Commented 16 years ago2008-04-04 23:22:48 UTC
in vault item: Flat-LifeComment #16553
You put in the map vault so i have to rate it
Originality 9/10 While this kind of game in well known, the fact that it uses a FPS engine is quite spectacular.
Playability 9/10 While it may take some time to grasp the controls and physics, it is really fun and easy to play.
Visuals 10/10 Some great maps are included that really show off the appeal that this kind of game can provide.
Cleanliness 9/10 Minor nitpicks here and there but nothing serious. This version has not yet crashed on me.
User Options 10/10 There is full user customisation with mapping resources and even setting the new graphics to suit your computer.
Total 10/10 (5 stars) Naturally, 5 STARS!! A great mod ChickenFist, you have done very well, keep improving it, there are heaps more things you can do to this mod!
Commented 16 years ago2008-04-04 23:20:07 UTC
in vault item: Dm_absurdumComment #16552
Texturing 10/10 Good use of textures and not a single error that I could find, except, the glows you created for lights cut off too sharply to look realistic. They should have faded all the way to black.
Weapon Placement 8/10 Very good but way too much ammo and too bunched together. Should have spead it just a bit and the powerful weapons were put together, ie, RPG next to the Egon allowing easy player domination.
Design 9/10 The simple figure 8 design will get boring after long-term play but you made it work and the map seams perfectly.
Ambience 4/10 I didn't like the way you lit the map, very simple and bland. No diversity of light colours and shadows. There were also no sounds! It really ticks me off when I run around a silent map.
Map Skill 10/10 Trims, gizmoes, sticking out bits, plenty of good solid mapping here.
Total 8/10 (4 stars) It's a shame I have to give you 4 stars and not 5 (I add scores and divide by 5 = 8.2), you made a fantastic map but those letdowns were quite major. Maybe do it up a bit, see what happens.
Commented 16 years ago2008-04-04 23:19:20 UTC
in vault item: DM-KnotComment #16551
Texturing 10/10 Great texturing, really suits the theme.
Weapon Placement 9/10 Was spread well but quite a few big weapons. Not many of the lighter weapons.
Design 8/10 Very good but way too circular for my taste.
Ambience 6/10 The lights were really good but, again, lacking in sounds. There was the pumping sound but that was it.
Map Skill 10/10 A fantastic map. Really looks good aside from a few strange black blocks that seem a bit flat compared to the rest of the map.
Total 8/10 (3 stars) [-1 star for lagging play and not stating in readme that this is for HL Weapons Edition, works in HL but is missing a sprite] A very playable map but the lagging was a disappointment. You did a great job, keep up the good work
Texturing 10/10 Nicely textured. Looks really good and no visible errors
Weapon Placement 10/10 Nice little perks here, with the more powerful weapons a bigger climb away! Evenly placed and well placed.
Flat-Life Playablity 9/10 It is not cramped for a Flat-Life map and the ledges are very easy to negotiate. There is cover for players and not too many places where the player is over-exposed.
Ambience 7/10 Pretty quiet except for the wind and the constant gunfire!! But the lighting was appealing for some reason despite it being very simple.
Map Skill 10/10 Looks really good but the only thing I can suggest is that you remove those annoying sparks, they just distract you.
Total 9/10 (5 stars) A great addition to the (hopefully) growing Flat-Life community. A very fun and simple map that shows off how fun Flat-Life is.
Commented 16 years ago2008-04-04 09:58:43 UTC
in journal: #4981Comment #40604
I like it Rimrook, do you use a tablet? Tablets make it alot easier because you can control the pressure of the pen/brush, so you don't have to adjust the opacity so much.. Anyways, I like it alot, I can't really do environments all that well as of yet, but I'll probably soon have too :/
Commented 16 years ago2008-04-04 05:41:32 UTC
in journal: #4981Comment #40606
Really nice but your image is so big it broke my browser! At 2.5 megs that is a more than a little rediculous: I resized (InfranView) to 1600x10 and used 70% compression and the filesize is reduced to 137KB with no dicernable loss of quality except it's a tad darker. There's just no reason to have something that big/quality unless ur printing a banner or something! = >
i love looking at peoples nice concept art, I wish I could draw/paint like that! <whistles, looks around and coughs something that doesn't vaguely sound like "tutorial".
