Starlight X

Discuss map ideas, techniques, and give help.
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RyokoTK
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http://www.simplici7y.com/items/starlight

Up to 44 maps now, because I have brain damage. Here's the list:

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Quad Machine - A small single room with some small ledges and corridors around the outside. No rockets or shotguns on this map -- the flamethrower gets a chance to shine here. 2 players / April 2016

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Stranglehold - Two small rooms with a high bridge between them. Controlling the bridge is critical for tracking your opponent, but it's not safe. 2 players / January 2013

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Bullet Heck - Several small structures offer high ground, but with lots of obstacles there's no single dominant position. Constantly moving and shifting your viewpoint is key. 2 players / January 2015

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Fishing Hamlet - Byrgenwerth... Byrgenwerth... Blasphemous murderers... Blood-crazed fiends... Atonement for the wretches... By the wrath of Mother Kos... Mercy for the poor, wizened child... Mercy, oh please... 2-3 players / April 2016

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Adrift - A tall central chamber with a high ledge and some other vertically-separated rooms along the periphery. 2-3 players / April 2018

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The Dark World - A handful of smaller spaces packed tightly together. Shotguns completely dominate this map. Keep an eye out for the red and yellow canisters in order to stay alive. 2-3 players / January 2015

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Ambiguity - Several small rooms arranged in a loop, with many paths overlapping and going up and down. Pursuit is tricky. Keep moving and have a twitchy shotgun finger to win. 2-3 players / January 2015

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Bottom of the Well - Straightforward arena map with a couple loops around the outside to duck through. Controlling the 1x canister is important in duels. 2-4 players / January 2016

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Gustav Garden - A single wide open room with a few paths and small rooms around the periphery. The yellow canister and invisibility spawn on exposed ledges. 2-4 players / February 2012

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Hollow Void - Two big rooms, one much lower than the other. Try to avoid the sewage pit, as you are very vulnerable to aerial rocket attacks. 2-4 players / August 2011

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Future Factory - Three rooms arranged in a line. The center room has several valuable high ground positions; the outer rooms are safer, but you'll get fewer kills. 2-4 players / January 2013

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Mixological - A very straightforward one-room map with plenty of rockets. The only way to score kills is to be aggressive. 2-4 players / January 2015

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Explodatorium - Rockets only. I'm sorry. 0 players / April 2016

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Minuet of Forest - Very traditional arena map with a little bit of high ground and plenty of rockets. Use this song to quickly return to the Forest Temple. 3-4 players / January 2016

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Dragon's Maw - A central room at low ground with two large rooms at higher ground. A limited number of clear shots and lots of stark elevation shifts means mobility and ambushing from above is very effective. 3-4 players / January 2015

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Hedonism II - Four small rooms in a square, with high passages between them. Move swiftly from room to room, but watch out for the Invisibility. 3-4 players / January 2013

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Das Jerk - Central room at low ground, with many elevation shifts around the periphery. Ducking away and attacking from above with rockets works well, but don't get caught in the tunnels. 3-4 players / August 2011

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Crucible - Large central room with a ring of rooms around the outside. Very flat, heads-up map here; long-range engagements on flat terrain are common, making rockets relatively less effective. 3-5 players / April 2016

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Acid Reflex - Fairly traditional arena map. Credit goes to Windbreaker for his Pfhor texture patch. 3-5 players / April 2018

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Rocket Rider - A central canyon with several structures on the sides for safety and high ground. This is a great Hill map. 3-5 players / August 2011

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Art of Magicka - A basic arena map with a high tower on the north side and elevated ridges along the south and east. The 2x canister spawns in the middle of the map, so rushing out to grab it is risky but rewarding. 3-5 players / July 2015

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Living Failure - A single room with a strong vertical element, split in half by a partial wall. Most of this map is open, so taking high ground to track your enemies will help a lot. 3-5 players / January 2016

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Furious Bender - One large open room with another smaller room on the side, and several passages and ledges between them. All action revolves around the main room, but don't get caught in the open. 3-5 players / February 2012

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Anaphylaxis - Two large rooms separated by a ledge, with a third smaller room on the side. There are lots of blind spots and objects for cover, so keep moving and pursue your enemies. 3-5 players / August 2011

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The Shores of Heck - A tall arena on the north side of the map, with a two-story overlapping set of rooms on the south side of the map. 4-5 players / April 2018

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Vacation Package - Two yards and some structures arranged so that there's no singular central space. Use the shotguns and keep moving so you don't get caught out. 4-5 players / July 2015

