Most beautiful maps?

[Spieler]

Hi again!

Last year I started the same post with Unreal Tournament 2004, now I'm looking for the most beautiful maps for UT3. To be honest, I can't stand the visual style of the maps in UT3. Most of the maps are all dark and ornate - as if the creators wanted to show off the many polygons possible with Unreal Engine 3. Excessive blooming everywhere and the landscape often almost monochromatic. Last but not least the maps follow the same look. Fortunately there are some mappers who save my UT3 experience at least partially. So do you have any suggestions, own favorites etc.? Thanks!

My favorites so far (I took the screenshots myself):

DM-Tangled
What a great map. This is how I wanted UT3 to look in the first place. I just looked the creator up (Hazel Whorley) - she's a level designer at Digital Extremes - I'm not surprised.

WAR-Tropico

DM-Gardenia

DM-Focus-SE

I wish there were more maps like in UT2004. DM-TokaraForest is one of my all-time favorites, atmospheric as hell (though it's playability is definitely not the best).

 

[Spieler]

So it's official then - there are no beautiful maps in UT3 - aside from the ones I have named above. Thank you for the clarification...

 

[[GU]elmur_fud]

Beautiful is such a subjective term. I for instance don't find that first map you listed beautiful. Being an old Q3 gamer I can appreciate it's style and design but aesthetically it is very blah.

Basically what you appear to be asking is for people to list maps that you will find beautiful which we of course can only guess as to what you like.

Me personally I like most of the CBP maps.

Aside from that these are all pretty good:
CTF-Aetherdale
CTF-Atlantea
DM-Heart of the mountain
DM-Rustees

There is even a Tokara forest variant which is very similar visually to a UT2k4 map I was making at one point, great mids must think alike.
DM-TokaraFalls

I find the Evil map pack pretty good:
Evil Map Pack

If you want that old school vibe of the first map you listed try the HOLP map pack.

Lastly...
Good list of good UT3 stuff

 

[Godfrey.Payans]

I second the remarks about CBP (some very lush maps) and HOLP (clean).

Unfortunately I forget its name, but someone did a VCTF map a while back that looked very slick, with a lot of shatterable glass on it... Google finds it... VCTF-Hanging Gardens.

I'm also partial to DM-HardFall, that was posted here a while back. It has a long jump through the air that lands in a little pool at the top of a city building.

 

[Spieler]

Basically what you appear to be asking is for people to list maps that you will find beautiful which we of course can only guess as to what you like.

Nope, I showed you a few examples of what I think is great visual style, but you can post the maps you find most beautiful, and I will see which ones I like and which ones I don't. It worked quite well the last time with UT2004. In the end, it's not that difficult to name the visually most stunning maps.

 

[Spieler]

VCTF-Hanging Gardens.

Now this one surely looks exciting!

 

[Firefly]

Why don't you go to Mapraider and look for yourself

 

[Spieler]

Why don't you go to Mapraider and look for yourself

Already done that. It felt like there MUST be more maps out there - but maybe I'm used to the plethora of UT99 maps... Hanging Gardens I missed somehow.

 

[Firefly]

Map Factory?

 

[Firefly]

Incidentally, it is a huge amount of work creating the assets for ut3. This would also be a big factor in why there are fewer non-grungy maps.

 

[Spieler]

Incidentally, it is a huge amount of work creating the assets for ut3. This would also be a big factor in why there are fewer non-grungy maps.

That sounds very plausible. And finally the adjective I have been looking for all along!

Map Factory: Have been there, though I haven't combed everything through yet. Kinda inconvenient with those supersmall thumbnails.

 

[Firefly]

The original ut and unreal just needed textures (simple image files) to create a new theme. That's why there are far more custom themes for ut99.

 

[ambershee]

To be fair, UT2004 was also for the large part simpler texturing too. Unreal 3 introduced the need for materials and more importantly normal mapping.

 

[[GU]elmur_fud]

Nope, I showed you a few examples of what I think is great visual style, but you can post the maps you find most beautiful, and I will see which ones I like and which ones I don't. It worked quite well the last time with UT2004. In the end, it's not that difficult to name the visually most stunning maps.

So it's exactly as I said... You want a bunch of really nice maps and your hoping others will do the leg work in finding them for you... where you can peruse through what is presumably a list of the crem de la crem. It's a kinda lazy approach to the issue. Given the insane amount of custom content for ut2k4 I can understand.

