YEEEHAAA! THE FINAL VERSION IS OUT! GET IT WHILE IT'S HOT!

Facing Worlds for Nexuiz (thx to div0 for the mirror)

You could see the first images of this map on Sun Apr 02, 2006 at 1:16 pm. it's now 7 months later, but the map is finally finished.
Info about the map:

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Facing worlds for Nexuiz
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The famous Facing worlds CTF map from UT'99 for Nexuiz.
Note, this is not an exact 100% remake!

Author:
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RUSZKAI "C.Brutail" Ákos
http://av43.uw.hu
erakionv43@gmail.com

Additional media:
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Egyptsoc texture set: Simon "Sock" O'Callaghan
http://www.planetquake.com/simland
Photorealistic ground: berneyboy
berneyboy@hotmail.com
http://berneyboy.nav.to/
http://www.planetquake.com/wtf-q3a/
http://www.planetquake.com/berneyboy/
Egyptian model pack: Todd Gantzler
Pharao model: GIJoe
Original lens flare model: Kirk Barnes

Special thanks:
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Kirk Barnes who kindly allowed me to release his model under the terms of the GPL,
SoH|Tony and MicroSofty from #counterstrike.de @ irc.quakenet.org
who tried to helped me to find GIJoe, who gave me permission to release the Pharao model under the GPL too.

Another special thx goes to m0rfar, divVerent (aka div0), and tZork who helped me
beta-testing the map.
Thx goes to tZork for helping me compiling the map

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Special Location system
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Thx goes to divVerent again for developing the location system for Nexuiz.

To use the location system, simply bind a key to:

bind your_key_goes_here "say_team I'm at %l"

Only the %l is realy important. After tapping "your_key", it will print out your location on the map.

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Notes about modified media:
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I had to modify the following models and textures for CTF use:
models: pharao model, ---> pharao_red md3 and head_red.jpg
textures: textures\egyptsoc_trim\v128-03d_r.tga
textures\egyptsoc_wall\stone06b_r.tga
textures\egyptsoc_trimd\v064-01dr.tga





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Programs used:
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GTK Radiant 1.4
GIMP 2.2.10
modeltool (http://icculus.org/twilight/darkplaces/ ... 9beta1.zip)


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Greetz:
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All the ppl of the Nexuiz community, and the members of the former LaidBack clan!


Release notes:
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You're free to use and modify the geometry of the map, but please give me a credit then (released under GPL)
You're free to use and modify the eons skybox of the map, but please give me a credit then (released under GPL)
You're free to use and modify "lens flare" and "pharao" model, as they are released under the terms of the GPL.


Happy capturing and fragging!

Be sure to check out the Noobmaps and Project: Alaris too!

Noobmaps:
http://games43.se/forums/index.php?c=7

Project Alaris:
http://projectalaris.org/

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Release notes:
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Much much bugfixes since beta1k, and geometry changed too. Reworked vis, so it should run faster in some places too.
Most notable is, that I've changed the color of the ground texture, so I think it gives now much much better visuals then used to.
The bridge is lowered, so the sliding down effect is almost gone, running up the bridge is now much more easier. Also you can see to the front of the opposite base, just like in ut99.
On community ask, I've reworked the weapon clips around the Pharaos in the bases, shots don't get blocked now, defense is easier behind them. For the little monkeys swinging around I have prepared a little suprise too.
The whole map got a general facelift. More detail is added to the asteroid, the 3 little floating rocks, ground is phong shaded to smooth out sharp edges. More texture use now illuminating parts, so general look in base is more catchy. But the best part are the bumpmaps. Many thanks to tZork, who made the bumpmaps for the texture set (and generally helped me throughout the designing of the map, same thanks goes to divVerent).
Full botsupport.

Those who try to re-edit the map, I've included the source map file. I've used the following switches for the final compile:

For meta: -v -meta -samplesize 4
For vis: -vis -saveprt
For light: -light -samples 3 -bounce 4

The bsp part took 11 seconds, vis took 2522 seconds (42 minutes), light phase took 323224 seconds (yes, that's more then 89 hours, a total of almost 4 days) on my config:

CPU: Intel Celeron 3.06 Ghz
Ram: 512 DDR2 533
GPU: Gigabyte Geforce 7300 GS

I hope this is the final, very bug free version.
Happy fragging and capturing on my map!

GL & HF

Code: Select all

[16:54:40] <hectorNex> <Die> allways lagging by corssing the middle
[16:56:07] <hectorNex> <Die> :-( laaaggg
[16:56:58] <hectorNex> <Die> lag...

However, for me it runs fast - in the middle too. You added more detail?

