3 maps in 1 topic: oa_reptctf3/11 and am_thornish

[|TXC| Neon_Knight]

oa_reptctf3

Version: a3

Main changes on oa_reptctf3 compared to original version:
- Jumppads below flag ledge are now moved onto the opposite wall. There's also a jumppad near the flag which goes to a new ledge with Railgun. Basically when you enter to the enemy base you should turn onto the left or right and walk into the jumppad to make it work.
- There's a new X-shaped crossing between the two paths. This one has a pit of death with two wood bridges which have a Quad Damage or the Neutral flag. Harvester skull generators are onto the side hallways, (there are two of them) due to the skulls to get lost easily in the pit. That means that the teams now have 3 ways to get onto their/enemy base, and can cross paths where before wasn't possible at all.
- Item/weapon placement redone:
  * Weapons: Rocket Launcher, Plasma Gun, Railgun, Lightning Gun, Nailgun.
  * Items: Body Armor, Health 5, Health 25, Health 50.
  * Powerups: Quad Damage. (Not available on 1FCTF)
- Also redone are the spawnspots.

Changes on a2:
- Kit's changes.
- Removed death pit.
- Added Team Items (a.k.a. Runes ) for Missionpack.
- Added weapon bases.
- Switched Railgun for RL, Nailgun for Railgun and RL for Nailgun. Also switched Rocket & Nailgun ammo.
- Removed Quad and put an Invis in its place. It will only spawn for CTF, Overload, eCTF and DD, being replaced by Neutral Flag on 1FCTF and by Neutral obelisk on Harvester.
- Removed both neutral obelisks at side passages.
- Added place locations for objective-based games.
- Minor cosmetic changes, like the window behind the flag and trims.

Changes on a3:
- The center of the map is now a big area. It has new entrances to bases, (the player on the lower area have to use the jumppads) and holds the neutral objectives and a team of Regen/Invulnerability which replaces Haste on the old version.
- Added banners to passages to lower base-camping.
- Removed all the diagonal jumppads on the bases. Now there're only two horizontal jumppads which goes from base floor to flag area.
- Lowered the balcony.
- Added three new upper entrances, two bridges guide to the lateral ones and the mid one goes from the center to the balcony.
- Added Shotgun at the old Railgun spot, both Railguns are now in the middle area.
- Added two Ammo Regens per base at the upper lateral corridors, along with the other 6 runes already there. (2xScout, 2xGuard and 2xDoubler) for a total of 8 runes.
- Added more detail and arrows guiding to bases.
- Ammo & health redistribution.

To do:
- Botclipping & clusterportaling.

Screenshots:

oa_reptctf11

Version: a4

Main changes on oa_reptctf11 compared to original version:
- Texturizing, obviously.
- Weapon/item placement entirely redone:
  * Weapons: Rocket Launcher, Plasma Gun, Railgun, Lightning Gun, Nailgun.
  * Items: Body Armor, Armor Shard, Health 50, Health 25, Health 5.
  * Powerups: Quad Damage.
- Flag base changed.
- Added doors behind the new flag position.
- In the middle hole there're two jumppads and a Quad Damage.

New changes in a2:
- Replaced right stair at both bases with a tunnel entry. That can work great for 1FCTF and Harvester. If it doesn't work, those will be out.
- Moved Lightning Gun to this new tunnel.
- Sunked a bit the floor on both bases.
- Replaced Quad with Invis. Same as Quad before, it will only be available on CTF, Overload, eCTF and DD.
- New acc_dm3 textures for blue base with oa_dm3 theme. Only a (sucky, but incredibly well) color change over the texture with GIMP's Hue & Saturation tool. () I'll be applying these textures to am_lavactf* too.

Changes in a3:
- The center area is enclosed. Now there's no way to see bases facing each other.
- Replaced Railgun with Prox (KEEP READING!!!) This Prox has 30 sec. of respawn and no ammo on the level. That should limit the weapon. However, I'm afraid that with the following point, this limit would be broken. :/
- Added Ammo Regen & Guard, 1 per base. Also, there's a neutral Doubler in the middle area.
- Moved Lightning to the upper floor.
- Moved Nailgun ammo to the center area.
- Added Plasma + ammo in bases.
- Many minor changes, like arrows pointing to the bases.

