ff_4tron: Lots 'o screens and a DL

[o_nezumi]

So I made a new map. I kinda sorta finished it sometime last winter but never got around to putting the last little touches on it untill just recently.

It's called ff_4tron, and it's a 4-way CTF map. You can steal an enemy flag and bring it back to your base for 10 points, or steal an enemy flag and bring it to the base of a different enemy for 20 points (the 20 is up for tweaking, obviously. It may wind up being more or less in the end).

In addition, each base has a keycard. The keycard can be used to open the sniper deck windows wide enough to allow a person in or out, and be used to retract the bridge in front of each base. A keycard cannot be used in the base it was picked up in, and respawns immediately when used or when it's carrier dies.

You can DL Here:
http://www.superjer.com/nezumi/ff_4tron/ff_4tron_05.zip <-- For HL2M

Screenshots as follows. Mostly linked so peeps don't have to wait 15 minutes to view this thread.

Red's spawn room:


The main room of red base. This screenshot is a little old. In the final version there's an extra light under the platform sticking out, and the lights are brighter in general.
http://www.superjer.com/nezumi/ff_4t..._4tron_05b.jpg

Up the ramps towards Red's flag and their sniper deck:
http://www.superjer.com/nezumi/ff_4t..._4tron_05c.jpg

Red's cap point, which overlooks the midmap:
http://www.superjer.com/nezumi/ff_4t..._4tron_05d.jpg

Red's sniper deck (there are two in each base):
http://www.superjer.com/nezumi/ff_4t..._4tron_05e.jpg

Red's flag. The window also overlooks the midmap:
http://www.superjer.com/nezumi/ff_4t..._4tron_05f.jpg

One of two main entrance halls to Red's base. Don't worry, there's clip brushes on the walls so you don't get stuck on the detail. Also, you'll notice the lighting doesn't quite line up in certain spots because the curves are displacements:
http://www.superjer.com/nezumi/ff_4t..._4tron_05g.jpg

The midmap:
http://www.superjer.com/nezumi/ff_4t..._4tron_05h.jpg

Also the midmap:


Closeup of Red's base, the flag appears just behind that window at the top there above the cap point. The main entrance is peeking out there below the sniper window:
http://www.superjer.com/nezumi/ff_4t..._4tron_05j.jpg

The exit from the water tunel in Green's base, on the right, and the elevator up to the main room on the left:
http://www.superjer.com/nezumi/ff_4t..._4tron_05k.jpg

An overview:


Green's spawn room:
http://www.superjer.com/nezumi/ff_4t..._4tron_05n.jpg


Now, it seems like the flag is a little easy to get to, but this is offset by the facts that A, there will be people fighing eachother to get to your flag and B, if someone does make it out with your flag there will be people trying to kill them and take it for their team.

Extra Special Double Mega Thanks go out to Fisheye for helping me with getting the combine_shield props (The shield emitters in the respawn) to work with team-colored skins.

P.S. Circ: You can list this as 98.5% for now.

[o_kam]

Framerate is all over the place, mat_wireframe shows the yard being rendered when inside a lot of the time and it looks like a lot of face splitting where there shouldn't be.

Texturing is ugly and random lookin'. Layout is kinda... plain.
That bridge is cool but pretty much useless.

[o_mj]

4 way ctf?
uhh dunno..

[o_fresh]

INTERESTING. VERY INTERESTING.

[o_nezumi]

Oops, forgot to mention: I haven't done a full vis. I'll need to find a time when I don't need my computer for about 2 days to finish the vis. So the framerate should see a good boost after I do that (and anyway with 4 bases the game has to render twice as much as normal. :/) Assuming that a full vis will make so much of the inside stop rendering from the outside (which is fairly iffy given the time investment I've already put into the map) the framerate should reach acceptable levels.

And most of the texturing is placeholder for FF textures, like the rusty metal that the front of the bases are made out of and the grey concrete everywhere, like in the water tunnel. Also all the GL textures (from Dr. Zaius and Ginger Lord) are placeholder. I'll replace a lot of my own custom team-colored textures with FF textures if there's a good match to reduce the file size.

