AEmars - Mars Base (alpha)

[AEon]

Started a new map... AEmars, using the AEcell texture set, presently still using orange in-game, may turn into a brown tone at some point. Experimenting with the textures in the set, to see what design I can come up with:

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[voodoochopstiks]

Big thumbs up! Looks very promising!

[cityy]

Looks awesome from the screenshot!
Give us something to download

[scythe]

Very cool. Looks like a fun texture set.

[Tabun]

Nice. Shouldn't that be AEstroggos? :]

[AEon]

Nice. Shouldn't that be AEstroggos? :]

Hehe... maybe ... not quite sure... presently trying to think of how the rest of the map is supposed to continue. I want to keep the map "compact", with interesting vertical action. Trouble is, you start to define certain design elements, and then have a really hard time to "invent" something new additionally.

Your textures certainly give the map that nostalgic look. The decals seem to work. The light is not red enough, working on it though. And I need a sky box... ironically the SolarAE skybox would fit this map as well. Or I could go all-out retro and use one of the default "red sky" skyboxes, IIRC there also was a orange/yellow one?

[cityy]

IIRC there also was a orange/yellow one?

Yes. Tho I'm not sure if this wouldn't be an orange overdose.

[AEon]

IIRC there also was a orange/yellow one?

• Yes. Tho I'm not sure if this wouldn't be an orange overdose.

I am presently trying out the sky from q3dm7... the "orange" textures will probably go more towards brown. So that could work:

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For a first test not too bad, but a real skybox will probably be my preference. Still using white filler lights... and I changed the way the lamp shaders use light. It used to be my red blend textures, only those are not very "red" for some reason. Now using the red color texture instead.

[cityy]

Ok, I was wrong - looks like the skybox fits the textures very well

I love the light in the upper area - these red lights look very nice in combinition with your textures. Already can't wait for a first alpha release!

[AEon]

I have a problem with the large red circle light in the upper wall (pretty much in the center of the last image posted), the orange frame is quite "orange", as if it is not being lit at all, and I am pretty sure the shader I "hacked" together is buggy:

Code: Select all

textures/aecell_sfx/aecell_light1_red
{
	qer_editorimage textures/aecell_sfx/aecell_light1_red.tga
	q3map_lightimage textures/aecell_sfx/aecell_color_red.tga
	q3map_backsplash 1 23
	q3map_lightsubdivide 128
	q3map_surfacelight 1600
	surfaceparm nodlight
	surfaceparm nomarks
	{
		map $lightmap
		rgbGen identity
	}
	{
		// Red color circle placed *behind* spider grate
		map textures/aecell_gray/aecell_light_blend_red.tga  
	}
	{
		// This texture is recolored, but has no light map it seems?
		map textures/aecell_gray/aecell_light1g.tga // Spider grate with transparency
		blendFunc GL_DST_COLOR GL_ZERO
		rgbGen const ( 0.8789062 0.500000 0.1328125 )
	}
}

Hopefully this can be fixed?

[T_Creutzenberg]

For a first test not too bad, but a real skybox will probably be my preference.

Looks intersting visually. If you go for a skybox, how about one with drawn clouds where you just see the outlines in the same color as the textures? A moving cloud layer would than be even better then a skybox.
And I know, everbody wants color variation but I think this map wap benefit from being totally monocrome. Personally I would drop the red stuff.
Oh and you might want to create some custom bots with the same texture style (basically just take the ones that are there and change the texture), but a toally different color than the level.

[fKd]

For a first test not too bad, but a real skybox will probably be my preference.

Looks intersting visually. If you go for a skybox, how about one with drawn clouds where you just see the outlines in the same color as the textures? A moving cloud layer would than be even better then a skybox.
And I know, everbody wants color variation but I think this map wap benefit from being totally monocrome. Personally I would drop the red stuff.
Oh and you might want to create some custom bots with the same texture style (basically just take the ones that are there and change the texture), but a toally different color than the level.

yes, custom bot skin's. i was thinking that the other day!

[AEon]

About the clouds... this may not be consistent, but I do not see the AEcell as a cartoon style, more like an abstracted style that "could almost" be a real texture set, but happens to be based on one color. So I'd not like to have that cartoony look in the sky, i.e. in the clouds.

