NS2_Tarvos [Need Advice / Criticism]
Update 18/04/2013 - New Version on Workshop
Bug Fixxes
- Power node added to Waterfall (Thanks @hozz )
- Power node in Living no longer starts built (Thanks @Flaterectomy )
- Eggs should now spawn in Steam Room (Thanks @WhiteDevil )
- AI units should now navigate catwalk, cargo and living quarters correctly
Changes [Some of these changes/cover are quite Butchered!, as they are temp to see gameplay]
- Waterfall -> Steamroom corridors with more cover
- Crevice a touch smaller with more cover
- Cave -> Crevice connection removed (Kind of want Crevice/Cave to act like Server/Cargo so mite redo this whole area at some point)
- Steam room
-- Hive and RT Swapped.
-- Rearranged a bit with the big blocks of cover shrunk and split up.
- Catwalk got some safety rails (But is still a bit dangerous)
- Observation
-- Elevation lowered to make assault from lockers easier
-- Catwalk lowered slightly and new ramp added from CC
-- [Too] large pillars added under catwalk for LOS and skulk climbing.
-- Exit to server change to be 2 doors split with a wall for more cover.
- Server room got some vents under the walkway and a some arched ceiling
- Landing pad ceiling lowered on one side and a touch of cover added
- Bit of cover added between catwalk/lab to stage your onos suicide run
- Almost all corridors got some head room for skulks (Kind of a temp solution before detailing later)
- Some colour added to RR (I think hive is causing errors in console )
My other thoughts
(Kind of want Crevice/Cave to act like Server/Cargo so mite redo this whole area at some point, I may craft it into "1" larger cave area but that is still kinda split by LOS
Heres the overview, Hope we get to play it some so I can get more feedback
Update 12/04/2013 - Finally finished the grey box of the map and have published it!
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=138562031
Please check it out and tell me what you think, Also below I have changed the Flow map from before to a minimap (No real vents have been added yet)
Update 29/03/2013 - I lost my map due to HDD crash and have had to restart
Ive posted a little nosound video of the Living quarters which I did after the crash just to get back into things before I greybox the map... again :P, hopefully quicker this time.
Also the layout flow below does not represent what I had before and am now aiming for so I will update that in the future, hopefully with a eagle eye of the greybox.
Update 04/04/2013
=================================================
Well I thought I mite post up some things from the map I'm working (and reworking) on :P
This is the current Minimap without any vents added yet.
The theme is a small listening post on an asteroid or really small rocky planet, So i want the map to seem like it was originally just the Central landing pad, Living quarters and the Observation/recording room, with some storage rooms and a out of mind Thermal power room. Which was then extended to house a small lab for examining some of crystals discovered inside.
Unbeknownst to the researchers, aliens had infected the caverns of the asteroid/planet, so this half is more rocky/wet/steamy and cavernous (Possible vegetation, depending how theme/inspiration goes). With some natural cave entrances in landing pad and Steam room and a forced entry by the aliens into the lab.
This is where the marines come in and we start playing the map.
One of the main features is the central landing pad which will seem sunk into the asteroid/planet with a force field up above where the drop ship has come down from.
I'm still in real early Grey Box stage , I have remade this a few times as I'm learning to map :P, so i have some crappily semi propped out rooms in another file but I'm pretty much going from scratch with geometry on this one.
I cant think of a name, Tarvos is a name of a moon of Saturn.
Bug Fixxes
- Power node added to Waterfall (Thanks @hozz )
- Power node in Living no longer starts built (Thanks @Flaterectomy )
- Eggs should now spawn in Steam Room (Thanks @WhiteDevil )
- AI units should now navigate catwalk, cargo and living quarters correctly
Changes [Some of these changes/cover are quite Butchered!, as they are temp to see gameplay]
- Waterfall -> Steamroom corridors with more cover
- Crevice a touch smaller with more cover
- Cave -> Crevice connection removed (Kind of want Crevice/Cave to act like Server/Cargo so mite redo this whole area at some point)
- Steam room
-- Hive and RT Swapped.
