Release: Ancient - The Reformatting Temple

[Plague Bringer]

In response to my own rant, I've created "Ancient".

Ancient is inspired by the Egyptian style works of Gareth and DASPRiD, along with the movie: Alien vs Predator. Ancient is a small map, with but a handful of rooms and hallways, it's true glory comes from the reconfiguration that occurs every five minutes. Doors will open and close and statues will move to reveal hidden doors and halls. Some you may have never known were there.

Testeth meh.

I suppose I could bless you all with a levelshot..

[TRaK]

Several things :

- I wasn't able to /devmap it. I had the filename right, but it wouldn't appear in the map list (/devamp tab tab). I had to unzip the whole thing into my base folder to get it to appear, then it gave me a jpeg error that was solved by deleting the levelshot.
- The architecture is very very minimalistic. Too sparse and empty.
- There are several texture cut-offs, particularly in the floors, where some trim could look good.
- The human base only has one entrance at the start of the game. I don't think that that is a good idea because it tends to give humans an unfair advantage in the critical first 5 minutes of the game.
- Human base in one of the underground rooms only accesible to maras or lower = guaranteed awful game. I managed to fit rc, arm, medi, node, and 3 rets into one of those little rooms with 2 vents leading out.
- The hallway that opens up near alien base has an unlit floor.
- I suggest clipping those pedestal things you have in the main rooms (2 with scarabs on them and 2 with skeletons), because walking onto them creates a "ramp bump" that makes you lose control of movement for a little bit. It feels unrealistic and it's kind of annoying.
- The vents in the basement should be large enough to fit regular goons at the very least, for various reasons.

Aside from that, this map has a cool concept that is definitely worth exploring further. Hope I didn't come across as too harsh, they're just suggestions

[Plague Bringer]

Harsh? Not at all. I welcome suggestions and criticism.

I'll start working on the majority of those suggestions right away.

I had the same problem with devmapping, and the levelshot. I tried replacing the defective levelshot, I suppose it didn't work.

[jr2]

Hmm, try deleting the level shot, then re-creating it, instead of overwriting it (if that's what you did).. if it's the exact same shot, I've hear some OSes simply say they've overwritten the file, when they really haven't.  Not sure if this still holds true with any of the modern OSes, but it can't hurt to be sure.

EDIT: oh, and .pk3s are .zip files with compression level set at 0 (store) and then renamed to .pk3, or so I've heard.  Did you accidentally turn compression on?  Or would that even cause the problem?  Also, about the level shot, perhaps it is caused by an unsupported .jpg type, such as progressive .jpg?  Or are they all universally supported?  IDK.

[kaziorvb]

levelshot troubles may be also caused by too big dimensions IIRC

[TRaK]

EDIT: oh, and .pk3s are .zip files with compression level set at 0 (store) and then renamed to .pk3, or so I've heard.  Did you accidentally turn compression on? 

I've always used compression on my pk3's, and they seem to work.

[Odin]

jr2: I use compression level 9 on my PK3's.

[n.o.s.brain]

this program might help for packing: PakScape
oh, and here is a fixed pk3 for ya, with the levelshot working: http://imn2rc.com/base/map-ancient_b1.pk3 (just incase someone doesnt want to fix it themself)

[Plague Bringer]

Thanks a lot, Brain!

For some reason, compiling with any settings whatsoever in GTK-Radiant's build menu will result in a fullbright map. Compiling with Q3Map2Toolz is not an option as it results in a map with severe texture scaling problems, and a solid "nobuild" brush.

[Thorn]

Eh? GTK-Radiants build menu IS Q3map2 with a set of params. eg - -vis -light -super2

[jr2]

jr2: I use compression level 9 on my PK3's.

O.o

Umm, what program do you use?  .zip compression is AFAIK divided into:

Store
Fastest
Fast
Normal
Maximum
Ultra

(Using 7-zip .zip compression)

[Odin]

First I make a directory structure of my map I'm making(like this: base/maps/map-whatever/), and symlink the specific directories to the main base/ directory(like this: base/maps/map-whatever/textures/whatever -> base/textures/whatever).
Then I enter the map directory:

Code: [Select]

cd base/maps/map-whatever/Then I zip it up:

Code: [Select]

zip -r -9 map-whatever.pk3 *Simple.

[jr2]

Hmm... yeah, I think I remember the old pkzip util having 0-9 now that you mention it.  Odd.  Wonder why the GUI versions don't.

[Odin]

Because I'm using Linux.

[ShadowNinjaDudeMan]

This concept makes me moist.

[Lava Croft]

The only thing a high compression on PK3's does is increase the loading time.

Here we go:

I have to unpack the PK3 to be even able to look at the map in-game.
The textures are not neatly stuck into their own directory named after the map, they are still in the same folders where Sominoc put them. I thought it was clear by now that textures belong in a directory named after the map.
There is no use of shaders of any kind, at least, the map comes without any.
After unpacking the map and setting sv_pure 0, trying to load the map results in:

Code: [Select]

----- Server Shutdown (Server fatal crashed: Not a JPEG file: starts with 0x00 0x00
What can I say...

Failure