Dynasty (Final)

[EmeraldTiger]

Konnichiwa,

I`d like to present the final version of my map, Dynasty. I`d like to think it`s good for FFA, 4v4 TDM, 8v8 CA, and Freeze Tag.

I`m not strictly aiming for this to be "competitive", even though it would be cool. Rather I`d like to ensure that it`s fun to play and enjoyable. It`s meant to be fairly open, and I think it works in both vq3 and CPM.

Instructions for installation located in the readme.

Download:
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/27277779/pasdm1.zip

[lvlshot]http://dl.dropbox.com/u/27277779/pasdm1_b2.jpg[/lvlshot]

[deqer]

What's with the water and the pointless bounce pad?

[EmeraldTiger]

There`s a Quad Damage which spawns above the JP, you have to jump onto the pad (or alternatively use the accel pad nearby) to obtain it, while risking getting railed, etc.

[cityy]

I haven't played it yet but get ready to come up with a new idea for the quad. Quad hanging mid air is hated amongst tdm players.

Edit:
Yeah I think that quad area will have to be changed. It feels too large and open too. I think the RA area is quite neat. The pillar is a cool idea. Not sure if the void at MH is good, maybe some hurting liquid would be better. Also I thought that RG and LG are pretty close to each other, it might be rather easy to control both and dominate as they seem to be fairly important on the map because it is rather open.

[Anthem]

What's with the water and the pointless bounce pad?

What's with the attitude and the pointless posts?

[EmeraldTiger]

Thank you for your feedback guys.

Already have plenty of ideas in mind now, including a heavy re-doing of the Quad area, with a a little gimmick everyone might like. If anyone has any more suggestions, do send them by please - they are much appreciated.

[EmeraldTiger]

Updated the map to Alpha 2 today. Here`s a list of changes:

- Swapped RL and LG positions.

- Swapped GL and RG positions.

- Established some very basic, early architecture.

- Removed the original jump pad with quad hanging in air. It was replaced with a platform which can be accessed with a new accelerator pad in front of it, a small protruding brush nearby, or a new interconnection.

- Added some doors to block line-of-sight.

- Replaced fog near MH in favor of lava.

- Removed the underwater tunnel teleporter in favor of a plain slipgate teleporter.

- Removed the underwater slugs in favor of four 5+ healths distributed towards both sides.

- Expanded the tunnel where the GL is. (formerly RG position) A grate is placed right below the RL (formerly LG position) to allow players to look down and shoot.

- Can now shoot through grates.

Download: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/27277779/pasdm1_a2.zip

[cityy]

I think alpha 2 is defenitely an improvment over alpha 1.
Some more thoughts:
- the quad room is still too wide and open
- the quad platform is too small, remember people will most likely fight on it
[lvlshot]http://img710.imageshack.us/img710/7326/shot0223q.jpg[/lvlshot]
[lvlshot]http://img685.imageshack.us/img685/4796/shot0224n.jpg[/lvlshot]

[EmeraldTiger]

Thanks for your feedback Mr. List!

Wanting to implement a custom statue in my map. Experimenting a bit, so for the next release it`s just going to be a retextured Ranger statue with Wrack instead of Ranger. I got the skin to show successfully in Blender and it doesn't look too bad, my only problem is that the .md3 export function just spits out a void, useless file with significantly less data than the original Ranger statue. (24 kb) I tried downloading some obscure .ase exporter at Kat`s Bits for Blender (249.2) as it did not have one out-of-the-box. The .ase exporter (which says it`s meant for use with Unreal-like games, though I thought that was just a suggestion) does not work to my hopes either.

Does anyone know of a good .ase exporter plug-in I can download for Blender? Or why my .md3 exports lose their file information? Or if there are any alternate file formats GTKRadiant 1.4 can handle? Thanks in advance.

(Note that I`ll probably look into putting in a statue of a model not yet made into a statue. Got a Bitterman model all ready in Blender, all components combined, so it just needs a skin slapped on)

[cityy]

Hey, I've been thinking about your map again. I think it might be better to place the RG where I suggested to place the LG and place the LG where the RG is now. I saw your PM and will think about it when I find the time.

[DaEngineer]

I use the "Blender 2.44 +ASE export: Goofos" from here. Runs perfectly with Blender 2.49b, I never had problems with it. Just make sure to open the exported .ase with notepad and edit the texture paths to match Quake 3's paths (e.g. change C:\bla\bla\texture.jpg to textures\texture.jpg).

EDIT: Fixed link

[IveGotPenisEnvy]

Fix the teleporters.
missed a2 download.

[obsidian]

You can probably increase the z-distances to get a little more height in the map. That jumppad in cityy's screenshot above is really short for example. You can probably increase the height of many sections to make things more interesting.

[EmeraldTiger]

@DaEngineer: Thanks! The exporter plug-in works great. However, when I load the .ase up in Radiant, while the model shows the skin does not (it is just shown as being red) and gives me these errors:

WARNING: Activate shader failed for wrack_h.tga
WARNING: Activate shader failed for wrack_stone.tga

I changed the part where it says "BITMAP" to refer to "textures\wrack_stone.tga" and "textures\wrack_h_stone.tga" as you mentioned, but it still causes the problem. It also happens if I change the directory so that it`s a full path, going from the drive to the folder it`s located. When I compile the map and load it up in the game, it shows up as completely white.

