[MAP:BR] Celled_Clockworks [beta]

[legacy-acc]

Tick, tock, click, boom.

It's me again, releasing yet another futile attempt at making something decent... :D

I like to make maps which are different than the norm. My first was quite eccentric graphically, second was console style, and now...
I'm serving this map straight up baby... and down!
This map is totally vertical. You start at the top, you go to the bottom, and then you go back up again. Of course, it isn't always that simple when you have a bunch of people trying to kill you, but that's the fun part ;)

The AI is (as far as I know) completely functional. At least when I play them, they can get all the way down and back up by themselves just fine. It was a real ***** getting them to though. :mad:

The map isn't finished yet. Gameplay is functional and all, but I need to thrown in a whole bunch of sounds and more static meshes to polish it up a bit.

So yeah, now comes your part (uh oh!). I'd like some opinions on what sucks (because I'm sure most of it does :)) and how it should be improved.
Does part of the level need to be easier to navigate? What parts look rather bare and need sprucing up? Was it bugged to hell and back? Was I on crack when I placed a particular weapon?

Bah, enough talk. Look, download, play, and *****. That's what beta's are all about :D

Download the bloody thing already! (http://www.filefront.com/?filepath=/hqn/Celled_Clockworks.zip)
http://www.ut2003hq.com/pafiledb/uploads/clock1.jpg
http://www.ut2003hq.com/pafiledb/uploads/clock2.jpg
http://www.ut2003hq.com/pafiledb/uploads/clock3.jpg
http://www.ut2003hq.com/pafiledb/uploads/clock4.jpg

[legacy-Desaparecido]

sweet. i like cell shaded maps, they run well on my tnt2:D

[virax]

And the cell shading masta' has pulled it AGAIN! Fricken' awesome dood. :D

[legacy-Teddie]

acc,

damn dude.. that looks cool as hell.

[legacy-Killroy X]

I'm trippin

[legacy-NickB]

:eek: :eek:

That map *owns* so much.
How did you do the cell shading?

[legacy-Buckyfg]

damn, your one of a kind man.

Downloading now

[legacy-acc]

Desaparecido >> Haha yeah. The enviroment maps so slow it down though... but I used a touch of BSP in this map, so it's zoned and can handle more bots with slowing to a crawl.

Virax >> Thank you. :D

Teddie >> Thanks, but does it play cool?

Killroy X >> If you're trippin, imagine how tripped out I must be to make these things ;)

NickB >> Well I just coded up my own little renderer and... :cry: I wish. It's just tricky skinning and texturing. It's really nothing like actual cell-shading, but it still looks cool. :cool:

Buckyfg >> That I am. And the world should be glad. :) Hope you like it.

[legacy-Buckyfg]

just gave it a quick run through, that is one awesome map, starting to get the feel, confusing at first.

most maps are though. it just feels really cool. something about simple cell type textures (just the look not what it probably took to make them) that almost make it feel more advanced. wierd I know

[legacy-acc]

It may help to ~ghost, fly out of the level, and look at it from the side. Granted, you can still get lost no matter what and I still rarely manage to jump down it without hurting myself at least once, but it helps. :D

[legacy-HS SPoT]

Filefront blows. I cant get it to download.
Any other d/l links?

[legacy-marith]

Nice map. I like the concept :up:. It's a little confusing to navigate at first but you get used to it after exploring for a while.

Only comment I have is that there are some surfaces which are bit dark and which need lightning up a bit IMHO (e.g.near the top of the cog staircase shown in your 3rd screenshot).

[legacy-Kaadu]

Originally posted by HS SPoT
Filefront blows. I cant get it to download.
Any other d/l links?

Same, post other d/l links

[legacy-§uper-]V[oose]

I've never had trouble with filefront before but I can't get it to download either. It looks so great too. :(

edit: nm. works now.

[legacy-0Xcel]

Great work, reminds me of that clock tower stage off Mario 64 :) GJ

[legacy-Doctor7]

Originally posted by acc
It's just tricky skinning and texturing. It's really nothing like actual cell-shading, but it still looks cool.

It works really well with static meshes because vertex lighting on light, solid colours ends up looking like cartoon shading. I bet you had to be careful to make the BSP bits look right.

