MapForce

IPv4 spread pies

2010-07-22T11:37:00.004+02:00

Something different for today:

Doing webapps for a global audience brings in the requirements of localization. For this I had a look on the world wide IP Address spread. Especially the amount of address range fragmentation and the overall address allocation. The latter one does not surprise me at all. Putting them into two pie charts.

The US own about 50% of all available addresses, while China got 8% and Japan has 6%. First come, first serve.

The fragmentation is different.

50% of the addresses create only 15% of the overall 129.763 fragments. The addresses of the UK has 10% of all fragments while Germany has 9%.

Now I am able to do a better model for finding the right country. :)

src: http://www.maxmind.com/

slimefac V2 released

2010-07-11T21:38:00.005+02:00

Released slimefac as improved version regarding to gameplay and balancing. A new room is included. Public testing was quiet long and the feedback I got helped me to finish it eventually. This one just contains less square rooms and more visual quality. Weapons and items stay at their position you might know from beta.

For extra download you can get it on spaceboyz.

OA 0.85 is out for almost a month now

2010-03-19T09:29:00.003+01:00

A long awaited release increases my motivation to spend some time on new things. Download is located as usual: http://openarena.ws/
Here is the changelog put together by Neon Knight:

Content-wise:
* Changes on ctf_compromise, ctf_gate1, ctf_inyard and oa_minia.
* Added am_underworks, am_underworks2, blitzkrieg3, oa_koth2, (all of them Deathmatch) and hydronex2, oa_reptctf11, ps9ctf and ps37ctf. (CTF)
- am_underworks2 (3 points) oa_koth2 (1 point) and hydronex2 (3 points) also supports Single Domination. Though these two latter maps don't appear in the GUI.
- oa_minia also has Double Domination and Elimination support. Though it won't appear in these modes via GUI.
- am_underworks2 has Elimination support.
* Three new skins: one for Assassin, another for Beret, and another for Angelyss. The first two by cosmo, the third by leileilol.

GUI:
* Menu:
- Challenge system, which includes awards and statistics. It only works online. Read this for the explanation about the system: http://code.google.com/p/oax/wiki/Challenges
- Password prompt when joining servers
- New First Connect screen, which reminds new players of some important settings.
- New 2d art and blueish menu by Udi and leileilol.
- Added color 8 (orange - former menu color)
- Mouse wheel works in mods menu
- New ui_demo2.c by jessicaRA
- A few notices added to UI in different places
- Options:
+ The grapple can be bound in the options menu.
+ Team only voice chat (cg_voipTeamOnly) enabled by default. While this function is enabled, any value the player assign to "cl_voipSendTarget" will be overwritten when a player joins or leaves the team.
+ cg_crosshairHealth toggleable in the menu.
+ Left/Center weapon hand[/b] can be changed.
- Server browser:
+ Servers with no humans on are now considered empty if "Only humans" is enabled.
+ Gametype filter now also works for One Flag, Obelisk, Harvester and Domination
+ Server source is now: Internet, Internet(2), Internet(3) ... instead of Internet1, Internet2, Internet3 ...
+ davidd's sort by humans.
- Start server:
+ Increased significantly the number of maps supported. The game can now handle 20*1024 charecters in the *.arena file list.
+ No maps are ignored if the number of single player maps is not divisible by 4.
+ Added comments to pure and All Rockets in "start server"
+ Fixed LMS mode bug in "start server"
+ More ingame information about pmove
+ Added 91 Hz fixed framerate (pmove_msec 11)
+ pmove_msec defaults to 11 (controversial - I know)
+ Added "Oneway capture" to "start server" for the CTF Elimination gametype
+ Added "Physics" to "start server"
+ Added "Optimize for LAN" to "start server"
* In-game:
- Voting menu, for vote calling.
+ Supports: next map, restart map, shuffle teams, change map, change gametype, playerkick, warmup enable, fraglimit, timelimit and custom votes.
+ Supports maplists and custom votes from the files votemaps.cfg and votecustom.cfg. (More below about the latter)
- New "simple item" icons by Udi.
- Breath and Dust effects backported from missionpack.
- New effects by leileilol.
* HUD:
- Grapple:
+ You can get "No ammo" even if you have it.
+ It'll never be selected then autoswitching from a weapon because you ran out of ammo.
+ It's now placed before gauntlet.
+ It can be bound in option menu.
+ It's no longer selected by default on spawn.
- Colored crosshairs are back. They are supported by changing RGB values via menu or cvar. The cvars are cg_crosshairColorRed, cg_crosshairColorGreen and cg_crosshairColorBlue.
- Different crosshairs per weapon (not available via UI, needs to be setup via cvars)
- New weapon bars by schlorri. Toggleable by using cg_weaponBarStyle.
- Changed message for teamkill from "you fragged " to "you fragged ^1TEAMMATE^7 "
- cg_oldRail now defaults to 0
- Chaingun kill message is no longer the same as the machinegun kill message
- Crosshair pulse can be disabled

