DM-Breathe

[MalOSB]

Hi all.
This is my latest map and was created to pass www.3Dbuzz.com level design 101 course assignment 1. I’m not the biggest fan of the Egyptian maps so I have done my best to create a extremely playable map that makes the player feel he is in a desert at the bottom of a huge pyramid. It’s been a lot of hard work to get it this far and I can defiantly say it was worth every moment. The level consists of 4 main Halls and a main centre hall. I have tried to not give it a CRC feel and each route has a higher or lower route, which cross for easy transition. Above all I hope you enjoy it and I will appreciate any feed back (after all this is course work). A huge thank you to HortonsWho for his feedback and help at the beta stage.

Mal

Picture01 (http://www.gameover.org.uk/ut2003/breathe/breathe02.jpg)
Picture02 (http://www.gameover.org.uk/ut2003/breathe/breathe03.jpg)
Picture03 (http://www.gameover.org.uk/ut2003/breathe/breathe04.jpg)
Picture04 (http://www.gameover.org.uk/ut2003/breathe/breathe05.jpg)
Picture05 (http://www.gameover.org.uk/ut2003/breathe/breathe06.jpg)

DOWNLOAD IT NOW!! (http://www.unrealplayground.com/mapper.php?id=1420)

[MalOSB]

Heres one picture

[HortonsWho]

:cool:

[MalOSB]

hhmmmm nearly 400 downloads and not one word of constructive criticism from my Favourite forum... not sure if that’s a good think or not???

[Lord_Simeon]

Certainly looks nice in the screenshots.
One of my favourite sky zones, that one is.
:D

[Gui]

I downloaded this one from the INA forums but totally forgot to post my impressions, sorry man :p

It's very cool in fact: good looks, good gameplay. My only complaints concern some dark spots where campers can easily hide and also the fact that the map's rather big. There's a collision problem in a circular stair which makes you fall into a hole: nothing fundamental 'cause you can exit in double-jumping but players will find this annoying and bots will probably not be able to exit this location

I'll have to download it again to give you more precise feedback: stay tuned :)

[hylowa]

i'm dling it now for your critizism...
nice, dark, bright, open, close,
blocking volumes, no blocking volumes....????.......

[Mozi]

Havent played... not at home now either to d/led it

let me say this for "class" work not to bad... but....

that other pic u added i see texture problems in the ceiling.. well and yeah as Gui mentioned a tad bit dark off the screens... make it more lively :D

but none the less a great work via UED 3..

[MSandt]

A bit too big for my taste but I had some fun with it. Design was mostly very good - especially desert areas. It took some time to realize how its connectivity works. I think connectivity is a bit lame - it took me ages to realize that there's another small desert outdoor area as well. But hey I liked the gameplay and I liked the design.

Ouh and it played very well on my poor 800mhz system.

[Gui]

OK, I've refreshed my memories ^^

So, besides the problem concerning lighting and the size of the map, I also think there's a lot of corridors: this greatly helps the framerates so kudos on this point but this also slightly kills the gameplay because of the R-C-R syndrome... It's also a problem for official maps so it's not exactly fundamental: reducing the size could have helped on this point though...

More ambient sounds would have been welcome: there's some wind and birds in the outside as well as some water sounds here and there inside but nothing more. Because the egyptian static meshes package is rather high-tech, maybe some machines and/or interior sounds found in the IndoorAmbiance package could have been welcome, or some buzz near the light sources

There's a lot of adrenaline IMO and as a general rule, items are placed slightly too much far away from the main routes which forces players into modifying more or less considerably their way to grab them... Some persons will probably consider this as an issue flow-wise

Lot of variety in colored lighting which didn't please my eyes but maybe it's just a matter of tastes, though more homogeneity could have been welcome. These colors didn't really help my orientation too but maybe I just need to play it more. Overally, I think that increasing the saturation value would have helped on this point in making the color more white and giving it more subtlety in the same time... A really different archi from one corridor to the other may have been a bettter way to provide clues about their location to the players. The coronas for each pick-up base are a nice and original idea though they can be slightly blinding in some cases, especially in the darkest spots: it's safe to use a smaller radius in order to get a suddenly appearing corona, this can look weird but it's better than to gap the players field of view IMO

The little messages which appear when you grab some weapons and/or items are funny but quickly tend to be boring and distracting, almost annoying in fact: for example, reading "you lucky, lucky bitch" just before taking a bunch of rockets in the face can piss off the most zen amongst us IMO or being distracted by a little "coward" when you need to be concentrated on the game is not welcome. Don't get me wrong, it's a good idea but setting the triggers to one shot only (messages are displayed only once) could have been better: like this every new game in the map would have been the discovery of a new message for each, or almost, player instead of reading always the same messages in the same locations. Also, these sort of features appearing at the start of a game and before the fights really begin would not have been a problem for the concentration of players

Overally, and despite all these points which are pretty minor flaws in the end, it's really a cool map with a nice execution and a good replayability: can't wait for your next map but please take your time with it and don't mess it up because you feel the urge of the release ;)

[MalOSB]

Thanx all. General opinion seems to be that the level is just too dark. Hort had warned me about it and (believe it or not) it was actually darker and I had already upped the ambient light. Oh well my first map was too bright … this map was too dark…. I should get it right next time ;)

Gui, thanx for the feedback. I had not even considered the messages getting in the way or annoying! You made me think about what I was doing, which can only be a good thing! I’ll defiantly make sure I use the “oneshot” option from now on. :rockon:

Also I had problems of thinking where sounds would be when I did the sounds. I TOTALLY forgot about the lights.. Thanx again.

As for the R-C-R feel.. I did try and stop this but my initial design was a bit rushed compared to all the maps I’m planning to build in the future because I never planned an Egyptian map and when 3D buzz gave me the assignment I got a piece of paper and jotted a quick design without really thinking. I probably should have started again but decided I could maybe save the map (admittedly by using Terrain to remove at least two sets of corridors.


My next bit of "course" work is well underway. I have been planning it for two months and it's already looking awesome.