I've been working on it a lot in the past few days. I've decided I'm going to release an alpha as soon as its compilable again. There are a lot of areas I'm not happy with, and a lot that aren't even remotely done, but I want to start the playtest process asap to iron out any issues.
moultanoCreator of ns_shiva.Join Date: 2002-12-14Member: 10806Members, NS1 Playtester, Contributor, Constellation, NS2 Playtester, Squad Five Blue, Reinforced - Shadow, WC 2013 - Gold, NS2 Community Developer, Pistachionauts
edited October 2004
The compile is started. Assuming nothing is horribly unplayable about it, you guys will have an alpha version sometime tommorrow. Two major rooms aren't pretty yet, one of them is barely started, and a lot of the connecting hallways need some work, but it should be playable.
Edit: W00t! I still have 10.8% clipnodes to play around with!!
I've got a problem with the marine starting resource node as described <a href='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=82230&st=0&#entry1267207' target='_blank'>here</a>.
What is the 3rd weldable btw? Also I liek what you've done with the RT at the crossroads, it should prove an interesting battleground (make sure the r_speeds aren't too high there). Also #2 what's it like in height variation? (maybe you could repost the overhead with underlying colour coordinated blocks: eg. shades of grey to show what elevation they are). Map looks ace! Where can I see all the screenies?
its just the way the map looks - like the variety. I mean the layout is nice but all the textures and lighting are real nice...
<!--emo&:)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html//emoticons/smile-fix.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile-fix.gif' /><!--endemo--> - official ns map in the future mayB
your hives need bit more infestasion to get that "home in my warm bacteria loving room just waiting fore the res to beacome a cute chibby littel gorge" feel
<!--QuoteBegin-Stavesacre+Oct 2 2004, 06:36 PM--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> (Stavesacre @ Oct 2 2004, 06:36 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin--> I also noticed the Second CC, is this a free CC for relocation in the middle of the map hidden behind a weldable? Thats an interesting idea. <!--QuoteEnd--> </td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'> <!--QuoteEEnd--> wow that is a pretty cool idea <!--emo&:)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html//emoticons/smile-fix.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile-fix.gif' /><!--endemo-->
Yes he did kinda mention that 2nd CC in an earlier post but nm.
I'm skeptical as to how the 2nd CC will work. My first impression is that it's simply making it too easy for Marines, not they won't have to spend res on a CC, just on a welder. So for 10 res they get a centrally located MS, and we all know how difficult to balance those maps are.
When you look at how many routes cut through that room when traversing the map, it may just be a matter of time before Marines win. In addition it cuts down the time taken to all of the Hives, I just hope it's balanced enough to deal with this Marine-bias.
I don't disagree point blank with the idea of a weldable CC. I just think that it's too close to MS, and that there's far too much room for farmage. In fact forget the turrets, you could just fill that room with electrified tfacts and watch the C&C Tesla pwnage!
How do you make all those little interspersed light spots? Not with light_spot, is it? Because wouldn't that involve a boatload of entities? When you look at the overview map, you see lots of little circles of light...
<!--QuoteBegin--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> </td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin-->It makes me wonder how a 4th hive would work. Although it would involve some means of weldables being opened by aliens aswell as marines.<!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd--> hmm, how about an unbuilt alien structure directly behind the wall with a trigger prescense under it, when the gorge builds thru the wall it sets off the trigger prescence and opens the door. ?! will ns support 4 hives though, ive never seen it in another map
<!--QuoteBegin-Meat_Popsicle+Oct 3 2004, 12:42 PM--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> (Meat_Popsicle @ Oct 3 2004, 12:42 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin--> <!--QuoteBegin--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> </td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin-->It makes me wonder how a 4th hive would work. Although it would involve some means of weldables being opened by aliens aswell as marines.<!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd--> hmm, how about an unbuilt alien structure directly behind the wall with a trigger prescense under it, when the gorge builds thru the wall it sets off the trigger prescence and opens the door. ?! will ns support 4 hives though, ive never seen it in another map <!--QuoteEnd--> </td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'> <!--QuoteEEnd--> Exactly. The 'wonder' there.
