FreeGameDev

This is a new map I'm working on. I want feedback as I continue working on it. Please.

PS: The lightning thing is a teleporter.

To color particles, type for the setting of colour in existing particle hex color code, e.g. 0x00FF00 for bright green. You can find easy some hex color code generators on internet. Several of these codes you can see even while making coloured text in this forum.

The map would be more interesting with better lighting and improvements (texturing, geometry including, settings) and corrections. First, you could try to work with "sunlight" entity for instance. As a map in progress, all in all (design) it's minimalistic (just too minimalistic in my opinion though) and clean, it doesn't look bad, it's ok playable I think.

Yes I know overall it is very bland but this map is still a WIP. What I would like the lighting to look like when I'm finished is to have an ethereal purple-blue glow radiating from the sky in every direction, with dim light also reaching from the distant sun. What settings/lighting would you suggest I use to acheive this effect? As for the (unfinished) texturing/detailing the aim is to (eventually) have the look of an outpost that is heavily abused, but also heavily maintained. Thanks for the feedback!

Bring
Up
My
Post
!!!

I have some freetime again, but I want input first before I do anything.

Things on this map that need work:
lighting!
texturing@
geometry#
concealment and cover$
weapon placement
bot pathing

!I have no clue as to how to acheive the desired lighting
@see above, but with textures
#the player's head gets caught on the noclip while swimming, is there a fix/workaround? fixed
also the player sometimes will autocrouch by the lower teleport. fixed
$how can I make this better/more interesting?

edit... lol

nice map but bad title you should find a better name for it e.g. laser plasma beam or something like that all in all a nice map change the title and it is perfect

Sorry Drachen, but I think that YOU should rename your map, because wowie relased his map and project of map long time before you.

About map: yeah, it's really cool map, I think that it will be the best for duels

This map is generating some interest now, but, ironically, now I don't have time to work on it (again). Anyone who is sufficiently interested is welcome to continue work on this map, so long as he/she does these things:

keeps it small/duel sized
adds his/her own ideas to the map
has fun

Anyone is still welcome to work on this map themselves. additions will likely be kept in unless they break any of the above guidelines.

update: found some time to work on it. edited above posts

Question: should I finalize the map layout and begin adding waypoints, or should I continue tweaking it?

Hi, found some time to test your map.

The random textures that you applied to the ground look a bit weird to me. Try to keep 1 or 2 floor textures and maybe place 1 row of another texture around the base floor texture. For example: use base1a texture for floors and put a base1b texture at the edge of the floor. Or take a look at download/file.php?id=2525&mode=view to see how I have combined floor textures in the past to make it more interesting. I do like the pipes on the floor that you made.

Also, putting the flamer in the water seems useless to me And you can swim to the tunnels under water, but can't escape from them. I was like wtf do I need to go back to get out of the water?

The weapon placement is good and requires a certain amount of parkour to get to them, that's good

All in all an interesting map but keep improving it a little. And above all: be your own judge. Be critical for yourself untill you are 100% pleased witht he result.

This is a small map. Small maps tend to favor close combat weapons. That is why I put the flamer in the water. It's useless until you get it out of the water, and I did that on purpose. If you ask me, the flamer is a one trick pony compared to all of the other weapons, all players do is hold W+left mouse and get kills, the secondary is nigh useless compared to the primary since so may other weapons feature bouncing projectiles that are MUCH easier to use than the flamer secondary. Meh, I'm starting to rant. Back to the main topic.

Also, thanks for the texturing advice.

Ulukai {l Wrote}:And above all: be your own judge. Be critical for yourself untill you are 100% pleased witht he result.

After I finish this map I plan on going back to my first map and doing a total retexture and glitch fix for it.

wowie {l Wrote}:That is why I put the flamer in the water. It's useless until you get it out of the water, and I did that on purpose.

+1
Smart man. Already starting to favor this map

I think putting a flamer next to some shallow water works well as it helps to balance it a bit, although it might get a bit annoying if it's in deep water and you have to swim out to use it.

I think he's trying to make a statement..that no one likes the flamer. Which is why he tossed it in water. To make it harder to use. With that, people will either use it less or not at all (on his map).

Yeah, flammer on this map is useless.

Btw. hmm... maybe flammer in RE should have less 'fuel' :P

inpersona64 {l Wrote}:I think he's trying to make a statement..that no one likes the flamer. Which is why he tossed it in water. To make it harder to use. With that, people will either use it less or not at all (on his map).

