Darude - Sandstorm

Please do not vote without a comment, I am looking for feedback here, not unnecessarily low votes. Also no drama, please keep it related to the map, thanks

The layout looks a bit like turbine, some textures are too spammed, and the ambience isnt very nice: the egyptian theme also doenst appear to fit too well with the factory, but in general i like this map.

7/10

Soc's Techno Texture Pack might be useful in this map.

Thanks for the replies everyone, I will get to work on this when I get a chance. I will be happy to see what you guys can do to it also. Pyccna, I am out of town now but I will download that and check it out when I'm home. Thanks again everyone

Pretty cool map, I made some modifications to the map, Improved lighting and texturing. and added a few flow elements. I love the detail in the background on this map, and maybe you should think of taking the same texturing and theme elements and create a ctf map.

What I Fixed

• Lighting
• Changed Sunlight to 0 0 0 - There is no clear sun in this skybox, with the clouds so heavily alphaed, plus since it is a sandstorm you wouldnt be any light generated from it because of the sand particles flying through the air.
• Changed Skylight to 30 23 13 - darked the skylight to create a darker feel. This makes it feel like there is a seriously bad sandstorm going on. Also makes more dark shadows. (which i like ;)
• Added intense lights in the air vents (the ones with the fans - This gives a good variety (although unrealistic), it adds to the overall ambience of the map.
• removed most of the lights in the side rooms replacing them with less lighting, because it was far too over-brighted. Changed one to only to be lit by the window room, and the other made two lights (one at each entrance)
• added lights in the tunnels to create a better feel (ambient light... light that bounces off the walls)
• removed lights at the bottom of the long death tunnel, reducing the bottom 2 lights and adding an ambient light at the bottom of the tunnel (to simulated the light bouncing its way down - this creates a better visual layout, as u fall into the dark abyss at the bottom
• added a light source on the jumppad - this creates a cool effect on the back wall
• added lights to the bottom of the ledges in the middle of the map - this creates a cool spotlight effect. Note: look at how i did the spotlights on the map. Create a main light attached to a spotlight, and then create a small radius light (at the same intensity [rgb]) about 15 - 30 and set it above the main light.
• removed light strip on bridge (long light strip) and replaced with a pipe/bar - was lighting the middle causing it to be too bright.
• Changed ambient to 1 1 1 - this creates dark shadows and allows me to created variable amabience on a per room basis (this is a personal preference and by no means is a standard on all maps)
• Texturing
• changed texturing layout - Many of the textures you used on the floor where vent textures. Look at your textures and figure out if it is a wall floor or ceiling.
• Added trimming to floor and wall textures - Make sure if you are using non pattern textures (textures that are not cubic or have a clear square shape) to trim the borders of the texture area. This will frame in the texture giving it a good feel and flow to the next texture area.
• Used vscroll x y to create conveyor belts and other moving textures - this just adds a dynamic element to the map, especially on a mechanical/factory map.
• Removed any repetitive uses of trim texture - trim textures shouldnt be used to cover large areas laterally. This makes your map look nooby.
• Added variety in depth space - Added variance in depth space making lighting more interesting. Use f+scroll to make your walls less flat. This makes your map more visually interesting.
• Added broken/missing tiles - this just adds to your visual elements of your map.
• Flow
• removed the pedestal in the middle of the map - breaks the flow of the map and movement through the middle
• Added room to the side under the bridge, creating a dropdown from the top - This opens of the map, and creates a small sniper spot, and a good spt to spawn players.
• Added no clip to all light stips (replaceing the clip - this allows for a better flow so you dont hit your head
• Opened up the area in one of the side rooms to allow access through - This creates a small sniper area also opened the ledge above to allow for a smiper spot and green armor.
• added various clip - helped improve the movement through the map.
• moved the death clip down inside the tunnel - creates a more realistic death.
• extended the ramp on the bridge - To require a shorter hop up
• Environment
• changed the fogcolor/cloudcolour/skyboxcolour to match the skylight - This make it look like the fog/sand is bouncing off the sunlight and creating the ambient skylight on the map.
• increased fog to 500 - makes it look more sandstormy (personal preference)
• added particles 4 270 100 0x000 0 to top and outside of map - this creates a false wind effect, so make it look like the wind is blowing.
• change the glasscolour to 10 10 10 - this makes the windows feel darker, so the light looks more realistic
• Pick-ups
• Just played around with them for fun moved most of them to the corners and edges, so you have to go get them, moved all the armour boost and quad to high levels to force players to trick jump to get them.
• Changed the playerstarts because of the new flow elements added

chaester

Attachments

my version of the map
Note: there's no cfg file so use the current sandstorm config with it :)

My thoughts on this map:

First, there was a map years ago (2009) called sandstorm by Redon and Misanthropx as well with similar themeing, not that that matters much.

Actually, I don't really have anything to add that hasn't been said. This is a pretty good map. I like the feel of the original more than Chasester's version though. While Chasester's detailing is nicer, the lighting feels far too white, making the map feel too plain. Also, the added room really doesn't help the flow.

This map has some issues in logic when it comes to flow.
When you jump outside the map you die (ok, we've seen that before although it has some proper boundaries on those maps), but when you walk into a razorsharp fan which is red-lighted like if it is a warning (just like gab with the floating platform which do make you die); you get teleported. This isn't making sense at all.
Keep in mind no one likes to get -1 on their score while being in the heat of a battle. So prevent it whenever possible. Obviously there may be certain risky paths towards a powerup like a Quaddamage or Healthboost, but keep it minimised.

About the floating platform; there is nothing which makes you indicate it is actually a jumppad. Try to come up with something instead of just placing entities at random.

The rest of the map seems pretty solid. I have to agree the egyptic aspect is out of place here and doesn't feel like it should be there.

There are a lot of moving objects like fans and smoke but they still miss some sounds though.

The lighting at the corner with those stairs is pretty odd. The light feels too blue to get emitted by those lamps.

P.S.
There's 1 small place not covered in death; when you are at the edge of the platform with the broken pillars, look at the diagonal piece.

If you ask me, I'd prefer the original sandstorm by Fatality. Chasester_aka_you's mod breaks the whole scenery to me. I also request to make the smoke more individual by slightly change some black shades for more realism - but it's at least all up to you. 7/10 so far; good work, gentlemen.

Map updated, thanks to everyone for the comments, here are some changes based on your feedback

Map updated

I looked over this yesterday it was very good :) i would clip a bit more along some of the trimming. Maybe even clip the pipes the same way that you clipped the one in the undercover (clip it flat). and fix some of the texturing. There is a few spots were it cuts off oddly. Add some trimming to make it look more finished (or use a more seamless texture).

chasester

What's with the yellow armor in an unreachable pipe?

Na its highly reachable just have to jump there, did that jump like 50+ times when i played a bot match.