As said in comments, I feel an urge to discuss the review greatly; no so much to criticize it, but to get some feedback, since this map had pretty lousy beta stage and there are numerous things that confuse me in the review. As well as to shed light on some decisions I made - I hope this will help any other mappers out there. Let's go point by point... this may get lengthy 
First off, Homeslice is the only one still reporting problems with crashing; there were some other people that had similar issues with ver1.1, like you can see on Atari forums. SE version seems to fix this for everyone except Homeslice. And yes, all I did was rebuild the map (not mentioning couple of visual fixes, since they shouldn't have any impact), so it has to be an engine glitch. I inquired about this on numerous forums, but sadly noone seems to have a slight idea what could be wrong...
Let's go deeply into my planning procedure. I got the idea for making this map right at the end of 2002, after I played through UT2k3. I had no expirience with external modeling tools, so I decided that my first map will sport stock resources. It also had to be reasonably small and at the same time distinctive from the surge of stock-like maps that I expected to arrive on scene shortly. Since I didn't have many expirience with laying solid floorplans (I was working a lot with Ued2.0, but released nothing, mostly due to goals set too high, see here http://aggy.slohosting.com/ut/sshot ), I focused on the atmosphere and effects. Also, I was a bit disturbed about people saying BSP was passe, and defiantly made a decision to use it extensively. I was influenced by Doom3 a bit at that time and the first image of Sealed Dread was a noisy and working factory laden in a heavy mist, with narrow passages and sharp turns (yup, I am a flak monkey), a lot oz Z-axis and clasutrophobic feeling. Picture an interiror of a working World War 2 submarine, with brick walls and bathing in orange hues. Stock resources were ample in this department and I was pretty happy with the floorplan I scratched on the paper also. I had numerous ideas about special effects and was confident, that because people seemed to forget about sounds and dynamic environtment, my map has an opportunity to stand out. Also, a lot of maps, including Epic's own, had terrible flow problems due to bad smesh collision, whereas I had taken all that into account. But then problems started to arise.
Firstly, I had to drop the idea about really narrow passages, since movement in UT2k3 differs from that in its predecessor and substantial room had to be made for dodge-jumping. I then made a possibly crucial decision, to lower the height difference between the ground and first floor (mostly ramps along walls), to account for trick jumps - I can't agree with thunder on the lack of connectivity between floors, since you can dodge-jump onto higher floors at at least four different spots in the map (this means in four separate rooms - the long corridor, the furnace, the narrower path in the L room and in the main room between the center cube and the lowest ramp)! On the other hand, this seems to screw Z-axis action to some extent. The first concept had those ramps winding around ground floor on higher levels. Also, I had to drop the idea about heavy fog, since it's a DM map and players don't like to have their view obscured - I was participating in a lot of forum threads regarding fog issues. That's when the orignal concept started to transform into a desolate haunted place with severed surroundings. I was then struck by an image I probably saw as a kid in some kind of a thriller (yup, guys, don't let your kids wath TV ), with that general round light (those round ones in the big room) hanging above, red brick walls and.. a severed body layign in a kind of barrel. This picture became the permanent matrix for this map. Also, the story was more or less made at that time.
I can hardly accept that BSP geometry is basic, since there are 700 brushes in this map, which is a huge amoung for such a small map. But I agree completely that there are visual scenes that have a great impact in coneveying the boxy picture, like the upper half of the main room. Since players spend much of their time in the main room, they get the feeling of playing in a box, overlooking some delicate BSP deco, although I guess it's mainly my fault cause I didn't put enough emphasis on those spots (like ground corner of the L room and the furnace architecture). I admit that this part of the main room is underdecorated, but I'll get to that shortly. Also, it was my intention not to make rounded rooms, since you dn't seem them in industrial facilities. So what's the lesson here? Don't exert on delicate geometry if you can't make it stand out in the course of a play.
Thunder says that "realism does not equal good gameplay" and generaly speaking he's right. I possess a strange attribute - it seems I can't really enjoy the atmosphere if it isn't beleivable. In other words, in the course of playing other maps or mapping, questions about cohesion between general atmosphere and deco constantly pop up in my mind. Like, WTF is this machine doing here, if it's an elven castle I'm playin in?! Just that my thoughts are more compex, of course See, when I laid down the concept of this map upon a picture of last century factories, the amount and nature of deco became kind of "locked". Since I just couldn't enjoy mapping an environment that has inconsistencies present. Sealed Dread could probably look like another AugustMoon, laden with an almost ridiculous amount of smeshes, but the mapper building it prolly wouldn't be me. High time I started mapping for realistic mods, eh? The question is, what makes better atmosphere, pesudo-realistic environment or totally Unreal one?
