[Release] Island Base

Started by Wingman, 20 December 2013, 14:03:15

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Forge

#15
Quote from: Micky C on  24 December 2013, 12:03:31
the lighting was ok, except in the big cave maze near the beginning, where there wasn't much lighting at all (I'd suggest make it a big darker and add more light sources there). 
this

Quote from: Micky C on  24 December 2013, 12:03:31
and I never got too lost (the automap was invaluable in the cave)
sissy

Quote from: Micky C on  24 December 2013, 12:03:31
As for the shading, like I said put more lights in the cave. And even though the map uses polymer lighting, you should always use a bit of manual shading as well. Different areas should have different overall shades (especially indoor vs outdoor), and adjacent walls as well as ceilings should have a few shades' difference between them as this helps give the map more depth.
especially this
Take it down to the beach with a hammer and pound sand up your ass

Wingman

At the moment, I'm reworking the enemy placements, improving some architecture details and trying to add more shading in certain places (especially the big outdoor areas). I am also trying to reduce the framerate issues in polymer mode with different textures in some places (one of the bathroom-textures is very reflective and seems to need a lot of GPU-time, like the bathroom in the original E1L1 map).

As I said, I tested the map with a friend (not a "Duker" before that), and he gave me about the same feedback as I got here. So I'll try to fix all of these issues. Of course it will not become another "It lives" (or similar masterpiece), but I hope the enjoyment outweights the flaws in the final version ;D. It will take some more days, and I will post it here again, when It's done.

Quote from: Micky C on  24 December 2013, 12:03:31The map had a good sense of progression and variety; cave, high tech, alien, outdoor so it felt nice and full which is good. Because I was playing with polymer there were framerate issues at times. For example around that big alien spaceship in the lake, I died many times because there was so much going on that it dragged the framerate down.

Thanks. On my machine (it's quite fast), I have framerate issues in the first two bathrooms (as long as the mirrors are intact) and the central command. But I experienced worse in some of the original maps (like DukeBurger, again near the bathrooms). Maybe that gets better with further developement of the polymer-mode in future releases.

QuoteNote that turrets are framerate killers; they shoot lots of laser sprites, and those sprites all generate polymer lights, so all that plus the TWO battlelords (I was playing on the easiest setting, might want to tone that down a bit) and the dozens of other enemies, including troopers which also shoot that resource intensive laser sprite really resulted in a lot of unfair deaths. So yeah I'd restrict one of those battlelords and the turrets to a higher up skill level.

I placed most of the turrents years ago, before polymer came out. But I removed some of them lately.

QuoteAlso found the boss battle at the end pretty difficult, there wasn't a lot of room to move or much cover to hide behind IIRC.

That's because I wanted to fit all the ships internals (lower and upper deck) in the shape that you see on the outside. So yeah, it is unusual tight for a boss battle. I added two doors rescently to get more cover. There is also a hidden switch where you can deactivate the forcefield and get the boss into his oversized teleporter. With some luck, you can lure him to the ship's outside. But that was just some sort of experiment to test if bosses can be teleported (yes, they can).

QuoteThe only problems from a technical point of view were some slightly stretched textures in the elevators, and in the WC in the mess hall, when the swing door was closed, it caused the normal map on the floor to go all funky and the sector didn't receive polymer light (not sure but it might be due to possible overlapping sectors, but if you can't fix it it's not a big deal since most non-mappers wouldn't notice).

I will check the elevator textures. For the sector-problem I didn't find any solution yet (it happens in the first two bathrooms and the left officers quarter). Maybe some experienced mapper has an idea.

QuoteUnlike Forge I did enjoy the gameplay. Sometimes it just feels nice to wander around a bit, and I never got too lost (the automap was invaluable in the cave), and there was more than enough ammo.

Like I said, it seems to be always an opinion kind of thing. There are some usermaps out there that are simply excellent masterpieces in terms of details, features, architecture and balance. I think I would never have the patience or creativity for something like that. But they are not always as enjoyable to me in terms of gameplay and excitement as some of the more simplistic classics. But even in that case, I enjoy the eyecandy.

