Muse

Hellfire

L9: Fashionable Member
Jul 9, 2008
601
142
yea,we crashed server during gameday long ago testing a5 or smth cuz of that "sandman issue".
so i suggst to run alone being demo and fire some pipes near displacements :D

we were trying to find that issue for ages as it was just crashing serverwith no errors anywhere, and we found it :D
 

DJive

Cake or Death?
aa
Dec 20, 2007
1,465
741
Updated picture.

24goot2.jpg


Lighting is off still and i do need to fix my wall lol.

crashing is still in effect though.

Tob/Nip i have no idea what you mean sadly =(
 

Penguin

Clinically Diagnosed with Small Mapper's Syndrome
aa
May 21, 2009
2,039
1,484
DJive: I think he means Power 4 Displacements crash maps.
 

Owlruler

L12: Fabulous Member
Dec 10, 2008
964
275
As Boojum was saying in the chat: The power of diplacements don't effect the map crashing.
 

Hellfire

L9: Fashionable Member
Jul 9, 2008
601
142
well, add me on steam. ive sent an invitition like months ago but you klicked "ignore" so i cant re-send it
 

DJive

Cake or Death?
aa
Dec 20, 2007
1,465
741
Can't thank enough Nipet and Tob.

Tob took the time to download the map and gave me a screenshot of what was causing the problem..

I removed that displacement and sure enough error free!.

A4C is now up

----
Download
-----
 
Last edited:

Hellfire

L9: Fashionable Member
Jul 9, 2008
601
142
ah, shaar already helped ya :D great
 

DJive

Cake or Death?
aa
Dec 20, 2007
1,465
741
TY all for those who played on gameday.

It didnn't get much feedback in-game, voice or through type. Watching the 30 minute demo I think all three of these were only said once.

1. Too Dark
2. Too Big
3. Lack of direction.

Hopefully i might be able to get some better feedback i ntis thread from players who were nice enough to test it that day.

I personally didn't find it too dark at all, just spawn rooms, however better lighting will come along in higher alpha's.

As far as the size, i took a look in 2fort.

2Fort: W2980x L8632
Muse: W3504xL7920

So the reason I'm thinking Muse felt bigger was it was wider with less detail? I have some plans to correct its wide issue.

Direction will come better next build.

Somethings im REALLY wondering about that no one commented on.

GAMEPLAY.
LAYOUT
FUN

Thanks all.
 
Last edited:

Hellfire

L9: Fashionable Member
Jul 9, 2008
601
142
well..one bad thing was that there is a room under the flag where some players accidently rushed to get flag,as pointer was pointing there.
another thing is central area, yea its either too big or just not enough obstacles there

some people accidently got to the enemy spawnroom after grabing a flag, or ran curcles inside enemy base trying to find the way out.

in my opinion,the layout is quite obvious so i got confused only in first 5 minutes,as i saw map for the first time

there was allways alot of fighting i n the middle so its not that easy to get away with flag, and thats good.
oh,one small thing,that displacement ramp on the left from spawn room seems not too smoth so it was sometimes hard to get up. but thats minor one.

hm..thats all i can remember,i liked the map overall,it remined me of smth Q3'ish, in good way :D
 

Ida

deer
aa
Jan 6, 2008
2,289
1,372
This was a pretty fun map, I enjoyed it after figuring it out. The middle was very good - it was easy to sneak past, and at the same time you could hold up some defense there. The only thing I disliked was the fact that it was quite unclear how to get to the intel room from your spawn. I eventually found a reasonably quick route, but this usually lead to the intel being halfway across the map before anyone could react. I somehow managed to cap the intel twice in a row as Spy, without any major obstacles on my way out.
 

Terr

Cranky Coder
aa
Jul 31, 2009
1,590
410
Tossing on my "pop-psychology"* hat.. I think a lot of the "map is large" feeling comes from:
  • Landmarks and detailing which simply aren't there are this development stage, especially with some twisty stairs where you lose track of "north".
  • Several places with dev-walls which are just huge faces towering over you. Once you start enclosing the roof or lowering the walls, things will feel more cozy.

If you took 2fort's vertical surfaces (and clipping planes) and replaced them with similar dev-walls, while maintaining similarly open/high ceilings everywhere possible, I think people would start getting the same feeling there too.

Experiments to play with the human lab-rats:
  • Use a dev texture with no grid, or a larger grid size.
  • Close up some areas and add an interior dev-roof with hanging lights.
  • Lower the roof if there's no point in rocket-jumping in an area.
That may help alleviate the feeling without changing the actual floorplan.

