[UT2] [WIP] CTF-Backup

Here are some pics of the map I am currently working on. A medium sized CTF map.


By xMurphyx


By xMurphyx


By xMurphyx

I'll post some more shots tomorrow. Some more finishing up to do in some areas so they can be shown without causing embarassment but it won't be long.
I added falling rain with an xWeatherEffect and ripples over puddles and water. It did a lot for the atmosphere in the map but it doesn't really come across in screenshots. Anyway, you'll see more tomorrow.

Ok, here it goes.

These red side-cavities with water running down the walls can be seen through windows with angled plates in them. The angling makes it so the red (or blue, in case of the blue team's side) is more visible when going into the base than it is when leaving it.

Here you can see the agressive red:

By xMurphyx

...and here is a shot as seen when leaving:

By xMurphyx

No ceiling so it rains into this room. Something like a projectile (Meteor? Rocket?) damaged the wall and the corporation running it as an arena never bothered to fix it and just loaded a holo-backup of the place for the damaged parts (whence the name of the map):

By xMurphyx

This is a shot of the corridor from the flag-room to the room in the shot above:

By xMurphyx

Another mysterious projectile hit home here. Not a very scenic shot but the picture of the holo-repaired damge comes across well, I think:

By xMurphyx

I'm not too happy with the flag-room yet so this room is likely going to change before a first release. Suggestions are welcome!

By xMurphyx

thats a really nice map there, got a great atmosphere going and the lighting is perfect.

I kept the basic layout but other than that I completely remade the flag-room now. It looked too techy.

Also new:

• new textures for wood, brickwall, tile-floor, threadplate and some smaller, more insignificant stuff
  
• new central area. The old one was too small for my taste..
  

To do:

• new skybox. The current one looks somewhat shitty. I like the concept, but the execution is lacking. With the new lighting (see below) I can even use different colors and times of day now. *joy*
  
• complete makeover for lighting. Maybe even with different colors. With the new textures it should be less tiresome to light things properly and instead of going over every light again to adjust it to the better textures I will just start from scratch.
  
• new bridge models for central area. The current ones are too techy.
  
• remove failed attempts at creating a "backup" effect and think of a new name for the map.
  

Shot of the old texturing (unlit):

As you can see, the wood texture was pretty good it seems a bit overused these days.
The brick texture was already used in CTF-Wasnuni, which wouldn't be a problem for me, I just got sick of seeing it. The problem with the brick texture is that it looks a little washed out, in my opinion.
This is a bad shot to see the tile-floor but you can see a bit on the fret-like things between the wood segments on the floor. It's the old omnipresent tile floor from Albatross. A great texture without doubt, but also overused and just as the wood it is creating a bit too much contrast in my level. I replaced it with a brighter, sandier looking texture. You can't see it too well in the next shot, but you can see that its brightness is closer to the rest of the level. I might use a colormodifier later if it proves too yellow to really mesh together with the other textures.

Shot of the new texturing (unlit):

The only thing that is still in high contrast to everything else is the metal trim texture, just as it should be, in my opinion.

Shot of the old flag-room (unlit):

Am I the only one who thinks this looks like a cluttered mess without any style whatsoever? I got so desperate I even used random support-meshes from the Pipe.usx package. Not that those are bad. On the contrary. I just don't want them to be in any level that might be associated with me. I also used the old "hole in floor, covered with grate" device to spice things up a little. I love that device, I just don't like to "just throw it in there".

The new flag-room isn't quite done yet. I will make new (simple) bridges and I'm not done with the modeled lighting (by that I mean, I don't have lamp-models everywhere I want some. As I said, the actual lighting, with the little bulbs all over the place, will be remade completely). Also I will of course make the water flow away in the middle and the room will still end with a connection to the outdoors and a view on the skybox. I just haven't remade that small outdoor area yet and I don't want to use the old one.
Here is a shot of what I have so far:

Nothing special, but I think it's much more cohesive and fits the style of the rest of the level a lot better than the old one.

The mapdescription is done now:

Quote :

The TechPriests of Omicron Alpha predicted the end of the world numerous times over the past few millenia. With one millennium only lasting about 195 earth-months this became an issue that began to severely undermine the population's trust in their predictions. To fight the rapid dwindling of their influence, Omicron Alpha's TechPriests planned to alter time to rig a near apocalypse only to prevent it at what could be passed off as the last second, thanks to their divine prophecies. By the time the apocalypse was supposed to be prevented in the current time stream nobody gave a faque about the TechPriests anymore and with nobody listening to their warnings Omicron Alpha was swallowed by an aemobic time-bubble.

At least that's what every Liandri employee who values its job will tell you if you ask them why modern lighting devices and ancient architecture clash in the Immernuni arena. If you have a better, more plausible explanation: Send it in to the Headoffice for Arena-Fluff for a chance to win a free weekend on the holiday star base SB3k7b in the Bikini Cloud.

Please point out errors of spelling and grammar.

Please, feel free to get really anal about the spelling and the grammar in the description above and tell me how you like it overall!

I took a bit of a break with this map because of the contest, which unfortunately will most likely not take place, but I'd like to get back to it now.
Since the last few announcements it has had its name and gametype changed from CTF-Backup to BR-Cisterna.
Here is a small rough to-do list:
- going over the lighting again. The orange lighting from the sun was only a placeholder so I can make the leaks more visible, but I like it now. The final version will probably be less orange, but not too much.
- in many areas even the geometry is still WIP. Feel free to point out blank spaces and horrible looking places anyway!
- botpathing is stil WIP so they will most likely not put up a (good) fight
- the end-parts of the map are still WIP. The bomb gate will be hanging on chains (the ball too), the cliff will get a StaticMesh treatment and the canyon will probably get some plants and maybe a small lo-res terrain for the bottom. I will either make the gate a little higher so only a shield-jump will get players through or I will make it a little lower so a double jump is enough. Depending on how easy it turns out to score when the map is done.
- yeah well, and there is a lot of general polishing left to do, obviously.






Here is the dowload link:
Download BR-Cisterna from Rapidshare!

Please don't host any online games with this version and don't distribute it anywhere. This is a WIP version of the map and it's only meant for you, yes you sitting there, to test it, take some looks around in it and tell me about shortcomings so I can work on those.

Any chance of re-uploading? I realize its pretty old but would love to hop around in it offline.

I'm re-uploading it now. Same rules apply as above, plus I'm not working on this anymore so don't expect it to ever be released for real. This is just for curious people like you who want to hop around in it a bit. It is NOT a playable beta!

Here we go, link is ready:
http://www.mediafire.com/?nzi4dnny1ix

Quote :

I'm re-uploading it now. Same rules apply as above, plus I'm not working on this anymore so don't expect it to ever be released for real.

Np, thats why I mentioned "offline" . Thanks for the upload!