-= 20th Anniversary Mapping Contest Poll =-

[UnrealGGecko]

Download all the entries from here: viewtopic.php?f=5&t=13573
Voting will end on Xmas eve, so hurry up, play all the maps and please VOTE! VOTE! VOTE!

[cromy]

Good luck everyone!
Whoever will win the poll you all have done a great job. Each map is really enjoyable.

[esnesi]

Indeed!
Thanking everybody who put in their precious time for this contest!
It was amazing seeing all the screenshots coming by again, just awesome!

Voted for:
DM-20AC-CrypticDungeon
CTF-20AC-Valhalla

[Hellkeeper]

Wew lads, I did not follow this contest at all so I'm discovering the maps right now. Here's the result according to me and in no particular order:

DM/DOM-20AC-IciclePyramid: No offense but this is not a very good map. It feels unfinished: the ceiling texture is the wall texture, the shapes are extremely basic (by which I mean square), and the archways are plagues by texture alignment and lighting issues. Most of these could have been fixed easily by merging the many faces each half-arch is made of. Many other alignment issues plague the map. I like how the frozen aspect is limited to the floor but covers 100% of it. This leads to a few disappearing polygons here and there when looking through the ice floor at the top, but that's pretty much inevitable. The lighting is poor and very artificial, with a couple of lanterns here and there. As for the way the map plays, it's not great in DM as it is symmetric and largely flat. Also the entire map is slippery which is fun for exactly 7.13 seconds. It fares better in DOM, to my surprise, where the slippery floor makes pushing enemies away from the control point amusing. However, neither DOM nor DM, in this case, really fit the symmetrical layout which, no matter what you think about it, is also ruined by the presence of most important weapons in a small circle in the middle of the map on the second floor. Also, did you know that Unreal Tournament has the capability to play sound? If you didn't, then no worries: this map has none. I rate it 3.5/10.

Why-So-Symmetric3.jpg

DM-20AC-CrypticDungeon: First of all, this slightly remixed version of Fire Breath is weird. I'm not saying I didn't like it, but it's weird! Now let's try the map. It looks amazing, I love this, the rocks, the lava, the architecture of the central tower, it's so well put together I'm both jealous and reminded of Q3. Now on to the game: it's good. I like how the +100HP keg is in full view yet out of the way and incredibly risky to access. Normal use of sound is always nice, but really, the visuals steal the show in this map, it's perfect and wouldn't look out of place in one of the later installments of the series. Also included is a nice bonus: a very specific crash when using OpenGl. It's always lovely to have to work a bit to get a map working and then be greeted with something so good. It deserves a 10 but the crash probably needs to get it a bit down, so it's going to be 9.89/10.

DOM-20AC-CastleGeorge: This one was a rollercoaster of impressions for me because I first thought it was a joke, but then I saw the package name and I understood the mapper was probably going for an Unreal 95 beta retro style and succeeded in doing so. So congratulation, the map looks like it's 24 years old! It has a cool layout, not too complex, but suffers from a great issue: everything inside the castle looks the same, so it's very hard to get a sense of where you are, where doorways lead and where the control points are in relation to everything. The build is questionable too: the entire castle is modeled all around while you can only see a tiny portion of it from outside, in the only outdoor courtyard. A lot of polygons are wasted (not a huge loss because the entire map is made of like 5 of them), but I'm always disappointed by unnecessary things like that. Also, this might be intended but the map seems to have a scale problem: everything is so cramped you have precisely enough space to move but none to manoeuver.
When playing the map however, several issues appear and this unfortunately diminishes this map's merits. I was running towards the lower control point in the jail (one of the nicest-looking place, I really loved its simple style) and was met by someone from the red team guarding this point with a flak cannon and a shieldbelt. I was promptly shown the exit out of this jail and out of my own skull, but when I came back, I figured the shieldbelt spawns in the cell just in front of the control point. Basically, the first team to grab this point cannot be made to abandon it as long as it has one player with flak ammo ready. On the contrary, the courtyard point is extremely difficult to defend because there are three ways to access it and two of them deliver sniper rifles and ammo to attacking players. Good luck keeping your head on your shoulders when defending. Too bad because I was starting to root for this map. Still a nice 6.5/10 in my opinion.

CTF-20AC-Foundation: The industrial map of the day. It's very well made, I appreciate this. From a visual point of view, it won't make you fall off your chair because it's the type of indus we've all seen more often than our family, but this very familiarity and perfect execution just screams UT, so it's fitting for a celebration of our dear game's birthday. The layout is a bit too maze-y for me in some places so I might take a good while to get used to the floorplan, but nothing strikes me as bad: there are several floors everywhere, which is always good, there is a variety of ways to reach the enemy flag, defense is easy but attack is not impossible. It's generally good. My only criticism is that this might be the most silent city on the face of the earth because the only sound you hear is the sound of enemy steps in the water. I acknowledge that just as CrypticDungeon, this review is shorter, but I'm afraid the better a map is, the less you can explain how good it is without simply telling others to just try it. 8.5/10.

