[Duel/FFA]Crystal Cave

Hey guys! Today I am finally realising the project I have been working on during my University time. After many changes to style and layout I proudly present to you Crystal Cave. Many new textures and some plant models as well as immense rock boulders, caves and black crystals give this map a unique theme I was aiming for. I hope this will satisfy everyone. Map is supposed to be DM/Duel map but I think its good for other game types like Freeztag and Keyhunt.
If you have any issues with gameplay: Please, let me know: Its you who should enjoy the map.


I ask for a feedback as always. Map might contain bugs and it hasn't been tested properly before. All can be changed easily. The feedback I'm interested in is gameplay, visuals, style, flow, connectivity, textures and so on.



The map contains:

• 1 mega health + 50 HP/1x50 armor
  
• 7 spawnpoints
  
• 2 teleports
  
• all weapons
  
• 1 jumppad
  
• more health and armor shards
  

New version!
Download CrystalCave-r04.pk3

I do hope you guys will like it. Good luck/Have fun
Map is avaliable on servers DCC: Plain, Minsta, Pickup and Transmutable, Montreal based Super Mario Bros (USA server)

EDIT: Post updated: Map now supports CTF and ONS

Very nice, a Xonotic map with vegetation!

Screens look sweet, you really got a nice grip on lighting your maps. Will post back when i tested it.

After some playtesting, I found some missing textures:



maps/crystal-cave.bsp: could not load texture "textures/map_stone-shelter/brick3"
maps/crystal-cave.bsp: could not load texture "textures/map_stone-shelter/metal-trim3"
maps/crystal-cave.bsp: could not load texture "textures/map_stone-shelter/metal-trim1"
maps/crystal-cave.bsp: could not load texture "textures/map_floating/trees/fern"

The map looks very nice visually! Can't tell much about gameplay, but this is what I found while running around:

• Add LMS,KA and TDM?
  
• The textures of the fern plants are not there for me
  
• I think you forgot to place Hagar and Crylink ("All weapons")
  
• The teleporter makes me sick (like headache) personally, when you "flip" out of it
  
• I miss the actual crystals :O Maybe put the ones from Catharsis into the caves?
  
• Hi skybox: http://i.imgur.com/5ERZoMg.jpg // http://i.imgur.com/VsFomvU.jpg
  
• At MH/Nex I can climb up and look through the ceiling of connected rooms: http://i.imgur.com/SL3Jkur.jpg
  
• This wall (RL room) http://i.imgur.com/gbUGsrE.jpg , is not clipped from the other side (Nex room): http://i.imgur.com/l0J5c5o.jpg
  You can jump into that hole and walk into RL room. Maybe just clip it that you can't even get onto those pillars.
  
• http://i.imgur.com/TQH08kA.jpg?1 - Both Megas are on the bottom level and it looks quite easy to race from one to the other really fast. Probably easy to control them. Putting it onto the upper platform should make it more interesting I suppose.
  However I did not play it yet of course.
  After playing one time I am not really sure about the MH and my suggestion.
  
• There are some places that should be clipped: http://i.imgur.com/Akwi0xE.jpg // http://i.imgur.com/Edat7fQ.jpg // http://i.imgur.com/nGY7jUA.jpg
  

The map is available to play at the [unconnected] servers.

EDIT i love how you did your "identity" on these maps with the concept art, that is awesome and i wish i had thought of that. very cool, you should keep doing it

After some playtesting, I found some missing textures:

obviously that would happen, they are not packaged with it nor are they in git - he made them. clearly says it is not finished, that is not something worth talking about atm

--

yo, can we work on a better name?

- nitrous
- Prismatic
- Iridium
- Metamorphose
- Refraction
- etc, pulling stuff out of my butt here - just let's have something as good as catharsis instead of "crystal cave" cmon


secondly, it doesn't contain crylink or hagar.

it's a midsize 4 room, 3 leveled map, much tighter horizontally than it looks. Teleporter doesn't really change the size as it simply functions as an elevator.
I really think the rain and so many plants/leaves go well with the architecture; either rain and no plants, or no rain and plants - or maybe no rain/no plants? the lighting from the skybox really makes me think it shouldn't be raining.
Flow is fairly good, much better than silentsiege already . I can already see some insane angles, some subtle trickjumps built in there, although it needs some refining, quite a few times i bumped my head and it was frustrating.

why does the camera tilt a little after coming out of the teleport?

no comment on gameplay obviously yet

@mirio i really wouldnt make any reservations about the gameplay yet, and the map doesnt have enough space for crylink or hagar, its fine. it's not good for those modes, so he didn't add them.

optimistic

Why should not it be good for LMS if CA is included? Also KA works on almost any DM map. It does not harm anyone to have them available after all - it just opens the possibility to play those modes if people wish to.

---

So, after playing it twice...

I am basically just running between MH and MA room and abandon 50% of the map.
Maybe a 50 Armor somewhere to help the player out of control (no idea where though).

yes, unless you plan to abandon the direct route, there NEEDS to be relocation of resources. maybe even two 50A's.

ammo placement really needs work as well

Looks sweet

Now this looks awesome.

Obviously ive not played it yet, but damn, only running around and it feels like a profesional map design and the visuals are stunning and original! This makes me wanna start playing more Xonotic again!

Okey I took some screenshots but they end up badly (I used screenshot command in console not thinking that it would be captured too xD). So I just want to suggest that you keep the small areas that you can be in along side the walls are consistent, if you can jump to just some of them you get quite surprised when you jump to one that doesnt allow it and just feels cheap. Also where you can jump outside the map you can also get on top of it, but you probably already know about that. That's it for now, hope I can provide some gameplay feedback soon!