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Miracle Mile - A large courtyard on the south side, with three smaller spaces in a line to the north. All traffic flows back to the courtyard. 4-5 players / August 2011

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Dissolution - A two-story building, surrounded by open space on three sides. Use the building to escape attackers and find high ground. 4-6 players / July 2015

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Twilight Citadel - A central room with a large exterior area wrapping around part of it. Most of the fighting is on flat ground. Switching between SMG, shotguns and rockets will maximize your kills. 4-6 players / January 2015

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Crossover Fanfic - Lots of extreme elevation shifts around the large central space. Although there are many escape routes from the center, it's relatively easy to trap enemies in the peripheral corridors with a well-placed rocket. 4-6 players / January 2015

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Neolith - A super-tall map based around rocket attacks from above and constant mobility. 4-6 players / April 2018

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Meltdown - A traditional arena map, but it's huge. 5-6 players / February 2012

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Eclipse of the Sun - Three large rooms arranged in a loop. Although the Hill area is exposed, the other two rooms are dark, allowing you to escape or confuse attackers. The central high ground has the yellow can, making it an extremely dominant position. 5-6 players / January 2015

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Prime Directive - An expansive space on the main floor, with a few distinct structures, side spaces, and passages. There is no single central area, so keep moving. 5-6 players / January 2015

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Strike the Earth - Three floors overlap each other, with lots of stairs and ledges connecting them together. The central floor has plenty of horizontal space to play with and there are shotguns everywhere. 5-6 players / January 2016

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Thwomp's Block - Several different rooms that flow together. There is no central space, and fights can break out anywhere. King of the Hill is pretty good on this map. 5-7 players / August 2011

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Infernal Grasp - Fairly tall map. The Hill is on a high elevated platform in the center. Lots of wide open space on the lower floors lead to many hidey-holes on the upper levels, making this map full of twists and turns. 5-7 players / April 2016

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Hurting Other People - Four large, exposed rooms with some connecting corridors between them. Long sight lines and minimal cover means long-range weapons are very effective. 5-7 players / April 2015

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Morrolan's Legacy - A massive two-story structure with assorted elevated areas around the exterior. The high tower is relatively defensible, but removed from the action. 6-8 players / July 2015

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Megalomania - A massive map with several distinct regions connected to a central, low position. High ground provides good platforms to launch attacks from. The Hill is in a low, sheltered position. 6-8 players / August 2011

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Tallmap Sequel - A large map with some central pits and an intense vertical component. Aerial attacks and ambushes with rockets are a critical strategy here. Keep looking for higher ground to stage your next attack. 7-8 players / April 2015

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Elder Kingdom - A large structure with three large exterior areas around it. There's no central space, so keep moving around to ensure you find more people to fight. 6-8 players / April 2015

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Imperial City - A truly huge map with a few different large districts. Most paths flow toward the Hill. A few very high vantage points can let you spy on most of the map, but they're too high up to do much about it. 7-8 players / January 2015

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Monument to All Your Sins - A massive two-story map. The top floor is a largely open field with a central tower that connects to the lower floor, which is a series of rooms arranged in a ring. Shotguns rule the upper floor, rockets control the lower. 8 players / April 2016
Last edited by RyokoTK on Apr 29th '18, 03:59, edited 18 times in total.
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quartz
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RyokoTK wrote:Comments about them are appreciated.
you stole one of my old hoth textures :)
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quartz
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RyokoTK wrote:Uh...?
I don't really care, I just thought it was amusing. it wasn't even one of the good ones.
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Last edited by quartz on Aug 28th '11, 06:21, edited 1 time in total.
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RyokoTK
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I have been using that texture for years, it was given to me as part of a pack by someone else. Thought it was his. Sorry, I guess.
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quartz
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RyokoTK wrote:Sorry, I guess.
like I said, I don't really care. hoth died in utero and if people want to salvage stuff from the demo that's perfectly fine by me. better than letting it go to waste.
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treellama
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quartz wrote:like I said, I don't really care. hoth died in utero and if people want to salvage stuff from the demo that's perfectly fine by me. better than letting it go to waste.
Are the Hoth textures available for download somewhere?
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quartz
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Treellama wrote:Are the Hoth textures available for download somewhere?
yes, under the qualification that they're in the os9 shapes patcher that comes as part of the demo.
http://archives2.bungie.org/inf.scenarios/hoth.preview.hqx
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Dugit
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quartz wrote:shapes patcher
Aw. Harsh.
Polyplicity my second (less sucky) net pack. Go on. Download it. You know you don't want to.
Marathon Aeon- My scenario in the works ~on Simplici7y

riveting six-vertice amnesty ratifications
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unclenate
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Meltdown is most inspiring
If I had a rocket launcher, I'd make myself pay.
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RyokoTK
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Starlight is now up to 18 maps! Here they are.
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Windbreaker
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Good job, these are great and the flow and balance and etc etc etc etc