CTF-20AC-Valhalla: I thought for a few seconds somebody had puked on my screen after a long night drinking, but that was just the skybox. I came to my sense when I saw the blue asteroids racing downwards and I thought this was a nice touch. The rest of the map then appeared when I looked down. The title is well-chosen: this is Valhalla and it's the good kind: there are open casks of booze overflowing around the armour, rainbow starlight bridges, flying longships waiting to take you on your final journey, great halls with fire and tables where, instead of a feast, weapons await, and of course the coffins of your fallen comrade by your flag, in the great room with sculpted pillars. The theme is perfectly executed, and using only stock textures, this is an impressive achievement. The divine hall on its rocky peak and the grandiose vaults inside are marvelous. Did the author play Skyrim? This reminds me of it, but that's probably just because it follows the traditional representation of its subject so well. As for the game, it's hit and miss. The main hall and the bases are really fine, but the areas in-between are lacking. First, there are only two ways from a base to the central area (the longship and the rainbow) and I would have like at least one more. But then, there is one sniping hideout in each base, with the sniper in it obviously, but it is very exposed. Meanwhile, in the central area, the grand windows and the turret without the longship are perfect to snipe the defending team. So defense should mostly be done inside the base if the enemy has a good grasp on the central hall. But still, this map is awesome, it does the best of its strong theme and in my opinion, the issue with snipers is not a game-breaker. 8.5/10.

DM-CorporateOffice-AC20: Unreal Tournament players are all the same: after a long day's work, we all long for the delicate embrace of death and murder, mutilating mouth-breathing colleagues and being generally disagreeable. Finally, we are given this opportunity. I first wondered if the mapper had gone nuts because it is well known realistic spaces are horrible in UT since the hulking tank-clad behemoths we embody run like motorcycles and jump like kangaroos, making navigating an office open-space extremely tedious. But then it dawned on me that this was intended in this case. Don't misinterpret me: it's still tedious as hell to run in and out of every single cubicle to grasp some ammo, a rusty minigun or to jump from a chair to a cabinet to get a health vial, but once this is done, you have the satisfaction of blowing out every window in the building and painting this damn computer running Windows XP (without service pack) with the entrails of some poor sod as Go Down plays in the background. Then you jump on the walls of the cubicles and run on top of them, like a tightrope walker, until a rocket sends you flying through the central alley right on the armour, burning a few office plants on its way. It's not a great map to play on because it's an office: cramped work areas, tedious corridors, conference room where chairs are an annoyance, even the toilets are here, and it's all a single floor. But there's something cathartic to mayhem in the workspace. In the end, the attention to detail, the great build and the perfectly rendered ambiance make a map, which should and is tedious to play, simply too fun to pass. 8/10.
PS: I was wrong, the computers are Franklin Ace 2100, so no WinXP for you, this is pure DOS.

In my opinion, the best map in the bunch is CrypticDungeon. My favourite, however, is Valhalla.
Overall, I want to congratulate the authors because there aren't many maps this time but the result is generally of a very good level. I don't know most you guys (except Chamberly, whom I've seen here and there (yeah I used whom, all these years in college were not wasted, mom!)) but good work, all of you!

[ClimateChange]

Office map feels much better suited for tactical combat, not arena fps.

IciclePyramid. It feel rushed. Symmetric map with no texture alignment and no light sources.

[Novaeon]

Office map feels much better suited for tactical combat, not arena fps.

I know, but it's what I was inspired to make. I had some false starts with other ideas, which might have worked better in that regard, but I just wasn't feeling like sinking that much time into them. Didn't wanna force it. That being said, it plays really well as a team DM with Infiltration 2.75, C4 or Rampancy weapons.

[papercoffee]

The Most fun I had with...
CTF-20AC-Foundation from Myth.
Great map with many ways to play it, even so it's just a "S" shaped map.
All those nooks and pathways ... really cool.
When you know how to get rid of the sniper of the opposing team is this map unstoppable fun.

The Second best map for me was...
CTF-20AC-Valhalla from Porch Viking.
The visuals are just great. The path over the longboat is one of the most fun, because everything can happen.
The Hall in the middle could be a little bit less symmetrical, decoration wise... but that's just me.
I wished all the time a third way to escape to the central hall... and was disappointed when I noticed (with the flag on the back) there is non.

