Very, very yes.

I'll just leave these here (always wanted to say that):

Part 1: http://www.xfire.com/video/5979cc/
Part 2: http://www.xfire.com/video/5979d1/
Part 3: http://www.xfire.com/video/5979d6/

Some things to note:

• The mapping sucks. A lot of faces are skewed horribly because of the error fixing process I used. They'll be addressed later.


• For some reason, metal strips wide 01 was not included. Every occurance was replaced with metal strips wide. Ignore this.


• Portals FAIL. God-awful. I've never portalled before. I think I'll remove the majority of the portals and use exactportals.


• Alpha grate also did not make it in somehow; every occurance is replaced with 100% alpha, solid material and occludes any faces below/behind. Also ignore this.


• This map is way too BIG. I've already drafted a new red side featuring a Forerunner bridge/roadway on the border of the lake with a small base connected via tunnels to the minimap. The ideas flow forth. Can't stop craving more Forerunner!


• There's no water in yet.

Enjoy the videos, and a special thanks to darkassassin14 who provided me with the final debug.wrl that identified my actual problems. Because of that, I fixed the mapping and presto, tool and Sapien liked my map.

If you want videos/pictures of a particular location, just let me know. Also, suggestions for the overhaul?

This is glory. By "suggestions for the overhaul," do you mean in terms of the weapon/vehicle set, too? Because I like suggesting weapons and vehicles. o:

Edit: Heavy anti-aircraft emplacements around some of the structures could be an interesting addition.
Edited by Echo77 on Jul 29, 2012 at 11:38 PM

I'll take those later. Right now, it's still design time. But your suggestion for heavy AA emplacements is valid, as I will need to factor in good locations for them now instead of later. So you can pose suggestions like that but I am more focused on appearance as a map (cover, travel, sexiness) more than functionality (weapon/vehicle spawns/palettes).

If you're going to include stationary guns, be sure to make them tough. Remember that, on Extinction, a single sniper with the default rifle can kill the Covenant stationary gun in a few shots.

Ah, then I suppose I can't be of much assistance until later. I can do functionality, but aesthetics aren't my strongest point. It's very good-looking so far, though.

where is the covenant carrier?

I ate it. All this mapmaking makes a mapmaker map out some foodmaking. Noms. It'll be...uh, somewhere. I haven't decided if it'll be crashed, hovering, or absent. Depends on my poly count.

If you can fit it in, perhaps a crashed one, like the one in Halo 3 (minus the flood)

also, yeah, waaay to big, most of the structures you have in the map just look like fillers to break up the space, you could really remove any of those that don't contribute to map flow, and use those polys for the ship.

In reality, I think that If you are going to make it too big, that a few, well placed structures and huge plains are better than a bunch of smaller ones perforating the land and getting people lost.

with the structures that you have now, I can see people wandering the various buildings and not seeing any combat, with most fighting taking place near spawn areas.

the reason extinction worked was because the vehicles made them bigger targets, and comparatively easier to see. If you had people out in the fields, they wouldn't last long, so they stayed near concentrated paths, making the plains a vehicular combat zone.

What I think you could do is have 3 or 4 established "walking paths" to get rom base to base (perhaps a series of tells like in sidewinder) then the rest would be relatively simple rolling pains with strategically placed hills and cliffs. since most of the combat there would be vehicular, you wouldn't have to much worry about detail, so you can save those polys for spawn areas, and the walking sections.
Edited by SilentJacket on Jul 30, 2012 at 12:30 AM

i noticed that some of the wall textures are strips, and i'm pretty sure you didnt want that, just go to the jsm or material editor in 3ds max and change "metal strips wide 1" for "metals strips wide a" to fix it :-)

and i like your map!!, with the right terrain textures and right portals, it's gonna be amazing!! :D
Edited by ChBgt909 on Jul 30, 2012 at 12:30 AM

I figured it was as easy as that. I haven't been too concerned since the whole purpose of building the map was just to see if it could be done. There is still much work to be done.

He he ive been waiting for this one...

