[FINAL] Derwyll's Castle 2 - MANY THANKS

[monaster]

Oh man, I just realised that you had another version of your great map up! Downloading now and soon giving feedback, because I still think that this project will result in one of the best maps for Q3A. So there ARE people left supporting your idea and perhaps I can think of something to fill up that empty area, too.
Note: You should probably give a short explanation of how to use your czech download site, personally I had no problems with it, but there might be others...

[Noruen]

Monaster - thanks And maybe you are true...

For downloaders - on the top of the page is US flag which will switch whole page into english. Then, roll down into free download box (i do not suppose that you have premium account), write the distorted text into box and press "free download".

I will look for your creative posts in monday, but now I wish you sunny weekend

[monaster]

Sunny weekend? In my area? But thanks though, wish you the same.

[Noruen]

Yes, sunny I'm sunburnt, tired, sweaty and my room can't be ventilated because there is no wind

And no responds here... sad... so sad.

[fKd]

sorry dude, i have very little time these days. dont get down about the lack of feedback, just keep on moving forward. gl

[sumatra]

Allright. New testing version is out

...

Try to play with bots, try to post here your ideas I will be grateful for it

Link: http://qxypug.blu.livefilestore.com/y1p ... 3?download

Would really like to test the new version, but it seems the download link is broken?

[Noruen]

No, here:DOWNLOAD is the new version

[monaster]

Yes, sunny I'm sunburnt, tired, sweaty and my room can't be ventilated because there is no wind

And no responds here... sad... so sad.

Screenshots are done already just no access to my webhost to upload them yet. I'll try again tomorrow, sorry.

[Noruen]

Hey, what is it? Is this topic invisible? In every topic are many posts, but not here. What about this: If ou are not interested in my map anymore, write it here and I will stop posting, but what should I think about this silence?

Link for new alphaversion is HERE

[Anthem]

Hey, what is it? Is this topic invisible? In every topic are many posts, but not here. What about this: If ou are not interested in my map anymore, write it here and I will stop posting, but what should I think about this silence?

Link for new alphaversion is HERE

Don't take it so harshly. I am sure I speak for several of us when I say we are intrigued by this map. However, it is a fairly different map and therefore it will not receive as much feedback. Don't be discouraged, we are all watching. You have done well so far, so trust yourself and do what you think is right.

[Pat Howard]

Hey, what is it? Is this topic invisible? In every topic are many posts, but not here. What about this: If ou are not interested in my map anymore, write it here and I will stop posting, but what should I think about this silence?

Link for new alphaversion is HERE

I agree with what Anthem said. Also, I should add that your "invisible" thread actually has 60 replies in total. That's more than most maps get these days.

I think another factor we might be seeing here is the massive number of new versions you have posted over the months. I've said before and I'll say again how impressed I am with your dedication to this map. The problem is that you can't expect your testers to have as much dedication as you do. Giving good feedback takes a fair amount of time and effort, and after a while, if people are not seeing significant progress with an end in sight, they often get bored and move on to the newer stuff that's coming out. This is probably why you feel like people are posting in other topics but avoiding yours.

Anyway, that aside, I will try to give you one last round of suggestions within the next day or two. After that, I think you should wrap this one up and send it off to lvlworld. The map looks stunning as is and I think it's going to play quite well too. You've poured a ton of effort into this development process and now we want to see what else you can do!

I'll get back to ya' soon,
-pat

[Anthem]

One is able to walk through some rocks on the lower level just under the bridge that leads to the flag area (that previously had holes in it). There is also a dark dip between two mountain areas that is able to be walked into and then the player is trapped. Fix those and I would say it's good to go!

I didn't see another flag, though. Maybe I am missing something. o.o

[obsidian]

I didn't see another flag, though. Maybe I am missing something. o.o

You may have loaded it in single player mode if you just typed "/map"

[Noruen]

I know, but I have always realized definitely different version of the map. Alpha, which I released because of aesthetic reasons few days before is very different than previously released version.

But ok, next version I will send to lvlworld as final.

[monaster]

I didn't see another flag, though. Maybe I am missing something. o.o

You may have loaded it in single player mode if you just typed "/map"

@obsidian: If you got that working you're god, because there's simply no other flag in this map as Anthem pointed out.