Commented 16 years ago2008-04-04 05:01:21 UTC
in vault item: Gearbox HallwayComment #16548
Ha Ha, as always superb attention to detail and use of ambient effects in ur maps! = )
+Superb detailing Complicated trims, wall panels, flooring, everything is detailed nicely. I will say as much as i like detailing myself, it's a waste sometimes with the HL engine, as many times you can't appreciate the detailing unless you go in hammer and look at all the seperate brushes. (the doors for example are detail-brushed exquisitely, but because you can only look at them head-on, you can't see the details unless you walk right up to it. In these cases sometimes you can use stark texture changes for beveled areas/trims, and subtle lighting/shadow to make that nice detail stand out!
+Great Effects/sound Your maps always have nice sound and other realistic effects... bravo!
-Lighting You could use little textlights on the floor/ceiling incrementally down the hallway to give some nice shadows. I would also eliminate all the point lighting, xcept if you have some persisting weird shadows on your func_rotating gears, where in that case actually i'd make the texture of the gear itself a textlight at brightness of 1 to rid any harsh shadowing.
--glass those beautiful gears in the walls but you can't see them through the glass because it's too opaque! Careful if you have your brigtness/gamma/contrast settings tweaked, you might be getting a different picture than we see! = )
To Conclude, I thought it was an awesome and inspiring map, despite some few issues. 5 stars for wicked attention to detail and hard work easily.
Commented 16 years ago2008-04-04 05:01:14 UTC
in journal: #4980Comment #38889
i always fancy the black and white ones. The colored one is too dank for and real detail to be seen, and it would be rough to model from. Some contrast and lighting would fix that up easily.\
Very nice job, would be freaky to encounter in a dark corner.
Commented 16 years ago2008-04-03 19:16:58 UTC
in journal: #4977Comment #40596
Here's the stinger;
I've paid for my education like everyone else. Only now, newer students are taught Max, Maya, Zbrush, and have Unreal Tournament 3 (which is liquid victory) and they pay the same amount as I have before and get way more out of it. If I want to learn that now, I have to sacrifice my own time to catch up a difference of about 2 years. I can't even graduate before the technology gets upgraded!
UnrealED3 is fun
I could use it as leverage like a devine sign, but 6D needs to finish so that need ample time to develop. Plus I haven't heard from Daubster in over 2 weeks. Hope nothing bad happened to him.
I'm caught between what is healthy for me to do and what is right for me to do.
I'm not worried about my texturing skills, its the other ones that are bothering me. Although, I could lay out a real test with this Environment Rendering contest....
Commented 16 years ago2008-04-03 19:11:23 UTC
in vault item: ka_de_streetrugbyComment #16547
Texturing 5/10 The texturing didn't have very much appeal. The range of textures was good but the walls don't look nice and some tanks had a couple of misalighned textures.
Team Balance 6/10 Both teams can be instantly killed because spawn positions are in sight of each other, not a nice way to start as slower players won't be able to get to cover.
Design 8/10 The idea is new and the layout is simple yet effective and this could be a much funner map. And don't use the box method to seal your leak. If you have to, at least make it the 'sky' texture.
Ambience 1/10 Yuk! No sounds and the lighting was a one colour nigtmare.
Map Skill 4/10 You may have put too little effort in this one. There is not enough adequate cover, the walls are bland. The bomb zone has face clashes that make it look nasty and the tanks were in the walls in some places.
Total 5/10 (2 stars) Do some more work on this, please. With a major overhaul of the actual appearance of this map you can improve it significantly and earn a better rating. Otherwise, you have an idea, work out the kinks and you may have found a successful new game mode.
Commented 16 years ago2008-04-03 15:54:30 UTC
in journal: #4977Comment #40600
Having such high a praise from a professor--about your texturing skills--is, well you should be pretty proud
As for the negative feedback, if it made you mad and/or was painful, then that's not necessarily a bad thing. I find I feel those emotions quite a lot when I'm learning or on the road to learning something important. = )
And even if you were the worst level designer or whatever on the planet, if you like doing something, don't stop or dismiss it because someone says you suck at it.
Commented 16 years ago2008-04-02 19:59:49 UTC
in vault item: CarbaseusComment #18235
I just happened back across this map again while showing some friends, and I've got to say I'm amazed to see how much everyone seems to like it even four years later. One of these days I ought to go ahead and put the other ten or so maps (all of them much smaller...) that I've done on this site since the sites I used to have them reviewed on are all gone. Might do that sometime soon since I'm not doing anything else for the time being. Thanks for the support guys.
Commented 16 years ago2008-04-02 04:34:45 UTC
in vault item: dm_bulkComment #16541
Wow, this is really cool, and refreshingly different from most HL maps you come accross these days.