Changes in a3v2:
- Replaced Ammo Regen by another Guard. That should revert the balance back to normal.

Changes in a4:
- Fixed a wrongly-placed blue spawnpoint (a blue one on the red base)
- Added another Rocket Launcher per base. Also, replaced the Doubler by a Lightning Gun in the middle area.
- Opened another one-way entrance, above the lower entrances to the middle area. Can be rocket-jumped, tho, as an exit.
- Replaced Nail ammo by Rocket ammo.
- Teamed-up Invisibility with a Battle Suit in the middle zone.
- Domination: moved some player_starts to the bases.
- Many minor changes like texture alignment fixing.

To do:
- Bot clipping & clusterportaling.

Screenshots:

COMING SOON...

am-thornish

Version: a3.

This map is based on the Unreal Tournament series' CTF-Thorns* series of maps. This one is/was intented to be a "fun map", not a competitive one. Though, I seized it to put two "rare" items in there: the BFG and the Flight powerup.

Weapons: Shotgun, Rocket Launcher, Lightning Gun, Railgun, BFG, Nailgun, Prox Launcher
Items: Health, Large health, Small Health, MegaHealth, Armor Shard, Body Armor
Powerups: Quad Damage, Flight

a2 changes:
- New sky. I use my fav one, and it looks great with the level.
- Weapon/item placement changes:
  * Moved Railgun and Prox Launcher to middle area
  * Switched Shotgun @ flag base with Rocket Launcher and Prox Launcher @ Left Side with Shotgun.
  * Moved ammo tho. There's a lot of ammo switches that I didn't remember.
- Moved two spawn spots in the flag base to the zone below of the ledges.
- Pillars turned on cylinders.

a3 changes:
- Deleted jumppads going to RA area. You can use the pillars anyway.
- Improved geometry.

Screenshots:

Video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lZpF0BoeYbM

The maps listed below have felt into DisContinuity

Reasons:

* oa_dm1v2 has a new revision, by kit89, anyone, and me. Feedback is welcome here => http://openarena.ws/board/index.php?topic=3426.0
* oa_dm5... it needs A LOT of work, and I won't be able to work on it anymore. :/

The links and info below are left for the record.  If someone wants to continue the work on this map, he/she is free to do it.
oa_dm5v2

Version: a2.

Changes on a1:
- 2X scale
- Entire weapon/item placement redone. Items: Body armor, Health, ArmorShard, MiniHealth, MH. Weapons: Shotgun, Railgun, Rocket Launcher, Plasma Gun, Lightning Gun. Powerups: Haste. And also there's ammo for Machinegun.
- Added a new wide hall between north hall and south hall. (The one where Shotgun was, now there's a Lightning Gun here) Plus, there's now a passage from water zone (the old with Quad and Lightning, now there's only Railgun there) to this hall. The lower zone also has a jumppad.
- Button-triggered door and the button itself are gone.

Changes on a2:
- Fixed stairs next to MH room.
- Rearranged roots in the east hall (the one with Armor Shards, 1xLarge Health & Small Heaths in the upper road and some ammo in the lower one) Now is possible to use roots to climb. ^^
- Lowered two borders near Red Armor.
- Minor structural and detail changes.
- New levelshot.

To do:
- Bot clipping & clusterportaling.
- Increase overall brightness through q3map2? Though I like how the level feels there're some very darkish areas there I want to scrap out.
- Fix brushes, specially those which have all their faces texturized.

Screenshots:

oa_dm1v2

Version: a3

a1 changes:
- Removed lava pool
- Removed almost all the triggers (except the one which the MH was, now there's a Quad Damage there)
- Weapon/item placement 100% redone
- New hallway which connects (former) Invisibility road with the former lava pool room. The Invis item is now on this new hall.
- Retexturizing of the entire map: now non-visible faces shouldn't be drawn anymore.
- Added sky zones.
- Minor & major structural changes.
- The button-triggered bridge hasn't a trigger anymore.
- Added some patches to ceilings.
- Enlarged in Z-axis all the ceilings.

a2 changes: (Very minor)
- Fixed caulking.
- Removed bar trigger & bars.
- Cosmetic changes.
- a2v2: Added the map to Domination.

a3 changes:
- Fixed items not showing up on SP.