I like the map, really, but you might be bothered about what I get in my console when starting the map ^^ . As div0 said this is neither your fault nor of any harm, but I just wanted to mention it

Log

Even without reading the log, I know what you mean: that is coused by making the Pharao models fully clipped by settings "spawflags 7" on it. Makes no sense, You can ignore it.

@ divVerent: of course I've added more detail, but shouldn't lag for him. Neither lags for me.

with the hints in the base rooms it proly dr<aws less polies at times even if theres more geometrical deitail.

Good work C.Brutail

89 hours to compile? wow.

Anyone care to share it on a server that doesn't use a nonstandard port? (behind a work firewall here)

Just added a firewall rule to make the server available on port 80 too:

iptables -t nat -I PREROUTING 1 -p tcp --dport 80 -j REDIRECT --to-ports 7780

Great work! This is one of my favorite maps from UT2004. (Haven't played the UT99 version). It's good to see this map ported to Nexuiz. It does, however, have some minor issues that can easily be fixed in the final version. Maybe there should be a bugfix release?

First of all, when I shoot the little rocks floating around at the edge of the map, the bullet hole/explosion mark textures flicker.

The interior of the towers looks great, especially the hieroglyphs when deluxemapping and offsetmapping are enabled. The ground, however, looks awful. The color is unnatural and it looks like it's glowing when bloom is enabled. (See the image below)



A few seams are showing (you have to enlarge the thumbnail below to see them):



One of the textures inside looks like it's out of place:



And the texture of the statues on the roof really needs improvement. Looks like a texture from Quake 1 or something.



I think this map should be in the game (once these little problems are solved)!

Yeah, the ground really bothers me.

THIS IS THE FINAL VERSION. DOT.

Once I started a poll for the ground texture, and the final outcome was that this is good.

Sorry for those triangles on the bride, I couldn't make them better, to make the new bridge took me one whole day.

Those textures are not off, it's simply the glowmap is not a 100% triangle.

I can't improve quality of the model skin, as I downloaded them, and I'm not experienced with modelling or skinning.

A couple of problems with the map I found:

1. Lags very badly in the middle area - frames per second drops from the normal 100-150 range down to 20-30 fps in spots, making it very hard to play.
2. Some similar drops in framerate inside the bases, making the dash for the flag frustrating!
3. The angled slopes seem too flat, although I can see that others may disagree.
4. The map should really have two seperate slopes on each side with a fair risk of falling off - currently it seems more like a fat single slope with a bit of a hole which you can just jump over.
5. The map heavily favours the blue attackers when the grappling hook is enabled due to the placement of the floating rocks - it is quite irritating as a result if you get put on the red team, knowing that you are likely to lose.
6. The colour of the ground seems a bit too bright.

These comments are offered as constructive feedback and I hope they don't come across as a whinge - I know I for one would never have the patience needed to design a map from scratch, never mind attempt to port a map that many players will have spent in excess of a thousand hours playing in UT99. I think that the previous version (not sure if it was the alpha or beta, sorry) was very close to the original UT99, and was a great deal of fun to play.

I know you said this is the final version...but...


I like the map. I appreciate the visual changes, and the physical changes, like the holes in the middle are smaller and smoother, and the bridge is lowered a bit. I think it is an improvement, overall.

The thing that I don't like is that invisible "thing" underneath the island that automatically kills you and tells you to stop swinging like a monkey. I died 6 times in one game because of that, twice with the flag. I'm still not even sure where I'm allowed to grapple and where I'm not, since I can't see the thing that is killing me.

On that map, there are usually so many snipers that it is difficult to find a way over to the other base. I usually travel underneath the island. It's a little slower, but the snipers won't get me.

I understand if your point was to try to keep people from doing the speed-capture technique by swinging between the two buildings through those holes. However, couldn't you build something VISIBLE? If you put a simple wall (underneath) between the two holes, that would serve the purpose without being a mystery death obstacle

Or, you could make that mystery death obstacle visible and neon green or make it out of lava...so people would know not to touch it.

That's my feedback.

Now I'm going to go do some testing, like swinging underneath the island a bunch to find out where I can grapple and where I can't.

but then the map won't look like it's floating in space :\

The hook spoils CTF.

If the grappling hook spoils CTF, then why is Herforst the most popular CTF server?

I think it's pretty fun to grapple in CTF, but the map needs to be designed properly. It doesn't work on all maps.

The hook is bad for the following reasons:

Maps are not designed for the hook, as stated in the above post, so the hook is exploiting the map, for example Eggs&Bacon allows players to go directly from the spawns to the enemy flag, and Facing Worlds lets players sneak around the sides of the map with the hook, or otherwise go places the mapper did not intend.

