High and Dry - Final

Post by **pjw** » Thu Dec 29, 2005 7:58 am

Aaannnd, it's done. Lots of minor last minute touches and a bit more detailing--the most major change from the final beta was switching LG and RL-at-RA, and switching some ammo around.

Thanks for all the help and feedback folks!

Obligatory pics:

Download

Note mirror below! (Thanks scourge34!

)

Post by **Scourge** » Thu Dec 29, 2005 12:43 pm

Of course the obligatory non-fp mirror.

edit: Updated with the newer beta.

edit2: The link now points to the Final version.

http://www.jwivie.com/pjw4dm1.zip

Post by **corsair** » Thu Dec 29, 2005 1:12 pm

Downloaded and extracted just now, will look after I feel like its necesary to run meh own .map in q4 for the next time ;]

btw, i noticed in your .txt file, you refer to "c:\quake4\baseq4" as to the location of required placement of that pk4, but afaik it'd be in the q4base folder? ;]

Post by **Geit** » Thu Dec 29, 2005 3:17 pm

nice, I like it! I couldn't test the gameplay, but from what I could see from walking around in it the flow and the item placement seem ok.
I have two remarks though. You might want to break up the brownish panel texture a bit more as it doesn't repeat all too well. And there's a little plateau under the 50+ health. I think you should either make it nonsolid or remove it.
But you have some nice trickjumps in there, good work :P

which bots do you use by the way?

Post by **cha0s** » Thu Dec 29, 2005 3:34 pm

i like the overall idea of the map and the architecture is interesting as well, however the lighting is just plain boring. i know there's always this conflict between a moody atmosphere and good gameplay, but i think you can achieve both if you'd just try to :P

i'm sorry to say, but the lighting seems to destroy the whole atmosphere of this otherwise very fine looking map.

Post by **primaltheory** » Thu Dec 29, 2005 3:36 pm

Great map! Just did a one on one with my neighbor, it's great! I like the lil rampjump to the YA with the crate (esp because my neighbor didn't know how to do it), i do think the hyperblaster should be moved to the end of the walkway thing, otherwise its way to easy to grab that and the railgun no problem. cha0s has a point with the lighting, its booring

Post by **Grudge** » Thu Dec 29, 2005 3:40 pm

*breaks out The Bends*

looks good, gonna try it out

Post by **pjw** » Thu Dec 29, 2005 6:02 pm

Thanks for the replies folks!

scourge34: Thanks again man! I appreciate it.

corsair: Thanks for the catch on the path.

Geit: I'm going to try to add a bit more detail for the final; when I do, I'll see if I can break up some of the repeating a bit. Re: bots, I was only aware of the SABot? Are there more?

cha0s: I realize the lighting is a bit flat, but the idea of having MP maps where the players can't see each other bothers me, and finding a nice balance is harder than you might think (especially when performance is affected by lighting). I'll perhaps try toning down the ambient a bit for the final, and that will add a bit more contrast and pop the normals out a bit more...

primaltheory: Yeah, I tried to add some interesting trick jumps. Have you figured out how to get the Quad yet? No weapon-jump required... Looking at the HB, it *is* kinda on the way to the RG--maybe I'll move it up the slope and out of the area a bit there.

Post by **primaltheory** » Thu Dec 29, 2005 6:07 pm

yea, i used rocketjump to get it, there is that lil spike thing you can use too

Post by **corsair** » Thu Dec 29, 2005 7:28 pm

pjw: whats that SABot then?

[url=http://go.download.filefront.com/4456759;b29233e6d180308b;939434506e5693a884ff79df9b06e10b9b68abf14e2fb5189af203d2a8988112024cbb3b6bf6bced]
edit: never mind, found the _link_[/url]

Post by **Lenard** » Thu Dec 29, 2005 8:03 pm

Grudge wrote:*breaks out The Bends*

looks good, gonna try it out

::Hugs his avsatar::

Yeah, with this and mixamatosis, we might just have ourselves a theme going. I call Idioteque

Post by **Geit** » Thu Dec 29, 2005 8:18 pm

pjw wrote:Thanks for the replies folks!
Geit: I'm going to try to add a bit more detail for the final; when I do, I'll see if I can break up some of the repeating a bit. Re: bots, I was only aware of the SABot? Are there more?

I'm not sure, I do know there are some promising bots under development.

edit: there's an alpha version for the omni-bot, might be worth checking out, but I haven't tried it yet
http://www.omni-bot.de/e107/e107_plugin ... c.php?2391

Post by **SonicClang** » Thu Dec 29, 2005 9:07 pm

pjw, you know you've got 20 megs of space with your Charter account right? You could load files like this up to that instead of having people go to fileplanet or wherever. Just a suggestion...

"-added a def file and a load image instead of being a lazy asshole " YAY!!!!

makes like easier for the rest of us.

I just tried spawning some SaBots and it crashed the level. It said it couldn't find the .aas file. What did I do wrong? I just looked in the pk4 and I can clearly see you compiled it and stuck it in there.

Post by **pjw** » Thu Dec 29, 2005 9:34 pm

Geit wrote:there's an alpha version for the omni-bot

Hmmn. I think I'll wait until it at least uses the native .aas system. I don't want to screw around with waypoints when the author is going to change it anyway...

@Sonic, yeah, I know, but part of the free hosting dealie with Planetquake is to use their download system.

IOW, free hosting = you make people see our ads, etc.

I may decide to go with my own webspace in the future, but until I do I'm going to honor the agreement. :icon26:

Edit: re: SABots...um...I have no idea. They work for me?