[legacy-Teddie]

Originally posted by §uper-]V[oose
I've never had trouble with filefront before but I can't get it to download either. It looks so great too. :(

edit: nm. works now.


moose. I got the download to work by clicking on "download directly from our server" TWICE...

The first click, it hangs there.. doing nothing.
The second click seemed to "push" the dl process through...

I dunno.

acc, gonna try your map out later today/tonight.

[legacy-Teddie]

acc,

okay, I couldn't wait. I just played your map now.

Man, that is disorienting as hell. Looks very cool though.

I need to play it a few more times probably to get used to it.

Did you have to specifically UVmap all those objects to get the black outlines?

[legacy-Doctor7]

Originally posted by Teddie
Did you have to specifically UVmap all those objects to get the black outlines?
I'm guessing the answer is yes, but there's another cheat involved. Save your UVMap template at a low enough resolution, overlay it on a plain texture, and bingo, black lines on all the edges!

This is assuming he's using a package which lets you save the UV template, Lightwave doesn't :(

[legacy-Teddie]

Originally posted by Doctor7
I'm guessing the answer is yes, but there's another cheat involved. Save your UVMap template at a low enough resolution, overlay it on a plain texture, and bingo, black lines on all the edges!

This is assuming he's using a package which lets you save the UV template, Lightwave doesn't :(

Doc,

Ah, man, I didn't think about the UV template.

Of course, the lines of the template itself.

Anyway, yeah, lightwave's UV tools are no good for me.

I use UVMapper along with Lightwave to take care of skinning my custom meshes.

[legacy-kab]

That is a very refreshing style you have going on. I'm liking it!

[legacy-Rlyeh Ftaghn]

OMG...i think this is the first officiall declared (by me) stoner map...i found myself seriously tripping while playing this....just one thing...i dont think this can be played br...too big and confused i think..but hell it is entertaining just to jump around...going to downlaod the dm one...

[legacy-HS SPoT]

Methinks this sucker ROCKS!

[legacy-acc]

marith >> I'll look into the really dark spots a bit.

0Xcel >> oh yeah. That was a cool level. Must of been thinking of it subconsciously :D

Doctor7 >> Actually little effort went into the BSP (aside from all the holes). Maybe I just got lucky or something.
There are a whole bunch of tricks for getting lines on every edge, but pay close attention to how things are skinned. It's not on every edge, because that just looks polygonal and not cell-shaded. I went through and UV mapped each mesh by hand. Although after a few maps of all custom static meshes, I've learned the tricks to doing this style rather quickly. ;)

Teddie >> Getting around the level is hard, and tracking the ball carrier is even harder. There's at least two paths to everywhere as well, I made sure of that.
So yeah, as I said to Doc, each mesh had to have it's own skin.

kab >> Thanks.

Rlyeh Ftaghn >> Hehe, I think the crooked forest betas were the best stoner maps, but this could count.
As for it being too big for BR, well I didn't want to make a DM map and I didn't like the prospect of having to go down, up, down, up in CTF. Once you get used to the paths it takes about as much time as Bifrost to get through it. I guess I could release other version though...

HS SPoT >> Methinks I won't argue with that. :D Thanks.

[legacy-Doctor7]

Originally posted by acc
There are a whole bunch of tricks for getting lines on every edge, but pay close attention to how things are skinned. It's not on every edge, because that just looks polygonal and not cell-shaded

Yeah, I did spot that. The only way to do it would have been to create all the meshes with n-sided polys and only triangulate after generating the UVs.

But you still have the UV template to work from so I'm guessing you didn't have to go in and draw all the lines by hand.

And you have to admit, you get away with a lot because of the vertex lighting - the smoother shapes, which are what most mappers would be aiming for, actually look the least cartoon-like
:)

[legacy-Kaadu]

It still won't download...

FileFront is Gay

[legacy-Base.utmf]

looks funky... as always :up:

[legacy-Ra2k]

the second picture reminds me on DOM-OutRigger :up: - love outrigger, and ur map looks also crazy and f#cked randy :D i want and wait till the final! ive never played such a map... i will see :p

[legacy-Helios]

:):up: I luv yur cellshading.
The map was very cool, a really nice change from the regular flat br map. I gotta admit it was really confusing when I first loaded it up hehe, I got totally owned by the bots (so you did a good job on that part). The performance was very good. It looked good too.
One thing though, one time when I fell down (and had the ball) to where that rotating thing is that should kill you, I survived it. Not that I could do much from there but it's still very annoying when the enemy ballcarier scores one point and camps down the map for the rest of the game.
But overall I think this is one hellofa cool map:D

Hehe and my dad liked it too lol, since he's from a long line of clockmakers (or however it is called in english).

