedback that ReNo and rs6 are giving...and I thank them for it.
They are not, for instance, just thinly disguising flames as feedback which they cut and pasted from another thread (Im talking about Janneman and Varsity, not Juim: Juim is innocent, and his post was kinda cute :wink: ).

I scolded Varsity for coming on with the comment about him thinking this thread already existed, when I had already explained in very simple terms why a new thread was started.

Varsity, being unable to accept any well-deserved repremands, then logged in as Janneman(or got his buddy Janneman to log in), and simply copied what Morpheus had legitimately said about this map a month ago. He posted negative for the mere sake of posting negative feedback, in other words. Hey, kinda like cassius does all the time, cept cassius is less personal...he flames anyone that isn't a long time board member. Notice I didn't say new...someone could have been a successful mapper for years, but still be new to this particular board.

</DIV></DIV>

Hey.
You wanted criticism. I checked the screenshots out. I said "It looks a bit hl1is, a bit blocky yatti yatti yatti" ..
well guess what.
THATS CRITICISM.

(snips incoherent rambling a bit make love, not war, m'kay -Lep.)

and now some more hints you can call me moron over.. For Trees add the leaves decal under and alpha paint the terrain a bit difference.. you could even change the terrain a bit to make it look realistic.

That courtyard looks very dull . Some market stands and carts could look good there. also add some decals and overlays for detail.

Looking at your screenshots its fairly nice. 1 thing i can say is that
your 2nd pic is a bit bland. This meaning that you have 1 solid texture
on where you can see where it tiles and it looks completely flat. you
might want to atleast make it a bit more uneven,

Look closer Renne....the trees already have the leaves decal under them (an overlay, actually...can't put decals onto displacement surfaces). So yeah, I can call you by that name again if you like, at least over that one suggestion. I won't use that name though, because your actually trying to come up with real feedback now. You see, honest feedback I respond positively to, whether I agree with it or not.

As for the blending...duely noted; others have said the same thing. As for the stairs, they have been tested and work fine. They did not even need any no-clips (unlike some other parts). They are already the height you mentioned...did you ever think of that? Are the stairs extremely ugly though...yeah I'll grant that much. I'll make them wider.

Barren courtyard: More good feedback. Can't really fix it completely though, until I get some custom physics models in. Since I don't currently have the tools to do so...it will be awhile. Standard HL2-DM props would be very out of place in the courtyard, though. Heck, the props that are already there (boxes, exploding barrels)look silly.

Saying the map looks worse than a hl1 map though...thats not feedback, or even critisisms....thats just mere flaming. I have seen maps on regular rotation on servers that were not even a QUARTER as detailed as this map is now. I will show screnshots from a month ago when the architecture was much simply...and people told me that it is progressing nicely.

However, since you felt to also post a bunch nonsense as well, which Lep had to remove, and also rate the map a 1, you should [snip-to save Lep the trouble :wink: ]

Addenda: Forgot what the addenda was...maybe I'll remember later.

Re-edit: Oh yeah, now I remember...the fountain is floating in the air in shot #2. I already corrected that one thing before posting the download bsp on my website; however, I won't post any new screencaps of the same spot until additional changes have been made to the courtyard. There is also a light map problem on the doors which can be seen in shot #1. I put env_cubemaps on the doors, and even did a light_block, but the "shiny" door problem persists. Perhaps its just my hardware.

well perhaps you could learn to take in the negative criticism and
change some stuff. if you only see the compliments then you wont
improve your map. And saying that a map looks like its from HL1 is
criticisim. it ain flaming.

If someone say that to me then ill get that i should make some more complex brushwork, add some prop details..

And another tip. YOu can get a free modelling tool at www.softimage.com
browse the site for the mod tool and get the valve exporter.

Barren courtyard: More good feedback. Can't really fix it
completely though, until I get some custom physics models in. Since I
don't currently have the tools to do so...it will be awhile. Standard
HL2-DM props would be very out of place in the courtyard, though. Heck,
the props that are already there (boxes, exploding barrels)look
silly.

Maybe a few cars, Hard drives and Moniters would go well. Anywho you
could make some of the walls breakable or maybe evan the fountain.
might want to put an easter egg in there or possably ( nothing to do
with it ) replace the stun stick with a tourch (a burning one not a
battery powerd one foo)

Errr, would be pretty overkill to make a new weapon model just for the
map. And as for cars and computer parts going well in a medieval
courtyard?! No idea where you got that idea from :biggrin:

It's probably not worth getting my own bandana, so I won't post what I was going to.

(shut up- Lep.)

I see both idiots are on the thread now.

You have a two personalites?

Renne: Just stay off the thread and don't come back. Nobody wants you here.

... That's right, ReNo, nobody wants your incredibly helpful and valued advice here! ... wait.

Is this what's considered acceptable etiquette?

What's your problem Crono? You have something against ReNo? Hes a moderator on this forum, and is liable to boot your ass out of here, in case you didn't know it.

Except he probably won't do that, because unlike you, hes a patient person and usually thinks before he acts.

Don't worry ReNo, I, at least, have valued everything you have said...on this thread and everywhere else. I wish more posters were like you, Pegs, and Loco.

I apologize, but I just don't see it: why are you trying - not happening, not thought, but deliberately trying - to be a dick? I wouldn't have said a word, and would perhaps have given your map a serious critique, if you hadn't already called a more-or-less innocent reviewer a "moron" before page two. In fact, I don't really care, because I don't even know you, and I don't quite know why you'd have such an opinion of me. I love plenty of our newer members, just not the assholes among them - a group which you, by choice, are fast joining. <3 <3 <3

Before you edited your post, the closest name to what you typed was reno's ... so I just made an assumption.

Other then that, it's sarcasm, get used to it.

Oh dear. omniguru, there is such a thing as sarcasm, and Cass etc., he's explained why he called someone a moron.

I shall be locking this now; I hope no-one tries to copy your map and makes you have to take them to court :razz: