.Map :: MoHAA Mapping

Ok, this map might sound familiar to some of you, and that's because this was the first map that I officially released to the public around two-years ago. I've obviously come a long way mapping-wise since then, and a few months ago as I was running through the map, I realized how much I could improve up the map and make it better. I'm now pleased to submit this new version for you all to try out. There are completely new and redesigned areas as well as other improvements.

There are two objectives: Destroy the underground power box and the 20mm Flak located in the storage area. It's a medium-sized map and should handle up to sixteen players well. A quick note about the spawns: Confrontation happens quickly on this map, so if you're into fast-action, you'll be happy. If you like things a little slower paced, I there are a decent number of routes to each objective, so you should be able to slip in if you're lucky.

Here are some screenshots:













And here is the download link:

http://webzoom.freewebs.com/axion9/maps ... fernde.zip

Any comments or feedback that you have will be appreciated.

Looks like you put in a lot of work on the details. Looks great.

So, has anyone checked it out?

I'm about to go download it now... ^.^

ok I played it for about six or seven minutes...

I would give it a 7/10


Detail was nice, yet is was still kinda plain. There was no action I felt... well more like excitement.

When I open "Custom" maps I like to think... wow thats friggin' awesome... or dang, how'd he manage to do that... possibly "wow, thats a great idea"...

with your map it was all the same old stuff... elevator was nice

I like maps with excitement, alarms... secrets doors and rooms... well I hope that opens your mind up... sorry for being negative about your map

Thanks for downloading it and giving it a try; that's more than what anyone else has done.

"Secret Doors and Rooms" don't fit into the context of the map. I like maps where everything you see makes sense (at least to a reasonable degree; I know I'm not perfect). I wouldn't make a random secret door if didn't have a purpose and make sense for it to be there. Putting secret stuff into a map just for the sake of having secrets, is pointless (to me).

I agree to to some degree with Kiko ( not on the sectret stuff tho ). The screens you made are from the areas with character. There are way too many areas that are just concrete boxes.

I know, it is terribly hard to be creative over a whole area. I remember when I made the office level:



...of my first map. After placing furniture and inventive stuf in a quarter of the floor I was so tired of it I wanted to puke

^.^ In my map, you have to go to the basement and hit the button on teh control panel to open up the door on the stairs... I'm talking about stuff like that...

locked doors...

drop down bridges...

taco bell... <<< = I want to see one in a new map (one thats all up to date like a city)

umm... just stuff!


oh and thats an obj map, so a lot of the secrets really don't belong, its a good map tho!

Axion wrote:I like maps where everything you see makes sense

When you're mapping for a game like MoH, that's a good way of looking at it. I don't care much for buttons and more or less 'pointless' bells and whistles either. In singleplayer it's okay I guess, but in multiplayer I don't wanna go searching for a button on the second floor in the heat of battle with 30 secs left on the clock, I just wanna blast the obstacles out of the way and get on with it:)

As a whole the map feels solid and well thought out. I think the construction of the concrete walls and buildings fit the setting of this map. There are some nice sloped walls and concrete reinforcements, however some parts look a bit unfinished. There are passages that have ceiling lights and a couple of decorative trims and at the same time there are passages that are completely empty. Now that doesn't always have to be a bad thing in itself (in reality most corridors are pretty much empty), but when there's not even a single light(model) in a rather long corridor, nothing sticks out which makes those parts look kind of boring.
I also noticed that you've made most of the (indestructable?) crates into an entity. The FPS in the map is fine so it's not really a big deal, but I think it's always a good idea to save on entity count and use normal brushes instead.
But the thing that struck me the most was the use of unsourced lighting in some parts of the map. When making maps for a game with real-life settings it just doesn't make sense to see a light hitting the ceiling when there's no visible light source. It's obvious you're an experienced mapper so don't take this the wrong way. Like Bjarne said it's hard to be creative over a whole area but through the years I've learned to keep in mind that a map is as good as its least attractive area, because somehow people don't always see the nine beautiful things but they do see the one thing that doesn't look right.

As I walked through the map I noticed lots of nice touches, like that boarded hole in the wall, the pipelines and power reactors, the operational big gate door, the detailed catwalks and the spinning airfan to name a few. Construction-wise this map is fine.
As for the layout it's hard to say how it will play without actually playing it with others. At first glance I thought there was only one entrance to the powerbox-objective but after some time I noticed the ventilation hole in the ceiling. Always strange how one can totally overlook such things at first sight.

Again there were many things I liked about this map but IMO the manual lighting (as in pointlights) through out the map leaves something to be desired. For instance a couple of mounted cagelights above the doors in the courtyard and some more hanging lightbulbs can really make a difference. I don't like rating a map, but I think this one would still get a good score in spite of the few things I mentioned.

panTera wrote:

Axion wrote: Like Bjarne said it's hard to be creative over a whole area but through the years I've learned to keep in mind that a map is as good as its least attractive area, because somehow people don't always see the nine beautiful things but they do see the one thing that doesn't look right.

Well said. I know that whenever I check out a map, I usually do the same. As for the lighting, it is definitely suspect. Some of it was due to laziness and the notion that the average player wouldn't notice it (Of course, no one that posts here is an average player). After running through the map again, some of it was simply never noticed.

Thanks for the feedback, Pantera. I'll definitely apply your advice towards my next release, and make sure I have some people give it a good beta-test to ensure that little errors won't be running rampant.