UPDATE! [Q3A] [2-4 FFA Tourney] oildm1 [BETA5]

[voodoochopstiks]

dichtfux: we usually refer to that as a Green Armor, or GA, seeing as how we don't call YA Combat Armor or the like, just FYI, sorry to go offtopic

[dichtfux]

Hehe, sorry for the confusion then. People I play with happen to call it JA, but that's because I play with friends on our server, and most of these guys happen to be mappers. Someone started calling it JA and this simply spread throughout our small server community it seems. I call it JA in in-game team messages, the readmes of my maps and forum posts, never thought about that. I'll try to adapt, at least for the latter.

[boilingoil]

Where can I get this entity list? I tried to use google and I even looked on the Promode Discussion board, but alas, I have found nothing

Google brings me endless results about the Concrete Pump Makers Association.

[dichtfux]

I've had it once, but can't find it anywhere just like you.

You can simply place a YA and edit the entity name in the entity editor. Change it from 'item_armor_combat' to 'item_armor_jacket'.

Only a green cube will show up in Radiant, but it works in-game.

[boilingoil]

Cool. I found out that's the only entity that's new.

[DTS]

Above the RA, opposite (to the left of) the teleporter there's a bit that looks looks like you can walk on it but you can't. I don't like bits like that in maps. Also those bits seem to prevent you from plasma climbing across the gap.

Some areas are a bit dark so you can't see where the floor meets the wall.

[DTS]

I've been playing it in OSP CQ3 mode and it needs more armour, cause you only start with 100 health in that. You'd probably have the same problem in CPMA, though they keep changing the weapon damage in that so I don't know.

[boilingoil]

Ah, plasma climbing. That's what I like to hear.

This map has overgone a major overhaul since my last post. Some architectural, mostly cosmetic.
4 more days and i'll have some screeny goodness of the new beta.

In october I plan on starting a new map (maybe even completing it), so i'm going to start wrapping this one up after beta 6. Hopefully.

[DTS]

The map needs more lighting throughout. Some areas are especially dark. Some areas are too dark to see the structure.

This part of the map for example, which leads down to the bouncepad, the r_gamma is 1.45 (as shown in the screenshot)


The steps up to the Red Armour are simmilarly invisible.


You can forget what I said about CQ3 and CPMA before, I don't play CQ3 any more cause the MH timing is too in favour of the person who picked it up.

I read in this thread that someone sugggested more armour, though. Maybe it still could do with some more armour. (The 125 health only lasts 25 seconds before it goes down to 100.) I don't know really cause I haven't played it much in VQ3 yet. I'll play it now, I just wanted to post about the darkness first.

Edit: I played it in VQ3 and it doesn't seem to need any more armour, though there isn't really anywhere to put it (no space!). One armour and a MH seems a bit sparse, though. Well there is one space that could fit an armour but that seems quite nice empty.

It's a fun map but not one I'd want to play all the time cause running for the RA can become boring; it realy could do with another armour. - Alright I'm contradciting myself - It doesn't need more armour, just it would be more interesting, less boring, with another armour to balance things out a bit. I mean another armour to go for when you can't get the RA. The MH kind of acts as another armour but that's not really the same cause it's health not armour.

About the lighting. You have those strip lights in there (as textures), but you haven't really used them (as lights). You've put individual lights in the corners of them, but you need lights all along them. With those strip lights the place should be lit up all along where those lights are.

I don't know how many lights you'd need to put or anything, cause I'm not a mapper myself (yet ).

Edit2: The area where I said was empty was the SG area, my mistake, I didn't notice the SG was there, or the SG spawnpoint was there, a few times I was flying through there. An armour could go there, though, near the SG, like in ztn3tourney1 where there's a YA near the PG.

What I noticed just now, though (I might have noticed it before but forgot), is the SG spawnpoint is lit up from nowhere. There's no light texture anywhere just light shining on the SG spawnpoint from nowhere. A spot light.

You've got the same thing in the RL room with the RL lit up like that and two areas either side of it lit up from nowhere aswell.

You really need to tie the lighting in with the textures, like that it just looks amateurish.

Also the shadows from the sun by the MH and steps have aliasing (like steps) to them. I've seen this in maps before, but I've also seen maps that have avoided this, with smooth diagonal shadows.

I think you need to "bake" the map to prevent the shadows from having aliasing. I don't know.

There must be a way to prevent it from the shadows from aliasing, though, cause I've seen maps with the smooth diagonal shadows. In fact I've seen maps, and I think it was those same maps, with smooth, quite impressive, shadows.

Edit3: I've found out (from Obsidian) that it's not "baking" that does it; it's higher resolution lightmaps and lightmap filtering. Higher resolution lightmaps alone will only create smaller zig-zags, the lightmap filtering blurs it.

[boilingoil]

Wow man thanks! That's like the most feedback I've ever got at one time!

Yeah I really need to fix the lighting. It's way too dark.

I have added a green armor for cpma play. I've also done a bit more with the architecture and made it slightly more complex. I did it to make the lighting more realistic. I'm still working on the sky. I found a thread about sky shaders and how they make them look really smooth. The textures are boring me now, I plan on doing a complete texture set for this map. Something kinda future/industrial/science-y.

SOON! No screenshots yet, but it's worth the wait trust me.

[DTS]

How much longer?