W. I. P. Tributaries & more

[[EJ] Bean]

I figured I would Post all of my WIP's since most of my progress has been impeaded by errors.

I present Tributaries. A large outdoor level with one base at the bottom lake and one at the top. No story line yet, but I made it around the idea that it is completely natural, with no forerunner structures in it. The picture are alreayd out of date, I'll update them soon.

http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b207/TheAnsible/random/tributaries1.jpg
http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b207/TheAnsible/random/tributaries2.jpg
http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b207/TheAnsible/random/tributaries3.jpg
http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b207/TheAnsible/random/tributaries4.jpg
http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b207/TheAnsible/random/tributaries5.jpg

Refinery. The story Jumps from being stuck on the moon, to the far north on earth. The entire complex was made to be small/medium size but again these picture are out of date and I will update them later.

http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b207/TheAnsible/random/inside-looking-out.jpg
http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b207/TheAnsible/random/hallway.jpg
http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b207/TheAnsible/random/dome-inside.jpg
http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b207/TheAnsible/random/dome.jpg
http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b207/TheAnsible/random/flagbase.jpg

The entire ring world is dubbed Installation 01 and is by far the oldest forerunner structure discovered so far. After the initiation of standby mode caused by recent events on Installation 04, the surface of the Installation 01 started to change. Slight shifts in the inner workings of the world caused the natural sediment and water ways to shift revealing a series of long hidden forerunner complexes. Over each complex huge storms have formed, and the water below parted for energies of unknown power to make way. The fight continues over the complexes, because whoever controls the complexes controls the fate of all sentient life in the galaxy.

The current name for the map is Omnipotence

Omnipotence (literally, "all power") is power with no limits or inexhaustible, in other words, unlimited power. Monotheistic religions generally attribute omnipotence only to God.

Here are some screenshots to inspire your imagination.

http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b207/TheAnsible/random/omnipotence1.jpg
http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b207/TheAnsible/random/omnipotence2.jpg
http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b207/TheAnsible/random/omnipotence3.jpg
http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b207/TheAnsible/random/omnipotence4.jpg

I have several others in progress, but as I said stupid errors keep holding their release up. Tell me what you think.

[LinkandKvel]

Looks pretty good. Your definately not the "ordinary" noob.

[[EJ] Bean]

Looks pretty good. Your definately not the "ordinary" noob.

I'll take that as a complement. :)

[Stormwing]

yeah, you're not ordinary, you're special! woohoo!

...anyway, i'm likin these. They could, of course, use a lot more work in terms of texturing and modelling (well, mostly texturing. the current one make the models look rather mediocre...), but i like the concepts and themes. looking forward to more updates! :D

[Bad Waffle]

I see a lot of talent waiting to be unleashed in you and your creative ideas...ill be watching.
:beating:

[Bodzilla]

Wow. your fucking awesome bro. Keep up the great work man.

[Limited]

Very nice, I think you would need to work on the textures more than working on models. mainly because if the textures are dont not brilliantly, halo's engine seems to make it look really bad.

[Dole]

I'm lovin' the whole "up-the-hill, down-the hill" kinda thing goin' on in the first map.
That'll make for some epic full-team charges... as in Normandy beachhead epic

[CtrlAltDestroy]

They have A LOT of potential; you just need to work on your smoothing errors and texturing.

[Love De Lux]

Awesome maps. o:

[Pred1ator]

noice maps man, the last one looks like an apocalypse delta halo

[Con]

These are really cool map ideas, but they're being marred by the lack of detail in geometry and the lack of variety in texturing. You could work on your UV skills as well. The first one, Tributaries, looks like a cool idea, but the way the land looks is really strange. I can say the same about how you have the water flowing. I would revise that a bit, because you've got a river flowing along the top of ridge. Rivers are supposed to take the lower ground. It also looks like part of your river flows uphill (where it's connecting to the large on on the side). Secondly for Tributaries, I'm having trouble seeing balanced gameplay occurring. In multiplayer, higher ground usually means an advantage, because you can hide at the top while being able to cover the whole terrain below. You need to work the landscape to help the lower team get to the top. Don't use too many tunnels; that's the easy way out in my opinion. I would also suggest adding a vehicle path that goes up in switchbacks; keep the vehicle path as difficult or long as by foot.


Your moonbase-like map looks pretty cool; I like the dome and the glass in it. There are only a few things bugging me about this map. What's good is that you've helped balance gameplay by closing off tunnels from the outside. This should interesting for CTF; the enemy getting away with the flag could take any route they want, but it is a long walk to catch 'em if you're defense. You might want to add quick way to get outside from the tunnels. One of the things that bugs me is texturing. The structures almost look too new. Make the textures a bit more grimy, which will create a nice mood for the map. Another thing to help with mood is lighting. The ambient lighting indoors doesn't quite look right. Making it darker and adding some artificial lighting to certain areas would be pretty cool. These are just a few things to keep in mind next time you do radiosity.