1- as far as tactical hills are concerned (for combat usage) the best map (or hill) i've found is the one in Blood Gulch seeing as you can very easily hide a tank behind it or whatever other maniacal weapon or device you choose; seeing as its backed by hills cliffs its relatively invulnerable to direct attack from either side and Air craft tend not to be much use because of the required tight turns (i suggest setting up something like this near either one base or the other or if you keep the mini map then place it over looking it but keep it easy access for either team with dual team ports not behind it or directly in front of it but near by; the results are obvious in Blood Gulch multiplayer)
2- as for air cover i'm quite partial to the idea of structures like in infinity but only if you have easy access tunnels beneath them leading to another escape point or to stairs that lead up to the main surface of the platform where an AA gun is waiting. (for the AA gun the covenants AA is far too bulky and makes for an easy target, the shade has the same issue as well, the human "tank turret" in the airstrike series was decent but far to slow in targeting circling vehicles, so i'm thinking something new is in order here perhaps a "forerunner" AA turret that redirects the energy pulses they emit between the spires?)
3- this map being large and slow going due to obvious aerial battles and lengthy tunnels large rocks hiding minor weapons caches (AA fuel rod gun maybe with a long respawn time) are a necessity so scatter them wisely or have a debris field surrounding the crashed ship with large metal sections and weapons strewn about beneathe them works too.
4- you can keep tunnel combat to a minimum by either keeping weapons spawns above ground or keeping only the less than useful weapons below ground surrounded by crappy lighting. This will keep most players above ground seeing as very few will waste time walking around a possible death trap using only their flashlights (kill boxes and holes well hidden in the darkness will assure minimum cowardice in game).
5- i agree with the notion that open plains make for a nice looking map but seeing as this is a map that is located on a well over sized machine that a Halcyon has crash landed into i'd say the more debris and exposed mechanical forerunner components the better (this means that you can leave open "power conduits" mangled in the open which players can easily walk in or fit a hog into with no other purpose than to hide or simply explore. (this solves need for weapons placement as well as gives decent reason to be cheap on your polyes and have cylindrical tunnels everywhere)

Hope this helped. =D

If he wanted to discourage people from using the tunnels, why would he include them? D:

Wow, pretty cool to see it ingame finally! Looks very large and big and fun to explore. The forerunner parts of the map seem pretty good (albiet few missing face errors? +sky?) but it looks like the terrain still needs some polish, especially on the cliffs (just needs a good unwrap!). I'm pretty sure when this map is done it'll become an instant sucess with fans of RPG beta or colsnap/extinction.

The other thing worth mentioning that I saw was alot of face clipping (NOT distance clipping), perhaps also try to keep working on your portalling. I'm also guessing you still need to add in scenery and weapons and stuff so I would do that too.

Other than those few things, great job so far, keep it coming.

I want players to fight in as many areas of my map as possible. That includes above and below ground. If I design the map and force combat into a handful of areas, it'll get too mundane and even predictable (I'm thinking Big Red Hill on BG; tank stand-off). The tunnels allow for CQB enthusiasts to go hunting, or for others to find alternate routes of travel if some noob is owning the skies (might be me!).

@Higuy: thanks! The map looks pretty good, actually, but like you said, there are portalling issues which is why you see so many disappearing faces. I'll be fixing them later. I think I'll end up with a handful of portal clusters and relegate the rest to exactportals.

Now, I am in the process of the overhaul. I've already reduced the general area by red base by about 50% and am including a small Forerunner bridge/road at the edge of the lake. In the middle of the side of that road will be a tall tower (I'm drawing inspiration from Battle Canyon and Ridgeline, as I recently was able to get out of the map in Theater mode to get some good shots). The tower provides aerial cover and something cool to look at. Because the map in general will be smaller, that tower may connect to either the minimap or red addendum.

Oh, and as for the minimap, it is WAY too big to be considered a "mini map". In fact, most of the my custom interiors are too big. It feels like I'm walking around in a map that was scaled up by 40% in Max and rebuilt. I'm going to shrink it down. So far, I have two leading ideas:

Remove the Beaver Creek bases and rebuild the central spire structure (the structure that has the energy ropes attached to it). The new spire will have an interior space that will allow players to keep an eye on both bridges. The interior space would also either serve as that side's main base, or connect to it.

Bring the two bases closer together and connect them underground. That connection would be little more than a hallway, but it would be exposed to a giant shaftroom similar in concept to the initial dropoff point in b40. The spire would either be rebuilt as outlined above, or simply compressed a little.

In both cases, the minimap's size will be reduced considerably. The idea is to make something large enough to be considered a small map while not being so large to discourage foot combat. Right now, it's too big. It takes too long to get anywhere, and I can't put in enough scenery to make it safe to walk around out there. It just won't work.

I've made a rough approximation of the stock clipping distance and am trying to make my entire map fit in that area. I would still recommend players make use of the Clipping Distance Changer program, as there will be some areas that get inevitably clipped unless the map size is reduced even further (but at that point it stops being an awesome, large scale map and transitions to a more diminished stature).

