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25/10/2008 - "The Ghost of Oraghar" by Mr.Prophet

Each week a single map is discussed here in detail.

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User avatar Semfry
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Subject: 25/10/2008 - "The Ghost of Oraghar" by Mr.Prophet

Post Posted: 25 Mar 2008, 03:50

Map Title: The Ghost of Oraghar
Author: Will "Mr.Prophet" Drekker
From: Seven Bullets
Filename: Jones-09-Scar.unr
Video Playthrough: http://www.dailymotion.com/MMAN2/video/8129048

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Synopsis: The Pirates are no more, but there's still one more loose end to deal with...
Last edited by Semfry on 25 Mar 2008, 12:40, edited 1 time in total.

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Post Posted: 25 Mar 2008, 08:06

I don't get how you actualy get to this arena, connection sems a bit WTF to me - one moment you see Dargo's death cutscene, and then you're here. Pretty weird.
Anyway, good level for a showdown arena, although you don't have much time to watch architecture as this though Skaarj is after you. No time to watch views, run'n'gun!

Nothing spectacular though.
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Post Posted: 25 Mar 2008, 11:20

Is DRAGO, not Dargo :B

The first thing to say about this map is... Where am I? Who the f**k teleported me here? And why?
The Nali perhaps?

Since this is a simple arena for a metal boss, the build is relatively simple, yet detailed. Way too detailed, the boss can't stand the good architecture.
In other words I have nothing to say about the build, it's just an arena; although it could have been darker, even without the use of rain which will probably destroy the overall performance.

As "darker" I mean "more grey" everywhere (sky and lighting). Fitting for the boss and for the overall atmosphere.

Now why I said the architecture is too detailed for the boss.
Boss is named Scarred One, a big black Skaarj who makes me think about metal that attacked Jones two times.
The first battle was fast and full of Flak Shells. The second battle was actually hard as the arena was totally plain and the boss ran faster than you. The third battle is anti-climatic.

The Scarred One can be as awesome as he wants but he cannot beat the Unreal AI.
So, why the Scarred One is even easier than the DarkLord in Xidia - challenge being really low:
1)Too much items.
2)The boss should have got other 2000 points of health (in Unreal difficulty, his health would have been around 6000 and something).
3)The Skaarj AI has difficulties in moving around detailed environments as this one. Prepare to see the Scarred One suddenly stopping in his tracks or making useless and long jumps. Suicide.

Shoot him with weapons like the Machine Mags and he'll probably be stuck in some way. Really annoying.
Also I really wanted to fight SO with his red eye, but I won't care (AFAIK, I heard UA found the way to do this).

Forlorn works perfectly for the battle, and the introduction music (from Silent Hill 3) really fits the mood of "only me and you are alive".

Easy battle, nice atmosphere. SO could have been harder.
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Post Posted: 25 Mar 2008, 17:58

Few things.. had to watch the vid to be reminded of them...

1. Nice build.. altho it's still a basic arena.
2. Finally the fight with the Scarred One... he's very fast "a small step for man.. a great leap for teh Scarred One..." I liked it.
3. The stills are.. well.. i don't like them. 7B has several of them that represents a scene that didn't happen. Like teh SO that jumps on you.. a second ago he was far away... :/
4. I didn't like the music. It's depressing; specially after a climax (or anti-climax) you would expect something else. Note tho that this is MY opinion, and most ppl here will probably disagree with me on this. :wink:

Nice fight.. some basic things.. kinda average IMO. I expected more of this last map, after the quality stuff in 7B...
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Post Posted: 25 Mar 2008, 20:25

A moody last battle, but it is very hard to see how the geometry relates to that of Drago's semi-destroyed HQ. After the tough bot maps, the fight itself is also rather too easy. I think I probably had more difficulty with the Praetorian Pack Leader in Xidia.
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Post Posted: 25 Mar 2008, 21:13

Been a while since I've played this but I watched the playthrough earlier. This level wasn't as impressive as the last. Drago was TOUGH and had an impressive level to match. The Scarred One here however was far more easier. I think his big size is more of a liability than anything with makes him easier to hit despite his immense leaps and speed.

