CTF-Sucaam][b

[HailtheGoat]

I've updated Sucaam into this beta version. I think I've improved on most of the aspects that were hit on the review, with the excpetion of bot pathing.

No matter what I've tried those 'lil buggers have a hard time going through the map. Guess I need to read more, anyone got a good tutorial on bot pathing?

Please provide me with some feedback on this version. Has it improved over the first version?

I've added some different lighting and a little different architecture. I've lowered the level by about 1/3. 1/2 just seemed too low.

Outside the poly's still get around 300, mainly on the towers. I've tried zoning and making the brushes semi-solid, that took the poly's down from around the 500 mark! I can't seem to get them any lower.

There are minor BSP holes that shouldn't affect play, you only see them at certain angles for a second.

Item placement seems better.

I welcome all comments, no matter how harsh or truthful!

Sucaam][b

[IHopeToGod]

Wow that was quick. Check it out soon

[HailtheGoat]

I guess I caught a mapping bug.
I haven't played that much recently, due to my ping and working on this map almost non stop.

How long have some of you been mapping? I'm finding the editor getting easier everyday, and it's just fun!

[Stilgar]

Umm, first off, your skybox needs alot of work... the water is very bright, and grainy, you might want to hide the fact that its been stretched over a large distance by making it alot darker, maybe use the animated version as well.
The stars tile too often, it's not very convincing. One trick I used to do is to split the top of the skybox into a series of planes, that way I can rotate the star texture a different way on each plain, so the star pattern appears to be a bit more random.

Polycount....umm, I checked the level in the editor, and you're infact using waaaay more polys than necessary. For starters, most of the rectangular pillars could be made into a normal semi-solid brush, there was really no need ro deintersect so many brushes the way you have, it is unecessary and screws with your polycount. The angled edges on your flag buildings are overly complex, and they create more zones for the engine to think about.
You can safely use one brush to create these edges, you dont need 16 !
Look at the way you have built the inside of your flagrooms, no try and imagine the shape of the empty space inside of the room without the walkways... what you have got is 3 cubes. The top section, the egdes which slant inwards, and another cube which brings this edge to the floor.
Ill try and asci the shapes

_______
|______|
\_____/
|____|

This would be a cross section of the room.

you currently have this

_______
| |
|\ /|
| |____| |

This wouldnt be too bad if you hadnt used 2 brushes for each wall extrusion ...not so much for the polycount, but for the rendering part.

You should be using a simple rectangular brush for these bits.

Instead you have this. ^^^^^
(dont know how to add the picture right here, so its probably at the top of the post

There are lots of things to go over, needless to say your polycount could be much, much lower.

[Stilgar]

ok, so my ascii skills suck....... it doesnt matter

these are the pillars I was talking about.

[Gui]

Excellent bot pathing tut:
http://www.planetunreal.com/nucleus/UED2_pathing.html

[Squirrelinabox]

Alright, I finally played it a little bit.

It is definately a major improvement on the previous version. The scale is much better. Some things I don't like though.

1. The coronas/lens flares are annoying. There seem to be too many or some are too bright or something. Also, most are way too far away from the source so when you get close to the light u can see the corona is hovering away from the light.

2. The boxes in the flag room on the second floor. They just seem out of place or something. I use boxes a lot, they are an easy way to add obstacles and such to an open space, but most times they look bad/out of place. Maybe put some supports or something up there, or at least shuffle the boxes around a little (especially those 3/4 boxes in a straight line where the vials are on).

3. The slime under the flag. I like what you are doing with the damage amp, making it a dangerous item to get, but the slime seems out of place as well. Maybe if there was a pipe or two around it pumping slime in there or something.

4. Too rampy. Ok, I don't know what the hell rampy is, but it seemed like you relied A LOT on ramps EVERYWHERE. I don't know if it is really a bad thing. It just seemed like ramps were everywhere trying to connect everything in weird ways. The way the ramps were used kind of helped keep the map blocky looking. Maybe make some ramps not so straight or something.

I did like how you can jump from the second floor to the top of that middle building thing, then hammer back to the second floor on the other side... that is my chosen route. The side routes are almost pointless with the layout, though it is good to have more than just front entrances to the base. Keep working on it...

[HailtheGoat]

I've been trying to tweak the map to bring down the poly's in the middle. The only way I've been able to bring them down is to delete the light fixtures and boxes. AAAAAHHHHHH now I need someway to fill up the open space and produce light. I've redone the pillars and stuff like Stilgar suggested but the poly's still stay pretty high. Actually the worst I've seen them is from the "sniper towers" So actually I can say screw the snipers. But I still should try to get them down.

SIAB, I know the corona's can be a bit much and I've been trying to tweak the radius and what not but it seems you can't see them until your right on top of them. This mapping stuff is tough!

The slime, I was going for a sea of slime type thing, the skybox is supposed to create a feel that you are in a sea of slime. And the flag room, hmmm don't know just an inlet for the slime I guess.

The rampiness (if it's even a word) is from a warehouse I used to skate at when I was younger, thought it might provide some good z-axis. There were many heavy vehicles that used to drive up and down the ramps, you know normal warehouse stuff. Just used to love to skate there.

Also you can grab the jump boots from on top of the lights by the front door on top! No hammerjump necessary!

I appreciate the feedback from everyone and their opinions and suggestions are taken into consideration. Hopefully, I can produce a fun map that runs well on everyone's machine.

[Squirrelinabox]

As for the coronas, I believe the light radius itself controls the distance you can see the corona.

To set the actual size of the corona I think it is under the display setting in the light properties under DrawScale. Usually you want that number to be much less than default.

The biggest problem with the coronas was just that some of them were so far from the actual light source. In the editor you want that torch thing to be basically right on top of the light source brush. Open up a map you think has good light source coronas and see how they do it... don't open mine up because I don't use coronas much, and when I do I know they look ****ty.

[blito3]

LOL...is that why u dont see them on my maps..

[HailtheGoat]

Now I remember why I put them further away. They weren't showing up until I moved them from the source.

[Squirrelinabox]

Yeah you just need to have the very middle part of the torch (where the flame connects to the handle thing) away from the source. They do need to be much closer though.

[HailtheGoat]

Thanks SIAB, Working on it now.

[blito3]

so HailtheG will u be in the next contest.....hmmmmm

[HailtheGoat]

I wanted to last time but, the time difference wasn't good for me. It was my daytime and I had to watch the kids and stuff.