= Empire = Empire is one of my best works (so far). It's a completely closed in map. It consists of three floors. The map encourages close quarters combate, but still doesn't take away long range combat. I also decided to take a step away from what popular maps do. I wanted to put a heavy weapon in the map like a rocket launcher, but the encouraged up close and personal gameplay would result in rockets causing more suicdes than kills. But the plasma launcher is practically useless for close combat. So I thought, "No one ever uses the fuel rod cannon. ...Why not?" And so a placed the big ol' banana slugger out. You see, the fuel rod cannon provides a heavy weapon, but since its shots ricochete, and its splash damage and blast radius is so low compared to other explosives, you won't blow yourslef up half the time. But I still included the new things I've been seeing from other maps like the 'jump cannon' trick. Basically, I put a man cannon in the middle of the map on the bottom floor. But the man cannon doesn't work unless you jump in it. I also took in the mind of gameplay. I didn't want players to have to race to get down to another floor to get around. So I built holes on the flooring for the upper floor and many ramps connecting the middle and lower floors. And I also wanted the map to not just play good, I wanted it to look, and feel good. I decorated as much as I could to make this map as appealing as I could. I wanted players to be able to just be able to stop and admire what they use for their playing field. For this isn't just a battlefield. It's also it's own form of art. All maps are. And for them to go unoticed for it should be a crime of it's own. So I wanted to grab their attention. So yeah, time for the screenshots. Lower floor and connecting ramps to the middle. Center of the lower floor with the man cannon and fuel rod. Upper floor and man cannon exit. Side hallway of middle floor. And that's my map. I do hope you enjoy my map.
This looks interesting, but a couple of things jump out at me. The windows that you use as floor look like they might be bumpy or cause some frame rate issues with the light around. Have you had any issues like that in your games? Also, I'd suggest making your pics a bit bigger. Choose not to resize them when hosting, and the forum itself will keep them from being too large.
This looks like a great idea. I love the fact that you selected the Fuel Rod Gun as a power weapon. The multiple floors look nifty, and I hope that it lives up to the idea that you don't need to race around the floors. I'm downloading this map and playing it with my pals. I might repost to say how it goes. [br][/br]Edited by merge: I just played the map in a custom game, and the other guy was right in pointing out the frame-rate lag. It gets very intense around the middle of the map. The windows may look pretty, but they sure crank up the lag meter. The other issue I've found is the Fuel Rod Gun. It's got way too much ammo. However, I must applaud you for your overall nifty map design and good conservation of Forge resources.
Me and Turtle Warlord played it 1v1. It's SUPER laggy in the middle of the map, you might want to ditch all the windows. Also, FRG has too much ammo when it spawns, tone it down a bit.
Thanks for letting me know. I'll try to update the post soon, but it'll be hard. I'm a bit lazy. XD DX But I am not to sure I can say goodbye to my windows. T^T I'll see what other things might effect the lag.
You should ditch the lights. They drop the frame rate a lot. Plus you should be able to use other pieces for color which would make the light a useless object anyway. Try not to be lazy with your maps, as you pointed out. You should turn your full attention on them trying to perfect them. Never should you just give up and say it is good enough. Try to always search for one more thing to improve each time you play a game on it. If you do that, I bet your maps would be at least four times better. Remember patience is key. Never rush through a map to post it. You should first draw out a plan of your map or build it in a different program. That way you can get a visual picture of how your map would look. Then when forging it you can tweak it to perfection. Good luck on the forging, and remember don't be lazy with your maps.