What impresses me most with this pack is how you managed to create an original set of maps that differentiate themselves from the bajillion other maps you've made over the years. I was skeptical, when I first downloaded Starlight a few years back, if you could still create maps with fresh ideas and layouts that didn't immediately remind me of your past maps, but you've clearly done so here. Rocket Rider and Das Jerk are among the many maps here that take advantage of subtle curves to funnel the player into action. They are probably my favorites, along with Gusty Garden and Hollow Void, which is probably the best dueling map in this pack. There are a few with pretty complex layouts (I'm looking at you Prime Directive) but they don't go too overboard with hallways spidering out everywhere or anything. Overall, the ones I've played extensively are all fun and memorable. Good job! Glad you haven't completely 4got.
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RyokoTK
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Mostly 4got.

It's funny that you brought up "hallways spidering out" because that's a major problem that developed throughout Paradise Lost and I was trying to really wrap that up with Starlight's production, and it's something I mentioned in Slave's recent Minipax update as well as Infra Apogee's. Basically, economical use of passages and lifts between spaces. It makes it easier to figure out the overall layout and relationship of spaces, but it also adds a little more strategic play between an attacker and a fleeing player; I feel like I ought to have an idea of where you are, even if I lost sight of you a second ago. It's okay to have a hallway or staircase that only goes from A to B, and it's okay to have one lift instead of three so long as the one lift isn't distinctly inconvenient to use.

I think it boils down to making sure you've got a specific reason for any part of the map's layout, or some idea of how it's going to be used in practice. So, not just having rooms be light or dark because they look nice, but having them be light or dark because you want people to stand out (or not) in those specific areas.
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Windbreaker
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I wouldn't classify it as a major problem; I never really had trouble figuring out the layouts to PL's maps, and when you're fleeing from combat sometimes it's nice to have options. But yeah, it's definitely refreshing seeing and trying to come up with less complex layouts because that means the focus is going towards gameplay. The word you used, 'economical' is a good way to describe what I was trying to convey in the Minipax thread.

The only thing I'd be careful with is lighting, and that mostly applies to how dark Bullet Heck is. Make it 1 or 2 shades lighter in the pitch black parts and I think you'll be fine. And try not to 4get as much!
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RyokoTK
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Starlight is up to 23 maps. Here they are!

All five of the new maps are genuinely new (i.e. not hijacked from Power Drive). This version is also the first to have several balance changes and tweaks, the most dramatic of which is adding a new room to Gustav Garden. There's also plenty of tidying up geometry in some areas and tweaking spawn rates and locations of powerups.
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RyokoTK
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Three more maps puts Starlight at 26. The link.

All three of these maps are really large, so if the stars align and you find 6+ people in a room together, it's a good time to try out the new stuff: Hurting Other People, Elder Kingdom, and Tallmap Sequel.
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Wrkncacnter
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I don't remember the original Tallmap very well. Do you think it's necessary to go back and review it before I can appreciate the sequel?
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RyokoTK
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I think you'll find it doesn't make a lot of sense if you missed out on the ending of the predecessor, yeah.
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RyokoTK
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Starlight is up to thirty maps now. The link.

Four new maps of assorted sizes: Art of Magicka, Dissolution, Vacation Package, and Morrolan's Legacy.
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Wrkncacnter
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I'll be pretty disappointed if Morrolan's Legacy isn't filled with stairs to nowhere.
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RyokoTK
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I think I replaced stairs with elevators in a couple of places, but for the most part you should be satisfied.
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RyokoTK
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Windbreaker reminded me that I had some stuff kicking around that I had 4gotten about, so, here it is. All of the new stuff was made back in July and August.

New maps: Bottom of the Well, Minuet of Forest, Living Failure, and Strike the Earth.
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RyokoTK
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Forty maps. New ones are Quad Machine, Fishing Hamlet, Explodatorium, Crucible, Infernal Grasp, and Monument to All Your Sins.

I also tweaked with a few powerups, removing the 2x from Bottom of the Well and Future Factory, and fixed a couple of missing Hills.
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