WIP SP map: Courtyard

[Shadow Dancer]

Mega-upload Download link: http://www.megaupload.com/?d=JHH72070
FileFront Download link: http://www.filefront.com/17387128/Courtyard_P.rar
YouTube video uploads (4 parts): coming soon.
Screenshots:
http://i27.photobucket.com/albums/c155/ShadowDancer88/ScreenShot00007.jpg -- http://i27.photobucket.com/albums/c155/ShadowDancer88/ScreenShot00008-1.jpg

http://i27.photobucket.com/albums/c155/ShadowDancer88/ScreenShot00011-1.jpg -- http://i27.photobucket.com/albums/c155/ShadowDancer88/ScreenShot00012-1.jpg

Some images from the first couple larger fights.


Still very unfinished, but the gameplay and essential scripting are there.

The story (which is not yet fully implemented) is that Control has lost contact with a Gear squad that was transporting a Geobot with valuable intel. Delta has been sent in to track them down and retrieve the information.

Delta's been dropped into a heavily Locust-occupied area, and we find them partway through their mission as they approach the last known coordinates of the squad.

We find the squad was ambushed by Locust, and their APC has been wrecked.
As Delta approaches, Stranded scavengers run-off with the Geobot and disappear into their network of tunnels through the old upper-class neighborhood.

After attempting to contact Control, Delta realizes they're being jammed by a Seeder, so the mission begins to find the Seeder to re-establish contact with control and clear the skies for evac, and then track-down the local Stranded camp to retrieve the Geobot.

Features:

"Bowl"-style combat with multiple angles to deal with, sometimes with enemies coming from several sides at once.

Varied engagement distances from sniping to CQB with the shotgun as well as mid-range.

A unique boss fight featuring the Seeder as a primary and highly dangerous enemy. (and no HoD to kill it with...)


Checkpoints are implemented and fully functional, but not fully polished.

Art, and sound passes are not yet done. Placeholder lighting in place.

Gameplay is solid (or at least I think it is. :p )

I've included a walkthrough / commentary txt file, as well, which will add insight to the design and hopefully at least be interesting.

Extract the map files to:
C:\Users\userID\Documents\My Games\Gears of War for Windows\WarGame\Published\CookedPC\Maps

and load by opening the console with ~ and typing: open courtyard_P


A big thank you to anyone who tries it out and/or provides feedback.

[darksin]

Any filefront link?.......

[Shadow Dancer]

Uploading...

Stuff's taking a while. You Tube vids may not be up for a while: was listed for about 4.6 hours per video last time I tried...

Filefront link up, and appears to be working.

Working on encoding the videos into WMV. Will get screenshots up since the videos will take a while...
.......

Any suggestions for converting it from an AVI to a WMV?

I tried some MS Expressions something or other but can't seem to output anything but a .xml "project" file...

[darksin]

Ok, thx for filefront upload!!~~, played it, basic levle design ,box and no texture, some cover and penetration bugs, but the gameplay no problem, so the only thing need improve is level design, the structure and concept details, hope one day your levels design skills can reach to other mappers in this forum, good luck...

[Shadow Dancer]

It's just basic BSP at the moment because it's easier to make gameplay changes to the encounters without having to move around 500 static meshes for every change.

Are the concerns with the design just focused on the bare BSP, or are there issues with the layout or over-all pacing/feel of the map?

These and the gameplay/encounter design are what I'm concerned about. The visuals/sound/story aren't implemented yet, so it's not quite ready for those to be critiqued just yet.

I'm happy you liked the gameplay, though; that's the main focus of this build. :)

[darksin]

Yeah no big problem about texture and gameplay, they can be fixed later, the level design is the main case, i think some stairs is too narrow and the rooms design looks unnatural, if you replace those bare high walls with some variable strcuture like factory, palace, ruined temple, etc, will looks much better.

[Shadow Dancer]

I do need to flesh-out the concept of the main COG museum. It was designed to be grandiose and a little overbearing, taking cues from the House of Sovereigns. Will look better once it has art (propaganda) pieces everywhere, but the main walkway across the middle of it does seem unnatural.

