[REL] OpenArena Community Mappack - Volume 1 - FINAL

[Neon_Knight]

I'm starting to pack the files for the first beta, hopefully I have at least one map from each author.

So far:
* Jan, .map files for your maps, where they are? They're required for GPLv2 compliance. Also the sources, are they the same as in the other thread?

[jangroothuijse]

oajgdm2alpha health and safety note:

One of the teleporters-exits or spawnpoints has slightly off-camber orientation, causing your viewport to go slightly off camber...

If anyone finds out which one, pls do tell...

[pelya]

oajgdm2alpha: the map overall is okay, maybe a bit too detailed - it's sometimes confusing to tell where you are, and how to reach that powerup you see on the other side.
Teleporter look just like a wall. It should have some animated texture.
The one armor powerup is easily accessible with jump pad and teleporter - I would remove teleporter, and put jumppad  at different angle, so it's clear you're not jumping straight up. Another armor powerup at the top is accessible only with rocket-jump, or some heavy acrobatics with nearby jumppad, I would make it more easy to access.
BTW I did not notice any FPS drop, probably because Android OA port does not support shaders.

oa_akomdm4: well it's almost perfect. Three rails for a moving platform make it too easy to access, I would leave two, or maybe just one rail. Anyway, if you say it's finished, then it's finished it's already quite good.

[Akom74]

oa_akomdm4: well it's almost perfect. Three rails for a moving platform make it too easy to access, I would leave two, or maybe just one rail. Anyway, if you say it's finished, then it's finished it's already quite good.

I meant that's finished for the beta-release. For the official pack maybe some changes will be done. I mean even the other maps.

[Gig]

Hi Akom!
Congrats for the cockpit, it's great.  
I agree with Pelya saying people should have some reason to see the cabin. He proposed to place some item over the top of the lateral sections, but you see very little of the cabin from there. I suggest, instead, to place a powerup just on the top of the nose of the ship, right in front of the cabin. A quad damage may be too much, considering it's near to the rocket launcher: maybe one may move the rocket lucher or (maybe better) place a megahealth or a "haste" (speed) on the nose. I would suggest the haste.  

I would also suggest to add a "stripe" of a different color in the front part of the ship... its colors look like too "flat" now.

You may also consider adding some thin wings, laterally.

See first screenshot for these three things.

Hey, you didn't fix the glitch I mentioned in the previous post... See the second screenshot.

A thing I would ask to all people here is if they prefer the current blue-violet stars or the white ones of the first versions of the map. I'm not sure...

@jangroothuijse: nice map, maybe a bit cahotic, but nice. Teleporters should however be more easy so identify.

What's the meaning of making a beta of the whole package so early, if we have not yet seen anything from Neon knight?  

PS: to all mappers... why don't you add Double Domination support to your maps? I think it's possible also if you are using the classic q3radiant to map...

[Neon_Knight]

Neither Moixie nor Peter Silie also delivered their maps yet. That's why we've shifted the original deadlines.
I'll try to complete my maps as much as possible this week.

[Akom74]

Final Version !!

Wouldn't call it like that so far. The outside of the ship could use some more than just geometric contrasts (like textural or even lighting) as I only look at the screenshot.

You are right, but i look at the playability first. By the way, i'm making some stripe as suggested by GiG 

@Gig: On the "nose" of the ship i've inserted the portable teleporter, it's more useful with a map where you can fall down 
....and sorry, no wings 

@Pelya: I leave three rails in the moving platform, because it's dangerous like before but BOTs play better.

@Neon_Knight: I'm working on my fifth map called "The Sanctuary"........ It remember you something ? 

 

[Gig]

@Gig: On the "nose" of the ship i've inserted the portable teleporter, it's more useful with a map where you can fall down  
....and sorry, no wings  

Yes, I assume a personal teleporter may be a nice idea in this map.   For the wings, you are the artist, man. But anyway I hope you do not work for BOEING or NASA...   The ship already looks more aerodynamic than in the first versions, but the lack of any kind of wing still sounds a little strange, IMO.

@Pelya: I leave three rails in the moving platform, because it's dangerous like before but BOTs play better.

I suppose the danger is that someone may shoot at you and cause you fall down, right? By the way, does the platform being moving have any purpose anymore? It's just a question.

@Neon_Knight: I'm working on my fifth map called "The Sanctuary"........ It remember you something ?  

Saint Seiya/Knights of the Zodiac maybe?

PS: Akom, did I already told you that at least oa_akomdm3 really should be listed for Elimination/Last Man Standing in the .arena file?

PPS: (Yes, I know I use too much post scriptums...) Considering oa_akomdm4 is supposed to be a futuristic spaceship, maybe you may use some more of the "metallic" textures used for example in WRACKDM17 map for some details of the ship, to have it seem made with less concrete and more metal (especially the outside)... Also some graphical details used in PUL1DUEL-OA map may fit well (take a look to that map, it's nice at look).

@Neon_Knight: I hope in your maps for support for Team Arena weapons, items, runes and gametypes (plus OA-specific gametypes).  ;)a

[Neon_Knight]

TA-gametypes can be supported by any CTF map.

At least the CTF map I'm doing will support TA items/weapons. In fact, considering the trend, it could even be the only map with TA support in the pack.

[Gig]

TA-gametypes can be supported by any CTF map.

All three of them (Overload, Harvester, One flag CTF) absolutely require some items that are not included in the standard q3radiant (the obelisks, the skull generator, the white flag), IIRC. Is there a simple way to set it for TA? Akom (and jangroothuijse, IIRC) are mapping with q3radiant, not with GTKRadiant or NetRadiant.




