Maps need to be reviewed

[widowmaker]

I have ceated several maps now and aplied to UTplanet for hosting. I was asked to have my maps reviewed before being considered for hosting. So I have two specific maps that I would very much like an honest review of.

Cordex (http://www.chgdesign.com/michael/wid/dm_cordex.htm)

1.91 MB (zipped)
DM
Cordex
6-10 players

and

Manor (http://www.chgdesign.com/michael/wid/dm_manor.htm)

966k (zipped)
DM
Manor
2-8 players

Thanks in advance.

[Bean]

I'm d/lin manor now.

I'll be sure to review every aspect of it (be warned, I'll probably be a little strict images/icons/tongue.gif ).

[Bean]

ok, being honest:

<reviewer mode>

Widowmaker : "Manor" map for 2-8 player play.

Flow:

The level flows together fairly well. Every room leads easily into another, without becoming too much a maze. The outdoor area does not seem to fit in well, given there is only one doorway for entering and exiting, and the gameplay is very wide open. All in all, ok flow.

Architecture:

The interior seems sparsely decorated. While running through the many hallways, I find myself looking at little decoration, a torch here, an arch there, with an occasional stained glass windows (I would recommend setting the scale of the glass texture to .5). When I do enter a room with decoration, it drops frame rate. The manor seems to follow the formula of "arched doorway, cubed room, arched doorway, cubed room." There is very little variation in texturing. Every room in the manor has the same brick texture (using the same texture for the ceiling also). There is very little in the way of visual presentation (though the large grate where you can see to a level below was pretty cool).

The outside area is not too exciting. The terrain seems adequate, but does little to draw a player in. I was able to hammer jump over the stone wall and see the full skybox.

Lighting:

The lighting is used for light. It doesn't look like it was used to enhance the textures, design, etc...

Sound:

The only ambient sounds I heard was the crackling of fire from the torches (which seemed to be present when th torches were present of not.) Also, there was the standard gust of wind to be heard when outside. The music choice was very good though.

Rating:

About 4 gibs outta 10. Needs improvement.

[widowmaker]

I know I came up a bit short on that map.

Thanks for taking the time to give it a good review.

[Bean]

no problem, glad to help out.

[widowmaker]

Not that I want to push my luck but could someone review Cordex please.

[NutWrench]

Originally posted by widowmaker:
Not that I want to push my luck but could someone review Cordex please.<font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">Sure, I'll take a look. images/icons/smile.gif
Downloading now . . .

[NutWrench]

Dm-Cordex a review by NutWrench

Pathing: Bot pathing is excellent. The bots know how to use the lifts, doors and teleporters and are not afraid to go for a swim to get the goodies they want.

The split door movers are beautifully done with inset translucent windows that you don't usually see in a map. But the second type of door movers are set flush with the surrounding wall. When the door opens upwards, it slide right through the wall. This doesn't look good.

Flow: Like many deathmatch maps, there is a central core area where several people can blast away at each other. This area is a lot of fun and I spent a lot of time jumping down from above and ambushing bots that came in through the lower doorways. See-through floorway and ceiling segments made it more interesting. But other parts of the map suffer from what I call "sausage syndrome", i.e. stand-alone rooms that are only linked together by long tunnels. Many of the rooms are too boxy with no wall, floor or ceiling detail.

Lighting: Is generally good. Colors are varied and some areas are perfect, with dark patches of shadow for players to hide in. But other areas (the large central core, for instance) are overlit and look washed out. A few area have light fixtures but they don't appear to produce any light. Don't know if this is intentional or not. Sounds are appropriate and change from one area to the next.

Sum up: Technically the map is very good. There were no BSP holes or BSP "ghosts" that I could find. All the Movers work properly. I got a lot of framerate slowdown in the long coridoors with the complex overhead light brackets due to the large number of BSP cuts they create. Having the lights flush with the wall or ceiling or adding the lights seperately as semi-solid brushes might go a long way to speed up this area.


It's a good first effort and I'm giving it a 3 out of 5.

[widowmaker]

Thanks NutWrench.

[widowmaker]

I've gone back and put some more time in on Cordex and I was wondering if someone would be kind of enough to review the new version.

NutWrench you maybe the only one to have actually seem the original and I would appreciate your feedback if possible.

Thanks in advance.

[NutWrench]

Downloading now . . . images/icons/smile.gif

[NutWrench]

Wow, this is much better. Lots of detail has been added. Floor and ceiling grates open up the level a bit more.

Lighting has been tightened up a LOT.

Converting most of those add brushes to semi-solids will reduce BSP cuts and speed things up quite a bit.

If there's any way to add more Z-action to this map by adding, platforms, ramps or steps, I would do it. Also, if there's any way to open up the map a bit more by merging parts of seperate rooms, I would do that, too. (i.e. the floor area of one room leads into the upper section of another room).

DM-Tempest is probably the best way to explain this. In addition to the stuff above, it also has lots of map sections between the major rooms that provide transitions from one area to another.

Walls that partly divide a room are nice, too. Basically anything that makes the room seem less boxy. Plus, they help raise the anxiety level, because you never know what's around the next corner.

Looking good! Thanks for letting me have a peek at your latest creation. images/icons/smile.gif

[widowmaker]

Thanks for taking a look.

I hate to say but I have not stopped working on it and have made some major improvments (I.E. the bige open area in the center has changed significantly)

The hallway in the basment is all one friggin huge brush. That will take sometime to rebuild properly. Anyways it is good to hear I I am at least on the right track now.

Thanks again for taking a look at it.

[widowmaker]

Thanks to NutWrench this map took some serious changes in direction from what I started out with. The map is now complete and ready for anyone who wants to take a look.

NutWrench this final version is as much of an improvment over the last version as the last version was over the original. Thanks again for your feedback.

Cordex (http://www.chgdesign.com/michael/wid/dm_cordex.htm)

[NutWrench]

Excellent! Lots of ramps and little nooks and crannies added. The re-designed long coridoors don't run as choppy as the did before. The only other place where I got a little slowdown was in the central core area. If you took out those thin, support beams, you might get more framerate.

You have to really work to get that Redeemer, huh? images/icons/smile.gif

(P.S. If you change the surface properties of the Zone portals to 'Modulated' you'll get Zone Portals that you can see through in the editor.)