SkyCastle [Gameflowtest]

[Plague Bringer]

Here's my semi-beta map; SkyCastle.

SkyCastle is a symmetric map.

The map is a small floating fortress slip into three parts. Players must use jumppads and ramps to get between the sections of the fortress. I'd just like to see how a map like this plays.

Linkage (click the picture, dumbass):

Same name, fixed textures.

P.S., If you're a server op and are going to add this map to the rotation for testing, please post so I can check it out.  

[n00b pl0x]

that looks extremely human biased and it has no textures

the humans can even blaster one of the 2 default eggs by sitting cozily next to one of their turrets

[Plague Bringer]

It has textures; I packed them into the pk3.

[n00b pl0x]

apparently not the way ur sposta

[Plague Bringer]

I basically grabbed Medusa's texture folder, renamed it to SkyCastle, and put it in the Textures folder in the .pk3.

[Survivor]

I basically grabbed Medusa's texture folder, renamed it to SkyCastle, and put it in the Textures folder in the .pk3.

The textures point to textures/medusa* then and not textures/skycastle.

[Plague Bringer]

I basically grabbed Medusa's texture folder, renamed it to SkyCastle, and put it in the Textures folder in the .pk3.

The textures point to textures/medusa* then and not textures/skycastle.

Fixable?

If so, how?

Thanks in advance.

[Thorn]

use radiants Find/replace tool

[Survivor]

I basically grabbed Medusa's texture folder, renamed it to SkyCastle, and put it in the Textures folder in the .pk3.

The textures point to textures/medusa* then and not textures/skycastle.

Fixable?

If so, how?

Thanks in advance.

rename the directory textures/skycastle back to textures/whateveritwaswhenyouweremapping and repack it.

[Survivor]

use radiants Find/replace tool

Would mean a recompile.

[Thorn]

I think he has a spare 15minutes...

[Plague Bringer]

Vis and Light take forever and end up doing nothing so all I need is a 20 second BPS-meta compile .

So, just rename the texture folder to the original name, eh?

Okay. I copied and renamed the texture folder after I finished mapping (I was using the original texture folder from the medusa pk3 while mapping), would that affect anything?

[Thorn]

Your last statement is just... so wrong...

[Plague Bringer]

o.O?

[Survivor]

Okay. I copied and renamed the texture folder after I finished mapping (I was using the original texture folder from the medusa pk3 while mapping), would that affect anything?

Yes it would, like i stated just rename it back to what it was and repackage.

[Plague Bringer]

I did it the hard way with Find/Replace, recompiled, repacked, and reuploaded.

In other words; the link's fixed

[TRaK]

The lighting is very ugly. Uniform lighting is a big no-no. You have to fix that.

The concept is pretty interesting, but I'm not sure how well it'll play. I suspect the wide-open alien base+very few places to hide+md camping+jetpack will make humans way too strong. All humans have to do is grab a jetpack and they're pretty much invincible, and they can shoot the alien base well out of range of pretty much all aliens. Nevermind that goon pounce and mara jump is very dangerous to use because of all the places they can fall off.

Also, the lack of vis separation could cause some problems, but the brushwork is simple enough that it should be livable.

[TinMan]

Based off of bubctf1?
http://lvl.sourceforge.net/lvl-ogsl.php
I used to do fastcaps on that... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-YnM3iJ9fjU
There's nowhere for aliens to hide, any space map from quake3 would need to have rooms made to cover aliens, humans would snipe for s2 and then jet-win the map.

[Plague Bringer]

I know. Vis and Light take forever and don't do anything though.

[Survivor]

don't
do
anything
?

Haha
Sorry plague but i consider you as one of the pretty smart guys on this forum but that statement makes me reconsider to degrading you to a lower league.

What are your compile switches.

[Plague Bringer]

As far as I can tell I am not going to get any shadows in this map.

I can hand it over to someone else to compile, but I either get an infinite wait on vis or an error that cancels the compile.

That's what I meant by 'don't do anything'.

When a -vis completes there's no visable difference.

[Survivor]

put up the .map. I'll take a look

[Plague Bringer]

Thanks Survivor.

I'm using GTKRadiant to compile, that's probably my mistake.

Here's the .map, anyway.

Wait; I'll PM a link.

Thiefs.

[TRaK]

Try using a skybox that simulates cloud cover. The one you're using seems to light everything uniformly.

I don't really understand much about shaders, but you could try reading this : http://tremmapping.pbwiki.com/Shader_1337_Skybox

Or just borrow one of these : http://amethyst7.gotdoofed.com/env.htm

A lot of those have simulated clouds and lighting.

[Survivor]

ok

1. no detail. This results in a lot of portals which makes the vis take a long long time. I made everything detail since your map is so open it's better to just have a single visfield and be done with it.
2. 2 light sources, the skybox used and the ambient key. Both make sure you just won't have any real shadows. Removed the ambient key and put in a copy of the fcp skybox for lighttesting.

result
compiles a lot faster. There are now also shadows. No errors encountered

Edit:

My advice is the following.
You have a nice idea, and although your current setup is a bit wank if you start anew, think the concept out and truly put some effort into making it look really nice and play with a flow which is also good for aliens you'll have a fun map.

[Plague Bringer]

Okay, so, if I make it a little bigger and add a tower in the middle, that'd make it more alien friendly becuase there's no direct line of fire to alien base, right? I can throw in some more balconies and floors to make for better hiding spots and use of the alien's vertical abilities. I can also make the seperate islands farther apart if that would help.

[Survivor]

No, the idea is good but the current execution is wank. Start anew, fresh. Don't make an entirely new map, make several small maps exploring this new gameflow you've (re)discovered. Just small maps consisting of a few jump pads, pipes between platforms, maybe add some moving trains, drawbridges. First get the execution to the ideas exactly right. And then you make the real map.

It will work out better trust me. Just pasting stuff on an existing map often makes it worse. But if you make a couple of small idea maps which you don't release and then combine those in a bigger real map it would work out better.

If I may make one hint, make a lower level onto players who fall will land. Else evoes or creds will go to waste way too fast. It doesn't need to be completely holeless, just alternate it so people also have different levels to fight and move on. It would make it way more interesting. And don't forget to make the lower part of platforms unbuildable for alien eggs.

[Lava Croft]

For someone giving out mapping 'help' to just about everybody on this forum, you sure do make craptastic maps. Please try harder, this is ridiculous.

[f0rqu3]

a quake3 map :roll:

[Plague Bringer]

For someone giving out mapping 'help' to just about everybody on this forum, you sure do make craptastic maps. Please try harder, this is ridiculous.

This was a two day map to check out the gameflow of a map using jumpads to get around. It's not a work of art and it was never intended to be. Your maps aren't too great either. atcs3 is completely human sided, and Sokolov is completely alien sided. Those maps were intended to be works of art (they certainly weren't test maps) yet they were completely unbalanced. For someone giving out mapping 'help' to just about everybody on this forum, you sure do make craptastic maps.