[beta] DM-TMC-Narean

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Swanky
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[beta] DM-TMC-Narean

Post by Swanky »

Hello,

with the opening of the TMC contest I took the initiative to finally finish up one of my existing layouts. It had been lying around for the past 2 years or so, maybe even longer, but now it is here.
Big thanks to Fragnbrag for his help aligning this monster and helping out with implementing the meshes. Big Thanks to Creavion too, for porting all those meshes in the first place!

Download Narean Ruins Beta
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TMC-Narean4.jpg
TMC-Narean3.jpg
TMC-Narean2.jpg
TMC-Narean1.jpg
TMC-Narean0.jpg
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UnrealGGecko
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Re: [beta] DM-TMC-Narean

Post by UnrealGGecko »

Will check it out tomorrow. Looks reallly nice! :gj:
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Re: [beta] DM-TMC-Narean

Post by Renegade »

Beautiful Map of staggering scope. Reminds me of Dm-Baal by Chicoverde. I can see how alignment would be a bitch. Nicely done guys!
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Re: [beta] DM-TMC-Narean

Post by Swanky »

Hm, I thought there would be more comments on what to do better by now.
@ Renegade: Thanks. :) The map uses the same textures from Wheel of Time by Legend Entertainment, that's why it might look alike.

In an internal build I had already changed all terrain surfaces to "bright corners" to smoothen out the lighting a little bit, and I have to work a bit more on the bio rifle cave since a lot of the action is happening there. Probably too many playerstarts nearby or something.
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Re: [beta] DM-TMC-Narean

Post by editor Dave »

Swanky wrote:Hm, I thought there would be more comments on what to do better by now.
Don't worry, tomorrow I'll have a full morning to take your map apart. :tongue:
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Re: [beta] DM-TMC-Narean

Post by Red_Fist »

Well one comment, the screenshots above are to dark.
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Re: [beta] DM-TMC-Narean

Post by UnrealGGecko »

Really enjoyed playing this one. Bots work great, it looks fantastic and I didn't notice any bugs or anything like that... I only saw a few overstreched textures a bit above one of the torches, but that's pretty much it...

:gj:
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Re: [beta] DM-TMC-Narean

Post by editor Dave »

Yo, this is a fine map with a very intricate layout and a cool highlight - the temple exterior - just how a good map needs to be. The rarely used, but awesome textures of the Anc packages from WoT have been done justice here. The alignment is done amazingly, though there are surfaces where the textures are too stretched, as Gecko already mentioned. On these few problematic surfaces I would rather prefer them being unaligned (or loosely aligned) and their scale being adjusted to the surrounding textures. Lighting is sufficient. I did notice some irregular lit surface, but this is more an engine fault than anything.
I didn't encounter BSP issues but one ICH that I didn't stumble upon again (My screenshots were fucked up somehow, and when looking for it again, I missed it). That Brush147, though. This the sign of a frustrated mapper. :mrgreen: I deleted it and rebuilt the map and surprisingly I didn't notice an error at first sight. Maybe it's time to remove it?
You probably placed the Crystals on the lowest ground as nonsolid brushes on purpose, but I lost the feeling of immersion when I figured out that I could walk right through them. Maybe a BlockAll actor with a radius smaller than the crystals would be a perfect balance between smooth gameplay and realistic collision.
You are quite inconsistent concerning weapon placement. Not the weapons themselves (I didn't have a problem with the selection or with getting one after a respawn), but how they are placed in the world: Some of them have their default positions, while others are aligned more closely to the world. Is there an idea behind that? The other thing is: The manually rotated weapons still move ingame which looks very wierd especially on the Flak (in Movement you can set it off, but you probably know that).
PlayerStart5 seems a bit too close to the Uamage. However, I can't find a much better solution than moving it very far away or deleting it altogether since the other PlayerSt'arts in that area are far/close enough.
Lastly, I've been wondering how you can access both the Shieldbelt and the Invisibility. Will there be Jumpboots added or do you want the player to perform Rocket jumps?
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Re: [beta] DM-TMC-Narean

Post by papercoffee »

editor Dave wrote:Lastly, I've been wondering how you can access both the Shieldbelt and the Invisibility. Will there be Jumpboots added or do you want the player to perform Rocket jumps?
Stop! ...Hammer Time!
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Re: [beta] DM-TMC-Narean

Post by Swanky »

Thanks for your kind words. :)
Think I'll have a look at those textures again. Could you be more speficic where the ICH is located? Brush 147 was put there as a solution to a *potential* supercut causing all kinds of weird problems throughout the map. Not sure why rebuilding would now be different than before, but that's UE1 for you in a nutshell. Yes I made the crystals nonsolid because of the flow of the map. Adding blocks or making them solid again would contradict to the idea. Will have another look at weapon placement.

