For the last day or two I have been working on this new DB map. I'm nearly done with it, I wanted to make a beta so I could get people's thoughts and ideas on it before I made a final release. Here's the story.
"Unsatisifed with their already large empire, Liandri sought out more battlegrounds for their dastardly tournaments. When they found the Legacy Space Station, they saw no immediate use for it as it was nothing more than a mere service station. One of their sponsors however, saw plenty of potential in this station and suggested it be purchased and refitted for the ever so popular sport, Deathball. Liandri considered the idea for a while and eventually agreed. The success of their new Deathball arena was far greater than Liandri had ever dreamed it would be, and they profitted greatly from it. The Legacy Space Station was no longer a mere servicing station, it was now a place of pain and death."
OK not the best story, but since when do people care about the stories behind DB maps?
Great level! The depression in the middle really adds a hectic feel when the ballcarrier is just about stuck going down the middle (if they don't pass)
Visual style is simple but effective. I usually don't care much for the simple dark concrete in space themes, but it's pulled off nicely here. The planet up in the sky is a nice touch, but will likely be ignored in favor of the intense fighting in the relatively small arena.
This is a really well designed map. I can only really think of two small things: the fireworks could use a little work (not exactly sure what - for some reason electric arcs jumping about the ceiling/walls seems appropriate perhaps) and the bots need more than one shootspot if offline-play is to pose any challenge.
This is a really well designed map. I can only really think of two small things: the fireworks could use a little work (not exactly sure what - for some reason electric arcs jumping about the ceiling/walls seems appropriate perhaps)
I was thinking I should add something else to the goal events, I'll take a look at that one.
and the bots need more than one shootspot if offline-play is to pose any challenge.
If you opened up UnrealEd you'd find that there are in fact, three shootspots in each goal.
I want to add something to the left and right walls with the windows, they are too bare for my liking, but I can't seem to find anything suitable that won't damage the gameplay yet.
Mentat wrote:
oops, you're right. They just seemed to shoot in the middle all of the time
That's because bots suck at the moment.
For the last hour I've been experimenting with the maps gameplay, I decided to lower the roof and raise the pit at the bottom a bit. I'll be reducing the over-all height of the map by about 1/4. From what I can tell the map certainly seems to be more playable now (and it looks a bit better IMO).
In addition to the gameplay changes, I'm going to make some others. I plan add a little more to the goal events (haven't decided what yet). I have added a custom song for the map (as usual, I'll be releasing both a full and a "no music" version). It was quite suprising to me to find that out of all my song tracks, one of my own compositions fitted it best.
You can expect another beta soon.
Last edited by Armagon on 11-01-2004 01:52, edited 1 time in total.
Armagon wrote:
I decided to lower the roof and raise the pit at the bottom a bit.
Both will improve gameplay in my opinion. A good height for a small map is around 1280 if you want the roof playable.
I would suggest the pit depth be such that a majority of it is still a playable area with jumping. About 1/2 as deep is a non-ball quad jump height. Several things you could do depending on what you want. Work the depth and the slope of the ramps to make it difficult but still playable. Maybe have the center cross, a very slightly raised bridge if the pit become too shallow. Just a suggestion.
Raised p-zones are all fine and well, but you need to make sure the keeper can see the edge of them (and not just by radar).
I think the pit is a touch too deep. Perhaps make it shallow enough to be able to quad-jump out of it? Otherwise, if you are in there, you are completely out of the play.
I don't like the monitors above the goals. It might just be me, but that particular static mesh, which blocks part of the team logo looks bad. Perhaps change it to xMonitorC and scale that mesh up?
Finally, I found a small error in the skybox. The red planet mesh/texture/brush whatever has odd curved highlights around the edge of the surface. Screenie attached. (it's a bit more noticable in-game)
Other than those issues, the map has a really good feel to it. Especially nice skybox.
