Laggy Battlefields: Rural Post again

[Laggy Blazko]

Rural Post V5
This is my first public map. (If we don't count "UBER BASE" as public).
I think I won't make too many big maps again. This one took too long and I still have to work on its music. Once it's finished I'll submit it to CSCM. LOL it was rejected long ago.

Screenshots

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Still under construction. Proceed with caution.

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Map design:
- Laggy Blazko
- MocoSuelto (Doesn't play online)

Testing:
- Care Boby
- MegaManRecharged
- Thuban
- Shadow Black
- Whoever tried it when I posted it in that "DB2 is trolling me" thread.

Also thanks to Knux for making a MAPINFO and Trying to solve a bug.

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Exploitation
Screenshots and explanation here

[Korby]

Finally!
Someone else who knows how to emulate darkness without lowering the darkness!

I'll look at the map later.

[MasterXman]

This is the greatest I have seen today ever.
Some one must host this.

[TheMetalManu]

I must admit it, the pump thing is just awesome. Nice job.

[xColdxFusionx]

Damn, those screenshots look amazing.

Hope this gets into CSCM!

[Hallan Parva]

Your first "public" map ends up being one of the best "not named IX" maps I've ever seen.

If this doesn't get in CSCM I will personally malice Messatsu with a shoehorn.

[LlamaHombre]

You should all consider if he wants it in CSCM or not.

Some people detest that pack.

[Galaxy Sisbro]

Llama, you're kinda generalizing. THERE are good maps in CSCM. Not to say that there's a lot of talent lacking there.

Good job, Blazko. I love your job. Hope you make a lot of more maps!

[Hallan Parva]

Once it's finished I'll submit it to CSCM.

just sayin'

[Galaxy Sisbro]

Next version of CSCM is coming soon, maybe this week or the other. And yeah, I'm impatient to see your work there Blazko.

[TheMetalManu]

Blazko, you should put this music in your map for instant win.

[Ivory]

Well, since someone has to criticize the map, because when you get past it looking beautiful, the layout sucks. Period. Was this made for Roboenza? It's too obnoxiously big to be played in any other mode.

I won't go after every little detail, but I'll capture the biggest problems with the map, other than just saying size.

1) The Rainflush area is beyond one of the most cryptic things no one would ever find without blindly jumping or mini-mapping. There is no way to tell you can even get past those areas. Everything is the same blue color, which while does a good job at emulating darkness, it causes everything to blend together. Which is a problem. Look at the screenshots. Would you guess you could get past there?

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2) The entire camp site is way off in a corner of the map that shouldn't exist. It's just there. You access at the bottom of a pit, or through a tiny gap in the wall that looks like all the rest of the same colored trees that leads back to the building. I never noticed it, even with the minimap. Even from the building side it's painful to notice. I thought it was a dead end for the longest time before realizing there was a tiny gap there. Again this relates to everything being blue and black.

3) Dinning Tables. EVERYWHERE. That location by the pump? 8 big energies, 4 large health and 10 small energies, 6 small health in that section and near by areas. Forget that, pretty much a majority of the areas have giant health and energy everywhere. Coupled with Plant Barrier...

4) Death Pits. I'm sorry, but in a stage with no deathpits to worry about, you have those random spike pit. The worst offender however is Napalm Bombs. You climb extremely steep stairs, run up a slope...and whoops, there was a death pit at the top. No other part of the level does this, it's just there.

5) You have that pump thing that adds MORE to the level. Not to mention it leads to yet another dinning table to eat from. 2 big energies, 2 large health, bubble lead (such a powerful weapon sure needs to be hidden, especially compared to water wave), an E-Tank and Exit Unit. Sounds perfect for camping! Not to mention you have a corner to hide in that no one will ever check. If someone manages to get into your hiding hole, you can just Exit Unit out of it. The only bright side to this addition of the level is that it makes it more obvious that the Rain Flush area exists.

Oh right, and you have to press the use key as far as I can tell. I can safely tell you most players don't even bother binding it, because it's never used.

6) Weapon Problems. Rolling Cutter AND Knight Crush? Needle Cannon and Yamato Spear? Water Wave (which isn't hidden) and Bubble Lead (which is?).  This is all redundant. You also have Leaf shield here with only 4 weapons (Flame Blast, Scorch Wheel, Rolling Cutter and Metal Blades) to counter it. It's a giant map. You can exit unit low gravity. Oh my. This has suddenly turned into stallers paradise. I've been running about this stage for 30+ Minutes and only just found Search Snakes? I think there is a huge, huge problem here.

I know I may be sounding harsh and critical, but you are basically starting the way I did with I-Packv1. Big Doom player, never mapped in MM8BDM fashion and applies doom conventions and logic to the map. The result is a map that isn't good for MM8BDM. Comparable to Wave Trench or Gravity Core in terms of being large and annoying. This one isn't as bad, but it's matching up there in terms of hiding items. The map is visually beautiful, but the actual gameplay is atrocious. Sadly, there isn't much I can really suggest to improve this map. If it were me making it, I would just drop it and start fresh with a new layout.

None the less, keep at it, think about what I said, and don't give up with your future mapping endeavors.

[Galaxy Sisbro]

After talking with Messatsu about the map, and to add with Ivory's critic message regarding the map layout, I have some things to tell.

1st- The main forest area (the one where you can past over the bushes) should be completely cropped. As Ivory said, no one could ever know that there's a hidden area though these trees. It took me 15 minutes to notice it, and the whole thing was just about jumping everywhere without having the most little sense of where I was going neither where I was. Suddenly I got into a lake, which texture was identical to the floor one. It was pretty confusing

2nd- The inside textures DOESN'T match. polyobject doors are nice, though it doesn't really fit the conventional way of playing MM8BDM. Also, the whole base didn't made sense, with just death pits everywhere that no one could notice, at all (Further problem in MM1DW1X, mind you). I would completely delete the base, but that's up to you. Since I don't see any way to make it better.

3rd- Ivory probably forgot this problem, but I'm telling you anyway: LAG. this map has lags for the gigantic amount of trees actors. Funny enough, the map is called LAG01. I had this problem in CSCM14 before, and, quite frankly, it was a pain in the ass. It can be fixed by deleting some areas and actors, but that's really up to you.

How would I fix this map:

-Keep the main corridor, wooden house and camping area, by adding bigger entrances to the later. The lake can be moved somewhere else WITH a noticeable water texture.

-Delete the base. The outside section of it can be decorated nicely, though by making a whole base, it just makes the map gigantic. I would add bridges-things of that sort

- Delete forest area.

-Add a bit more platforms.

This map is beautiful, intricate and VERY, VERY detailed. The overall layout is fine, though some sections really needs to be trashed. Feel proud of yourself.

[Laggy Blazko]

Finally!
Someone else who knows how to emulate darkness without lowering the darkness!

I'll look at the map later.

I stole that idea from Urban Brawl =P.

Blazko, you should put this music in your map for instant win.

If I'm authorized to use that and CSCM allows all those channels, then you saved me a lot of work!

A lot

Well, thanks for the criticism.
My original idea was much smaller, but I kept having more ideas for this (well, MocoSuelto and some testers asked me to add some things). Next time i'll save some of them for a next map, heheh. For now I'll just relocate some Items and remove some trees. If it didn't have a base its name wouldn't fit.
BTW, there's more than one way to get to the Exit Unit area.NVM i failed it.

[Galaxy Sisbro]

If it didn't have a base its name wouldn't fit.

.
Kinda hard to tell when the name is rural post. If so, then you can completely make the base again. It was based in more of a personal opinion anyway.