Core Refuge | Quadropolis

Kretren | 2010-03-12 13:51

Core Refuge

[

points ]

(10 votes)

Blurb A pseudo-symmetrical sci-fi map.

Screenshot Core Refuge

Get original file (278KB)

Detailed description

After over 2 months of editing, this map is finally done. It's a continuation (and possibly refinement) of the Core Transfer theme. In response to criticism about the lack of balance in Core Transfer, I edited that map, but I also decided to design a symmetrical map. To keep it interesting I made each side completely different in aesthetics, but more or less the same in layout. Thus, pseudo-symmetry (copyright Kretren, 2010).

The map is designed for insta ctf but is compatible for all game modes. It's been playtested extensively with bots, but they don't explore the map as much as you guys will. You'll find a lot of the buildings, like in Core Transfer, can be climbed on. Enjoy!

I forgot to mention: you'll need to download the Trak5 texture set for this map.

http://www.radicalwhale.net/socks/other/newtrak5.zip

Update 1 - fixed texture shine in some trak5 textures, added small obstacle to improve flow.
Update 2 - fixed grass textures, improved (somewhat) an obscure corner nobody will even notice. -sighs-
Update 3 - improved jumppads, employed texture blending on the ground.

Map file core_refuge.zip (6.76 MB)

Rating

points

(10 votes)

Comments

Windecker | 2010-03-12 13:57

I must say, wow! I absolutely love your style. But on the same note, you left some stairs on the one side floating in mid air. ;)

Beautiful map. :D

( Screenshot is a tad small, you should probably fix that. )

Kretren | 2010-03-12 14:04

aha the floating stairs are intentional :P

and I thought 256x256 was the standard for the site? I will need to check.

Thanks for the (rather speedy!) comment.

Suicizer | 2010-03-12 19:18

its 640x480 max on quadropolis, 256x256 (.jpg!) on sauerbraten :P.

the map looks amazing, still like the style thats similar to core_transfer ^^!
flow and gameplay are balanced to, very nice...
even tough the map looks amazing, (maybe its a matter of taste) but i think the "scratched" plate steel that has been used pretty often on the buildings, is a bit to shiny :S.

ill give 9/10 for it.

Kastra | 2010-03-12 19:22

This map is epic the layout is perfect, but a few problems:

I'm missing a lot textures when I downloaded the file all what was in it was the base with waypoints, a readme, map and image. No texures, is there anything else i have to download first or has my download corrupted?

But other than the textures i like the layout very clever, how you've keep the symetry but changed the detail so it doesn't look identicle i don't think i've seen anything in sauer like that.

Kretren | 2010-03-12 19:32

My bad. The texture set is Trak5. I included the link in the description so you can check that.

Sui: I completely agree.. The trak5 textures are far too shiny. Further, I don't see how they would glow with the sun behind them.. There's no light source to make them this way. Is there a way I can tone down the shine?

Further, I should really have a bumpmap for the concrete texture, but this was obviously not in the default set. Personally I think Sauer looks better without bump/shine but anyways..

Suicizer | 2010-03-12 23:53

there is...
its called something like "bumpspecparallaxglowworld". you can use in instead of like "stdworld". its got 4 slots behind it and is ment as normal-mapped shader with constant specularity factor, and height and glow maps.
so if you change the glowmap (4th slot), i think that would decrease that shiny part where i was talking about.
if its not, just try out by urself with slot you should change :P.

if you still need more information, just try out http://sauerbraten.org/docs/editref.html

gl ;).

Mayhem | 2010-03-13 02:00

I would check the editref.html for a command called setshaderparam. This will help you get rid of the 'shine' and give you more control over different aspects of the shader properties. It is a little daunting at first but once you tinker with the numbers it gets easier.

If you would like to see an example of it in use, check out the config file for duomo. I had a similar issue when enhancing the rorshach textures.

HTH

Mysterious | 2010-03-18 19:19

wow , you´re talented =)

you got your own style and i like it.
Core_refuge has complexity and the gameplay is really balanced.

But there is one thing i disliked :
This white stone texture really stands alone , maybe you should try more to combinate with some other textures.

Epic work ! :)

Suicizer | 2010-03-18 23:58

found something that could be improved:
some parts in the map got an unfinished curved, shape (what i like :P), but only 1 thing isnt fitting that: the jumppads. maybe an idea to take a different shape to replace the old jumppads (they look very different textured either).

to mysterious,
even tough im not the designer of this map, im still wondering what your meaning with:
"This white stone texture really stands alone , maybe you should try more to combinate with some other textures."
do you mean the white/green stone thats supposing rocks? or do you mean the white/grey stone of the buildings (or even another different texture? :P)?

anyways, still nice map, gj!

Windecker | 2010-03-19 01:23

Kretren, this may be a dumb idea, but I think you should play with texture blending and blend the upper portions of the rock walls with a lighter texture. It may help break up the repetition of the texture... Not sure though.

Kretren | 2010-03-20 00:20

I was considering that.. The thing is, blending walls leads to the ground also being blended, and the grass texture is actually ready to blend, but in the end I decided not to make ground-textured paths.. I guess I can change the textureslot in the .cfg though to a pure grass texture (thinking in text here..)

Also I was sorta thinking I might experiment with blending the white stone texture with a rust-colored one so I could make it seem a bit more weather-decayed in some parts.

