Really ought to be named ctf_greatmoat or ctf_greatdivide, but greatwall is the name I came up with before making all the revisions to it, so I kept it.

The concept is that you have two bases, obviously, which are separated by a wall, which can only be cleared by laser jumping (which, personally, I've never been able to clear it in one laser jump) or using the launch pads. In between the two halves of the walls is a pit of lava, as well. Also, each of the walls have little pillbox holes which you can go into in order to pick off opponents who are flying across, or the ones who are going for the strength, which was placed right in the middle of the lava.

Also, each base has a warp to a pillbox - a pillbox containing a nex - stationed right outside the opponent's base. However, other than taking the return warp back to their base, they're stuck in there with no health powerups or anything, so it's a bit of a risk to go into it.

I really wanted to make this map, since there seems to be a definite shortage of large, outdoor CTF maps - which are definitely my favorite types of map to play.

Right now, the map is perfectly playable, though with some problems. There's some obvious drawing issues outside the red base, which I'm not sure how to fix, since I'm a pretty big noob at mapping. If anyone can help me figure out my issues with it, I'd appreciate it. I'm also open to any critiquing you can give, since, like I said, I'm a noob.

Screenshots:




Download:
http://www.expectnomore.net/ctf_greatwall.pk3

Nice map, 22 seconds for a capture...

but yes, the lighting is totally broken, and it somehow breaks DP's portal culling. Can you try other map compile settings or publish the .map?

Edit: maybe not DP's fault... PVS culling is broken, too.

Whoops, I just realized that I uploaded the version compiled with the test settings instead of final - I'll recompile it using those and see if it runs better

Shoe wrote:Whoops, I just realized that I uploaded the version compiled with the test settings instead of final - I'll recompile it using those and see if it runs better

BTW, can you please readjust the jump pads? I think they need a more jump height and less jump length. Or more exactly... if you use the jump pads, you get pushed on the jump pad surface again and lose speed.

I'll play around with it and see what I can do

I tried compiling with -meta -vis -light -fast -filter -suuper 2 -bounce 8 flags and I still seem to get the same problem with the red base not showing up right. Any clue what could be causing it?

Shoe wrote:I'll play around with it and see what I can do

I tried compiling with -meta -vis -light -fast -filter -suuper 2 -bounce 8 flags and I still seem to get the same problem with the red base not showing up right. Any clue what could be causing it?

No, but can you try only running with -meta, that is, unvissed and unlit?

I will play around with the .map tomorrow (sorry, I didn't notice it was included).

I like the map, maybe its almost a bit too open for those people with good nexgun-skills but its a welcome addition to the rather few ctf maps
The skybox is just fantastic. I really hope you and divVerent get to fix the light issues.

Ok, I just tried it out. The skybox is awesome, but everything outside of the bases is kind of just.. there. The lava divider doesn't seem like it'll attract enough attention on a map that open with no other obsticals. If you get ten people together on this map, it'll really just be an open arena with not much else going on, except for perhaps a little nex camping.

By the way, I've downloaded some of Raudenbusch's songs that aren't already included in Nexuiz from elysis.de, to replace the default tracks for certain maps. This one works well with the song titled On the run.

The skybox is actually from Jaj's Fragtory, linked in the mapping tutorial thread. I'll give proper credits in a separate file when I have a more proper release - obviously, this is a bit rushed

The openness was sort of a concern of mine in making it. What can anyone suggest I put in the open areas? Would more terrain meshes work better, or should I try to populate it with more small buildings, or just general natural foilage (rocks, trees, etc.)?

I haven't figured out that map problem yet, but want to say that buildings would not work fine on that map... I had one idea to make CTF maps be more fair with the Nex, but it's neither implemented nor thought out... the idea would be to have teleporters that would only teleport you under certain conditions, like having or not having an item (in this case, you would for example have to throw away the Nex to get out of the sniper spot).

I was originally thinking of doing something a bit similar to that. . . though my idea involved just not placing a return teleporter into the small bunkers, meaning that getting the nex would be a one-way trip

About the jump pads...



The push direction should not point "inside" the jump pad... BTW, this will probably break in the next Nexuiz version since hitting something makes you slightly slower, which will make the player drop into the lava after using the jump pad. Fixing it would mean changing the angle of the jump pad object on the map or to change the direction the pad pushes.

I still haven't found out what the exact issue with the black flickering was, but I cleaned up your map (marked smaller non-relevant brushes as detail, removed the big box around the map (you should NEVER EVER do that to fix leak messages!), changed some lighting parameters and rebuilt + retuned the launch pads) and the bug is gone now.

You can download it at http://141.2.16.3:7780/inofficial/ctf_greatwall_rev2.pk3. Can I run this edited and renamed version of the map on my server?

Oh, and my map compile settings:

-bsp phase: -samplesize 8
-vis phase:
-light phase: -fast -patchshadows -samples 3 -bounce 3

I have played this map only once, but I can tell you it was very fun to play!

Good job there!

divVerent wrote:I still haven't found out what the exact issue with the black flickering was, but I cleaned up your map (marked smaller non-relevant brushes as detail, removed the big box around the map (you should NEVER EVER do that to fix leak messages!), changed some lighting parameters and rebuilt + retuned the launch pads) and the bug is gone now.

You can download it at http://141.2.16.3:7780/inofficial/ctf_greatwall_rev2.pk3. Can I run this edited and renamed version of the map on my server?

Oh, and my map compile settings:

-bsp phase: -samplesize 8
-vis phase:
-light phase: -fast -patchshadows -samples 3 -bounce 3

Wow, thank you! I figured this was all but forgotten by now. I won't be able to play it for a few days, but just the fact that you put so much effort into helping make my map more playable Feel free to run it on your server, renamed and everything - I'm sure it's a much better experience now with your revising than it was with my rough release

Shoe wrote:

divVerent wrote:Wow, thank you! I figured this was all but forgotten by now.

Well, simple reason... Nexuiz 2.0 can automatically download missing maps. And I went through some web server directories and checked all old maps on 2.0 - and fixed some things if needed.

http://www.expectnomore.net/games/ctf_g ... .waypoints
There's a waypoint file for rev2. Install it either by putting it into a /data/maps directory in the packfile or into Nexuiz/data/data/maps. It works pretty well, though they sometimes like to get stuck in an ammo-hoarding loop or inside of the bunkers, but you can laser them onto a main path. For the most part they keep active, though.

I've been thinking about doing some updates to this map, and I've been throwing around some ideas; I can't guarantee anything at the moment, though, as I have a couple of personal projects lined up.