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I seem to recall saying in January that my map was at least playable from beginning to end. Well I was lying. However, NOW it is...
Anyone interested in some Easy or Medium skill testing for me? :E Ye haven't added all of them yet. I'm not very good at secrets, was always crap at finding them myself and thinking of interesting places for them is tricky :p
It's interesting to me how monster counts in custom maps skyrocketed while secrets have not. A typical E1 map has 30-40 monsters and 6 secrets. That's 1 secret for every 6-7 monsters! Now we have 5x or 10x the monsters but 6-7 is still the upper bound for secrets. ( I think warpspasm had more though?)
I know it's easier to drop 50 knights in a room than design 5 interesting secrets, but I think it's something people should focus more time on. And , secrets don't always need to have a complicated mechanism or lead to a new area- if you can hide something in a dark corner or on top of a pile of crates, that's already a reward for exploring with not too much effort and no new brushwork. Large scale usually impresses players.
Filling that large scale with interesting gameplay, and even things like secrets, sometimes seems like an afterthought... 50 knights are easily plopped down in no time, thanks to copy & paste. Yeah. (OK, that can still be limited fun with a quad and a supernailgun, but the dose makes the poison). ZQF, I'll gladly test Easy skill for you. I will most likely tell you to remove a lot of monsters... ;-P My email is in the profiles under golden_boy I think. http://spawnhost.files.wordpress.com/2011/02/gbcrysis3.jpg
Warning: Not Quake. More here http://spawnhost.wordpress.com/2011/02/20/sandboxing/ Also has no palm trees. metslime, I have a map in work for quite a time now. It's not very large, I'd say it's a medium size, I already have 15 secrets in it, but I plan to add more :)
Do your thoughts on secrets change depending on the linearity of the map? My map is very linear and many areas cannot be revisited, so if you miss a secret on your first trip through a room you won't be able to find it again without playing the whole thing through again (or noclipping natch :P )
If anything, it add replay value for treasure hunters. Besides, it doesn't have to be the most refined secret areas - sometimes a medkit or an ammo box placed behind a corner or a crate does the trick. Not hard to find, but satisfying for the player.
Kona: Yep, true. I decided to do the main features like hills and large trees first, then fill in details later. I haven't looked at all the various grass models enough yet :)
I'll also need a lot more layers in the megatexture. Crysis grass: It seems like the small grass is about lawn height, and pretty sparse. Large/medium grass however is almost knee height, and people will see that while running around - so it seems large grass can be used like bushes and will catch the eye, while small grass often won't.
Probably going big to small will also work OK with grass etc. I'm no mapper, just a user, but one of the biggest letdowns in my quake experience is not being able to go back to places after having cleared up the map.
Obviously, this is not that important in a standalone map as opposed to say, one part of a longer mission(where you may use the secret finding to regain supplies for subsequent maps), but I think that backtrackability should be paramount, when designing a good map... In the melt ruby map I was with 1% and saw a 100% secret in a crate... zomggg had to get it... made a almost impossible bunny jumping but I got it :)
that please me like honey!
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