DM-Aristocracy

[Mister_Prophet]

For someone who comes from a 12 year old country, should you really be calling anyone else a "poor soul"?

The reason I said ancient in my review is because the map didn't seem as "medieval" in the strict definition of the word. This seems more like an old style fishing village, which I'm sure, is medieval, but when I think medieval I think castles and grimy streets with symbolic crests and statues and drawbridges and whatever, this is more of a passive fishing village that anything, and it fosters an older "town" presence, with inns, clock towers, and small buildings, so I said ancient because of it's age appearance which may or may have been intended to be medieval.

Now that we are past it, let's just play the frickin map!

 

[Ulukai]

It reminded me of the intro to Final Fantasy 9 in some ways (a good thing)

 

[Twrecks]

Aristocracy seems more "who-ville" meets Ultima than any realism mod. It definately has it's own style architecture. While DM-Bloom reminded me more of Dungeon Siege or Stonghold/Crusader-esque.

 

[Evil_Cope]

erm, "ancient"? i would have thought that would imply a good 1000 yrs ago at least, stylistically.

this is no where near that, its closer (from that one pic) to a mere couple of hundred. medieval at the very oldest.
[/pedantic noob]

erm, yeah. must try it.

 

[Luv_Studd]

Very nice map indeed! I liked the fog, and village theme, though better music would have been good.

Trouble I have with these type of darker, village-style maps is seeing opponents (I suppose I could be upping my brightness, but then you lose the rich atmosphere). The dark flooring didn't help, but would it fit the theme any other way? I wonder how this would look say at dusk or sunset, with just a tad more lighting from sky?

I also didn't like the tight areas, where you get flakked up the ass or stuck running into things trying to run backwards to shoot back - but that could be not having learned the map layout well enough yet too. (that's why I dislike Oceanic and especially Curse][)

However, the map is very well constructed, nice layout generally and I like the style. Too much ammo as was stated above.

Comparing to DM-Bloom, if I may and which may be unavoidable since they came out about the same time & has a rich olde euro-theme too, I think Bloom had better lighting & contrasting textures, which helped in seeing opponents. Though Bloom has same issue with cramped combat too. I wish Bloom was a tad bigger, like this one. (Bloom has some nice statics too).

If had a choice to play a match of DM-For Whom the Bell Tolls (UT) map, which has maneuverability & gameplay, pretty good looking & similar theme vs the nicer style & better looks this one has, I think I'd probably take DM-FWtBT.

 

[Mister_Prophet]

Bloom no doubt was a fantastic looking map, but it didn't absorb you as Aristocracy did. The environment in Aristocracy had more purpose I felt. It was just more convincing, while bloom had a some moments that needed some touch up (the terrain)

 

[Ulukai]

Yea, the general feeling of ambwoiyonce in Aristocracy owns, due in no small part to that forboding looking sky IMO.

 

[Trynant]

I've had it this map is too good. must... resist urge to... troll ... can't take it.... must provoke someone ... GHAAARRGH@!

aristocracy sucks!



anyways back to sanity. I like the moving clouds sky but since I'm half-dog I'm very good at bitching so I have to say rain and lightning and hellfire would be coo!
so would being able to go inside buildings hence having to go through doors (bye bye flo) and also while i'm thinking of stupid ideas why don't we add a redeemer in the middle of the map that respawns every 2 seconds. Oh yeah and this map is too small I need something the size of dm-bathroom and there's no enhanced shock rifle
/sarcasm

so now that the stupid remarks are out of the way I think that the layout is fun and the details like the stained glass windows and lion heads on the ale barrels are great little things that make this map o so wonderful. The map is open enough for dodging maniacs like moi to frag in but still manages to be old-skool..... wait a sec, how did TAZ do that btw? and it actually runs smoothly on my 1 ghz P3 256 ram gforce2 i-need-to-upgrade PC

since this map is so 1337 I propose to make a thread called "if Aristocracy was a girl who'd it be and would you **** it?"

 

[Bot_40]

About people saying they want to go inside the buildings. I think that could really ruin the atomsphere and execution of the map.
Why? Well at the moment, what you have is a perfectly executed outside map. It's so well done in fact, that the place seems almost real, to the point where you could be lead to believe that there are actually people inside the houses when you are actually playing. It feels like a real location.
If you think of some excelent horror movies for example (Erm, possibly think of the blair witch project or so) but say some monster is going on a killing spree or whatever. 99% of the time, it's actually more scary if you never actually see the monster. It's better to just leave it to the imagination. The moment you actually see a shot of the monster, if there was even the tinyest deviation from what you were expecting, instantly the whole movie loses it's credibility.
What I'm trying to say is, better to leave the map as it is, because you can imagine what the insides of the houses look like, but if there was even the slightest thing out of place inside the buildings then it could ruin the map's atmosphere, and given the standard of the rest of the map, it would be near impossible to execute the insides of the buildings good enough.

