A work in progress :)

[Raylen]

Hi there,

I'm making a new BT map at the moment. This community seems really good at giving feedback etc - if I post some screenshots, could you all post specific things I can do to make the map look nicer? I am aiming for a castle-type theme to the map, mainly based on the NaliCast texture pack (I thought I'd use a standard pack for once)...to me, it looks kind of OK, but not as detailed as I'd perhaps like - particularly compared to many of the maps I see from people on here!

And on a related note, what can I do with ceilings? Many of my maps have quite flat ceilings in places, but changing them at all seems difficult.

Anyways, here you go. I can post more if needed, but here's 6 to be getting on with

[GenMoKai]

And on a related note, what can I do with ceilings? Many of my maps have quite flat ceilings in places, but changing them at all seems difficult.

There are many ways i think..The most thing i use is something like a cave-like ceiling... doesnt looks flat and it can look pretty well... Else create some cracks in it also a option.

Else try to experiment a bit with support beams/pillars or try to fill the ceiling up...Spaces that are to empty/big, make them a a bit smaller. Lets say you have a 256x512x1024 corridor... but you only use lets say... 256x128x768 space for your BT track... make it a bit smaller... like 256x384x896.

These things are what i can give you... i don't make BT maps that often. I hope i helped you enough

[Creavion]

What about a wooden ceiling construction with hanging moss under it, like this?
http://www.freepatentsonline.com/6748713-0-large.jpg

001.jpg (74.08 KiB) Viewed 3212 times

A wooden ceiling holding thingy

subtract trim "bays"
and a closed sever entry with bars

Otherwise I dont have those many ideas atm. But I would not worry about that too much in your case anyway. It already looks better than the 08/15 BT crap.

[Rakiayn]

A flat ceiling is ok. but You can make a slightly lower trim around it, place windows in it etc...
the weird support beams on the top right corner of the picture dont look right. remove them. (perhaps do the trim I suggested) or make them horizontal
also the lighting could use a little attention. make the contrast between areas close the light sources and the rest of the area bigger. als ouse more then one color. perhaps some torches with a slightly more orange glow?
besides these things. I think you have made an already excellent looking map

[Raylen]

Thanks so far. A couple of things:

- Not sure exactly if a "cave-like" ceiling is what I'd want in a castle map. Perhaps in certain places it might work?
- Related to this, I already have some ceiling supports like Creavion said - I have used them in many places, just somehow they aren't in any of the 6 shots! I also managed to find some nice moss (I actually think I found it in Kamah, I hope this is OK), which I have used in some places.
- Further, and again it's not in the shots, I have a different ceiling texture in places - it's a tiled texture, and I plan to do the "loose tile" thingy, and drop a couple onto the floor.

- I like the idea in Creavion shot 2, putting in extra stuff and the little tunnel bit under there

- Yes, I might well get rid of the angled support beams


As far as lighting goes, it's something I really have tried to work on. As you can see, I have different lights - some torch flames, which are orange colour; some basic lamps, which are also yellow/orange, some slime, which is green...and in some places to highlight things I have red/pink. I don't really do much with lighting, other than altering brightness and radius - I don't really know if there's much else to do! Oh also, there's a ZoneLight on at the moment, which I'll remove before I finish the map (I don't like ZoneLight).

Thanks so far for the ideas - I'll post the map here when it's done (another month or so) so you can all play it

[GenMoKai]

If you want to you can put an beta here. Sometimes that can be better then posting only shots

[--=PsyXandeR=--]

Make lamps light blue in color or something. Having all warm colors isn't good, you should use contrasting colors to break things up a little.

[Raylen]

Ok, I'll do something like that. One thing to note about BT maps in particular is that they can be quite large in terms of the number of rooms and space used, compared to perhaps "normal" DM/CTF maps, so it's perhaps easier to include different themes and lighting. I do have no colour lighting in places as natural window-light.

I just now added some beams to the ceiling of the big room shown in shot 5 above, and they look OK. Up to 18000 nodes now though so I'm over halfway (BT maps have to be "doubled" to allow the teams to run separately) and I still have a massive hall-type room to make.

Watch this space for beta then :p

[Myth]

Wood can't support huge stone blocks. Castles are built from stone. They used arches to support the structures. You use wood to decorate or to support wooden structures or lightweight structures. Such as holding the roof together or a wooden staircase.

Oh and you can have moss hanging from stone too.

Edit: oops, wrong tags...

[Creavion]

Wood can't support huge stone blocks. Castles are built from stone. They used [img=http://www.google.ro/images?q=stone%20arch]arches[/img] to support the structures. You use wood to decorate or to support wooden structures or lightweight structures. Such as holding the roof together or a wooden staircase.

I see... yearh you are right, also wonder why I said that.

[Raylen]

I agree, and I remember thinking that when I was making it (the main problem is that the wood texture is one of my faourites, I think it's in all my maps lol). I don't think I can change the map now to use arches, simply because of the way it's constructed around the various obstacles and things - it's been about 3 months in construction so far, and I don't want to re-do all of it...slow mapping ftw

[Hook]

Except for the Minoans, they used wood a lot in there Rock Construction to help buffer their buildings from Earthquakes - it absorbed shock better and let the building flex under stress. - true - it was just on the History Channel the other night.
They used thick wood beams around doors and windows, and between large rock walls, etc.

[Raylen]

Thanks! History Channel for the win, since now I have a better excuse not to delete all my wood trims and stuff XD