Q4 - Duel Map - Dark Ritual Beta 2 - phantq4dm4

[phantazm11]

Hey all,

Fresh off the factory floor, my new duel map is finally at the Beta stage.



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------- Beta 01 Changes --------
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The map now has a name!

Textured the entire map.

Added detail to "the hallway".

Switched the positions of the LG and the GL.

Made custom jumppads, weapon spawn bases, and teleporters.

Added effects for teleporters and jumppads.

Added an additional teleporter to the RA room.

Added additional lighting.

Probably added a lot of little things that I'm too tired to remember.
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Here is the link. Give it a shot:

http://www.quake4files.net/beta/index.p ... pid&id=143

Big thanks to everyone who took the time to test the alpha versions. Feed back is welcomed.

phantazm11

[ScrotcH]

Visual style looks interesting, almost reminds me of a Metroid or Zelda like style with the glowing textures. I'll try and play test it with some friends this weekend and give you some feedback. From running around it, it initially feels like it should have some intense combat areas.

[GODLIKE]

(I'll keep posting feedback over at ESR, since I spend more time there.. )

Anybody who hasn't tried this yet, should really give it a go.

[unitool]

dang, that looks pretty pimp!

One nitpick - the doorway arches look funny and detract from the otherwise nice look. I thought it was just the texturing, but I downloaded the map and when I looked at it, I saw that the geometry of the arches is kinda goofy.

Even after you go back and rebuild the arches so that they are all nice and symmetrical, the texturing might still be hinky, but you can usually use per-vert texture alignment to make it look good.

[phantazm11]

@ unitool:

Thanks man. I'll try and do something about those arches.

[obsidian]

When running around the map, I noticed that the columns in that room in the first screenshot aren't evenly spaced out. Both the rectangular and cylindrical columns. Not sure if you intended it that way, but looks kind of odd.

Also, running up that ramp above the teleporter in the last screenshot, I would inadvertently teleport away. Try making the trigger a little lower.

[hemostick]

I've got some nitpicking for you. (warning : large images, hence them being linked as urls and not img/lvlshot)
I'll start with your staircases - fsr, pretty much all of your staircases seem to have weird brushwork.
http://hemostick.free.fr/quake/q4/phant/dodgystairs.jpg

The other thing (apart from the weird doorway curves already reported) is that a number of your patch meshes seem to have quite a few extraneous subdivisions, as highlighted below.

http://hemostick.free.fr/quake/q4/phant ... eitis2.jpg
Notice the floor patch has the same thing.

A few more examples :
http://hemostick.free.fr/quake/q4/phant ... eitis1.jpg
The item spawn and teleport base were duplicated across the map with these "defaults" in.

Didn't you make the new textures yourself by the way ? Good job so far, but you may want to tweak the specular a bit - in some cases the stone looks like very shiny metal, or maybe marble.

[phantazm11]

@obsidian: I'll change the teleporter. I guess I didn't notice that it went that far up. I'll look at the supports also.

@Hemostick: Some of the subdivisions I can clean up, but others are necessary to get that trim texture to look halfway correct on the patches. I should really try to model the bases and teleporters.

I'll look at the stairs. The brushwork is made of solid brushes, so I have a feeling that it is the BSP process that is chopping these up.

Thanks for all the great feedback guys.

[phantazm11]

Latest version of my duel map:

http://www.quake4files.net/beta/index.p ... pid&id=143

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------- Beta 02 Changes ------------
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Fixed the jumppad and teleporter triggers.

The torches now cause damage.

Clipped the skybox view hallway and added a little visual geometry.

Added GL ammo.

Retextured the columns in the RG room.

Centered the square columns in the RA and RG room.

Deleted the square vertical columns in the RA room.

Fixed the squashed archways.

Shortened the height of the armorshard shelf in the MH room and made it deeper.

Shortened the nook across from the RA.

Placed decals beneath the ammo locations.

Created a new lava texture that is less bright and more lava-like.

Added heightmaps to a couple of the textures.

Lots of visual small visual tweaks.
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As always, feedback is welcome!

phantazm11

[hemostick]

Link is cut in the middle
http://www.quake4files.net/beta/index.p ... pid&id=143

[phantazm11]

lol! Sorry.
That's what I get for posting at 2 in the morning
http://www.quake4files.net/beta/index.p ... pid&id=143

[phantazm11]

Here are a couple of screenshots of Beta 2:

[GODLIKE]

Any Beta 3 action for x-mas? I know getting feedback is a bitch..

