The Ingenious Level Design of DmRiot by Hellkeeper

[makemeunreal]

DmRiot is one of the "new" maps that came bundled with 227 which were meant to showcase some of the new stuff one can do in Unreal. Generally speaking, it has a rather complex layout sporting some narrow corridors and broad spaces as well. Although the design is clean, the map is full of beautifully done trimming, accompanied with an even better brushwork that lacks slow zones or bugs in the BSP.


I like to think that the map takes place behind the facade of a dystopian empire's military building. Well, the decoration strongly implies something like that.


I have to admit that we for some strange reason never tried this one online although I had some experience with it. We decided to have the next match on a random map and it was DmRiot that came up.
I happened to stream this match, so if anyone is interested in watching 2 Hungarian dudes playing it out on this map then off ya go:

The first few minutes got spent as usual. Running around like crazy, guns blazing. Then, I happened to get killed at least five times in a row by my friend wielding a fully loaded quadshot which works perfectly well in the narrow pathways.
I had to take it slow from then on. The next big game changer were the sounds. We had a genuine fear of sounds on this map. The presence of a fully loaded Quadshot peeking out the next corridor not only rendered our movement to be slower, but also made our ears alert. I started avoiding picking stuff up by carefully circling around them to not to alert my enemy as he seemed to be far superior with the Quadshot.

The ground floor serves as a "hub" inside the map. You can reach every quarter of the map easily. It also has an elevator that grants quick access to the upper floor giving home to the almighty Quadshot.
Not to mention the map's only "super-pickup" a superhealth that is halfway covered with mud.

The heavy rains turned the ground into an ocean of mud. If you decide to traverse through this muddy area (to reach the elevator or the superhealth f.e.) you are risking a lot as the mud squelches heavily under your boots, alerting your enemy and thus placing yourself right into his crosshair.

The match became slower, but more tactical. I have to say that we had a LOT OF FUN with this map. Not sure if it was an intended design choice or just a gimmick but the whole muddy situation turned out perfectly.
I highly recommend trying this map with a friend.

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Warmest wishes for a happy Christmas and a wonderful New Year!

Edit: Here's the rematch.

[darkbarrage99]

definitely an awesome map but that quad shot is busted

love the rain effects

[makemeunreal]

Well, the map went pretty tactical with that Quadshot especially when fighting 1 on 1. And that's why it was an awesome experience. I'm glad I haven't played on this map against a real opponent before. This was perfect for a first timer. It's always cool when you have to adapt fast to a situation ingame.

[Masterkent]

This map seemed too narrow for me, although you probably couldn't efficiently use Quadshot anywhere else.

It looks like it has too many AmbientSound actors, so Galaxy often runs out of free channels and some sounds get silenced, even if EffectsChannels is set to 32 (which I think is the max possible value for this subsystem, since higher values lead to crashes).

[makemeunreal]

I've never had this kind of problem when playing it under 227i UGold.
Woah, it's interesting to see the map being played in UT.

[Aspide]

That's not UT, it's probably Botpack 227, DmRiot cannot be played in UT because it uses 227 features. Still, pretty cool that you can recreate UT in Unreal, it's almost like they are the same game

[Leo(T.C.K.)]

I wish he chose a different name for this though because there was already an old map named DMRiot, in fact nonamectf mod references it, there were multiple versions and its a completely different map.

[makemeunreal]

Well, I doubt one can be aware of these kind of name duplications although I wish the same if it really is a duplicate.
Still, the name fits the map perfectly given it's theme and the gameplay style.

[Leo(T.C.K.)]

Well, I doubt one can be aware of these kind of name duplications although I wish the same if it really is a duplicate.
Still, the name fits the map perfectly given it's theme and the gameplay style.

A quick map search in custom maps section would reveal this. This is also why I didn't like Delacroix and Ronin renaming DmVilla2f into DmVilla for the revised version of the "Division" pack, because there was already a custom map called DMVilla, though arguably a little harder to find, it caused mismatches, with the new 227 system that's not a big deal because it tends to download a separate version either way, but for older clients definitely a problem. (and that wasn't the only problem with the division maps *cough* ronin)

I always believe one should try to keep a unique name. This is why I often start using prefixes with my ut beta map conversions etc to make sure of that.

It could have still kept the map title, just a little change like DmHRiot or RiotH or something, H for Hellkeeper, or anything else to differentiate the filename. The original DMRiot isn't so unknown map (and it has nothing to do with this one PLUS the name matches it more than this since it involved actual prison riot).

You made this topic in about every Unreal forum now though. I mean I don't mind the map itself at all, but this is starting to border on something.

[makemeunreal]

The sole cause of opening these topics is to spread "the word".
I know you are registered on pretty all the forums (just like me) but I highly doubt others are like that as well.

[Leo(T.C.K.)]

Ah ok. But since this map was around in 2012 already it is kind of "late".

However I have decided I will convert the map for Unreal 225 (calling it RiotH) and for UT as well, as "DMU-RiotH". I will also convert the classic DmRiot with a ctf variation based on the nnctf mod (the latest version fails though because it no longer matches the level title so it had to be adjusted to play again on nnctf).

I've prepared tons of maps and goodies to release in a batch again later. And I think converting both versions of Riot should be a thing.

It won't have all the 227 features of course and the projectors are being replaced by panels.

But you inspired me to make that so other players (ut especially) will at least enjoy the map in some form.

[Leo(T.C.K.)]

Well...I worked on this for a while, basically had the plain Unreal version ready. All the "ammo weapons" deco was converted to Knife and all the other stuff to brushes.

I had a bit of a problem with the movers, first trying to use a trick by assigning it a brush=model# manually but obviously the engine doesn't like that. so I had to create new movers and paste in the properties from the other one in a text editor and then paste it back and move it to position...
on 227 all works swel........and

well

but on unreal 225 and ut...of course the collision is broken as it doesn't use the "good collision" and thus paths to the lift are fucking blocked or you can get stuck and now i've really had it because Tim, why did you make movers sucha broken hack...its just so...
i can't have it anymore its just so so fuckin

RAW

[Leo(T.C.K.)]

I posted the release here:
viewtopic.php?t=15938

[Swanky]

Looks like a solid map adopted from the collective knowledge of decades of arena shooters. Weapon placement looks a bit sparse looking at the gameplay footage, and I would have liked having a few more landmarks here and there but it works well enough. Then again, I haven't played the map myself nor did I look at the technical side of things but I've known Hellkeeper to be very quite thorough in his technical knowledge and the map just judging by the video footage matches that fairly well.
Nice to see people are still dedicated to the craft and putting out new, high quality maps.

[Hellkeeper]

Looks like a solid map adopted from the collective knowledge of decades of arena shooters. Weapon placement looks a bit sparse looking at the gameplay footage, and I would have liked having a few more landmarks here and there but it works well enough. Then again, I haven't played the map myself nor did I look at the technical side of things but I've known Hellkeeper to be very quite thorough in his technical knowledge and the map just judging by the video footage matches that fairly well.
Nice to see people are still dedicated to the craft and putting out new, high quality maps.

I'm a cretin and back then I was a young cretin, so don't give me too much credit. All the things you noted are probably legitimate.