Item info:
  * Weapons: Grenade Launcher, Rocket Launcher, Plasma Gun, Railgun, Lightning Gun, Nailgun.
  * Powerups: Invisibility.
  * Others: Body Armor, Armor Shard, Megahealth, Health 50, Health 25, Health 5.

To do:
- Hinting
- Clusterportaling
- Improve wood entrances

Screenshots:

And... of course... give shape to McKinleyish2, finish Underworks, and sketch my idea for the Non-Sym map. (Maybe Underworks can be the industrial flag base/side) Almost all of my other maps (lava* series, q3dm6ishv3 & ctf, galmevish) are in the SVNC thread, so I surely won't work on these until new version goes out. Also, I should still contact boczeq in order to make him release the original Blitzkrieg under GPLv2.

[|TXC| Neon_Knight]

Read first post for download links and info on oa_dm5.

[|TXC| Neon_Knight]

Read first post for info on am_thornish.

[chaoticsoldier]

I had a few test games with bots.

oa_dm5:
When I tested this map it reminded me of a movie I saw once. Perhaps a scale of 1.5x is enough? That was my impression. Maybe this is just because I'm so used to the current size. We'll have to see what others think about this.
I like the weapon placement though. Ammo is further away from the weapons, which is better. I found I was travelling the map more. I'm also pleased the door's gone and the RL has moved. Too many campers tried to hog the RL and MH


am-thornish:
This map is great! BFG + Flight = FUN. One thing I found with this map is that apart from getting the BFG and Flight, I had no other reason to jump onto the side ledges. Did you intend for them to be used much? There is so many supplies on the lower level, I don't have to go far. Maybe moving some ammo onto the ledges will help?
Having spawn points so close to the centre provides lots of easy frags, because that's where most of the action is. Maybe they can be moved outward towards the edges of the map? (or onto the ledges?)
CTF is more difficult than it looks, because of how open the route between the flags is. This is a good thing. No complaints there.


Neon_Knight, you're a legend!

[|TXC| Neon_Knight]

Thanks for the comments!!! ^^

As for thornish, I'll be moving some ammo to the ledge and center of the map (Maybe mine and nail ammo there?) The idea is to use both of them at the same quantity, or let the player choose where to go.
One thing I didn't convinced me is its size tho. Maybe I'll make the map a little bit bigger than it actually is, 1.5x more.

As for oa_dm5, the scale is because I was too lazy to reduce texture sizing. Another thing I want to do is to reduce borders of the water pit near Lightning/RA zone and other areas. And to bring some detail to the connection between water zone and new hall.

[kit89]

For am-thornish, may I suggest you change the pillars to Cylinders, that way they will look nice and round.  It also means they wont be included in the Vis compile, unless you've already set them to detail brush.

If you do decide to use Cylinders. You'll want to add -patchshadows to the light  command, so your patches/cylinders cast shadows.

Looking excellent, keep it up!

[|TXC| Neon_Knight]

I forgot to switch those pillars to detail. -.- I was getting too slept to go on, but I'll see what can I do today.

[|TXC| Neon_Knight]

Changes for am_thornish:

- New sky. I use my fav one, and it looks great with the level.
- Weapon/item placement changes:
  * Moved Railgun and Prox Launcher to middle area
  * Switched Shotgun @ flag base with Rocket Launcher and Prox Launcher @ Left Side with Shotgun.
  * Moved ammo tho. There's a lot of ammo switches that I didn't remember.
- Moved two spawn spots in the flag base to the zone below of the ledges.
- Pillars turned on cylinders.

To do (later)
- Bot clipping & clusterportaling.

Link and screenshots are in this post.

[bill-----]

oa_dm5

Wow.  It's BIG!  And it looks very good.  The textures came through the change well.

Lighting looks OK too.  The only dark spot,  on and under the walkway where the haste is,
looks good as it is.  I'm no fan of dark spots for campers to hide in, but the water level
could have even lower lighting.


The Quad will not be missed.  Nor will I miss banging my head on the overhead walkway while trying to get to the button for the MH room door.


RG will be more important than ever due to the longer straight passageways.  Moving it to it's current location was a good placement decision.


The water level becomes much more interesting. 