And I can assure you kam that ther's little to no unnecessary face splitting. At least that I can fix. I've spent hours on optimising exactly that.

Originally Posted by kam

Texturing is ... random lookin'

How do you mean?

Originally Posted by kam

Layout is kinda... plain.

How do you mean?

[o_don]

Haha. Not very kind first comments. I think it looks pretty nice. Good effort. Should be fun to play! (but only when server is full) Could you auto shut off entrances to a team base that no one has joined? Like if no one is on the green team, a metal barrier slides down over all the entrances. It would then be like a 3way ctf map. Something might have to be done about the team squashed in the middle but that might never be a problem. (How about raising the player limit for the squished team: they would have the ability to defend both side entrances that way)

[o_geokill----->]

really like the theme of this map and also how you added lots of team coloring.

Now know why you wanted team color of all the combie props

[omega]

take the pics with antialiasing and anisotropic filtering cranked up, doesn't really do justice to the current pics ;/

[o_kam]

Full vis should not take 2 days D:
Using hint brushes btw?

I think the randomness is because there's just too many rusty textures that just make it look too busy and like they don't really go together well or something.

Layout just doesn't look like there's anything interesting to do offence-wise.
conc to balc, dm/bhop/conc to flag, cap said flag...

[o_nezumi]

Don: Yea, good idea. I hope that FF will allow us to change the map based on player numbers (Like allowing more/less snipers in hunted). Closing off a base with no players in it would be wise.

I'm not sure why full vis takes so long. The only really big (or complete) map I've done a full vis on was tiger and that took about a day and a half for a full vis instead of an hour and a half for full lighting, so I'm estimating on 4tron. I'm using hints, areaportals, details, func_brushes, nodraw and all that. My computer is a 2.4 ghz processor with 2 gigs of ram. How long do other peoples maps take to compile?

I kinda agree about the textures though.
But like I say, placeholders!

And I'm hoping that stealing flags from people outside the base will add interest. The bases are necessarily small though. Like you pointed out the framerate is pretty low and on top of that I've used the max number of brushes. You get kinda cramped on all sorts of engine limits with 4 bases.

[PHISH]

It could be a fun dm map, looks interesting

[o_rebo]

cool, one of our test maps is 4v4 CTF so looks like the map scripts will transfer right over to yours.

[o_tercel]

how do u make the map so symmetrical like that. do you just select each base as one piece and copy/rotate/paste?

[o_player]

One word: yes.

[o_diepepsi]

cool beans

[o_ohcanep]

Multiteam maps should always offer some thrilling action, hopefully this isn't an exception. Unfortunately Source didn't want me to explore your map, well other than the respawn and a room next to it. After that I got an error message named "Engine Error". Additionally I managed to destroy the screenshot I took of it. I'll give it a second glance tomorrow.

[Lost]

I get pretty low fps on it and theres a funky merging problem with the middle of the bridge; lines of something are showing a few inches above the center circular platform.

Other than that, looks like it could be a fun map.

[o_nezumi]

Rebo: So gimmie the script already! Damn!
(P.S. Does yours have the flag stealing? I've never tested a 4way ctf map before so I'm not sure if this will work gameplay wise, or if I should not let people do that.)

Tercel: Yes, if you're smarter than me you do. In my case I coppied and pasted the bases when they were about 90% done and spent a lot of time doing that last 10% 4 times. But, that's the way I make maps. I change my mind a lot and there's no way I could make any final decisions without seeing all 4 bases there.

Lost: I think I forgot to tell some of the props in the midmap (like the railings and girders on the bridge) to stop casting shadows, which may be what you're seeing. This'll be fixed in the final version.

[Lost]

I think thats exactly it Nez, I remember thinking the look like free floating shadows. I really like how the sniper windows and the bridges can be closed/retracted.

[o_shadow34721]

texturing overall looks dull, in the snioper window pic there is zero contrast between whats outside the winodw and what in :/

also, i dont see the gameplay addition by being able to cap on the enemy cap point for extra points if its on their batts... if it were in their base there would be some risk involved, but in its current state it would be an easy conc wouldnt it?