My map - Space Madness

Started by Gingis Khan, 01 July 2014, 04:51:25

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Gingis Khan

I don't know if there's some guys from Duke4.net but my old username was LakiSoft and Duke Nukem IV Guy. Now i changed it to Gingis Khan. Anyway i am an amateur mapper who are trying to practice my skills, that is why me need more reviews. The map Space Madness was originally planed to be released for v1.0 BETA but later i changed a mind and released as v1.3D/v1.5/Eduke32 compatible map. The storyline goes that Duke are sent to EDF Space Station in order to protect it from aliens, as well, he must to go on Moon and their own planet to destroy their source. Can Duke get out alive? Please try it and rate. The map is small-medium sized and it takes place on random places (like space station, moon, green alien planet)

Puritan

Hi and welcome aboard  :)
I'm sure some of the guys around here would take a look at this map.
A couple of 'em are on vacation these days though.
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

Micky C

Vacation? Bah! I'm studying for exams!  :P

Since you're on the amateur side of mapping, the key question is how long did you spend making the map? The longer you spend making a map, trying to add as much detail to it as possible, the faster you'll improve. Once you've reached a certain level, then you don't have to aim for high detail all the time, since you'll be able to make better, faster low-detail maps than a beginner who's also aiming for low detail. You could also think about it as setting the bar high, so that if you don't reach it, you still end up with a decent map. On a time scale I'd recommend around 2 months invested (certainly not a week or two like beginners sometimes do).

I remember you from Duke4.net, and although some of your earlier work was indeed bad, it's absolutely fantastic that you're asking for help and trying to improve! :)
I'll have a look at the map in about a week and offer some advice if nobody else steps in before then. I'll have no idea what to expect going in, so whatever (or however many) comments I make, they'll all be honest, positive criticism aimed at trying to improve your ability (or it could be good, in which case it'll be praise instead  :P ).
Wall whore.

Gingis Khan

Thank you guys for support. Ah yes Micky C i remember you too. Yes i know what you mean. I usually do maps for week or two,  because if time takes too much i am going to lost the interest for doing it. That is my problem but i will try to fix that in future. Also about maps, i much like making maps in 1996 old school style than using Eduke32 features. I have collection of 1996 maps and i am learning from them. :) Soon i will post another my map (similar to Space Madness) called Space, Earth, Moon  ;D After that i'll start making new and better maps  ;)

Gingis Khan

Hi again people, thanx for your advices i added much more details to Space Madness. Please download both versions and compare how many things i changed. Also if SpaceMad2 still isn't perfect tell me what i should do and i will do in order to make even more better map  ;)

Micky C

Ok I had a look I think you've posted it at Duke4.net previously. The second version is definitely better than the first, however it's still suffering from some standard problems.

1) The architecture is very square/blocky. Not many curves or slopes.
2) Doors going all the way up to the ceiling
3) Needs some trimming, both vertical and horizontal. Having wall textures suddenly change is a bit jarring.
4) Most of the map is played on a relatively flat plane, not much sense of verticality for the majority of the map.
5) Overall low detail level.

Those are the main points I can think of at the moment. You definitely improved the shading in the second version, adding lights to rooms, it really helps a lot. A good thing about the map is there's a good sense of variety; you're indoors, then outdoors in a snowy (or is it the moon?) area, then you're in an alien area.

In the end it just comes down to spending more time on the map adding details to it. Yes, I can see you're going for a 1996 style map, but those maps are still incredibly polished and have all sorts of other things going for them. If you haven't already, check out metropolitan mayhem, a 1996 styled episode. You'll see there's still plenty of detail and stuff, but it's clearly something that wouldn't be out of place in the original game. Download it here: http://www.moddb.com/mods/metropolitan-mayhem

Also, if you haven't already, read through my guide to good maps. It discusses all sorts of different components that make up what makes maps great: https://docs.google.com/document/d/14yVNQRxyZpiA3nIqQbiPRsLR2vUwyu2810XZF8UR0bU/edit?usp=sharing

So I'd recommend checking both those out, and then ditching any maps you've currently got in the works. Generally if you see your skills are starting to improve, you'll usually create a better map if you start from scratch (and ultimately save yourself some time since you'll be faster at mapping as well), than if you'd simply tried to finish and improve your old map.
Wall whore.

Gingis Khan

Well, thanx for the links and your advices Micky C, i will play Metro Mayhem to learn something from it. Also your guide looks cool. Thank you, maybe i will learn something useful from this. :)

Oh also for map i didn't put too much vertically going because it's Space level and i didn't think much about it, but in future map i will do that too. The thing is that Space Madness and Space, Earth, Moon were originally planed to be Duke3D v1.0 BETA maps (like Space Suit tests) but i couldn't show that version public cause would be illegal (it contains modified GRP and Duke3d.exe (shareware v1.0) in order to get "full" v1.0 with Flamethrower and Space Suit) Because i was big fan of BETA version i start making maps for Space Suit. Later i decided to polish them and make them better and for v1.3D/v1.5.

Tgreyhair

Hi Gingis Khan

Welcome on-board, It's good getting into making your own maps I only started my one recently well months ago as I have not been doing anything duke related recently. You sound a bit like myself in that you like the old style duke maps from the 1996 era, Did you make any maps yourself from back then? maybe I might of done a lets play of your old map you never know.

All the best with your map and hopefully once I get back into duke I will give a go myself as I have many new maps to catch up with.  ;D

Gingis Khan

Tgreyhair thanx for your reply. Yes i do have some old Lakimaps, i made them when i was little boy, my 9 first maps, however this days i am trying to copy all 9 maps into the one MAP and also i am redoing DUKE NUKEM 4 MOD so i will not have much time doing new maps. :)

Gingis Khan

I finished Version 3 of map. This one is more detailed, more bigger, have much more rooms, at start from very different starting position. For Space Madness this is best i could do for it. I hope i will do future maps much more better than this, but for Space Madness this is a best i can do. Enjoy the update, give feedback and advices. Thank you :)


Micky C

Looking at it in mapster it looks a bit better from a visual viewpoint.

However it still has some issues:
General oversizing;
ceilings are way too high
doors go all the way to the ceiling or are otherwise too tall
weird wall things sticking out from the windows into space which are easily fixed
texture misallignments which can easily be fixed with the autoalligning tool
some rooms are still completely unshaded
doors which should really be swing doors are for some reason ceiling doors, either because you're too lazy to either make swing doors or learn how to make them

Either way it's a good idea to move onto a new map.
Wall whore.

Gingis Khan

Yes i know my problems. Problem with celling is because i have different height orientation in mapster than in gameplay because in mapster i mostly fly in 3D mode. However about swing door, yeah, i always had problem with it. and yes i decided to start new map, i will make small/medium sized map but with shading and normal cellings, that would be good start :)

Micky C

Try pressing caps lock (either once or twice, since it toggles between 3 options) which will cause you to drop to the floor and be exactly the same height as the player in game. This will help you a lot with oversizing.
Wall whore.

Gingis Khan

Yes i know about this option but i don't like when i fall down, i like flying mode the most. However i know other solution to do this. So it's a not a problem :)

Puritan

Making ordinary indoor locations about 21 units high is a nice standard.
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