Hello all

This is the development thread for a Single player Campaign entitled "The Olympia Chronicles". Some of the content has been seen already in the Speedmapping contest thread from may/june 2011, and although I invested a good amount of the mapping time in planning and designing four maps (an intro map and 3 sp episodes), I only completed the intro map (basicaly a two minute movie, lol) and really only about 50% of the first episode map (having now seen the contest maps I realize I was not as far along with that map as I first thought). Maybe it was just as well I did not deliver anything to the judges, since it likely would have seemed too incomplete and thus disappointed. Oh well, not going to cry about it any more, so now I should get this thing rolling again This time I will be adding custom graphics and likely some mesh decos to MyLevel. Other than that I'm not changing my original plan - which is to get the first episode done and released! I figure it should take a month or so, depending on available mapping time - I should have at least a few hours a week through the rest of the summer, and more time on occasion...

Good to see this running again. Are you releasing the 3 maps individualy or as a whole pack? I am uncertain from your description...

want it ^^

At least you don't have to stand to the contest rules anymore.

Any new pictures?

Perhaps you should bring the old images (that are still relevant) and important information across so it's all contained in this thread.

yeah, it'd be mad to have a section on the upcoming maps page. bring in some pix and formatting and we've got a winner

hey thanks for the posts guys (already, heh!) yeah, pics coming up - i should show some older and newer areas and maybe some design stuff. some peeps might find them rather interesting (I saw nothing like these rooms in any tech parts of the released contest maps) some mappers might be scratching their heads a bit on some of the brushing i'm sure - some of it even scares the hell out of me

what is cool is not looking at the map for a few weeks and then when load it up you get a whole different view of things - like the galley in this ship is quite a cool idea, i didn't think too much about it at the time, but it's a simple but very human living space, like when crew are off-duty they might go hang out there. It's not just a place to eat and go to the bathroom, it's kinda like a rec-hall, where you could watch movies, interact, play games, or just enjoy the view while sitting on a couch. It does make sense when you consider that people who live and work in space for long periods should have such an accomodation. Same for the player's crew quarters room - which is really more like a small apartment. Anyways, you'll see. I should probably post a story synposis for episode 1 anyways (or maybe all three). I think I'd better release 1 episode at a time, other wise it could take a long time to get the whole thing together. After all the episodes are done I could link the maps together in one campaign (i guess).

I think I will make the intro map available for download (for curious folks). A few fellow mappers have already seen it and the feedback was good...

I'll be back soon

Here's the beginning - the Intro map sets up the location...

ISV-Olympia is on a routine mission (actually this is it's last mission, unbeknownst to it's crew, heh)



The first sp map starts on on-board (these pics are from the contest thread, and these areas have not really changed much)
This is an observation module near the players quarters... he actually has to go in here and read a panel...

Looking good great! This is definitely something I'll keep my eye on.

Oh....great skybox...i love great,space skyboxes,with stars,planets...

looking kinda like the spaceship from 2001. skybawks is awesome too. I approve

Now that sounds like tense, gripping gameplay!

I've always suppost that you are one of the best mappers in Unreal scene. Now I know: You are the BEST mapper in Unreal scene.

END OF TRANSMISSION.

thanks for the compliments but really, i'm just maybe a bit above average when it comes to ut99 mapping... i've been doing it for a long time so i can do some things, however, like most people that do this "activity", once you've got about 3 years under your belt (making game levels) you can start to design the things that come into your head (i.e. get really creative ) so it's at this point that the really talented people start to emerge cause you see it in their work. I really haven't advanced too much technically since about that time (3 years, or for around 2003-2004 period). Maybe my lighting got a bit better and my BSP skills improved enough to realize I was doing lots of bad practices, lol anyways, I just do this for a hobby, and I really mean it when i say i have no time for it, because i really have very little time, and except for maybe 300k map contests, it takes me a long time to get things done the way i want them. Other mappers of my period (i.e. "peers") like Swanky, Milb, derdak2rot, xyz, revelation, Johnny 6, HortonsWho etc - i could go on and on cause the list is big - many of these guys produced high quality maps in a really short amount of time, and their talent began to really show at around the 3 year mark. I think I can make a nice scene, but really for my content (about 50 maps released) although many look quite nice, only 10 maybe have decent gameplay, and that's just decent (not stellar). Well you do what you do, as always, the best maps for a game are usually made by the great players, regardless of the artistic side, I've only ever been an "average" gamer, so that sorta shows in my maps... okay, one last thing, probably the one mapper i admire most in the UE1 world was derdak2rot - easily the most well-rounded mapper I've ever known of, and he never produced anything that was bad in any way (I wish he was still around making maps and campaigns, same with swanky). Anyways, enough blabbering... I'm having some PC issues but I will upload some new pics asap...

Cheers

Okay, things are back to normal ala PC - here's some WIP pics from where I left off...

Map starts here...


first stop...


Next you head off to the galley for some breakfast (uh-oh broken lift...)


so you have to take a detour...


Some sight-seeing along the way...


alternate lift to get to the galley...


go down to level 1 to carry on your way...


some more pics to come...