the G.o.a.T 6/6/2003 5:10a

I see 3 ratings are pending.

Anyone got anything to say about this level? :)

DeRailer 6/6/2003 6:28a

Bah, arena maps. =P

Anyway this is my score:
Total score 6.65
Computer AI 8
Construction 8
Gameplay 5 <--- I am bias here. I gave it another ran through a few weeks ago, and if I can change the score, I'll rate it 6. Definetly above average, sorry that my initial rating pull the overall score down.

The bot pathin is good, didn't notice any major problems. They fought like bots, die like bots. Wow, what a lame joke.
I found the random trigger create some problems though, sometimes the bots try to access the supershield even though the bridge is gone. However it's seems to be rare such happens. They track well during 2on2, didn't notice any cool tricks to award it higher than 8.

I found that this map is very well done for an egyptian map. I hate the retail texture and mesh set tbh, and they're really overused in many custom maps but you composed it so well it's nearly epic quality. Good use of lightings, and shadow to enhence environment detail.
The shadows are a little too strong though, it's hard to see your opponent using epic brightskin, it'll be nice if you use some soft (dark)blue lights to lighten up the areas that're too dark, I remember Ictus(<-god!) used this technique for his UT99's 1on1-Ictus, maybe you want to take a look at that.
One slight nitpick: the problem with most egyptian maps these days is they all look too clean, it's like after every bloodbath you have a dozens of cleaners polishing it's walls and waxing those statues squeaky clean. I think it'll be so much cooler if you make the map look abandoned, edit the textures so they look dusty, add some ruins, webs, stuffs like these. Will definetly makes it more interesting and make it stand out.

The gameplay, I think you already knew how I feel about the teleporters so I won't !%@!* about em here. =P Anyway, UT teleporters create some pretty werid problems for players if it's a 2 way tele, thus I don't really recommend using them for UT(unless it's 1 way). It seems to handle very differently from quake's, dunno why. I'm not against it's use however, as the right placement can create a very strategic map.
Gameflow... well it's an arena map. Dunno what to say about it really. What I'm thankful about is it's not a single room, 2 tier arena. Good for arena map me think.

the G.o.a.T 6/6/2003 6:59a

Fair run through, for someone who ain't a big fan of arena's. ;)
8, 8, 6 would rate the map 7.1 :)

Yeah I know about the bots on bridge bug :/
I didn't really want to give it an abandoned look, but that's just me X). I did some of the usual stuff ;) Bricks laying on the floor, floortiles missing, floortiles that break when you run over them,...

Btw, do you happen to have a link to that 1on1 Ictus map?

DeRailer 6/6/2003 7:26a

it's included in the david's and comp 1on1-pack.
http://nalicity.beyondunreal.com/map_hub.php?mid=1695
The way david and ictus did the lightings are very cool, but it's a skill hard to pick up, for me anyway. :\

the G.o.a.T 6/6/2003 7:31a

Thanks I'll give them a go :) Lighting is hard yeah :\

Evil Vey 6/8/2003 8:51a

Hi kids! EvilVey here with another requested map review (you'd figure people would learn not to do that by now). Of course, we start the review with the standard ‘EvilVey Disclaimer' which states…

You asked for it.

Here's the deal with this map, and I've been working on this review for 2 days trying to figure out how to say this. Dude, you're a very talented mapper. Very. You literally read the whole damn book on how to use the editor and all the neat tricks and wonderful things you can do with the engine and all that. I'll even bet a dollar that you went and read the big article written by Levelord for the Secrets of the Game Sages book Brady games put out a while back.

Okay, the nicest way I can say it is this…

David Copperfield knows a lot of really cool magic tricks, but he doesn't perform them all at the same time.

Dude, there's TOO much stuff in your map, and it suffers.

I REALLY wanted to this map an awesome review, because you're obviously a very talented mapper, but sometimes less is more. I recognize the problem only because I do it in my maps all the time.

Dude, yer map runs like a dog, for no other reason than there's so much great stuff in it. Even with the great zoning and anti-portal work, it takes a hit.

The attention to detail is staggering. Staircases have steps that are old and chipped. The teleporters have cameras that display where you're going and what's there. Nice touch… “Hey, where does this go? Ahhhh!” A bridge trap over a lava pit that you need to see more than once to appreciate how cool it is. Did you make some of those fire emitters yourself? I don't remember seeing some of them before and they look really cool (BTW: The sound attached to the fire emitter is WAY loud compared to the other ambient sounds…I felt like I was in that movie Backdraft in some places).

I walked over an old tile and it broke into little pieces in a puff of smoke. Holy crap!

The classic underutilized Levelord trick of making stuff outside the map area that the player can't get to in order to add to the immersiveness is also included in there and its done well. Slaughtered bodies displayed on the ritual Altar of Sacrifice to the sun god Ra? It's there!

All these wonderful things added together makes this map run veeeeerrrrrryyyyyyyyy sllllloooooowwwwww in a lot of places.

I could only put in 2 bots and keep it playable, and with a map THIS BIG (frickin map is huge too…takes lots of room to show off all this great stuff) it wasn't worth it.

