ctf_compromise V2 beta1 release

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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

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?

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

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

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.