Did you know? Every one of these messages is hand-typed live, just for you.

[ut] "Vacillations of a Victorian Vagrant"

The archive for the 8th Anniversary Speedmapping Contest entries and discussion.

Moderators: Semfry, ividyon

User avatar Semfry
Trustee Member Trustee Member
Posts: 2068
Joined: 12 Nov 2007, 02:43
Location: UK
Contact:

Subject:

Post Posted: 29 Jul 2009, 01:26

What are you supposed to do after killing the bosses and pressing the switch by the superhealth?

User avatar ividyon
Administrator Administrator
Posts: 2354
Joined: 12 Nov 2007, 14:43
Location: Germany
Contact:

Subject:

Post Posted: 29 Jul 2009, 01:29

Mman wrote:What are you supposed to do after killing the bosses and pressing the switch by the superhealth?

take the previously closed door on ground level
UnrealSP.org webmaster & administrator

User avatar Semfry
Trustee Member Trustee Member
Posts: 2068
Joined: 12 Nov 2007, 02:43
Location: UK
Contact:

Subject:

Post Posted: 29 Jul 2009, 01:39

I just ghosted (and ended the level) and see it's still closed for me, wtf? Also, the boss portal never shut for me.

Edit: I just replayed on normal (after doing it on unreal) and it worked this time, the first time I played only the minibosses appeared and the Warlord never came out. I don't know what happened but there's some sort of bug.

PS: The level is awesome other than that.

User avatar Stakhanov
Skaarj Warrior Skaarj Warrior
Posts: 53
Joined: 02 Aug 2008, 18:42

Subject:

Post Posted: 29 Jul 2009, 02:49

Just finished it... under some peculiar circumstances. I was ready to express my rage at the respawning lightning fast skaarj warriors , until the cause of that difficulty was narrowed down to Unreal:Limbo being left on... with x5 speed multipliers. While still playing this on hard mode. :shock:

I have never been so glad your maps have an easy base difficulty :|

User avatar Shivaxi
Gilded Claw Gilded Claw
Posts: 1916
Joined: 24 Jun 2008, 19:51
Location: Behind You! =P
Contact:

Subject:

Post Posted: 29 Jul 2009, 06:43

Very nice I must say. The theme reminds me a bit of Illhaven, but your architecture is much nicer. I got stuck at the ending though, as the door to the end did not open for me. There was the occasional bsp as well. But other than that, I'd say an excellent build, and the ending fight was pretty original as well. I was expecting to hit 1 switch and be done, not 5 lol. Very nice indeed :tup:
http://img836.imageshack.us/img836/9950/shivavatar2.jpg Image

Waffnuffly: If there is any purpose for the god damned ocean, it is for us to eat it.
Jet_v4.3.5: I want to be Lincoln and kick Satan's ass. Emancipate and Proclimate on his ass.

UB_
Nali Priest Nali Priest
Posts: 7960
Joined: 11 Nov 2007, 21:00

Subject:

Post Posted: 29 Jul 2009, 13:06

Image

As you can see, in the shot there's the weapon that totally owned your map. Never used the Stinger, the Minigun is always full of useless crap and it is not liked by the dear Automag, which has been of great help here. Switched to the BioRifle... only one time, probably because I was bored of using the DP or RJ against everyone.

Honestly, to put it blunt, VVV doesn't come close to E'Nara Town (but there was Sarevok's doings in that map), let alone Triskaden Station. The factory, being the best looking area of the level (and that's not saying much), is unfortunately riddled by extreme drops of FPS, something that put in advantage the respawning Skaarj. At least that's balanced by the 150 blades found in the map. The last boss didn't understand how to move inside the structure, and it got stuck. Too bad, though his green mobs managed to put up real fights.
Oh well, that's the big difference of building a map in six weeks, and one when you have infinite time.

Most impressive things were the extremely wanted appearance of certain FlockPawns, and fighting the bosses outside, in a medieval-like place - very fitting. Oh and the horn at the dock obviously! :P
It's really nice to see you back in track, and new works from you.
In the next week, once I'll get more instructions on how I should rate the maps that I've played (general rating, if make the votes fitting with the reviewed stuff at USP, etc...), I'll quickly extend my opinions.
ImageImage

User avatar fashahhh
Skaarj Assassin Skaarj Assassin
Posts: 108
Joined: 09 Dec 2007, 14:47

Subject:

Post Posted: 29 Jul 2009, 15:52

Just played it and I thoroughly enjoyed it, the atmosphere is spot on with its dull setting (I mean that in a good way). It really does feel like a victorian village. The battle at the end with the spawning Skaarj then the warlords was particulary good and quite challenging. I also like how the map made me use weapons I wouldn't normally use like the minigun.