Post by **SonicClang** » Thu Dec 29, 2005 10:01 pm

Oh, I had no idea there was an agreement for hosting stuff. Gotcha.

I got the bots working. I was an idiot and forgot to remove the old file. It uses the unpacked file before the one in the pack.

Post by **jester!** » Thu Dec 29, 2005 10:26 pm

It should also be noted that with Q4max bringing vertex lighting as they call it into the game that map makers shouldnt worry overly much about the optimization of lights for lower end systems. If the lightdetaillevel scale is used then the user has that option but really vertex light is awesome for smoothing gameplay.

q4max. :icon25:

Post by **pjw** » Thu Dec 29, 2005 10:41 pm

jester! wrote:It should also be noted that with Q4max bringing vertex lighting as they call it into the game that map makers shouldnt worry overly much about the optimization of lights for lower end systems. If the lightdetaillevel scale is used then the user has that option but really vertex light is awesome for smoothing gameplay.

q4max. :icon25:

My $0.02: If you're going to make a map for a game, you shouldn't assume that the person playing your map has any access to or knowledge of any sort of mods, plug-ins, or add-ons required to make the map playable. If you do, you're going to be bending at least a few people over and giving them the high hard one.

If you're going to map for vanilla Q4, then your map should (at least for now) be comparible with the stock maps in terms of performance.

Of course, if you're mapping for a mod (and you make that clear when pimping the map) then all bets are off.

Post by **SonicClang** » Thu Dec 29, 2005 10:51 pm

If you wanna see a vid of me playing against bots, here ya go pjw. I put comments in the video too. It's kinda big though, so I understand if you don't feel like downloadint it. It's like 28 megs.

http://sonicclang.ringdev.com/vid/pjw.wmv

Post by **jester!** » Thu Dec 29, 2005 11:08 pm

pjw wrote:
jester! wrote:It should also be noted that with Q4max bringing vertex lighting as they call it into the game that map makers shouldnt worry overly much about the optimization of lights for lower end systems. If the lightdetaillevel scale is used then the user has that option but really vertex light is awesome for smoothing gameplay.

q4max. :icon25:
My $0.02: If you're going to make a map for a game, you shouldn't assume that the person playing your map has any access to or knowledge of any sort of mods, plug-ins, or add-ons required to make the map playable. If you do, you're going to be bending at least a few people over and giving them the high hard one.

If you're going to map for vanilla Q4, then your map should (at least for now) be comparible with the stock maps in terms of performance.

Of course, if you're mapping for a mod (and you make that clear when pimping the map) then all bets are off.

Yeah thats fair. Really the best solution is the lightdetaillevel functionality if your not going to be planning for any mods and such.

Post by **pjw** » Fri Dec 30, 2005 2:51 am

SonicClang wrote:a vid of me playing against bots

Thanks, that was fun.

I'm thinking about what you said re: no weapons out back (around RA, etc.)...I'm considering moving the RL up in that area, and putting a second SG where it was. I'll have to see how it feels.

Post by **SonicClang** » Fri Dec 30, 2005 4:34 am

Oh ok, so you're calling that area with the red armor the back. Are you calling the front the area with the hyper blaster?

Either way, I think adding one weapon to that area would help round it out. My only other major gripe is that there isn't a good way down in that center section. But maybe that's what you're going for, maybe you're trying to force some flow by making people run around instead of sticking in one area, in which case it's genius.

Oh yeah, I'm glad you liked the video. I had a lot of fun playing the level. And fun playing with the S-video output. I think I'll have to utilize this method of capturing in-game footage at the next LAN party. I'll show up with a whole box of tapes...

Post by **Lenard** » Fri Dec 30, 2005 6:42 am

The map is pretty sweet. I really enjoy the trickjumps and item placement. I see you have a working ladder in there. That is a nice touch. There is this one pipe that you can stand on that it just on top of the void and you can't get back up.. is that supposed to be there? English?

Post by **pjw** » Fri Dec 30, 2005 8:42 am

Lenard wrote:There is this one pipe that you can stand on that it just on top of the void and you can't get back up.. is that supposed to be there? English?

Hmmn. Not sure exactly what pipe you mean. There are a couple that are in there just for eye-candy... is it near RG? HB? back walkway near RA?

On another note, I found a bunch of lights tonight without an assigned shader (and the default is pretty damn dark), and more lights that should be detail and aren't, so performance should improve a bit after I fix all that crap. I apparently need to huff less paint thinner... :icon27:

[Edit: Holy crap. Half the lights in the map don't have an assigned texture. wtf... Methinks some version got lost somewhere back a while ago. Okay, time for massive fixage.]

Post by **Lukin** » Fri Dec 30, 2005 2:50 pm

GW, this version is much better then the 1st beta. Maybe not a jawdropper but a really solid map.

Post by **StormShadow** » Fri Dec 30, 2005 3:11 pm

Im in a bit of a hurry, so I didnt read through everyone elses posts, so forgive me if I repeat anything

1- the map is big enough that you can (and should, imo) add a 2nd rl.
2- the ammo placed in the inset areas in the walls in the upper halls slows down the flow a bit. Maybe move them out a few units so you dont have to go so far into the holes to snag the ammo
3- ambient is too bright, more contrast would make the map sexier
4- some of the pipe jumps are a little odd.. maybe thats just my lack of practice

5- RL+Mega in same room is pretty brutal, especially considering that there is only one rl in the map (unless I missed one?)
6- YA area/jump is awesome, I love it

Sweet map, nice and open, very good flow, etc. It could be tweaked for TDM pretty easilly