Author Topic: Everglades revision. (Read 5074 times)

James · « **on:** October 15, 2005, 03:35:58 AM »

This was one of the last maps I made before I stopped. There were some flaws, for example, anyone who had played it noticed the lighting was seriously messed. Not making the water transparent when I did final compile made the shadows go haywire. Everything is fixed and there's a new path that connects the paths together so you don't go one direction without running into the enemy. Still some changes to be made and additions that are going to be put in. Enjoy the pictures.

P.S. The lighting may seem dark in the pictures, but will most likely be better during gameplay.

P.S.S. Couldn't get it to attach to this forum so uploaded to rapidshare.

http://rapidshare.de/files/6332386/everglades_b1.bsp.html

XtremeBain · « **Reply #1 on:** October 15, 2005, 04:41:30 AM »

When can we expect to beta test this?

I'm also wondering how badly framerates will be affected with the large bodies of water. Walls could use some detail on the vertical axis, also maybe the tops could given some detail instead of being completely flush with the sky.

Eiii · « **Reply #2 on:** October 15, 2005, 09:17:14 AM »

Hmm... It looks good path-wise, but I think the paths themselves are a bit too big, or dont have enough stuff. But thats just me.

jitspoe · « **Reply #3 on:** October 15, 2005, 09:41:48 PM »

Cool, we'll test it on Tuesday and/or Wednesday around 10:00PM EDT -- we've been doing tests around then on a weekly basis. Just from the screenshots, though, I see a few textures that need to be aligned. There's a light in the base -- can't tell if it's misaligned or is longer than the other lights. Below that, in the shot with the barrels in the water, it looks like a brush is slightly misaligned -- there's a little sliver where it slopes down. Second to last shot: the side textures of the palette-type things need to be rotated, and maybe use a different texture too.

jitspoe · « **Reply #4 on:** October 15, 2005, 10:05:48 PM »

Ok, the file you uploaded is corrupt. It looks like all the null bytes were replaced with spaces. Perhaps try zipping it first?

James · « **Reply #5 on:** October 16, 2005, 04:57:07 PM »

Here this is .zip

http://rapidshare.de/files/6375539/everglade_b1.zip.html

James · « **Reply #6 on:** October 17, 2005, 11:12:04 PM »

I ran final compile after fixing the textures that you had a problem with. Fixing the slight fps drop you'd feel when you run the main part of the water. From testing runs by myself I've experienced no lag at all. You can beta test if you want, but this one is done, so I'll post it when you respond.

jitspoe · « **Reply #7 on:** October 18, 2005, 10:46:49 AM »

Well, post the new one and we'll test that tonight, then.

James · « **Reply #8 on:** October 18, 2005, 08:09:51 PM »

http://rapidshare.de/files/6463702/everglade_b2.zip.html

jitspoe · « **Reply #9 on:** October 18, 2005, 10:11:03 PM »

It seems to play pretty well. I'm a little concerned, though, that it will be too difficult to get the flag if a team plays defensively. That water makes you a floating duck.

A few minor nitpicks and suggestions:
- Still some lights in the yellow base that need to be fixed.
- The square barrels (or whatever you call them in the cave-ish areas) are misaligned in some spots.
- Sometimes the ammo is in front of the hopper so you have to run around behind it or get stuck with 40 rounds.
- Boxes generally float with 60+% beneath the water. Not a huge deal, but it looks kind of weird. The bobbing is cool though.
- You might try using phong shading on the grass (give the surfaces you want to blend together the same value, but don't check the light flag). This will make the ground appear smoother and less wedge-like.

