Valmar (tastydm2)

[Om3ga]

Thx laurelin! gg on the map last night 

[[BTF]adam]

I tied with faggot (bundle of sticks) toxicmonkey on that map, then he states he owned us all : \

[Om3ga]

toxic's easy man! i could pwn him in regular dm, and railz

[[BTF]adam]

Ive played easier though!! It was an acheivement for me, cause whoevers played me knows i suck arse

[PANTONE 7717C]

Nice map Laurelin, I like it but I do have some comments.
(As for my screenshots, my settings are vid_gamma 0.65, intensity 2.5 and gl_modulate 2).

Pros:
Layout:- The overall layout felt pretty good. It looks and feels bigger than it is, which in my book is always a good thing.
I also like the use of angled and twisted corridors that circle around the main atrium. Makes it easy to navigate the map.

Weapon loadout:- At first glance it seemed alright. The powerful weapons sit nicely in their own spots, ie, RL, RG and CG.
The only thing I don't like is the placement of the SSG. I'd probably place it somewhere behind those crates to make it easier to grab. (pic1). But as you seem to have tested it I guess it's not really a problem(?).

[Laurelin]

Hehe, thanks Pan.

I love criticism from knowledged mappers. I will be back later to discuss about it.

Id just like to point out though that there are two ways of getting the yellow-armor on box in pic3 which is by the other-side boxes; jumping on the light and the door-ledge.

BBl.

Regards,
Laurelin

[Laurelin]

Using one texture for large walls. It might work on walls with two layers (tilings) but with three or more it looks boring on flat walls.

This is very true. I guess more 'super-structure' work (roofing work) would have made it less apparent but I have a difficult time to align stuff when the brushes are all twisted/rotated. However with not too much lighting - they can come as unnoticed. (I could name lists of map with that same problem).

Although they can add some fun I think it's a bit overdone in this map. Perhaps it's a matter of taste but I see lots of stacked crates scattered around a map as a cheap way of connecting things (pic2), just like most of the jumppads nowadays.
It's not a big deal but when the only way of getting to an item (armor, health) requires some crazy jump (pic3) it somehow unbalances things since the player who can't do it is left with one armor.

Well - for the YA, there is a second way and much easier by using boxes + light + ledge on other side. I didn't want the little box to be the only option. There are a lot of crates, yes, but most of them are not essential, I used a lot of them simply to fill spaces (middle+room) + shells box.

The only vital boxes are those you mentionned as a 'cheap way' of connecting levels (to hyperblaster)

The boxes to railgun are pretty much only to give an alternative route to get railgun. Otherwise there would only be one.

Lift:- Some lifts like in q2dm1 or ztn-maps will only be activated when the player touches them. The advantage is you can drop down the shaft and use it as an extra escape route. (To stop a lift from going up too soon, just add a "spawnflags 1" key. You won't find that in the description of the func_plat but I think it's a nice trick.)

Now this is nice, had I known it earlier I would have use it.

Also, the lift is now very bright (since the lighting is calculated with lift(s) in their end position). It might be nice to add one or two small lights in the shaft to make it less striking.

Good point, I think it is even more apparent in tastydm1 and kind of tickled me.

Stairs:- These stairs seem a bit cramped and pretty steep. Circular or 45 degreed stairs might look better here. (pic4). Just a thought.

I thought about stretching them but didn't like how it would block the water-entrance, being 45degrees would give less space to get to middle-area. It was quite 'squeezed' in this area, thus the cramped stairs. After some playing, these stairs give a good jumping area to get to the middle-box when speed-jumping.


Now the map is released and I don't like to modify stuff when its release, perhaps I rushed things too much. But next time I'll make sure to release a beta a longer time. I'm actually working on a space map with jump-pads 'ala' endgame by Musashi. Should be very simple.

Anyway - thanks for the review Pan, much appreciated.

Regards,
Laurelin

[PANTONE 7717C]

You're welcome.
Oh and by the way, the word "cheap" sounded more negative than it was intended. Just didn't know how else to put it

[daelmun]

Sorry was hoping to take a look at it for the beta testing, but my internet connection died for 3 days so I wasn't able to do anything usefull. Think pan covered most of the stuff I was thinking as I jumped around it some. The SSG would do better in a more used part of the map, as it is a gun you usually just grab as you move around without any other good gun. But maybe that is just cause I jumped around and didn't actually play it, and didn't get the feel of what areas that I would normally use in real play. And the texures and stuff is something I don't really mind, the map looked good enough for me, more pleasant to the eyes than the whiteness of the first map. As for the lift, it would be great if you could done it like pan described, now it serves as a deadend when coming from the top, and it would be a nice escape route.

What I really liked about the map was the layout, it seemed to be a really high paced map favoring a good mover. It will be really hard for a not as fast player to keep up though, as the map is pretty small and I can already see some obvious routes to clear the map for armors and the most important guns, as well as I think chasing down the opponent with chain after a hit with rail will be the way the guy in control will play, not depending on prediction shots with RL and rail on distance. But if you manage to do the simplest jumps on q2dm1 you should be standing a chance.

[Laurelin]

Thanks for the thorough analysis dael!

I am really intrigued as to how will the map turn out in 1on1s. I played a couple FFA games and the fuss was going on in the middle-area as I expected.

Regards,
Laurelin

[HabibGoatAss]

ABSOLUTELY AWESOME MAP!

I got no strong insights other that I HAD A MAJOR BLAST playing this one.

[Laurelin]

Thanks for the good words everyone.

Majority of the people were satisfied with the map, Im really happy about that.

[tr3y]

Great map!  The map plays so fast paced I cant get enough of it.

[naymlis]

i love it 

[Quest]

Very kewl Laurl I havent gotten the opportunity to play it online yet, but from what ive seen so far - it looks pretty fun .  I also am a big fan of the slopes and box jumps.

My fav part is prob the logo there sweet!!!!!!!! hehehe

Be good laurelin

quest