And now for my feedback, here you go, Noruen:

Ok this is going to be a bit long, but whatever the map's worth it!
You might think sometimes reading my suggestions "What the fuck was this guy thinking/smoking?" but that goes ok for me, I've spent so much time in your map that I HAD to come across these "errors", if you want to take care of them all is your very own decision

General stuff:
I like your earlier version slightly more than the new one for its better more atmospheric lighting (but that's something that can be done in the final version anyway), it's "backyard section" with the regen powerup and the stone bridge with the floating parts in the middle of it. If you don't wanna change anything of these back to its former state, then consider adding the stone dome in the big ruin again, this one looked great. As for the now empty part -the old backyard section- I haven't come across any great idea beside reinstalling it like in the first alpha or building a huge pile of stones originating from the collapsed bridge. OR use it as the entrance/exit to a somewhat secret tunnel with its other end in pic 9, wouldn't work if you plan to fill this area with lava or something else deadly again, though Perhaps a stone pavillon would fit there but I'm not too sure about it.
About the flag: If you don't plan to make this map a ctf don't forget to explicitly state that in the readme because it really looks like it was meant to be a ctf map. If you already planned to copy the area and link the portals correctly forget about this complaint of mine.


Pic 1 (the one above, will follow that pattern all the way through): If this brick comes out on this side of the wall it has to be pushed into it at the other side (logically not visible in this shot) but at the time isn't.


Pic 2: Playerclip here (or expand that little stone way, I like this one a lot for some reason.


Pic 3: If you don't want to escape flag carriers too easy from here build some kind of obstacle or place a lava pool/ abyss at the ground behind that edge.


Pic 4: Playerclip this thing.


Pic 5: Playerclip this thing.


Pic 6: Playerclip this thing.


Pic 7: Build up some "wall" or another obstacle to block player's view on the obvious end of the terrain (or make the terrain edge bigger).


Pic 8: This skull lamp is accidentially playerclipped because of the playerclip enclosing the stone structure behind it whereas the other skull lamps are not playerclipped at all. Make it homogeneous.


Pic 9: This stone bridge screams for something underneath it. Either fill this mini canyon with lava or drill a tunnel through the entire mountain opening another path and thus adding gameplay.


Pic 10: This whole structure looks fantastic! Beautifully done!


Pic 11: z-fighting on the small stone I marked with the crosshair.


Pic 12: Texture isn't aligned correctly, you'll never see a stone like that in nature.


Pic 13: This one's funny: you can actually go right through the bars because they leave up just enough space to slip through and then you'll get killed on the other side after walking too far into the dark. Or you could hide there with the enemy flag or camp, so playerclip these bars.


Pic 14: The wood planks "transcend" into each other.


Pic 15: If there's some way to avoid that camera view, do it (maybe with an info_player_intermission?) it looks weird to see the bottom side of your map.


Pic 16: This "stone spike" looks weird too, wonder if anything like this would be possible in real life? If you want to go with that, consider playerclipping this, it really sticks out when you rocketjump right through it.


Pic 17: Use a concrete lava texture here you can see the texture edge if you look closely.


Pic 18: I believe chretien mentioned it before: I also liked this one better without the wood planks. Plus, but that could just be me nitpicking, it adds to your map's gameplay if you remove the planks completely since a) noone would actually run UP there, he'll get killed in no time from an enemy player above since it takes WAY too long by foot, and it's no problem to jump down over the gap once the planks are not there anymore b) to get up you already have the (much faster) jumppad. Another thing in this map (see green line): if you navigate a bit to the right directly after using the jumppad you can skip an otherwise very dangerous inside part thus seriously shortcutting your way for example to the caged section with a possbile teleporter out of there if you should activate it in your final version.


Pic 19: Another GREAT looking thing, you should probably make this fire providing a dmg trigger because after all it's still fire Idea here: make the whole bridge burning so it takes away *some* health of a player taking this -compared to the others- relatively short and safe path up to the flag room. Adds some tactic this way.


Pic 20: Weaponclip sticking out somewhere here (rocket exploding in mid-air), you might want to review this section and its clipping.