The third map which surprised me to be really fun to play was...
DM-20AC-CorporateOffice from Novaeon.
The visuals are nearly too real and I couldn't imagine that this map plays well with that labyrinth like layout.
But... I was soooo wrong. When you start the map suddenly every window and every corner became an opportunity to ambush your opponents.
To get your first useful weapon is complicated but all the corners are also very good to escape any pursuer.
Many situations are too chaotic and panic was eminent ...especially the cubicles.
I would suggest to play this map with some real weapon mods, like the weapons from Counter Strike or Tactical Ops. And in a TDM.

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________

From a visual aspect was DM-20AC-CrypticDungeon breath taking... but unplayable.
The frame drops in the long middle hallway was just too much. And I doesn't have a weak machine. It can Handle "Warframe" very well.
I noticed, that the whole outer section which isn't supposed to be reachable, had so many unneeded polys, all my maps I ever created wouldn't have that much ...and that's just the not playable section of the map. The actual playable are has as many polys as well.

DM-20AC-IciclePyramid plays only well as a 1on1 map. If you try it with too many players (3-6) it gets unplayable very fast, because of lack of weapons.
The ice surface idea is very nice and if you play 1on1 can you use it together with the crouch-bug in UT to slip fast to the other side of the map and surprise the opponent with a shot from another angle.
The DOM version game-play didn't work for me ...yeah you can shoot the opponent away from the control-point. But that's all.

Ok and now DOM-20AC-CastleGeorge I like the outer area and I like the visuals of the dungeon, even so who ever was brave enough to go down there was greeted with a Flak shot or got killed right after touching the control-point. Everything was to narrow down there.
And the opposite condition was in the castle itself. Too much open Space, ramps which get you only in the best position to get fragged from below very fast, confusing similar rooms and a height which gave a really claustrophobic feeling.
I would suggest to eliminate the roof inside the castle and turn it into a fort... then would the jump-boots make also more sense.

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Now you get time till the Bonus maps are finished, to fix what ever fixes you have to fix.
But don't post this fixes before the voting has ended.

[Skerion]

I voted for CorporateOffice, though I will admit that I do have a bit of a bias as I have a soft spot for offices.

I do like Foundation and CrypticDungeon a lot, though. Unfortunately, CrypticDungeon seems to have some performance issues, which I imagine is due to the use of fog.

[Hellkeeper]

CorporateOffice is definitely the most original here. It cannot win though because

Office map feels much better suited for tactical combat, not arena fps.

I'd say it's a cool stylistic exercise.

I know, but it's what I was inspired to make.

Novaeon, do you have UT2004 at hand? If so, I suggest you try the AMDK maps, they're in the same vein but they manage to pull it off and have an interesting layout (not great but a step above the simple floorplan).

[Feralidragon]

I went with DM-20AC-CrypticDungeon and DM-20AC-CorporateOffice.

I was torn apart in whether to vote for CTF-20AC-Valhalla or not, since it's also a really interesting map, with clearly some time put into it, and technically well executed, but I simply liked CrypticDungeon more since it felt a lot more atmospheric, and I loved those lava flows and how they were executed for the most part, and on the other hand, CorporateOffice steered way from an "Unreal"-ish design and went with a more realistic approach, which was also extremely well executed imo, and plays extremely well, certainly a map to be hosted in a server for real deathmatches to take place on.

The other maps were also interesting in their own ways, such as the unique mechanics in IciclePyramid (sliding around is fun, and the overall layout reminded me a lot of the ice dungeon in LoZ Majora's Mask, which was one of my favorite dungeons to date), and Foundation certainly had that classic industrial look and feel that you get from other industrial UT maps (the fun ones).

CastleGeorge was also interesting in its own way, but it's too blocky for me, and the textures used aren't really my cup of tea, I felt like I was in Minecraft.
Maybe that was the idea? I don't know, to be honest, but didn't work out very well to me, sorry...

From here, although there are all sorts of technicalities I could go on relative each map, my only real concern and criticism that I have about many of these maps is the texture alignment.
A lot of the visuals and feel of a map relies on the textures to look seamless, otherwise all the atmosphere around all the architecture techniques applied gets easily shattered when it seems maps are just some shapes with layers of wrapping paper instead.

So, for the final pack, please align your textures folks (even floor textures were unaligned, there's no reason for this).

[Tyr]

Here is my consolidated Review for the contest maps:

DM/DOM-20AC-IciclePyramid
This map looks and feels like "at least, he tried". The general layout is basic which isn't a problem. The transparent floors look good. End of story. Bad lighting, bad texturing and the missing sense for the ingame size is ruining the initial idea. The slippery surface is fun but it starts getting annoying very quickly.

There is nothin more to say because there isn't not much more to talk about...

