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**Slainchild** · 11-13-2005, 06:51 PM

Took a quick run around. I must say it has a good flow, and a nice calm atmosphere (when not fragging stuff).

Here are some things that need to be taken care of, in my opinion.

[shot]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v497/Slainchild/Shot00388.jpg[/shot]
-Here, I would raise the ground up where the arrow is, so you have a flatter base from which to start your dodge up the ramp. At the moment it is hard to pull off because of the uneven ground at the point you need to dodge from. I put a cross on the wall above the grate because I think the area is too dim. I would add a light fixture there, or increase the radius of the light coming from the lamp at the very top. One more thing, the water. I would make it less ripply, since the weather is rather nice and the area is enclosed, I don't think it would move about that much. Tone that down a bit.

[shot]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v497/Slainchild/Shot00387.jpg[/shot]
-The amp area. First of all I think you should make it more accessible. I mean, break open some of the wooden planks above, so you are able to drop straight down. Maybe also have a dodge ramp (made from the fallen planks possibly) back up through the gap for a quicker exit, since I wouldn't want to be in there for more than a few seconds (fear of spam).

[shot]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v497/Slainchild/Shot00386.jpg[/shot]
-In this shot, I have circled the lights in the distance. All instances of these throughout the map cast light that is way too bright, or saturated. I would suggest that you tweak those so they are not so blinding. Another thing with which is odd, is that all over the map there are these small white light fixtures, which cast a dim yellow light, yet have blue coronas assigned to them. The best way to make them look right would be to just make all the coronas yellow. The light fixtures, the wooden planks against the walls, and the rivets attatched to them, all have player collision turned on. As you can imagine, it gets annoying if you are running along the corridors and get snagged on any of these. So yeah, turn the collision off for those meshes. Last thing in the shot is the ugly green default texture at the bottom right. Check all of the windows for this... a few of them have the same problem.

I would suggest blocking off the access to the outside world since it is kinda deceiving and useless, but I don't think the amp area would benefit from that change. So if you are going to block off the outside, I would go ahead and block off all the windows except those above the amp with blocking volumes. When you have done that, it may seem a bit odd that you can walk through some and not others... Placing bars accross the windows you can't get out of, as a kind of barrier, would fix that. Not a necessary change, but I do think the map would benefit from it.

**legacy-LeHobs** · 11-14-2005, 10:05 PM

Thanks SlainChild for the extensive feedback!

I already did some fixes:

water ripples in the central area toned down
collision off for the mentioned meshes in the corridors
reduced the saturation of the mentioned ceiling lights as well as the coronas
fixed the default texture showing off at the bottom of the curved corridors windows (it seems, it happened during the scaling down)
extended the player count to 2-5 instead of 2-4

and plan the following ones:

terrain tweak around the dodge ramp
fix the coronas for the small bottom lights
check the lighting above the grate in the central area
fix the central pit so the killing (to avoid the player getting stuck there) gets more plausible

Now to some more sensible points...
I don't think blocking the outside windows with some bars or planks would really profit the lighting inside, as well as the ambience (nature sounds from outside) since it is an "opened" map (although I seriously considered this option in the first stages of the map). I also thought, that being able to actually fall off a window or from the amp room surroundings would add to the feeling that this is not only an industrial themed map: "there is a world around".
I designed the amp room so it is not too easy to access. Having to go outside the building to get to the amp, and know that other players can wait for you in the room above, as well as fire at you from between the planks, makes it more interesting. A hole, and a dodging ramp wouldn't make it so challenging, apart from making the outside passage completely useless. But maybe I should increase the gap between the planks, so shooting at the courageous (inconscious) amp hunter gets a bit easier.

Any suggestion for a nice track fitting the atmosphere is welcome, or maybe I will leave it without track, only ambient sounds.

Now I hope I won't need a 3rd beta, and be able to release the final version by the beginning of december.

Cheers,
LeHobs

**legacy-SolaceEternal** · 11-15-2005, 12:39 AM

Gameplay is a bit slow (observation, not a good or bad thing. Might want to up the min players by one or two, though.)

Aside from feeling largely deviod of powerups (namely addrinaline and health vials), my only real problem is a trivial one; the little square area that isn't abundantly clear that you're going to die if you jump into. (I found this out five secconds into the game, lol.) I sorta suggest leveling it with the surrounding floors, instead of making it such a drop, and perhaps putting a heath powerup there, but for one thing I'm not entirely sure how that would affect gameplay, and for another, this is not my map.

Aside from the aforementioned, this map's pretty cool. You pulled off an industrial style quite well, and it flows pretty good (a bit repetative, though.) Bot pathing seems perfect.

Edit. I really need to at least make an attempt to refresh this thing after I finally download it. ^^; Removed the redundant parts I had posted that were already discussed and covered.

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