21/10/2013 - "The Situation at Noork's Elbow" by Prophet, EBM, Noork by Pancho

[UB_]

Map Title: The Situation at Noork's Elbow
Author: Mr.Prophet, EBM, Noork by Pancho
From: 7 Bullets
Filename: jones-07-noork.unr
Music Files: 7B-Duel.umx, 7B-Jones.umx, 7B-USM.umx, Blank.umx




https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R2JAXmvPnf4

Synopsis: Jones is on his way to save Crowley and his other friends from the pirates. He reaches Noork's Elbow and the situation isn't good at all.

Discuss!

[salsaSkaarj]

This became one of my favorite maps of 7B, yet at first I thought it was a pain in the *ss.
It starts with being shot (and killed) without even knowing where it came from. Then a bit later another spread out group of snipers messed up my day. Eventually I managed to go down into seemingly a pirate's den.
The first time one plays this (and in my case with total lack of strategy) it's frustrating: snipers and bots, YUCK!!
But playing some other (equally frustrating) maps somehow woke me up and made me change my game completely. And this is one of those maps which suits my game perfectly - no hordes attacking and many ways to take advantage of the surroundings, especially when going down the lift (spoiler alert).

[spoiler]Going down the lift don't descend completely to the bottom but cling on to the sides and stay on the ledges. From there it's possible to use the sniper rifle to eliminate some of those pirates below. This is also a place where intelligent use (especially) of the ASMD combi (the plasmarifle) (and DP secondary/razorjack) will greatly increase your chances of survival at the bottom. It's possible to reduce the number of pirates remaining below to 2 or 3 before having to drop down and face them.[/spoiler]

So ... years ago I would have said this map is visually outstanding but gameplay-wise totally off-balance. Now, I'ld say visually it's good but far from outstanding, but gameplay is top-notch for me.

edited: ASMD is U1, so plasmarifle is the correct weapon + lots of spelling errors

[UB_]

Note that I had to do this MOTW this time cause DD is out for RL issues for a while, until further notice.

Anyway about the map.

IT WAS SO HARD
until I realized the Plasma Rifle beam was so powerful.

[Mister_Prophet]

People more adept at botplay in Unreal and (more so) UT will have an easier time playing Seven Bullets and levels like this especially. Even then...still rough for those two or three big group fights that appear in the campaign, this map having one of them. You can gimp the lift sequence to get a good cover spot, yes, and we never patched that because it is a fair enough exploit without being completely foolproof.

I wish EBM still frequented the forums so he could comment on this level and the things he did for it because I honestly forget more and more about things when these levels pop up for MOTW.

[salsaSkaarj]

... You can gimp the lift sequence to get a good cover spot, yes, and we never patched that because it is a fair enough exploit without being completely foolproof.

Why would it be considered an exploit.Taking cover behind a rock isn't an exploit, nor is running backwards while bombarding the enemy with the Flak, or sniping from distance (haha sniping from distance as compared to sniping from within arms reach)? To me it's using whatever means are necessary to save my *ss. And yes it isn't foolproof and it's not something one would automatically do on the first run (although now I tend to look for those opportunities).

[Buff Skeleton]

Yeah, it's exactly those kinds of "exploits" that I love about maps made for this engine in general. It allows you to sorta do things you'd do in real life that the game didn't intend to allow, which other (modern) games often make impossible with their excessive overuse of collision models that restrict movement, limited jumping/mantling ability, or just plain linear (and boring) level design. Being able to actually UTILIZE the environment of a level is what makes it go from being a pretty thing to look at while shooting the bad guys to an actual place. You're really THERE when you make use of clever hiding places or vantage points that normally wouldn't be considered valid, as long as you don't do anything too cheap to get to them.

[Mister_Prophet]

Why would it be considered an exploit.Taking cover behind a rock isn't an exploit, nor is running backwards while bombarding the enemy with the Flak, or sniping from distance (haha sniping from distance as compared to sniping from within arms reach)? To me it's using whatever means are necessary to save my *ss. And yes it isn't foolproof and it's not something one would automatically do on the first run (although now I tend to look for those opportunities).

I call it an exploit because technically I didn't intend for the player to be able to circumvent the lift ride once they engage it. The ribs on the walls were an oversight. A patch would have made them smooth so they couldn't use the walls as a ledge, but players seemed to react positively to being able to do that and it didn't inherently break the sequence, since you can still make a mistake or get shot or fall and get yourself in a way worse position.

[Semfry]

Turns out the last run of this level is still on the forum, so I guess my old comments still apply:

The level is reduxxed well and a more advanced version of the sniper thing from Xidia is welcome. This was the level where the bot thing began to grate on me the first time around, although namely because of that elevator bottom, which I still think is pretty much pure "learn by dying" if you don't know the elevator sides exploit, and was extremely frustrating the first time around. The cutscene before the Scarred one fight was amusing, although the fight is pretty easy as usual.

I'd agree it's probably the weakest of the Pirate maps, but, like Noork itself, it's pretty much a transition map between more substantial areas, so that's natural.

[UB_]

Checking all 7B umx files. Just wow, a lot of stuff was left unused, also some of the tracks didn't age well at all under the umx format 7B-Duel feels like mono.

[Mister_Prophet]

It's hard for me to remember file names, but I know things were unused. I had a conversation with someone recently about this, how we had two different musicians whose content was made at different times. Darkbeat's music was years older, salvaged from a Total Conversion I was a part of with eVOLVE and some other really talented people, whereas Zynthetic's music was made during, if not late in development of Seven Bullets.

[redeye]

map was cool from the stock map

[Mister_Prophet]

I actually want to take this opportunity to give a big kudos to eVOLVE for the voices used in the campaign. Watching the playthrough video (it's a really good playthrough video) and watching the cutscene between Crowley and Drago...I admit that I cringe a bit during replays, but that's more to do with how static and un-dynamic the character models and setting looks when the voices play. The voices themselves...gotta say, it must have been a feat for James to have to speak such hammy lines whilst proving several distinct voices for all the campaign's talking characters. And to do this scene no less...basically having a conversation with himself...this must have been really hard for him. The quality of the voices transcends the quality of the cutscenes by a mile. Mapping is learning and the lesson I learned here is that Unreal doesn't need cutscenes

[salsaSkaarj]

... the lesson I learned here is that Unreal doesn't need cutscenes

True, it doesn't need it. But sometimes a cutscenes adds some value. In 7B in particular soem cutscenes made it feel like a movie in which the viewer player a major role. The cutscene in this map wasn't one of those unfortunately and drags on too long.

About the playthrough video: hmm I thought that map was way shorter, in fact I had completely forgotten that the first real encounter with The Scarred One was shortly after the lift part.
Ah, that lift part - the video makes it seem so short but in my experience that section alone took longer than this whole playthrough.

Aaarghh, why is time always a limiting factor That playthrough makes me want to play 7B again.

[UB_]

That's the second encounter with the Scarred One.

[salsaSkaarj]

That's the second encounter with the Scarred One.

Really?
I do recall seeing him earlier, but combat (which is what I meant with encounter)?