I remember the first usermaps back in 1996 (you could buy lots of CD-ROMs with hundrets of usermaps, even the game itself was banned shortly after release in Germany because of it's violence), and 95% of them were really bad in terms of texturing and especially scaling. For example, most of these maps had 15 feet strippers, 10 feet toilet bowls, 5 feet light switches and other things like that. The BUILD-usermapping has come a long way thought the years ;)... I still own two or three of these CD-ROMs. Maybe I take a look and find some long lost classics which are not on the internet anymore (but as I said, 95% aren't interesting anymore by todays standards).

QuoteAs for the shading, like I said put more lights in the cave. And even though the map uses polymer lighting, you should always use a bit of manual shading as well. Different areas should have different overall shades (especially indoor vs outdoor), and adjacent walls as well as ceilings should have a few shades' difference between them as this helps give the map more depth.

We'll see what I can improve there.

QuoteStill, an enjoyable map, I'd give it perhaps an 85 out of 100. I really look forward to your next map  :)

Thx, thats really generous.  8)

Wingman

#17
Here is an updated version of Islandbase. But it is not supposed to be the final release yet, because I want to do try some more shading, and I don't have much time at the moment. I also thought about bringing more detail into some places (take a look at the second security office near the reactor section), but I'm afraid the map could glitch up too much. There is already a weird bug that occures sometimes when you're in the third security office (behind the central command doors): Duke starts "sliding", as if he walks on ice, and it won't stop anymore (but it happened only in polymost / polymer-mode so far). That can be really annoying. I didn't find a solution for that, but it may have to do with an nearby sector that goes underneath (the airshaft). I added more polymer lightning in some places, too (ike in the caves), and revised the enemy placement.

Micky C

I'm a bit too busy to play this a second time, there are lots of releases out this year I haven't even played the first time yet.

But the sliding bug sounds strange since the renderer shouldn't have any affect at all on the gameplay.
Also, what kind of glitches are you afraid of if you add more detail?
Wall whore.

Forge

#19
ditto
i played a map two weeks ago and still haven't had time to do a writeup on it
Take it down to the beach with a hammer and pound sand up your ass

Wingman

#20
Quote from: Micky C on  31 December 2013, 11:37:06
Also, what kind of glitches are you afraid of if you add more detail?

Glitches like fatal sector bugs, which require extended rebuilds. There a two or three of them (at both bathroom doors and the left officers room). I already had to rebuild an entire sector after changing from BUILD to HRP / Mapster, because behind one door, you only saw the skybox until you entered the door. I encountered the same problem in some very old maps of the late 90s, that I played lately. Maybe it has something to do with some differences in BUILD and Mapster (if there are any)?

Forge

unless the door sector is clipping into a wall or across other sector lines that issue is related to old sos/ror construction
Take it down to the beach with a hammer and pound sand up your ass

Wingman

#22
I think I have fixed the floor-bug now. I've tested the map again in polymer and 8-bit mode several times, and it works (except for some of the sector bugs with swing doors, but that's not an gameplay issue).

Because the mapping is time cunsuming and I won't have much spare time this year, this will be the final release version for this community. Maybe it's not a perfect map (about nine years of building with breaks - reminds me of DNF *g*), but I had fun with it. Hope some of you will have some fun with it, too. ;)

Micky C

#23
Heh, I like the rainbow light effect.

You know what they say; no one really stops being a Duke mapper. Maybe in a few years' time you'll get an itch to try out the editor again, and with your extra experience from this map you'll probably be able to build it a lot faster.
But whatever happens, thanks for Island Base and good luck with the next stage of your life :)
Wall whore.

Puritan

Uploaded along with a terrific review by Forge  :)
Buried under dirt, a diamond in the mud
Infinity is waiting there 'cause nobody can burn a glass cathedral

Wingman