CTF/TFFA [No name yet but its awesome;)]

[Matt-Liell]

[*skip down cuz of stupid advertisements*]











































Ok now I know ther have been complaints I don't finish what I begin and I recently posted a WIP for a map I trashed and I've started this one, but I found out what my problem was. All my models and maps I was trying to copy something, make an actual person or place and I'm too creative to do that and thats what turned me off. In this map its totally my own thoughts and architecture which makes it fun and really good looking. The map is a CTF based map with red and blue bases, yes BASES. In each base there is a jedi/sith temple well not totally templish but you get the idea, the insperation came to me from playing galactic battle grounds to make 2 bases with walls and gates and turrets and stuff but accomidate both soldier and jedi aouras. So so far I have completed the rebel jedi tower (where the flag is kept) note the snazzy little sniper box accessible by a lift way up high for you disruptor fans, currently I am working on turrets and will procede to armourment buildings for the rebels then the outer wall, then I will progress to the imperials. Now without further ado, here it is so far (please ignore sky, not final just had to test the map)

[Prime]

Prime likie!

[Matt-Liell]

Thanks prime.

Here are some new shots with one of the new medium security guard towers done and in place and I added some players in some of the shots to show you kinda what it'll look like, I'm hoping to bring this game to a new military game level and imporve its MP because I dont know about you but I really hate most of the MP maps that came with JA I remember playing FFA and TFFA and CTF's all the time in JKII but I really only ever play seige anymore. So the warfare and positioning and stratigical aspects on this map are the main focusses after archetecture of course. This is gonna be a must for all you who like me play BF1942 and MOHAA.

[Matt-Liell]

Seems noone but Prime has posted, hope this map will spark some more interest, but I'll keep updating anyway.
Ok not much more done but I have a little idea to share with you guys. JA has some great new features like mp emplaced weapons, vehicles like swoops, tauntauns, atst, it has rancors and I bunch of new functions I'm too lazy to mention, this map is gonna incorporate alot of them, yes as of now vehicles will be used. Rebels will get 4 blue swoops (respawnable) and 4 tauntauns. Imperials will get 4 red swoops (again respawnable) and 1 atst (incase you haven't guessed respawnable) that way its even and has some variety. Am I making you drool yet?

Rebel swoop hangar:




Just a shot I thought looked really cool and shows some tower updates:

[Matt-Liell]

Tiny update, working on starship patrol vehicles

[Matt-Liell]

Ok, well I edited Zymotico's Anakin Jedi Starfighter to fly alot slower so you don't crashand die all the time and it is fully useable in the game and I'll add the mod with the map and will do the same thing with a starfighter for the empire. I have made the Tauntaun stables just a few things to tweak and I'll put up some pics but here are a few pics of the finished speeder hangar and the jedi starfighter ingame. Currently worknig on the rebel spaceport.

[Tito]

I felt sorry for you, so I decided to post here to make you feel better...

Seriously, looks pretty good... Any idea of how much work left is needed before it's done?

Me likes...

[Matt-Liell]

Originally posted by Tito
I felt sorry for you, so I decided to post here to make you feel better...

Seriously, looks pretty good... Any idea of how much work left is needed before it's done?

Me likes...

Well I'd say its about 45% done at the moment.

[Matt-Liell]

Screens of the Tauntaun stable

[Eldritch]

Originally posted by Matt-Liell
Am I making you drool yet?

No, quite the opposite, in fact.

You've definitely got the "box with stuff in it" syndrome going on.

Other things I have grief with include your terrain - there's no reason to have a completely flat piece of land surrounded by skybox when it's so easy to make good realistic terrain.

Multiple vehicle types also don't make much sense to me (why would someone take the Taun Taun instead of the speeder, or the speeder instead of the plane, etc)... it's like you were excited by all the new features in JA and instead of placing and using them intelligently, you just threw them all together in one map without rhyme or reason.

At least now you've got some feedback. Just my .02.