More of a setpiece than anything esle. Definately one of 7 Bullets' weaker levels. Music sounds out of place and disjointed. The main fight track (Forlon?) worked far better in one of the DM maps included with 7B than it did here. Not a bad level but then again 7 Bullets set a very high standard in regards to level design.
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Post Posted: 26 Mar 2008, 01:45

Can't really disagree with anything that's been said here.

The idea was that the jetfighter's collision with the rooftop caused massive damage to the rooftop area. There really wasn't supposed to be a direct continuity between this map and the last one, originally. Jones was assumed to move on from the rooftop to this blasted out pit where the confrontation with the Scarred One was to take place. The idea was two warriors, last ones standing, fighting amongst the wreckage.

The Scarred One probably seems so easy because the player has, for the last several maps, been fighting fast paced terran enemies. The AI for bots is a lot more savage and quick-to-respond than Unreal's monsters. Plus, there are ways to exploit holes in the AI, such as the rapid-fire pause thing in regards to the mags/car and other such things. Overall I didn't want the fight to be overly difficult since, technically...the fight with Drago and his bodyguards was better suited as a last battle. This was more of an encore.

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Post Posted: 26 Mar 2008, 21:15

Mister_Prophet wrote:The idea was that the jetfighter's collision with the rooftop caused massive damage to the rooftop area. There really wasn't supposed to be a direct continuity between this map and the last one, originally. Jones was assumed to move on from the rooftop to this blasted out pit where the confrontation with the Scarred One was to take place. The idea was two warriors, last ones standing, fighting amongst the wreckage.


And I still don't get it: is the arena the destroyed rooftop? Because neither the pit and the rooftop are similar to this map.

Mister Prophet wrote:Overall I didn't want the fight to be overly difficult since, technically...the fight with Drago and his bodyguards was better suited as a last battle. This was more of an encore.


Maybe you are right. I don't think everyone can pass Drago's map with more than 50 points of health.
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Post Posted: 26 Mar 2008, 22:38

UBerserker wrote:
Mister_Prophet wrote:The idea was that the jetfighter's collision with the rooftop caused massive damage to the rooftop area. There really wasn't supposed to be a direct continuity between this map and the last one, originally. Jones was assumed to move on from the rooftop to this blasted out pit where the confrontation with the Scarred One was to take place. The idea was two warriors, last ones standing, fighting amongst the wreckage.


And I still don't get it: is the arena the destroyed rooftop? Because neither the pit and the rooftop are similar to this map.


It has similarities to the roof and Noork. I sort of explained it in post-beta as a sink in the rooftop area, since pp bugged me about it;) And I added log material to support the volatility of fuel and such. But like I said; The original idea is that it's irrelevant where it takes place.

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Post Posted: 27 Mar 2008, 16:12

For those who are interested, here is the part of the commentary about the map:

-------------------------
[9] "The Ghost of Oraghar
-------------------------

* Mr.Prophet:

Map 9 is pretty straightforward; you grab some items and fight until one of you dies. The final arena isn't one of the most flashy showdown locations ever made but it serves its purpose. Making the place was simple, a few subtractions, a few added prefabs and presto! Easy bake map. There wasn't a whole lot of time put into this one, the longest thing was preparing the cutscenes the way I wanted them. This one isn't about pretty map stuff, just the fight. I like the way the map blends into the end sequence that loads after, that shift really works nicely.
Personally, I'm least proud of this Boss fight segment than the others. The first two Scarred One encounters were more interesting, and the other boss creatures/characters were much more menacing. At this point the Scarred One has really spent all the scariness and is now just a loose end. I originally intended for this map to take place in the rain but that proved impossible. Just was a disaster with playability.
I think of the previous fight with Drago as the end to the Xidia style of 7 Bullets and the fight in this map as the end of the Unreal bit. At the heart of 7 Bullets, that is what Drago and the Scarred One represented, they were the symbols of each heritage forced into a sort of fusion.
There are a few references in 7 Bullets to the Scarred One being rather demonic, like a undead killing machine. This explains why he had to die with decapitation, everyone knows you can only stop an immortal by removing the head.
The original last cam shot was different. In the concept of 7 Bullet's original story document The Scarred One doesn't die. After you "defeat" him, a cutscene would show Jones collapse due to a combination of exhaustion and injury, in a pile of all his spent ammo. The Scarred One then turned and left Jones to bleed to death in his spent casings. Then of course the Rescue ending picked up where that left off. The idea behind this ending was that the Scarred One at first was too cool for me to kill off. I was going to have the whole cyborg Skaarj play out a lot more but that didn't happen. Also, if you wanna look in terms of story, Jones losing to the Scarred One was going to tie into a scene that originally appeared in the intro concept where Jones is dying and recites the first 7 Bullets narration before the intro credits role and then starts the game. This was changed in the final version to the intro scene showing bits of the Ending sequence after Jones is healed and makes the final reflection with his 7 Bullets atonement. I chose to go with the final version for three reasons. One, the original idea was way too dramatic for a video game that I had not the talent to pull off with the available tools. Two, It damages the whole video game idea to deny the player a satisfying last duel victory. Three, The final version is a better hybrid of both ideas, the player gets their last kill and the reflection scene plays out in a way that is easier to swallow without rolling your eyes. That and I decided that I wanted to show the USM Ice Raven and a rescue team in the extro to fill up the lacking buddysoldier trend that would have been much weaker without it...and the fact that it allowed for an Unrealish ending.
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Post Posted: 29 Mar 2008, 16:02

I think my main problem with this is the lack of cohesiveness with the rest. Why are there suddenly Nali here when I was on the roof of a Human building two minutes ago, and what have they got to do with the Scarred one (if there was a mention of how he was a legend among every inhabitant of Na Pali as opposed to just the Skaarj I would have bought it)? And yeah, the arena still doesn't make much sense to me even after having it spelled out multiple times.

It felt like this was added on as a way to hastily resolve the Scarred One story, instead of building up the epic send-off he deserved. BTW, there should have been seven gibs at the end of the battle :P .

I'll forgive it on the basis that, even if the SO himself doesn't come back, it seems like there is a heavy insinuation that, at the least, his backstory will be more fleshed out in RD (for a start, the fact that the Na Pali location is apparently Oraghar).

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Post Posted: 29 Mar 2008, 19:43

Mman wrote:Why are there suddenly Nali here when I was on the roof of a Human building two minutes ago


They were supposed to be the ones you released from the prison.

Mman wrote: and what have they got to do with the Scarred one (if there was a mention of how he was a legend among every inhabitant of Na Pali as opposed to just the Skaarj I would have bought it)?


Since the Nali Prophet you visited in the mid section of the game explains the "legend" to you, it's an indication that the legend is a Nali one and knowledge of his existence isn't limited to the Skaarj. Either way, yeah it's still vague.


Mman wrote: And yeah, the arena still doesn't make much sense to me even after having it spelled out multiple times.


It's quite simple; They aren't supposed to be directly linked (the previous map and the following one) by location or passage of time.

Mman wrote:

I'll forgive it on the basis that, even if the SO himself doesn't come back, it seems like there is a heavy insinuation that, at the least, his backstory will be more fleshed out in RD (for a start, the fact that the Na Pali location is apparently Oraghar).


It will be. That much is for sure.

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Post Posted: 29 Mar 2008, 19:50

Oraghar should feature pools of blood and at least fifty Skaarj carcasses, all left by the Scarred One (info from one of 7B's messages).

****ing awesome.
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Post Posted: 30 Mar 2008, 00:01

Since the ending scene was bundled with this one, what did you guys think of it?

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Post Posted: 30 Mar 2008, 00:09

The only thing I can say 'bout this map is that the fight was plain boring, the only thing you had to do is running backwards in a big circle while bombarding the scarred on with everything you have.
Yes, the scarred one was running faster than you, but he had to stop to hurt you and dodging his charge attack was pretty easy so with the mentioned tactics you were invulnerable.

I was expecting something new and fresh but what happened? As much as I like 7B, the showdown was a letdown; it was just another skaarj fight, nothing more, nothing less-. Thats hurting the map far worse than build or decorations-. :shake:

I would consider myself as a medicore player, but even on unreal difficulty the scarred one just hit me once with his skaarj projectile. Not what I would call a boss fight.

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