<3 for wowie right now

Judging from feedback it seems like people have strong and/or mixed feelings about my placement of the flamer.
My intent was to simply make the map the way I wanted it...

Please take any future conversation on the flamer to another thread unless what you have to say is relevant to the construction of this map.
I have added a poll so I can get more concrete data on what everyone's opinion is, and improve my map with said data.

wowie {l Wrote}:Judging from feedback it seems like people have strong and/or mixed feelings about my placement of the flamer.
My intent was to simply make the map the way I wanted it...

Please take any future conversation on the flamer to another thread unless what you have to say is relevant to the construction of this map.
I have added a poll so I can get more concrete data on what everyone's opinion is, and improve my map with said data.

Indeed
So have you added waypoints? I think you should soon, this map is getting to look awesome

The flamer is not a bad weapon to have in the game imo. You should be good enough with other weapons to kill the guy with the flamer before he gets close enough to flame you Certainly when there is water around, like in this map, the flamer is not that big of a challenge. I voted no, because it is placed IN the water. A place neearby the water would be better for my tatse, but it's not my map

The votes are in. The flamer is going to stay put, for now.

On to another issue. (From this point on drop the flamer placement issue until further notice please. )
Because of how vertical the map is, I don't know the best way to path it. Bots are good at running around on large flat maps but...
Players a capable of all sorts of acrobatics and shenanigans that the bots couldn't even begin to perform.
Jump from the bottom level to a grenade spawn and back without touching the middle level.
Now watch a bot try (and miserably fail) to do the same stunt.

How should I path this thing? I can't restrict the bots to the middle level without severely limiting their weapon availability,
and I can't let them run free without also having them repeatedly fall to their doom.

wowie {l Wrote}:The votes are in. The flamer is going to stay put, for now.

On to another issue. (From this point on drop the flamer placement issue until further notice please. )
Because of how vertical the map is, I don't know the best way to path it. Bots are good at running around on large flat maps but...
Players a capable of all sorts of acrobatics and shenanigans that the bots couldn't even begin to perform.
Jump from the bottom level to a grenade spawn and back without touching the middle level.
Now watch a bot try (and miserably fail) to do the same stunt.

How should I path this thing? I can't restrict the bots to the middle level without severely limiting their weapon availability,
and I can't let them run free without also having them repeatedly fall to their doom.

You might want to ask d.a.m.i.e.n; Fourplex has several levels and seems to have no pathing issues.
Also, check out longestyard's pathing. That might help.
-Iridium

Fourplex has jump pads. Longestyard has jump pads. This map does not. Jump pads would be the easy way out, but I don't want jump pads on my map... I want wallclimbing on my map. But the ai can't wallclimb. I can make pathing so the bots only go the ways I want them to, but since players running around also add pathing wherever they go, it doesn't stay that way for long in an uncontrolled environment (such as a deathmatch). Here is a picture:

Green=players and bots can go this way. This is where the pathing is placed in my work-in-progress waypoint file.
yellow=players can go this way, leaving a waypoint trail that the bots can't follow...
red=bots can go this way, but stop halfway, then fall back down, then go halfway up again, then fall back down, then go halfway up again... (repeat indefinitely until something breaks the cycle)

I know there is a trick to make one way doors/forcefields, but I only want to limit bot movement, not player movement.
This is the way I want it to work, with ai movement resembling the flow of a fountain:

Is there a way to make a one way path that can't be changed/overwritten by the player?
If there is an easy way to achieve this and I just don't know about it yet, let me know about it.
If nothing I said even made the slightest bit of sense, let me know about it.

In other news:

It seems there is no real reson to go to the top level of the map. I fixed this by moving the rifles to the top of the walls at the uppermost part of the map, where the best sniping location is anyway.
Also, I have discovered that my duel-focused map also plays well (although it gets a bit chaotic at times) with 8 players at once. These changes will be included in the next version I upload.

Wow. Thanks for the lengthy explanation! It did make sense, and I think this is something to talk to devs about, since a map without jump pads is a cool idea
I think RE needs more duel maps, I await the next version.

To avoid way points being generated in a specific area, fill it with the "aiclip" material.

I thought that aiclip also prevented bots from entering an area at all. Thanks! I learned something today!

Note to everyone: Next version of platform is coming as soon as I get around to remaking the pathing!

wowie {l Wrote}:I thought that aiclip also prevented bots from entering an area at all. Thanks! I learned something today!

Note to everyone: Next version of platform is coming as soon as I get around to remaking the pathing!

Woohoo!