(CTF) OpposingCastles8

[take_this_cup_of_poison]

I didn't call them "allternative routes to the flag" I called them "a few diverging paths inside the castle."

They include: a two choice of how to move into the throne room (you can go through the old mural door or the new broad stair path with no door).

A three way choice of entering the vestibule room to the flag room: normal way, path through a small bedroom, the down stairs-upladder path.

It is a trap: it _is_ a castle. Now there are a few more choices but still many chokepoints.
That's how castles were designed and constructed.

I'm not going to drill a hole through the castle.

Now, for your comment elsewhere about mappers who don't map the way the "community" wants them to being selfish: Fine, I'm selfish. I make the maps I want to play. If the commune want's maps of it's design ... div has made a nice new package ready for the nexuiz commune citizens to easily realise their dreams.

They can make ruins with thousands of holes in them, in space, hell... they could make maps with _NO_ walls whatsoever! In space! That allows an infinite number of paths ....
...
actually they do that.

This release is a slight improvement but does not change the fundamentals of this map: a correctly working castle.

Another goal of this map was to have DC like play but with fewer people if needed. Apparently you can play 1v1 ....

[take_this_cup_of_poison]

Now why did that triangle not show it's texture (the one in the red castle). Is there a way to fix that manually?

[[-z-]]

No need to go to extremes, we've already had discussions in these forums about the troubles "open maps" have. I just feel like the addition paths inside the castle are too deep and not really beneficial in creating "Nexuiz Style" maps which tend to have multiple routes to the flag.

I understand you like to make maps the way you like to play them and I'd agree that keeping yourself happy is a very important thing. However, I think your strict interpretation of history is a hindrance in your evolution as a mapper. If you're not making maps in the style Nexuiz players enjoy playing them, you will be playing maps alone and playing maps alone can get boring.

In a nut shell, your maps are generally too difficult for the average Nexuiz player, not that this is news to you. The style of your maps leads to a lot of linear progress that takes minutes to achieve but can be lost in mere seconds. Which usually results in people giving up.

I'd like to see you make the jump towards space age, bend the rules, create stages where potential situations get increased exponentially by interweaving pathways, creative jumppads, teleporters or otherwise changes in physics and item pickups. This will inheritly increase the flow of your maps.

Check out these castles:
ctctf6


sky castle


Darkzonectf

[take_this_cup_of_poison]

I like the skycastle style (I like the original map alot). The ctf version is too sparse, doesn't have the same "feel". I wish the original author would make a ctf map in the same style (but not just a mirror of the original map). I'll have to DL ctf6 on the nvidia box and check it out, never played that one.

Pyconic was my first more-serious forray (as in try to make the eyecandy look good) into the tech/space area. I'd like to do more of the tech-space (not open space) map. I also wish more people would make maps (and non-simple ones ). The problem is it's hard to keep the eyecandy on high with said maps, and hard to think of what to design without basically making yet another q3 map. I like my maps to be something, rather than just shapes... I find alot of q3 maps to be shapes carved out of the void it seems, rather than a concrete "place".

[take_this_cup_of_poison]

I'm wondering if I should add spawns to the roofs? Maybe 2 per team? what do you think?

[[-z-]]

I think you should take the previous advice I offered.

[take_this_cup_of_poison]

I think you should take the previous advice I offered.

Way to dodge the question . The map IS gpl. If you want it a certain way you can mod it (I encourage it, just make sure the map and pk3 is named diff (opp-castles_mod_bla or something). Now, would spawns on the top be of benefit?

[[-z-]]

Not by much because the game play is hindered by the linear design in combination with the overall size.

Personally, I don't mind too much because I view your maps as giant defrag maps or speed run challenges as it were. However, the majority of players find your maps far too challenging and out of place in the game.

I would love to see an abstract castle with multiple routes created by you.

[Rad Ished]

I agree with [-z-].
Mike ,your maps have loads of potential and you obviously put a lot of time and effort into them.
If you just made them a little bit easier to play using the suggestions that [-Z-] put forward, which pretty much hit the nail on the head about what is wrong with your maps.
I'm sure you would get a lot of fans for your creations, instead of them being wasted as is mostly the case at the present.
Incidentally I don't know how you manage to produce so many maps. I can only make about one every 4 months at the moment.
Did you get anywhere with the scotland map? what was it called?

[take_this_cup_of_poison]

Scotland map:
https://cat2.optus.nu/nexuizserv/spirecontrol6.pk3
(There's a thread here about it).

I would appreciate it if players would make mods of my maps to be as they wish it to be.
I make the castle in it's pristine condition, you give it some battle scars and open it up as you wish, maybe take away the trees so it loads faster etc. I'd like to see what other people come up with. All the maps and media are GPL (some textures are creative commons, share alike, modifiable (similar to GPL) sometimes, I make sure I only use opensource stuff that does _not_ have a "no commercial" clause).

How to make so many maps? Well curved surfaces usually get a patchmesh rather than being built out of brushes. I make templates for the windows and such, and I've made enough furnature in nordic castle that I can reuse it alot. I also make some arena and small maps... and
well when I'm making a map I pretty much do it full time. I don't regulate it to "when I get around to it". It gets worked on untill it's done.

Now adays I like to go back to my maps and improve them too, like many ideas don't need a new map, they just need to be added to an older one that is a bit too sparse (sideloop can use more insides etc), aslong as the theme is kept.

Bascially speed in map creation is a function of dedication and knowing hotkeys in the editor. Once you know the keys you're fast. What is very useful is the masking/filter keys: filter entities, show only detail, show only structual etc etc that way you can select what you need easy.

Also constructing things outside of the map boundries and then copying/moving them in is improtant for speed. You need to think "how can I make this on it's own". Think about addition and subtractive brush creation (the casteleation on the circular towers was made by: making a big cylinder brush. subtracting a smaller diamater one from it (of the same amount of sides) making a "cross/plus", duplicating and rotating it 45 degrees, duplicating all of that and rotating again, subtracting all of that from the cylinder, delete the cross brushes, consolidate the casteleation brushes, put on top of round tower, set textures to axial. (oh and somewhere in there is setting the textures from caulk to stone brick).