dgctf1 beta version

[dghost77]

beta version of my first Quake 3 map : Broken Concrete a Space CTF map.

[lvlshot]http://www.dghost.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/dgctf1_10.png[/lvlshot]

So yeah it's my first official release, there are so many things to do yet in the map, here's a quick list of my to do :

Jumppad calibration (a lot)
Items/weapons placement
Add a custom model for the 2 teleports
Add a custom model for the 6 laser beams at the top of each tower.
make more floating blocks bobbing (when all items/weapons will be placed)
Add bot support (when everything else will be finished)

I don't expect the gameplay to be really good since, well, it's a first map and they usually always suck. I hope that it will be playable. I do expect that all CTF gameplay types are supported for all the gametypes from Team Arena and 3wave CTF. Example ; the falling wave sound should be disabled while playing 3Wave classic CTF.

So i am looking for all your feedback in order to finish this map. Like Johnny Mnemonic said : hit me!

Screenshots of the map on my blog here.

Download the map here.

Many thanks to all of you!

[obsidian]

To do:

More fill lights, ambient lights or sky lights. It's really too dark.

[dghost77]

You are right, am really not happy with the lightning so far.

[KittenIgnition]

Definitely needs to be brightened, but I have a notoriously bright config so ingame I don't mind it.

As for gameplay etc.:

The spawn points should all face inward. It's annoying falling into the void right after you spawn, especially since it's pretty far from the platforms.

The jumppad on the right side of the blue base (while facing mid) that sends you to mid hits a big chunk of debris, and knocks you into the void unless you're ready for it and do it all properly. That needs fixing.

The jumppads on the side of the flag and all the other weird towers are placed wrong, and don't launch you into the next pad, but instead a little above it. That might have been done on purpose, but something needs to be done about it; either move the jumppads so they hit eachother every time, or add some sort of platform system so you can stop after each pad if you want to.

The lower jumppads in mid that send you back to the bases can be dropped onto without launching. Not sure if that was also done on purpose, though.

The whole thing is a kinda cool idea, but incredibly gimmicky and awkward. Mid is kinda fun, though.

The textures are really bland, but that's to be expected from version 1

[EmeraldTiger]

Got a brief look at it. The concept is excellent, I love the idea with the ping-pong style jump pad towers, very original and interesting. It has a surreal, epic-ish feeling to it which I like. You really feel like a tiny ant here where as most space maps I don't feel that way. Not everyone will like that, for sure, but it's all in the taste so that's not a criticism by any means.

I know item placement is still in the works, but I'll point out some things that you may or may not have noticed. In the back of the red base, there is a tower with a LG across from a tower with a YA. In the blue base the YA is still on it's tower, but there is no LG. I guess it was left out by accident - putting this in just in case it was missed.
[lvlshot]http://dl.dropbox.com/u/27277779/dgctf1_sug3.jpg[/lvlshot]

This is a minor visual thing, but I'd replace the jump pads sending you between mid and the bases with accel pads, or angled jump pads. If you observe the id maps, horizontal aerial transportation is done via accel pads. All the other jump pads are okay, but these two (and their red counterparts) could work better as accel pads. Plus, for new players it's a visual cue that they will be horizontal transportation, as opposed to just "going up".
[lvlshot]http://dl.dropbox.com/u/27277779/dgctf1_sug1.jpg[/lvlshot][lvlshot]http://dl.dropbox.com/u/27277779/dgctf1_sug2.jpg[/lvlshot]

I agree with Kitten that the side jump pads send you up a bit high, and I did almost hit a few rocks when using the mid jump pads. The teleporters in the bases also spit you out far enough to send you to your death, like the spawn point issue Kitten mentioned.

Finally, I noticed that the team power-ups in TA can be collected by both teams. In the official TA maps a team power-up has either "spawnflags 2" or "spawnflags 4". 2 means only red can collect it, 4 means only blue can collect it.

Overall I think it's pretty neat - hard to believe it is nine years old though.