Gameplay:
* FFA/1on1:
- Negative scores in FFA are no longer possible.
- Penalty points in 1on1 are awarded to the opponent rather than subtracted.
* Harvester:
- Skulls are now visible behind the skull carrier in Harvester.
* Elimination/eCTF:
- Added elimination_lockspectator: 0=no lock, 1=cannot follow enemy, 2=must follow teammate (For Elimination and CTF Elimination only)
- Changed default ammo count.
- Dead players are sorted last.
- Fixed crash during intermission if a human was dead while the capturelimit was reached and possible other situations.
* LMS:
- Connecting players will no longer count as survivors.
* Double DOM:
- The counter will no longer count forever during warmup. (However, points will not respawn)
- Sound events.
* Single DOM:
- Flags are used as domination points instead of using Point A from DD.
* Other:
- Midair suicide, while g_awardpushing is enabled, will result in a point to the attacker.
- Mines will self destruct very quickly if placed near the flag.
- Runes, Kamikaze and Invulnerability are now available. (Invincibility is still unmodelled) The runes can be toggled by using g_runes. Default: 0 in baseoa, 1 in missionpack.
- Changed the way the game picks the spawn point to prevent maps with few spawnpoints that are marked with nobot or nohuman from hanging the game.
- Quad will no longer spawn if q_quadfactor <= 1.0 - Added restore system based on guid. You no longer lose scores when changing team, spectating or leave+rejoin. Chainging team or leaving the game now counts as a suicide to prevent misuse of the restore system. In Team Deathmatch the team will be compensated so they don't loose points by loosing a player to the other team. - No killed message then a client leaves (still counts as a suicide) Server admins/new cvars:
* Non-rcon based admin system. (ban, kick, lock teams, cancel votes etc.) - Server admins should read this in order to get familiarized with the new commands: http://code.google.com/p/oax/wiki/Admin
* Shuffle teams function added. Can be called by an admin, by using "shuffle", or by players, by using "callvote shuffle".
* g_awardPushing. If enabled, players will get frags for killing with a mover (be aware that this makes it possible to be noted for a teamkill even if friendly fire is off)
* Grapple cvars:
- Server side cvar "elimination_grapple" added. Allows grapple in elimination gametypes.
- Client side cvar "cg_cyclegrapple" to tell if Grapple should be part of the weapon cycle. Default is 1 since there are no default key.
* Killing sprees/death sprees and multikills added. Read this for the explanation of the system: http://code.google.com/p/oax/wiki/Sprees_and_Multikills
* Added Server side 'videoflags' cvar. Default value 7 (1+2+4). 1 verifies some basic values. 2 verifies some extended graphics settings. 4 disables vertex light.
* Added Client side 'cg_autovertex' cvar. Automatically enables vertex light if allowed. Off by default. Gets enabled if you enable vertex light through the menu.
* g_elimination cvar added (like g_instantgib and g_rockets, but full elimination arsenal, health and damage rules)
* g_lms_mode is now a SERVERINFO CVAR
* g_humanplayers is no longer a SERVERINFO CVAR. It's always 0 during intermission.
* CVAR_SYSTEMINFO is now set in cgame to allow game to override them
* You cannot ban localhost anymore (the system needs rewrite)
* Fixed a bug that allowed a client to call more than 3 votes in a single game.
* Fixed vote exploit
* pmove_float added. Makes the physics framerate independent but cost up to 8 times as much network traffic (worst case, normally only a few percent). Mostly for LAN gaming. Note that you must reduce g_gravity to ~756 to get 125 fps gravity.
* Server command handling now modularized ( ClientCommand & ConsoleCommand )
* Duplicate GUID check
* Vote can now pass even if majority is not reached then time runs out. It requires twice as many yes votes as no votes through or high percentage of yes votes.
* Vote system is more secure
* Added elimflags and voteflags which are now used to transfer some booleans to save network traffic
* Added g_catchup, that makes cheap frags a little more expensive if activated
* Added command "clients" that prints the correct client numbers for use with clientkick

AI:
* bot_minplayers works better but still not perfect.
* Bots now attack the Obelisk in Overload
* Bots should now acknowlegde the gametype property of items (still has bugs)
* Fixed infinity loop bug caused by bot_roams with gametype flags
* You can now command bots in One Flag, Harvester, Obelisk and Domination.
* bot_nochat >= 2 will now stop all bot chat
* bots now reads team status from game rather than ai config string. Hopefully stopping bots from shoting at there own team during certain changes.
* Bots are now a little better at understanding prox mines
* Generally improved the bot's Area Awareness System.
* Fixed infinity loop bug in AAS code caused by the gametype flag.
* Exclude bots from duplicate names check
* Thanks to BG_CanAlloc, adding too many bots no longer crashes the game.

