Author Topic: Dream Station: final release  (Read 6574 times)

UnarmedPlayer

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Dream Station: final release
« on: July 06, 2010, 06:07:55 am »
After 5 months of testing and 3 beta releases, I bring final version of my map to public.

It is small map with simple layout (ok.. maybe not as simple as harraps's Tremarena O_o), intended to make heavy camping impossible*. Since features of the map change gameplay a bit, it may be required to play it few times to get used to them.

Dreamstation pk3 may be downloaded from:

Advices to server admins: set number of BP in way that will allow teams to build forward bases.

If there are no serious bugs in the map, it will not be further fixed. Especially gameplay will NOT be changed.

Have fun!

____
* Not 100% success, but it seems that camp level decreased ;)

God, maker of the world

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Re: Dream Station: final release
« Reply #1 on: July 06, 2010, 06:32:04 am »
Checked it out. Like the design.

Wonder if you have used radiosity bounces in the LIGHT phase ("-bounce 5" or something, "-bouncescale 2" in addition can also be nice), that time should be invested in a release, especially if it's final. Also, you could have added "_lightmapscale" "0.25" in the worldspawn before rendering, the nice shadows would have been much better then. Your map makes use of shadows, so why not make them proper.

I didn't like that the time counter starts right at the beginning, but without AMP, you didn't really have much choice because you couldn't make a logical AND gate checking if a human AND an alien has spawned.

But I think I found a serious flaw, man. Directly at the beginning, when the gates are closed, I can walk with my dretch all the way to the human nodes. Ceiling above rails.

Also, maybe you know, but just in case you didn't: You can define the buildpoints that the teams have yourself. The world spawn entity help text in the "entity inspector" says how. The "_lightmapscale" key is also mentioned there.

...

EDIT: I wonder why you (or anyone else, for that matter) ride the "alpha", "beta", "final" train. If you want to change something now, it's kinda awkward and complicated and annoying for yourself, because you have already called it "final". In my opinion, it doesn't make sense. And you often find maps in the wild that are proper, but are called "beta". I think that the reason for that is oftentimes that the map maker didn't want to step into the "final" trap. Which made me decide to drop the whole alphabetafinal path for me. I just give them a release number suffix ("_001" etc.), and that's it.

Oh, and you should call the file "map-dreamstation-final-1.1.0.pk3" to express what Tremulous version the map was designed/balanced for. Btw., when I downloaded it, the ending was ".zip" instead of ".pk3", but maybe the download service caused that. I'm a fan of "http://senduit.com/", though the links die after 1 week.
« Last Edit: July 06, 2010, 06:57:36 am by God, maker of the world »

UnarmedPlayer

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Re: Dream Station: final release
« Reply #2 on: July 06, 2010, 07:21:55 am »
Options used for light phase were:
-fast -filter -super 2 -bouncegrid -bounce 8
Compilation time (9 minutes) is not really big, since it's small map.

Yep, I know I can set buildpoints by myself, but I didn't wanted to. The map was never tested with BP amounts normally used, so I don't even know how much will be required. I think that life will show how many build points is optimal and admins will set it in the best way for their servers (if map will be ever used by someone ;)).

Ability to get to enemy base via tunnels is not a bug :D. Because you haven't seen early releases, you look at the things from wrong side. It's not bottom way that is open. It's top way that is closed. It might seem that this way dretches can easily eat humans and humans should have rets for example. The truth is there were 2 or 3 rets, arm and medi in beta1. They were removed, because humans were getting too great advantage at the begining. While it require humans to get rifle and defend base at the begining, it is not as big problem as it might seems, if players are not complete newbies. It's just like early zerglings rush in Starcraft. Just here it is easier, because you can kill incoming dretches from far - they're visible and running straight to you. And if they fail, you are in much better possition actually.

This release was intended to be beta4 and the next one should be final. I decided however to make this final, because bugs fixed since beta3 are only minor things and it seems there is no more problems that really need to be changed. What's the point of releasing work as "final"?
It's good way to say "hey, I'm not thinking about working on it anymore without good reason". Also beta is something intended for testing. By releasing final version I say it is fully usable product that was already tested and it seems there is no serious problems with it. It doesn't prohibit me from fixing bugs or making next version of the map.

DraZiLoX

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Re: Dream Station: final release
« Reply #3 on: July 06, 2010, 10:54:05 am »
Btw., when I downloaded it, the ending was ".zip" instead of ".pk3", but maybe the download service caused that.
Actually, i think that Win2000 caused it. Works fine for me. But when i download maps in Win2000, i always get zip : p.

God, maker of the world

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Re: Dream Station: final release
« Reply #4 on: July 06, 2010, 11:57:28 am »
Quote from: DraZiLoX
Actually, i think that Win2000 caused it.

It did most definitely not cause it.

Crava_Loft

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Re: Dream Station: final release
« Reply #5 on: July 06, 2010, 12:08:11 pm »
[deleted]
« Last Edit: August 11, 2010, 12:19:58 pm by Crava_Loft »

DraZiLoX

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Re: Dream Station: final release
« Reply #6 on: July 06, 2010, 05:00:57 pm »
Quote from: DraZiLoX
Actually, i think that Win2000 caused it.

It did most definitely not cause it.
Well for me it does : o

How is that final  ???
Its final version, there will not be more releases.

UnarmedPlayer

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Re: Dream Station: final release
« Reply #7 on: July 06, 2010, 11:55:21 pm »
Crava_Loft,
"Final" means that stage of production of this map ended. Now it is tested, ready to use, mature and playable map. Everything is done. Known problems were already fixed and I do not expect to find any new stupid bugs like missing/misaligned textures or brushes, glitches allowing to get out of the map, unexpected behavior etc. All issues related to gameplay are solved too. In other words: I do not plan to work actively on this map anymore. In it's lifecycle map reached maintaince stage and if anything will be done with it, it will be related to fixing serious bugs etc. Of course this doesn't prohibit anyone from forking. Dreamstation is released under CC-BY-SA license and source is included, so if someone thinks visual side of the map needs to be improved, he can release CandyDreamstation-beta1. But I am going to work on other things now. I'll not spend another few months on redesigning all brushes to make map nicer, because there is no sense in doing so. It is better to work on another map, in which I'll be able to use experience gained during Dreamstation development. I hope everything is clear now.
« Last Edit: July 06, 2010, 11:56:53 pm by UnarmedPlayer »

Plague Bringer

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Re: Dream Station: final release
« Reply #8 on: July 07, 2010, 01:42:52 am »
HE MEANS IT LOOKS CRAPPY.
U R A Q T

DraZiLoX

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Re: Dream Station: final release
« Reply #9 on: July 07, 2010, 08:59:35 am »