Before, it was just the place you went to to get the Quad/LG combo, and of course everyone
knew you would soon be emerging from the only exit and had a hail of rockets and grenades
ready for you.  Not very satisfying.

Now with the extra exit (and entry!) point, and due to the size of the map, the water level is actually useful for getting from
one part of the map to the other.   Further, the water level is now large enough that players can fight in the water
as in "The Abandoned Base" and "Trial by Error".    The winner gets the RG!


The larger size gave me ideas about some connectivity changes (I hesitate to call them improvements :-) )
that could be made.  The easy way would be to add some jump pads, and I think the jump pad is the right choice
for the use you have put it by the new RG location (Very tasteful texture for the jump pad, by the way.).
However, I had a couple of ideas that don't need much in the way of structural changes.

The wall where the large roots are has always irritated me, because could I visualize using the protruding blocks to
get from the lower passageway to the upper walkway, but that wall is clipped.

Now with the size change, I see a opportunity to realize my fantasy!  By rearranging the roots and removing the
clip brush, it's difficult but possible to get to the upper walkway there. 

Another possibility is in the room with three columns where the RA once was.  I've imagined that one of the
columns has collapsed, and the rubble gives a jump short-cut to the center passageway.   I made a crude modification
for illustrative purposes that works, but is still a little too tricky to execute reliably. 

q3map2 that comes with GtkRadiant 1.6 failed to compile the map while entities were inside hint and clip
brushes ("Entity #, leaked" message). Didn't test with earlier versions.  I removed those brushes to get the map
to compile for my experiments.  Some area lights were also affected though they weren't enclosed by brushes,
but I couldn't figure out why.  As you further refine the map, think about reducing the thickness
of those brushes so that they don't enclose entities.


A successful venture, indeed.  Well done, and I am looking forward to the final product!


I had screenshots, but attachments didn't work for me :-(.

[ban]

use imgcake.com or your fav image uploading site

[|TXC| Neon_Knight]

Thanks for the poetic comments, bill.

Using roots to get into the upper level is very ut3ish, can be fun if well used.
I want to make that dark spot to be gone too. It will be.

I'd like to note that I use normally GTKR 1.5. But some maps on the SVN are on 1.4/Quark. :/

[|TXC| Neon_Knight]

Things from both reptctf3 and reptctf11 readme:

If you like this map and you want to make some changes, email me at:

Code:

firefast@e-free.gr

and i'll send you the .map file, hoping you 'll be decent about it.

Maybe can I (or someone here) contact him to see if he can/like to release his maps under GPL?

[Cacatoes]

Yes, I think it's worth trying.
I could email him, but I let you do the job unless you insist

[|TXC| Neon_Knight]

EDIT: He's Greek. Forget what I've said...
But if you want to contact him, then go for it.

[|TXC| Neon_Knight]

oa_dm5-a2 ready to be downloaded. ^^

Changes:
- Fixed stairs next to MH room.
- Rearranged roots in the east hall (the one with Armor Shards, 1xLarge Health & Small Heaths in the upper road and some ammo in the lower one) Now is possible to use roots to climb.
- Lowered two borders near Red Armor.
- Minor structural and detail changes.
- New levelshot.

Screenshots and download link is here.

[Peter Silie]

it would be great if he can give you the .map files.
good luck!

[bill-----]

oa_dm5. 

The roots work well!  Much smoother than my experiment.  I used smaller
roots to bridge the gap between protruding blocks, and climbed from the
opposite direction.

I really hadn't paid attention to the roots that come out of the walls
of the map before now. While I was checking out the root next to one of the
teleporters I noticed that I could walk behind the teleporter.  The gap is too
narrow on the small version of the map.

From the back sides of that teleporter, the portal camera shows an almost all white view,
like clouds.  Probably related to the distance the teleporter is from the wall.  If you
approach the teleporter by walking along the back wall of the room, you can see
the image change from the expected view of the other passageway to the 'clouds'.

You could move the teleporters closer to the wall (or the close one further away from
the wall), cover the back side of them, or fix the camera.  Depends on what  you think
about the possibility of hiding behind that teleporter. 

I don't play much anymore and haven't played the original map with human opponents, but the
following gameplay occurs to me while looking at the double-sized one.  Perhaps it's a known tactic.

