CTF-Monastery [Beta 3] [Pics]

[Crater Creator]

I'm happy to announce my first finished level for UT3. Any comment or criticism is welcome.

Name: CTF-Monastery
Version: Beta 3
Compatibility: only tested on current version of UT3 for PC
Description: A medium-sized CTF map set in an East Asian climate. An order of monks travel across the fog of peril to study in this monastery.
Comments: This is basically at a release candidate stage, but I'm calling it a beta because I haven't tested it with different people on different machines. I'm pretty happy with the visuals and the gameplay, but I'm open to feedback from this community, to which I'm still a newbie .
Screenshot: I only have screenshots from an older beta, so you may notice some differences. See a gallery of full-resolution screenshots here:

full screenshot gallery




Credits: I designed and created the map. Individual components (static meshes, textures, etc.) came from UT3's stock assets.
Homepage: My online portfolio
Download: download here (22.4 MB zip file)

[xPloSiV]

Cool, will download as soon as my current dl finishes , and i'll give you some feedback

[Sonnorcter]

downloading now will take a look right away.

[Sonnorcter]

the looks of this map are very nice and i like the way the map is set out with bases near eachother and a center point , so u kinda go away to come back. But i think the fog makes it look vert flat, and the there needs to be some depth and detail below the bridges to up to look, i also think that more paths need to be made to get to the flag, like behind through the rocks or something, as getting the flag is kinda just about running to the base, trying to blast through the fast respawning bots in their own base, and then running back as fast as possible. i think it looks good and is a very good base, so don't be annoyed, sorry if u don't like the comments

[Crater Creator]

Annoyed? Not at all; I was about to bump the thread because I am looking for feedback. Thanks for trying it out.

The flatness of the fog was one thing I tried to resolve between when I made the screenshots and what you can download now. I'm now using 4 layers of fog, spaced out vertically with different densities, to create a smoother effect. I also added another giant layer of terrain, so that you can see mountains in the distance which break up that strong horizon line. Each fog object seems to be fairly graphics intensive, so doing more than 4 may be a bad idea...any other ideas on how to minimize the flatness?

When you say "depth and detail below the bridges to up to look," do you mean you want to see the terrain under your feet, between the planks when standing on the bridge? I meant to suggest a bottomless chasm between the bases and the central building. The Chinese lanterns are hung underneath the bridges, so there is something interesting to see down there.

In my testing, I did find that getting in and out of the base is the hardest part of scoring. Which is a good thing generally, but it may be overdone. I moved the link gun to the exit hallway so that as players spawn, they have to almost leave the base before they can get a better weapon. Perhaps if I redesigned the whole wall of the base building to split into two exits, a flag carrier would effectively have more cover to get out of the building.

[Sonnorcter]

yeh i will re test in a sec, i think the depth bit was to do with the fact there generally there is one kinda route, if u get what a mean, sorry if this is against the original plan

[Sonnorcter]

oh sorry about this i just realised something else, maybe the fog could move up onto the map a bit as it is kinda stops dead at a line, but otherwise than the comments above its good and the fog is a lot better