Oh, the performance and optimization. But let's get a little back to when I was finishing the geometry. Since this is my first map with new engine, it's also the one I was getting expirience on laying smeshes with. I had several problems here, the biggest probably one that skinned smesh's material is also loaded into memory. That means if you want to skin a lot of stock smeshes, you have to duplicate them in mylevel adn change the material, else the invisible textures may painfully gobble you resources. The pure diamond are skyline smeshes with three 1024×1024 DXT5 textures on them, but only one shown.
) So watch out. The other problem was, I put too many different smeshes into one room, especially the main room, which makes your rigs hiccup, because smeshes and textures are loaded into memory. The big thing was, of course, phase one of MSUC. Eventhough I started mapping this thing in January, it was made only to about a quarter till two weeks before deadline, mostly due to problems with studying (I study physics, hard as hell). I pulled up my socks and worked whole days, but only managed to release alpha version. Gui can tell you how it looked, since he provided me with some info. Then another round of exams came and I wasn't mapping until around October, when I decided to finish it for good. In the course of hasty mapping back in July, a stuffed the map with lots of smeshes, which killed FPS, so I had to remesh and retexture a huge amount of objects and his took another month on my duron900 machine. Due to incredible amount of actors (over 1000 lights), everything was going very slowly; I had only about three FPS in the editor and making any adjustments was a real pain in the ass. Now you undertand why it had taken so long and that the map couldn't look that much different. Well, now a have a power rig, so don't worry.
1000 lights?! Yes, I was very influenced by DavidM's and Hourences' lighting standards and took this very serious. I actually tried to light realistically, lighting only appropriate surfaces and that's why one light fixture usually has 4-5 light sources. Needless to say, it is an extremely laborious work and now I see that maybe it doesn't pay off. So if anyone out there thinks he may get through with it - think again. It seems this engine just isn't advanced enough to let you do it. I really don't get it why the engine doesn't support more elaborately implemented cone lights - usually just restricting the arc of a light would solve everything. I look forward to seeing such options in the next generation engines.
Thunder says that this map could benefit from darker illumination in places. Now that really struck me, because he's the first to mention a possibility od turning the brightness down (save for morpheus, but that's another story)! Mostly everyone that played this map in alpha, beta, and final versions, complained about dark areas. The only exception probably being the floor in the main room at the spot where you can dodge-jump up, where I did turn lower the brightness (morpheus claimed he saw greening there). I think what disturbs Thunder is a too uniform lighting. I admit that this kind of atmosphere would go better along with single player environments, whereas dynamic DM maps should use some more variation. If not from lighting, then maybe from texturing - those white brick walls span too high i.e. they cover too much surface. I planned to intoduce more color variation, but in the course of mapping, such intentions mysterioulsy dwindled away... and I still don't know exactly why, maybe I was fed up with this map and its orange hue already and lost power to make any bigger changes. Some lights are actually broken, but I should break some more, yes I was just too afraid of the lack of lighting in areas, since everyone was telling me the map is too dark.
I agree completely that in order to enhance atmosphere, more delicate geometry concepts, such as severed machinery, should have been included. Had I had knowlege of modeling at that time, you would haev seen such elements. Instead I aimed to use stock elements as much as possible and I think you should look a it this way. But as said, more than a year after release it's naive to consider any stock content still appealing. I was well aware of that, so bet on other effects and the layout. The dynamic lights should have been used better, I agree. It's just that nobody seems to use them really, so I guessed they haev some problems, like malfunctioning in the netplay or something. Eventhough I inquired about that on numerous forums, I got no feedback *at all*. That's why I only introduced them as a little spicey feature. The same goes for real-time procedural textures, that comprise pools of water. Whay I didn't add specialr maps? They don't seem to work with procedural textures. In this map I tried twice as more techniques as are actually present. Everything from opacity filters, reflections on oil pools, triggered sounds, dynamic projectors etc. - that is another reason why this map cam out late. The problem was my inexpirience with Photoshop, but that problem is now solved. I used redeemer trail because at that time I didn't know how to fix the menu problem in the emitter properties; I was led to solution not sooner than a month ago, so I improvised by modifying existing types. As for the particle density... Thunder, you're being a bit picky here, don't you think? ) What I miss a bit in the review in this department is the metal sound effect used on grates and those imitation of a guy being closed into the cistern... And furnace definitely stays - it's by far the most proper representation of the place I wanted to make.
