ns2_total_newbee_testing

ianmcmillianmcmill Join Date: 2010-04-29 Member: 71569Members, Reinforced - Supporter
edited April 2010 in Mapping
Hello,

im new to map making so bear with me. im learning alot atm.
i made a very very basic diamond-layout map. basicly the diamond shaped layout is the actual mapped level.
ill do this by trail and error.
i already learned my first error in level design. as in the first picture the res node rooms are too big.


i started with the ground planes for the level. copy&pasted them around. aligned vertics to the grid and welded as much as my limited mapping knowledge allows together.
i created the corridors with the extrude tool. extruding up and down the same amount. i then created the ceiling from duplicating the ground and flipping its' Y-Axis.
i deleted all the extruded wall inside the corridors. they were created by extruding all the baisc ground rectangles.
i then came to the problem of creating doors into the bigger rooms.
i tried it with the rectangle tool from the direction the corridors hit the rooms. but out of some odd reason (for me) this does not work for me. the rectangles are not created on the room walls. or at least they are not there where i want them to be or where i know of.
so to solve this i deleted the whole room wall and made a new one out of rectangles i put together from single rectangles.
am i right if i say i had to use the line tool to create edges and vertex to get a good wall around my corridor entrance ?

any hints would be very much appreciated.

Comments

  • ianmcmillianmcmill Join Date: 2010-04-29 Member: 71569Members, Reinforced - Supporter
    okay so i deleted all the walls from all the rooms.
    im currently makeing them new from the ground plane up. i create rectangles through the rect.tool or by using the line tool. this seems to help me around in my polygon-massacre.
  • ianmcmillianmcmill Join Date: 2010-04-29 Member: 71569Members, Reinforced - Supporter
    after some running around in my layout i noticed its fairly large and the corridors are way to long and cold.
    so i made a new map from scratch. just hijackong my own thread.

    <img src="http://capotexl.de/image/ns2_testing.JPG" border="0" class="linked-image" />

    i had no layout from the mapping pdf as a draft.
    could need some advice or critics about my new layout. as there is no central TechNode this area in the center could become obsolete i think.

    so i appreciate any hints.
  • slayer20slayer20 Killed a man once. Join Date: 2007-12-13 Member: 63157Members, Reinforced - Shadow
    8 tech rooms and 13 res nodes? That's a bit much there...

    You should lower it to like 5 tech rooms and at most 8 resource nodes.
  • SgtBarlowSgtBarlow Level Designer Join Date: 2003-11-13 Member: 22749Members, NS2 Developer
    Most number of techpoints reccomended by the Guidelines is 6 with upto 8 Resource Nodes in total or RES = Num Techpoints + 2 or 1
  • ianmcmillianmcmill Join Date: 2010-04-29 Member: 71569Members, Reinforced - Supporter
    okay ill reduce the points.

    what is now the best/most efficient way in proceeding ?
    creating the rooms/floor and ceiling and then create probs inside this geometry or
    place probs on my plain map and create the rooms on the fly ?

    i've seen the time lapse videos from you barlow and tend to do my last mentioned method.
  • SgtBarlowSgtBarlow Level Designer Join Date: 2003-11-13 Member: 22749Members, NS2 Developer
    Yeh the first one is the way you had to do it because of the limitations og old engines, It was just simply natural to work that way and place big blocks all over.

    This time you have got to try and break that trend and start with something more complex.
    Due to the various sizes and shapes of props you now have at your disposal you need to make the Gemoetry fit the props rather than props fit blocky Geomerty.
    When you do this, things sort of happen on the Fly Naturally.

    Maybe <u>Spacer</u> can tell you what the first thing he dropped into the map was to make his little corridoor grow to what it is now. (Possibly The rocks or the door)?

    So the second one is as you know what I do.
    Why not have ago at building a Water Treatment Room, Start it off by taking one set of pipes that has the most segements avilable for it, Make a fancy pants bendy pipe that will feature in the room and diplicate its about 3 times so you have a row of them. Then build stuff up around them.
    Maybe if a section of the 3 is long you might build a double width Catwalk over them with geomerty based platforms either end and so on and so, it will just keep going.
  • ianmcmillianmcmill Join Date: 2010-04-29 Member: 71569Members, Reinforced - Supporter
    thank you very much barlow. this is exactly what i wanted to hear :) i just needed a litte push
  • SgtBarlowSgtBarlow Level Designer Join Date: 2003-11-13 Member: 22749Members, NS2 Developer
    My typing is ######, Every time I read back over my own stuff there is summut wrong :/

    Think I will try that pipe idea out my self lol, on a corridoor.
  • tetsu0tetsu0 Join Date: 2010-05-08 Member: 71670Members
    So do you map from a layout or "stream of consciousness" I.E. - As you go.
    Or do you have a certain layout you kinda wanna follow and just build random cool stuff to almost fit the layout?
  • SgtBarlowSgtBarlow Level Designer Join Date: 2003-11-13 Member: 22749Members, NS2 Developer
    Its 50/50

    1st Map - co_reactor
    - Had a layout, primary routes only + Vents only.
    - Tested, Secondry Route Added where a problem occoured, Tested, Vent Added to new route, Another Route Added, Tested, Had 2 Epic Games, Quickly Released.

    2nd Map - ns_siege_generator
    - No layout, Made Stuff up as I went along.
    - Primary Route only, Tested, Secondary Route Added, Tested, Vents added, Tested, Another Routed added with with a door on a random trigger timer so the route wasnt usable all the time, Tested, More vents, Tested, Had 5 Epic Games, Released.

    3rd Map (TF2) cti_pl_therock
    - Followed layout from origina TFC version, still made things up as I went along.
    - Built Primary Routes and Game Mechanics, Tested, Added Secondary Prime Routes, Currently Testing.

    NS2 Map.
    - Tech points placed like 5 on a dice, No fixed location.
    - Making up as I go along, Primary routes only with a couple of Secondary routes. Waiting for release for testing, Find choke points and go on from there.


    If the layout is planned, I will follow the primary routes, I wont do a BSP version, I allow rooms and routes to grow to whatever size and shape that occours.
    They are tested and then objects/extra structures placed for where cover is needed or needed to break up an area.

    Unplanned is the same, only differnce is the rooms are a bit more wild, the layout is more wild, It does not look uniformed, it looks more natural with more recesses, corners and odd shapes when you look top down it looks crazy but has an excellent feel when you walk through it, its less of a boring run through.

    Either way, they all play good, they all look good, one just looks more uniformed (boxy rooms) than the other and play differently from each other but i think we all prefare that veriety variation in rooms from something unplanned..

    If I am ianmcmill, I would follow the layout I drew in the editor but I would not build the actual level from that BSP but start from a clean slate.
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