In 2004-05 I compiled a mega pack of quality player models/skins for ut2k4 which included compatible ut2k3 models/skins. I went through over 1500 player models and skins from just that 2.5 year period of time... and maps would be worse. Especially since there are still plenty of people mapping for it. I myself still crack open the ut2k4 editor from time to time.

UT3 is still in a singularly manageable fashion. Get out there, dig around, help show the hosts that there is still an interest in these files.

Incidentally, it is a huge amount of work creating the assets for ut3. This would also be a big factor in why there are fewer non-grungy maps.

The original ut and unreal just needed textures (simple image files) to create a new theme. That's why there are far more custom themes for ut99.

To be fair, UT2004 was also for the large part simpler texturing too. Unreal 3 introduced the need for materials and more importantly normal mapping.

Firefly and ambershee are spot on in there listed reasons why there is less custom content for ut3. A easier to mod ut3 would have meant a stronger community, a stronger community would have been the result of more sales, more sales would have meant Epic spent more time patching it's problems and tweaking the game.

I personally have never finished a UT3 map I have started :/ Though I have many to my name for UT2k4. And with custom content if not a total custom theme.

 

[Spieler]

So it's exactly as I said... You want a bunch of really nice maps and your hoping others will do the leg work in finding them for you... where you can peruse through what is presumably a list of the crem de la crem. It's a kinda lazy approach to the issue. Given the insane amount of custom content for ut2k4 I can understand.

You just don't get it... I didn't ask you to do anything other than name something that comes to your mind that would fit my description. You're wasting your time here.

 

[ambershee]

A easier to mod ut3 would have meant a stronger community, a stronger community would have been the result of more sales

This is less true. UT3 is what it is because times changed. Modern games are more heavily mesh reliant in environments before due to technical advancement and practicality. All other aspects of UT3 are similar or easy to deal with, with a little light learning.

You don't have to mesh everything to high-hell to get a decent looking UT3 map, not does your mod (nor indeed did many mods) have to match the same level of assetry.

UT3's mod community was pretty successful and is somewhat still alive and kicking. It was sale to the general populace at large that didn't fare so well.

 

[[GU]elmur_fud]

...You're wasting your time here.

Clearly. If you can't admit that what you are asking for others to do, is supply you with the information you could relatively easily obtain for yourself, then clearly I have wasted my time. And before you get irate please take a moment to consider that I am the first to respond the thread and I did provide you with some maps. My criticism was to try and point out that the lack luster response to your thread you were complaining about wasn't totally due to a lack of maps or even a lack of interest in UT3 but also probably due to your phrasing of your request which carries the tone of an expectation that every1 will just jump to your biding. Which is probably not your intent but was the tone carried by the way you wrote. But whatever the ball is rolling now.

This is less true. UT3 is what it is because times changed. Modern games are more heavily mesh reliant in environments before due to technical advancement and practicality. All other aspects of UT3 are similar or easy to deal with, with a little light learning.

You don't have to mesh everything to high-hell to get a decent looking UT3 map, not does your mod (nor indeed did many mods) have to match the same level of assetry.

UT3's mod community was pretty successful and is somewhat still alive and kicking. It was sale to the general populace at large that didn't fare so well.

Not sure how that typo occurred what I meant was: A easier to mod ut3 would have meant a stronger community, a stronger community would have meant more sales as a result of the proliferation of customizations.

Of course newer game = better graphics that is to be expected.

It is circular logic sorta but UT2k4 and games that are easy to mod like HL2 owe a great deal of their success to people who buy it and customize it and get passionate about making something they like and get there friends interested in trying it. I have known many people who bought UT2k4 or Orange box just to play jail break or space build. Hell I sold a couple friends on UT2k4 just to play INV about a year ago... If it is difficult to the point of discouraging to a newb then they aren't going to keep trying most likely, they aren't going to make something and get crazy about it, and they aren't going to draw in there friends. I am not saying that mods don't exist for UT3 just that much less then UT2k4 were started and fewer still ever finished to a playable level.

My UT2k4 folder is 40+GB.... thousands of custom maps, hundreds of mutators, hundreds of player models/skins and 20-30 mods ranging from game modes to custom client things and I haven't kept the ones I don't like.

