GM's WORKS

[gmanyo]

Improved a bit. Screens on page 2.
[attachment=3478:Warehous...ock.sceA.zip]

2nd post:
Alright, here it is. My first map. Criticism is more than welcome. Hope you enjoy, but I am certainly not promising anything.
EDIT
Oh, yeah, if you actually play this map I wouldn't suggest playing with more than 3 people. It's very small.
[attachment=3469:Central_...nal.sceA.zip]

Original post:
Hello. Some of yew may remember that I was trying to make a map some time ago. Well, I'm trashing it, though I'll probably keep the plot from it for something else.

I'm going to try to make a netmap. It will suck. I will try to make it good, and will probably fail miserably. But the point is for me to learn how to make better maps. I will also be posting my future maps here.

First, however, I need a couple questions answered. How many WU's across, about, should it be for a relatively open 2-5 player map? Generally speaking of course. Also, I wanted to make this a level with Eternal textures and weapons. I know how to do textures: just run VML in Eternal. But I don't know how to get Eternal weapons in Weland.

I also want to thank everyone for helping me out so much with my first map, as well as everyone who will help me out with this one. I learned alot, and I think this map will turn out better than that one. So thanks for all the time you guys spent typing up responses to my newbie questions :).

For anyone who is interested (really, you don't have to read all this if you don't want to), my map is going to be a sort of "Fusion Core" themed map; a human fusion power generator outpost built in a desert-like place. It will have an upper, rocky area, probably not unlike the last multiplayer level of Halo 2. This area will be pretty open. There will be a smaller area beneath it, accessible by several lifts, which will be the "Fusion Core" of the map. It will have some sort of teleporter-textured central piece that looks like a giant generator of some sort (NOT a teleporter). This area will be smaller and a bit less spacious (also indoors, as opposed to the outdoor area above), though I hope to make it not a central battle spot. The upper part will have some small, shallow lava flows leading into grates (I will make it very difficult for these to harm the player). Down in the lower part, lava will be flowing out of grates and into the generator, like the lava is flowing from the upper area to the lower and fueling the core. Being a fusion core, the main weapons would be the fusion pistols and the Eternal fusion rifle. I figure this would be good, because I would cover lifts, liquids, some layering, and using different weapon sets all in one map, so I could learn alot.
The general idea of the map is to be like a human made generator area built into a rocky volcano area using lava as a power source. This will give a sort of combined feel of outdoor, dry, desert-style place but simultaneously like technological-future-place.

[Dugit]

I like the ideas; it certainly would work better as a solo level.
Why bother with Eternal? Hardly anyone plays Eternal net games, so just do it with Infinity.

Well, all net maps should be relatively open. It's a matter of flow choice.

Vale,
Dugit

[gmanyo]

I like the ideas; it certainly would work better as a solo level.
Why bother with Eternal?

Yeah, it might be cooler that way.
I wanted to use Eternal because I wanted the plasma machine gun (Rubicon might work as well).

[Dugit]

Do you mean the Fusion Rifle?

[gmanyo]

Do you mean the Fusion Rifle?

Yeah. Super fast plasmo shooting weapon. I think I called it a fusion rifle in my original post somewheres.

[Dugit]

The one in Eternal is boring. The one in Rubicon is much better- it looks better, and it doesn't need charging. It's spray is annoying, though. It's your choice.

[gmanyo]

The one in Eternal is boring. The one in Rubicon is much better- it looks better, and it doesn't need charging. It's spray is annoying, though. It's your choice.

Either way, I need to know how to use a different weapon set. The fusion rifle weapon seems like it would be fun for multiplayer. I would prefer it without spread.

I do agree about the looks, however; the one in Eternal is...er...phallic.

[Dugit]

Maybe if you made one yourself... with the capabilities of the Eternal one and the design and aesthetics of the Rubicon one?

