Digital Amusement Game Development
   
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(17:42:23) (@FSK405|a_wily_duck) hey people
Go get the new pk3 from the pond. See me if you have any questions/feedback.
On the highway right now you see some blocks, those are my synthetic measuring sticks. On the road, yes, that's a gaping hole. I changed all the temporary terrain textures to dirt so I can see what's going on better, plus now I really get the feel of being a one man construction team. Carving out the city is fun and hard. Oh yeah, and the light poles are a representation of how big the highway was compared to now.
So I was standing in my basement folding laundry, when a few ideas came to me. First, where is this map voting thingy I said I'd make for FSK405? Time has not allowed, so it sits on the to-do list. Second, creating a map competition that goes something like this: 2 hour time limit, each contestant gets a prebuilt generic base .map file, then they must create a map and submit it at the timelimit. The contest supervisor then compiles each map and includes it in a .pk3 file. The pk3 file is made available, contest mappers and players play the maps, finally voting on what they thought was the best. We then have a winner! Third, I put a link button up for ut-mapdepot.com on the left. Shoulda did that a while ago. ;) What else... can't remember but that's alright. More later. Good map is on the pub, gotta play now!
I just posted some screenies at fun-gamers clan website. They're a german clan, and have been enjoying playing superman_b2 as part of their mapcycle. Thanks guys!
First I hit the markerboard and sketched out what I wanted. This took some time because there are gameplay issues that need to be figured out right here. Remember this will become the functional base of the map, so I have to think about what effects high and low areas have on the game flow. When I settled on a design, I copied the sketch into my spiral notebook and went back to my machine. I made a my terrain heightmap in photoshop. First I drew out the lines detailing different grades, then colored it in with shades of grey representing highs and lows. Lastly, I used a gaussian blur filter and some brightness/contrast adjustments to get the fading colors I wanted: 
  After this, I then use gensurf to use my heightmap as a reference to create a new surface. The heightmap is a 8 bit (256 color) bitmap. This was tricky because I was having problems getting it to give me the correct amount of subdivisions. Now, the hard part. Turning the newly created brushes into streets and such... the problem I'm dealing with mostly is architectual. This has caused me to start really looking at buildings and landscape to get ideas as to how I can solve foot traffic scenarios. Can't just put inverted inclines right off a curb, or stairs in stupid places. It's really interesting and fun. I'm probably going to call upon the knowledge of my girlfriend because she understands architecture better than I do. Hey, I best mention this now!!! QuakeCon2004 registration is tomorrow... Lastly I leave you with a screenshot of gtkradiant and the initial mess I got to deal with. See ya! 
From ut-mapdepot.com: Dark. 09 Mar : 16:19 Supeman_b2 was a lot of fun. So much leeming! b33f 08 Mar : 20:32 Superman_b2 is the most fun I've had in a long time!! Keep workin on that beauty Wily! That's what I like to hear! Also, FSK405B has a very good review of ut_cahos_v2 here. Thanks everyone for your awesome input!
I want to get more mapping done! Still r/l steps in and denies me for a little longer of such pleasures. In the meantime, ut_cahos_v2 has been in FSK's mapcycle. People seem to be getting used to the gameplay there and are starting to take advantage of the map as it was intended. Still, it's played in CTF mode, but fun none-the-less. I've gotten good feedback on the map thus far. Nothing much else going on gamedev-wise currently. I've been handling stocks/finances, personal issues, the recent party, and so much more... where is my time going?? There's like 7 days in a week, right? Gah. Hey, I'll share with you a formula I came up with, which derives all problems, ever. :) Conspiracy theory + mass communication = Problems. And the solution? I came up with 1 over problems (1/problems) = facts + reliable resources. So there you go. Hehe, time to get back to work.
Also, I'd like to hear your thoughts on this matter in the FSK forums.
What got fixed up? 45+ fps boost in almost every area, fixed the text in the stands, added nodrops to the spawns, added a hurt thingy to the spawn halls so if people decide to hold the flag in there, they can only do it for a limited time (takes off 1 health per second, slow), made the hall doors openable from the outside, fixed some missing textures, added ambient sound to the cahos drum, created "fake" dynamic lighting on all spotlights, added a lip to the top of each base by the pole, brightened the map, added two more cah flags, added furniture n stuff to the spectator boxes, changed the water shader to use less fps, added a poster instructing how to shimmy the rope, added a poster for me, fixed hallway brushes cause they were misaligned, and probably some other stuff I can't think of now. That's your version 2. There's a few small things to fix up for any future release, like end of round camera location, one water surface shader is wrong, I want to widen the stairs in the bases from 2nd to third floor (flag), and people have requested that I make the arena less boxy... maybe. Other feedback I've gotten is that the rope is useless... that's if you're playing ctf. Remember this map was designed for cah, and I've kindly added ctf for us ctf'ers. I do accept constructive critism, and well if you have problems or comments on the map I'm listening anyway, even if it's {Triad}Jimbo yelling about how he can't figure out how to shimmy the rope. Probably be a bit until the next update, more rl issues to deal with. :V
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