Name:VCTF-TrainCrossing
Version:1.1
Compatibility: Made with Patch 1.3. PS3 version available
Description:
Hey everyone,
Well, it’s been a tough past month and a half, but at long last, my latest map is ready for its final round of Beta-testing.
Given the latest trend of increasing popularity for VCTF over the other game-types, I felt the time was right to implement an ambitious VCTF map design that I had rattling around in my head for the past little while. “Ambitious” turned out to be an understatement as I was so rushed for the MSU phase 2 deadline that I almost didn’t make it
. I’ve taken the past few days here to tidy it up a little bit, and am pretty sure it’s ready for release barring the discovery of any more serious bugs by the good people of BeyondUnreal .
Visually, I wanted to give the feel of an early morning, day-just-getting-started, kind of atmosphere (which is funny because I’m totally not a morning person). Naturally, similar to my approach with WAR-Beachfront, I tried my best to avoid the blur and haziness that permeates many of the stock UT3 maps. As most players will point out that, while those effects make for good screenshots and trailers, they are not very conducive to gameplay.
In terms of layout, the map is essentially a small coastal town bisected by a large river. A bridge to the north provides the main method for crossing the river, but it’s definitely not the only way to get across. One of the new concepts I wanted to introduce in this map was the incorporation of Interp actors (i.e. moving meshes) to a larger extent to show what the UE3 engine is truly capable of. Approximately every minute, a river barge takes cargo,( and potentially players) from one side of the river to the other (listen for the loud ship horn and text notification to announce when it is about to depart).
Also, high-speed trains arrive at the train stations every minute or so (at slightly longer intervals than the barge) and can also be ridden (on the rooftops) from one side of the map to the other. While the trains are much faster for getting across the map, being on the rooftop leaves you much more exposed to enemy fire. As a clever strategy, consider placing the nearby shield generator deployable on the roof of the train render yourself immune to enemy fire (this is a particularly effective strategy if you happen to be carrying the enemy flag!). Alternatively, you can ride on the rear windshield (crouched, ideally) to use the train itself as cover and make the Train Crossing in a safe manner. In general, flag carriers here will benefit greatly from clever planning, careful timing, and creative strategizing.
Lastly, swimming across the river (while not particularly fast) is an effective stealthy approach to infiltrate the enemy half of the map. Players who swim to the island in the centre will find an invisibility powerup which will make the second half of the trip (the more dangerous half, naturally) go undetected. Swimming also offers the advantage of the enemy team not knowing where exactly you are going to show up. Finally, even though the manta and Cicada can sail over the water with no difficulty, don’t forget that land vehicles travel just as fast underwater as they do on land, and water damage is minor in UT3. The scorpion in particular, is a fast one-way trip across the water (not that you could use it on the return trip anyways if you’re holding the flag).
For building design, I focused on making the area around the flag difficult to camp. Land vehicles are prevented from entering the flag room and the wide array of access points to the flag also make it difficult to guess where the enemy may strike from. The best way to protect the flag is to actually guard the coastline and keep enemy players out of your side of the map in the first place. Long-time VCTF veterans will be pleased to know that the map has an abundant supply of avril ammo (no need to kill yourself just to get a full avril again *cough* Suspense *cough*) The map also has jump boots (2 per team) making for exciting chases across this very multi-layered town with plenty of Z-action.
Well, I hope you enjoy the map’s many innovations and intricacies. Like many maps, it may take some time to learn its layout (particularly near the flag) so be sure to spend some time getting to know the lay of the land before going all-out.
Any feedback, positive or negative (but hopefully informative) is appreciated, as are bug reports!
Download:
PC:
http://files.filefront.com/VCTFTrainCrossingzip/;12224604;/fileinfo.html
PS3:
http://files.filefront.com/TrainCrossingPS3zip/;12224981;/fileinfo.html
Version:1.1
Compatibility: Made with Patch 1.3. PS3 version available
Description:
Hey everyone,
Well, it’s been a tough past month and a half, but at long last, my latest map is ready for its final round of Beta-testing.
