My Christmas Present to you is an early look at a map I'm working on I've been working on a new map and decided to make it as colorful as I possibly could. I've seen too many gray maps and am getting quite bored with it, so hopefully this will be one of those breathes of fresh air. The map is set up in a circle. The middle room is themed on a reactor core. We'll just say this place is the power hub for the whole map and it definitely looks like it. The room it'self is the most finished on the map and really only has one change I'm waiting to see if I have budget for to implement(it's only 80 budget, but there are more important things to implement before I do that). Here's three views of it from each of it's exits(orange, blue, and red): It's hard to see, but there is a blue rim around the edge of the room that sits pretty much next to the walls. It's very noticeable in game, but since it's a thin line it didn't show up that well on the Render. The next room that is close to completion is the Orange room. I've themed it on a mainframe room. It's probably the smallest of the wings and connects to both Red and Blue via the sideways rooms on the edges of it. Screen shots of it: Left of the door from yellow View of the end from the middle View of the right from the end View of top mid Orange, while being mostly complete still has a bit to be done. I have a few more plans for the supercompters that make up the end(the platform xls) and the side rooms have not been fully finished yet(hence why I havent shown them). Also, the floor is bland. I plan on fixing this once I know I have enough budget. Blue is still a work in progress. I've themed it after some sort of storage facility. As you can guess there are a lot of stunt ramps in there. Blue leads to both Orange and Red. These pics will probably change soon(as Im not 100% happy with the room), but here's what blue looks like now: From outside the door from orange View from the hallway that leads to orange to the middle The back end The entrance from orange as viewed from the corridor to red Blue still needs a lot of work. The floor is bland and the walls need a few little extras. Also, it has a few holes in it and the colliseum wall inside it needs fixed(or else Id show you the whole corridor from orange. However I like the grid up top(it's used to simulate florescent lights as Orange and Red take up my light usage) and generally like the shape of the room. If I have a lot of budget left over, I'll be putting in some shield doors on glass parts to further the blue theme. Finally there is red room, however I haven't really even started on red. I've got $3000 budget left, so thats plenty to make it work. Red is going to be themed on an office and is going to be the only 2 floor wing in the facility. Wish I could give pics, but I only have the wall splitting the door from orange up and a light so it's not pretty at all. Hopefully I can get red done in the 1500 range and have enough budget left to finish all the garnishes I want to do. Maps not perfect yet(has a few bumps I need to iron out even in the rooms that are closer to being done), but it's shaping up. Figured you guys would like to see something thats probably a month away from being visually done. I'll finish Double Cross first, but this thing has become my baby and I'll try to make it as pretty and playable as possible
This map looks pretty Legit. I really like the color layout of your map. The aesthetics so far, look beautiful. But is this map a FFA type map or Slayer? Or even both? The ceiling in the first few pictures is what caught my attention, it adds a lot more aesthetic detail to your map, and so, I consider this map to be creative. Nice job, and Merry Christmas.
When I started it, I had planned on a small scale invasion map(with some aesthetics in the blue room that would make it look like someone dug their way in) with the last phase of the invasion being planting a bomb at the reactor. The map may be too small for that, so it's probably going to be a FFA map. This is my first asymmetrical map, so I'll need to test and what not to see what is possible. I'll make all gametypes save race playable on it though:O BTW, the planned change to the yellow room is doing something similar to the floor as the ceiling if I have enough platforms(8) and enough budget(80) when Im done with the rest of the map.
Its a really nice looking map, and Im sure it plays fine and all, but I have one teeny question. In the first picture is a colourful object with a light inside. It looks like it would cause massive framerate problems. Maybe not though. Either way, nice map, looking forward to release. If you need help testing, give me a shout.
It has no light inside it. It's just a number of custom power ups. I was worried about framerate as well, but have tested it with 4 player split screen and had no slowdown in that room. Course that might change with online testing, but we'll see.
the problem lies in the fact that you have colored everything different colors. Generally, its only pleasing to the eye when there are the Red and Blue team areas, and the neutral areas of the map are all one color.
Well generally the bases are the only thing that is sectioned off, while the neutral area is fluid(so in effect 3 sections of the map). Is it too bad to have 4 sections with 4 colors? Would it make sense to have 4 sections 3 colors?
I don't think that's a problem. The colors aren't random, they lead to their corresponding area, so I think it works. As long as you aren't getting any frame rate problems, you're fine.
Yumil, I like what you're doing here. You're going for something really unique here, don't back down... go all the way! COLORS! Shoot me a message (my gamertag is Insane54) sometime and I'll do my best to get you testing and any design help I've got. With something that looks as unique as this, you could have a feature on your hands here, should it play well enough to back up its colorfulness.
Yellow is the best color I could think of for the reactor. I chose orange because purple is too much like blue, green is too much like yellow, pink is pretty much colorless, and brown sucks. Just looking for contrast.
Personally, I think you should remove the grid and not use both yellow and orange at the same time for two different areas of the map, like silence said. The reason behind the grids removal is because It always seems to give me mad framerate issues whenever I play a map on it because it functions similar to glass and shield doors (I think, don't quote me.) Green, Orange, Purple, Blue, and Red stand apart from each other very well when set up right. I'd suggest those five. Maybe Pink for a neutral area despite it being very color lacking.
Not quite sure about this one, certainly looks interesting, but if its just three rooms connected by a central hub it may not play that well. Color wise, as long as its not random colors and they are at least somewhat uniform you'll be fine.
I actually have the same worry. It'll have to be playtested for sure and I'll probably have to change a few things up for gameplays sake. It's not to that point yet, but it's definitely going to happen. On the colors. The main thing is to get the effect in the reactor core(that pillar of light in the middle of the antennas) I have to use custom powerups. They are Yellow. I could possible make the center room orange and change the orange room, but the custom powerups fit with the yellow color. I will consider removing the grid if it causes framerate issues. That'll be a playtest thing I know I'm making the map aesthetic right now and it's really my goal right now to make a visually pleasing map. However, gameplay is just as important for any map and thusly once the map reaches it's first milestone(all rooms complete) it will be thoroughly tested and changed in order to ensure good gameplay while trying to keep with the aesthetics. It'll be a long process, but hopefully it turns into a finely polished gem. Hopefully the fact that the rooms are interconnected making 3 entrances to each of the 4 rooms(the hub and the 3 wings) will help promote good gameplay(given good spawns and flow), but it may not be enough. Maybe I'm making too small a map in order to budget the color, maybe it'll be fine for small groups. Playtesting will be key for deciding this. Again, I've got 2 rooms basically done with a 3rd partially and 4th to totally do, so it's not even close to play test ready.