And yeah, Shield Belt and Invisibility are to be accessed via hammer jumps.

@ Red_Fist: I am getting those comments like all the time since 3 or 4 years, maybe even longer - now have I changed anything? It's fine unless you're playing in direct sunlight. And why would you? Gamers are like vampires.
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Re: [beta] DM-TMC-Narean

Post by editor Dave »

Swanky wrote:Could you be more speficic where the ICH is located?
Unfortunately, I can't. I did make screenshots of that area, but somehow they got corrupted. I have tried my best to find it again, but I couldn't. Maybe I just got stuck at a sharp wall of the cave...
Swanky wrote: Brush 147 was put there as a solution to a *potential* supercut causing all kinds of weird problems throughout the map. Not sure why rebuilding would now be different than before, but that's UE1 for you in a nutshell.
Yeah, this is what I thought. During my search I found another one of these cubes, too :ironic: Maybe you place some grass or one of those mini bushes in order to hide them?
Swanky wrote: Yes I made the crystals nonsolid because of the flow of the map. Adding blocks or making them solid again would contradict to the idea.
Hm, originally I thought a small radius would be good solution. I played a bit around, and I came up with this:
crysrad.jpg
You wouldn' get stuck on this crystal but you'll notice there's something in the way.
Swanky wrote: And yeah, Shield Belt and Invisibility are to be accessed via hammer jumps.
Aw, man, I'm not pr0 enough to do this! Neither are the bots, as it seems, but that may be because I tested the map on a low difficulty only.
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Re: [beta] DM-TMC-Narean

Post by Red_Fist »

I am talking about the screenshots for advertisement purposes, too dark.
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Re: [beta] DM-TMC-Narean

Post by sektor2111 »

Just note without testing yet.
I would avoid a huge file 80MB+ because advanced players are less interested in such download - Drop needed stuff in MyLevel.
This will require more space when is redirected uz + lzma a la 2015 - I'm not a fan of wasting space. Currently is the biggest UTX file which I have - I don't like such a "champion". I'm using space for other purposes rather than painting a few walls.

If in posts above mentioned people have spoken about BSP, + hard pickup management then probably for me is a no go, even if pickups might be get with Traslocator which I'm currently using intensive because of MBot (using it too) and custom DM type so it might not be a big problem right there...
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Re: [beta] DM-TMC-Narean

Post by Swanky »

The biggest part of the download is Creavion's Facepalm package. However, this is being used in more than one map I know of (Fnb's DOM map is using the same meshes), thus downloading it once will have you have it for pretty much all maps in the TMC contest package, easing the overall download size. I see it's not an ideal solution for now but it's easier in the end.
As far as BSP goes, it should be really stable. Haven't noticed anything anywhere, and even said brush147 (which is a 32³uu block in the corner of a cliff) is just a stabilizer and not limiting gameplay in any way. Not sure about the bots. I have always been using standard bots and they work well, even if they are having a bit of trouble reaching the high places (which I am still working on), but otherwise they get everywhere and take every item.
I am still not convinced I should be blocking off the crystals, though.
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Re: [beta] DM-TMC-Narean

Post by editor Dave »

I did have my concerns about the filesize, too, but I could imagine a seperate release for those who own Crev's map, thus I didn't mention anything yet (if more people use the package, even better). But apart from downloading the map directly from a server, in our times even 80 MB shouldn't matter anymore (in terms of space and speed). From a technical standpoint this map is well constructed. The thing is, if Swanky wants any constructive feedback you have to nitpick :tongue: The bots are fine overall, that's why I didn't mention them in my first post. I also didn't think the screenshots were too dark, they actually resemble the feeling ingame. You must have a dark monitor, Red_Fist :lol:
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