Sure UT3 takes up much more space but I have less then 300 good maps and only 40ish custom models and only a few mods.

It occurs to me I might be a data horder...


3buzz's old school design contest resulted in some nice maps... here are the finalists...
http://www.beyondunreal.com/articles/ut3-old-school-ld-contest-finalists/
some more good maps here...
http://planetunreal.gamespy.com/static.php?page=UT3Essential
warby aka warbeast always makes high quality shiz (the screen shots on that site are crap don't trust them)
http://www.map-factory.org/ut3/deathmatch/dm-grand-diablo-2815
I have never played this 1 but it don't look to bad.
http://www.map-factory.org/ut3/deathmatch/dm-waterfalls-1085
This is a good thread if you like remakes no assertions as to quality here btw some are good and ...well... some are good.
http://forums.epicgames.com/threads/719833-UT99-amp-2004-Remake-Links-(100-maps)
I love the orbital flux map here
http://forums.epicgames.com/threads/735690-Unreal-Old-Friends-Map-Pack

 

[Spieler]

Clearly. If you can't admit that what you are asking for others to do, is supply you with the information you could relatively easily obtain for yourself, then clearly I have wasted my time. And before you get irate please take a moment to consider that I am the first to respond the thread and I did provide you with some maps. My criticism was to try and point out that the lack luster response to your thread you were complaining about wasn't totally due to a lack of maps or even a lack of interest in UT3 but also probably due to your phrasing of your request which carries the tone of an expectation that every1 will just jump to your biding. Which is probably not your intent but was the tone carried by the way you wrote. But whatever the ball is rolling now.

Okay, let's just forget this. I only wouldn't necessarily always agree with the request to first look for yourself. Asking in a forum can be a quicker, easier way, especially with rarer things. And it doesn't have to mean charging others with your work - I think many like to share their favorite maps etc. In my case, even though I didn't explicitly mention it, I DID browse quite a while for maps before opening this thread.

 

[ambershee]

It is circular logic sorta but UT2k4 and games that are easy to mod like HL2 owe a great deal of their success to people who buy it and customize it and get passionate about making something they like and get there friends interested in trying it.

I'm afraid it doesn't work like that. The mods in UT2004 and Half-Life 2 are better known and there are more of them because the games are popular; the games are not necessarily popular because there are mods - the majority of both UT2004 and HL2's sales would have been within the first six months, before any significant mods could have been developed.

UT3 is just as easy to mod as UT2004. The only significant difference is the reliance on 3d assets - something which HL2 coincidentally shares for the larger part.

Half-Life 2 is also not particularly easy to work with, for the record.

 

[[GU]elmur_fud]

I'm afraid it doesn't work like that. The mods in UT2004 and Half-Life 2 are better known and there are more of them because the games are popular; the games are not necessarily popular because there are mods - the majority of both UT2004 and HL2's sales would have been within the first six months, before any significant mods could have been developed.

UT3 is just as easy to mod as UT2004. The only significant difference is the reliance on 3d assets - something which HL2 coincidentally shares for the larger part.

Half-Life 2 is also not particularly easy to work with, for the record.

You are of course welcome to you view of things as am I. Considering my first hand expieriance working retail and seeing the game sell great for a good solid year and half-ish (sales were tapering off till the GOTY edition hit then they went back up) which was well after the first round of the MSUC also the constant influx of new players on our GU servers for several years (which were some of the most popular UT2k4 servers as rated by gamemonitor for almost 3 years) suggested sales remained steady. I'm sorry I wont be agreeing with you. In fact the only reason GU stopped hosting UT2k4 servers was because of a server tick issue that messed with our source servers and ate up lots of proc cycles. UT2k4 did have a leg up in that UT2k3 mods and custom content worked with little or no porting so in fact there were UT2k4 mods before it launched as many people decided they would transition there projects before hand. I can't even figure out how you could find this debatable when we are on a forum that is almost exclusively about custom content In a thread about custom content...

As far as ease goes the 3d asset reliance of UT3 makes it difficult for most to make custom assets. I have also heard said that the coding is difficult in UT3, which I find kismet easier then scripting but whatever. Even Epic themselves admitted the learning curve for UT3 was much greater. But they didn't think it would deter any1. I think they were wrong.