Thunder also says the main room is too open. I it's because undcorated upper half, which really makes everything look a bit empty. As for gameplay, this was one my basic decisions - to have several separated floors onto which you can double-jump, comprising a place for medium to small distance fights, where you can change levels quickly. Majority of people that tested the map found this a great and fun concept, that is ideal for UT2k3 moving nature.
And why is the main room so open, woth that darned ring of lights up there? It's a performance issue. The open nature of the room backfired, since there wasn't much room for any kind of optimization. the stuffed machinery makes polys jump to 120.000 in places, and combined with relatively numerous different smeshes and textures it really poses a problem. With sadness I came upon decision to remove deco from the ceiling and as a consequence I had to put out the lighting there also, so I ended with those lights up there. I hoped that this you-don't-know-what's-up-there feature would make just as claustrophobic feeling as would the closed ceiling, but it seems I was wrong, though there are people that find this well-chosen.
As for the song; I was really in two minds - should I choose an eerie, slow tune or a dynamic one, to complement DM nature? I still don't know if I have chosen correctly. Skaarj likes it
Weapons placement is where I have some serious questions. Thunder questions placements of shock and googun. As far as I play UT, shock has allway been considered as the best weapon to put on ground floors, because it's probably the best weapon to shoot upward with. I find such statemnts correct and followed it in my map, intentionaly puting it in a more voluminous room to account for combo possibilities. Whereas biorifle is, anyway, object of constant speculation. Some say it's better used in closed departments (that's why I used it there and testers acclaimed), and some are more fond of having it up high to pour down goo on teh enemy. Thunder seems to be more in the other group... Flak is, apart from RL, probably the most delicate weapon in this map. It became quickly apparent that it would reign and become the only weapon if put into an easily accesible place. So I made a.. err.. delicate decision to put it down there. At first there were no conveyor belts there, but a simple corridor and when I realized that this would make the path to long, I came upon an idea to add belts. Sadly, bots don't seem to be affected by physics volumes inf they stand on the firm ground.
And, hm, what do you think about lift jumps? Double Damage? Aggressorization (you did walk into spindle didn't you?)? Blood emitter in the corridor?
So, all in all, yes, it seems I set up my goals too high again. Thunder is right when saying that my inexpirience prevented me from fully taking advantage of the concept. I'll add my incompetent rig and lack of time as a reasons. There, I hope you find this essay
at least a bit helpful.
P.S. 5.5? Gosh that means I'll have to DL and see every map that gets score above 5, since it might contain loads of orignal effects and moves.
First off, Homeslice is the only one still reporting problems with crashing; there were some other people that had similar issues with ver1.1, like you can see on Atari forums. SE version seems to fix this for everyone except Homeslice. And yes, all I did was rebuild the map (not mentioning couple of visual fixes, since they shouldn't have any impact), so it has to be an engine glitch. I inquired about this on numerous forums, but sadly noone seems to have a slight idea what could be wrong...
Let's go deeply into my planning procedure. I got the idea for making this map right at the end of 2002, after I played through UT2k3. I had no expirience with external modeling tools, so I decided that my first map will sport stock resources. It also had to be reasonably small and at the same time distinctive from the surge of stock-like maps that I expected to arrive on scene shortly. Since I didn't have many expirience with laying solid floorplans (I was working a lot with Ued2.0, but released nothing, mostly due to goals set too high, see here http://aggy.slohosting.com/ut/sshot ), I focused on the atmosphere and effects. Also, I was a bit disturbed about people saying BSP was passe, and defiantly made a decision to use it extensively. I was influenced by Doom3 a bit at that time and the first image of Sealed Dread was a noisy and working factory laden in a heavy mist, with narrow passages and sharp turns (yup, I am a flak monkey), a lot oz Z-axis and clasutrophobic feeling. Picture an interiror of a working World War 2 submarine, with brick walls and bathing in orange hues. Stock resources were ample in this department and I was pretty happy with the floorplan I scratched on the paper also. I had numerous ideas about special effects and was confident, that because people seemed to forget about sounds and dynamic environtment, my map has an opportunity to stand out. Also, a lot of maps, including Epic's own, had terrible flow problems due to bad smesh collision, whereas I had taken all that into account. But then problems started to arise.
