Campgrounds, Blood Run improvements

[themuffinman]

Hi All!

Some years back I released my take on classic maps Blood Run and Campgrounds. Looking back, there are a few things I feel I could have improved in both. I'm now considering releasing a version 2 of both maps and would like to get some feedback on what could be improved upon. Feedback regarding geometry issues, clipping, consistency of aesthetics and texturing, visibility and lighting, framerate, item layout, scaling in specific areas and minor changes in game flow (eg: replace jumppad with stairs/ladders) would be most helpful.

I'm also considering creating another map port (may or may not happen), so suggestions for a map from another Quake title which might be able to be adapted to Q2's game dynamics would also be welcome.

 

[Alkaline5]

Around 2016/2017 I came back to Q2 after about a 15-year break, and I spent a few months scouring the web for high quality maps/mods/whatever.  Your maps are not only some of the best, but also just about the final "great" maps released for Q2.  If a post like this asking for feedback can go with no reply for 2+ months, then I guess Q2 is just about dead. 

About the only thing I'd suggest for Blood Run & Campgrounds would be to make them more manageable for Gladiator bots since that's how I usually play now.  Most jump pads are not their friends, but there's some that they can navigate just fine for some reason.

Have you considered making a CTF map?  I never played Q1 CTF, and I'm not sure which Q3 maps would be good candidates considering they lacked the grapple.  But Japanese Castles (most famous in Q3, but originally a Q2 L-Fire map) is a good example of level design that can accommodate both play styles with a few tweaks.

[|iR|Focalor]

Hadn't seen this post until now.

Blood Run, I like just how it is. Item and weapon placement and numbers seem good. Haven't had any opportunity that I recall to play on it versus only 1 other player, so I don't know how the armor and mega combination works in a 1v1, but I'd suspect it's a little too easy for one person to control both, hitting the red armor first, then dropping straight down and collecting the mega in the hallway. I think it's better to place red armor and mega at polar opposite ends of a map with considerable distances between them so as to make it more difficult for one player to control both.

Campgrounds sometimes runs a slight bit choppy for me when it's crowded. Item and weapon placement and numbers are okay. This one I have had several occasions to play 1v1 FFA. Again, the red armor and mega might be too close. It's really easy to stack and control them both once you've gotten a frag on the person and they're occupied with rebuilding their weapon selection. The only help they might get is from the yellow armor which means almost nothing vs a red armor + mega. It's an odd map though, and it's easy to get to any spot on the map pretty quickly due to how compact and overlapping all the pathways are. I suppose there's nothing "immoral" about it being so easy to stack mega and red armor. I'm a decent player, but I'm not really on par with the duel players. And when I start making a point of aggressively controlling the red armor and mega and I begin pulling ahead of people who've been beating me by 10 frags for the last 4 maps, then it's probably because an un-balance exists. I dunno what to suggest to potentially alleviate that. Changing the red armor to a yellow armor might work. I'd only want to see that done in a 1v1 situation though. In a crowded server where it's FFA, it isn't really a problem anymore.

[haunted]

Having RA and MH close by isn't that bad normally considering how the other items and weapons are placed on that map, but acquiring items in q2 is less punishable than it is in q3/ql/QC. Hitscan weapons with little delay and tick rate come to mind, not to mention the competitive level in those games being far greater than in q2. So ya, something like that can be abused frequently in q2.