Alas I seem to require CPMA to play the feedback demo. One of the reasons demos are not my preferred way for feedback.
What version of the mod would I need, and where would I get it?
Edit: Downloading the 123 MB v1.32 of CPMA... via ISDN... sigh.
Sorry about that, but demos really are a better medium for feedback IMO. Words alone are hard to explain things with. And while pictures are worth a thousand words, demos are worth a thousand pictures. (or something like that)
Also, what with all the ramps and such in your map I guess I had just assumed it was a CPMA map.
Experimenting with the spider web design (that is Alien Organo-Tech invading the map) and glow lighting... should make the walls less boring, plus give the map that eery feeling.
Current glow patches too bright, will probably tone them down.
Changes since Beta 3
Added more spider webs as wall decorations. (Foo)
The acceleration pads now have a new shader / texture.
Fixed that one sparklie
Last edited by AEon on Wed Jun 21, 2006 11:49 am, edited 1 time in total.
Posting the things I was able to understand from the demos, so that everyone can comment:
wviperw vs. Foo Demo
I must admit that really was interesting, and wow would you guys kick my butt in that map. Some observations from the game:
Pardon my saying this, but CPMA seems like a kiddie game when it comes to strafing and air control. Moves that are very hard to pull off or impossible suddenly are possible. None the less insane how you guys move.
The 2 APs let you get almost anywhere in the game. AP near MH lets you left jump into the GL room. AP from RA room, lets you left jump to the MH... uncanny.
Overall the ramps seem to work quite well for players with skill and playing CPMA, at least more so than in Vanilla Q3A.
The RA seems to be a very important camp area.
The central pad, makes some interesting gameplay possible. Not only that you can grab the YA with air control, but you can also hide under the pad (e.g. the 50H area).
The rounded corridors really let you get fast, with the strafe skill that is. Neat.
I like the one time where Foo was standing at the top edge of the JP, and firing over to the RA area. As if I had done that design decision on purpose
Gameplay suggestions by wviperw:
- The glow line near the bottom of the JP "sector" marks how far the cushion extends BTW .
- BTW, the GL TP destination lets you strafe left, to avoid the AP across the arena to the upper RL.
50H in center of ramps near walls seem random, suggestion to place health into corners not in paths. AEon: The 50H near the LG is weird, because that one used to be on the floor. The other cases are more like attraction points to make the bots use those areas. E.g. the 50H at foot of JP motivates me to use the JP.
SG ammo near SG, move ammo away from SG. AEon: Will do that.
RG ammo could be superfluous. AEon: Not sure, but you may be right.
2x YA could be too much, or at least YA on central arena pad is not so good. AEon: Swapping the MH with the central arena pad YA sounds interesting. Will try that.
Swap 5H near the YA (near RL) with shards as sound cue. AEon: Will do that. Hmmm... shards and YA in same area...
TP destination in RA room is too far above ground. AEon: Lowering it.
A few ceilings, e.g. near the RL YA and the RL and GL pits to the TPs have a ceiling that is too low. AEon: For the GL TP I could ramp down one circle segment earlier, much like I did for the LG / MH ledge. Will simply place the RA TP ceiling higher up, to avoid head bumping.
Not sure about the RL in front of TP in RA room. AEon: No idea myself, any suggestions welcome.
Add 25H. AEon: Thinking about this.
Design suggestions by wviperw:
Stripes on the central pad area could be used on plain walls maybe. AEon: The stripes on the central pad area I added to avoid a lighting problem on a one-texture surface. But that design might be interesting otherwise. Will think about it.
The spider web thing in sky could be removed. AEon: It's more like an experiment. I'll keep it for beta 4, if it starts getting annoying I'll remove it again.
There are weird shadows on all the ramp edges. AEon: Alas I have no idea how to fix those.
TP models don't fit map use a simpler model or patches. AEon: Good idea, would also save some polygons.
Glow stripe near the JP floor, use those more. AEon: Not sure but adding a few may be nice.
Hmm, what problem would that be addressing AEon? It does seem to be a good idea regardless... although I think you should keep those boxes there still.
