[RELEASED] Turbo's entry: "The Triamid Ruins"

[Turboman]

This is my submission to the contest, called "The Triamid Ruins"

The story follows you, an archeologist who pays a visit to an excavation site on a remote planet.
The map will start onboard a spaceship, and the player will be dropped off on the planet and has to find the archeologists he's supposed to work with... unfortunately there's nobody to be found, alive that is.

Exploration is the key to finishing the map, it shouldn't last very long though since i butchered/never put in all of the awesome features i had in mind


don't think about swimming in that ocean

Download contest version here (UPDATED V3 LINK):
http://www.multiupload.com/4QJW1T7PYZ

v2 17-06-2011
-got rid of alot of clutter bsp, reducing filesize
-some changes made to the puzzles
-added in more cut content, now 30% longer then before
-added pathing for ai

v3 17-06-2011
-added translator messages!!!
-added some population to the intro map
-added enemies and items to the map (play in easy to avoid them and experience the original intent) (open console "open tridig1?difficulty=0")
-changed the finale to something better

original thread entry here
[spoiler]-i'll edit this into a better intro post later once i get the time, oh and then there'll be screens too!-

so far my project is coming along nicely, i'm pretty much working on the fly, making up most things as i build them, i can't reveal much about it (because i haven't made up alot yet ), but here's a few facts i'm working with since i started:
-The project will be set on a mysterious planet, with a mysterious past, this means exploring the ruins of an ancient civilization and finding clues, exploration will likely be the key in this map.
-And no, the project wont be set on napali, that means no nalis n stuff (not sure about the skaarj n co though)
-The project wont follow the formulaic unreal story of OMG CRASH LONE SURVIVOR GUNZ BLAZING BADABOOOMBOOM, its possibly more oriented around exploration and puzzling.
-The project will be set in the unreal universe, but won't make any direct connections to unreal
-I'm taking my inspiration from movies like Pitch Black, or that video game The Dig, so it'll be this gloomy warm surreal atmosphere around the place.

I'm currently experimenting with the idea of a no weapons map, this means the player has to improvise to get around killing enemies (traps w/e), the only problem here is that in coop people can spawn with their entire arsenal, pretty much ruining the idea.
Plus, what do people think about being completely vulnerable against that horsefly or pupae?[/spoiler]

[TheIronKnuckle]

as long as you tone down the damage, I wouldn't mind being vulnerable to the little bastards.
Also, do remember that no custom content is allowed and it has to be super-compatible across all platforms. No fancy 227 features

Map sounds interesting!

[UB_]

I loved The Dig.

[Turboman]

I know i should be posting screenshots right now, but i'm not at my main pc

Also, do remember that no custom content is allowed and it has to be super-compatible across all platforms. No fancy 227 features

no worries, i'm not looking into fancy new features, just going to do something crazy with the good ole fashion unreal stuff.
after all tower of shrakitha or tarnation did some nice stuff with them.

I loved The Dig.

Yeah me too, i'm hoping to get something similar to the structures in that game, cept it'll probably dont even look remotely close all those organic structures and designs... maybe in 10 years we'd see games like that, for now i'd have to try to get the most out of unreal's limited stock content

[FraGnBraG]

pitch dark = three suns... that would be cool

[Turboman]

I haven't given up yet, although i've been pretty silent about this project, i actually did some work on it!

i'll be honest here, while i was making good progress in the first two weeks, i've completely dropped all work on this map after that, several issues (notably, i wasn't really pleased with the concept execution and outcome) have hampered any progress.

now with only a few hours left, i'm going to try to turn this mess into something playable by stitching all unfinished areas together into an incomprehensive mess, the degree of playability depends on how i spend these last hours

oh i still don't have a title

[Turboman]

here's the download, i'll tidy up the thread later with screenshots or so

i feel kinda ashamed of uploading this
LINK IN ENTRY POST

oh and i thought the name Triamid Ruins would suit mah map.

[AlCapowned]

You pulled off the 'alien world' feel very, very well.

[Legendslayer222]

Just finished this, it's interesting.
[spoiler]Incredible sky, in fact I liked all the lighting here.

That spaceship seemed very empty, especially as you went past lots of areas that seemed like they should have been attended. However the ship reminded me a lot of Vortex Rikers in some ways and was very cool.
The ruin area itself was a very interesting exploration map, I was wondering frequently what these aliens must have been like. Hiking to the top of one of the structures and observing the pyramids (triamids?) with their ruined glory was rewarding. I wish I had those plant making skills for my forest map. [/spoiler]

[Jblade]

I played this map without reading the map or commentary first and immediatly thought of the Dig even without knowing you based it on that in advance, so you did an amazing job of paying homage to that game It's too bad you couldn't get your final vision completed, but it's a nice and atmospheric map to walk through.

[Turboman]

almost done with V3, bear with me, contest almost over

[editor Dave]

You chose a nice fresh theme (for Unreal) and I liked exploring the isle. I was fascinated of the uncommon architecture of the temple parts (Now I know what I'm going to expect when I play Firestorm ). It is a pity that you couldn't include the gamplay elements which could have definitely improved the playing experience.

[Turboman]

Thanks for the feedback guys, i'm glad you enjoyed it! i wasn't really sure about the visuals myself as i've never attempted something like this before

Overall i'm quite satisfied at the outcome right now
v1: complete trash
v2: finally playable
v3: more a bit like i intended, consider this a short demo of what "could have"
I'd suggest you to try the latest updated v3 version i just uploaded half an hour ago

[TheIronKnuckle]

great map. attention to detail was amazing. The architecture was awesome. Technical execution felt a bit iffy. very atmospheric

[UB_]

I'm torn between this and Leo's map for the 1st place. I think yeah, this map takes the cake for me. Didn't feel much of "The Dig" until the end of the first island, but overall it's good. Gameplay is also tough on Unreal difficulty since there's not much health and Mantas like to piss off players in narrow environments.