Lighting: 1/5
Texturing: 1/5
Floorplan: 2/5
Bot Support: 2/5
BSP Quality/Complexity: 1/5
Result: 1/5

DM-20AC-CrypticDungeon
This map had potential. The rocks and the lava are very well made. Overall there are some good ideas and the detail work is on a good level but i was a bit disappointed about the floor plan. The map feels a bit unfinished. Maybe you ran out of ideas and used some band aid fixes to make the map playable. Some areas are incredible, others are boring af. Lighting is solid, texturing is good. Bots doesn't seem to have problems here. The fps drops caused by the volumetric lighting is real but not a gamebreaker for me.

Lighting: 4/5
Texturing: 3/5
Floorplan: 2/5
Bot Support: 4/5
BSP Quality/Complexity: 3/5
Result: 3/5

DOM-20AC-CastleGeorge
I got pulled back into the 90s right in front of my N64 as i started this map. I wasn't sure if i'm in a Super Mario 64 level or i dropped right into Hyrule to rescue Princess Zelda.

While the architecture isn't that special and the surfaces are more or less basic it's complex enough to have lots of opportunities to beat your opponents. It's also one of the few maps which use a day light skybox. The lighting is solid, texturing is good but too repetitive for my eyes. Bots are working most of the time. I had one or two who were trapped between two spots but that's all.

One negative thing: The chest can't be looted. >:(

Lighting: 3/5
Texturing: 3/5
Floorplan: 3/5
Bot Support: 3/5
BSP Quality/Complexity: 3/5
Result: 3/5

CTF-20AC-Foundation
I love industrial maps because there are many options to make it look stunning. This map does it on a proper level but isn't outstanding. The floor plan is simple but it creates some visual complexity with little effort due to the S shape, good work. The skybox design is great. Lighting is solid. I'm not sure if it's intended but why are the lens flares also blue on the red base? It's a bit confusing. The Texturing is solid. There are lots of big faces which makes some areas a bit repetitive, but overall it works well. For the anniversary it would work as a stock map, so i give a bonus on the design part. Bot Support works like a charm.

Lighting: 3/5
Texturing: 3/5
Floorplan: 4/5
Bot Support: 5/5
BSP Quality/Complexity: 4/5
Result: 4/5

CTF-20AC-Valhalla
Based on the votes, i was interested in this map. Medieval themed maps are my second favorite style, so I was curious what to expect. Basically i like this map. There are lots of good ideas made into. I love the boats and the bifröst bridge. Overall there are lots of surfaces with extreme repitition so it would work better if the textures were scaled up a bit. While the main areas have a good visual complexity, not all areas seem well executed. The Terrain around the map ruins the overall look. There are also some BSP holes (which i assume are caused by not staying on the grid). Lighting is great inside, but not good on the outer areas. The Texture alignment isn't the best on some surfaces. I found the the white Wings a bit off because the Texture doesn't fit into rest of the map. Bot Support is stable.

Lighting: 3/5
Texturing: 3/5
Floorplan: 4/5
Bot Support: 5/5
BSP Quality/Complexity: 2/5
Result: 3/5

DM-CorporateOffice-AC20
I must admit, i expected nothing from this map. I never saw a good office map which convinced me in both gameplay and visuals because most FPS games are rather fast and tight rooms with limited space were always a problem in a multiplayer setting. This map proves that it is possible to make a fun map where you are not getting stuck most of the time. Visually it's the clear winner in this contest for me. I like the floor plan. The Texturing is exceptional. The look is clean and i haven't recognized any misalignment here. Some things are a bit overused and some rooms look exactly the same but overall there is enough variation to not getting bored. I love the small details like the Restrooms for male/females, the computers, sofas and windows. Some prefabs should have been converted into meshes but that's a minor issue. The lighting is very good. The bots are working good, the floorplan is well made without feeling too simple.

There is one thing which i miss: There is no z-axis fighting. A second floor would spice up the map even further.

Overall it's a polished map without much to criticize. Well done. In terms of quality, it's a good step up from the Freeway Tunnel Map.

Lighting: 4/5
Texturing: 5/5
Floorplan: 4/5
Bot Support: 5/5
BSP Quality/Complexity: 4/5
Result: 4/5

Thank you all for your efforts.

[FraGnBraG]

i haven't had a chance yet to play the maps since i've had my head down trying to get my own map done by 22nd. I will play all the maps and vote by the deadline though!

[Myth]

My vote goes towards DM-20AC-CorporateOffice, I had a blast playing it online! I'll have some more detailed reviews up soon!

[Que]

That's my pick also.. especially with DoubleJump to get over them cubicles lol.

And the Castle Wolfinstein DOM Map so far..

[papercoffee]

Oh shooot we have two winners again!!!
Congratz to the two awesome maps and mapper



Please PM Gecko or me your Addresses so we can tell Epic where to send you your prices!