It's done!

[[BTF]EyEsTrAiN]

http://zbik22.tripod.com/quake2/
Here is the fruits of my labor, my first Q2 DM map. Just click the link and then click on EyE-sTrAin 1 and enjoy. I would love any feedback from anyone , be it good or bad. Just remember, I am new at this

[the Crazed]

Hey Eye-Strain  

     I'm going to comment on your map!  I just ran around it for 20 minutes or so and I'm surprised this is your first map, it looks really good.  I wanted to make some maps a while ago and I downloaded some programs to do it and promptly got disheartened by how confusing it was and haven't really done anything more with it.... someday... <sigh>  But okay... my analysis...

     Okay... this is pretty subjective because everyone looks for something different in a map (camper holes, big open spaces, eye-candy, small pasageways, maybe even eye-strain  :wink: man, I'm good...) so let me just say that I'm comparing yours to my "ideal" map of similar style, which is probably different from yours...  Umm, I guess I finished my disclaimer    now for the real analysis, which will follow directly...

    I like how you place all the powerups.  Superhealth is out of the way, the red armor is obvious (but not how to get to it), and the power screen is under attack from above the whole way.  I like how the rail is kind of hard to get to and rail ammo is also hard to get to or kind of hidden (I only counted two packs of slugs, which is good if you don't like people railing right and left... although it isn't really a rail map so maybe you could get away with more).  It looks like there's enough ammo to handle an xquake load of people and not a ton of armor, which keeps it fair.  

     The flow of the map is pretty good.  I like to run around real fast so I don't really like the spinning things in the center too much because they pretty much constitute dead-ends (and I dart for the quickly closing opening and fall in the lava ).  They keep the map disconnected from the other parts and difficult to move around quickly and find people (if you're only playing with a few people, for example).  I would like it better if it had a more open center like that in Heavy Metal (fixed1.bsp), with maybe a difficult jump or floating ramp to get to the rail at the top.  

     As for aesthetics, it could probably use more eye-candy (more colors and more coordination between textures), but I like the stone look and lava lighting and it's your first map and your name is eye-strain so you probably don't care much about that anyway!  Overall the playability of it seems like it would be fun     The only real way to test it is to get a bunch of fools running around on it  :wink:   Hopefully xquake will try it out on their server...  Anyways, I hope this helped ya somewhat!  I'm sure I'll see you soon online, tearin' it up as usual  

Peace

[[BTF]EyEsTrAiN]

I thank you for your comments Crazed I considered this map a big learning expirence for me, like getting  the weapon placements down, and how the lighting works and such.  My orignal idea for that middle room was for all the floors to match up and the entire room to spin, but I couldn't get it to line up right so I just improvised.  I didn't try to go too in depths with eye candy, thats my next project :wink: Getting the textures just right and adding different little things to pretty things up. I'm currently working on a space map with jump pads in it, which so far is looking pretty sweet, at least to me Once again, thanks for the analysis and I will work on aesthetics and texturing in my current project.  

And you are still my hero

[{TNP}Dukie]

hey!
what level editor did you use to make your map?

[[BTF]EyEsTrAiN]

I'm currently using Qoole (don't kill me). I know it sucks as an editor, but it is the first one I learned to use. I like the interface on it, easy to pick up. I have a copy of Tread3D that I'm going to mess around with and try to learn. I've heard its one of the best ones to use.

[{TNP}Dukie]

I was kinda thinking about getting into mapmaking myself so I was curious what you used.  I have no idea what is best, I'm just looking for what is easiest for the map newb to use.


btw thanx for the royal butt-kicking  

[[BTF]EyEsTrAiN]

I would start out with Qoole just for the easy to understand interface. Tutorials for using it are a little hard to come by, but I have a few links to some. Its a pretty straightforward editor, pick a place, right click, stick a brush here and there, that type of thing. If you do get into it, when compiling your map just to look at how things are, just do a qbsp compile, forget the rest. The Vis and Rad just do the lights and make the textures look better, but take forever to do. With just doing the qbsp, it will run it in full bright and only takes about 2 seconds to compile. Save the Vis and Rad for when you are completely finished. I wish you luck in any mapping you might choose to do, its fun.

[ĄƦçɧąɳɠҾԼ]

Just tried it out, very nice.