+packed with detail items and background detail the player can never reach, but still very-much appreciate (like the catwalks above the security desk) +nice varied layout with little nooks to hide and nice pass-throughs with those vents +Beautiful/varied lighting--almost looks dynamic in places: Bravo! +Nice and cleanly mapped: I saw no errors +Nice texturing though still looks very black-mesaISH = ) +Nice doodads like the machines, lasers, and the nice iris door.
-I didn't like the 1 or two lifts, that tend to crush you when you try to activate them.
Superb work and a well-deserving motm winnar! 5 stars
Commented 16 years ago2008-04-01 21:04:39 UTC
in journal: #4977Comment #40595
flexible people keep jobs longer. This is one of the prime things they teach at uni and it makes good sense to me. however, i do want to specialize in texturing since it is the one thing that i seem to do without any hesitation or problems.
I have been creating realistic current game level textures with normal maps and spec maps, but all I can do is try them out in max. I wouldn't mind supporting some of the source mappers around here though.
Yet none of this is very encouraging. Either way, i still have to finish 6D, which has me doing all of the artwork and maps, regardless of who says what im good at. Only now i don't feel so enthusiastic about the project.
Originality 9/10
While this kind of game in well known, the fact that it uses a FPS engine is quite spectacular.
Playability 9/10
While it may take some time to grasp the controls and physics, it is really fun and easy to play.
Visuals 10/10
Some great maps are included that really show off the appeal that this kind of game can provide.
Cleanliness 9/10
Minor nitpicks here and there but nothing serious. This version has not yet crashed on me.
User Options 10/10
There is full user customisation with mapping resources and even setting the new graphics to suit your computer.
Total 10/10 (5 stars)
Naturally, 5 STARS!! A great mod ChickenFist, you have done very well, keep improving it, there are heaps more things you can do to this mod!
Good use of textures and not a single error that I could find, except, the glows you created for lights cut off too sharply to look realistic. They should have faded all the way to black.
Weapon Placement 8/10
Very good but way too much ammo and too bunched together. Should have spead it just a bit and the powerful weapons were put together, ie, RPG next to the Egon allowing easy player domination.
Design 9/10
The simple figure 8 design will get boring after long-term play but you made it work and the map seams perfectly.
Ambience 4/10
I didn't like the way you lit the map, very simple and bland. No diversity of light colours and shadows. There were also no sounds! It really ticks me off when I run around a silent map.
Map Skill 10/10
Trims, gizmoes, sticking out bits, plenty of good solid mapping here.
Total 8/10 (4 stars)
It's a shame I have to give you 4 stars and not 5 (I add scores and divide by 5 = 8.2), you made a fantastic map but those letdowns were quite major. Maybe do it up a bit, see what happens.
P.S. Use WinRAR, it can read 7z files.
Great texturing, really suits the theme.
Weapon Placement 9/10
Was spread well but quite a few big weapons. Not many of the lighter weapons.
Design 8/10
Very good but way too circular for my taste.
Ambience 6/10
The lights were really good but, again, lacking in sounds. There was the pumping sound but that was it.
Map Skill 10/10
A fantastic map. Really looks good aside from a few strange black blocks that seem a bit flat compared to the rest of the map.
Total 8/10 (3 stars) [-1 star for lagging play and not stating in readme that this is for HL Weapons Edition, works in HL but is missing a sprite]
A very playable map but the lagging was a disappointment. You did a great job, keep up the good work
Nicely textured. Looks really good and no visible errors
Weapon Placement 10/10
Nice little perks here, with the more powerful weapons a bigger climb away! Evenly placed and well placed.
Flat-Life Playablity 9/10
It is not cramped for a Flat-Life map and the ledges are very easy to negotiate. There is cover for players and not too many places where the player is over-exposed.
Ambience 7/10
Pretty quiet except for the wind and the constant gunfire!! But the lighting was appealing for some reason despite it being very simple.
Map Skill 10/10
Looks really good but the only thing I can suggest is that you remove those annoying sparks, they just distract you.
Total 9/10 (5 stars)
A great addition to the (hopefully) growing Flat-Life community. A very fun and simple map that shows off how fun Flat-Life is.
I'm worried about Dauby too... i hope he comes back soon.
i love looking at peoples nice concept art, I wish I could draw/paint like that! <whistles, looks around and coughs something that doesn't vaguely sound like "tutorial".
