New Single Player Map: Recruiting Testers

[Thaur]

***UPDATE***

Final test run before release:

http://rapidshare.com/files/81833338/public2.rar.html

View page three for instructions please: http://gearsforums.epicgames.com/showthread.php?t=595296&page=3

[Zackiz]

I would gladly help you! Where are you from, timezone?

[TheDarkAlly859]

Nice screens man, looking good!

[BrendanL]

I'm glad that you and R_Diaz have started making Single Player maps. The one thing I noticed right away that I didn't like was the purple sky. It just bothers me. A green hue, or a grayish or a faded red or a variety of reds would give it that Gears look.

[Thaur]

I am at GMT - 6:00 Central Standard Time. I will try to hang out a lot in IRC on QuakeNet, channel #unrealdesign. Otherwise you can give me your aim screenname or some other way to contact. Thanks.

[jyu174]

I'll be glad to test too. My gamerstag is jyu174.

[Reverse]

I think I can help you set up some troikas, click; View > Browser Windows > Actor Classes > Pawn > Vehicle > Turret > WarTurret > Turret_TroikaCabal

There you got some turrets, however I do not know how to make Locusts use them. I guess thats something you'll need figure out through Kismet.

Hope it helps

-Reverse

[Taffer]

The one thing I noticed right away that I didn't like was the purple sky. It just bothers me.

I have to agree with this. The sky looks pretty terrible, and you should greatly consider changing it. Maybe some sort of postprocessor settings/colored lighting would help too. Other than that, it's looking really good.

[Zackiz]

What happened? You got my msn, were it not of any interest?

[Thaur]

What happened? You got my msn, were it not of any interest?

Unfortunately I have work and some real life stuff that goes on so I may take a little while to get around to contacting individual people. For the time being an early build of the map is available here to download and play:

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=S1VWDU1G

Through trying to test it with a friend online, I found out that some stuff is funky in multiplayer, so at the time being I am settling for people to play it by themselves and post bugs and comments.

If you don't know where to put it, there is a thread in this forum that tells you where. Open the game, open the console with ~ and type "open public1"

Thanks everyone for the interest and feedback. Don't worry if I don't address your concern immediately, I am writing everything down, not ignoring you.

[Thaur]

Here are some of the issues you can ignore because I know about them already:

Gameplay:

Coverpoints on the gazebo are screwed up. (They keep automatically creating new spots in inappropriate areas and moving old ones, and I do have auto adjust off. I have read that the game creates new ones if it thinks it needs them, so I'm thinking a possible workaround is just moving them into the sky or underground to get them out of the way)

Add in a savepoint after the gazebo battle. Still need to learn how to do this, but I imagine it is simple.

Aesthetic:

Ambient sounds not yet in

Only one terrain texture is used (grass). This is because 1: The editor crashes when I try to add with or otherwise mess with layers. I also haven't gotten around to messing with it more.

No Decolayers (Little pieces of grass). I haven't gotten to this yet. It is low priority and I still need to learn how to do it.

[Thaur]

It would be nice to have people play a map like this and take recordings so the author could watch exactly what they do. I haven't seen how to record GoW gameplay though.

[MASTER DAMAGE]

It would be nice to have people play a map like this and take recordings so the author could watch exactly what they do. I haven't seen how to record GoW gameplay though.

I can play through it and get you a recording of it if you want it. It's a good idea though and should be considered by all Single Player Map Makers.

[Thaur]

I can play through it and get a recording of it if the author wants it. It's a good idea though and should be considered by all Single player Map Makers

that would be great! let me know when you have done it.

[MASTER DAMAGE]

I will play the level and get the video out somehow tonight around 12-14 hours from now.

[NewPCGamer]

how do i download it? that link takes me to the sight, but there are no linke there.

[NewPCGamer]

k nevermind i got it. Im pumped to give it a try.

[NewPCGamer]

Just got done playing it, and i definetly have some suggestions.
1.) Make the encounters head on. The whole time in the beginning of the level i was like "what the hell is shooting at me"
2.) Add some Music and or ambient sounds to give it a little more life.
3.) For your next level maybe re-locate. Its a solid level and all, but i dont really catch the gears vibe. It kinda feels a bit more Unrealy
4.) *If you know how, add some diologue or somthin. I doubt that would work considering you would have to get all new voice overs but still.
5.) Keep up the good work!

[R_Diaz]

I tried to run your map yesterday but it crashes my game. I'm wondering if my Spanish version has something to do with it. Are you using dialogue?

[Thaur]

I tried to run your map yesterday but it crashes my game. I'm wondering if my Spanish version has something to do with it. Are you using dialogue?

No I don't have any dialogue.

[Thaur]

Just got done playing it, and i definetly have some suggestions.
1.) Make the encounters head on. The whole time in the beginning of the level i was like "what the hell is shooting at me"
2.) Add some Music and or ambient sounds to give it a little more life.
3.) For your next level maybe re-locate. Its a solid level and all, but i dont really catch the gears vibe. It kinda feels a bit more Unrealy
4.) *If you know how, add some diologue or somthin. I doubt that would work considering you would have to get all new voice overs but still.
5.) Keep up the good work!

Thanks! I agree with you, the setting isn't the most conducive to this game. It's a bit wide open. For the next map I will definitely make it indoors and more intimate. Do you think it needs more ammo? Did you get to the final area with all the sand bags? I thought you would have something to say about that, it is a little intense and needs a little bit of work I thought..