Modding/Mapping:
* Added clientkick_game, same as clientkick but located in the game code, so it can be improved without touching the engine
* Gametype flag "ctfelimination" removed, replaced by "ctf"
* Prevent crash when the message in dom_point is null

Other improvements and bugfixings:
* Updated to ioquake3 rev1759.
* Clamp on cg_errorDecay as suggested by jessicaRA
* cl_guid is now written to the log file for all human players joining
* Removed compiler warning in TeamCvarSet
* Fixed double throw bug when a client disconnected
* Added G_GlobalSound
* BG_CanAlloc introduced, can predict out-of-memory errors and handle them.

ctf_compromise V2 Beta 4 release

2009-09-25T19:13:00.002+02:00

Time for next release. A part of a new teleporter model is included. The screenshot is all about it.
An improved gameplay of ctf_gate1 is in this pk3 as well. Shader is partly taken from pulchr.

Changelog:

ctf_compromise:

replace teleporter model
add new teleporter model
make sand a bit darker
ledge sink in RL room
further improved renderperformance
add easteregg to top towers
center area jumppads reach to RA now
minor texture fixes
additional clipping
removed nailgun because it does too much damage
for missionpack kamikaze added (replaces YA in center area)
support for domination and double domination gametypes
support for missionpack gametypes 1flag, harvester, and overload

ctf_gate1:

double domination support
domination points moved and reduced to 3
Chaingun removed
Nailgun replaced by Lightning Gun
improved item balancing

Download:
http://cosmo.spaceboyz.net/openarena/zctf_compromise_v2b4.pk3 (Save link as ...)

ctf_compromise V2 beta3 released

2009-08-06T10:31:00.005+02:00

Testserver is running this map with oaxB41 and brainworkz bots.
Feedback is welcome.

changes:

fog removed
blue skybox with clouds
upper ledges made accessable
layout of bases changed
even less patch mesh usage, phong shaded surfaces instead
texture and lighting improvements
bases and ways to them are more distinguishable
improved separation of areas to increase performance
removed railgun teleporter
added teleporter to upper ledge
railgun replaces plasmagun (too close to mega health?)
plasmagun is located in each base now
removed small health orbs but added armor shards
using Neon Knights new cross textures but these should be reworked: Redundancy!
Gargoyle model exported and added as mapmodel (was missing, just textures are included in OA 0.81)
Two new playerskins added (beret/headcrash and assasssin/ghost) for FFA
Regeneration powerup added to each base
Haste powerup replaces Biosuit in center area
using Neon Knights new cross textures but these should be reworked: Redundancy!
gargoyle model exported and added as mapmodel (was missing, just textures are included in OA 0.81)
two new playerskins added (beret/headcrash and assasssin/ghost) for FFA

Big credits to Ivan, Feidi, davidd and majorayumi (or what ever his/her name is).

altering ctf_compromise

2009-08-02T22:50:00.003+02:00

This is a work in progress screenshot. Ivan and Feidi gave me very helpful hints on ctf_compromise. Strange: This should have happened about a year ago!

More accessible ledges are there now and another teleporter in every base. Item balancing has to be done all over again. :(
I hope to get more vertical action and I am trying to get more focus on the middle area. Maybe I should place a quad there instead of just a biosuit.

I am improving performance more and more. This time the fog had to be banned. Next will be separating the areas so less gets drawn at once.

Included in this screenshots are two new player skins for assassin and beret.

oa_black: Black Magic

2009-07-30T09:46:00.004+02:00

First public testing release of oa_black. Need some gameflow tests and item balancing feedback.

This is going to be a small/mid sized tourney/tdm map with Domination gametype support. Don't be scared of by the low visual quality. It took me about 1 hour to create the upper parts and about 1 week to do the lower cave like basement. It is quiet possible to alter the layout in a big way. Spending time on details is not a good idea yet.

This is my playground for upcoming texture creation.

Download: http://cosmo.spaceboyz.net/openarena/oa_black_a1.pk3
Included is next public release of ctf_compromise with hopefully fixed fog density issue and improved lighting.

A testmap server is rotating just these two maps. (/connect spaceboyz.net)
And is running latest oaxB41 including brainworkz bots.