[gmanyo]

Okay, I'll just do it in Infinity, but I have another question:
I imagine this question has been asked before, but I couldn't find it (I actually did look this time). Is there a way to auto-texture a map? Like, have something that just textures everything with one texture all at once, so that when you go in to texture the map yourself you have some idea of what the map generally looks like.

[Dugit]

Not if you're using Weland. The only way to have textures auto-assigned is in Pfhorge, which you can't use because Pfhorge has it's own document format.
To get a feel of the map, I either spend a lot of time on the auto-map, or at first, I just run around applying random textures, and then doing the real thing.

Vale,
Dugit

[interion]

Not if you're using Weland. The only way to have textures auto-assigned is in Pfhorge, which you can't use because Pfhorge has it's own document format.
To get a feel of the map, I either spend a lot of time on the auto-map, or at first, I just run around applying random textures, and then doing the real thing.

Vale,
Dugit

It's like your advice is paving the way towards a new generation of idiots. Bravo.

[Dugit]

It's like your advice is paving the way towards a new generation of idiots. Bravo.

Sorry. What would you do?

[treellama]

Sorry. What would you do?

Pave level

[Dugit]

Pave level

I wondered what that did...

Thanks.

[gmanyo]

So I finished my map, but I can't upload it. This site says "You are not permitted to upload this type of file" and Simplici7y says it's an invalid file type. I thought that it may have been due to odd characters, but it isn't, I tested it with a more "normal" name than I had originally. Do I need to merge it or something?

[Dugit]

Compress it. Simplici7y and the Pfhorums only accept zipped files if you are uploading a map or something of that ilk.

[gmanyo]

Compress it. Simplici7y and the Pfhorums only accept zipped files if you are uploading a map or something of that ilk.

Ah, okay, thanks.

Well, here it is, in all it's "glory". Yeah, it probably sucks, so criticism would definitely help. My first (real) finished map, so I don't expect it to be good.
[attachment=3468:Central_...nal.sceA.zip]

[Dugit]

OK, I tested it, and a few immediate problems spring to mind.

1) The name is too long. For example, why not call the map file "This Time It's Personal", and call the level "Central Processing Level" or something; just not altogether.
2) There is no or very little differential shading.
3) The texturing is very bland.
4) There are two (as far as I found) untextured surfaces. See attached images.

Vale,
Dugit

[gmanyo]

OK, I tested it, and a few immediate problems spring to mind.

1) The name is too long. For example, why not call the map file "This Time It's Personal", and call the level "Central Processing Level" or something; just not altogether.
2) There is no or very little differential shading.
3) The texturing is very bland.
4) There are two (as far as I found) untextured surfaces. See attached images.

Vale,
Dugit

Aww, I liked the long name.
I will fill those in, thanks for pointing them out. I'll also try to improve the texturing, but how exactly? Should I make oscillating lights? Do I need more places to actually put textures? Or do I need to just sort of "do it better"?

[Dugit]

If, in the majority of viewpoints, there are only two or three textures visible, there is something wrong.
You don't really need oscillating lights, just some differential shading- shadows, darkness for areas without lights etc.

[gmanyo]

Alright. I re-textured and re-lit much of the map. I renamed it "Warehouse Rock". It's still a little on the bland side, but I'll have to change the geometry of the map to fix that, and I'm don't want to change that until I figure out that it totally sucks as is (it probably does).

Remember, this map is small. Like, 2-3 players small. I figure it's good to go smaller on first maps, that way more tweaking can be done in a smaller amount of time.

Here's the map: [attachment=3473:Warehous...ock.sceA.zip]

Some screens:

The bright processing room
[attachment=3474:WarhouseRock1.1.jpg]

The dark/broken processing room
[attachment=3475:WarehouseRock2.jpg]

And the "Warehouse" room that the level was named after
[attachment=3476:WarehouseRock3.jpg]

Edit:
why is it attaching that picture again? Is it because I accidentally uploaded it twice?

[Dugit]

Thanks. It's looking better already.

Edit:
why is it attaching that picture again? Is it because I accidentally uploaded it twice?

Yes.