How I modified a map for the rebirth mod
Nintendows
Join Date: 2016-11-07 Member: 223716Members, Squad Five Blue
Join Date: 2016-11-07 Member: 223716Members, Squad Five Blue
I'm not much of a mapper, but I do have a few mods on the workshop. My main project has been a mod collection I call "Rebirth" that changes the game in a few fundamental ways. Each commander can choose their teams race, so you can have marines battling marines, or even aliens battling aliens. The second, more minor change, is that power starts off and the "emergency lighting" is removed. Vanilla maps don't always work very well or look as good as they could with a few simple changes.
The two main gameplay problems are:
I fully acknowledge that these maps were never designed with my mod changes in mind, so please don't think of this post as a kind of complaint. Instead, I wanted to show you how I changed ns2_tram to fit within my mods.
First, I moved and covered up some power nodes:
I also moved some of the default infantry portal locations away from pathways a little bit, but screenshots of that are tough.
I fixed some of the "ignore power" state of some of the lights so that when the power is off, rooms appear interesting. (I know it's not easy to tell how it differs from the default tram)
Other (unrelated to the mod) changes:
I added a ladder to the vent in mezzanine here because making that jump originally was way too difficult and felt like a glitch.
I also added that silly extra occlusion geometry trick so you don't hear things in the two rooms over as if they are very close. I can't show you a screenshot in-game of that, but here's what it looks like in the editor. I encourage you to hear the difference it makes in game. I made the occlusion geometry the lava texture so it's easier to see.
You can check out my version of ns2_tram on the workshop here.
The two main gameplay problems are:
- Power nodes are too easy to hit
- Infantry Portals are too easy to hit
I fully acknowledge that these maps were never designed with my mod changes in mind, so please don't think of this post as a kind of complaint. Instead, I wanted to show you how I changed ns2_tram to fit within my mods.
First, I moved and covered up some power nodes:
I also moved some of the default infantry portal locations away from pathways a little bit, but screenshots of that are tough.
I fixed some of the "ignore power" state of some of the lights so that when the power is off, rooms appear interesting. (I know it's not easy to tell how it differs from the default tram)
Other (unrelated to the mod) changes:
I added a ladder to the vent in mezzanine here because making that jump originally was way too difficult and felt like a glitch.
I also added that silly extra occlusion geometry trick so you don't hear things in the two rooms over as if they are very close. I can't show you a screenshot in-game of that, but here's what it looks like in the editor. I encourage you to hear the difference it makes in game. I made the occlusion geometry the lava texture so it's easier to see.
You can check out my version of ns2_tram on the workshop here.
Comments
If you want that vent accessable you could make the jump much easier if you just remove the edge above the vent a bit (or make it higher)
The trick about is that you move forward on the jumpingspot a bit to gain speed and you don't jump directly into the vent but rather you jump to a position left of the vent and then strafe into the vent with the rightstrafe (Pressing Rightbutton midair and Moving the mouse to the right)
Only with strafing midair you can avoid getting your head clunked and get into that vent... against aliens it's good that it's really hard and you miss this jump a lot - even if you've done it a lot - since it gives you so much mapcontrol (and suprisekills (e.g. lerks in there)
About the occlusion-geometry I have doubts it's a good change because this will screw with ppl's minds once they play normal tram against aliens again.
It's only a surprise because the jump doesn't look possible... it's a kind of hidden game mechanic. I'm not a huge fan of those.
So if you remove the edge above the vent you can make this jump without strafing and it still needs a tiny bit of skill to jump from the edge.
Why am I suggesting this? Dumbing down a game is always boring.
The only reason the trickjump is hard for some people is because you have to stand at the very bottom of the angled geometry to be able to perform it... I see many people walking up it and failing over and over again.
If you wanted to make the trick jump easier, add a little collision geo to the bottom of the angled geo to make it easier to stand on and then raise the lip above the vent a little just to reduce the risk of banging your head.
Adding a ladder to the vent is neither slow nor interesting in the slightest... you can effectively and with no skill at all, rotate from mezzanine to north tunnels in 1/8 of the time it would usually take you (unless you were able to perform the mezz jump accurately and quickly.... even then it still takes up some time to do)
from ground -> powernode -> some plattformthingy (which looks like the thing you do the trickjump) -> vent ...
and generally you probably think it's questionable that marines can shoot from ET the Powernode in mezz from a to long distance... since you changed the other powernodes like server