Thanks for testing.

teleporter model sketches

2009-07-24T15:47:00.004+02:00

Update to my OA todolist. Time is short so do not expect a lot to be finished soon.
Two new sketches (concept) for two upcoming teleporter models which hopefully will replace my former one and will look way better.

ctf_inyard:
* replace teleporter model with a better one
* playtesting?
* new flag textures
* check for less camping possibilities

ctf_compromise:
* weapon balancing
* replace teleporter model
* lighting improvements
* rename fog shader due deploying issues
* playtesting!

ctf_gate1:
* weapon balancing seems to be bad. Put chaingun to a different spot?
* better: remove nailgun and replace it with chaingun. :)
* Weapon balancing!
* put GL to the sides
* replace Chaingun with LG
* Remove Nailgun from Domination gametypes
* put Domination Points to different locations

oa_koth2:
* new asset flag textures
* 1 additional rocket ammo in outer area
* check TDM gameplay
* smoother outer stonewalls

oa_koth1:
* retexture most of the crappy textures as it was intended originally
* add domination support
* replace teleporter model
* ask for player feedback

oa_black:
* finish cave brushwork
* do rough item placement
* release first gameplay alpha

slimefac:
* put respawn time for Haste to 120s
* remove randomized respawn times of items
* have Invisibility teamed up with Haste so they spawn in turns
* remove two staircases and alter lower rooms to have one additional big room
* put LG in new room
* move shortgun to where the large health powerup is located
* add megahealth to former LG position
* lava should not be a trap/thread anymore and be eyecandy only

playermodels:
* leather skin for beret
* ghost skin for assassin (like Q3A Bones)
* better Team skin for grism/sarge

powerups:
* model missing powerups and the ones schlorri created new 2D artwork

Planning and drawing

2009-07-14T13:38:00.005+02:00

Although the pressure of creating better map models and textures is high, an idea of a temple based, fast paced tourney map was in my mind for weeks now. These stone monoliths are not the end of the line and better light and teleporter models will follow. I just cannot put myself in front of blender these days.

This drawing presents a rough shape of the mid level floor which has been created already. Alterations and new ideas went into it while I worked on it just for a few hours.

An alpha testing release will come soon together with an improved version of slimefac.

ctf_inyard_v3_b2 release

2009-07-11T13:00:00.004+02:00

download (Save link as...)

changes:

large health items replaced by multiple normal (+25hp) ones
better jump pad behaviour
domination gametype support
double domination support removed (doesn't suit that map)
missionpack gametypes support (one flag, harvester)
additional spawnpoints
added a torch at the now blocked hallways
visual polish and other compile options
rocketlauncher in the central yard near MH
music (sonic1) meta entry in worldspawn
alphamod yard ground texture, the evil skull is shown there
roof to main platform added, it is becoming a balcony
no railgun slugs anymore
armor shards added to lower floor
additional dom points

ctf_compromise V2 beta1 release

2009-07-06T10:03:00.003+02:00

download (Save link as...)
Removed blue sky and skybox. The whole floor is made of brushes now because I hoped to have less impact on framerates that way. Removed patch meshes with decorative purposes only and added a few more hints which help a bit regarding to performance issues. Still a bit tweaking is possible.

An additional shotgun and the grenadelauncher have been placed in each base as well as support for One Flag CTF, Domination, and Double Domination gametypes.

The new passages could be improved by better lighting.

long time no see

2009-07-03T11:07:00.005+02:00

Due only sporadic progress I was lazy adding my changes and ideas to this blog. Time to list up what has been done. This screenshot shows an experimental state of ctf_compromise. I am working on it at the moment to fix the sky clipping problem allowing players to exit the map and enter it at the enemy base. While on it I thought of improving the overall appearance and playability of it. Still it bothers me a bit not seeing it online at all.

Additional changes went into the other maps. See linked screenshots of ctf_gate1 and oa_koth2. I give a changelog below.

ctf_compromise:
-done

ground patch meshes replaced by phong shaded brushes.
renderperformance increased slightly but I am not satisfied yet
many patchmeshes replaced by brushes
nailgun replaces grenadelauncher
additional way to every base added
fog less dense now
foghull removed (bad performance impact)
skybox added (see screenshots) but it looks silly

-todo

fix the sky bug - no clipping at the moment at all
weapon balancing
replace teleporter model
reduce patch meshes or their visibility even further

ctf_gate1:
-done

main layout changed, less pillars, less jumpy
less obstacles, better reachability, faster
additional ways to the sides of each base
weapon spawn textures
a trap
texture improvements
brush cleanup
clipping bug fixed
double domination support

-todo

weapon balancing seems to be bad. Put chaingun to a different spot?
better: remove nailgun and replace it with chaingun. :)

oa_koth2:
-done

music (sonic1) meta entry in worldspawn
domination support
smoother outer stonewalls
alphamod of outer groundtexture not looking like being cut with a knife

-todo

new flag textures

Invasion Mod on OA?