About the monochrome idea: Yes, that would be kinda artistic, but we here in the forum recently had someone look for such a monochrome map, and actually found it. I thought the map was unplayable. The eyes "hate" to be forced to only one color. And I found it annoying after playing only 5 minutes. Since this texture set is centered on a recolorable set, but technically only has one color and various brightness levels of it (4 levels + black), I need some way to yet some variation into it. The red light is one option, or differently colored light. The sky is also an option to get some variation into the map. Just to give the map some "spunk" a blue sky might be something to look into.

About the bots... well... it would make them cartoony. I have no idea how difficult it would be to skin bots, never did this... a more "subtle" skin might be something to look into when most of the map is done. But it would have to be done for all the items, IMO.

I'll keep all the above in mind though.

[v1l3]

About the bots... well... it would make them cartoony. I have no idea how difficult it would be to skin bots, never did this... a more "subtle" skin might be something to look into when most of the map is done.

http://www.filefront.com/14804557/bot-razor-cartoon.zip

I pulled that bot out of l3dm4 by Lukin..he made it for the map as it's cel shaded texture-wise. It's literally a cartoon razor. I put his l3dm4 readme in the zip and also contained within the .pk3 file...plus he didn't make a .bot file for it so I made one for it. It might help you out. ...as for Lukin, I don't see him having a problem with it... just tell him I popped it up. =) I know him from the past...he ran my site at a certain point..as I website illiterate..

[AEon]

Continued mapping... it seem I'll be using Tabuns "path" textures to define the basic layout.

v1l3,
looked at the bot file... helps to have a working example, thanks. But I'd not want to go into that direction - reminds me of the "cheap" US comics. But since the bot skins seem to be just textures, turning them into something else - i.e. abstracting their design - should be possible. This will probably all go into a separate aemars_bots.pk3 (or "skins") file, to let folks remove new bots/skins if they prefer the original ones.

Update: Was bored and added a few screenshots. Exploring possible "windows" and paths based on what the present geometry may yield:

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[Hipshot]

This looks pretty cool!
Too bad the sky and the "regular" template wall texture destroys it a bit =)

[Silicone_Milk]

I actually really like this sky with the map.

Lookin' sweet Aeon.

[AEon]

Too bad the sky and the "regular" template wall texture destroys it a bit =)

Well the template wall texture is pretty much a template - if you get my meaning - until I discover a better texture for it. The sky is not set yet, it's OK for now IMO. The lighting it emits works well enough to light the map.

Glad you are among us again, thought we had lost you to the real world.

[v1l3]

The map looks very Very cool...but, I've never been able to get into animated/or Cel styled texture maps. Those kind of textures feel really unrealistic, though this texture pak that you've made is the best I've seen done in that style. You have skills in that way, and also with what you've done in your other maps. I'm not trying to be an ass though, just an opinion. =/ This map would be very cool with the eX or EQ2 textures..

[AEon]

Well I'd first have to get something like a map done... since the textures are all based off "real ones", it might be interesting use the real textures as a test to see how the map actually would look with those.

[AEon]

Alas, the first main room seems to work per se, but what to do with the rest of the map. Started to experiment with "new rooms", where I start from scratch trying to come up with other designs:

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While creating the new room, with the walkways as a "pathing device", I noted that they were all floating above the floor, so I added some lava as a test.

Main room now has boxes, and tubes (bottom left image). The decals are working really well. Hopefully something will come off these experiments.

[monaster]

How's it going with your "experiments"?

[AEon]

Hehe... after a few weeks I always have trouble reminding myself that I actually did the above.

Presently working to get AEdm7 done... though that seems to take at least another month - will "try" to get back to AEmars after that. Also need to finish the AEcell Mars'ish textures for that map and "experiment" with those.

[AEon]

Looking at these really old screenshots, reminds me of Quake II and a single player campain, not really a multiplayer map... strange. Might be the reason I never could get the "rooms" into one comprehensive DM map.

[Eraser]

Convert and expand it into an EntityPlus map I say