Update: Reclaimer is about 90% complete and is a 70% remake of Narrows. It is located in the FOG zone hundreds of feet under the map on Forge Island. The other 30% of this map is simply additions and edits on and around Narrows, these additions and edits include, man cannons located at the original overshield and active camo spawn, a three floor building/structure placed at the far end of each side, and some extra cover on and around the map. Since the map is not finnished it is possible that more things may be added to the map. Final pics and videos will be added soon!!! And to those people that think this map was a stupid idea, please give it a chance. This map is fog first, playable space/map later. The idea was to make something different. Original Post: Spoiler Yesterday i had a map idea to make a sort of spiritual successor to Narrows. I started on paper and at first it was basically a Colosseum Wall in the center with a base at each end (yeah horrible). Then DING! i had an idea, why not take the basic bridge format from Narrows and edit/add to it? So that is what i am doing! I have included the main top arch of Narrows, the 8 ramps near the middle, the rear sections edited (mirrored Man Cannon sides) and the entire bottom part of narrows including the OS and AC spawn. Now this map is 100% Clean! No gaps, lips or texture glitches in any of the connected pieces, If i have an intersecting point of say four 4x4 Flat Block Pieces its as clean as a + sign. Now the arch is angled accordingly not just large jumps in angles. The bottom sniper spawn that overlooks the lower bridge is slightly angled at about 12 degrees before it flattens out. The 3rd lower floor where Overshields and Active Camo spawn has been edited, it now has a slightly larger block in place allowing man cannons to shoot you across the lower section. The basic bridge uses about 5k in budget leaving another 5k to add to it. I have finished all of the basic stuff to the map. This map is on Forge island and is being built way outside of the map under water. Now for those of you that don't know, being way under the water does not give you an underwater effect. Instead it gives you a thick Fog setting! Now i am sure a lot of people are thinking "WOW that is so stupid, you cant see anything under there", well if that is the case then do not download it when it is complete. I wanted to do something different and i did. It is fun for infection and turns a large to medium size map into a close quarters map, that and Promethean Vision is your friend! You can see about 10 feet in front of you, after that it gradually get worse and worse. This gives it a really cool setting. Now i am messing with a few effects down here but Juicy seems to work well, normally i hate using effects but with out them its a high contrast blue nightmare. Final Build: Spoiler Marvel at the awe inspiring map Reclaimer! A dark and gloomy rendition inspired from the map Narrows. Are you a lost soul trying to survive the horde of flood that seek to devour everything in their wake? How about a stratagem, there to take the enemies objective with lethal force and to protect your own with upmost dedication? Or perhaps you like bullets, lots and lots of bullets, battling against your enemies with your friends for a chance at pure unadultered bragging rights? If none of them, then you must be a lone wolf, you don't rely on anyone, you're there to strike down everyone in your path, no mercy just pure carnage? Pics Spoiler (pics and videos coming as soon as that map is finnished) Video Spoiler (pics and videos coming as soon as that map is finnished) Beta Build: Spoiler Most of the map is complete. It is now playable but there are a few spots that will cause you to walk right off the map as well as unaccessible areas in the bases from the ground (2nd and 3rd floor). There is no map boundries so places on top of the map can be exploited, also when falling off you fall for about 15-20 seconds before dieing. Weapon placement needs a retouch and much of the map detail has to be placed. "These are Beta pics and do not reflect final map." Pics Spoiler (pics coming tonight after work) Alpha Build: (pics) Spoiler Most of the map has gaps and unfinnished areas that will be blocked off. All of the railing and cover on the top of the bridge has not been placed yet. Currently there are a few tricks that can increase the LOS in the fog but i have not done that yet. "These are Alpha pics and do not reflect final map." Pics Spoiler
If you're going for a casual, non-competitive type map, then the fog is the bee's knees. This sounds interesting and terrible at the same time, so I hope you can pull this together nicely. Good luck to you sir. Happy forging.
it really depends... I would say that if there are no long LOS then the fog limiting visibility may not be a huge factor. Just design the level FOR the fog, rather than just dropping it into the fog, and you should be able to pull it off. Don't stay married to your narrows idea if certain aspects of it don't work too well in the fog. Marry them together, and it could work. GOod luck!
