person wrote:(all are gpld)
{link to map "Blue Amuse"}
{link to map "Das Tower"}
I want to get blueamuse to high enough quality to be included with nexuiz.
If anyone want's to colaborate I'm open for it.
Well, we are always glad when people support our game by creating custom content and other stuff. Actually, we
are short of content; actually, our shortage isn't exactly DM maps but CTF maps, but yet still - we appreciate your supporting the game by additional maps.
Now to the maps themselves.
Blue Amuse. Nice name, such a map needs to be tested. Well, I did, and I happen to like it. It consists of many rooms, each resembling some well-known room of other FPS games by Epic and Id, so when you play the map, you associate it with the well-tried and much-loved maps like Deck16. However, the map of course isn't just a copy and "remix" of maps of other good games - it does feature some interesting original content I've never seen before. The appearance of a pitch black room with some boxes I can't see makes me want to put down my rocket launcher and hold a flickering candle instead - not every game contains such heartbreaking moments of romantics. And the choice of textures if another positive point of the map - it would get quite boring if you would only die of falling into black void, red lava or green slime. Black, red, green, these three colors need a counterpoint - and you saw that shortcoming of classical map design and did the right thing: a blue-white patterned plane after all looks a lot more deadly and dangerous than a slightly warm red substance.
Yet still there are some weak points about this map. The textures still look a little bit boring - but since you are quite skilled in using the free image editing software
GIMP, it should be quite simple to you to improve your texture set by adding some lens flares and supernovas to them. Just try it, I think it would get quite nice. I also had interesting results when using the supernova effect on a bump map, this might be a suggestion to you. Another weak point is that the map is a little big bright - the overall environment just doesn't have a sufficient contrast to the colorful textures at some special places.
But after all, I'd say - way to go. I think you can fix the few problems left in the map and then it will be ready for the general public.
Of course, I haven't forgotten to test the other map you posted, Das Tower. I am not quite happy with its name, it would be more correct to call it "Der Turm" or "The Tower". But since it's all a matter of taste and others may think different about it, I won't elaborate on that any further. After all, it's also
Das Keyboard.
The overall map design is great. One location to see all - who doesn't enjoy standing on the top of a tower and killing all the unlucky respawners with a single shot? Plus you took one of the best map models of Nexuiz - the nexdm04 door - to a new use by creatively "recycling" them as crates. Good work, not everyone can come up with such brilliant ideas. You also noticed the general lack of weapons on the other maps and didn't make the same mistake as the others - by placing about ten mortars and RLs next to each other, we'll have no more fighting for weapons. A good sportsman won't egoistically take all of them for himself but leave some for his worthy opponent, and as the Nexuiz community consists of nice people and fair players, this really solved the big problem of getting a bad conscience out of taking the last mortar from the map. However, you should add some healthpacks in pentagram formations to support and amplify the cosmic radiance from the chaotic yet integer RL distribution.
Walking around on the map also awakens nostalgic memories of old first-person shooters - when seeing four facing rooms, one of them containing four rocket launchers, the others of them being empty, you instantly think of all the good old strong words "Mine Leyben", "Mmm-Bubble!" and "Eh-vuh, ouph Veedar-Sane". Of course, mastering the map isn't made too easy; the map has a steep learning curve. You are different from the others, you have the very right to be so and since it adds to the variety, it's a good thing. Most players would expect the outer edge of the map to block you from falling down, as it happens on nexdm16. Of course, this is highly unrealistic, so you instead let players who dare to leave the eternal bounds of the map fall into endless depths of black, cold void, bestowing upon them the nemesis they wished for. Another nice thing is that the map shows Nexuiz player's great abilities to climb up stairs. In no time they can climb up almost a meter, making them by far superior to most members of the human race.
After all, this map also is on the way to become a great success. Of course it isn't the final version yet, and there are still some points that should be changed. The overall lighting could use a bit more contrast, although the coloring of it is good as is - it does not do the mistake of putting unrealistic and partially wrong colors at every possible place, but instead resembles the hard, gray reality we are living in.
So to conclude this posting full of criticism on your great works, some final words from me. Keep up the good work. We really appreciate your effort. When you have a release candidate, be sure to notify us. If you don't have the required time or CPU power to make a final build of the map with deluxemapping, high-quality lighting and such, you can ask us to help you out with compiling the maps as background jobs on our underutilized computers. I wish you much success!
1. Open Notepad
2. Paste: ÿþMSMSMS
3. Save
4. Open the file in Notepad again
You can vary the number of "MS", so you can clearly see it's MS which is causing it.