Do yourself a favor G.O.A.T. and make a 1-on-1 map. Talents of your caliber need to showcased in something small. The map is too big and ungainly to enjoy the play, but ALL mappers should download this map, set bots to 0 and look over all the cool things. It's like someone painted the Mona Lisa on the side of an elephant. This masterpiece is slow.

Less is more. I know how hard it is to put something cool into a map only to have to tear it out because it bogs down everything.

Take some stuff out and give this map back to the world. Have some people with lower end systems play test your maps. Make a 1-on-1. Force yourself to learn restraint, young Jedi, and you will go far. Disipline yourself. If you show off all your cool stuff in one map, what will you have left for the next? Players will want to see MORE and BIGGER and if you get more and bigger with your next map, no one will be able to play it except for people at NASA and those guys with the computers at ILM that made Attack of the Clones.

Now for the kicker. Is it still on my hard drive?

Amazingly yes, but only because I'm getting a new high-end computer (finally!) in the next 2-3 weeks. This map is a High-End Hottie, and needs some major muscle to power it. If you have the muscle to run this map GET IT…but be warned…your machine needs some serious sack to run this one with a whole bunch of players running around and blasting each others entrails out in all this maps beautiful glory.

If you don't have a high end system AND YOU MAKE MAPS get this one, set the bots to 0 and stare in wide eyed wonder at some of the wonderful goodies contained within.

But if you're average Joe who just wants to play a small quick map that flies and you have a low end system, I'm sorry, but don't bother.

Construction: 9 (you earned it!)
Bots: 7 (bridge bug gave it a hit)
Gameplay: 5

And with some editing...that gameplay number could go up significantly!

All in all, very good...but it coulda been great.

the G.o.a.T 6/8/2003 10:13a

I asked for it yeah. :P

Fair enough points touched in the review.
It runs good on my machine though X)

Look at it as a test as to how far this engine can go :D
And you're right, I prolly overdid it.

<*)_>< 6/8/2003 10:26a

Now to bring the good news

The G.o.a.T and me are gonna do a 1on1 map together :)
My flow, his visuals..... ph34r! :p

the G.o.a.T 6/8/2003 10:29a

That's right :D :O

BTW EvilVey,
- Can I ask what system you ran my map on?
- I didn't read any books though. It's all self-taught.

Evil Vey 6/8/2003 11:12p

My system? Please don't laugh...this system runs the original UT2K3 flawlessly at 800x600 if I keep the CPU intensive things like Karma and bots down at Low.

700 mhz AMD Athlon
Maddog GeoForce 4 64mb
512mb SDRAM
A 21 inch monitor I got at an auction for $200 back when monitors were expensive.
A Logitech mouse that was on sale.
A keyboard I got out of a dumpster.

I built it all by myself!

Yeah, I'm a budget gamer. Thanks to the Geoforce4 though, it actually runs UT2K3 very well. I was the first one to laugh when the game came out and all these people with high-end systems complained. If I keep most things at normal and the physics at low, it runs VERY well...I even have world detail set at high. I'm building a new 1.8 gig system in the next week or two. Can't wait!

Speaking of which, G.O.A.T., have you considered simply going to some of the static meshes and emitters that you have in your map and turning them off on lower end systems? That might not be a bad idea...

You guys should most definately make a 1-vs-1 map together. Your talents would compliment each other wonderfully. Karp's flow and cool item placements along with your eye-candy would make for Cliffy B material.

the G.o.a.T 6/9/2003 3:23a

Mm weird :/
My bro plays the map on an Athlon 1Ghz with GF2Pro and he's able to play it with standard amount of bots. FPS is lowish of course, but it's playable :/

I know about the turn stuff off on lower end systems, but I haven't looked into that yet. Do you happen to have a link explaining it? :)

Evil Vey 6/9/2003 7:28p

No link needed! It's wicked simple and away we go...

1) Open up the editor and pull your map up.

2) Okay cool. Now go to that room with the lava and the bridge trap and highlight the static mesh thats spitting in the pool. Yep, thats right...the big goat, and go to StaticMeshActor Properties.

3) From there, pull up Advanced. Cool. Now, there are going to be two tabs in there that you can set to true and false. One is bHighDetail and the other is bSuperHighDetail. By changing those around you can turn the mesh off in the map. You can do it with emitters too, and probably sounds though I've never tried it. I don't think you have to rebuild the map before it will work either so it's also a time efficent way of optimizing the map for lower end systems.

A good example of this is seen in Inferno. Whole sections of the architecture in that map disappear when you turn off High Detail in your settings. Alot of the animated lava meshes and the high detail skulls disappear and things speed up quite a bit.

I would edit some of those 'outside the map' areas. They are very intricate and well done but they're also a place the player never gets to go. If you cut back on some of the eye candy there, you might not have to worry about cutting out anything in the main areas where you do get to fight.

Just an idea... :)

the G.o.a.T 6/10/2003 3:40a

oh cool :)
I tried it. I made some meshes disappear and it works, but the lighting is screwed :/ The places where the meshes touch other meshes stay dark when the meshes disappear. Perfectly logical, but is there sumtin I can do about it?

I don't think I'll be re-releasing this map though, I'll just keep this trick in mind on my next.
And I'll check out Inferno ;)