Oh yeah, and about the dialog, a friend of mine suggested that too. I think if I could at least get the guys to say some of the canned stuff, like "locust spotted" and some other random stuff it would be nice

And about the guys coming out of nowhere, a friend of mine also mentioned that annoying him. He suggested to announce the enemy somehow, I could try doing this by centering the camera/adding some canned dialog i suppose. Then again, I love watching people get the crap scared out of them hahahah

Oh and for all you guys complaining about the sky, I saw a really nice one in one of the campaign maps I have my eye on.

Secrets: If anyone finds anything they think is a secret let me know! Heehee

[MASTER DAMAGE]

I have the video's of my playthrough of the map. I didn't include the sound so I could keep the file size to a minimum, but the video's are like 3.4Gb a piece and there are 4 of them. I will see if I can get the files to a smaller size and get them out soon.

[NewPCGamer]

K so i just finished playing through it (assuming the end is where the giant building is) again and here are my some second opinions.
1.) still think that having the enemys spawn behind the bushes is a bad idea. I know that you dont want them to spawn right in front of the player, but most of the time they just stayed in the bushes and didnt come out so i had to go find them.
2.) The ending is actually pretty cool, with all those lambant wretches and all.
3.)Give it a little more of the "destroyed beauty" theme by adding in more fallen buildings and structures. Make it seem like people once inhabited the world that we are in.
Other than that really good job. Do you think you could send me a link or somthing to where you learned all that kismet?
thanks and keep p the good work

[MASTER DAMAGE]

Here is the link to the movie's. http://www.megaupload.com/?d=36XPSMI1
- I had to lower the quality and size of the movies alot. They are sized to go on youtube.com but it took to long to upload it so I put them in a .rar instead. Hopefully the quality is good enough so you can make some good observations. Sorry there is no sound though, couldnt get fraps to record it.

[BrendanL]

Here is the link to the movie's. http://www.megaupload.com/?d=36XPSMI1
- I had to lower the quality and size of the movies alot. They are sized to go on youtube.com but it took to long to upload it so I put them in a .rar instead. Hopefully the quality is good enough so you can make some good observations. Sorry there is no sound though, couldnt get fraps to record it.

Thanks for the videos MASTER DAMAGE. In the third video, there seems to be an endless amount of wretches. And is it possible to trigger an event at the end of the level to tell you that the level is over? Another thing I noticed was the enemies behind the flat bushes (the one that's just a wall, like paper), you can't even tell that they are their unless they walk through them. It's not neccessary, but it would be better if you could put in some bushes that make them slightly visible by looking at the bush, being able to see that there is a Locust there where there are no leaves. This level is different from the normal, linear single player maps you are use to seeing in Gears. Other than that, you could add little rocks, dead bodies, etc... to give more to the experience. I can't wait to try out the full release of this level.

[Thaur]

Thank you so much Master Damage! I am watching your videos and they are so great! I can't express how thankful I am. Just watching you play makes me pumped. Your play style is great. I have been working on my map and I believe I have greatly improved it, especially the final area.

WARNING! Don't download his video! It will make your play testing less accurate!

[BrendanL]

Thank you so much Master Damage! I am watching your videos and they are so great! I can't express how thankful I am. Just watching you play makes me pumped. Your play style is great. I have been working on my map and I believe I have greatly improved it, especially the final area.

WARNING! Don't download his video! It will make your play testing less accurate!

Oh man! You scared me! When I read the, "WARNING! Don't download his video!" part, I though it was because there was a virus or something. But I was thinking, I scanned this and no threat came up. Then I finished reading and now my mind is at ease.

[MASTER DAMAGE]

Thank you so much Master Damage! I am watching your videos and they are so great! I can't express how thankful I am. Just watching you play makes me pumped. Your play style is great. I have been working on my map and I believe I have greatly improved it, especially the final area.

WARNING! Don't download his video! It will make your play testing less accurate!

Im glad you like them and are what you are looking for. If you need any help testing this any further or anything else, just send me a message I will always be available.

[Thaur]

***Update***

This is the last public testing run I am doing before release. Download here: http://rapidshare.com/files/81833338/public2.rar.html
(You need winrar to unzip file)

If you want anything addressed you need to make a comment soon before I release the map in a few days.

Features I still need to add:
-A level ending trigger/warp to other map (need to figure this out)
-A checkpoint so people don't have to start over (need to figure this out)

Main focus of this beta test:
-Is the level too easy or too hard? Elaborate.
-Do I need to add more cover? Where?
-Any bugs or annoyances with collision or cover nodes?

Special requests:
-Please take screenshots of my map, especially action shots that I will use for promotion. [Is print screen the only way?]
-Make a recording

http://img232.imageshack.us/img232/6366/spechighbirdseyeyt4.jpg

http://img137.imageshack.us/img137/8230/spec2ug0.jpg

http://img230.imageshack.us/img230/2536/specisogazeeborb4.jpg

http://img137.imageshack.us/img137/9752/ed7iv9.jpg

[Thaur]

Problems reported:

-Sometimes Dom runs too far away instead of covering Marcus (Not sure how to fix this!)
-Problem with pathing between the gazeebo and ammo located in dead end area
-enemies need encouragement coming out of bushes

[ZxTWO]

Wow, this is amazing.
I'd play it if my GoW actually ****in worked. Keep it up dude, it looks great.