Birds fly. Sun shines. And brother? Brutes shoot people.

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The archive for the 8th Anniversary Speedmapping Contest entries and discussion.

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User avatar Stakhanov
Skaarj Warrior Skaarj Warrior
Posts: 53
Joined: 02 Aug 2008, 18:42

Subject:

Post Posted: 04 Aug 2009, 19:08

Waffnuffly wrote:You know we have standards of decency around here involving the offering of CONSTRUCTIVE feedback instead of just brushing off someone's 6-weeks of effort :rolleyes:


Oh please , you may as well say "lurk moar" :P
Which is what I do most of the time , but I didn't want kaka to get the wrong idea and think things turned "fine".
I'm really not bashing his effort here , just the result.

There's plenty of scenery to look at and explore while your DP is recharging


That I did , probably too much. It's a redeeming quality I guess :P

And by thinking, he means tactically: examine your environment and think about the best ways to lure enemies to chokepoints to more efficiently dispatch them... This goes for ANY FPS.


Indeed it does , any map that is not completely flat and populated with hitscan only monsters has tactics. So that's not a strong point for anything.
Fact is , combat is *relatively* boring here.

User avatar Jblade
Skaarj Warrior Skaarj Warrior
Posts: 70
Joined: 12 Nov 2007, 11:04
Location: England
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Post Posted: 04 Aug 2009, 19:47

I enjoyed the atmosphere of this map alot; the only issue I had was some BSP issues and the fact that a few Skaarj spawners seemed to be...broken?

Spoilers:
I don't know how they work in UnrealED but when I picked up the stinger I was assaulted by at least a dozen Skaarj; the same thing happened at the tower and in the final scene.

I was seriously impressed at the sheer size of the map! It just kept going and going, I loved it. I would of liked to of had more ammo though, I've gotten pretty rusty at Unreal but I was struggling for ammo throughout the whole map. It doesn't bother me too much though; I'm a sucker for Skycity maps so to have several of them in this competition is great stuff.

Kaka
Skaarj Berserker Skaarj Berserker
Posts: 475
Joined: 12 Nov 2007, 00:21
Location: Trójmiasto
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Post Posted: 04 Aug 2009, 20:19

Stakhanow i right people - gameplay is the worst part, no need for constructive criticism here actually because everybody knows that, and I know that too, because I spent a whole hour ( whole one hour maybe less) on placing pawns and sseting up teh paths and stuff. I look at this release as a good occasion to betatest the map, get your opinions on the design and potential that map comes with.Stakhanov doesn't like it - I'm fine with that, and I think he will be happy with final version which will make you all play this stuff at least twice :tup:

UB_
Nali Priest Nali Priest
Posts: 7960
Joined: 11 Nov 2007, 21:00

Subject:

Post Posted: 04 Aug 2009, 20:26

I'm trying too much in order like this. So far, the continuous FPS drops are really bothering me :(
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Sarevok
Skaarj Assassin Skaarj Assassin
Posts: 124
Joined: 11 Mar 2009, 03:31
Location: somewhere

Subject:

Post Posted: 04 Aug 2009, 20:55

Finally finished this one :o Impressive build and theme, I'm always a sucker for terrain maps. It has that classic Unreal feel to it, the tower is a great touch too. I think the grass and trees are overkill, there's way to much IMO. Also I would try to place a few larger rocks on the terrain, especially where the areas are very large and open, it should help with the FPS a bit as you wouldn't see 3 miles of grass and trees in one view :P Lastly I didn't like the grass texture, it looks like a glob of moss, maybe it needs to be scaled down a bit, just nitpicking though :wink:

Kaka
Skaarj Berserker Skaarj Berserker
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Post Posted: 04 Aug 2009, 21:20

UBerserker wrote:I'm trying too much in order like this. So far, the continuous FPS drops are really bothering me :(


Well, that's not something I can fix, runs fine on my 4 year old rig.