However, I think it may have benefitted having some fog to creapen it up a little more. I found the sea a bit annoying at first, I jumped in thinking there may be secrets and was killed by the hurt zone, then when I re-attempted the level the first skaarj lunged at me sending me flying into the sea and dying again.

Other than that tho I think it's extremely well done and a great achievement given the amount of time you've had to make it.

User avatar salsaSkaarj
Gilded Claw Gilded Claw
Posts: 1862
Joined: 21 Apr 2009, 21:54
Location: on the prowl

Subject:

Post Posted: 29 Jul 2009, 16:33

Played ... and happy with it.
I started on Hard but only the end was hard (due to the respawing which left me a bit short on ammo for the bigger guys). Perhaps tomorrow I will try again on Unreal.

Two small annoying things:

  1. The door to the tavern required the quick-step to open it, I would have preferred the Paso Doble or Rumba but basically a door should open without having to do acrobatics to avoid it closing in your face.
  2. The door which leads to the hangbridge closes behind you and when Skaarj try to follow, it tries to open and makes lots of noise but for one reason or another it doesn't opn for the Skaarj - and the noise doesn't stop, aargghhhh!!! (I replayed on Godmode to speed up things and tried various approaches - I can open the door from inside and outside but the Skaarj can't - so it seems it's not my system which messes up things

UB_
Nali Priest Nali Priest
Posts: 7960
Joined: 11 Nov 2007, 21:00

Subject:

Post Posted: 29 Jul 2009, 17:14

salsaSkaarj wrote:
  1. The door to the tavern required the quick-step to open it, I would have preferred the Paso Doble or Rumba but basically a door should open without having to do acrobatics to avoid it closing in your face.
  2. The door which leads to the hangbridge closes behind you and when Skaarj try to follow, it tries to open and makes lots of noise but for one reason or another it doesn't opn for the Skaarj - and the noise doesn't stop, aargghhhh!!! (I replayed on Godmode to speed up things and tried various approaches - I can open the door from inside and outside but the Skaarj can't - so it seems it's not my system which messes up things


That's a common Unreal bug with almost all the non-sliding doors. Sometimes it gets stuck because there's an enemy behind it (on the side on where it opens). Sometimes it's just the poor AI that doesn't understand how to use the door.
Opening doors in VVV reminds me of opening doors in DV2's Back Again. It's pretty annoying to have them crash in the face if you're nearby, and it can also cause some gameplay consequences if you're trying to escape.

As for the respawning Skaarj section... when I was trying to sneak through the never-ending waves of enemies, I thought how the Invisibility (with low charge, to make balance better) would be soooo good in these situations, instead in others where it has zero use.
ImageImage

User avatar Hellscrag
Founder Founder
Posts: 4007
Joined: 11 Nov 2007, 19:14
Location: In a random access memory of dreams

Subject:

Post Posted: 29 Jul 2009, 19:06

Lots of interesting feedback here.

I'm sorry that the final boss didn't spawn for everyone. I did have a lot of trouble with that sequence but I thought I had cracked it (the boss wouldn't teleport into place if its destination was blocked by another pawn, so I used AlarmPoints to make it keep looping through the teleporter until it succeeded). I honestly don't know what else to do.

I'm not going to try and fix it for now! Maybe for the compilation version.

I tried to minimise the "door quickstep" problem and minimise the risk of pawns failing to open doors (I even gave the pawns special triggers with large radii), but one or two bugs may have slipped through.
Last edited by Hellscrag on 29 Jul 2009, 19:15, edited 2 times in total.
Image
Life is what you make of it.

User avatar Hellscrag
Founder Founder
Posts: 4007
Joined: 11 Nov 2007, 19:14
Location: In a random access memory of dreams

Subject:

Post Posted: 29 Jul 2009, 19:14

Re: Fog... I would have used fog if distance fog were a stock feature of the engine (it would have been particularly useful in the dock), but it's not worth the slowdowns to attempt volumetric lighting on that scale.
Image

Life is what you make of it.

