Help needed with Beach CBP

Started by Micky C, 19 January 2014, 15:36:40

Previous topic - Next topic

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Micky C

Roughly a year ago I started up a project called the "Beach CBP", which was meant to involve a series of sections on a beach front theme. However in my utter stupidity, in an attempt to allow more breathing room I removed the wall limit and spread out the sections across several maps.

Things started out just fine, however over time virtually everyone jumped ship (pardon the pun), leaving 2 half finished maps, and a final map that Maarten's working on alone.

So I really don't feel like finishing up the two maps myself, given the inconsistency in style and quality. There's some good stuff in there though. Does anyone have any suggestions on how to proceed? Whether anyone would be able to help out finishing this thing, or maybe I should simply release what's done and let people play around with it? I wouldn't mind polishing my own section, but I don't have the motivation to touch anyone else's.

Here are some screenshots of the first 2 maps:




Wall whore.

Forge

#1
Seems big projects are struggling these days: AMC TC, WGR2, now this.

i don't see any serious volunteers stepping up to provide assistance for these shout-outs

is this a trend towards long term obligations, or just mapping in general?
Take it down to the beach with a hammer and pound sand up your ass

Puritan

Release it as a open source project maybe.
Bitter words mean little to me. Autumn winds will blow right through me
And someday in the mist of time, when they asked me if I knew you
I'd smile and say you were a friend of mine, and the sadness would be lifted from my eyes
Oh when I'm old and wise

Forge

#3
another 20 sector challenge?
the one that has taken 3 years and still isn't released?

hold on to it.
maybe after the other large obligations you got yourself tied up in get finished you'll find the time and motivation to do something with it.

i'll leave that private thread there as your storage/notebook/private workshop -and kick everybody out of it except you and maarten
Take it down to the beach with a hammer and pound sand up your ass

methy

#4
I really like the style and the theme, but except from the last screenshot, everything else feels like it needs tweaking in every aspect (shading, architecture looks flat as everything has the same height, misaligned textures). Imo the beach needs more stuff on it too, whether it's random rocks or things to pretend people were there like napkins and stuff.

Also, good luck making interesting gameplay in such open environments. It's even harder with a CBP as everyone sees gameplay differently, just try to make sure this doesn't turn out into sniping everything from a distance with the pistol... If it was me I'd give the player a no pistol start and give something like the shotgun instead tbh, and add a lot more stuff to take cover everywhere (busses, rocks, etc)

Anyway - that's just rambling on what I see from the screenshots, but it looks damn promising especially considering the somewhat original theme. Sadly I have to many projects of my own and with another mapper already to help. Also I don't get the same feeling of satisfiction from working on CBPs, sometimes I enjoy FORGET stuff I did in some CBPs (the other day I replayed JFCBP1 and completely forgot I made stuff in it, and it wasn't very good at all)
http://thisshitaintscary.blogspot.com/ - The only Blog solely dedicated to Horror video games

Micky C

#5
QuoteSeems big projects are struggling these days: AMC TC, WGR2, now this.

Who says AMC TC is in trouble? Me and James are making loads of progress on it right now, and we do have other experienced mappers willing to work on it. As for WGR2... that's been on the back burner for everyone for a long, long time. I'd be willing to get back and finish off my bit, after polymer is optimised  :P

However even then my other projects are a long way off, and it's not just a lack of time thing. Some of the sections are very different stylistically and somewhat in quality/state of completeness.

I'm not quite ready to release it open source yet. I still may be willing to maybe merge the best bits of maps 1 and 2. The first two sections are mostly finished and are properly linked, and if I can somehow naturally stick Supertanker's section on the end, it might be ok.

@Methy, the gameplay is actually pretty good. Perhaps the problem with the shading is because I used maximum visibility in mapster when taking the photos.
Although I agree this thing will never be perfect. I consider it the DNF of CBPs myself (and I'm George Broussard  :-\ )
Wall whore.

