Platform_021

[Mexel]

With a crap-load of help from Special people here i was able to get things working the way i wanted.

//This map IS a WORK IN PROGRESS.
//I figured out why my textures weren't showing up. (Fixed)
//Took about a total of 3 days worth of hours.
//Special thanks to the following;
Plague bringer,
Lava Croft,
Survivor,
And Gareth.

All your help was GREATLY appreciated. You may now have this dup-truck-load of cookies.  

--EDIT--

beta 3 : map-Platform_021b3.pk3


Suggestions. comments, and things alike encouraged.  

[Steely Ann]

Stop abusing those poor slashies.  They're for post-statements and side-comments, damnit.

Poor, helpless slashies. :cry:

[Plague Bringer]

I'll d/l now and test 'er out for ya.

May I suggest some screenies?

By 3 days worth of hours, do you mean 72 hours, or mapping for three days.


---------------------------
Okay, just did a quick runthrough, I've got some C&C.

The bases are far too bright, the center area and front hallways are good, but the bases themselves are too bright.

I do, however, really like the red lights in the bases, very nice touch.

I see your base is heavily based on ATCS. I'd like to see how they function with only one route to and from the enemy base.

About that one route thing, having only one doorway to attack/defend makes games generally turn out to be long campfests, atleast for the humans. Humans in the window room of Niveus, for example. It's far too easy to defend. Perhaps you should think about adding a side hall or vent system, similar to ATCS or ATCS Zone.

[TRaK]

- Only one entrance to the bases/only one route between bases.
- Bases are very very similar to ATCS's.
- The red circles created by the lights in the bases are ugly. Tone them down a bit.
- Bases are too bright.
- The ladders are a bit on the chunky side.


Fairly decent for a beginner map, brushwork is fairly good and texturing is ok too. However, it needs a bunch more work.

Keep it up .

[Mexel]

- Only one entrance to the bases/only one route between bases.
- Bases are very very similar to ATCS's.
- The red circles created by the lights in the bases are ugly. Tone them down a bit.
- Bases are too bright.
- The ladders are a bit on the chunky side.


Fairly decent for a beginner map, brushwork is fairly good and texturing is ok too. However, it needs a bunch more work.

Keep it up .

Thaks TRaK. Well i wanted an ATCS theme/ size map. and my previous one were way TOO huge. So for reference to height i use the OM, helps alot.

the ladders ar getting toned down. and the lighting is DEF. going to be darkned. As for the rooms, i'm adding more soon.

And Plague, about 72 hours +

[Plague Bringer]

Okay, good. If it was just a few hours for three days, well... let's just say you shouldn't release a 12 hour map. Good to hear you put more work into it then 12 hours, though. The map's got room to grow, and it's far from it's potential. Keep up the good work.

ps. I like your levelshot, did you ever think of making "Platform_021" and "Mexel" textures?

[Mexel]

Okay, good. If it was just a few hours for three days, well... let's just say you shouldn't release a 12 hour map. Good to hear you put more work into it then 12 hours, though. The map's got room to grow, and it's far from it's potential. Keep up the good work.

ps. I like your levelshot, did you ever think of making "Platform_021" and "Mexel" textures?

textures? i'd like to, but my GIMP skills are limited to Sigs, and Wallpapers. If i knew how to make them, you could bet as sure as the sun rises, i'd make them.

[tuple]

This is up on the MG map repo here

[Plague Bringer]

Okay, good. If it was just a few hours for three days, well... let's just say you shouldn't release a 12 hour map. Good to hear you put more work into it then 12 hours, though. The map's got room to grow, and it's far from it's potential. Keep up the good work.

ps. I like your levelshot, did you ever think of making "Platform_021" and "Mexel" textures?

textures? i'd like to, but my GIMP skills are limited to Sigs, and Wallpapers. If i knew how to make them, you could bet as sure as the sun rises, i'd make them.

It's a fairly easy task, lemme grab a Wiki (I haven't done it for a while, so I don't know offhand).

Creating Textures
Any combination of graphic programs and plug-ins that can output a 24 bit MS windows compatible Targa (.tga) or JPEG (.jpg) graphic file. If you plan to make textures that will have an alpha channel component (see glossary for definition), you must have a program that can create 32-bit art with that fourth channel.

Adobe PhotoShop has the ability to easily create alpha channels. Paint Shop Pro from JASC (v5.0+) can also make an alpha channel by creating a mask and naming it “alpha”.

Generally speaking, regardless of the program used, we found it best to do most of the art manipulation of the alpha channel in a separate layer or file and then paste it into the alpha channel before saving.

Setting up Files
The editor and the game program look for assets to be located along the paths set up in your project file. Start by creating a directory for you new textures by creating file folders to make a directory path as follows: tremulous\base\textures\[mymapname]

Running GtkRadiant for the first time will generate a text document called “shaderlist.txt” in the following path:

tremulous\base\scripts\shaderlist.txt
GtkRadiant will use the contents of this script to grab your new textures for inclusion in the game. The contents of shaderlist.txt document will initially contain a listing of all the shader documents that were used by Timbo to create Tremulous.

Since you will obviously want to create your own shaders, you need to put them in separate folders and create a new shader script for them.

If you plan to work on several maps at once and want to distinguish between textures used in each map, simply add additional map names here. For map and mod makers, we STRONGLY recommend that any new shader scripts created use the name of the map or mod in the shader file name. We know we can’t avoid every incident of files overwriting each other, but we certainly can advise you how to try.

Now, create another text file within the scripts directory and call it:

[mymapname].shader
This file will contain the shader scripts you write to modify a particular texture.