James · « **Reply #10 on:** October 19, 2005, 12:48:55 AM »

I had already fixed most of those things

- Lights in yellow base fixed
- Support beams with the white barrel texture fixed
- I'll take a look at the spawns and which way they're facing to take into account what comes first.
- Just think of them as thin materials that has been hollowed out.
- I like the wedge look.

jitspoe · « **Reply #11 on:** October 19, 2005, 01:35:14 AM »

Oh, forgot to mention something -- the ladders: Make it so the top/back side doesn't have the ladder flag set. Sometimes you can touch them and get "stuck". As for the equipment -- I know there's one spot just outside of the base where you have an autococker and whatnot -- the hopper is back behind all of it, so if you exit the base, you have to walk around/jump over the ammo. Not a huge deal, but it will be inevitable that people will neglect to pick stuff up in the right order and go off stealing all the paint because they wasted a 200 round ammo pack. Going back into the base to retrieve equipment... well, you have the spawns going out, so I'm not sure what all can be done for that.

Edit: oh, one more thing -- scoot the whole level up above 0. This will ensure a more level playing field as people will not be able to exploit the roundoff error with high packet rates.

S8NSSON · « **Reply #12 on:** October 19, 2005, 07:50:46 AM »

Ok...here's my 2 cents on this map after playing in the beta game last night.

I like the map. I would definately play this map if it came up on rotation in a public server. I wouldn't mind matching on it either. Well built, nice terrain, unique, nice job!

A few things do bother me though. As Jitspoe pointed out the bases are tough. Definately not an easy flag grab, and even worse if guarded.

But my biggest complaint with this map is in one of the paths. Let's have a look at a little grphic I made to demonstrate:

Keep in mind that i've only played this map once, and that I was on the red team the whole time.

Path 1 is great. Both teams enter the highlighted (slow/fast) confrontation zones relatively guarded. From there it becomes a game of positioning for the shot. That's nice. Each team maintains an equal hand through this area.

Path 2, on the other hand, is a little biased towards the yellow depending on each players speed. As you can see, a fast player on both teams leaves the red player totally out in the open in water with the yellow player blazing around the corner. A slow red fast yellow leaves an almost exact scenerio to Path 1. A slow yellow fast red leaves a rather interesting confrontation around the stumpr or whatever they are.

Disclaimer: All positional shadings are estimates based on a single game of play from the perspective of the red team only.

jitspoe · « **Reply #13 on:** October 19, 2005, 11:48:10 AM »

Hm, it's hard to say who has the upper hand there. On the one hand, when yellow goes down path2, they can be attacked from both directions. On the other hand, most of the reds on path 1 will be facing the yellows on path1, so yellows on path2 could come in and pick them off from behind... but then they'd have their backs to the red players on path2.

From my perspective as a yellow player, it seemed like when I exited path1, I was shooting at red players from both path1 and path2, but those could just be red players from path1 who backed up toward path2 a bit. Anyway, I like the fact that each side is different. It's nice to have a non-mirrored map for a change. There might need to be some tweaking done to make it more balanced, but like S8NSSON, I've only played once, so it's hard to say just from that.

James · « **Reply #14 on:** October 19, 2005, 04:29:14 PM »

All the paths and what not have been addressed.

From what you're saying about red being wide open left in the water, I had been raped several times trying to attack that side. I don't think it really needs anything. I've tested this with others before the server test and it seemed fairly balanced.

James · « **Reply #15 on:** October 19, 2005, 04:31:24 PM »

All the paths and what not have been addressed.

From what you're saying about red being wide open left in the water, I had been raped several times trying to attack that side. I don't think it really needs anything. I've tested this with others before the server test and it seemed fairly balanced.

loial21 · « **Reply #16 on:** October 19, 2005, 07:47:55 PM »

Nice, when will it be ready?

James · « **Reply #17 on:** October 19, 2005, 11:02:45 PM »

It'll be ready when I think it's ready. Right now I got another version compiled with the things people have suggested, although not all suggestions where taken into account because my say is how it's going to go.

James · « **Reply #18 on:** October 20, 2005, 03:07:41 PM »

Dirtytaco wanted to add some things, which I think are quite nice, but is a little much with all the water. Been thinking about removing the water in the middle areas.

jitspoe · « **Reply #19 on:** October 20, 2005, 03:23:11 PM »

It looks so pretty with r_reflectivewater 1, though!