*Pejorative
 
Last edited:

DJive

Cake or Death?
aa
Dec 20, 2007
1,465
741
well..one bad thing was that there is a room under the flag where some players accidently rushed to get flag,as pointer was pointing there.
another thing is central area, yea its either too big or just not enough obstacles there

some people accidently got to the enemy spawnroom after grabing a flag, or ran curcles inside enemy base trying to find the way out.

there was allways alot of fighting i n the middle so its not that easy to get away with flag, and thats good.
oh,one small thing,that displacement ramp on the left from spawn room seems not too smoth so it was sometimes hard to get up. but thats minor one.
The middle was very good - it was easy to sneak past, and at the same time you could hold up some defense there. The only thing I disliked was the fact that it was quite unclear how to get to the intel room from your spawn. I eventually found a reasonably quick route, but this usually lead to the intel being halfway across the map before anyone could react..

Ya lack of signage and I guess being so "open" in area's is very confusing. I'm surprised the middle area played so well. It was really through together at the last moment lol.

One thing i noticed it the path behind the intel *the drop down* was hardly ever used.. at all. Was this because it wasn't apartment? or was it because it was not useful?

In general i see the basement needs some more love.

Tossing on my "pop-psychology"* hat.. I think a lot of the "map is large" feeling comes from:
  • Landmarks and detailing which simply aren't there are this development stage, especially with some twisty stairs where you lose track of "north".
  • Several places with dev-walls which are just huge faces towering over you. Once you start enclosing the roof or lowering the walls, things will feel more cozy.

If you took 2fort's vertical surfaces (and clipping planes) and replaced them with similar dev-walls, while maintaining similarly open/high ceilings everywhere possible, I think people would start getting the same feeling there too.

Experiments to play with the human lab-rats:
  • Use a dev texture with no grid, or a larger grid size.
  • Close up some areas and add an interior dev-roof with hanging lights.
  • Lower the roof if there's no point in rocket-jumping in an area.
That may help alleviate the feeling without changing the actual floorplan.

Excellent idea =) I will have to look into this as its really "not" a big map but it does give that feeling being open and all dev. Thanks!.
 

Hellfire

L9: Fashionable Member
Jul 9, 2008
601
142
oh yes, about drop down, it leads to enemy spawnroom..i used that once, and got chaced by 2 sollys,pyro with medic,scout and heavy :D so never used it anymore
 

DJive

Cake or Death?
aa
Dec 20, 2007
1,465
741
oh yes, about drop down, it leads to enemy spawnroom..i used that once, and got chaced by 2 sollys,pyro with medic,scout and heavy :D so never used it anymore

I'll have to incorporate it better then. Once i get my second team spawn *in quake room* i think it will help with that drop down being much more useful.

Small update on progress, the map is now 2952 wide.. about a 600 unit different D: Working on redoing displacements, Capture area and Second spawnroom now.
 

Hellfire

L9: Fashionable Member
Jul 9, 2008
601
142
look,that way is not used because its not either "safer" or "shorter". its just another way out, and (speaking about lab rats :D) flag carriers prefer more obvious ways, more visible,and dropdown is allways a risk
 

Terr

Cranky Coder
aa
Jul 31, 2009
1,590
410
Yeah, I think the issue with the drop-route is simply that it passes so close to the enemy spawn: It feels more likely to be seen and killed, and if you do die then it's harder for your team to grab the flag. It looks as if the generally-open area and close spawn-closets also allow defending engineers to toss sentries down to cover the intel pretty quickly.
 

DJive

Cake or Death?
aa
Dec 20, 2007
1,465
741
Yeah, I think the issue with the drop-route is simply that it passes so close to the enemy spawn: It feels more likely to be seen and killed, and if you do die then it's harder for your team to grab the flag. It looks as if the generally-open area and close spawn-closets also allow defending engineers to toss sentries down to cover the intel pretty quickly.

Hmm ya, once i get my second spawn room it should help wit that problem.

ATM im testing out different intel area's, and spamming the chatroom with pictures to see which is best =p Once i get a good one ill post up here on the changes.
 

Hellfire

L9: Fashionable Member
Jul 9, 2008
601
142
Working on side area ramp down.

Yes, its the same exact layout posted on first page turned into a texture.

Ha, did i get the idea from you? I remember seeing a member do this and thought it was a GREAT idea. I must say after doing it.. it is, my scale is off but for a rough alpha it makes it fast and easy to do.

can you tell me more about this? if thats not a top secret way
 

DJive

Cake or Death?
aa
Dec 20, 2007
1,465
741
can you tell me more about this? if thats not a top secret way

The side ramp is the displacement ramp going to the side, lack of better terms for me.

As far as layout to texture, what i did was making the layout in photoshop, then turned it in to a texture on the ground and laid out all the brushwork to match.

Not sure what exactly you are inquiring more about =)