Firstly, I had to drop the idea about really narrow passages, since movement in UT2k3 differs from that in its predecessor and substantial room had to be made for dodge-jumping. I then made a possibly crucial decision, to lower the height difference between the ground and first floor (mostly ramps along walls), to account for trick jumps - I can't agree with thunder on the lack of connectivity between floors, since you can dodge-jump onto higher floors at at least four different spots in the map (this means in four separate rooms - the long corridor, the furnace, the narrower path in the L room and in the main room between the center cube and the lowest ramp)! On the other hand, this seems to screw Z-axis action to some extent. The first concept had those ramps winding around ground floor on higher levels. Also, I had to drop the idea about heavy fog, since it's a DM map and players don't like to have their view obscured - I was participating in a lot of forum threads regarding fog issues. That's when the orignal concept started to transform into a desolate haunted place with severed surroundings. I was then struck by an image I probably saw as a kid in some kind of a thriller (yup, guys, don't let your kids wath TV
), with that general round light (those round ones in the big room) hanging above, red brick walls and.. a severed body layign in a kind of barrel. This picture became the permanent matrix for this map. Also, the story was more or less made at that time.I can hardly accept that BSP geometry is basic, since there are 700 brushes in this map, which is a huge amoung for such a small map. But I agree completely that there are visual scenes that have a great impact in coneveying the boxy picture, like the upper half of the main room. Since players spend much of their time in the main room, they get the feeling of playing in a box, overlooking some delicate BSP deco, although I guess it's mainly my fault cause I didn't put enough emphasis on those spots (like ground corner of the L room and the furnace architecture). I admit that this part of the main room is underdecorated, but I'll get to that shortly. Also, it was my intention not to make rounded rooms, since you dn't seem them in industrial facilities. So what's the lesson here? Don't exert on delicate geometry if you can't make it stand out in the course of a play.
Thunder says that "realism does not equal good gameplay" and generaly speaking he's right. I possess a strange attribute - it seems I can't really enjoy the atmosphere if it isn't beleivable. In other words, in the course of playing other maps or mapping, questions about cohesion between general atmosphere and deco constantly pop up in my mind. Like, WTF is this machine doing here, if it's an elven castle I'm playin in?! Just that my thoughts are more compex, of course
See, when I laid down the concept of this map upon a picture of last century factories, the amount and nature of deco became kind of "locked". Since I just couldn't enjoy mapping an environment that has inconsistencies present. Sealed Dread could probably look like another AugustMoon, laden with an almost ridiculous amount of smeshes, but the mapper building it prolly wouldn't be me. High time I started mapping for realistic mods, eh? The question is, what makes better atmosphere, pesudo-realistic environment or totally Unreal one?Oh, the performance and optimization. But let's get a little back to when I was finishing the geometry. Since this is my first map with new engine, it's also the one I was getting expirience on laying smeshes with. I had several problems here, the biggest probably one that skinned smesh's material is also loaded into memory. That means if you want to skin a lot of stock smeshes, you have to duplicate them in mylevel adn change the material, else the invisible textures may painfully gobble you resources. The pure diamond are skyline smeshes with three 1024×1024 DXT5 textures on them, but only one shown.
) So watch out. The other problem was, I put too many different smeshes into one room, especially the main room, which makes your rigs hiccup, because smeshes and textures are loaded into memory. The big thing was, of course, phase one of MSUC. Eventhough I started mapping this thing in January, it was made only to about a quarter till two weeks before deadline, mostly due to problems with studying (I study physics, hard as hell). I pulled up my socks and worked whole days, but only managed to release alpha version. Gui can tell you how it looked, since he provided me with some info. Then another round of exams came and I wasn't mapping until around October, when I decided to finish it for good. In the course of hasty mapping back in July, a stuffed the map with lots of smeshes, which killed FPS, so I had to remesh and retexture a huge amount of objects and his took another month on my duron900 machine. Due to incredible amount of actors (over 1000 lights), everything was going very slowly; I had only about three FPS in the editor and making any adjustments was a real pain in the ass. Now you undertand why it had taken so long and that the map couldn't look that much different. Well, now a have a power rig, so don't worry. 1000 lights?! Yes, I was very influenced by DavidM's and Hourences' lighting standards and took this very serious. I actually tried to light realistically, lighting only appropriate surfaces and that's why one light fixture usually has 4-5 light sources. Needless to say, it is an extremely laborious work and now I see that maybe it doesn't pay off. So if anyone out there thinks he may get through with it - think again. It seems this engine just isn't advanced enough to let you do it. I really don't get it why the engine doesn't support more elaborately implemented cone lights - usually just restricting the arc of a light would solve everything. I look forward to seeing such options in the next generation engines.