Tip: tell people your map is "final". Feedback will come out of the woodwork. :P

[phantazm11]

@GODLIKE: Man, isn't that the truth. I saw how many final versions your map went through o_O. (Great map, btw!)

I think it all boils down to the pro players. They all practice the same maps and nothing else to get the edge they need to win tournaments, and all other players follow in their mighty footsteps.

I think if they gave new maps a chance though they would realize there are now many options out there, and with a little time and effort on their part, there could be a nice variety of competition-focused maps for tournament commitees to choose from.

Just my 2 cents, of course.

And yes, there will probably be another beta before Christmas. Thanks for your support of my map!

[xfoo]

edit - nevermind, I can't do anything for q4 maps. If anyone wants their q3 maps played let me know.

[GODLIKE]

@ phantazm11: Yeah, well.. "Grinder" went through so many versions for some very good reasons, and some dumb luck reasons. I would release a 'last' version and then about sixty seconds later somebody would email me a bug or a demo, or something that would really enhance the map; if I'd read my replies or opened my inbox ten minutes earlier, in some cases.. sigh. You get the idea.

The pros probably do train mostly the same old maps over and over, those poor guys. I mean, phrantic is a great map, but I can't play it all night.

And, you're probably right that especially for duel, the players follow the pros. Still, there are some great event organizers out there, though. Xou @ clanbase, for instance, really tries to listen to the community when it comes to organizing events.. He did up a poll for whatever maps people wanted to nominate for the current open cup. I'm happy my map got in, but it was handled really fairly. Hopefully Dark Ritual will get consideration soon, along with Killat0n's "torment", if there's ever a new version. (Hopefully Stormshadow will finish up his project, too!)

Have you received gameplay demos from beta 2, yet? I can try to hook you up with some, if not.. Bear in mind the guys I play with are not super duellists, but if you're in need, I'll do what I can.

[phantazm11]

@xfoo: thanks for at least considering

@GODLIKE: Although it would be [very] nice to have a map of mine considered for tournaments, it is not the driving force behind creating maps for me. Like you, I would imagine, I just want to make good looking, fun maps that ppl can enjoy playing. If I can accomplish that, then it is worth it to me

btw, are congratulations in order?

[GODLIKE]

Thx. Dunno if there's a protocol for such things being discussed, but I'm tickled.

Having my map played in tournament is a really nice compliment, but yeah, same as you: I just set out to make a map that I thought was fun to play, and wanted to try really listening to community feedback, as I'd always just sort of plunked down a map and said "here it is, it's done" before. The results were definately worthwhile; if you dig long enough, people have great ideas, and you discover stuff about your map that you'd never have planned. :icon31:

[gk_nz]

Have you posted info about this map on esreality.com forums? If you haven't you definitely should its a great place to get 'pro' quake 4 players feedback on duel maps.

[GODLIKE]

http://www.esreality.com/?a=post&id=1257054

[pjw]

I finally got a bit of breathing room over the holidays and ran around this for a while--it's looking really good! It may be slightly dark for my tastes, but I took a look at your lightcount, and I don't know that I would push it much more in a DM map...

A few observations/suggestions:

1. When you drop through the bars heading toward LG, it's pretty easy to touch the top of the teleporter trigger unintentionally--how about lowering that down?

2. There are a few places in the map (most notably in that same RA/LG area) where it's very difficult or impossible to jump down to a lower level without taking falling damage. That sorta sucks. You should always be able to move around a map easily without taking damage, IMO (unless it's an obviously big drop--these are close enough that it looks like it might not hurt you). I don't know what would be involved in fixing this...it all depends on what approach you would want to take. Options include ledges/pillars here and there, or major reworking (e.g. lowering/raising floors and that sort of stuff). You could always put common/cushion on the floor, but IIRC that gets rid of footstep sounds too, which would be bad.

3. The map seems pretty quiet everywhere--you always have to be careful adding ambient sounds, since you don't want to drown out audio cues of other players moving around too much, but I think it would be cool to hear maybe some wind noise up near the top or near windows/openings? An occasional bubble from the lava? Hums from the teles? Burning noises from the torches?

4. How about some markers for tele dests? Just a burned/discolored place on the floor would work...

5. Finally, this is sort of a wacky one, but I always love vertical in maps, and that one hallway, although it's prettier now, is still a bit bare and sorta eh. How about a drop-through hole over RA that can be accessed via that hallway? It would add a fun bit of extra connectivity, and you could make it take a trick/difficult jump to access. I *think* you could do it without hosing your current portaling...

Hope this helps.