All I can say about the last map is possibly some more texture variety. I'm not too sure how gameplay would be on that map. This being said, take a look at Bungie's maps and see how certain terrain and structural elements affect gameplay. Incorporate as needed.


Anyway, great job so far on these! I can't wait to see how they turn out.

[[EJ] Bean]

These are really cool map ideas, but they're being marred by the lack of detail in geometry and the lack of variety in texturing. You could work on your UV skills as well. The first one, Tributaries, looks like a cool idea, but the way the land looks is really strange. I can say the same about how you have the water flowing. I would revise that a bit, because you've got a river flowing along the top of ridge. Rivers are supposed to take the lower ground. It also looks like part of your river flows uphill (where it's connecting to the large on on the side). Secondly for Tributaries, I'm having trouble seeing balanced gameplay occurring. In multiplayer, higher ground usually means an advantage, because you can hide at the top while being able to cover the whole terrain below. You need to work the landscape to help the lower team get to the top. Don't use too many tunnels; that's the easy way out in my opinion. I would also suggest adding a vehicle path that goes up in switchbacks; keep the vehicle path as difficult or long as by foot.

Your moonbase-like map looks pretty cool; I like the dome and the glass in it. There are only a few things bugging me about this map. What's good is that you've helped balance gameplay by closing off tunnels from the outside. This should interesting for CTF; the enemy getting away with the flag could take any route they want, but it is a long walk to catch 'em if you're defense. You might want to add quick way to get outside from the tunnels. One of the things that bugs me is texturing. The structures almost look too new. Make the textures a bit more grimy, which will create a nice mood for the map. Another thing to help with mood is lighting. The ambient lighting indoors doesn't quite look right. Making it darker and adding some artificial lighting to certain areas would be pretty cool. These are just a few things to keep in mind next time you do radiosity.


All I can say about the last map is possibly some more texture variety. I'm not too sure how gameplay would be on that map. This being said, take a look at Bungie's maps and see how certain terrain and structural elements affect gameplay. Incorporate as needed.


Anyway, great job so far on these! I can't wait to see how they turn out.

@ tributaries I don't plan the change where the water flows generaly, but i Did fix the uphill flowing in most places. I know my textureing is bad on most of my maps, I'm not very good at that but I'm working on it. @ the multiplayer problems, it will be a struggle to go up hill but there are plenty of paths that offer varying level of cover that I didn't show in the pics. I also plan to even it out with vehicle & weapon placement.

@ refinery though the textureing is still the same it has grown. wait till you see the new pics! (makes renders)

@ omnipotence this is the one where I know boolean will hate me if i try to use it to make paths. I'll draw a diragram to show what I'm trying to make happen in it.

[ExAm]

The first one looks like a combination of Outpost Rio and Halo.

[Masterz1337]

Impressive, keep up the good work.

[TeeKup]

I believe I warned you all of Bean/Hailstorm some time ago about his UI. He's got alot of talent. :P

[PlasbianX]

I beta'd these.. i liked em.

[FlyingStone]

:D
Lookin' good bean.
-F.S

[[EJ] Bean]

Hopefully you can tell the difference in tributaries- it's easier to tell in game because i added more refined portals for beter performance, on account that I also mesh smoothed them, which nearly quadrupuled the poly count. Also, the bases are located in caves and caverns with multiple entrances which should limit bottlenecks and camping, yet keep combat at an optimum level. Sorry about the lightmap, it was made at quality 0.

http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b207/TheAnsible/trib5.jpg
http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b207/TheAnsible/trib4.jpg
http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b207/TheAnsible/trib3.jpg
http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b207/TheAnsible/trib2.jpg
http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b207/TheAnsible/trib1.jpg

Refinery has grown beyond it's original design so game play will be more varied, and not a simple matter of taking the hog a few feet to the other base. The background of stars is just a place holder in max, because red-green errors keep me from exporting to halo. This map can generally be divided into three portions: Vehicles (upper cliffs and big pipe), Infantry (small pipes, and dome), and free for all (generally erratic cover where speed will be of the essence). The cranes can be considered sniper towers, but will in the future will include vehicle combat in their cargo lifts. The Blue splotches are placeholders for ice, because all I could find was an ice shader, not a bitmap.

http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b207/TheAnsible/refinery13a1.jpg
http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b207/TheAnsible/refinery13a2.jpg
http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b207/TheAnsible/refinery13a4.jpg
http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b207/TheAnsible/refinery13a3.jpg

[Darkbiship]

That looks sweet I can't wait to see this in it's final form