Mirio: Stop climbing my god damn walls! (he always do that ) Thank you for serious feedback. Wait...What!? How in earth Packer got there!? You fly or what? I already fixed textures and some of the clipping issues. Thank you for the pieces of advice about item placement. I will put 50 armor on top of the mega and probably second 50 armor will replace the current mega armor. Currently I'm trying my best to increase fps on this map and I will probably add a rainbow (cause why not!) in the skybox so the rain has some explenation to it (allready reduced it so its a drizzle). Thank you tZork, SPLAT, Lee_Sticklin, I'm glad you like it . Thanks machine, Mirio, Fa1nt and Mario for finding out those issues and finding time to post them here with screenshots! I will include additional gametypes.
I'm also adding trims and trims and I'm thinking about trickjumps, although there is very litle space to place them properly...

Edit: I added this crazy twist on the tele exit for fun, thought it would be nice... If it makes you sick I will make it normal

Had a quick run around, technically its pretty solid cant find any issues that haven't been mentioned above.

Now for the visuals:

To many straight edges (red) takes away from the look of natural formation. Try giving them some variance (green) and perhaps also vary direction slightly.


Those water planet would look much better if you added a wave func so they move ever so slightly on the pond surface.

Also worth trying is making a few different (but similar) materials for the crystals, this would further the natural feel of it.

If you want a more live/vivid crystal material i made one for TOTW you might find useful:


data should still be in maps repos (tzork/map-topoftheworld) i think.

Overall great looking map, layout seems solid too. Keep it up!

I'm thinking about trickjumps, although there is very litle space to place them properly...

Maybe a little lamp or so here to jump onto the upper level:
http://i.imgur.com/WvDrLGz.jpg

two 50's and no MA... like that? i'm skeptical. we'll see

my first impression - nice map =)

I like the mood and I.m always fan of glassified transparent textures - looks pretty futuristic
The missing of some textures isn.t really worthy to talk about - map seems to be in pre-release state.

Only thing brings me to "not load up" to server is the size of the map - 61 MB are pretty huge for a ingame download - most players willl disconnect during download

GreetZ Su

All right. Here is what comes with new version:

• Fixed clipping problems (hope all of them)
  
• Added quite a few trickjumps (easier acces to higher platforms)
  
• Added rainbow to the skybox and slightly changed its settings
  
• added wave to the water plants (thanks tZork for idea! Looks much better now)
  
• Added a tree (look at the screenshot)
  
• Improoved minimap (its still not veryclear )
  
• Added additional gametypes
  
• Most importantly: Reduced the files size!
  
• Fixed the textures!
  
• Added crylink! NOW it has all weapons
  

Screenshots:
x

You have to find a rainbow by yourselfs. I lost a screenshot of that one.
(First post updated)

Found =)



But the textures of fern even missing and 45 MB even to big =P

Edit:
Edited in the bsp file the folder destination from textures/map_floating/trees/fern to textures/map_stone-shelter/fern - now it works =)
Take a look here:


except for the MB size very nice map =)

GreetZ Su

I don't understand. I changed texture destination for r01 version. It should be fine. you mean model fern.ase texture destination?

This will without a doubt make all the metal arena haters ejaculate! Faptastic work Justin, you've set the bar way up.

edit: Veggies not working for me

you have to switch destination in bsp in the same way like your crystal-cave-r01.shader

Code:

textures/map_stone-shelter/fern
{
    qer_editorimage textures/map_stone-shelter/fern

    surfaceparm trans
    surfaceparm nonsolid
    polygonOffset
    cull none
    {
        map $lightmap
        map textures/map_stone-shelter/fern
        blendFunc GL_SRC_ALPHA GL_ONE_MINUS_SRC_ALPHA
        rgbgen identity
    }
}

In crystal-cave-r01.bsp the destination is textures/map_floating/trees/fern ...

Take a look here: http://www.file-upload.net/download-8949...1.bsp.html - now it working =)


GreetZ Su

Great map, the only thing I'm not sure about is skybox.

The whole map has great blueish/greenish metal/rock feeling, but skybox is more like yellowish dirt.
There are areas where yellow light from skybox ends in rooms and causes color mishmash to me, also looking through windows/gaps in floor one sees browsnish dirt while among metallic rocks, it breaks the feeling in my opinion, but who knows maybe it's just me

I would try something more in style of skies/calm_sea or skies/exosystem.

Enough with critique, I love cave with water, and having plants on map definitely adds to the nice feeling.

Added crylink! NOW it has all weapons

But.. but.. what about poor little Hagar?

I lack the fern textures as well still.
And I believe something went really wrong? :o
I can see through a lot of walls in Nex room! ;D
http://i.imgur.com/Avn5xwc.jpg // http://i.imgur.com/aTcULIj.jpg // http://i.imgur.com/xzQYL0e.jpg

Little texture thingie: http://i.imgur.com/hjyiTG7.jpg (Nex room / 50 armor)
and still a little edge har har http://i.imgur.com/grOazJq.jpg

Nice tree and trickjumps!

try something more in style of skies/calm_sea or skies/exosystem.

hm - not bad suggestion proraide - skies/exosystem2 fits pretty well too:

I lack the fern textures as well still.

Should be easily fixed with right folder name:

[/quote]

I can see through a lot of walls in Nex room! ;D

well - thats a problem ...



anyway - keep it up - the map look really promising

GreetZ Su