Given the latest trend of increasing popularity for VCTF over the other game-types, I felt the time was right to implement an ambitious VCTF map design that I had rattling around in my head for the past little while. “Ambitious” turned out to be an understatement as I was so rushed for the MSU phase 2 deadline that I almost didn’t make it
. I’ve taken the past few days here to tidy it up a little bit, and am pretty sure it’s ready for release barring the discovery of any more serious bugs by the good people of BeyondUnreal .
Visually, I wanted to give the feel of an early morning, day-just-getting-started, kind of atmosphere (which is funny because I’m totally not a morning person). Naturally, similar to my approach with WAR-Beachfront, I tried my best to avoid the blur and haziness that permeates many of the stock UT3 maps. As most players will point out that, while those effects make for good screenshots and trailers, they are not very conducive to gameplay.
In terms of layout, the map is essentially a small coastal town bisected by a large river. A bridge to the north provides the main method for crossing the river, but it’s definitely not the only way to get across. One of the new concepts I wanted to introduce in this map was the incorporation of Interp actors (i.e. moving meshes) to a larger extent to show what the UE3 engine is truly capable of. Approximately every minute, a river barge takes cargo,( and potentially players) from one side of the river to the other (listen for the loud ship horn and text notification to announce when it is about to depart).
Also, high-speed trains arrive at the train stations every minute or so (at slightly longer intervals than the barge) and can also be ridden (on the rooftops) from one side of the map to the other. While the trains are much faster for getting across the map, being on the rooftop leaves you much more exposed to enemy fire. As a clever strategy, consider placing the nearby shield generator deployable on the roof of the train render yourself immune to enemy fire (this is a particularly effective strategy if you happen to be carrying the enemy flag!
). Alternatively, you can ride on the rear windshield (crouched, ideally) to use the train itself as cover and make the Train Crossing in a safe manner. In general, flag carriers here will benefit greatly from clever planning, careful timing, and creative strategizing.
Lastly, swimming across the river (while not particularly fast) is an effective stealthy approach to infiltrate the enemy half of the map. Players who swim to the island in the centre will find an invisibility powerup which will make the second half of the trip (the more dangerous half, naturally) go undetected. Swimming also offers the advantage of the enemy team not knowing where exactly you are going to show up. Finally, even though the manta and Cicada can sail over the water with no difficulty, don’t forget that land vehicles travel just as fast underwater as they do on land, and water damage is minor in UT3. The scorpion in particular, is a fast one-way trip across the water (not that you could use it on the return trip anyways if you’re holding the flag
).
For building design, I focused on making the area around the flag difficult to camp. Land vehicles are prevented from entering the flag room and the wide array of access points to the flag also make it difficult to guess where the enemy may strike from. The best way to protect the flag is to actually guard the coastline and keep enemy players out of your side of the map in the first place. Long-time VCTF veterans will be pleased to know that the map has an abundant supply of avril ammo (no need to kill yourself just to get a full avril again *cough* Suspense *cough*) The map also has jump boots (2 per team) making for exciting chases across this very multi-layered town with plenty of Z-action.
Well, I hope you enjoy the map’s many innovations and intricacies. Like many maps, it may take some time to learn its layout (particularly near the flag) so be sure to spend some time getting to know the lay of the land before going all-out.
Any feedback, positive or negative (but hopefully informative) is appreciated, as are bug reports!
Download:
PC:
http://files.filefront.com/VCTFTrainCrossingzip/;12224604;/fileinfo.html
PS3:
http://files.filefront.com/TrainCrossingPS3zip/;12224981;/fileinfo.html
Last edited:
. Ah, well, your maps are on a whole different level in terms of professionalism and polish. The really important thing is that the community has new fun maps to play 
