URGENTIA: Calling Team Members...

[Silus_of_Earth]

Hi.

I need some beta testing, chimps.

This is going to be my last pure UT map. *sniff*

After this I will be working on Pearman and waiting for Unreal2.

So, because of this, (and because I have to follow up nachimir's Potemic, congrats again!) I want to go out with a bang. And to do that I need your help! Dare you accept?

Good then. Beta map? It is here:

http://www.gosub600.com/dm-skullfk.zip

Please read the readme with it!

(not Betamax):o

[ULTBase]

I hope I am worthy enough for this, but I do accept. You will get my 100% honest opinion... hope that helps!

[Silus_of_Earth]

Cheers Base!

[ULTBase]

Hi Silus,
That nap is up to ur usual standards, and by that I mean its dam kool. I was expecting to see loads wrong with it by the way you spoke but I couldnt find anything really. The texturing look good and the lighting was ok. Perhaps slightly too dark in some fo the outside corridors, but only slightly.
The redeemeer... hmm im not sure. Illl think about that some more.
The only problem I found was the platform and towers below the playarea. Are you planning to do anything with these. If not get rid of them as they look awful when u fall off the playear. Other than that, it rox!

[Nachimir]

I downloaded it the other day, meaning to get back to you tonight... but other stuff has happened, so it'll be tomorrow morning.

Initial reaction: Cool. :)

[MrSpoon52]

sweet

[Nachimir]

Silus:
As you no doubt realise, all of this is just personal preference.

=---=

I think the ambient sounds on lifts seem well f ucked up: if you swap "closing" and "opening" sounds to just "moveambient" the noise will stop when the lifts do.

Ligting on the lift near the flak vest: It's dark when it reaches the top. I learned from alt.games.unreal.ed that mover lighting is applied all over a mover according to the last vertex selected - in this case one on the bottom. If you select one at the top of the brush and rebuild lighting it should sort that.

Really minor stuff:
Medkit near the pulsegun embedded in ledge.

Some polys occasionally disappearing at the edge of the screen, most notably a door to the rocket launcher building. I learned the other day that checking "No Bounds Reject" under surface properties helps get rid of this. My graphics card is old sh ite though, it might just be that.

The railings sticking up near the siper rifle got on my tits a bit. They look nice, but they seemed to get in the way while I was fighting.

Some very slightly misaligned trim textures on the edge of one of the walkways (I think).

=---=

The way I test flow is to switch off. If I find myself running all over the map even when I'm not paying much attention, the flow is good. With Skullf uck, I think the flow is good; I continually find myself in different places, likewise for the bots :)

The bit I'm pointing at here is really REALLY fun:

http://www.planetunreal.com/fragadelic/nachimir/funfunfun.jpg

I ended up circling it with a bot. It's one of the places I rarely found myself or a bot though, maybe more inventory would bring it further into play? I also usually hate the pulse gun, but in this level it's lethal and my favorite. Another good sign methinks.

The architecture is gorgeous - many people who use SGTECH textures seem to rely on the patterns rather than making complex geometry. I think this is the best use of them I've seen. The chamber with the Flak Cannon is my favorite: "Lovely", in that sculptural, grimy, blood soaked kind of way. The silhouetted parts of the level look good against the yellow sky, and I found the map was well lit - nowhere was too dark for me. The large towers in the distance look good too, though I can see what BaSe means about them sliding around in the skybox. Maybe making them even taller (downwards) would make it less obvious?

Z-axis is good; the bots seem to use it well. There was nowhere I felt too confined; though the walkways seemed a bit narrow at first I quickly got used to them, and now think they're just right. One of the bots even got the redeemer and wasted me with it.

Redeemers are fun, damage amp and invisibility are not, so I think the powerup situation is dandy.

=---=

Super dooper, I love it.

[Balton]

hm, the architecture is nice but i dislike the texturing. its like beton ( or cement?) on a skycity. i would more await something metal like. ( like u have used a few times).

well havent played the map yet jsut looked around in ued will play it later this day....

[Silus_of_Earth]

Thanks guys, that's great.

Nachimir especially, thanks for taking the time to write all that - it's all been useful stuff too.

So:

Sounds - yes, I must admit I hadn't actually checked the map since I added the moversounds - I have to use a different machine for sounds as my soundcard seems only to want to play music and ignore sound effects, or occasionally it sputters them out like there's a loose connection (but the music stays fine). Weird. Anyway, I'll sort out the sound.

Skybox - yes, it is stupid. I kind of always leave the skybox till last, I think I will take out the city texture at the bottom and leave it dark or something....

Redeemer stays then.

Nachimir, did you mean the railings on the side of the sniper building or the two triangular 'wings' of the sculpture near the walkway - or was it the railings of the ramp that comes up? Which ones! Oh, Which ONES?!?

Anyway, cheers everyone, again.

Silus

[navboy]

Really liked the architecture and detail in this map, lighting's good for me, but then i like dark areas almost to a fault so it didn't seem dark to me in any areas.

The locale had its own "substance"; it made me want to be there and move through it. To that end, i kept finding myself wanting to get to places i couldn't get to ... Initially i thought it would be cool to teleport players to the out-towers so they could snipe back at the playarea, but when i flew out there i realized the distance was so great it wouldn't be feasible and the framerate dropped way low. But then i flew up to the tallest parking-garage-looking building in the playarea, and that really seemed like it could be a part of the action ... close enough to use most weapons and also get fired on, and you can jump down to the redeemer.

one piddly detail is that the recessed vent texture on that exhaust scoop or whatever it is not lit because of the slight recess ... i had this exact problem before and don't remember now how i solved it, i don't think Bright Corners did it ... maybe SpecialLit somehow?

also piddly is that is seems like you die too soon when you go over the edge, like you should fall longer, but then that gets into the skybox problem i guess (see below) ...

Bots played it well and i like the z-axis movement. Yellow hazy sky is nice touch.

Sounds like you'll solve the skybox problem with darkness below the playarea. I was curious to see what other options there were, because i ran into this exact same problem just last night in my map, where the playarea is on a table (army-man scale map) and you fall to your death if you fall off the table ... i've got table legs extending quite a ways down, but to make the room look huge without suffering the framerate killer of making the real room huge i made all the real room's surfaces Fake Backdrop -- looks awesome except as you fall the floor never gets any closer and when you die at the bottom of the table legs it looks like you're floating in space along with the table miles above the giant checkerboard floor ... argh.

anyway, if there *is* a way to solve it other than darkness, i kind of like the texture down there in your map, reminds me of looking down on a city at night from an airplane ... maybe scaling it smaller and blotting out areas to total darkness here and there would reenforce the effect.

good map ;)

[Silus_of_Earth]

Thanks Nav Boy. Are you the new guy? If so, welcome!

Thanks for the little details - 'piddly' or not, they're the ones that can make the difference....


Cheers

Eddie 'The Eagle' Edwards

[Nachimir]

Ah, sorry. The railings on the ramp:

http://www.planetunreal.com/fragadelic/nachimir/rails.jpg

Maybe make them flush with the floor? I really liked the sculpture, and I thought the rails on the side were fine.

I like "Skullf uck" as a title too. :)