User avatar Hellscrag
Founder Founder
Posts: 4007
Joined: 11 Nov 2007, 19:14
Location: In a random access memory of dreams

Subject:

Post Posted: 29 Jul 2009, 19:33

PATCH ALERT

Change of plan. I thought of an easy fix which has, I think, fixed the bug in which the final boss sometimes doesn't appear.

That's the only change, so there's no need to re-play the map if it worked OK for you, but I'd be grateful if everybody could re-download the map and delete the old version.

http://www.unrealsp.org/files/maps/SP-V ... ons101.zip
Image

Life is what you make of it.

Flunders
Skaarj Scout Skaarj Scout
Posts: 35
Joined: 12 Jan 2008, 17:38

Subject:

Post Posted: 29 Jul 2009, 21:49

Just played it and I must say it was nice to play a map that was tough. I'm not that good of a player as I don't play Unreal much these days but I enjoyed the challenge. Got scared when my flares died and loved the slith entrance! Very cool.

It was a decent looking map and the factory was nicely built but as mentioned before, the FPS took a survere hit when standing up in the upper areas.

Overall it was an enjoyable map. Just want I want. Good job.

User avatar Hellscrag
Founder Founder
Posts: 4007
Joined: 11 Nov 2007, 19:14
Location: In a random access memory of dreams

Subject:

Post Posted: 29 Jul 2009, 23:31

sana wrote:That was simply amazing.

Interestingly I also expected your ocean to be made of kill-o-water, and I was proven right by a Skaarj's spontaneous decision to take a swim and die a painful death.
Is it possible to enter warehouse at the beginning in different ways? I got in over those stairs at the side of the building, but I got my "What are those things?" thought when I reached the front entrance from inside. If I'm correct, that's quite a nice touch! Also I was surprised by a Skaarj tearing my back apart when I was going for the stairs, so I wouldn't say the ambushes in the map are predictable.
While we're at UBerserker's critique: I used the UT mini-gun and it tore everything apart! In fact I felt so cheap for using it that I mostly sticked to the other guns; on that note it's worth mentioning that this may have been the first custom map in which I fully utilized my weapon arsenal, from laying bio-rifle mines in the last battle situation, over saving ammo with the Dispersion Pistol (nice thing you included power-ups, btw!) and filling small rooms with razor blades to throwing everything I had at the Slith because it was dark and creepy and they were everywhere and I had no flares and it was scary and I wanted to get outta there argh

All in all I'd say it is very nicely designed and definitely feels like a Hellscrag map! I especially loved the detail, like all those lamps - you must be some sort of wizard for not having any bizarre lighting issues with high-poly doodads - and the design of the factory interior. (The way the lights faded after the machine was shut down was simply beautiful.)

A solid effort that imo should score very highly!

I think that the most important moment of the map deserves a high-detail screenshot.


Well, constructive criticism is always useful, but a bit of praise is also nice too! Thanks sana. :D

It sounds like, in your case, the map achieved exactly what it set out to achieve: use of all the weapons provided (including the Minigun), use of flares, and a few unexpected ambushes... plus a reasonably fresh and impressive final combat scenario. I'm also glad you liked the looks. Bleak and functional was what I was aiming for, with the lack of extravagant detail in the design of the buildings being made up for by smaller details such as the lights and balconies, and an overall effort to generate impressive scale in the key buildings and a strong sense of enclosure. As well as making the map doable in six weeks, this effort to draw the architecture in broad strokes also made it nodelimit-friendly. (I wish I'd thought to put this stuff in the commentary...!)

It is intentionally possible to enter the warehouse by different routes, but I have to admit that I hadn't thought about the impact on the "What are those things" message.

I wonder what it is that makes it so recognisably a Hellscrag map? Maybe it's the use of certain textures and arch shapes, plus the use of water.
Image

Life is what you make of it.

User avatar ElectricIce
Skaarj Warlord Skaarj Warlord
Posts: 729
Joined: 12 Nov 2007, 20:42
Location: Somewhere lost in Na-Pali
Contact:

Subject:

Post Posted: 30 Jul 2009, 00:01

Played it. enjoyed it. And now for words. :P

Game play was fast.. Kind of Expected with only 6 weeks. Very Nice Architecture.... Okay that wasn't many words.

Previous Next

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 89 guests

Copyright © 2001-2024 UnrealSP.org

Powered by phpBB® Forum Software © phpBB Limited