[wedge2211]

First, I have a request--can you resize your screenshots in the future, so they don't stretch out your posts so drastically, and people with low resolutions don't have to resize their browsers all over the place and people with slow modems don't have to wait forever?

Looks like you've put a bit of thought into design on this map. Don't stall there. Right now the map appears very "even"--the same few flat textures, very flat lighting, etc. Try varying the textures you use, so that they don't repeat too much--that flat gray wall texture looks like it appears everywhere, and there are many more ways to mark the red/blue sides than that one colorized version of the flat gray wall. You should also try to break up monotonous stretches of wall with smaller brushes and trim textures. It will make the map look much more intersting.

As an example, check out my mapping style article. Instead of just a straight four-brush corridor, essentially a big box, add supports and things down the line:

The idea is the same, a straight hallway, but the effect is much different.

Are you using any sort of ambient lighting? If so, deep-six it. Use point lights and light-emitting shaders. This will allow you greater control over the contrast between light and dark areas, and overall seem more realistic. It'll add some variation. Don't forget to add light sources (lamps, bulbs, candles, what-have-you).

It looks like you're designing the map as a huge open playing area with two freestanding bases in it--is this correct? When standing outside one of the bases, can you see most of the map, all the way to the other base? This is a poor design, for a couple reasons: First, the VIS process will choke and compiling will take forever. Second, the game will have to render nearly everything at once, and you'll get some serious lag. Third, there will be very little to no strategy involved in navigating the map, since an enemy in their tower will see all approaches of your team, and just snipe them--in fact, teams might just snipe each other from the comfort of their own home bases. The best advice I can give you to combat this is to work at learning how to use the terrain tools for Jedi Academy--EasyGen and such. Make yourself a canyon system that snakes between the two bases, and use structural brushes and hint brushes to block the game from drawing bits of the canyon that you shouldn't be able to see. You can still have open areas, but make sure they're isolated and the game doesn't draw EVERYTHING at once. A good terrain will have the added bonus of obscuring the terrible map/skybox interface you have now.

It's good to see that you're updating frequently, and you've obviously given quite a bit of thought to this map. Good luck!

[Matt-Liell]

In reply to both your helpful posts first of all yes the tauntaun stables kinda did go into the box syndrome I admit lol and I am thinking of thaking them out all together and making a bigger spaceport.

And wedge thanks that helped alot and yes right now I'm just making the structures since the map is so big I'm going systematically, I will change the textures for the other buildings right now I just wanted to make 1 base instead of getting bogged down. And yes my intetion was to have canyon like routes around everything and different sizes and depths and stuff to accomodate different vehicles.

Now easy-gen is a program I just recently heard about could someone explain that, maybe give me a link to it?

[shukrallah]

Very nice start Matt. Easy gen is a program. It allows you to make terrain (im mainly using it for mountains, small hills. I like the way the textures blend together) check out Rgoer's thread in this forums called "check it out i got phonged up metashaded terrain working!" and he made a tutorial there You could make a few small prefabs with it, put them in your map, and it will look a lot better. If you want a custom skybox, go to map-review.com and wedge has made a tutorial on terragen (very useful wedge! thanks a bunch, its helped me out before!)

But yeah, my main gripe is the terrain. Its a but flat. Plus it looks like it just sort of "cuts off" maybe throw some mountains in, or rock walls? Something. I like the towers, very nice indeed. Maybe just adding a few pipes inside the buildings would be enough detail, or some kind of curves.

Now, the main problem with easy gen is, when your walking, it always sounds like your walking on rock. That was ok in JK2, but not now, since different textures, have different sounds (like snow and grass) So, i just make small areas, and put them into my map. Nothing huge (like all of the terrain in a map) plus, you can use the grass sprites if you do that (unless you do some serious editing to the .shader file)

[Matt-Liell]

Thanks man, progress is slow I started second semster of school and I have alot of things goin on but progress and new concepts are bein made.