-- Rearranged a bit with the big blocks of cover shrunk and split up.
- Catwalk got some safety rails (But is still a bit dangerous)
- Observation
-- Elevation lowered to make assault from lockers easier
-- Catwalk lowered slightly and new ramp added from CC
-- [Too] large pillars added under catwalk for LOS and skulk climbing.
-- Exit to server change to be 2 doors split with a wall for more cover.
- Server room got some vents under the walkway and a some arched ceiling
- Landing pad ceiling lowered on one side and a touch of cover added
- Bit of cover added between catwalk/lab to stage your onos suicide run
- Almost all corridors got some head room for skulks (Kind of a temp solution before detailing later)
- Some colour added to RR (I think hive is causing errors in console )
My other thoughts
(Kind of want Crevice/Cave to act like Server/Cargo so mite redo this whole area at some point, I may craft it into "1" larger cave area but that is still kinda split by LOS
Heres the overview, Hope we get to play it some so I can get more feedback
Update 12/04/2013 - Finally finished the grey box of the map and have published it!
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=138562031
Please check it out and tell me what you think, Also below I have changed the Flow map from before to a minimap (No real vents have been added yet)
Update 29/03/2013 - I lost my map due to HDD crash and have had to restart
Ive posted a little nosound video of the Living quarters which I did after the crash just to get back into things before I greybox the map... again :P, hopefully quicker this time.
Also the layout flow below does not represent what I had before and am now aiming for so I will update that in the future, hopefully with a eagle eye of the greybox.
Update 04/04/2013
=================================================
Well I thought I mite post up some things from the map I'm working (and reworking) on :P
This is the current Minimap without any vents added yet.
The theme is a small listening post on an asteroid or really small rocky planet, So i want the map to seem like it was originally just the Central landing pad, Living quarters and the Observation/recording room, with some storage rooms and a out of mind Thermal power room. Which was then extended to house a small lab for examining some of crystals discovered inside.
Unbeknownst to the researchers, aliens had infected the caverns of the asteroid/planet, so this half is more rocky/wet/steamy and cavernous (Possible vegetation, depending how theme/inspiration goes). With some natural cave entrances in landing pad and Steam room and a forced entry by the aliens into the lab.
This is where the marines come in and we start playing the map.
One of the main features is the central landing pad which will seem sunk into the asteroid/planet with a force field up above where the drop ship has come down from.
I'm still in real early Grey Box stage , I have remade this a few times as I'm learning to map :P, so i have some crappily semi propped out rooms in another file but I'm pretty much going from scratch with geometry on this one.
I cant think of a name, Tarvos is a name of a moon of Saturn.
Comments
I thought I'd upload some grey boxxing I did in Observation, I removed the doors while doing it but there will be one down near the RT and one on the catwalk.
seems a little small now but think im going to extend the back of the room a little, maybe with some terminals.
Let me know what you think.
I'm really new to mapping, trying to mostly just use the line tool and then Extrude/Move to try keep things clean, can be a real exercise for me to think in my head what lines I need before I start moving/extruding.
If you're new don't forget the biggest keys to clean geometry: Snap to Min Grid, and Weld Nearby Vertices.
Thought I'd put a little update of today's work
Pushed the corner back a bit for the CC and buildings, also a little more space around the RT
Next is my Server Room RT, ultimately I want a overhead glass vent system with cabling etc so I have put a quick functioning placeholder one in.
From the other side of the room, There are windows on the left on each side of the room that look into the upper level of a cargo room adjacent.
This is a view from one of said windows, The door you see will be broken and unusable, access will be on the otherside (The RT is visible i nthis shot becuase I raised the floor temporarily but its back down again to help block a little.
And then a view from other side into 1 half of cargo (Pretty under done at the moment)
There is only 4 main entrances into middle, the two pink ones are vents, and I'm thinking they will most link to the rooms/corridors just outside of middle?