[dghost77]

I am already working on improving the lights, I've re calibrated the jumppad going from blue base to middle ground. I don't intend to add textures to the map, I was looking for a bland look in this case because I want to give the feeling of the cold and vastness of space. I don't understand about the height of the target of the jumppad around the flag tower (if that was you meant Kitten)

ET : You are rights about the jumppad that should be changed to accel. pad instead, I wanted to do that and completely forgot about it. Need to find a good one and in no means I am a 3D modeler.

Yes the weapons/items placements are kind of screwed up at this moment. Thx for reminding me also about the tech power up being picked by team only, I do still need to decide where to put the tech. I am really not sure also about most weapons placement. Currently my weapon list for this map so far is :
rocket launcher
shotgun (removed in TA and classic CTF)
lightning gun
railgun
nailgun (for TA and classic CTF)

And yes, that map is 9 years old, it spent a lot of years in my backup and forgot about it until I found it back last summer.

[dghost77]

New beta version 0.2 changelog :

Tweak ambient lightning and target lightning in map for a little bit brighter. Not perfect yet, but still much better than before.
Side jumppad from blue base to middle ground recalibrated, red side too.
Target teleport re-calibrated.
Removed rail and lightning gun in each base, can only be picked up from middle ground.
Tech powerups placed for Team arena with proper spawnflags for pickup per team only.
The doubler and guard tech will be replaced by a box of shell ammo when not playing TA or ClassicCTF.
Changed player's spawn position so that it doesn't face out or toward a wall, also re positioned some of the spawn point for more room - There is a total of 32 starting point (16 on each team) and 20 spawn point (10 per team).

Download link for the map is same as before : here!

[EmeraldTiger]

Ahh, forgot to mention: The tubes in mid that you drop down to, there's a small tunnel you go through when using the pads - there's strips of missing holodeck textures along it. I didn't notice it the first time as I thought it was just lights.

[dghost77]

Thx for the info regarding the missing texture ET, will correct that for the next version.

For the moment I would be in need of some assistance with my shader. If any of you can provide me his input/feedback about it I would really appreciate it.

I am currently having a problem with a shader that I'm creating for the accel. pad. I've used the accel pad from the distonic textures pack by Nunuk and there is no shader that come with it, so I said to myself, yeah no problem, I'll create my own shader.... yeaaaah right. So I manage to create the effect that I want with the accel pad, but in the process I've lost the transparent background of the shader, I have a white background instead (or I can get a black one also). I think I've managed to understand the relation between each stage for their filters/effects but I don't understand how to make a shader with a transparent background with it. I thought it was simply a matter of making a TGA file with an alpha channel for the transparency but it doesn't work with that one. So there must be something that I don't get it or there is a conflict between some stages. Here's all the info regarding my shader :

Code: Select all

textures/dgctf1/distonic_launchpad1_blue
{
	q3map_lightimage textures/dgctf1/distonic_launchpad1_blue.tga
	q3map_surfacelight 100
	{
		map textures/dgctf1/distonic_launchpad1_blue.blend_fx.jpg
		blendfunc blend
		rgbGen identity
		tcMod scroll 0 1.5
	}
	{
		map textures/dgctf1/distonic_launchpad1_filter.jpg
		blendfunc filter
	}
	{
		map textures/dgctf1/distonic_launchpad1_blue.blend.jpg
		blendfunc add
		rgbGen wave triangle 0.2 2 1 0.5 
	}
	{
		map textures/dgctf1/distonic_launchpad1_blue.tga
		blendfunc add
		rgbGen identity
	}
	{
		map $lightmap 
		blendfunc gl_dst_color gl_one_minus_dst_alpha
		rgbGen identity
		tcGen lightmap 
	}
}

Note that the filter.jpg has not been provided with the texture pack by Nunuk, I created it myself as a filter for hiding the scrolling fx for hiding the wave of the bottom of the shader.

I am working on the next beta, spent too much time already on this shader, I can include the accel pad in it with the problem if you need a visual of it.

Thx again for your comments also!

