Nobody_1707's Stupid Questions Thread

[Nobody1707]

I figured I would put all of my stupid mapping questions in this thread to save
eveyone's time. No, I didn't steal that idea from anyone. Why would you even ask
that? >.>

Anyway, here is my first map. It's small, plotless, and doesn't exactly have the
most interesting texturing. So, feel free to give tips & suggestions.

Currently, however, I have two questions:
1: Why isn't PICT 1600 found even though I've merged it into the map?
2: How do I get the blue Pfhor to snipe from the window?

[Crater Creator]

Regarding question 2, getting Marathon's AI to do what you want is more art than science. However, one thing you can do is make the Pfhor deaf, but not blind. Then he won't activate until he sees you. Right now every fighter is going on alert as soon as you fire your first shot. If that still doesn't work, you can try making one of the stairs monster impassable. That will force him to stay in the room, but he still may not fire on you. Make sure the window is shaped right so his shots can go through.

[Nobody1707]

Thanks, Crater.

Doh! I accidentally saved the merged map to the wrong folder, so I ended up
testing the previous version of the map.

Here are the results for the up to date map. The blue Pfhor now snipes, but not
reliably. It does make the map harder though since he usually won't come down
until you open the door to the stairs.

Also, it turns out that the one I had previously been testing was from before
I merged the terminal pics in, since they showed up as soon as I used the new
map.

PS. Does anyone have some critiques of the map itself?

[zero]

Hmm... Small, dreary texture work, but other than that, I like the architecture, it's oldschool and simplistic but still not boring or obstructive.

The level could have used a central control weapon... Once you got to the main open room, say, an AR or shotgun.
Some health would have been nice. Enemies are in close quarters and you only have pistols and fists, so you tend to get beat up pretty bad.

But yeah... It's not awful, It's a good test map.

[Nobody1707]

Would a second pistol and some ammo work?

[Hopper]

One one start, I immediately got smacked in the face by a fighter bolt. Not very nice.

I like the color palette, but you need some variation in lighting, and a different texture for the floors at least -- rarely does the same texture work on both the walls and the floor. The textures are also misaligned in several places, including under the ledge and all of the first room's walls.

Overall the rooms have a nice design, but they feel too small and cramped. The stairs in the first room are a good example; even when you stand against the wall, it looks like I'm going to fall off (even though I won't), and the door to the third room is stuck in a corner and behind a column. The second room is too small for enjoyable fighting -- with the columns, it'd be a nice spot to run around in, if it were big enough to run around in. I wound up luring the orange fighters into the hall, to take them out individually in the first room.

The double-height door looks neat, but you can't really appreciate it here. When you're standing close by to open it, you don't see the interesting part, and you can toggle it without seeing any part of the door since it's out of your field of vision. This might be better as a motion-activated door (triggered by a poly) in a spot where you see it in action better.

You could also use a few more architectural details around the doors and ledge; maybe you could use bevels like in the third room. It looks unpolished when the doors line up exactly with the walls, especially on the last one that's exactly in the corner.

Flow-wise it's not bad, what little there is to it, but it would be more interesting if you could jump from the ledge back to the second room. It looks like you can, so either make it possible, or add a low ledge to make it clearer that it's just a window.

There's a "diamond in the rough" quality here. Each room has a different feel, you made nice use of height, and I like bright levels. I look forward to seeing what you create once you get the hang of the proportions and put more effort into texturing and architectural details.

[Nobody1707]

Alright, is this an improvement?

As always, any and all suggestions and criticisms are welcome.

[$lave]

Alright, is this an improvement?

Yes, it is an improvement. There could still be more variation in the texturing (and lighting) from room to room, but it's much better than the first version.

My only major complaint now is the lighting. The map as a whole is simply too bright, and there isn't really any differential shading. There's one spot by the pillars where I didn't even notice there were shadows being cast for awhile because the lighting was so mild. I think the map would look considerably better if at least one of the rooms (the middle room, maybe) was considerably darker than the other two. It would also help all the rooms of there was a noticeable difference in the lighting of the North/East/West/South sides.

[Nobody1707]

Okay, sorry I haven't updated in a while. My computer died a while ago, and I only just got around to installing Weland on my new one.

Here's a stupid question, how do I place the flag for a CTF map? A quick search didn't turn up anything.