 

[Luv_Studd]

Agreed Bot_40. I can imagine the cramped fighting and contending with the inner arch brushes being a big pain, or looking at square rooms with not much deco finesse like so many other maps.

It's a well-executed map as is.

Kinda puzzling too is the name of the map,
Aristocracy, meaning upper-crust social status or of nobility. Does it seem like a rich gent's hangout, or some slovenly sailor's bitch slapping **** hole? Or maybe something in between...

 

[Mapper-X]

WOW Nice map. A midevil feel and i also have to agree to Bot-40 adding more to the map would just distroy it the map if fine as is. I have seen some maps for ut 2003 but so far this has to be the best. Great jub on the map = 10 out of 10

 

[MrFawn]

Visually this map was just 'ok'. Some nice parts here and there but everthing will be forgotten in 3 days.
Gameplay sucked so bad that I had to puke. I want to be able to use my boostjump skills at least one place in each map.

4/10 from me, like most of the ut2003 maps get from me.

Now back to Turtle Rock in Warcraft 3, that is what I call a map. 'Ok' visuals but superb gameplay.

 

[ReD_Fist]

What MrFawn said,he's 100% correct.

 

[Kantham]

That is such a Quite cruel Bump. Heh RedFist?

 

[Mister_Prophet]

If this map was released, say, yesterday...and I reviewed it, I probably wouldn't have rated it so high like I did in my review. But the fact of the matter is that it wasn't released yesterday. This is pre-2k4 and as far as I'm concerned the amount of good DM maps for 2k3 prior to the release of 2k4 could have been counted on one hand.

And having said that, this map still kicks alot of ass. But I'd have to be fair and say my old review was heavily influenced by the fact that I didn't have much to compare it to.
I can't help but roll my eyes at the people who said this map had "crap visuals" or "crap gameplay" when it came out. What the hell game were you playing? Cus it wasn't 2k3.

 

[ReD_Fist]

No,nothing about a review or anything,i only know the ut2004 version,but as soon as the new map came out,it seemed farcy ,funky lighting,terrible game action,nothing at all impressed me,not because it didnt look good or prolly was built good,just a level that falls in the "look at me",,,,then go play another map.

I don't see what people see in that map,but all i can refer to is the guy who made goose2k4,that is a complete oppisite of what users around here think makes a good map,all of his maps are waaaaay better than kami,or redkin or anyother level that falls into the pro mapper syndrome.

And seeing as I am allways so wrong or stupid around here or however balton types think of me.,Soma The Real got 2 maps on the map of the year picks at mapraider,so I guess they are all wrong too.

There are a few others as well,like vertigo made some good mappage,some llemi maps,and only a few other mappers that make it look right and play worthy in my opinion.

 

[Mister_Prophet]

Well maybe if you played this when it came out for 2k3 when there were no other good DM maps out you'd understand. The 2k4 version isn't much different (in fact I can't recall off hand if there even were any changes aside from the port). The map played good when it came out simply because 90% of the other DM maps coming out for 2k3 had the layout of some crap like Insidious. Aristocracy was the first map to really boast a theme really different than the mountains of Tech or Olden maps that used a majority of stock meshes and all reeked of average. The fact that a platoon of village maps seemed to crop up and stick around as the accepted hot theme following its release only proves this. And it had a layout that actually tried to be a little more than a basic shape.

This map was one of the first pioneer pre-2k4 DMs to really pave the way for some REAL mappage comparable to the death match of UT1. Whether you like this map or not, at least acknowledge that.

 

[ReD_Fist]

Oh ya,you are right there,i never had ut2003 because after playing the demo like 5 times ,specialy that anatolus map or whatever it was i delelted it.
It made me feel like i was playing as if i was inside a tire,and too close to the ground or somthing,just everything and all of ut2003 just looks silly.
the skins,the voices,the way they took out the gore and the stupid bots would just slide accros the floor and a few red dots for blood.
But ya,this map would of been somthing really cool for sure.

I have a feeling that quake4 is going to edge in on ut,I dont think they are going to hold back,no mature rating consideration for young kids at all.Seeing as how doom3 had that scaryness suspense to it quake4 should be very shocking,and fun.
They say they are trying to make it very interactive,to fel like you are very much of a team,each player will have different personalities,but there aint nothing better as in quake2 to get that shotgun and boof boof,pelt them to death.

Ut got off on a cartoon side of things,like all those skins,man unreal or UT1 was waay better,just more real,more fun.

mabye we need a quake4 thread.

 

[Bot_40]

Bumping spree?

Anyways, this map was the best map for UT2k3 at the time by like...40000%, although that doesn't say much nowadays.

 

[Manticore]

Bumpspree....

Bumping spree?

Anyways, this map was the best map for UT2k3 at the time by like...40000%, although that doesn't say much nowadays.

Yes it is....

I was playing this again the other day. The map is still o.k. in UT2K4.