[obsidian]

Your tga file needs to have blendFunc blend (blend tells it to use the alpha channel). You can short-hand the lightmap to use blendFunc filter (same thing as what you have really). All your glowing effects need to be additive.

I'm not sure about the black and white texture, not entirely sure how that comes into the mix. You might be able to use that for depth testing the scrolling pulse texture (similar to how lightmaps work on grates - the lightmap uses the alpha channel of the grate so you don't get shadows where the grate has holes) or you can apply a waveform to the scrolling texture to make it fade.

[dghost77]

If I can reproduce a good fading effect on the scrolling texture I will be able to get rid of the black and white filter. Thx for your advice Obsidian!

[CZghost]

It's for Team Arena, I've looked...
Space TA is more actual than Space CTF...

It's reworked Space Chamber, no?

[dghost77]

The visual and atmosphere may have been inspired by Space Chamber, yes, but the map is a creation from scratch and I've never make it while thinking about Space Chamber and the layout itself of the map is really not the same thing.

I will have the next beta version ready this week-end.

[dghost77]

beta version 0.3 changelog :

First serious weapons and ammo layout/placement for the map.
Re-positioned some tech powerup for TA.
Fixed : missing textures where replaced.
More target_lightning fix/recalibration in the map.
Redid some jumpad and change 4 jumppad to accel pad instead.
Changed a little bit some blocks in the middle ground.

With this release, does the weapons/ammo layout and choices are good for the map? What could be better for the weapons?

What about lightning? It's better, I like it dark, but I'm still wondering if it's too dark.

other things to do :
health, armor shards to put in map
More jumppad calibration

Know bug : Jumppad in this screenshot not working for unknown reason yet


Download link for the map - make sure to overwrite previous version

[skinmaster]

have you considered putting in an extremely thin fog to fad the giant piers?

[dghost77]

Yes I did, but it always created the edge around the pillar and the lines of the sky wall of the map, the visual result is really not beautiful. I tried that right away when I first started working on this map in 2002. I never could make it look right with the fog. Maybe you have a solution for me?

[skinmaster]

o yeah of course.... make a fading version of the texture your using on the solids... a very tall alpha fade to transparent... also color the shadow of gradient to black right onto the texture is always a quick way to fake it... if your skybox is pure black it'll still catch light though so the alphing would probably need some script tweaking to ensure that no highlights hit the far off places.

i havent looked at this yet btw.. the screens tell me to wait so question.. is anything mobile in the map? func_rotating chunks or func_train mobile pieces?

[dghost77]

Thank for the tip, I will try that for the fog.

some things are moving, but so far it's only func_bobbing. I intend to add more but I'll wait after putting all of my entities in it.

[skinNCNmaster]

so how it going?

[dghost77]

Haven't worked too much on it lately, I'm busy with works these days. Hope to get a new alpha version soon.

[CZghost]

Know bug : Jumppad in this screenshot not working for unknown reason yet

Jumppads can be used only to post player to higher positions or further, not lower. I know the bug from my testing map, I've used jumppad to send player accross slick surface, but it didn't work. Ignoring that fact may bring lower voting rate for your map, just removing the nonworking jumppad may fix it...

[dghost77]

Thx CZghost, will try that.

[dghost77]

I had some free time this week and I've worked on some little details on my map and I've compiled it a couples of times without any problem. Now I just transformed 4 existing brushes into a func_bobbing entity, saved the map, started compiling it with my usual setting and now instead of taking like 25 minutes of compile time, my computer has been compiling it now for 24 hours straight. I've checked the q3map2 process and still running and it didn't crashed. I'm wondering what is going on. How can by just adding 4 func_bobbing entities has my compile time gone through the roof?

[EmeraldTiger]

That is weird! Perhaps try setting it to detail brush? A func_bobbing may not block vis but it is still calculated in compiling if it is set to structural. (I think)

[dghost77]

Thx for the reminder ET, looks to be the problem. I thought that my brushes were detailed but I miss a lot of them.