2009-04-15T23:13:00.004+02:00

Invasion is a mod for Q3A inspired by the Alien movies. Two fractions (marines and aliens) fight against each other and try to accomplish a certain goal, which for the marines can be destroying all alien eggs or grabbing an egg and getting to a teleporter. As players can chose among various marine types (armor and weapons) and alien races (different abilities) it's interesting if cooperative play is possible. All human players can join one team and bots will fill the opposing one, but don't expect a clever AI behind it. It works and that's important. Especially the aliens respawn all together, which leads into an aggressive bunch of foes approaching into the crowd of egg searching marines who cannot respawn.

Olivier asked me after reading my HUNT post if there is an option to get Invasion running on Open Arena. Besides the missing textures, which will hopefully be only a matter of time, exact replacements of Q3A playermodels won't be created. Unlike HUNT in Invasion, playermodels are fixed to the chosen armor class or alien race and are hard coded into the game logic.

On Open Arena it runs actually with default models at least if you enable cg_forcemodel and only the missing textures are a problem. If you are really into getting it working just get the sourcecode from the Invasion website and change the playermodels yourself. You will just miss a few nice skins for Orbb, Klesk and others.

Comparing its coop qualities I enjoy the fast gameplay, a nice HUD, and great weapons (no Q3A guns are used). A real Alien feeling emerges when playing Xenomorph and running across the ceiling, being the death from above. Too bad the places where eggs have to be destroyed are always the same so provided maps, which are great, get pretty repetitive. Anyway for me it is entertaining and I would prefer it over HUNT "Save the Universe". On the other hand the latter offers tons of randomized stuff you can never predict and especially "Escape from Hell" is my favourite, when it comes to coop.

Olivier did you check Tremolous and an Invasion mod for it? Maybe you will get what you are looking for. I have not tried any of these yet but I remember I had good times playing AvP1+2 multiplayer a long time ago.

ctf_inyard_v3 beta 1

2009-04-12T11:47:00.005+02:00

It's time to release a first beta. I had a few tests already and it seems gameplay changed elementary. I'm looking forward to receive a few more hints on that. Item placement could be improved. Domination and missionpack gametypes are not supported yet.

A few more details will be added if everything is stated okay.

Download: http://cosmo.spaceboyz.net/openarena/ctf_inyard_v3_b1.pk3 (Save link as ...)

Work in progress

2009-03-31T10:00:00.004+02:00

HUNT OA Server is up and running again. I cannot promise it will 24/7 but I am glad to have it working. Highscores will be tracked and put online every few days. I see quiet a lot people connecting and disconnecting seconds afterwards. Seems not everybody is able to get it running or just didn't enable auto download?

Improvements of maps are on the way. The biggest overhaul will be on ctf_inyard where I hope to release a version 3 beta soon. To have a more interesting and less straight map I want it to be more arena like which means that there will be no fog of death anymore. The centre of the map is becoming a big yard with a 90° turn in it. The pillars in every base will be moved aside so freedom of movement is gained. A serious change in weapon placement is on my list too.

Other changes and bugfixes will be on ctf_compromise (no hidden passage through the void anymore) and the clipping problem in ctf_gate1. Thanks to the people reporting this.

I hope to get a good teleportermodel done for these maps.

Stone Monolith

2009-02-11T22:14:00.003+01:00

What's the ideal teleporter in a first person shooter?

A plain tube with a fancy texture applied to it?

The usual doorframe floating in the middle of the room?

Some scifi device that looks suspicious?

This is a draft. Two 'magical' monoliths which spawn a portal in between. A few red glowing runes would be nice.

Blender md3 exporter still is not as good as it could be regarding to two materials on one model.

oa_koth2 beta 3

2009-01-07T13:09:00.008+01:00

download beta 3 release: http://cosmo.spaceboyz.net/openarena/oa_koth2_b3.pk3 (save target as ...)

Guys at OA forums gave me valuable hints. So here are my changes.

candleholder models added. Updated my blender to latest version and discovered that the md3 exporter doesn't work anymore. Had to google for a different one which is not as good as the former exporter. :(
BFG floats now and is reachable by rocketjumps and a harder to reach jumppad. I'm aware that there's now a 3rd way to reach the top floor from mid section of the map by a well executed rocketjump.
BFG and Quad are now 'disconnected'
green bobbing orb on top floor
sound added to the orbs
fixed 'squishing' respawn point
replaced medkit with battlesuit so BFG usage is less dominating
fixed problem of bots staying in front of closed door by adding donotenter brushes to the door sides.
prevent bots from falling into abyss by adding donotenter brushes
cobwebs. unsure to leave them in for final release. maybe a different shader would make them look better. need to discuss this.
diamond blue shader problem solved
reduced texture usage
sky clipping. no more quad-proxy-mine-jumping out of the map. ;)
tweaking compilation parameters: darker and moodier in certain spots.
double domination gametype dropped

Most time went into mapmodel creation and texture painting. Less time was spend on testing as I state it mostly balanced now.

