New Map - Ranger by FourthX

[FourthX]

Hey fourth,

a few things that occurred to me when I had a wander round Ranger...

- floating crates! I imagine probably a 1-unit r_speeds curtailing measure, but it's a little obvious in my opinion.
- the rocks at the bases seem top heavy, like if it was the real world the rock would be tipping over to roll down the hill.
- I know the bases are meant to be asymetrical, but it seems a little unbalanced for blue to have a camp spot/hiding spot just behind their flag, and red to have theirs totally open.
- the use of the 2 rock/cliff textures throughout seems weird to me. I hate to sound like a texture fascist, but it's a bit jarring as the 2 textures are so different it doesn't seem consistent that they'd be right next to each other.
- In my opinion, using texture ladder flags on jumps is a bit of a cop out - it makes it too easy. ie, if even I can do it every time, its too easy
- The shadows are a bit weird, like they are choppy and random in places. I doubt you'll be able to do anything about that though.

Otherwise I quite like it. It'll take me a little practice to get faster lines, but on the whole I think it's good fun. I only wish I could make a map vis this good.

- Dagless M.D

1. Some crates will come down (mostly in the bases) I can spare some poly for that I think
2. The rocks are stuck into the ground, probably won't change em just for aesthetics.
3. Both bases have their plusses and minuses and may be adjusted before final release.
4. The cobbled stone pattern represents things that were built up rather than being built on the rock strata. Not sure if this will change to another texture but I will look at it.
5. The clip ladder in the bases is for newbies, gotta have some stuff for them as well as the pros.
6. Arghrad hates me and my nutty (do terrain in q2 engine) ideas

FtX

[FourthX]

Well just infront of the flag there is this little pool. When you are underwater and look the walls, then there are 2 textures for walls, which looks wrong to be honest. Took a sshot too:
http://scythe.planet.ee/sshot111.jpg

It looks even more wrong on the other base.

The moat is part built and part just dug out of the existing rock, those textures will stay as they are. Possibly I may use a different cobbled texture for the constructed bits. Really it's the least of my worries.

FtX

[FourthX]

It doesn't look like your current RAD compiler works that well with that sort of terrain, either. >_>

If by 'does not handles this type of terrain well' you mean it's slow, then you can outsource the compiling (at least the RAD stage) to someone else who's computer will be able to do it more quickly.

I used arghrad, as I said it doesn't handle tri-based terrain. Short reason: Shadows are cast backwards from the face to the object to the light, not from the light accross the object to the face. The numerous tris at different angles come up with radically different ideas of how much light is on them even though they are right next to each other.

Even using -chop 32 -choplight 32 - chopwarp 32 - chopsky 32 did not help much, it did make it less noticable but failed to erradicate the problem.

FtX

PS: Even with those settings the whole lightcompile took less than 12 minutes. Speed is not the issue.

[blaa]

Maybe you cut those 2 textures from the water level. So when underwater they dont look awkward.

[FourthX]

Not more lollipop trees!  Why, FourthX?  WHY?! *sniff*  Woodgrain textures, too!  At least use bark!

Ok, I had to get that out.

I'll give it a more thorough run through in a bit, but a few things I noticed:
- Lots of wood textures need to be rotated, like the top edges of bunkers will be good, but the sides need to be rotated 90 degrees.
- Rock textures look really inconsistent.
- The moat around the base is really annoying if you accidentally fall in - maybe add some ladders or something to make it easier to get out.
- One of the dirt brushes overlapped and stuck out of the side of a hill.

The trees are what they are... Elevated platforms that are a pain to get on to. Also I didn't want any custom textures for this map, just wanted it to be simple and light on the download. Since a couple people have mentioned it I may retexture them.


1. Ill look into those wood texts.
2. Not sure what you mean by this (which rock textures?)
3. One side may get a ladder (I think it's blue side) because of differences in the base design But I'd like to keep the moats kind of a pain, they are easy enough to jump over (standard running jump makes it easy).
4. The dirt bit will go, termi posted this on a screenie also

FtX

[FourthX]

Just a thought but the ladders around the mid should be changed to actual ladders instead of just being there looking like wood planks.

It's a r_speeds issue, the texture is simple and does the trick, how much time do people spend staring at ladder textures anyway?

FtX

[FourthX]

this is a ok map i guess. less then what i really would expect from such a talented mapper. as jitspoe said lollypop tree? wheres the custom textures??? why are people still making such plain maps?

this map looks like it will be fun to play but im still a lil disapointed ;_; *sniffles*

4thx you are still one of my fav mappers dispite what i think, you have a very good way of visioning maps.


i guess im the only one bent on the texturing of maps and not wanting to use the same textures on the other 2000+ maps for dp

Maybe the critics will hate this one and people will play it I dunno really, I made it how I saw it in my mind and as I told jits I didn't want to use custom textures. Now with the CTTP I may start using more but getting the server admins to have all those custom textures I should be using is a giant pain in the ass. Much more trouble then I wanted for this map (took less than a week to make).

FtX

[y00tz]

Nice work FtX, love the map.

[Termin8oR]

Termi> 1st thing is a mistake (thanks) second thing is intentional, I wanted the rocks to look like they were dug around.

FtX

Glad i could help FourthX, always here for something.

[James]

Isn't what I was expecting when you said all terrain base.

[jitspoe]

I'm merging these two topics since it was confusing having discussions going on in both of them at the same time.  You might want to edit your first post with the download link.

Edit: Also made a demo of things to revise and uploaded your map to the beta server (see PM for details).

[Edgecrusher]

Gameplay on map is great. It has few minor bugs (cant get out of water on fg right side, when dj-ing from box to ledge near fg you can get stuck). At first I didn´t like it to much, but after playing it more i began enjoying it. Could be really good match map.

Good job.

[Apocalypse]

Just noticed this it looks kind of weird and not sure if it's been mentioned but here you go......

[FourthX]

- Some smooth Shading added
- Alpha trees (that cast shadows!)
- Slight Modification to base areas
- Some texture changes

Snaps...







Map: http://www.mediafire.com/?dobjgbylwfj
Texture (pball/textures/fourthx): http://www.mediafire.com/?6cyiesw91ly


Thanks to everyone for their suggestions and insights. (happy now jits? )


Notes:
- New trees increase poly count slightly, they also make the vis stage take 5-10 times longer than before because  shadows are being cast through the alpha textures (each tree has 3 faces, 2 are set to cast shadows. 3 didn't look any better and took even longer to light)

- Multiple alpha textures seems to be ok FPS wise until you get a tree all up in your grill. After a lot of running around and testing It was not too bad even at the worst. People with real old cards may have trouble (let me know please)

- Arghrad still hates me


FtX

[Termin8oR]

Both meadiafire links did not work for me.
Said "Connection Timed Out"

I will keep trying cause I would like to see the map changes.

[Zorchenhimer]

Both meadiafire links did not work for me.
Said "Connection Timed Out"

Same here.

[FourthX]

Ok some time before I leave work I'll upload elsewhere, try back here later on.

FtX

[sk89q]

I downloaded it earlier.

http://digitalpaint.therisenrealm.com/downloads/maps/ranger_b2/ranger_b2.bsp
http://digitalpaint.therisenrealm.com/downloads/maps/ranger_b2/tree2.wal

[FourthX]

Cool thanks!

FtX

[nightryder]

nice trees, thumbs up