Toned down the spider web design (that is Alien Organo-Tech invading the map) on the walls and added floor stripes to mark beginning and end of ramps.
a) RA room with "floor stripes", TP ceiling higher up. b) TP model replaced with abstract patch design. c) Former MH area, larger, with YA and AP shader. d) GL TP ceiling also higher up. e) Arena view, webs on walls "less glowing". f) Rounded off boxes in map for now
Changes since r82 (wviperw's suggestions mostly)
Spread out the 50H via 25H, placing them more into corners not on paths.
SG ammo near SG, move ammo away from SG.
Swapping the MH with the central arena pad YA.
Opened up the AP3 area (GL TP destination), YA on box now.
Swap 5H near the YA (near RL) with shards as sound cue.
Fixed all TP destinations to not be too far above ground.
Made ceiling higher for RA TP and GL TP, plus between upper RL and YA. A "double-jumping" player should no longer bump his head.
Top and bottom of every ramp now has a glow stripe as visual marker.
Created a more abstract TP replacing the default TP model.
wviperw,
the extra room in c) solves the problem of the GL TP destination. You no longer get dropped on the AP. I kept the boxes as "way up". A ramp would be more consistent, but the boxes IMO look nicer and require more skill
Other than that all your suggestions should be in the map now. AFAICT this indeed improves the map even more. The MH in the central arena works nicely.
Last edited by AEon on Wed Jun 21, 2006 11:50 am, edited 1 time in total.
Salinga,
ages since I last played Elite Force, I actually had a nice CTF going for it, but then clan then never sent me feedback. It was the default Klingon map, enlarged with more paths... I was in the process of using MiriX to mirror the map. Sigh...
Hipshot,
it would help if you defined "style"... you probably mean the orange spider web thingies? I am trying to use a toned down shader for the wall things, just to see if that helps. Maybe I will need to remove all the spider web stuff...
I would have loved to make the Quad FFA only, and remove it in Tourney. Alas there does not seem any way to differ between FFA and Tourney...
At some point I will need to decide what this map is supposed to be primarily Tourney or fun FFA. Should it indeed be Tourney, the Quad will have to go... maybe move one of the YA where the Quad is instead or health.
"Alas there does not seem any way to differ between FFA and Tourney... "
Err... IIRC you can do so by flagging the entity. Don't remember the exact command.
Regarding the spide web thingies: I personally don't like the style of them. They just don't seem to match the rest of the map in terms of clean, straight lines. But you're the designer so who am I to say these things.
I'll try to take a look at the new version later tonight. But AEon, you need to *slow* down a bit. :P No need to release a new version every 4 posts while us peons are still trying to catch a breath from the previous version.
wviperw,
the new beta 4 is not out yet ... I'm still waiting for some more inspiration...
If someone could point out the flag for tourney only, I'd be obliged, I checked in GTkradiant 1.2.13 - looking up the info in thehelp files for entities. Nothing doing there.
Oh, I was confused. I thought your updates with the new screenshots also included download links. What exactly is your number system? For example, your latest update is r88? What does that mean?
EDIT: Regarding the tourny-only flag, maybe I was thinking of the team/dm flags, but I could've sworn there was something for tourney. It either came in a Q3 patch (the Q3TA one possibly) or maybe it is CPMA-specific. I don't know, maybe I'm getting delusional.
Thanx pjw... using this key on the quad right away
wviperw, r88 is revision 88. I save the map into a new file name every few larger changes, so that in one mapping session that number can go up by 10 or more (i.e. 10 seperate saves). I use the revision numbers to help me give the images proper names and also as reference what I had done in what version.
It's one of the 2-3 maps I never really finished. The map was pretty much done in layout, and I was playing around with a few things, but I felt it was still missing something... probably detail .
Whenever I could work on maps, I let myself get detracted by something else. Sigh... neat to see the images again. Since my web site went down so did all the screenshots (though I still have them all).
Cannot believe this is 8 years in the past... felt more like not mapping for 3-4 years.
(or something like that)
