Monsoon, final

Post by **Lukin** » Fri Dec 23, 2005 3:21 am

Sorry for the delay. It's almost morning here in Poland, but I finally have made it. The second beta is ready. Jeez, I'm so tired, I hope I haven't forget anything important about the map

DOWNLOAD
The biggest improvement in this version is the new MH room, or actually MH hall. Well, I hope it's an improvement

I switched most of the ramps to a clipped stairs. Now it's only a visual change but I really hope that 'the big patch' will fix the stairjumping so I could remove clips.
What else? Ah, I forgot to fix some visual issues (misaligned textures, etc.). I'll take care of it in the next version. Also I will check how the 'smaller' ambient sounds would work, experiment with bumpy grass, etc. Didn't have time to polish everything for this version.
The map has over 3000 brushes which is a huge number, probably my personal record. Hopefully the 3rd version won't need many changes - it's a lot of work to redesign anything on this map now

Don't hestitate to write any suggestions anyway. The things I am the most interested in are below, in the readme.
Thanks for all help, and Merry Christmas.

Download link once again

2nd beta - bigger, faster, better

Aas for bots included.

Known issues:
- sparkles (not particle effects but those white spaces
between some faces)
- some misaligned textures
- some things (for example grass) could look nicer
- fps drops here and there, but i got an old hardware

Questions:
- jumping for RA: too easy, fine or too hard?
- the size of the map: too big, fine or still too small?
- classic: do the item balance, flow, performance, etc. are ok?
- another classic: to be or not to be?

Changelog:
- added new room with MH and HB
- added 2nd YA
- replaced a few jumppads with teleports and ramps
- moved some weapons and items
- removed the ambient sound
- new RA location (thanks Son)
- and a lot more...

Post by **jester!** » Fri Dec 23, 2005 4:07 am

Cool, will check it out... :icon25:

Post by **Lukin** » Fri Dec 30, 2005 8:17 pm

Third beta is ready. I hope it's the last one before the final ver. Not a lot of feedback for 2nd though (I forgot to rename the topic :P), hopefully this time will be better

[lvlshot]http://q4.org.pl/screenshot.jpg[/lvlshot]

To do:
- polishing gameplay and visuals
- fixing possible bugs
- increasing FPS

Changelog:
beta3:
- switched MH and RA
- removed two teleporters (one of them is replaced by
a jumppad)
- removed YA (+25 shards instead)
- made jumping for MH (was RA) harder
- a lot of minor item replacements
- redesigned some corners

Also, the copy of the readme.txt is included in pk4. A gift for Oeloe

download

Post by **primaltheory** » Fri Dec 30, 2005 9:56 pm

Where did you get the neon's from?

Post by **GODLIKE** » Fri Dec 30, 2005 10:04 pm

(You can make the neon shapes out of the "flare" textures...)

Looking really good! Pls post in here once it IS final.. But I ran around the map a few times and had nothing negative to say about it...

In fact, anybody who has NOT yet checked out this map, should. This is clearly the current state of the art. Somebody should hire this man.

Post by **Oeloe** » Fri Dec 30, 2005 10:46 pm

Lukin wrote:Also, the copy of the readme.txt is included in pk4. A gift for Oeloe

Thanx! :icon30: Gonna check out this version (and all stuff made/updated last week) on monday.

Post by **jester!** » Fri Dec 30, 2005 11:35 pm

GODLIKE wrote:
In fact, anybody who has NOT yet checked out this map, should. This is clearly the current state of the art. Somebody should hire this man.

So true.

I like the MH jump now, not to easy like before, but not annoying by any stretch of the imagination, various ways to get it and such, good stuff.

It feels like the RA is kind of disjointed now from the flow of the rest of the map, it feels really out of the way, not a bad thing, and with various ways out its not as much of a trap as the RA on phrantic, just feels a bit odd. :]

Still, roll on with the final so I can start seeing this on servers. :icon26:

EDIT: Actually now that I run around it somemore, I was on crack, the RA is great. Release!

Post by **pjw** » Sat Dec 31, 2005 7:05 am

I would personally tone down the MH jump *just* a little. It took me a few tries to get it. Of course, I could just suck.

The lighting and grass are both much improved. Nice job! I also quite like the new RA placement.

About the only other thing I might suggest is to tilt the jumppad near HB a bit, to make it clear to the player that they'll be going up and backwards. It's slightly disorienting when you're learning a new map...

This is feeling really solid.

Post by **GODLIKE** » Sat Dec 31, 2005 9:28 am

(Okay, I'm admitting this with some shame: I cannot make the MH jump now without rocket jumping. Granted, I'm moderately pissed, but I just can't make it happen.)

I think that the idea regarding tilting the bouncepad near the hyperblaster is actually a good one; I agree that it's counter-intuitive to go backwards there unless you KNOW you're supposed to.