Thunder says that this map could benefit from darker illumination in places. Now that really struck me, because he's the first to mention a possibility od turning the brightness down (save for morpheus, but that's another story)! Mostly everyone that played this map in alpha, beta, and final versions, complained about dark areas. The only exception probably being the floor in the main room at the spot where you can dodge-jump up, where I did turn lower the brightness (morpheus claimed he saw greening there). I think what disturbs Thunder is a too uniform lighting. I admit that this kind of atmosphere would go better along with single player environments, whereas dynamic DM maps should use some more variation. If not from lighting, then maybe from texturing - those white brick walls span too high i.e. they cover too much surface. I planned to intoduce more color variation, but in the course of mapping, such intentions mysterioulsy dwindled away... and I still don't know exactly why, maybe I was fed up with this map and its orange hue already and lost power to make any bigger changes. Some lights are actually broken, but I should break some more, yes
I was just too afraid of the lack of lighting in areas, since everyone was telling me the map is too dark.I agree completely that in order to enhance atmosphere, more delicate geometry concepts, such as severed machinery, should have been included. Had I had knowlege of modeling at that time, you would haev seen such elements. Instead I aimed to use stock elements as much as possible and I think you should look a it this way. But as said, more than a year after release it's naive to consider any stock content still appealing. I was well aware of that, so bet on other effects and the layout. The dynamic lights should have been used better, I agree. It's just that nobody seems to use them really, so I guessed they haev some problems, like malfunctioning in the netplay or something. Eventhough I inquired about that on numerous forums, I got no feedback *at all*. That's why I only introduced them as a little spicey feature. The same goes for real-time procedural textures, that comprise pools of water. Whay I didn't add specialr maps? They don't seem to work with procedural textures. In this map I tried twice as more techniques as are actually present. Everything from opacity filters, reflections on oil pools, triggered sounds, dynamic projectors etc. - that is another reason why this map cam out late. The problem was my inexpirience with Photoshop, but that problem is now solved.
I used redeemer trail because at that time I didn't know how to fix the menu problem in the emitter properties; I was led to solution not sooner than a month ago, so I improvised by modifying existing types. As for the particle density... Thunder, you're being a bit picky here, don't you think? ) What I miss a bit in the review in this department is the metal sound effect used on grates and those imitation of a guy being closed into the cistern... And furnace definitely stays - it's by far the most proper representation of the place I wanted to make.Thunder also says the main room is too open. I it's because undcorated upper half, which really makes everything look a bit empty. As for gameplay, this was one my basic decisions - to have several separated floors onto which you can double-jump, comprising a place for medium to small distance fights, where you can change levels quickly. Majority of people that tested the map found this a great and fun concept, that is ideal for UT2k3 moving nature.
And why is the main room so open, woth that darned ring of lights up there? It's a performance issue. The open nature of the room backfired, since there wasn't much room for any kind of optimization. the stuffed machinery makes polys jump to 120.000 in places, and combined with relatively numerous different smeshes and textures it really poses a problem. With sadness I came upon decision to remove deco from the ceiling and as a consequence I had to put out the lighting there also, so I ended with those lights up there. I hoped that this you-don't-know-what's-up-there feature would make just as claustrophobic feeling as would the closed ceiling, but it seems I was wrong, though there are people that find this well-chosen.
As for the song; I was really in two minds - should I choose an eerie, slow tune or a dynamic one, to complement DM nature? I still don't know if I have chosen correctly. Skaarj likes it
Weapons placement is where I have some serious questions. Thunder questions placements of shock and googun. As far as I play UT, shock has allway been considered as the best weapon to put on ground floors, because it's probably the best weapon to shoot upward with. I find such statemnts correct and followed it in my map, intentionaly puting it in a more voluminous room to account for combo possibilities. Whereas biorifle is, anyway, object of constant speculation. Some say it's better used in closed departments (that's why I used it there and testers acclaimed), and some are more fond of having it up high to pour down goo on teh enemy. Thunder seems to be more in the other group... Flak is, apart from RL, probably the most delicate weapon in this map. It became quickly apparent that it would reign and become the only weapon if put into an easily accesible place. So I made a.. err.. delicate decision to put it down there. At first there were no conveyor belts there, but a simple corridor and when I realized that this would make the path to long, I came upon an idea to add belts. Sadly, bots don't seem to be affected by physics volumes inf they stand on the firm ground.
And, hm, what do you think about lift jumps? Double Damage? Aggressorization (you did walk into spindle didn't you?)? Blood emitter in the corridor?
So, all in all, yes, it seems I set up my goals too high again. Thunder is right when saying that my inexpirience prevented me from fully taking advantage of the concept. I'll add my incompetent rig and lack of time as a reasons. There, I hope you find this essay
at least a bit helpful.P.S. 5.5? Gosh that means I'll have to DL and see every map that gets score above 5, since it might contain loads of orignal effects and moves.
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