Thanks for the input, the map is coming together nicely, though i have hit a few issues. I plopped a full size perfect remake of Narrows with very few additions or edits into the map into the fog zone. What i am having issues with now is the LOS has gotten worse since i removed the green screens around the edges of the zone. The green screens can be seen anywhere in the fog and it helps to use them so you don't go outside of the zone boundaries. I deleted them and it causes the fog to appear worse since the structure cannot cast a shadow in the fog far enough. The green screen at about 5 feet away appear as a lighter shade of the fog, not a bright green, so in a way i have found out they will extend your LOS. When the structure is far away in the fog it appears as the same color as the fog hence making it invisible. When a green screen is behind that structure it can be seen Much farther away since the green screen looks like a lighter shade of the fog. So i now have to implement a green screen box around Narrows. The next thing is i will need to have more detailed items in the map in close proximity otherwise you will just get lost. Other than that it is looking good.
I wonder if you could post a couple pics of what you mean by using the greenscreens in the fog/water? also, if you can avoid using them it would be good since they are 100 cr each I think. would using two grids work okay? I know that people shy away from using them in many cases, but in this case it might be okay and necessary. Just a thought...
those are bumpy, aren't they? And now they are very expensive to place too... like 150 or so now that F.I. has them in the Buildings pallet. is the problem that you need to create boundaries for while you are forging to keep your monitor from dying, or that you are doing this for some aspect of the gameplay? curious
when forging underwater, use teleporters instead of greenscreens for your guide pieces. While you can see greenscreens a good distance, teleporters (along with mancannons, and hardlight shield) can be seen from a much further distance, and are not tinted or obstructed by fog. Also, you cannot see grids underwater. To my experience at least. It would be cool to see what you've got here though.
I will be posting pictures in the next 30-60 minutes. These are alpha pics so their is next to nothing inside my map. I have found a couple reasons as to why the fog shade changed drastically, i will fix these issues when the map is finnished. I did not want to post any till the map is in beta but i will update my OP with pics. Thanks for the feedback.
The map is now in its final Beta Stages, My work schedule has changed so i have not touched it in about a day. However i played Team Swat, Team Infinity Slayer, Infinity Rumble and Flood with 8 people. Needless to say FFA is wicked fun since the spawns are geared to push everyone to the middle of the map. I am reaching budget but still have about 1.25k to add extra detail into the map and fill in a few holes. I did encounter an issue with weapon placement. I put a great deal of weapons on the map but it looked horrible with the icons in your face so i downsized the number of wepons. But it is still sort of lame looking. Maybe i can get some help with the community on how to balance out weapons? Should i use ordanance or simply map default weapon placement? What kind of weapons should i put in the map and where should they be (top mid, bottom mid, snipe red, snipe blue etc...)?
To be honest the water really kills the map. The design may/may not be good simply because you can't see anything.
I like the idea, of a enemy coming out of the fog to surprise you.. Just like that, you are gone in the fog and the enemy doesn't see you. I can see that being hectic, stealth gameplay.. Would like to test that one time. Can't say much about the map though, its like Narrows right? I can imagine it being hard to forge down there, good luck finishing this map. (Maybe implement some extraction crates as lights, or light orbs themselves on both sides?)
Thank you!!! Yes it is very hard to forge down there. Since your site is limited, large objects zoom out so far it is a guessing game. Magnets and Edit Coordinates are your friend lol. I have not thought about the extraction pallet yet. I have been using things from the Dominion Pallet but i will check through all of the gametype specific objects when i finnish the last few things for the map. You are also limited to four lights and they don't realy work well down there. But i will place some of them in as markers. Stealth is awsome, distance camping (sniper camping) is pretty much eradicated You would have to spam promethean vision and be good with a sniper to do it, even then its realy hard. But moving in with stealth and a shotgun is sure OP. In my beta game with 7 others we tried FFA and i noticed by accident my spawn points spawned FFA players to close together and in the middle of the map. I fixed this by adding more spawn points but close to the middle. The way they are set up players want to go to the middle, this creates a fast paced game and is a lot of fun.
I have played this with a lot of people, you can see fine and it is a lot of fun. I have 4 requests to make other maps down here in the fog. A Monster Trucks map, Call of Dukey Nnacht der untoten map, Griffball Court and Lockout. Will i do these maps? Maybe Lockout, but still the people i have been playing with realy like it. Add me on Xbox Live if anyone wants to run some beta tests. GT: S429 "But the map is'nt for everyone, if you don't like it then oh well."
The map is playable and fun, however i still need to make tweaks with the budget since i am capped out. So a few more days should do it. I need some weapons and a few other tweaks and shes done.