I'll take more suggestions if anyone has some to offer. If you can, please provide specific references so I can try and dig up some pictures to get the juices flowing.

the bridge from gephyrophobia would look epic here.

crap nevermind xD
Edited by OrangeJuice on Aug 6, 2012 at 01:57 PM

Man, this post really just gave me a sense of how huge this map is. This map is so gigantic that the main feature of the second-biggest stock map in the game would be a cool addition.

This guy might have a good idea; The bridge from Gephyrophobia might make a decent minimap.

Not a mini map but if there is a chasm in this map the bridge as well as red and blue base can be used provided that you like the bases to tunnels where the teleporters are now. (this could be a lot of fun with some editing like for instance if the bridge was broken on one side or slightly twisted so that if you take the wrong stairs you are either trapped or fall to your doom lol)

Infinity, I believe.

Include Gephyrophobia? A map within a map? Mapception...

I like that idea. But it needs some tweaking. I'm not a big fan of the bridge, so I'd change that. Combine mine with it. The bases are good, but too small. So I'd find a way to connect the base, submerged beneath the soil, with the top level. This level wouldn't be so high that it could be a sniping roost, but it would be high enough to set it apart from the lower level. Or maybe I'd just remove the top of the base and add some cool extensions to the side/rear. I need space for more vehicles (specifically Pelicans). The bases should also be a part of the Race gametype.

And of course, something epic and cool needs to be designed. Something to look at but not access, like a shaftroom or giant tunnel. I have several ideas, most of which are a part of my next project.

the beam tower complex from ridgeline (Reach)?

Yes.

›
Edited by SilentJacket on Aug 7, 2012 at 01:39 PM

Yes. Those structures. Not the lattice work connecting the individual spires to the central cluster, though. But something more along the lines of red and blue bases' towers.

How do you create blue/red lighting like in the stock maps? Right now, the only lighting in my map is coming from the sky, even though my blue lights shader tag has the same settings as the stock shaders that work in the stock maps.
Edited by CAG Gonzo on Aug 7, 2012 at 10:00 PM

I actually liked the sound of the lattice work (ie bridges) idea; it would serve as a snipers post, relative shelter from ground attack, not completely invulnerable from air attack, and gives a unique feel to it like the hallways in yoyorast island that lead to the flags (i've been sniped, naded, set on fire, and hit by a rocket in those hallways). If you located such a spire near or attatched to the sentinel wall with said walk ways it would make for an intereasting addition to gameplay especially if you had multiple towers with half finished exposed hallways connected only by teleporters. (uber complicated game of race anyone?).

Gonzo, because you don't have enough memory you'll have to tint the bitmaps yourself and create new shaders for both bases. kind of a hassle but if you want the tint, that's your best bet.
other than that how's the map coming? did you fix those alpha grate errors like i said?

If I can make a suggestion you should take some chunks of C10's BSPs. They are smexy.

The interior, yes?

Yeah, the interior of C10 has some nice features. Might add a bit of flavor.

I'm going to try to run increasingly higher quality lightmaps processes to find out if I really am short of memory or if some other thing is stirring up trouble. As for alpha grates, yes, I changed the material in max, fixed a few errors, and it rendered correctly in Sapien. Thanks!

I'll look into c10 interiors. I've always loved them; they are certainly going to play a major role in my next project. As for this project, I'm designing a custom large structure for some aerial cover and more fun Forerunner stuff to explore. It's kind of a cross between a Death Island base and a beam tower from a30/Infinity, but with my own twist. Pictures will come when I have a more definitive shape to show. This is attached to a short Forerunner bridge/road by red base; I need something equivocal for blue side. Something that has both an outside and inside with a purpose. Don't want any one side having an unfair advantage over the other.

you are doing a great job with your map, but make sure to improve the terrain textures and mapping as well, a map this good deserves it

right now he's happy to have gotten this ingame so that can wait. with a little help from me, he's made some major progress. i like feeling like i helped conquer the world.

Huzzah!

Updates on map overhaul shmexiness:







Now, you might be saying to yourself "CAG Gonzo, doth that be a hole I see on the top of the structure?" and you would be correct. So, why is that hole there? It's because this is my own new beam emitter! Please, hold the applause. Obviously, this structure shares roots with the Death Island base and classic a30 beam emitter, but with my own twist. What you see before you was once nothing but a plane and two cylinders. In other words, I didn't copy and paste any existing mesh.

This structure is designed to be tall to provide some aerial cover while also providing some more territory to explore. Depending upon how the rest of the overhaul progresses, this may take the place of red base. Right now, it's just a neat structure in the middle of a bridge/road that will be on red side. Blue will receive a similar structure with a purpose.