Forge

#6
Quote from: Micky C on  19 January 2014, 16:07:07
Who says AMC TC is in trouble?
Quote from: James on  05 January 2014, 10:25:45
I posted this at duke4.net, but didn't get much reply so I thought I would ask here - me and Micky are doing pretty well with the TC but we could use another mapper or two to help things along.
maybe the wording was too strong and i lumped projects together -stalled, abandoned, on hold, slow = struggling
bottom line - this is the third large project to recently request for assistance for one reason or another

unless you've been involved in the project from near the beginning and are familiar with the maps in general, it's hard to come in cold and figure out how to clean up someone else's mess then find the juice to add your own stuff
Take it down to the beach with a hammer and pound sand up your ass

Micky C

#7
Nah it was literally just to finish the episode faster. There's no shortage of motivation or ideas, and we've had interest expressed since that thread, but I'll leave it at that.
I admit it seems not many people are interested in big projects overall though these days.

I've been messing about a bit, and I think I'm able to add in Supertanker's section in a decent way to the first map, at the expense of cutting off Drek's section and most of Captain Awesome's section (the first needs significant polish to bring it up to the standard of the rest of the sections, and the 2nd was mostly unfinished anyway).
I may contact Undertaker over at Duke4.net after I've combined the sections to see if he still wants to help me out on the final push to get the combined map out the door.

So in summary, at this point it seems like Maarten might release his map on its own, and I'll try to combine the best of the other two and release it as something like "Beach CBP Fragments", so that people will go in knowing at the back of their heads that this isn't a super polished map by a single person or anything like that. If all goes well maybe I can squeeze it out by the end of the month, or at least start betatesting.
Wall whore.

Forge

be nice if you could put the best parts together and make it work. i'd just leave it as beach community project - the mappers that made good sections get credit, those that half-assed some crap then walked away resulting in getting their piece left out get no credit - 'cept maybe a blurb in the template about why their particular section didn't make the final cut.

when you get it together i could probably do the beta-testing (and maybe minor cleaning like texture aligning, spot shading, etc to help alleviate some of the time it takes to do that stuff)
Take it down to the beach with a hammer and pound sand up your ass

Micky C

Thanks for the offer Forge, that takes off the stress a bit. I've already combined Supertanker's section with the rest and the flow is plausble. It's definitely a good map, but I don't think I have the time or energy to do a full polish myself, especially when it comes to gameplay which requires lots of testing to get the balance right. I'm doing as much polish as I can at the moment but hopefully you or someone else will be willing/able to do all that. I've sent a PM to underTaker at Duke4.net, and since he was online yesterday hopefully he's fairly active and will see my PM soon.

Also, I swear there's an umbrella sprite somewhere in the Duke tile set, but for the life of me I can't find it. Does anyone know what tile it is?
Wall whore.

High Treason

Ümbrella? Nah, you must be thinking of 4455 or 4524.

Incidentally in looking that up, it is the first time I have ever seen Duke 3D on an LCD screen... It looks horrible.
[glow=black,2,300]sprite[].sectnum -1[/glow]

Micky C

Ahh that's a shame. After working on the AMC TC for so long, mapping with vanilla Duke's tileset feels really limited. Btw it depends on the screen. On my current cheap LCD monitor, the colours seem a bit dull, however playing Duke on my Mac the colours are much more vibrant!

Good news, underTaker is willing to work on the map later this week! I should be able to finish my own polish tomorrow. Things are looking really good for this map  :D

With Zykov Eddy working on the 20 sector CBP, it's like we're going from 0 CBPs in the last year or two to suddenly 2 at once  ???
Wall whore.

Micky C

Here's a sneak peak. I know you can't see much but you can still get the sense that it's a largish map.

Wall whore.

Tgreyhair

Hi Micky C

That looks like a good  map and interesting.  ;D

Micky C

If anyone here wants to beta test the BCBP, please let me know  :)

Release timeframe is a matter of days.
Wall whore.