The hook restricts paths of movement to simple lines and arcs. Using the hook shows everyone where you are and where you are going, which increases your vulnerability. This is solved by setting the hook to pull at ludicrous speeds. Real strategy involves combinations of jumping, crouching, strafing, laserjumping, and combinations of those. Play CaptureCity without the hook, it is a lot of fun.

A fast hook will accelerate players to speeds which make them invulnerable. The common strategy for Eggs&Bacon for both teams to get the flag, then each flag-bearer will hook around the room until the other dies and he can complete the capture. One of the primary weapons of an attacker is his speed, so giving an attacker ridiculously high speed gives them an unfair advantage against defenders, which in turn discourages defending and degrades the game from strategic teamplay to everyone attacks.

Dokujisan wrote:why is Herforst the most popular CTF server?

Like cocaine, the hook is a fun thing to do.

Daves post summs up how i feel abt having the hook always turend on.

If the hook requierd some ammo to use it it would be another matter imo.

ooooh, now that is an interesting idea. That would certainly make people selective about how they use the grapple.

Which ammo would it take? The energy cells?

Dave's point is not always true. I've played q2 3wave ctf very much, imho that's the most fun ctf ever made.

The problem is, that Facing Worlds is realy NOT designed with hook. The original UT99 did not have grapple either, only translocator. USing the hook on this map is an exploit, it ruins all the gameplay on this map.
It's not the same with eg. Runningman. Now that's a grapple friendly map!

Right, there are some maps made for the hook, My point was that the hook is not compatible with the maps it is being used on.
I don't think Runningman is a grapple-friendly map; a lot of action takes place in the hallways below ground and there the hook is not so effective.


About the hook requiring ammo:

If the hook were to take ammo, the main difficulty in implementation would be displaying the hook ammo in addition to the current ammo, and it would be silly to gain a more balanced hook but lose the ability to wield while grappling.
A possible solution would be to use the cells as ammo and only allow the hook to be used in combination with cell-powered weapons, so that ammo can be displayed without adding more to the HUD.
A cell-powered hook could also lead to infighting to grab cell ammo because of their new utility.

An alternative way to balance the hook would be to lower the damage threshold of the hook so that it can be destroyed quicker. At the current speed grapplers move, it is difficult to hit the tiny hook before it is gone.


Also, enabling g_antilag on team-modes allows players to camp and easily devastate the other team from afar. Players are ridiculously more accurate on Green's CTF server than on Herforst CTF.
(did any result ever come of the nex-gun balancing ideas?)

It would be nice to start seeing more servers with "PURE" or "UNPURE" in the name, as esteel has begged
I see only one server that does that right now, [DM FFA][GER] Lowskill Server [PURE]

I finally found some time this weekend to play this map and indeed the new version has some really harsh fps impacts in a few places. I'm not totaly sure if its just the map or maybe my system/drivers as i have fps problems in all the other maps too but not as bad as on this map/version. As some others told they have no problems and on greens server its still ok to play i guess its my system and the herforst factor (meaning too much players cramped into a small map..). Its just not nice to aim with 20-50 fps.

The new version is fine, the visuals are really nice and the new statues help the defenders. The floor is also good to spot enemys with quad. So when i found out what causes those fps problems i'll be fine with this map.

I think this map was not made to be used with the grappling hook and laser/rocketjumps are just as fast but need other tactics. I think one of the reasons why herforst is so popular is the (too large) number of players on the server. The more people there are the less each single player has to do and the less important is it how good a player is. Thats good for beginners but its bad for gameplay in general and i have not written my CTF guide because i like bad gameplay. I'd just wish i could help more except writing such a guide. Also imo the hook is popular for the same reason. It changes the maps and makes things more equal. If one can grapple around the map there is no need to be a good aimer or have teammates protecting you.
Sorry if this might sounds harsh to anyone but herforst is a bloody-beginners server and its popular for that very reason. Well maybe this does mean Nexuiz is too hard? Or do we need to instruct people better?

We're becomming a bit offtopic here, but oh well.

Nexuiz is not hard. Or not much harder, then quake3.
The problem is, that we don't realy have a large community, and most players only dowload it, give a name becouse they are told to by the game, and join he first populated server. I'm pretty sure most of them doesn't even realise that it's ctf. Or if they do, they don't read team messages, don't think about teamplay, etc.

Bloody noobs, who won't ever play "normally". I mean they install nexuiz (install?! unzip is better to say), click on exe, join, play for fun for half an hour, and then quit. And the next day they'll play again only for a half an hour.