[legacy-«Scavenger-X»]

mad - somebody should make an anime based game with this stuff :D :D :D

[legacy-acc]

Doctor7 >> I didn't draw them by hand. I made a texture with black borders. Then I shaped the UV's so the edges went around the borders. Since cell-shaded objects are supposed to be solid colours, it doesn't create the mess that a detailed texture would. I guess this is about the same as the template you're talking about? I just used Max's UVW Map/UVW Unwrap.

Kaadu >> When I release the final I'll try and get some mirror for it. Sorry 'bout Filefront.

Base.utmf >> Thanks

Ra2k >> I actually don't like OutRigger much... :D But I guess it is most like that. But even OutRigger feels flat compared to this :)

Helios >> I've got ticking noises in the final version. You can crank up the volume and drive your dad insane :haha:
Good point about falling. Yeah if you fall onto the top mover you can survive, otherwise you get crushed (it looks really painful). Thanks for reminding me, I'll deal with that.

«Scavenger-X»> >> I think if you get to the point of making a game, you might as well just find a real cell-shading engine. XIII, anyone? :D Or maybe I could just map for one of the anime mods in progress already :haha:

[legacy-feck_that027]

make every static mesh a mover. then it would be more like a clock. its hard work, but that would own so much.

[legacy-Kaadu]

Originally posted by acc
Kaadu >> When I release the final I'll try and get some mirror for it. Sorry 'bout Filefront.

Thank you....:)
Are there any other mirrors for your other maps?

[legacy-acc]

Did a quick search on google and found these:
Facility Mirror1 (http://www.unreal2003.net/download.php?dlname=1&nn=DM-Celled_Facility)
Facility Mirror2 (http://zoominstagib.com/servermaps/DM-Celled_Facility.zip)

Can't find any CTF-Cell mirrors, but that I made that before I learned how to make bots work properly and it was pretty much just a test for the graphic style anyways.

[legacy-avatar_fd]

How about making it easier to identify which side you're on? (a few cellshaded labels saying "Red", "Blue" might work, or colored lights)

[legacy-DeRailer]

I'm afraid I've little good things to say about this map as I'm a jumptrick and no Xloc whore. :p I feel it's not comfortable for fights because the z got pretty extreme, and trickjumps are pretty much limited to single dodge and boost jump, walljump isn't very effective here dispite the heavy focus on your Zs. Obviously the gameplay will be better with xloc, but I dislike xloc since ut, and avoid it in all teamgames and servers which enabled it.

There're some pretty good stuff. I'm glad this is a linear bombing run map, as I found this style of br maps play best online, as it boost and force teamwork. The graphic is again as I'd said before and I'll say it again, one of a kind. I do have a few suggestions, those springs looks a little dull, maybe change the color of the spring so there's a better contrast against the floor. It doesn't look like a jumppad for now.
The walls can use some base indicators. I don't know what, but something needs to be done there as it look real bare.

It's a good concept, though not one I find enjoyable, but of course, that's just me.
Looking forward to your next map. :)

[legacy-dreamstation]

Originally posted by Kaadu
Thank you....:)
Are there any other mirrors for your other maps?

UT2003HQ :):up:

CTF-Cell - http://www.ut2003hq.com/pafiledb/pafiledb.php?action=file&id=520

DM-Celled Facility - http://www.ut2003hq.com/pafiledb/pafiledb.php?action=file&id=857

How could you not know they were here acc, when you are a file staff at UT2003HQ! :confused:

:p

[legacy-acc]

avatar_fd >> I am doing that. It's blue/green on one side and red/orange on the other.

DeRailer >> Well it was designed as a BR map, not a map for trick-jumps and duels. So everything you say is true. Although I'd argue against needing the x-loc. I tried to steer away from that, especially since the ball carrier needs to get around ;)
I'm working on the details now, so the walls will be a little less bare when I'm done. And the springs... I'll do something about. Not sure what yet.

dreamstation >> On UT2003HQ? Really?? :haha: Take a look at my sig! :D
He said he can't download off Filefront :p