I'll probably do another rework of that area to increase player freedom and make it look more like a real space. A wider main walkway that actually looks serviceable would do a lot, and still allow for the 2-fronted, sniper-based gameplay.

Which stair-cases did you find too narrow, if you can remember, so I can go in and take a look at them?

[darksin]

Well, the first after we enter the building, anyway, the whole structure design looks very simple, so i think need a lot more works to make it detailed and similar to those good looking official levles. i'm just a player, other veteran mappers here can give more advice.

[Lambent Veteran]

Needs A LOT MORE CHECKPOINTS, where the seeder is, I keep dying from those damn torque bows. ADD CHECKPOINTS!!!!!

[Shadow Dancer]

Well, the first after we enter the building, anyway, the whole structure design looks very simple, so i think need a lot more works to make it detailed and similar to those good looking official levles. i'm just a player, other veteran mappers here can give more advice.

Well, please keep in mind that it's only bare, basic geometry. It's like the underlying guidelines of a painting. Details aren't ready to be critiqued since they're not in yet.


Needs A LOT MORE CHECKPOINTS, where the seeder is, I keep dying from those damn torque bows. ADD CHECKPOINTS!!!!!

So stay down. :p
I'll see what I can do about it, but the more checkpoints you add the less tension there is.

Blindfire at the Nemecysts, wait with your Longshot actives until just after they've fired their bows, and then pop up and nail one of the Theron with the best shot you can. Never pop up if you see a glowing arrow-head; they will hit you. Also, keep some distance between you and Dom, as he tends to get hit a lot and you'll take the splash from it. A coverlink or two's worth of distance should be enough to avoid any serious damage.

Being patient and knowing when to strike is key in this fight.

Lighthearted smarta**edness and sincere advice aside, I am open to suggestions as to where and when. I would think after killing the Troika might be the best place for an additional checkpoint, just so you don't have to run up the stairs every time. The problem is that I wouldn't really want to add any more than that or the tension of the fight would go away since you won't really be losing anything significant by dying.

Else, I could also restrict the second Theron to only spawn on the highest difficulties.
..............

I'm debating adding one before the Seeder boss fight. Will probably depend on how hard people think he is, but, I think there's a lot more tension and stress to a fight if you know you've got something to lose if you die, which makes the fight more exciting.

[Lambent Veteran]

So stay down. :p
I'll see what I can do about it, but the more checkpoints you add the less tension there is.

Blindfire at the Nemecysts, wait with your Longshot actives until just after they've fired their bows, and then pop up and nail one of the Theron with the best shot you can. Never pop up if you see a glowing arrow-head; they will hit you. Also, keep some distance between you and Dom, as he tends to get hit a lot and you'll take the splash from it. A coverlink or two's worth of distance should be enough to avoid any serious damage.

Being patient and knowing when to strike is key in this fight.

Lighthearted smarta**edness and sincere advice aside, I am open to suggestions as to where and when. I would think after killing the Troika might be the best place for an additional checkpoint, just so you don't have to run up the stairs every time. The problem is that I wouldn't really want to add any more than that or the tension of the fight would go away since you won't really be losing anything significant by dying.

Else, I could also restrict the second Theron to only spawn on the highest difficulties.
..............

I'm debating adding one before the Seeder boss fight. Will probably depend on how hard people think he is, but, I think there's a lot more tension and stress to a fight if you know you've got something to lose if you die, which makes the fight more exciting.
Well, you should have at least one checkpoint when you finish off the first batch of people in the seeder fight.

[Shadow Dancer]

I'll see what I can do about checkpoints.

Anyone know how to get a Seeder to take dynamic lights?

I have bAcceptsDynamicLights checked, as well as:
bAcceptsLights and
bCastDynamicShadows

But any light near him that I set to dynamic ceases to affect him. I'd love to have a pale-yellow light coming up from the hole he's in and casting eerie shadows on the ceiling as he moves.

[shooter19]

I'll see what I can do about checkpoints.