Sarevok - I will optimize the grass and tree placement as well, also the grass might be too high. Lot of fixing! :tup:

UB_
Nali Priest Nali Priest
Posts: 7960
Joined: 11 Nov 2007, 21:00

Subject:

Post Posted: 04 Aug 2009, 23:17

Finished the map! :o
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Last fight gave me the Unreality vibe. But it was possible in a way after re-loading 20 times.
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User avatar salsaSkaarj
Gilded Claw Gilded Claw
Posts: 1862
Joined: 21 Apr 2009, 21:54
Location: on the prowl

Subject:

Post Posted: 04 Aug 2009, 23:53

UBerserker wrote:...
Last fight gave me the Unreality vibe. But it was possible in a way after re-loading 20 times.

If UB has to reload like 20 times, then that should prove that the difficulty setting is a trifle off :rolleyes:
I rest my case :D

BTW UB, next time save it on video - I'm dying to see you finish this on Unreal.

User avatar Semfry
Trustee Member Trustee Member
Posts: 2066
Joined: 12 Nov 2007, 02:43
Location: UK
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Post Posted: 05 Aug 2009, 11:37

The theme is pulled off very well and massive in scale, and stuff like the bit where you climb across to the tower was pretty epic, the feeling of non-linearity was nice too along with the foreshadowing-both subtle and otherwise-throughout.

There needs to be more ammo and health (an armour or two would help as well, since you only seem to get some at the end); I had to do most of the second half of the map at half health or below, which is pretty ridiculous even for unreal difficulty. More specifically for ammo I think Razorjack ammo should be cut back (maybe even remove it altogether) and then have more ammo provided for the other weapons, which I think would balance out. The DP only fight at the start was okay (and sneaking in another DP for a quick recharge if you were aggressive was a good idea) but chipping away at brutes got laborious fast, an Automag is apparently going to be provided earlier, but that won't help if there's no ammo for it.

It's apparently being worked on with effects (which I was going to suggest) but there needs to be some more story details or similar to warn about the Nali being evil; when I got the Stinger I thought the Skaarj appearing out of nowhere (also, I was able to just run away from that after and not be chased, which was what I had to do since I didn't know the flow of Skaarj could be stopped there) was some sort of design bug, until much later on when I realised how things are. Also I think spawning should be much slower; as it is you pretty much die until you find out where the Nali is and kill it before it starts, if Skaarj spawned slower and were only one or two at a time it would be a fairer element where you have to work out where they are while under periodic attack (maybe put them a little out-the-way to compensate). I liked the twist other than that, and chopping some Nali heads was cathartic (one thing I would miss if the Razorjack was gone)

There's also a trial and error element; if you fall down that pit in the house after first entering the village it's extremely hard without also having the ASMD from going out the window beforehand (or was that missing window an oversight?), I already mentioned the nature of the new foes above, and the last battle has already been said about in this thread. I liked the build up to it though; the fight with all the Skaarj in the cave was pretty fun as long as you saved up your sniper ammo for the snipers.

I think the story needs to give more guidance too; as it is I pretty much stumbled around the level and things worked out eventually, both Scrag and Waff's maps were pretty linear so I felt I was getting somewhere even if I wasn't sure where that was, since this level is more non-linear the lack of guidance for the player sticks out, especially as there's backtracking needed for one or two parts.

The various BSP issues and stuck spots around the level have already been brought up. I was amused by the "shortcut" near the start though :P .

I liked it outside of the more unfair elements, and the theme and scale is really cool but it's hard to rank because, while I said Waff's map felt a little beta-like, it was still fully finishable and had enough polish to flow well when you knew where to go, conversely this map literally is a beta in its current form, as it's unfinishable without cheats as well as having some major gameplay balance and flow issues. I get the feeling this is the level my opinion will change most on with the finished release vs this original one.

salsaSkaarj wrote:IIRC Stakhanov (CMIIAW) has a history on USP.org.

