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12/01/2016 - "Noork's Elbow" by Juan Pancho Eekels

Each week a single map is discussed here in detail.

Moderators: Semfry, Sat42, Jigoku, UB_

UB_
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Subject: 12/01/2016 - "Noork's Elbow" by Juan Pancho Eekels

Post Posted: 12 Jan 2016, 11:12

Map Title: Noork's Elbow
Author: Juan Pancho Eekels
From: Unreal
Filename: Noork.unr
Music Files: Fourth.umx




Video Playthrough:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pjrpQo6rM2I

Synopsis: Prisoner 849 makes its way to the ruins in the distance and kills the last few Mercenaries.

Discuss!

User avatar Anreel
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Subject: Re: 12/01/2016 - "Noork's Elbow" by Juan Pancho Eekels

Post Posted: 12 Jan 2016, 13:29

I thought this was the most beautiful and photogenic level, the only level I made screenshots for my desktop. It is ironic that Unreal's graphics were mindblowing yet screenshots looked bland.

UB_
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Subject: Re: 12/01/2016 - "Noork's Elbow" by Juan Pancho Eekels

Post Posted: 12 Jan 2016, 13:36

It's one ugly map, you can see the skybox borders and the ruins entrance are completely underdeveloped detail-wise.
Pancho's worst.

User avatar Anreel
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Subject: Re: 12/01/2016 - "Noork's Elbow" by Juan Pancho Eekels

Post Posted: 12 Jan 2016, 13:52

Well I thought aesthetically it looked amazing with the two setting suns and the starship on cliffs.

UB_
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Subject: Re: 12/01/2016 - "Noork's Elbow" by Juan Pancho Eekels

Post Posted: 12 Jan 2016, 15:24

That's the big redeeming part of the build yeah.

By the way the Mantas are once again spawned by a really small trigger.

User avatar FXANBSS
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Subject: Re: 12/01/2016 - "Noork's Elbow" by Juan Pancho Eekels

Post Posted: 12 Jan 2016, 17:12

Pancho loves MANTAS in small triggers.
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User avatar Sat42
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Subject: Re: 12/01/2016 - "Noork's Elbow" by Juan Pancho Eekels

Post Posted: 13 Jan 2016, 00:01

Talking about skybox borders, they've all become far more visible in the retail maps since I switched from Direct3D to OpenGL - now that's just one of those things that upset me! You can now see the borders in almost all of Unreal's stock skyboxes. Even if the line(s) is (are) relatively soft, it ruins the immersion for me. Heck, even something like DOM-Sesmar - the skybox for which I always thought was great - shows off some ugly lines now, which really detract from the experience. It's like you need extra care nowadays to make a skybox which avoids these issues (and it's possible). It means most retail skyboxes would need to be remade - if you were to preserve the original effect, when such lines were invisible (or at the very least, FAR more subdued as to pass unnoticed).

That's one of the disadvantages of having better, sharper renderers! :P

P.S.: my comments on this map will come later.
Nali: Magic or Telekinesis
Waffnuffly wrote:It's tarydium-doped smoothies. Drunk by the player, I mean. The player is tripping balls. The whole game actually takes place in a large city and the player thinks he's on an alien world.

User avatar Mister_Prophet
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Subject: Re: 12/01/2016 - "Noork's Elbow" by Juan Pancho Eekels

Post Posted: 13 Jan 2016, 17:38

My first time through here was slow. Subsequent playthroughs were rather swift. I always liked the location, though.

Hilariously, my first time through the game I approached the Vandora ruins and waited for the drawbridge to lower...and got gibbed instantly because I was too close to it, followed by a message saying "...player had a heart attack."

:)

User avatar Semfry
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Subject: Re: 12/01/2016 - "Noork's Elbow" by Juan Pancho Eekels

Post Posted: 14 Jan 2016, 14:09

This is a simple transition level but it does the job of giving breathing room between two much larger maps. That this is the only time you meet a Mercenary Elite in the main game (unless there's one in the Mothership too) is kind of odd, especially as most players probably don't even notice it; it's like this was supposed to be a mini-boss to end the Merc segment but most players just snipe it and completely nullify anything special about it. There's not much to the level outside of that although the water secret is nice.
Formerly Mman

UB_
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Subject: Re: 12/01/2016 - "Noork's Elbow" by Juan Pancho Eekels

Post Posted: 14 Jan 2016, 16:03

Mercenaries originally played a bigger role in a bunch of cut maps... same as Slith really.
ImageImage

User avatar Sat42
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Subject: Re: 12/01/2016 - "Noork's Elbow" by Juan Pancho Eekels

Post Posted: 17 Jan 2016, 23:11

Mister_Prophet wrote:Hilariously, my first time through the game I approached the Vandora ruins and waited for the drawbridge to lower...and got gibbed instantly because I was too close to it, followed by a message saying "...player had a heart attack."

:)


Nice one, Prophet :P

As for me, I loved this transition map the first time round: the contrast between the alien structure and the temple was really cool, and yeah the skybox is nice (despite lingering issues with the "borders"). I can't believe I missed that many secrets throughout the game, especially since I did a second complete playthrough during which I was quite thorough... Semfry's post alerted me to this one, but then again it's entirely possible that I just forgot about it since it isn't that memorable (compared to, say, the one in Harobed Village).
And yes, there's a Mercenary Elite in the Mothership.
Also, Noork's Elbow is quite unique in featuring two possible exits for Prisoner 849 :) This concept could have been explored more (and admittedly would have been used a lot if the original hub map concept had seen the light of day).

P.S.: I recall Hellscrag bringing everyone's attention to the fact that "Noork" is "Kroon" spelt backwards (and Kroon was the captain of the Vortex Rikers). Just your typical game designers having fun with easter eggs!
Nali: Magic or Telekinesis
Waffnuffly wrote:It's tarydium-doped smoothies. Drunk by the player, I mean. The player is tripping balls. The whole game actually takes place in a large city and the player thinks he's on an alien world.

UB_
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Subject: Re: 12/01/2016 - "Noork's Elbow" by Juan Pancho Eekels

Post Posted: 18 Jan 2016, 13:27

The funny thing about the Mercenary Elite is how he's literally weaker than 90% of the Mercenaries you face in Terraniux :P The big jump from Inoxx's gameplay to Pancho's.

Also I'm amazed how one of the Terraniux ship textures is wrong in this map too (not that you can see it in both Harobed and Noork) but I guess Pancho just copy-pasted and never bothered fixing it. Terraniux rotation is also wrong compared to Harobed's.
ImageImage

User avatar FXANBSS
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Subject: Re: 12/01/2016 - "Noork's Elbow" by Juan Pancho Eekels

Post Posted: 18 Jan 2016, 17:39

That happens when a game is being done a bit in a hurry.
Inoxx forgot to tell Pancho that his mercenaries will be tough. :P
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