UT3 DM-HardFall

[SuperAlgae]

I take some pics of the spots where I found double jump annoying. The yellow circle is to show you where, free to you to make it look like stairs or simply like 45 degree or whatever you like

Thanks. I should be able to take care of those. Let me know if you find others.

That one is to show wich material look washed out compare with the nice bricks above

I see... it is not a matter of texture resolution. You are just saying that the colors on the lower texture look dingy compared to the upper texture. To some extent that is just the way the texture is. I can try tweaking the material, but I doubt that it will make much impact.

Ha, I understand now. But it's rather the fact that they are "in the way" so it's like I'm in the obligation to take them if I want to pass there since they occupied like 80% of the space.

There is room to pass between the jump pads and the raised edge of the building. If you press against that raised edge a little, it helps you get by the jump pads cleanly. However, it is a tight space, particularly during combat. I will try to make more room.

I don't think you must change any geometry but rather disperse the weapons / powerups. I just think of switching the powerup with the belt or putting on the building where you have sniper ammo would me more appropriate. Personnaly, I would :

- Place the sniper at the udamage spot leaving the bezerk alone.
- Put the udamage where the sniper ammo is located in the other building so powerups are at the opposite.
- Put another sniper weapon base on top of the smaller building so at least you will have more fun to kill the sniper player on the other side & also take out the player from your own building if he goes to the bezerk.
- Move the vest in the smaller building in a tight place.
- Add the dual enforcer weapon in the bigger building.

I didn't really want to move the U-Damage. Since I had designed that area for such a power-up, putting the sniper rifle there seems out of place. Instead I raised the U-Damage pedestal to make it more difficult to grab. Now it requires two double-jumps during which the player is an easy target. I think I will also add a sound when the U-Damage spawns.



I moved the sniper rifle to the bridge in the center of the garden building.



I added an enforcer pickup on the sniping perch. This gives a good reason to go there other than just sniping.



I did a number of things to make the radio building (the smaller building) more rewarding. For one, I moved the armor vest from the garden building to the back ledge of the radio building. This is where the helmet used to be.



The helmet is now on the top level inside the radio building. I did not move the thigh pads to the radio building largely because I ran out of good places to put things.



I mixed up the ammo as you suggested. This includes putting pickups on the radio building such as those below that go with weapons found on the garden building.



I also added enforcer ammo on each side of the stairwell in the radio building.



The radio building is a pretty vicious place. It is easy to take a lot of damage, so I added one more health pickup.



Here are the current pickup counts and their distribution among the buildings. Given that the radio building is half the size of the garden building, its item list is pretty strong now. I list some health as "out-of-flow". This means that the player must go significantly out of his way or expose himself to elevated risk (pun intended) to get the item.

Radio Building

• Jump Pads to Shield Belt
• Jump Pad to Berserk
• Vest x1 (on rear ledge)
• Helmet x1
• Flak Cannon x1
• Shock Rifle x1
• Bio Rifle x1
• Sniper Ammo x2
• Rocket Ammo x2
• Flak Ammo x2
• Stinger Ammo x1
• Link Ammo x1
• Shock Ammo x1
• Bio Ammo x2
• Enforcer Ammo x2
• Medium Health x6
• Health Vial (in-flow) x4
• Health Vial (out-of-flow) x9

Garden Building

• Jump Pad to Sniping Perch
• U-Damage x1 (on pedestal that requires 2 double-jumps)
• Shield Belt x1 (accessed from Radio Building or via impact jump from adjacent rafter)
• Thigh Pads x1
• Sniper Rifle x1
• Rocket Launcher x1
• Stinger Minigun x1
• Link Gun x1
• Shock Rifle x1
• Sniper Ammo x1
• Rocket Ammo x2
• Flak Ammo x1
• Stinger Ammo x3
• Link Ammo x3
• Shock Ammo x2
• Bio Ammo x1
• Medium Health (in-flow) x7
• Medium Health (out-of-flow) x2
• Health Vial (in-flow) x0 (yup, zero)
• Health Vial (out-of-flow) x31

Sniping Perch

• Enforcer x1 (gives Dual Enforcers)
• Sniper Ammo x1
• Health Vial (out-of-flow) x1

Small Ledge

• Berserk (accessed from Radio Building)

________________________________________
Jesse (SuperAlgae) Banet
DM-HardFall .. See the first post for the latest download and screenshots.