Post by **jester!** » Sat Dec 31, 2005 8:48 pm

Ack problem found. The JP under the broken neon sign, somewhat near the MH, you can hit your head if you walk onto it instead of jump. Its only one corner really of the JP but it was annoying. :icon26:

Post by **{uZa}FreakOfNature** » Sat Dec 31, 2005 9:17 pm

I can't make the jump any more either. I knew I sucked, but this just proves it.

Post by **jester!** » Sat Dec 31, 2005 9:37 pm

Its a strafe jump right out of the tele and then another one, go for the corner on the right side of the little platform, its really not that difficult. A single HB shot will give you a boost if you need it as well.

Post by **pjw** » Sat Dec 31, 2005 10:15 pm

On another note, I found myself taking a tiny bit of damage every now and then when I would go through the tele when trying the jump. I notice that your tele-dest is only 8 units off the floor...I'd suggest raising it up a bit more to (maybe?) fix this problem. I'll see if I can remember to ask about this after holidays and see if it's a known issue.

Post by **Robcq** » Sun Jan 01, 2006 10:49 pm

When ever I duel on the map my server shutsdown by itself. It only happens when we play this map. has this happened to anyone else?

Post by **primaltheory** » Sun Jan 01, 2006 10:59 pm

Where did you find that grass texture? :-/

Post by **Lukin** » Mon Jan 02, 2006 4:11 pm

Thanks guys. Quick report of what I've already done:
- made the jump for MH easier (jumping using teleport is almost the same hard, but the 'normal' way is much easier now)
- fixed the jumppad and 'hurting' teleporters
- improved FPS (removed lights and sounds from particle effects, better visportaling, reduced some patches subdivisions)

To do:
- titlting the bouncepad near RA
- reducing the size of RA
- reducing the size of ground level (too much open spaces now)

The grass texture is made by insectattack. I found it on http://www.doom3world.org/

Post by **jester!** » Mon Jan 02, 2006 7:14 pm

Lukin wrote:Thanks guys. Quick report of what I've already done:
- made the jump for MH easier (jumping using teleport is almost the same hard, but the 'normal' way is much easier now)

Is the download updated?

Post by **Lukin** » Wed Jan 04, 2006 1:18 am

Sorry, the real life catched me :/ I'll finish the 4th beta (the map is kinda devastated atm) and release it tomorrow.

Post by **jester!** » Wed Jan 04, 2006 1:37 am

Heh good stuff. Damned real life always getting in the way. :icon26:

Post by **Lukin** » Wed Jan 04, 2006 11:14 pm

Ok, I've finished 4th beta!
The biggest change is the RA room. I rebuilt it almost completely. Haven't got much time this week so I left some walls without paying too much attention to details. This will change in the final version. Now I need an info about gameplay.
Changelog:

download

[lvlshot]http://img275.imageshack.us/img275/549/beta41gq.jpg[/lvlshot]

beta4:
- made jumping for MH (was RA) easier (not as easy as
in beta2 though)
- removed the higher teleporter and a jumppad from RA room
- rebuilt RA room
- squeezed some areas
- removed the "dropdown area" over the RL (near MH)
- changed some ammo packs placement
- switched LG with RL
- edited the particle effects to improve the FPS
- added ambient sounds (soon you'll be able to turn
them off in cfg, just wait for a new version of your
favourite mod )

Post by **jester!** » Wed Jan 04, 2006 11:34 pm

weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

Seems fine to me but then i didnt have a problem with how it was before, same for the MH jump.

It should be noted that you have to remove beta 3 or beta 4 wont be able to be selected as it doesnt overwrite beta3.

Post by **Robcq** » Thu Jan 05, 2006 3:27 am

Now when i do the mh jump by using the teleporter i exit the tele and jump over the ledge and fall down. Please move the tele exit back a tiny bit. if you want a demo to see it let me know i ll send on to you.

Post by **Riptide** » Thu Jan 05, 2006 8:58 am

Robcq wrote:Now when i do the mh jump by using the teleporter i exit the tele and jump over the ledge and fall down. Please move the tele exit back a tiny bit. if you want a demo to see it let me know i ll send on to you.

You cant strafe right after the portal anymore just forward jump then strafe.

Post by **Lukin** » Thu Jan 05, 2006 4:43 pm

jester! wrote:It should be noted that you have to remove beta 3 or beta 4 wont be able to be selected as it doesnt overwrite beta3.

Doesn't "Quake 4" read the packs in alphabetical order, so the content of b4.pk4 would overwrite b3.pk4?

Robcq wrote:Now when i do the mh jump by using the teleporter i exit the tele and jump over the ledge and fall down. Please move the tele exit back a tiny bit. if you want a demo to see it let me know i ll send on to you.

Well, I can't move the exit back - there is a wall behind :icon33: Anyway, the Riptide said how to make this jump without any problems.

Post by **jester!** » Thu Jan 05, 2006 5:39 pm

It wouldnt load beta 4 for me lukin, only beta 3 would show up until I removed that pak.