Give it a try. If I don't get more hints I'm releasing it as final with double domination support.

HUNT mod on OA

2008-12-27T11:57:00.004+01:00

A wish for cooperative gametypes was stated on oa-forums so I remembered good old HUNT for Q3A.

This mod offers two new gametypes that bring coop experience and serious weapon changes. You shouldn't play this alone as it gets way harder then. One gametype is named Save The Universe which is played in normal FFA/TDM/CTF maps that come with Open Arena. The mission is collecting a certain amount of artifacts that are symbolized by the quad powerup.

The second coop gametype is called Escape From Hell and takes place in long, randomized maps where the goal is simply reaching the exit.

Of course both types of play are not easy as players are not alone in the maps and monsters of various sizes and skills try to stop them. That's where cooperative play comes in. There is a certain amount of lives players share for every map and respawn is only possible if at there is at least one player alive and there are enough lives left.

The mod runs out of the box except the default monster models which are set to Quake 3 player models (klesk, tankjr) and have to be changed. This can be done by HUNT options menu or via console. A small config could do this for you. This config is included in a small additional xoa_textures.pk3 file I created to solve a texture missing problem as one of the randomized maps that comes with HUNT uses Q3A textures.

A playable mod with all required files is downloaded when you connect to the running HUNT server if you enable automatic downloading on your client. If you connect a second time sometimes you get disconnected quickly without entering the game. This happens when connecting from standard Open Arena and can be fixed by launching the mod first (via mod menu) and making sure the right monster models are set (eg. '/exec autoexec.cfg' if you already have xoa_textures.pk3 in your HUNT folder) and then connect to the server.

To have a little coop challenge this server creates a HIGHSCORE of each map played. So the fastest missions and the highest scores appear in these tables. I'm curious who will appear there over time. :)

oa_koth2 beta 2 released

2008-12-22T00:08:00.006+01:00

My time went into texture editing. After adding leaves to cover the boring walls it's time for some playtesting as much has changed since beta 1.

Download: http://cosmo.spaceboyz.net/openarena/oa_koth2_b2.pk3 (Save target as ...)

Things to come:

better lighting outdoors
candleholder mapmodels
more wall decoration
more wrackage

oa_koth2

2008-12-12T00:53:00.005+01:00

As we were talking about game content creation and which old maps would be a nice remake in Paris we stumbled across good old Transfusion and it's Blood spirit. Back in those days we enjoyed deathmatch in a tower map. OA already has it's CTF bases maps which are inspired by Blood so why missing this one?

Astro had his own idea of it so I didn't go with any of his suggestions. A first unnoticed beta release was done in November. The maps structure and gameplay was too plain. I fear I was not creative enough to use all possibilities the layout gave me.

For next release a lot of changes go into this one:

chaingun added, 1 railgun removed
trims, ledges, lots of foilage and details
possible to reach every level of the tower from the inside
a ladder and glowing orbs
2nd rocket launcher, personal teleporter
creating lots of new textures

Bots do fine 'cept finding their way out of the void. Map is damn cool in Elimination gametype (8).

New singleplayer campaign release

2008-12-03T17:56:00.002+01:00

As Armageddon Man wrote a little background I just felt that OA's singleplayer experience is not an exciting one.

The new singleplayer.pk3 file replaces all tiers with theme matched compositions. Bots are easier and increase in challenging skills as you progress through the tiers. There is a 'tourney' boss fight at the end of each.

As the first editing is done a little testing would be appreciated. The final battle is still missing.

Happy fraggin'

Botskills anyone?

2008-11-03T16:20:00.009+01:00

As part of planning a new singleplayer campaign I wrote a little script to get an overview of all the bots of OA. I parse just the main characterfile and not any item or weapon weights files they will look for when traveling through a map.