Pic 21: Another gameplay idea: these gears are much too good to not be implemented in some way or the other. Probably if this can be used to open up the iron bars of the cage section right behind the player in this screenie for a very short time; or what if it takes TWO players cooperating: one continously shooting/utilizing the gears to open up the cage so his/her partner having the flag can escape through there? Might be a bad idea too, especially if you're not intending to make this a ctf map.


Pic 22: This stone is way too straight. Round it off or add some stone brick (door) frame here.


Pic 23: This wall doesn't look very thick or like it's strong enough to hold even its own weight. Make it bulkier.

That's it for today. Screw my webhost and other duties that had this feedback's delivery prolonged "a bit", hope it is of any use to you!
Greets,
monaster

[EDIT: corrected urls and quote]

[Pat Howard]

OK I'm back . I don't have too much to say on top of monaster's feedback. I would pretty much just start finalizing things at this point.

The lighting needs a little work. The colors could be deeper and more moody. Some parts of the map are way brighter than others. The cathedral especially sticks out as "over-bright" to me.

Speaking of the cathedral, I would re-texture it. The textures you are using right now are a pretty blurry and look kind of cartoony.

Not including the few oddly "pointy" rock formations monaster mentioned, the back of the map is the only part that I would say needs more brushwork. It looks very empty. Does it really need to be that spacious? Maybe it would be easier to make it a narrow, precarious path that wraps around that back of the mountain instead. I would also add a for more rock spikes in the distance back there so you don't feel like you are on the "edge" of the map.

I noticed there wasn't really a central powerful item to fight over like there is in most CTF maps. Perhaps you could throw a power-up or red armor in the middle of the cathedral to mix things up?

I'm also getting missing textures behind the teleporters, but I don't know if that's on my end or not.

-pat

[Noruen]

Thanks Monaster and Pat! You are right about the light in the map, but it grew up because of complaints, that previous map was very dark. I don't know how to illuminate map without sun on the side and nebula in the sky. Put all over the map many torches? Don't know.

[Noruen]

FINAL TESTING - Derwyll's Castle 2

DOWNLOAD


I have already reached the point, when I'm satisfied with my work. Work is done. Only one thing left before final release - debug the botplay and gameplay.

I promise, this is really the last version before final release. I have prepared an image, where I ask you for help - after testing map, open this image in mspaint or Photoshop and mark here (by pen) areas shown in legend, or you can add your own notes (about changes in item placement, weapon counts, add new items, ...).

Download it here:


So what to do?
- test botplay
- test gameplay

Known small "buggies":
- death-fall sound in bases doesn't work
- in chat, all location descriptions are shown in red color
- area behind Cathedral needs some small cosmetic change

For fun:
- three secrets were added, one rune shows the way
- The Fountain of Youth.
- The Gun of Power Tomb.
- The Labyrinth.
- added some "delicate" effects like
- torch corona
- Saurons Eye








Thank you guys!

[neoplan]

testin

[dichtfux]

Download doesn't work for me. It just loads forever after I enter the captcha string but no d/l dialog comes up. Screenies look great so I'd really like to give it a try.

EDIT: Nvm, Anthem send me a link.

[Noruen]

Weird, try it again please. It works for me.

[Anthem]

I uploaded this map to dropbox since the host is causing people some problems and took me about 20 minutes from which to download.

Here is the link:

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/5765955/nor3ctf1.zip

It looks really cool, btw. I love the torches! The whole map is really creative and interesting. Do you have other maps, noruen?

[Noruen]

Anthem - Thanks. No, unfortunately I have not. But I have another ideas and I really want to left developing of this map - it is nearly one year of developing. Maybe I took too big a bite. But this map is based on my dream I have had when I first time played Quake III Arena... Isn't it poethic? I had to built

But next map will be in city, no terrain, no open areas

[dichtfux]

I can't say much about gameplay yet but this one looks pretty finished anyway. Some great shaders and ideas in this map. And those teleporters in the center with the broken frames and floating stones are the just awesome!

[monaster]

It's here! Run for your lives! Save your kids and this play this map!
At least I'll do that now; going back to answering or commenting further stuff when I'm done.