Go make a crappy blocky test map with your 'thesis' on creating a 4th working hive. Although you'd need a way to work out not to let a 4th build if 3 are built, which is where mapping ends and coding needs to be done?
Hubbubjub: I'd imagine that the light spots are created by a light source directly above a grate (brush grate, not texture that's made into a func_wall). That way the light falls as 'spots' on the floor. You can make the spots bigger/smaller by altering the distance between the grate and the light source.
moultanoCreator of ns_shiva.Join Date: 2002-12-14Member: 10806Members, NS1 Playtester, Contributor, Constellation, NS2 Playtester, Squad Five Blue, Reinforced - Shadow, WC 2013 - Gold, NS2 Community Developer, Pistachionauts
edited October 2004
actually, all those spots are created with individual light_spots. (one reason why the map takes several hours to compile) Thankfully light_spots don't add entities as far as the server is concerned. There was a lot of copy/pasting going on there. You may notice the same pattern of lights in a lot of places on the overview. Thankfully this isn't noticeable from the ground.
The CC behind the weldable was something I wanted to try. My original idea for the location was to have it be a last resort if the CC gets taken out through carelessness. When I first made that room it didn't have a node. One of my friends convinced me that the room would be a lot more worthwhile if there was a node in it, since it's a really fun room to play in, but it needs a node to make it worth fighting over. I'm not sure how much of a tactical advantage holding that room is going to be. For one thing, the room is complicated enough that you can't really cover all the routes through it with one turret factory. Its also a little awkward to build in, and every exit (except the one to the marine start) has a lift. It also doesn't really function as a choke point unless you also keep the marine start and take shiva core (which is a hard as hell room to defend) or the tunnel. We'll see how it plays. It basically is a free relocation spot, because the comm can put IPs around the second cc before it's welded open, thanks to the radius. If I were to request a feature for a future version, I'd like to be able to place unbuilt structures in the map that can't be recycled.
The other issue I'm worried about with the second CC is that it may be popular for the comm to just recycle it, which isn't a lot of res, but it may be unbalancing. This will come out in playtesting though.
(Also on the overview is a double node in shiva core where one of the nodes has to be welded open.)
any chance of a beta today ? <!--emo&:)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html//emoticons/smile-fix.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile-fix.gif' /><!--endemo-->
moultanoCreator of ns_shiva.Join Date: 2002-12-14Member: 10806Members, NS1 Playtester, Contributor, Constellation, NS2 Playtester, Squad Five Blue, Reinforced - Shadow, WC 2013 - Gold, NS2 Community Developer, Pistachionauts
I walked around in it with TyrNemesis^ and he had some great criticisms. I'm working on fixing the issues he brought up and finishing the remaining areas at the moment. I may have some new screenshots soon though of a reworked datacore hive.
dont take too long. and remember: you have to release it, after that the critisism comes by itself <!--emo&:)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html//emoticons/smile-fix.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile-fix.gif' /><!--endemo-->
tyr is a very good critic and a very nice person he gives good advice fallow that and it plays well and you have an offical on your hands not that it already dosent look like it
moultanoCreator of ns_shiva.Join Date: 2002-12-14Member: 10806Members, NS1 Playtester, Contributor, Constellation, NS2 Playtester, Squad Five Blue, Reinforced - Shadow, WC 2013 - Gold, NS2 Community Developer, Pistachionauts
<!--QuoteBegin-Meat_Popsicle+Oct 7 2004, 04:33 AM--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> (Meat_Popsicle @ Oct 7 2004, 04:33 AM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin--> u use that light texture quite a bit even tho its a horribly low res original half-life one. u shuld make a nice high res one <!--QuoteEnd--> </td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'> <!--QuoteEEnd--> Done.
Comments
I've been working on it a lot in the past few days.
I've decided I'm going to release an alpha as soon as its compilable again. There are a lot of areas I'm not happy with, and a lot that aren't even remotely done, but I want to start the playtest process asap to iron out any issues.
Edit: W00t! I still have 10.8% clipnodes to play around with!!