Like my Diagram has cargo and server room apart from each other, but in the map they are pretty much next to each other, so there are no corridors, just a doorway.
Thanks for the feedback
Here's a broken catwalk between server and Lab, I'm going to have to put a lot of time into this and this is nowhere near the finished thing lol :P
Here is the entrance looking into Lab on the left, you can just see the breached wall on the far end, the window on the right will look into a locked room.
Looking into the Lab
Looking into the locked room, will be a laser hitting a crystal, will need to put lots of work into that
Another look into lab, with table on ramp blocking RT from being sniped.
A view from the breached wall
And finally, a view from the raised walkway behind the Tech point.
The vent in the roof has a Slow spinning fan.
Let me know what you think
For gray boxing thats quite detailed, personally I like my boxes with just grayness in them at pre-testing phase! but its cool to experiment and have fun with what you're doing. So I'll let you off.
the crystals are very psychedelic, a bit visually distracting in fact, tone that shizzel down or make them all one colour.
Secondly you should add me on steam and join our map testing group... as long as you aint from austrialia that is. We're not racist, its the pings see
Yes, ideally I would like to just grey box it all with minimum detail, but then I'm torn because I'm always thinking of some idea and I'm like, oooh, I wanna learn how to do that or see how it looks.
I don't know if maybe I should go with pure greybox but then have another room somewhere that I brush and prop and light completely so when I'm in that mood I just work on that :P, would make some nice screens too.
Haha, yes they are a bit, I've tried to make them darker and reduced the range on the lighting a lot to make it light up the glass chambers more instead.
Yes I think I will do, Came home on Sunday and you were all testing, of course didn't have the password then but I'l add you on the weekend
Here's a view of one end of the room, still some work to do on the roof and wall props.
Heres a view of the marine side of things, pretty simple but im fairly happy with it.
Here is a not so great view into the alien side
View inside from the roof of the cave, this has some of the themes I want my main alien spawn to have
A view closer to the water, you enter and join alien team
How "Rough" can a grey box be to be acceptable to play and test ?
Because I just through the following room together to check sizes and LOS blocking requirements etc which ofcourse needs a lot more work, but could it be ok to playtest ?
Would be nice if I could greybox up geometry like that on the first pass without putting a lot more thought into how the final room will look
The primary problem with greyboxed testing seems to be that aliens do not blend into the environment at all (combination of lack of textures and often very bright areas), making them easy to spot, and a basic greyboxed map in its early stages will likely mostly have straight, rectangular corridors with no wall/ceiling cover. You can drop some crates on the floor to add cover for aliens there, but the other surfaces are often neglected at this stage and perfectly flat. An easy solution here is to extrude some squares in your walls/ceilings in strategic locations to give skulks a better chance at ambushing, etc.
To answer your question more directly, I think you can start as soon as the map is fully albeit simply greyboxed, as maptesting will likely inform you where you may need to add some additional temporary wall/ceiling cover.
Just a little change to the ready room, its now usable as a RR
Finding it hard to do the cave/alien sides of the map because they need to look more natural and not boxxy, but it needs to be boxxy to greybox and get it done lol :P. Just doesnt look rite ATM.
I have 1 more tech room to do and then a RT room to do, Then I'll post a new overview of how its evolved.
Like after reading that mapping guideline I have dropped the entrances to starting tech points to just 2.
Unfortuantely got some bad news
My SSD drive which my map was on died last night and unfortunately I had not uploaded it to the workshop or anything .
So I'm going to have to start from scratch, with just my memories and the screenshots I posted here.
Luckily I had really only just finished grey boxxing but still a lot of time lost.
Still lots of work to do, you can ignore the CC/Hive in the background its just so i can test the map
Also textures more, put some columns in and changed the roof from being so flat
Ive posted a little nosound video of the Living quarters which I did after the crash just to get back into things before I greybox the map... again :P, hopefully quicker this time.
Also the layout flow in the OP does not represent what I had before and am now aiming for so I will update that in the future, hopefully with a eagle eye of the greybox.