The most interesting values are listed in this table although I only used the botfiles I found in the SVN. Seems it's not uptodate as bots like assassin are missing. The machinegun as favourite weapon marks more than one weapon as highly skilled.

name	attack skill	aim skill	aim acc	fov	reaction time	alert.	fav Weapon
"Angelyss"	0.3	0.3	0.3	0.3	1.5	0.5	MACHINEGUN
"Arachna"	0.25	0.25	0.25	0.25	3.0	0.5	MACHINEGUN
"Ayumi"	0.25	0.25	0.25	0.25	3.0	0.5	MACHINEGUN
"Beret"	0.25	0.25	0.25	0.25	3.0	0.5	MACHINEGUN
"Dark"	0.3	0.3	0.3	0.3	1.5	0.5	MACHINEGUN
"Player"	0.25	0.25	0.25	0.25	3.0	0.5	MACHINEGUN
"Gargoyle"	0.250	0.250	0.250	0.250	2.00	0.900	BFG10K
"Grism"	0.250	0.250	0.250	0.250	2.00	0.900	BFG10K
"grunt"	0.250	0.250	0.250	0.250	2.00	0.900	BFG10K
"Jenna"	0.25	0.25	0.25	0.25	3.0	0.5	MACHINEGUN
"Kyonshi"	0.250	0.250	0.250	0.250	2.00	0.900	BFG10K
"liz"	0.3	0.3	0.3	0.3	2.5	0.5	MACHINEGUN
"Major"	0.25	0.25	0.25	0.25	2.0	0.95	RAILGUN
"Merman"	0.25	0.25	0.25	0.25	3.0	0.5	LIGHTNING
"Neko"	0.3	0.3	0.3	0.3	1.5	0.5	MACHINEGUN
"Penguin"	0.25	0.25	0.25	0.25	3.0	0.5	MACHINEGUN
"Rai"	0.3	0.3	0.3	0.3	1.5	0.5	MACHINEGUN
"Sarge"	0.250	0.250	0.250	0.250	2.00	0.900	BFG10K
"Sergei"	0.30	0..30	0.30	0.30	1.5	0.5	LIGHTNING
"Skelebot"	0.25	0.25	0.25	0.25	3.0	0.5	MACHINEGUN
"Sly"	0.3	0.3	0.3	0.3	1.5	0.5	MACHINEGUN
"Tanisha"	0.3	0.3	0.3	0.3	1.5	0.5	MACHINEGUN
"Tony"	0.25	0.25	0.25	0.25	3.0	0.5	MACHINEGUN
"Widowe"	0.25	0.25	0.25	0.25	3.0	0.5	MACHINEGUN

So what do we learn?

Most of the bots are pretty much the same without any individual character/skills. Most of 'em were created by just copy and paste. For now it doesn't matter which bot will be on what map as there is no difference. A few bots are harder but that's it.

I'm tinkering with a todo list to improve singleplayer further.

Reload and rewrite

2008-10-31T00:14:00.004+01:00

I was able to show Astro the last progress of ctf_gate1 which I tested several times but stopped working on as nasty licence issues and bad treatment of talented artists occured. Seems he likes it but had his own oppinion about the pillars. Leaving me thinking about them on my way home. Anyway as I returned from my vacation Gerbil did a run through my last release of this map and gave me several good hints how improvements could be done. I appreatiate that and as leilol asked for an updated singleplayer file I suggested a while ago I knew that release of OA 0.81 will be soon.

Two hours later I fixed things Astro and Gerbil mentioned and retextured the whole map. I'm not so pleased with my outcome as I created everything regarding to the textures I was given and OA lacks versatile and themed textures again after the ban.

I want the map to be in 0.81 and I hope it will be more accepted then my last two ctf maps as it offers a different gameplay. Still I fear it's relies too much on jumping skills. The next one won't I promise. :)

I rearanged the OA singleplayer maps to be more themed in their tiers but there is still work to be done. A lot of finetuning and tourney maps should be part of that.

Texture issues, ctf_inyard updated and new mapmodel

2008-10-18T21:27:00.004+02:00

Okay,
time to get some things done. I created a new mapobject helping me to illuminate in blender although I have no map to put it in yet. ;)
I guess Armageddonman does.

TRaKs textures are gone now and lei didn't put the rest of the new additions for OA 0.81 to SVN yet. It's a bit hard for me to use it now.

New fixes on ctf_inyard:
- nailgun and shotgun switched places (I hope it improves balance)
- banned textures replaced
- different lightning parameters for mapcompile.

Updated version will be in OA 0.81

ctf_gate1 beta 4 released

2008-09-24T11:24:00.004+02:00

Before I do serious changes and try to remove a bit of the cardbox feeling it's time for the 4th release.

download ctf_gate1_b4.pk3 (save link as ...)

Changelog:
- missionpack gametypes supported
- nailgun added
- simplified pillars, faceremoval
- more detailed walls

Symmetry and Jumping

2008-09-23T10:50:00.005+02:00

I cannot deny that my last maps (especially ctf_inyard and ctf_gate1) are jump-intensive as the player has to be able to jump periodical to travel through the map. This can be a problem for new players and it distracts from the main gameplay as you have to concentrate on your movement and less on your foes and you're more prone to railshots as your movement gets more predictable. On the other hand I'm sure it helps improving skills.
Future maps will include less forced jumping.