Not true.

User avatar salsaSkaarj
Gilded Claw Gilded Claw
Posts: 1862
Joined: 21 Apr 2009, 21:54
Location: on the prowl

Subject:

Post Posted: 05 Aug 2009, 12:27

Mman wrote:
salsaSkaarj wrote:IIRC Stakhanov (CMIIAW) has a history on USP.org.

Not true.


Damn my head, public apologies hereby offered to Stakhanov (and thanks to Mman for correcting me when I was wrong).

I confused the name Stakhanov with the name Strachanov used by somebody on another forum (not related to Unreal at all). And yesterday late at night (or even early this morning) I didn't have the energy to think clearly about a hunch (blame it on being Enslaved too long).

UB_
Nali Priest Nali Priest
Posts: 7960
Joined: 11 Nov 2007, 21:00

Subject:

Post Posted: 05 Aug 2009, 13:54

More Rifle ammo near the final cave, so the Skaarj slaughtering will be entertaining here.
Also, less Skaarj Infantries and more Troopers with DP. Stinger shards are very hard to see outside (due to many problems: lighting, skybox, low fps), and they are already tough by themselves. There's also a bug with the moving platform over the electric fields that will fly up to the rocks at the end of the ride (and you'll die).
Also, you should hear a teleporting noise when a Nali appears, so at least you can have some advantage. There should be less grass, and those algae lakes, honestly, look fugly. They normally look horrible in real life but here it's even worse.

All in all, gameplay needs a revamp, you should work on the sounds (I only heard some in the Skaarj facilities) and add a proper story which won't confuse players on what to do.
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diamond
Skaarj Berserker Skaarj Berserker
Posts: 366
Joined: 13 Nov 2007, 10:51
Location: ROFLand
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Post Posted: 05 Aug 2009, 14:01

After a quick look at tree in wireframe mode, I suppose that its leaves have some triangles that represents nothing but totally translucent parts of leaves, so they need to be removed. These are the triangles at the corners of the leaf surface, which is a square now, but can be "chamfered" by removing corner triangles.
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UBerserker wrote:Architecture doesn't need to detailed, it just needs to be right.

Kaka
Skaarj Berserker Skaarj Berserker
Posts: 475
Joined: 12 Nov 2007, 00:21
Location: Trójmiasto
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Subject:

Post Posted: 05 Aug 2009, 18:47

Mman - most of the thing you said is has been already fixed/changed/revamped, so i take it I was right to change them :tup:
Yes, the final version will be a different experience.

UB - I'm not sure about replacing SInfantry with troopers with DP - they suck and Infantry with stingers are a challenge. More ammo for rifle - actually i though about that too - wil do.

diamond wrote:After a quick look at tree in wireframe mode, I suppose that its leaves have some triangles that represents nothing but totally translucent parts of leaves, so they need to be removed. These are the triangles at the corners of the leaf surface, which is a square now, but can be "chamfered" by removing corner triangles.


Of course, the uwv bug will be fixed too.

User avatar Hellscrag
Founder Founder
Posts: 4007
Joined: 11 Nov 2007, 19:14
Location: In a random access memory of dreams

Subject:

Post Posted: 05 Aug 2009, 23:09

Coming to this late, not much I can add that hasn't already been set out here. Great design, now sort out the BSP and the gameplay! :P

Most of all, I think the role of the Nali in spawning the Skaarj needs to be clarified through a better implementation of the story. I didn't "get" that at all.

My full comments will follow when the scores are awarded.
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Life is what you make of it.

User avatar zacman
Skaarj Warlord Skaarj Warlord
Posts: 690
Joined: 23 Jun 2009, 02:51
Location: Under your bed with a Chainsaw

Subject:

Post Posted: 06 Aug 2009, 01:08

Uuuuuuh...
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(03:01:24 PM) <+All_Rights_Reserved> i'm not masturbating

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