VCTF-A Bridge Too Close (Alpha) [PICS]

[TheDarkAlly]

Hello All!

Not sure if everything was cooked correctly (Been working for a few days with minimal sleep) but let me know if there's any trouble.

First map created for Unreal Tournament. Quite a few problems with shadows and dark spots, but I plan on fixing those things up.

Ran out of inspiration for a cool looking bridge so I borrowed Epic's suspension bridge style and made some modifications for this purpose.

Map turned out a little bit on the larger scale, so I'm not sure how I feel about it.

Figured I'd hit you guys up and let you critique the hell out of it.

Screens will be posted shortly, but feel free to download and add some bots to give it a test!

http://www.filedropper.com/vctf-bridgetooclosealpha3

[Darkn3ss is QnL]

Hey DarkAlly,

I'll try and provide feedback if possible coming from your screenshots for now.

Ill try and give an even better feedback when I get home and downloaded and played your map.

Check next post.

[Darkn3ss is QnL]

Image 1: From the looks of it, this is a pretty good start. The feeling of a techy building is there, it just lacks a proper "caring"

- You have used a floor material for a wall which is also is repetitive on most walls. Looks kind of off and out of place.
- There is an area on the scene where no BSP is applied, looking from the right I still see a checkboard texture
- Everything looks a bit too "obvious" since there is no light difference or shadow effects coming from a dynamic skylight or a pointlight.
I suggest reducing the skylight to about 0.1/0.2 and put a Dynamic light over it with something near 0.7 to 0.8.
Then increase the lightmap resolution of the floor and most things (if visible) to 16.0 or 8.0 (standard is 32.0)

Image 2: The rocky scene looks pretty good in my opinion You are obviously knowing what you are doing with terrain and applying 2 different layers of materials to it (Rock / Grass)

- I see some Post Processing up far. Its blurring is way to increased to create a realistic scene effect. I suggest reducing this.
- The building looks, ok... lets put it this way, there is no really something that stands out in this picture. Hopefully some good lightning can really add some more mood to the scene
I suggest taking a good look at the Lightning tutorial from Stevelois @ HERE
Really helped me


Image 3: Still, the only thing that catches my eye is the terrain. It still looks a bit too empty. Almost like this is suetable for Warfare instead of VCTF.
- Is the skydome also being blurred?


Image 4: The bridge looks cool and a cool invention with Static Meshes
But the blurry part really looks unrealistic in this picture.
- The Post processing blur is waaay to increased to be effective. you can see it here.
There is a piece of rock below that is not affected, but above is a bit there is, it does not flow properly over each other, creating the illusion that the blurred rock is on top of the non blurred rock,
but it is supposed to give that far-away feeling I suggest decreasing this again.

Overall

Overall, good start, but still needs work.
I suggest checking out a tut on PP and Lightning since those are some points that hold this back.
Let me know when you fixed it I'll try and test your map out tonight to give some more feedback regarding the layout.

[Darkn3ss is QnL]

Ok, so I took the time to play your map abit.
Here is some more advanced feedback. Hope you definitely take these points in your final version.

1. I found a large amount of area's in which you forgot to apply a material.



- This is in multiple area's on the bridge.


2. Setting these jumpshoes does not seem to make sense. The flagroom is really small, and the outside area is just massive.
Having jumpshoes does not add anything to the flow of the map.



3. The lake material seems to unnatural. I think this material is more suitable for BSP, then for a large lake.
Its a fallback material so it sucks up any lightning and bounces it back.
Also, do some more with the lake, put some rocks in it. Now its just one flat lake that draws too much attention



4. This spawn in the area just calls for spam and spawnkilling.
It needs at least one more way in or out
The only way to get in or out is where i am standing.
I have seen bots putting a tank before this spawn and just locking out the entire base.

[Darkn3ss is QnL]

5. The bridge is just.. massive. I think this map would be more suitable for Warfare, then VCTF.
It needs more cover points. I found it frustrating that I got on the bridge 5 times and got killed by either:
- A sniper in the blue base
- A sniper on the bridge
- A tank coming from the north side, since there are 2 tanks in this map
- A tank coming from the east side, where another blue base spawn resides.



6. This area is way too dark. Putting up some suitable static meshes with pointlights can fix this issue



7. Here is another example of spawnkilling. Putting a flag in such a small room is a good idea, but manta's can get in there and the only way out is getting through the door they came in!!



8. Finally, this hidden path on the right side of the Blue base leads to the back, its open for travel, but its glitchy and you tend to get stuck there.



Summary

- No game music, and no game screenshot! I hope you at least do some music in your map!
- I think this map is more suited for Warfare, then for VCTF. Otherwise, take down the scaling.
- Do a 1000% scan of non applied checkboard materials. Check your error message log when building your map! This usually shows warnings where materials are not applied.
- Lightning is too obvious, like i suggested above, do some more shadowing to set some more mood to the map.
- Decrease the blur on the Post Processing volumes in this map. Its too large.
- Think about where to set pickups. The jumpboots in such a giant map, dont work. Also, I found it frustrating that the bridge does not hold any WeaponPickupFactories. It only holds sniper ammo, so when I run out of ammo,
I either need to travel back to my base, or to the enemy base to get it.
- Think about where to put spawns, and at least have 2 ways to travel when spawning or a door that blocks out a spawn so bots or players cannot perform any spawnkilling
- Map flowing. Draw out the layout for yourself on paper and check what you can do to accelerate and improve the flow of the map. It basically one enourmous straightforward path in which the bridge holds no cover points except for the back.

This pretty much covers it.
I hope you found these points helpful and all I can say is, keep it up and let me know when you finish your final

[TheDarkAlly]

Wonderful. Thanks for all the help!
I'll keep you updated with new screens and downloads.