Anyways, I'll look into this idea. For the record, there are no dumb ideas :P

Windecker | 2010-03-20 00:30

Now that you said the word, my thought is complete.
A lighter, more weathered texture, for the upper most sections of the rock walls.

Mysterious | 2010-03-19 06:05

@ Sui : sry, that you didnt understand me :) i meant the White stone texture He used for the buildings

Quin | 2010-04-17 23:17

I think one of the bigger problems with this node is that the screenshot is a little uninspiring; there's very little difference, aesthetically, to your previous map Core Transfer (which itself has a fairly muddled screenshot and suffered the same voting fate, despite its inclusion in the game).

My first suggestion would be blendmaps, either the source or destination texture can use an autograss setup and the engine blends between them very nicely, I find this helps a lot with "grassy" areas. Failing that, there could at least be a certain "wear and tear" to the ground to make paths - just to add an air of believability.

Another concern of mine is the building textures. While your geometry is nicely detailed, it loses some "wow factor" with the brown you're using. There's a certain aversion to brown/quake-like colours these days; I think it reminds people too much of the 90's, we had the same problem with many of Blood Frontier's maps. Sometimes this can be solved with some lighting tricks (sunlight, casting yellow to give certain areas a different hue), retexturing, or even sometimes as suggested above; blendmaps.

Gameplay is fine for the most part, even if I do feel there are a tad too many things extruding over the place. If I had to give this a rating out of ten, at the moment I'd be sitting around 6 or 7, but because of the potential you had as a mapper, I had delayed casting a vote in hopes the content would improve. Alas, you just stopped working on it :P

Kretren | 2010-04-18 14:26

When you say "brown" are you speaking of the green philipk textures I cut down to just the brownish trims on the edges? That's the only place I actually have any kind of brown.

I guess I have a couple things to work on.. Blendmaps shouldn't be too hard; they're already written into the .cfg. And autograss I can do also.

Thanks for the comment, especially the "because of the potential you HAD as a mapper" part :P

Zama | 2010-04-18 01:22

If you drop ambient to 12 12 15 it looks more scifie!

Kretren | 2010-04-18 14:29

I tried that. The main problem with this map is that the sun is oriented at one side of the skybox (is there a way to just rotate the skybox in the .cfg, not including the rotatesky command?), so logically I had to put the 'sunlightsource' over at one corner of the map, which properly lit one side but due to the high cliffs cast the other side in shadows. I had to tweak the ambient so the shadows were less severe on that side.

Zama | 2010-04-18 16:15

With the advice from My last post add a second light source of 20 20 16 settings directly at the top at the center of your map! This will add control to the ambient structures! Also calculate with somewhere around 100 light precision!

Chasester_aka_you | 2010-04-19 00:56

DONT TOUCH THE LIGHT PERCISION OR LIGHT ERROR!!!!!

Suicizer | 2010-04-19 06:44

do touch lightprecision when you got a map with the size of newmap 16 and with many details in it. but dont forget to put the value lightprecision higher (like 64, or even 128), instead of a lower value then 32 :P.
of course there are themes where such thing is making the lighting looks bad (as example, a map with a skybox that has a low standing sun, wich is shining all over the map but creating long curvy shadows). so its not recommendable on each map (probably not on core_refuge)...

RaZgRiZ | 2010-04-18 17:41

/yawsky

Suicizer | 2010-04-18 17:55

maybe a nice experimental:
load a skybox as cloudsky.
i think it could work, even tough i dont see the sense of it (but at spinsky, the skybox above is rotating, not really moving from side to side, wich isnt very realistic when you got something like a cloudy skybox. this isnt at cloudsky) xP.

Kretren | 2010-04-18 21:50

I used yawsky 110 so now it's properly aligned I think. Improved the jumppads also.. Now they look a little more evil :)

Any comments on weapon distribution? I usually play on insta so I basically threw them in using my limited knowledge of ffa gameplay.

Before I update I want to blend the ground a bit.. For some reason it's not letting me

in the .cfg:

texture 0 "blindabuser/ba_grass_cc.jpg"
texture n "blindabuser/ba_grass_nm.jpg"
texture s "blindabuser/ba_grass_sc.jpg"
texture z "blindabuser/ba_grass_hm.jpg"

texlayer 8
autograss "textures/grass_aard.png"

in the game:

/blendpaintmode 2 (blue dot shows up on the ground)
/paintblendmap - does nothing.

shaders and lights are enabled. suggestions?

Chasester_aka_you | 2010-04-19 01:13

Ok it works fine:

Note that the texlayer command loads the 8th texture in the index. So make sure that is set to what you want. Also you have to texture that as the texture in the particular area that you want to paint. So you should load the texlayer over the area that you are painting, is this is not loaded it will not paint. A texlay texture look like the backround texture (or base texture) with a small square of the over texture covering the bottom corner of the texture.

If you want to see it done then here.

Hope This Helps
chasester

Kretren | 2010-04-20 17:32

I screwed with the defaults.cfg file and it works fine now.. Strange, that.

Anyways, the map's updated. New ground, jumppads.

And Quin I tend to go on map-binges and once I'm done I lose all momentum :P That's why I haven't done a THING on Core_Ravage either. I might though.