You could ambush a pursuer by hiding behind the teleporter, waiting for the teleporter
sound then entering the teleporter from the back side.  You might get
telefragged or get one yourself, or end up behind your opponent
who might just be turning to look because of the sound.  A similar situation
arises if you wait for someone to emerge and then get
the drop on them by stepping from behind the teleporter.

The teleporters don't touch the floor and so there's a gap between the teleporter frame
and the floor.  At the smaller scale it doesn't seem important.  However, with the new
size, If someone notices your feet below the teleporter frame then you will get a grenade
or rocket for your cleverness! 

This map is getting better and better!

[|TXC| Neon_Knight]

Sad & bad news... this is what I got:

This is an automatically generated Delivery Status Notification

THIS IS A WARNING MESSAGE ONLY.

YOU DO NOT NEED TO RESEND YOUR MESSAGE.

Delivery to the following recipient has been delayed:

Code:

firefast@e-free.gr

Message will be retried for 2 more day(s)

Technical details of temporary failure:
DNS Error: DNS server returned answer with no data

It seems like the mail is no longer that. :/

[|TXC| Neon_Knight]

Well... I couldn't stand with myself and since I haven't had any comment on my maps on this topic and the others, I'm working on redoing oa_dm1, to make it better. (Mental note: Make the NS map sketch ASAP -.-) This is the changelist ATM:

- Scale: 1.5X
- Removed lava pool
- Removed button triggers (except the one which the MH was, now there's a Quad Damage there)
- Weapon/item placement 100% redone
- New hallway which connects (former) Invisibility road with the former lava pool room. The Invis item is now on this new hall.
- Retexturizing of the entire map: now non-visible faces shouldn't be drawn anymore.
- Added sky zones.
- Minor & major structural changes.

The map isn't available yet. I'll take soon too oa_dm5 and oa_dm3 and make the same procedure to them to make non-visible faces not to be drawn by the game.

[ban]

Well... I couldn't stand with myself and since I haven't had any comment on my maps on this topic and the others,

You need comments?
They all look good.

[|TXC| Neon_Knight]

Read first post for info on oa_dm1.

[Marble of Doom]

dm1 looks good! I'm glad you got rid of the lava!

[bill-----]

Much easier to move around.  In spite of the increased size, it might even be faster
to 'run a lap' now because you can keep your bunny hop going. 

The jumps are more interesting now.  The double-jump from the corner to the opening
leading to the NG (oa_dm1_3.jpg) I can hit about 40-50%, about the same coming
the other way. Haven't settled on a method yet.  Fun!  I never used the retractable
bridge to get the YA that was there before, so that trigger won't be missed.  Won't miss the Quad
or lava either.

Bots get stuck on the door (vertical bars) to the teleporter room (oa_dm1_2.jpg).  I'm guessing because the
trigger is too far away from the entrance.  They accumulate there like ... hair in a bathtub
drain.  Could try moving the trigger closer or onto the floor.   Since you now can walk between the leftmost
bar and the wall anyway, maybe remove the trigger and widen the gaps between the bars.

In the room (oa_dm1_4.jpg) with the many pillars, it would be good to be able to jump from the
lower floor to the upper walkway between the pillars. 

I had to laugh when I found the Invisibility power-up. :-)

I think item placement is OK, but I need to think a little about it a little more.  The current
placement makes sense - have the big items outside the main battle area.  On the natural circuit
(clockwise as seen from above), you can get a big stack fast, RA->NG->RG->MH, though.
Might be a problem for 1v1, but probably not with FFA since the other players may
have already picked up some or all of those items. If the other 1v1 player gets RL, PG or LG,
and SG and maybe the Regen he should be OK if there's a confrontation in a hallway.

[|TXC| Neon_Knight]

Regen? I didn't put a Regen on the map.

Anyway, thanks for the comments. And BTW, I found a caulk I missed out, so maybe before the week ends you'll have another version.

[chaoticsoldier]

I actually miss the lava    (But I'm probably the only person that does ).
The lava would be more useful now, seeing it's significantly harder to jump across that gap.

I noticed bots don't go for the mega health, but I guess this is not too important. Also, the button on the wall looks funny, like the texture is repeated too many times.

bill----- covered most things in his comments, so I don't really need to say much. This version is a great improvement. It's a perfect size now and I think the item/weapon placement is suitable. I like it.