Under Destruction Beta Version 9 is available for download here:http://digilander.iol.it/flagraiders/files/temporary/z_udestruction-version09.pk3(Link may not be effective forever)I suppose that removing previous versions is advisable, however probably it's not strictly necessary.
Changelog against
beta version 8:
1) - Added "deformvertexes autosprite2" parameter to sparks over jump-pads, this makes them slightly more visibile (they look the same width not counting your -horizontal- angle). Do you like it? For some reason, adding that parameter caused those brushes to project their shadow on near walls, I fixed it just by moving that parameter before others... mystery!
2) - Updated bouncepads and accelerator pads shaders. GrosBedo told me that he liked the metallic color of their image files, but that color was not visible in V8 due to the green light... so I changed the color of the light they emit from green to grey. I also added extra animation effects, do you like them?
3) - According to GrosBedo suggestion, I rotated the sparks above the accelerator pads, to make them sloping. I like the result, although this rotation caused some "duplicate plane" warnings appear during BSPC compiling (I did not did not rotate them since the beginning due to fear of that). However, considering they are "nonsolid" detail brushes, I *hope* this may not be a major problem... I see bots continue to correctly use the jump-pads just under them.
4) - Some portions of the map have been retexturized (e.g. the ground and the outer "curved walls", the hall of pillars -including some red shingles-, etc.).
5) - Little aesthetic changes in the steps inside the house.
6) - Added a border around the highest tower (execept around the corners), very near to the top... to help jumping there from the roof of the warehouse. Also allows to quickly go there with the grapple.
7) - Some "player clip" bounding around some non-axial woody boxes.
8) - Slightly reworked roof of the prison.
9) - Reworked warehouse wall (in the lower part, near to the ground).
10) - Added a few extra brushes outside the "city entrance" (BFG building), and a woody board inside it.
11) - Added background music, according to Akom74's suggestion. Of course it's just one of OA088 stock musics.
12) - Removed a few "small health" and "armor shard" bonuses here and there (once I found a guy on Pelya's server, and he told me there were too many health bonuses)... some small bonuses have been slightly moved consequently. Also removed two or three ammo boxes, and changed position of a couple.
13) - IIRC, Pelya told that it was still difficult to find the Double Domination point inside the tower, so I added a new simple shader effect around it, visible in DD mode only. Do you like it?
14) - Pelya told that the flag or DD point inside the ruined tower was too difficult to defend, and that walking there he stepped on the central jumppad when he did not want. So I added a plasmagun in the tower, and added some small brushes to have some more "walking area" between the central jump-pad and the four holes at the corners, although this required me some time trying to adjust the push destination of the two jump-pads below. Could you please check if everything is ok now? Adding the balcony with the plasma has got the side effect of making it possible to jump from a tower to the other one, at least if you have the speed powerup.
15) - Slightly enlarged Environment Suit platform.
16) - Added a step from the aqueduct to the warehouse external stairs, due to the fact for some unknown reason bots did not do that simple jump.
17) - Some brushwork inside the cistern, to give the idea of where the water from the aqueduct goes. That part also shows some drops falling... Do you like it or is it horrible?
18) - Sky modified, now the clouds are partially grey and partially green. Also tweaked the illumination parameters. Some other small light fixes. I REALLY NEED YOU GUYS TELL ME IF MAP ILLUMINATION IS CORRECT. It does change too much from a machine to the other, from windowed to fullscreen, when touching the gamma slider, etc, so I'm not able to establish. Please tell me if it's ok, or if the map (or specific parts of it) is too dark or too bright.
19) - Modified the shader of the colums of the temple, now it shows a much less shiny effect. Previous version did much better hide the line where the texture touches itself without being perfectly aligned (I have not been able to proplerly set aligment properties of textures on curves), but it looked like too innatural, don't you think? Added similar texture also to the two central colums in the hall of pillars (but there, without any shiny effect at all).
20) - Placed a small "balcony" also at the window of the cistern.
21) - Added a "Podium" target_location for the place with personal teleporter/kamikaze/invulnerability (I was not sure if to choose "podium" or "double staricase" name...). I also renamed the target locations for the near tower from "Higher tower" to "Highest tower": which of the two names is more correct?
22) - Made a small part of the roof of the warehouse a little higher, since I discovered that before, playing at fixed 125Hz physics, the accelerator pad placed on the roof of the house would have sent me slightly off-target, ending up inside the building instead of on the top of it. A reminder that all maps should be tested at 125 Hz physics AND at 90 Hz physics AND at Accurate physics.
23) - Included a "readme" file, with various (more or less useful) infos. It does already mention version 1.0... but of course in reality this is beta version 9. Is it ok?
24) - "Copying" (GPLv2) file now should look correctly also with standard Windows Notepad.
25) - I hope now the .arena file makes the map appear in all the gametypes I planned (all except Tournament and Single Player), however this has to be checked. By the way, I'm still waiting for some clarification about .arena files (from Sago007 or from soneone else) about what I wrote
in this post.
26) Modified grapple respawn time from default (IIRC, 30 seconds in TDM and 5 seconds in all other modes) to 15 seconds. Is this a good or bad idea?
What do you think, guys? Tell me your impressions, bugs you find, etc.
However, after tomorrow morning I will not be able to do anything (probably not even reading the forum) for 10-15 days. In the meanwhile, please test the map in various gametypes, offline and online if possible, and then tell me.
I think the map is more or less 98% complete... however I may do further polishing depending from your feedback... and maybe
I should do some try with dividing the map using "cluster portals" to try avoiding those short game stops that one can notice especially when there are various bots in the arena. But I'm completely new with this kind of stuff... do you wanna do some tests in the meanwhile, or tell me how could these adapt to a map with the shape of mine?
PS: I just noticed in Q3Radiant manual
here that a shader like "/common/invisible" or "/common/noimpact" (I have to understand the difference) can be used to create a surface that is not drawn, but that would be marked by weapon fire... and then be used for having marks appear even in places where you used func_static (with gametype key) to show different textures depending from gametype. This sounds interesting, and may be worth a try, although I fear that this may have some problems (the mark appearing floating in the air), unless your func_static decorative brush occupies the same space of another brush... however I can't tell before trying. If someone has got more infos about this, he can share them...
Poll
