I've made a few videos for thos of you who can't check the map by themselves. They were recorded on an old machine (Vista doesn't like my soundcard), hence the dramatically low frame rate in some parts....
If you're going to play the level than better don't watch these.
Intro + a couple of minutes of game play
The tacticals
Boss
pjw wrote:Finally got around to giving this a look, and it kicks a great deal of ass for three weeks of work! I'm seriously impressed that you got this finished in that sort of timeframe.
Thanks a lot. I was sceptical about this map (due to this short time frame and that this was my first attempt to make a solid sp level) so opinions like this really means a lot.
Observations/Suggestions:
1) Yeah, the boss is too hard and frustrating.[...]
It turned out (on the video) that killing the boss takes me more than 30 seconds (although I missed 3/4 shots thanks to low fps). Ooops
Flying on the rockets doesn't mean instant death though
Most probably I won't be fixing this map anymore but I'll definately keep in mind these suggestions and try to make my next sp project(s) better balanced.
2. The snowy atmosphere was very well done. It would have been nice to have slightly less blocky terrain, but it was still quite cool. I wouldn't have minded more fighting outside...
At one point the terrain has twice more polys - unfortunately I couldn't keep it because of a performance. I could raise the fps counter in a different way probably but I wanted to avoid "fake outdoor scenes" where you see the montains, but move only in a trenches, etc.
3. The lights-out sequence with the tacticals was AWESOME and my favorite part of the level.
When he kicked the panel and the lights went out...yeah! Nicely done! (Although, if you move slowly down the pipe onto the floor, you can get stuck between the pipe and the floor and you need to noclip. :icon26: )
Yeah, that's is the moment I am proud of. I had a lot of other fun ideas for the map, but since I was in a hurry and really didn't know what can be done and what can't (and how much time it takes) I had to save these concepts for later. After all I was quite stunned by the engine possibilites and how most of things are easy to implement. Also, after this experience I'm kind of wary to what new technology brings - I mean things like Unreal Kismet instead of standard scripting, etc.
All in all, just very cool. I wish more people would make fun SP stuff like this.
Yeah, I wish the same and I am glad to see that the single player part of "Q4" mapping is starting to grow (Method and g0th-). I dare to say it's easier and more pleasurable to make a single player map than for a mp mode, so I urge anyone to try it. Just remember to put yourself a deadline - otherwise you will be polishing every single room and adding more and more stuff forever.
30 sec of constant machinegun fire and he's gone.