Atomic Mass Beta 3
ChromeAngel
Join Date: 2002-01-24 Member: 14Members, NS1 Playtester, Contributor
Join Date: 2002-01-24 Member: 14Members, NS1 Playtester, Contributor
<div class="IPBDescription">Download</div> >>> [http://www.btinternet.com/~chromea999/NS/ns_atomicmass14.zip]NS_AtomicMass[/URL] <<<
This is AtomicMass. It's a small NS map, based on the same layout as 11th Hour, but with a very different implimentation. There are only 2 vents and 1 weldable (you'll need autohelp turned on to find the weldable).
I've been trying to get this tested, but failed to get enough players to get any meaningfull results. 7 Games with 3 players asside, aliens won every time. <!--emo&???--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/confused.gif' border='0' valign='absmiddle' alt='confused.gif'><!--endemo-->
It has been commented that the marine spawn is too hard to defend, you can get stuck/jam the airlock, flickering lights hurt the eyes. The water surface in the tunnel outside the fluid dynamics hive looks dodgy. The func_rotatting light in the warehouse hive stops.
If you have suggestions on how to remedy any of these please let me know.
This is AtomicMass. It's a small NS map, based on the same layout as 11th Hour, but with a very different implimentation. There are only 2 vents and 1 weldable (you'll need autohelp turned on to find the weldable).
I've been trying to get this tested, but failed to get enough players to get any meaningfull results. 7 Games with 3 players asside, aliens won every time. <!--emo&???--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/confused.gif' border='0' valign='absmiddle' alt='confused.gif'><!--endemo-->
It has been commented that the marine spawn is too hard to defend, you can get stuck/jam the airlock, flickering lights hurt the eyes. The water surface in the tunnel outside the fluid dynamics hive looks dodgy. The func_rotatting light in the warehouse hive stops.
If you have suggestions on how to remedy any of these please let me know.
Comments
Building some light behind grates is a good idea, too.
I also like the idea of transparent doors... nice one.
The layout is ok to me and so are the polycounts... I only found one Area (Drive Tube Hive) where the r_speeds where above 900, but as some people have already said in other threats: even on not so modern machines (and mine is just an 900Mhz, 256 RAM, GeForce2MX !!) it will run smoothly.
Also i noticed that some Location-Names need some fixing... if you go down the small pit in "rolling deck" for example, the location name disappears. (I think the map needs more location names anyway)
About the gameplay I have to say that your playtesters were right, the marine base is very hard to defend. This is first because the marines have to fight their way up to get out of the base while the aliens can just drop down... that both a tactical advantage and an advatage of time for the aliens.
Second the marines have to devide their forces to guard both entrances in early game... there is hardly a point in the marine base where a Marine can shoot at both entrances (in most of the official map a Marine standing in the middle of his base can open fire on every entrace without changing his position.)
Hope that is a little help for U.
Greetz
-=HyPeR=-
How's this - I haven't seen the map - but I am going to run it off my server from 3pm GMT Today to 9am GMT Tomorrow (approximately). Download the map here or at my website first (I'll mirror a copy) 'cos I only just got the bandwidth for the game.
Get your friends together and we'll se if we can get a good game together.
It's tournament rules so FF is ON. TK'ing will result in slap's, kicks, bans etc.
BTW The time now GMT is 12:50pm
Server Name : Eaglec (T) - NS v1.03[UK]
Server URL : eaglec.homedns.org:27015
Res seems to be very sparse and I think aliens will find it hard to cap nozzles outside the hives. Marines however, have an easy nozzle to cap right beside them (vertical access). Cryonics res can be harried easily by skulks due to the vent, but it's still marine territory. Even more so, because sieging the whole mess hall from there is rather easy.
Electronics junction seems to be a very important keypoint in the map. You can lock down the warehouse hive from there plus two resource nozzles with one carefully placed siege. (edit: forgot the shorter siege range in 1.04 so it takes probably 2) Also the Fluid hive is just behind a corner. With guards at the airlock plus electronics junction taken, marines can secure half of the map in early game.