Rules
Follow these rules when creating textures for the Quake III Arena engine:

Save your textures into your new

[map name] directories.
Don’t use the same names that id used for textures. It will cause problems.
For best quality, save textures without an alpha channel as 24 bit TARGA files. Using JPEG files can save memory space, but at the risk of losing detail and depth in the texture. JPEG files cannot be used for textures requiring an alpha channel.
Textures containing an alpha channel must be saved as 32 bit TARGA files.
If a new texture requires no further manipulation, it does not need a shader script.
Size textures in powers of 2. Example: 8x8, 16x16, 32x32, 64x64 pixels and so on.
Textures don’t need to be square. A 32x256-pixel texture is perfectly acceptable.[/list]

Guidelines
The following are some things the id designers learned about textures.

Create textures in “suites” built around one or two large textures with a number of much smaller supporting detail or accent textures.
Very large textures are possible, but some video cards compress textures larger than 256x256 pixels.
Textures are grouped alphabetically by name in the texture display window, so you may want to give suites of textures similar names.
Use the shader function qe3_editorimage to conserve memory when making multiple versions of a single texture (as in the case of a glowing texture with several light values).
Unless you are creating special effects or textures designed to draw the player’s eye to a specific spot, muted, middle value colors work best with the game engine.
Extremely busy (a lot of fussy detail) textures can break up or form visually unpleasant patterns when seen at distances.

[Mexel]

Tuple, thank you. i'm just happy that people are ACTUALLY playing something I made.  :eek:

Plague, i do know how to add that alpha channel, and where said custom textures go. But i would like to make like original textures from scratch. And I'd love to find a tut on making blood in Gimp. i have a couple sets of splatter brushes, but getting the color/ textre right is a lil' hard. Making other things are easy. i think i'll add some "mextures" to this map.  

"Mextures" is Copyrighted and patented in... well... EVERYWHERE!

[Taiyo.uk]

Dear Mexel,

On behalf of Taiyo.uk we must inform you that the "mextures" that you are using in your map are a most blatant violation of Taiyo.uk's intellectual property rights; see his patent for "A method of creating new words by replacing T or t with M or m", a system also covered by another, more general patent of his titled "Replacing one letter with another".

We hereby must insist that you cease and desist in pursuing the use and development of this so-called "mexture" technology, otherwise we shall have no choice but to take legal action.

Yours,
-The Taiyo.uk Legal Defense Council

[Mexel]

but, but, but.

if i'm not rebellious who is? o.O


MEXTURES


FTW

 :eek:  

[Taiyo.uk]

Ok, I'll let you off this time, but only under one condition: You make this map really, REALLY l33t.

- Only one entrance to the bases/only one route between bases.
- Bases are very very similar to ATCS's.
- The red circles created by the lights in the bases are ugly. Tone them down a bit.
- Bases are too bright.
- The ladders are a bit on the chunky side.

+1 to all that.

Also use nodraw on all non-outward facing sides of the glass brushes to stop the areas where you can see through two or more glass surfaces from looking too bright.

Keep it up!

[Mexel]

Platform_021 BETA 02 is here.

i fixed a few things, and added some more stuffs
... dimed some lights
... added some elevators
... added a room "basement"
... aded player locations and ambient sound.

check it out. Platform_021.pk3

[TinMan]

Looking good, some comments:

The button looks weird when it's pushed in, the middle disappears.


For how bright this room is it's odd that these short walls look almost pitch black.

The default human base looks a lot better than the default alien base as far as structures, is it the same ammount of bp used or how did you decide that? I'd say that alien base could use some more acid on the ramps or something since turret range is better than acid range.

[Plague Bringer]

Oh, yeah, that's one thing I forgot to mention. The default Human base seems way too strong, while the alien base is, well, shit.

[Mexel]

Looking good, some comments:

The button looks weird when it's pushed in, the middle disappears.

For how bright this room is it's odd that these short walls look almost pitch black.

The default human base looks a lot better than the default alien base as far as structures, is it the same ammount of bp used or how did you decide that? I'd say that alien base could use some more acid on the ramps or something since turret range is better than acid range.

insufficent lighting in that room. next build will be bettar XD

and the BP is. well. no idea, just put a bunch of shit anywhere and called it a day. lawl.

[Mexel]

Beta 3 is here ....

Thoug i have some problems. In spec cam if you hit the ele right you get launched outta game into the void.

second problem is this. if i build near the elevators they glitch and get stuck going up and down really fast. i've tried "nobuild" texture, but it didn't work. Is there another way to block a player brom building arround said place?


map-Platform_021b3.pk3

[Taiyo.uk]

IIRC Structures need to be entirely inside a nobuild brush to prevent them from being built, and not just on a nobuild surface.

Alternately you can make the elevators destroy buildables:

If the elevators are func_trains then they should destroy all buildables that block them provided that the block_stops spawnflag is cleared.

If it's a func_door then set the crusher spawnflag and specify a value for the dmg key to make the door destroy all buildables that block it. They will inflict the value specified in dmg each time they hit a buildable or player. Set this to a large value (9999) for instant destruction.

The spec cam bug suggests that the elevators are func_doors. Specs are automatically teleported through doors. You can either leave sufficient clearance around the elevators to allow for this or use func_train or func_plat for the elevators.

[Mexel]

If someone could add this map to the MG download site i'd greatly appreciate it (*******PLEASE REMOVE THE OLD "Platform_021.pk3******)


map-Platform_021b3.pk3

Thanks, Mexel.

[David]

If someone could add this map to the MG download site i'd greatly appreciate it

Done. http://downloads.mercenariesguild.net/map-Platform_021b3.pk3