)
+Superb detailing
Complicated trims, wall panels, flooring, everything is detailed nicely. I will say as much as i like detailing myself, it's a waste sometimes with the HL engine, as many times you can't appreciate the detailing unless you go in hammer and look at all the seperate brushes. (the doors for example are detail-brushed exquisitely, but because you can only look at them head-on, you can't see the details unless you walk right up to it. In these cases sometimes you can use stark texture changes for beveled areas/trims, and subtle lighting/shadow to make that nice detail stand out!
+Great Effects/sound
Your maps always have nice sound and other realistic effects... bravo!
-Lighting
You could use little textlights on the floor/ceiling incrementally down the hallway to give some nice shadows. I would also eliminate all the point lighting, xcept if you have some persisting weird shadows on your func_rotating gears, where in that case actually i'd make the texture of the gear itself a textlight at brightness of 1 to rid any harsh shadowing.
--glass
those beautiful gears in the walls but you can't see them through the glass because it's too opaque! Careful if you have your brigtness/gamma/contrast settings tweaked, you might be getting a different picture than we see! = )
To Conclude, I thought it was an awesome and inspiring map, despite some few issues. 5 stars for wicked attention to detail and hard work easily.
= )
Very nice job, would be freaky to encounter in a dark corner.
I've paid for my education like everyone else. Only now, newer students are taught Max, Maya, Zbrush, and have Unreal Tournament 3 (which is liquid victory) and they pay the same amount as I have before and get way more out of it. If I want to learn that now, I have to sacrifice my own time to catch up a difference of about 2 years. I can't even graduate before the technology gets upgraded!
UnrealED3 is fun
I could use it as leverage like a devine sign, but 6D needs to finish so that need ample time to develop. Plus I haven't heard from Daubster in over 2 weeks. Hope nothing bad happened to him.
I'm caught between what is healthy for me to do and what is right for me to do.
I'm not worried about my texturing skills, its the other ones that are bothering me. Although, I could lay out a real test with this Environment Rendering contest....
EDIT: Ohshi- there IS an edit button!
The texturing didn't have very much appeal. The range of textures was good but the walls don't look nice and some tanks had a couple of misalighned textures.
Team Balance 6/10
Both teams can be instantly killed because spawn positions are in sight of each other, not a nice way to start as slower players won't be able to get to cover.
Design 8/10
The idea is new and the layout is simple yet effective and this could be a much funner map. And don't use the box method to seal your leak. If you have to, at least make it the 'sky' texture.
Ambience 1/10
Yuk! No sounds and the lighting was a one colour nigtmare.
Map Skill 4/10
You may have put too little effort in this one. There is not enough adequate cover, the walls are bland. The bomb zone has face clashes that make it look nasty and the tanks were in the walls in some places.
Total 5/10 (2 stars)
Do some more work on this, please. With a major overhaul of the actual appearance of this map you can improve it significantly and earn a better rating. Otherwise, you have an idea, work out the kinks and you may have found a successful new game mode.
As for the negative feedback, if it made you mad and/or was painful, then that's not necessarily a bad thing. I find I feel those emotions quite a lot when I'm learning or on the road to learning something important. = )
And even if you were the worst level designer or whatever on the planet, if you like doing something, don't stop or dismiss it because someone says you suck at it.
downloading... = )
But thanks for the hosting tip anyway...
+packed with detail items and background detail the player can never reach, but still very-much appreciate (like the catwalks above the security desk)
+nice varied layout with little nooks to hide and nice pass-throughs with those vents
+Beautiful/varied lighting--almost looks dynamic in places: Bravo!
+Nice and cleanly mapped: I saw no errors
+Nice texturing though still looks very black-mesaISH = )
+Nice doodads like the machines, lasers, and the nice iris door.
-I didn't like the 1 or two lifts, that tend to crush you when you try to activate them.
Superb work and a well-deserving motm winnar!
5 stars
Looks good though.
There's better hosting out there. one that's free and easy is gmail. open up a gmail account (you don't need an invite anymore) and go to this link:
http://pages.google.com/?pli=1
You can upload up to 100MB of hassle-free hotlinkable goodness : )
Try to upload to FPSBANANA
I'm already there =)
I have been creating realistic current game level textures with normal maps and spec maps, but all I can do is try them out in max. I wouldn't mind supporting some of the source mappers around here though.
Yet none of this is very encouraging. Either way, i still have to finish 6D, which has me doing all of the artwork and maps, regardless of who says what im good at. Only now i don't feel so enthusiastic about the project.
Who's penis is it?