In ctf_gate1 it seems my pillars are still too heavy in details and are not subtle enough as they are the only thing that catches the eye. I'm thinking about to break this symmetry a bit to have one or two pillars different and to move the top level gateentrance less centered. I shall test this in various ways.

Anyway I added missionpack gametypes support and various items.
Gameplaywise I think those special missionpack items (Guard, Doubler, Speed) are wrong in ctf_gate1. I'm not sure about the nailgun. First I'm going to remove the Speed item.

Texture Issues and Weapon balance

2008-09-21T20:09:00.004+02:00

Licence issues killed OA 0.8 and force me to retexture ctf_gate1 and ctf_inyard as I'm using his in the former map exclusively and two of of them in the unreleased improved version of the latter. As I'm not done with all the balancing and missionpack support of both maps I'm trying to give ctf_gate1 an equal look with given OA textures before I'm about to do new ones.
Although I've to state TRaKs texturepack was awesome.

Weapon balance: The nailgun which is typical for missionpack is the most beloved weapon of OA 0.8 but I don't feel good about it as for my taste it's overpowered most times. I need further gametesting on ctf_gate1 to see if I should add it in several gametypes. I shall post my experiences here...

ctf_gate1 increasing gameplay

2008-09-15T11:24:00.005+02:00

As the two bases are connected with just one long yard the gameplay is a bit too simple. Thinking about how I solved this didn't make me happy so I choose to change that. Dropping the current flagrooms as they were small, goodlooking because of TRaKs filth textureset and using the opposite ends as new flag bases sounds okay. The blue base is rotated by 180° and connected directly to the red pillar room just having the big wall / new gate between them.

I hope to get a straighter and faster gameplay.

ctf_gate1 beta 2

2008-09-12T21:50:00.007+02:00

After reducing details of each pillar and hinting severe spots frames got decent and the map becomes playable. I just mirrored everything and autoreplaced the textures to get a blue base. Additional details are added to the walls, items and powerups changed and constantly tests against bots help me fixing lots of issues.
I discovered another bug in OA 0.8 as I think Double Domination points should not be in the same place where CTF flags are.

The next beta release: ctf_gate1_b2.pk3 (save link as...)

Still things can be improved.
Edittime so far: 10h

ctf_gate1 beta 1

2008-09-11T18:07:00.006+02:00

The name is misleading as there is just one base to have some deathmatch in. I want to release this as an early beta as just in this version my pillars keep high detailed. I'm going to simplify them for performance reasons so additional details can be added to the yet plain walls. Deathmatch is playable against bots and map source file is included. Lightning could be a bit brighter in some places. The map is pretty dark themed so the red lights are a bit piercing.

Worktime: 6h (testing requires a lot)

file: ctf_gate1_b1.pk3 (save link as ...)

As this map is a small one and I'm using TRaKs fantastic textures it won't take me long to finish once I fixed performance issues and get a decent balancing done.

Vis and walldecoration

2008-09-11T11:52:00.003+02:00

As mentioned in the previous post pillars are not good for blocking vis. Even if the columns are of low detail they will have an impact on framerates. So I'm trying to encapsulate my pillarroom not to be visible from far away. Additional details on my walls increase the amount of faces but don't help preventing other rooms from being rendered.

So I'm trying several layouts to connect rooms flawlessly and get high effectivity on blocking visibility. At the moment passages from one room to another increase in size without the ease I hope to find.

Pillars (part 1)

2008-09-11T00:33:00.007+02:00

Pillars in general are nifty elements to place in maps as they may improve gameplay and create something recognizable. Players might dance around and they offer a certain amount of cover and finally pillars help to give a realistic to the map because blocks won't float in space as they rest on tessellated columns.

How pillars may be designed depends on the amount of faces they may require and the available textures. In general it's a good idea to have something that catches the eye on them so the boring rest of it is not recognized. Slight variations of each pillar is possible (e.g. texturewise) but not necessary. Pillars generate a feeling of everything belongs together.

It's good to think about how they will impact on the map: Is the pillar just an obstacle or can it be accessed? Is there an item at the top? How does the player reach it? Can VIS be blocked with it? Do my pillars connect two platforms? Do I have just for decoration reasons? Rooms with blank and plain walls are boring.

My current idea requires several pillars and I'm playing around with a concept I feel comfortable with.

Blog created

2008-09-10T19:28:00.001+02:00

For time being I guess it's quiet nice to have a little logging of my progress as there are several maps I'm working on. It should be easier to share stuff I stumble across instead of discussing everything on IRC with lei, kick52 and Andy.