I am using .tga`s instead of .jpg`s due to the transparency in Wrack`s skin, (not head) though changing to .jpg does not seem to have an effect.

Any help would be appreciated, cheers for the plug-in once again.

[EmeraldTiger]

Bump.

If anyone knows the answer to my problems with the models not showing their skins, I`d greatly appreciate it.

[DaEngineer]

I had the same problem a while ago, but I can't remember how I solved it. I ended up with the shader image missing texture applied to the model in the editor, but everything working in-game. Could you upload the model as well as the textures? I'd take a look at it and see if I can find a solution.

[EmeraldTiger]

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/27277779/wrackpack.zip

[DaEngineer]

When I place the wrack_statue.ase in Radiant, it's entirely black. In-game it's black as well. I've imported it into Blender, it seems the model doesn't have any UV coordinates.

You could import the ranger_statue.md3 model with the "Blender 2.42 MD3 export/import" script from here and then try to copy the UV coordinates from this model over to the wrack_statue.ase model. I've no idea how to do that right now, but I'll see if I can find a way.

[obsidian]

"textures\wrack_stone.tga" and "textures\wrack_h_stone.tga" would probably be better placed in, "models/statuesorsomething/texturename.tga". Use forward slashes. Make sure MAP_NAME matches BITMAP, doesn't hurt to make MATERIAL_NAME the same as well.

UVW coordinates will probably be completely different between the two models so it might be easier if you just manually re-do them yourself.

[EmeraldTiger]

I updated the map once again. If everything looks good at this point, I`ll begin work on visuals. I`ll experiment a bit with the models as well. For right now I had to settle with a plain Ranger statue. Thanks DaEnginner / obsidian.

And many thanks to cityy for his suggestions in IRC. As crazy as they are.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/27277779/pasdm1_a3.zip



Changelog:

- Added a new room between the Quad and MH rooms. The MH room now has
a higher walkway allowing for more vertical gameplay. This new room also adds
a few walls to the Quad room, making it much less open than before. There is
an experimental Personal Teleporter platform as well. (Invulnerability if in TA and
gametype is not TDM)

- Redirected some of the teleporters. The MH tele now takes you to the platform
above MH, (mentioned earlier) and the underwater tele now takes you to were
the MH tele used to send you, at the lower walkway near the MH room door.

- Increased the size and space of the quad platform to allow more room for
fights.

- Moved the quad accel pad to the higher walkway, wedged between two co-
lumns.

- Hall between Quad and statue rooms (see below) is longer and bends 90
degrees.

- Several item placement changes, including a GA for CPMA.

- Added a statue of Ranger. (temporary, experimenting with Blender)

[themuffinman]

That crusher is a nice gimmick, but I think it hinders gameplay a little. Too many times I'd DJ off of the stairs nearby and would have landed perfectly on that platform if the crusher wasn't in the way. The way I see it, all it does is slow down gameplay.

Maybe make the lava by mega fog as well? Keeps things a little more consistent and besides, unless you're playing in CPMA the lava is likely to kill you before you can get out in any case. Fog makes it that little bit quicker to your death.

The doorway leading from mega tele exit could do with being higher so it doesn't get in the way of telejumping. The problem with making it higher though is you lose possible ceiling damage opportunities from shooting at someone there from the stairs.

That's all I can comment on right now, will need a bit more play to spot anything else.

[cityy]

Maybe make the lava by mega fog as well?

I'd rather make the fog at RA lava then. Will play this later.

[Eraser]

I've played it a bit. I like the layout of the map. Few notes:

• Starting off positive: I like the Quad area a lot. Especially when standing on the Quad spawn platform, I get a real Rocket Arena vibe from it.
• However, the two +5 health bubbles in the water are useless. People want to get out of water ASAP as you're a sitting duck. Two +5 bubbles is no reason to jump in, certainly not the detour it requires to grab them. Put something in there that's a bit more worthwhile to get. The MH maybe?
• Doors open almost instantly. I get that you don't want them to obstruct movement, but right now it's almost as if they disappear instead of sliding away. It's an odd sensation.
• The fog near the RA has a weird rendering problem here. If you can't get that fixed, I'd suggest turning it into lava instead.

edit:
oh, do I see an invulnerability powerup in your screenshot? Should I have ran this in Team Arena?

[EmeraldTiger]

Thanks for your comments!

Eraser: That`s strange. I don`t seem to be getting the problem on my end, the fog draws fine for me. I might look into making the fog less deep though, perhaps it has something to do with drawing distance. As for Team Arena: The map does have support for TA, yes. It is not required however.

[EmeraldTiger]

Alpha 4: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/27277779/pasdm4_a4.zip

Changelog:

- Changed lava to slime.

- Changed fog color to a bright green hue in accordance with slime.

- Experimental change: Crusher now must be activated via a button. (which
is attached to a new column which helps break up openness) It can be
activated every 4 seconds.

- Team location information added.

- Replaced the trigger brush for the trigger_hurt in fog pit with nodrop.

- Slightly modified geometry near MH room exit to make it less obtrusive
when tele-jumps are enabled in CPM / CQ3.

Hopefully this will be the last alpha before I move on to visuals. Thanks for all your support so far. Maybe I can even get Maverick to put it up temporarily if anyone would be interested.