Anyone know how to get a Seeder to take dynamic lights?

I have bAcceptsDynamicLights checked, as well as:
bAcceptsLights and
bCastDynamicShadows

But any light near him that I set to dynamic ceases to affect him. I'd love to have a pale-yellow light coming up from the hole he's in and casting eerie shadows on the ceiling as he moves.

U tried playing it ingame? I think at default the editor's video settings are at low or medium, also some some stuff doesnt work with UEDPIE (unreal editor play in editor) for some strange reason. Try it :)

[Shadow Dancer]

I forgot to mess with the lighting channels. Got it working great now.

[Serenius]

I'll see what I can do about checkpoints.

Anyone know how to get a Seeder to take dynamic lights?

I have bAcceptsDynamicLights checked, as well as:
bAcceptsLights and
bCastDynamicShadows

But any light near him that I set to dynamic ceases to affect him. I'd love to have a pale-yellow light coming up from the hole he's in and casting eerie shadows on the ceiling as he moves.
If you have it set up as an interpactor, you need to go to DynamicSMActor->Lighting->Light Environment and enable light environment.

[Shadow Dancer]

Bit of an update. Initial lighting pass is done, and work is beginning on the art phase.

First-up for static-meshes is the Stranded shanty town at the end:

http://i27.photobucket.com/albums/c155/ShadowDancer88/ScreenShot00017.jpg

http://i27.photobucket.com/albums/c155/ShadowDancer88/ScreenShot00016.jpg

http://i27.photobucket.com/albums/c155/ShadowDancer88/ScreenShot00015-1.jpg

http://i27.photobucket.com/albums/c155/ShadowDancer88/ScreenShot00014-1.jpg

http://i27.photobucket.com/albums/c155/ShadowDancer88/ScreenShot00013-1.jpg

I'm endeavoring to keep my list of used meshes fairly low, while keeping it sufficiently visually interesting so that it doesn't wind-up looking like it's made from the same meshes. The corrugated metal does get used a lot, but looking at Epic's own work on the stranded camps, that seems to be the way of things. I've been doing alot of resizing, rotating and overlaying with other meshes to try and make them not all look so samey.

That said, looking at these now there are a few places where the stain pattern obviously repeats... will fix.

[shooter19]

Looking good man :)

[JUGGERNUT]

Reminds me a bit about my parkcadebrigade map... with the little stranded houses.... man I need to take all the good stuff outta that map one day and make an actual balanced map... and bright enough *watches for darksin*

[shooter19]

Reminds me a bit about my parkcadebrigade map... with the little stranded houses.... man I need to take all the good stuff outta that map one day and make an actual balanced map... and bright enough *watches for darksin*

haha ;)

Stop picking on darksin :P

[darksin]

Seems need more cover object, too empty,good luck....

[JUGGERNUT]

haha ;)

Stop picking on darksin :P

Hehe, it just seems that's always the first thing to improve on after he plays a mod.

But thanks to him I did learn about the proper post process volumes to have in a map.

[Shadow Dancer]

Seems need more cover object, too empty,good luck....

True, but there won't really be any combat in this area. At least nothing major. An enemy or two. It's at the end, after the main battle, and you'll be searching the camp a little bit for your objective. You might face a few Wretches...

Still should probably add a few just for consistency's sake.

[Shadow Dancer]

Having trouble with terrain. Not sure if anyone can really help, but I can't do anything to the map, including deleting or changing the terrain, or the editor will crash. This only started once I added the terrain, but, of course, the terrain is in the same level as all the other meshes for that area, so I can't just delete the level.

Any terrain gurus that could help me figure out what's wrong with it?

[Lambent Veteran]

I can't wait for this map to have a final release. :D

[Shadow Dancer]

Hopefully I can find a version of the "meshes" map prior to the addition of the terrain actor, as I'm pretty sure that's the culprit, and I can't delete it now... Blarg. I think I'll make terrain its own map from now on...

Happy to see that there's interest!

W007! Problem averted! Found a previous version that didn't lose any other previous work. But terrain is definitely going in its own level from now on.