About texture choice, maybe some mappers do not know this page:
(DO NOT LINK) h t t p s : / / openarena . wikia . com/wiki/Texture_packs

[Peter Silie]

Neither Moixie nor Peter Silie also delivered their maps yet. That's why we've shifted the original deadlines.
I'll try to complete my maps as much as possible this week.

Jep, i am very late but i had to survive carnival.
I hope to make some progress this week and for a 1st look, i will include my .map file so you can take a look.

[fromhell]

Btw, Neon_Knight, when it's released, you have my word on making a news post topic and me moving it to the front page of the site.

[sago007]

All three of them (Overload, Harvester, One flag CTF) absolutely require some items that are not included in the standard q3radiant (the obelisks, the skull generator, the white flag), IIRC. Is there a simple way to set it for TA?

You can likely add custom entities by placing entity that the editor known and then change the classname to the relevant entity. The editor will not show the model but you can still place the origin and for TA-items knowing the origin is the most important thing because it must be aligned with the ground.

[pelya]

Since all maps will be open-source, we can add those entities by ourselves, so let's not distract Akom's creativity with such boring little details. I have latest GTKRadiant installed, I've even launched it once and loaded some map, but it was too complicated for my little brains  .

[Neon_Knight]

Btw, Neon_Knight, when it's released, you have my word on making a news post topic and me moving it to the front page of the site.

Yay!

@TheRest (?) you've heard of it, team! Let's work!

Since all maps will be open-source, we can add those entities by ourselves, so let's not distract Akom's creativity with such boring little details. I have latest GTKRadiant installed, I've even launched it once and loaded some map, but it was too complicated for my little brains  .

http://www.leveldk.co.uk

That's a very good place to start.

[Gig]

Btw, Neon_Knight, when it's released, you have my word on making a news post topic and me moving it to the front page of the site.

I hope also that the sources may be placed in the OA svn (in a dedicated branch), and the pk3 package placed in the downloads section of the main site. Will it be so?
By the way, is it good the name "community mappack" or maybe something like "official mappack" would make it more likely to be installed by people?

@Akom:
You know my fool ideas...  
Looking at that pilots cockpit, I was thinking it looks like something is missing... the pilot! So I thought about this ("Otto") or this (do you remember?)... so I wondered if it may be possible to place a character from OpenArena inside the cockpit... I thought about the upper part of Skelebot to act as a built-in autopilot.  
Maybe that's too much, and you could simply place a screen showing the word "AUTO" in the middle of the dashboard, instead.^[1] What do you think about this?  

PS:

A thing I would ask to all people here is if they prefer the current blue-violet stars or the white ones of the first versions of the map. I'm not sure...

Any comment?


^[1]And I have not Idea if Skelebot will be there and will be exactly the same in OA3... some changes in the model may bring to texture problems when later loading this version of the model (fused into the map itself) under the future OA3, unless one includes a copy of its current textures in the mappack itself, to be sure. Probably just using a display with "AUTO" is simpler.

[pelya]

Blue stars are okay for me, I would even add some yellow stars, if possible. More stars never hurt

[Akom74]

I'm working on "the Sanctuary", inspired by UT3 DM-Sanctuary..... ....
....maybe soon i  give you some screenshots  

For modify some aspects of my maps, please, in the release will be placed the original .map file, if you want you can change every thing you want, otherwise you can wait after the beta and hear what  other players think of the maps. Did you note that the original .map file already is in the PK3 released earlier ?

[Neon_Knight]

Oh, pretty cool! Though I never played a lot that map, but I see where it's going.

[pelya]

Isn't that map supposed to have vehicles?

[Neon_Knight]

No, it's a Deathmatch map. AFAIK, Sanctuary has no vehicles. You might be confusing it for VCTF-Necropolis.

[Akom74]

Isn't that map supposed to have vehicles?

Vehicles in OA ?? ....  

Nevermind at the missing textures
I dont have a skybox to emulate the original map, but i have make one miself with textures of OA and my script.
I have to say that the slime texture sucks a lot, and i think to remove it, or make one miself ... ...

 

[Akom74]

Ok, i have removed the slime because i think to create a couple of lower passage and make that floor playable.
I've changed some textures and go forward with the map.
Here is an update:

I think it's time to try other mappers creation, can we try them ?  

[fromhell]

Vehicles in OA ?? ....  

While vehicles may be fun to have, it's impractical because of the already fast moving player physics.  UT2004 tried to compensate that by making players appear very tiny in levels.
It might be practical if, the said vehicles were drivable boats, because players aren't quite as fast in a liquid, and boat wars are fun! Plus, boats are a bit easier to code since you could get away with a fixed altitude.

Don't know if brush-entity vehicles are possible in Q3BSP (with brush rotation and collision), however.  That would be better since it would leave the creativity up to the mapper, who could either design the boat by brush, or by assigning a model, and having weapons on it, like Shadow Warrior

[Akom74]

Vehicles in OA ?? ....  

While vehicles may be fun to have, it's impractical because of the already fast moving player physics.  UT2004 tried to compensate that by making players appear very tiny in levels.
It might be practical if, the said vehicles were drivable boats, because players aren't quite as fast in a liquid, and boat wars are fun! Plus, boats are a bit easier to code since you could get away with a fixed altitude.

Don't know if brush-entity vehicles are possible in Q3BSP (with brush rotation and collision), however.  That would be better since it would leave the creativity up to the mapper, who could either design the boat by brush, or by assigning a model, and having weapons on it, like Shadow Warrior

Seem interesting, but i'd prefer a MD3 model