 

[stevelois]

Lots of changes, that's very good dude

THX for applying some of my suggestions

 

[SuperAlgae]

THX for applying some of my suggestions

And thanks for the suggestions. They've been a lot of help. Even in cases where I did not apply them exactly, they have contributed to the decisions. I will try to release a new build soon to verify that the changes are all working out as desired.

BTW, in regard to the places you found it annoying to double-jump, is it just double-jumping that is the problem, or is it more a problem that you must jump at all?

 

[Bl!tz]

doublejumping sloooooow the moove and in such "exposed place" u always feel better when u moove fast and not doing jumps under the eyes of yer opponents & jumps break the flow imho...
...+1 on steves remark (not sure if same reasons though...but...could be something like that haha)

 

[stevelois]

And thanks for the suggestions. They've been a lot of help. Even in cases where I did not apply them exactly, they have contributed to the decisions. I will try to release a new build soon to verify that the changes are all working out as desired.

Yep, & I'll check that new build when available

BTW, in regard to the places you found it annoying to double-jump, is it just double-jumping that is the problem, or is it more a problem that you must jump at all?

It's more the fact that you have to jump in the first place. I always prefer to be able to move freely without thinking of jumping when I'm located exposed ares or going from 1-4 steps below / above. Jumping should be required only for specifics approach, not for basic movement imho.

 

[SuperAlgae]

Yeah, I think I tend to jump a lot when traversing maps, so it didn't even occur to me that the jumps might hurt the flow for others. For example, I like to jump to and from the diamond-shaped pillars (like the one in the shot below) as a quick way to cross the recessed garden corridor. Of course, the places you indicated are a different matter. In those cases requiring jumps serves little purpose.




{BFG}Bl!tz~,
Did you try the jump pads inside the smaller building with the latest version? Do they work better for you now?

 

[Bl!tz]

ohhh....yes srry mate i forgot to mention that they work nicely now...good job

 

[SuperAlgae]

I've uploaded a new version of the map. Here are some of the changes.

• Improved item placement.
• Removed some unnecessary jumps.
• Gave more room around lengthwise jump pads on the garden building.
• Added more blocking volumes.
• Improved waterfall textures.

Regarding the lengthwise jump pads, I might change the mesh for them to indicate that they are more directional accelerators than real jumps.

In addition to fixing the waterfall seam (which was just from accidentally moving a mesh), I also made the speed of fall more realistic.

 

[SkaarjMaster]

I like the changes so far. When will this be going final?

 

[SuperAlgae]

I have been seeing some questionable pop-ups from mediafire. If anyone else sees the same, please let me know. If you would prefer to avoid the issue, here is the direct download link. I would prefer to encourage free hosting sites like mediafire by not direct linking, but if they are going to allow overly invasive pop-ups on their site, then I see little choice.

Any suggestions for better file hosting services are welcome. Thanks.

 

[SuperAlgae]

I like the changes so far. When will this be going final?

I would like to try a few more things like making the cars at ground level move and adding some kind of level-wide indication when the U-Damage spawns. I also plan to add a some deco to cover up BSP cuts. My guess is that I will have a release candidate in a week or so. If no issues are found, then that would become the final version.

 

[Bl!tz]

i like all the changes


just a detail: the post process in the swimming pool is a bit " too much" imo and looks weird

 

[SuperAlgae]

Here are some recent screenshots of the map. If all goes well, I will have a release candidate this weekend.

I made the water effects more subtle. Here are before and after shots from underwater.




Here are before and after shots from above the water.