<img src='http://www.andrew.cmu.edu/user/rmoulton/layout.jpg' border='0' alt='user posted image' />
I've got a problem with the marine starting resource node as described <a href='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=82230&st=0&#entry1267207' target='_blank'>here</a>.
Yay! a very-nearly-complete new ns_map!
Nay! No computer to play it on!
What is the 3rd weldable btw?
Also I liek what you've done with the RT at the crossroads, it should prove an interesting battleground (make sure the r_speeds aren't too high there).
Also #2 what's it like in height variation? (maybe you could repost the overhead with underlying colour coordinated blocks: eg. shades of grey to show what elevation they are). Map looks ace! Where can I see all the screenies?
Here's the logo that I'm currently using.
<img src='http://www.andrew.cmu.edu/user/rmoulton/map/logo.jpg' border='0' alt='user posted image' />
its just the way the map looks - like the variety. I mean the layout is nice but all the textures and lighting are real nice...
<!--emo&:)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html//emoticons/smile-fix.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile-fix.gif' /><!--endemo--> - official ns map in the future mayB
And yes, this map is awesomesauce.
but yes, i do want this mapp
Thats an interesting idea.
Thats an interesting idea. <!--QuoteEnd--> </td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'> <!--QuoteEEnd-->
wow that is a pretty cool idea <!--emo&:)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html//emoticons/smile-fix.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile-fix.gif' /><!--endemo-->
I'm skeptical as to how the 2nd CC will work. My first impression is that it's simply making it too easy for Marines, not they won't have to spend res on a CC, just on a welder. So for 10 res they get a centrally located MS, and we all know how difficult to balance those maps are.
When you look at how many routes cut through that room when traversing the map, it may just be a matter of time before Marines win. In addition it cuts down the time taken to all of the Hives, I just hope it's balanced enough to deal with this Marine-bias.
I don't disagree point blank with the idea of a weldable CC. I just think that it's too close to MS, and that there's far too much room for farmage. In fact forget the turrets, you could just fill that room with electrified tfacts and watch the C&C Tesla pwnage!
Weld0r 4 teh win!!!
hmm, how about an unbuilt alien structure directly behind the wall with a trigger prescense under it, when the gorge builds thru the wall it sets off the trigger prescence and opens the door. ?! will ns support 4 hives though, ive never seen it in another map
hmm, how about an unbuilt alien structure directly behind the wall with a trigger prescense under it, when the gorge builds thru the wall it sets off the trigger prescence and opens the door. ?! will ns support 4 hives though, ive never seen it in another map <!--QuoteEnd--> </td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'> <!--QuoteEEnd-->
Exactly. The 'wonder' there.
Go make a crappy blocky test map with your 'thesis' on creating a 4th working hive. Although you'd need a way to work out not to let a 4th build if 3 are built, which is where mapping ends and coding needs to be done?
The CC behind the weldable was something I wanted to try. My original idea for the location was to have it be a last resort if the CC gets taken out through carelessness. When I first made that room it didn't have a node. One of my friends convinced me that the room would be a lot more worthwhile if there was a node in it, since it's a really fun room to play in, but it needs a node to make it worth fighting over. I'm not sure how much of a tactical advantage holding that room is going to be. For one thing, the room is complicated enough that you can't really cover all the routes through it with one turret factory. Its also a little awkward to build in, and every exit (except the one to the marine start) has a lift. It also doesn't really function as a choke point unless you also keep the marine start and take shiva core (which is a hard as hell room to defend) or the tunnel. We'll see how it plays. It basically is a free relocation spot, because the comm can put IPs around the second cc before it's welded open, thanks to the radius. If I were to request a feature for a future version, I'd like to be able to place unbuilt structures in the map that can't be recycled.
The other issue I'm worried about with the second CC is that it may be popular for the comm to just recycle it, which isn't a lot of res, but it may be unbalancing. This will come out in playtesting though.
(Also on the overview is a double node in shiva core where one of the nodes has to be welded open.)
databurst transmission from the outside. (You can't get out there, but it looks cool.)
odd texture alignment on the lights.
Done.
New compile shortly.