With just two vents and the resource nozzles in rather difficult to defend areas, this map seems to be a little hard on aliens. Of course this is just speculation since I haven't played the map. The lack of vents seems to be important to you with this one, but I still would suggest you to add a few. My recommendations for possible vents would be:
- From Drive Tubes to Mess. When starting from Drive Tubes, the closest res nozzles are the Fluid hive and Mess. Mess however, is rather open, has many entryways and it seems like a difficult one to defend. Also the other entryways are rather long and pretty easily controlled by marines.
- From Fluid hive to the hallway between Rolling Deck and Electronics junction. Possibly also to the Electronics junction itself. This is simply to lessen the importance of Electronics junction.
- From Warehouse hive to Clutter. Simply to keep up with the other hives and also lessening the importance of Electronics junction.
I have no idea if these are actually good suggestions, but I have a hunch they might make the map more balanced. Of course it would ruin the idea of just a few vents and more intense fights over the passageways. However, I didn't like the idea, that I would be forced into a wide passageway as a skulk with couple of marines aiming down it because there are no other viable ways into it.
Technically your work is superb, I like the look and feel of it very much.
The swiveling light beams in the warehouse have two problems
1-There is a very very minor texture scale problem so the beam has a small rim of white light where it's supposed to fade into nothing
2-The beams of light are solid as such they can grab skulks and take them on a merry-go-round ride, oddly enough it also grabs the commander and moves him about too, you need to set its so you can pass through them
There is some problems with the locations names as noted before this post
The vents are almost impossible to see as commander, you might add in some subtle red lighting (Also there werent enough for my taste but thats just me)
The Fluid intake hive lighting is a bit too severly green, i'd tone it down a bit and add more brown so it flows from the water to the hive better
There are almost no atmospheric sounds in the entire map, the exception being the water sounds. With all the machinery and electronics you should really add those in. Especially a low level siren to go with the lights in the warehouse
the marine spawn seems more confusing than it really is for some reason, I felt like I was lost in there every time I turned around even though I had moved only 5 feet, that may hurt the marines ability to defend
All that said I have to say this is one of the best maps I've seen. I actually felt like I was on a ship that had been recently vacated. Cyrogenics was flat awesome and I really loved the doors going into it. Areas are nice and varied but they flow into one another well. Most places have excellant skulking terrain too. Really man I think this is heads above 11th hour in quality.
Ohh I like it so much I made you a little something to replace that coffee mug with. I figure you'll get some more planes to play with and an improvement in detail with a very minimal hit to polies.
Ohh and I'll try and make it to the test server but I need to know if you'll be running mp_consistancy. Thanks.
I'll try to make one of those games.
Driftwood, there used to be a resource node in water reclamation, I removed it in this build to try and make resource more scarce for the aliens, this may have accidentaly shifted the balance in favor of the electronics junction...
If the aliens <i>needed</i> more vents that's <i>exactly</i> where I would be putting them.
P-K H-G, The vents are as hidden from the commander as I can make them, this is deliberate.
Thanks for the coffee mug, it's going in the next build <!--emo&:)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/smile.gif' border='0' valign='absmiddle' alt='smile.gif'><!--endemo-->
The warehouse light and the location names will be fixed in the next build. The marine start will probably need re-building. I'm toying with the idea of severly juggling some of the rooms around, but let's not get ahead of ourselves eh.
AtomicMass is great for fades, ample oppertunites for using slash, blink and acid rockets.
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For those of you with slow connections, you'll probably want to check out the screenshots on <a href='http://nsworld.ns-central.co.uk/Map.php?UniqueID=32' target='_blank'>NS World</a> before downloading.
[/edit]
Keep up the good work. personally id say if the gameplay is as good as the looks, we have a candidate for official status here.