I added lights around the map to indicate when power-ups are available. There are 10 in the radio building and 3 in the garden building. The violet light is for the U-Damage; the red light is for the Berserk. Whenever the state changes, the lights make a switching sound.




stevelois,
Have you tried my Sep 22 upload of the map? Do the changes address the gameplay/flow concerns you had?

________________________________________
Jesse (SuperAlgae) Banet
DM-HardFall .. See the first post for the latest download and screenshots.

 

[stevelois]

Hey

Sorry, I'm busy so I didn't have the time to try the 22 sept. version.

I'll surely check RC1 but since I'm very busy so you must be patient lol

All the changes are for the better so that's great dude

 

[Godfrey.Payans]

Having the jump-pad on the other building launch you back over most of the first building and into the little pool is a neat idea. I was wondering how much the landing was going to hurt when I first took that jump.

 

[Bl!tz]

nice job on the water

 

[SkaarjMaster]

Yes, a direct link to mediafire would be cool for the final as well. I have a popup blocker running, but I have to turn it off on a lot of downloading sites to get the DL to work. That's why I liked Gameservers (Netherlands) and Edome as downloading partners at BU Fileworks because they just downloaded the file without even going to another web site. Of course, I still have to turn it off to link past the fileworks page, but that's no big deal.

 

[SuperAlgae]

Sorry, I'm busy so I didn't have the time to try the 22 sept. version.

I'll surely check RC1 but since I'm very busy so you must be patient lol

No problem. RC1 is delayed anyway. I encountered an issue where some BSP surfaces were not accepting decals (bullet/explosion marks, etc). I traced it back to the specific version where it started (it was after the Sep 22 release), but I could not identify the cause. I found that exporting all the BSP, deleting it, and then re-importing it can fix the problem, but getting it all to work while keeping textures is a tedious process.

On another topic, I was giving some thought to the armor vest pickup...



I think it might be too hidden. The player never sees it unless they go onto the back ledge. I don't want to deny players with less knowledge of the map access to such a basic pickup. I tried creating a "window" so that the armor is visible from the inside. You can barely see it behind the pipes in the shot below. I think it works out pretty well.

Having the jump-pad on the other building launch you back over most of the first building and into the little pool is a neat idea. I was wondering how much the landing was going to hurt when I first took that jump.

During that jump, if you tap the back key just a little, you can pick up the shield belt while still missing the rafter it sits on. If you do it wrong though, it can get messy.

nice job on the water

Thanks. I'm glad you caught it. It was something I did early on, and I had gotten so used to it that I never thought to go back and improve it. I also improved the reflection/specular effect, though it is not visible from the angle in the screenshot.

Yes, a direct link to mediafire would be cool for the final as well.

Mediafire has served me well for hosting beta versions of the map, but I'll try to find someplace additional for the final download.

________________________________________
Jesse (SuperAlgae) Banet
DM-HardFall .. See the first post for the latest download and screenshots.

 

[SkaarjMaster]

"armor vest pickup" if that doesn't work, then you could always put it in the corner of that platform area on the left on the edge right before the drop off.

Can you get it hosted at BU Fileworks? I'm not sure what it takes to get a DL hosted here.

 

[SuperAlgae]

Wow! That was a pain.

I finally figured out what was causing the BSP decal issues. I had applied a water material to an arbitrary surface just to prevent the UT editor from removing it from the package. Somehow, even though the surface was only visible by ghosting, it caused completely unrelated surfaces to stop accepting decals.

"armor vest pickup" if that doesn't work, then you could always put it in the corner of that platform area on the left on the edge right before the drop off.

In addition to adding the window by the armor vest, I decided to add a health vial on each of those small platforms. If a player goes to get the health vial, then he can easily see the armor.

Can you get it hosted at BU Fileworks? I'm not sure what it takes to get a DL hosted here.

I am also not sure. If I submit the map to something like UT Unlimited, then that will get it posted on fileworks, but not immediately... and UT Unlimited has been in permanent "Maintenance Mode" recently anyway.