Hot dang. I really hope you make a reversed map of this, NF attacking and BE defending. The map names would be emp_landing_be and emp_landing_nf respectively. Not that the land mass itself needs changing, just the teams and their fortifications, as well as destroyed tanks.
This map looks epic on so many levels. I have just 1 issue, which is I'm not so keen on the lighting. I'd much prefer it to be either sunny or dark and raining, rather than in between (Dusk) which is kinda bland.
I'll look into making a custom skybox for it, one more dark and cloudy, and I will add rain if it doesn't lag too much. It used to be much darker and looked like night but empires players don't take kindly to dark maps.
Precipitation doesn't seem to have any effect on fps from my experience. However, I agree with trickster (omg) that sunny, wake island style weather would work well in counterpoint to the slaughter occurring on the ground.
A download link for the pakked map is here: http://www.fpsbanana.com/maps/112195 Please test it and critique it and most importantly tell me if any models or textures are missing. ( they shouldn't be but if they are it is a major problem). If anyone could have a go at a better minimap it would be greatly appreciated. Also please don't put this on any server yet until it is tested. I have never actually reached the stage of releasing a map, so I'm new at this :cute:
EDIT: Ok, I did a self-server test. Put it up, joined and downloaded from server. First, congrats, you're the first mapper to successfully pack the minimap and VMT into the map and actually have it work. But, here comes the problems I found so far (only as NF). Firstly, you included no .res file, so I didn't download the resource file and thus, no minimap until I installed myself from your download. http://dl.getdropbox.com/u/1034763/Empires screenshots/emp_landing_b10000.jpg http://dl.getdropbox.com/u/1034763/Empires screenshots/emp_landing_b10001.jpg I'm going to take a wild guess that NF is attacking BE with error signs, so I assume that needs fixing. http://dl.getdropbox.com/u/1034763/Empires screenshots/emp_landing_b10002.jpg Bit of a fucked up shadow here, suggest moving flag. http://dl.getdropbox.com/u/1034763/Empires screenshots/emp_landing_b10003.jpg Looks nice but you need a fuck tonne of more cover. I don't think I saw any crates or stuff in this map, add them. Crates, rocks, whatever, just add anything to provide cover and prevent it from looking bland. Also, you REALLY need a 3D skybox, it just doesn't look right without one. http://dl.getdropbox.com/u/1034763/Empires screenshots/emp_landing_b10004.jpg Minimap sync is way off also. And the squares are also fucked up pretty badly. Both can be fixed in your maps resource.txt http://dl.getdropbox.com/u/1034763/Empires screenshots/emp_landing_b10005.jpg Too much of this texture really, and again, needs something to break it up. Anything really. http://dl.getdropbox.com/u/1034763/Empires screenshots/emp_landing_b10007.jpg Oh yeh, this bit glitches a bit aswell. Overall, looks nice, but could do with some attention in terms of stuff to break it up and stop it looking bland, as well as a 3D skybox. I don't know about the vehicle spawner or anything, I didn't try it. But overally looks really nice, and I bet it'll play well, so I look forward to it. Oh and one slight problem... After a few minutes, it crashed the server. That could be a slight issue. But I'll test it a couple of more times to be sure. http://dl.getdropbox.com/u/1034763/Empires screenshots/emp_landing_b10006.jpg Also, you can just walk off to the edge of the map. Add some player clipping.
That was just a really quick temporary minimap in lieu of the white screen. I just basically copied the minimap coords from crossroads. The error models were accidentally not packed in the bsp, my bad, they were supposed to be fighters. I neglected to make a res file too, sorry This was only to test if it worked, and if the twenty minutes on the timer was enough, tickets too high or low, etc. There will be a 3d skybox I just didn't want to spend time on it if the map was not worth it. The shading glitches are (afaik) regretfully unavoidable. I had hoped the brightness on the palms and the irregular shadows on the trench planks would be removed with a full compile but unfortunately they aren't. I will make custom textures for the grass, cliffs, and concrete when I am happy with the map. It does need more cover and models to break up the colors. I will add boxes and tank chassis and sandbags a lot more next compile. Clipping will be over the hills and everywhere important, but there is little clipping in it currently. There will be props showing where the skybox is and displacements stopping players from hitting it, but in some places it will be a bit duststorm-ish by the skybox boundary. Edit: Updated download link with properly packed BSP and a res file. Should work.
I have no idea what you did, but you broke it more with the update. The fighter jets in the sky work. But the map is now covered in errors. And I have no minimap. http://dl.getdropbox.com/u/1034763/Empires screenshots/emp_landing_b10008.jpg So yeh...could be a problem.
That last screenshot had me bustin in mah chair. I like the map though. Im a stickler for beachhead maps since my favorite war is WWII and my favorite battle is of course D-Day
Yeah this is what happened when we tested on the Viper server. Im not sure but I think it is because of the .res file. The syntax isn't wrong because i copied and modified the .res from another map. The fighters work now because before they werent included in the bsp The minimap didn't work because the minimap texture was packed into the bsp when it should have been in a separate materials folder i think.
Well hopefully he fixes this and gets this map playable and everything. I would love to host it on the TLP server. =)
would it be posible to make the gameplay turn based?... like: let's say BE starts defending, and if NF "wins" after 5 minutes...the map resets...but now NF defends... and if NF is able to defend for more that 5 minutes(longer than BE) then NF wins? :D :D (AKA - Assault)
Well there were some problems with having models material etc packed into the map and then having it bzipped so the bzip was causing the problem with the models. The rest of the stuff I can fix but I will release another version with skybox and a good minimap
and if you dont bzip it the dl would be unbelieveable big? you could extract the files anyway - so its not preventing anyone from reusing the models ...
Well i wasnt trying to hide the files i just thought it was a more efficient way to include the files and i wasnt aware it was incompatible with bzipping. I used pakrat to include the models with glacial and its only 14mb all together, so it doesnt have any particular problems, but at 80mb i guess i need fast dl for this so i will try and make a .res file Also i really like palmbay so i want to try and make this map more islandey
hehe i showed some screenies of the stuff i make for palmbay to a friend of mine and he was like "oh wow reminds me on beach (RTCW), you should remake that for empires" and i got reminded on this map ... wonder why so i was just wondering, i mean it looks nice on the screenies, would be sad if this map dies :D