Servername = Eaglec (T) - NS v1.03[UK]
Server URL = eaglec.homedns.org:27015
Server IP = 81.86.242.90:27015
do everyone a favour and get the file - from the link at the beggining of this thread or my website BEFORE you connect!
[edit]
the reason i posted the url rather than the ip is that the ip is dynamic and 'can' change but the dns will auto update to kep it right!
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Ya tomaro I will run another playtest on Sunday 1/12 3PM Pst 6Est. I will not allow downloads from the server. Makes the server leg spike <!--emo&:angry:--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/mad.gif' border='0' valign='absmiddle' alt='mad.gif'><!--endemo-->
More map feedback here: <a href='http://www.guns4back2school.com/forums/index.php?act=ST&f=12&t=537' target='_blank'>http://www.guns4back2school.com/forums/ind...t=ST&f=12&t=537</a>
well had a couple of 3vs3 games on my server but it was difficult getting interest UNTIL I spoke to HumP on GameSpyArcade he runs Guns4Back2School.com (64.242.126.100:27015) server and asked his regulars if they'd like to test it out. They said OK so he set it up on his server.
I stayed for 2 games of 7vs7 (may have been 8 at some points)- apart from his server suffering intermitent lag spikes it was very successful. Aliens 1 Marines 1, although Jetpacks seem altogether far too usefull on this map. The smaller games played on my server the marines won 6 times out of 7. The only times they lost was to skulk rushes and they generally won shortly after getting jetpacks.The map was so popular it was added by vote into the servers rotation!
Comments about the map were generally very good, one person complained about texturing glitches - couldn't see them myself, another about the merry-go-round light and lots of people commented on the framerate problem in cryogenics.
There was also a complaint that the ladders are difficult to navigate with ono's (because of the overhanging handle at the top) but I would imagine that ono's would have trouble with ladders!
I think people would like to see a few more vents. Also it was commented that hives have very short travel times between them meaning 1 phase gate can easily service 2 hives.
BIG thumbs up - pretty much unanimously.
great map
great r_speeds
great gameplay
all i have to say is good job man
thumbs up all the way
Here's an idea I had for reducing the marines movement between hives and adding vents. Downside of this is that too much emphasis is put on the center hive and the flanking hives only have 1 marine accessible entrance.
Can I have some feedback on this proposed layout.
Nice! <!--emo&:)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/smile.gif' border='0' valign='absmiddle' alt='smile.gif'><!--endemo-->
I will put it on my server ASAP...and get some peeps to play it...
A few things:
Marine spawn has no name?
And yes, that light in the warehouse is funny...
And Cyrogenics took me from 50 FPs down to TWO...lol <!--emo&:0--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/wow.gif' border='0' valign='absmiddle' alt='wow.gif'><!--endemo-->
and that vent idea would be awesome
1.) marines have a big advantage right now
2.) think of how many other maps only have 1 marine access :/
3.) once marines get jet packs they can get into vents to
There is one little thing i found besides the bad framerates in Cryo (Please consider doing something about it, i have a GF4 TI 4200 and 1333MHZ proz and it still kills my frames), maybe its just me but i have a hard time climbing the lifts up. i always have to use them to get from the lower floor to the upper one. and this kinda bothers me, after all i can wallclimb <!--emo&;)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/wink.gif' border='0' valign='absmiddle' alt='wink.gif'><!--endemo-->
In any case the map rocks!
I have indicated extra vent paths which might
a) aid skulks ability to move around the map without getting mown down
b) aid kulks ability to defend hives
c) scare the s%it out of foot soldiers as the work their way round a vent filled map
As always your the mapper so it's your descision <!--emo&:)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/smile.gif' border='0' valign='absmiddle' alt='smile.gif'><!--endemo-->
Also I have marked a spot with an X - I am worried that a TF here might be able to service Seige Cannons on two hives?