DM-Menace
Map Info
	File Name dm-menacev3.zip Author Unknown Gametype UT Deathmatch Date Added 06-04-2003 File Version 3.00 File Size 1.53 mb Player Count 3-5 Map Description None Review Rating 4 User Rating 7 Overall Rating 5.0
Review
Reviewer Mister_Prophet Awe Score:  1.5/3 Date 05-18-2003 Build Score:  1.5/3 Review Schema Cast Score:  1.0/3 User Point:  +1 Overall Score:  5.0/10 Looking through my map requests today, I sighed at all the ones with names like “Awesome Boxâ€� and “Fantastic Factoryâ€� and came across a map named DM-Menace. From the screenshots, the map appears to be a tech map, and in ways it is. But it is based in some sort of Train Station facility, I assume a cargo hold because of the loose crate covers, chains, and …well, crates. Oh yeah, it’s raining outside and into the map as well (courtesy of some exposed ceiling holes and windows). Judging this map’s visual and play appeal was hard for me, since I was both tickled pink at some of the author’s details, yet burdened by many errors. You can’t tell right now, but at the moment I am sitting at my computer thinking of some clever paragraph to write. But I’m too tired today, so I’ll give you a list of the Good and Bad: The Good: I would love it if more learned and skilled mappers took Kami’s approach. I’ve always told you guys how wet I get over maps that seem like a real location and Kami doesn’t try to smack us with yet another enclosed, generic environment that seems like it was carved out of a void and stuff was teleported inside. Like I mentioned, this is a train cargo facility with rain and crates. But there’s a lot of depth to this place, you’ll see windows with uplifted window frames, lots of chains (but chains that are hooked to things and not just appearing out of a wall), rain that splashes over animated crate covers to show that it is hitting something and not just vanishing into a dry floor texture, cracks and fractures in the walls, soda machines with are set into the wall and not sticking out to block you, windows that show a subway with a moving train, and other stuff as well. The lift, I love this one lift I gotta tell you. While there ARE your casual lifts, which use UT’s basic selection of general lifts making them look flat and float up and down places, the author also has this lift with a computer panel and switch/lever attached to it. Made the lift seem more involved in the map and not just a “LA LA LIFTâ€� sort of thing. I had the distinct feeling like the author was trying to construct a map with character and not just a basic arena for some fraggin’ fun. The Bad: Textures have misalignment and shadow cast errors galore. The map has a lot of curving walls and frames, and at many spots the girder texture following the snaky architecture misses the grid and curves off in patches or is aligned improperly in another way. This really damages the effect of the architecture, which the author seemed to take the most care in preserving in this map. I saw some catwalks that curve around a corner and there is a polygonal patch on the turn point that has a random, trim texture pasted to it, with no direction set to the bars. Stuff like this is common throughout most of the map, which sucks because it detracts the appeal to the good stuff. To further infuriate the already widening gap between nice looking and “oh my God there’s a penis coming out of your forehead!â€�, the lighting falls short. There is not a single light fixture in this entire map that screams any sort of desperate cry for even the least atmospheric tone. Light coronas are placed in spots, but they have no essence and present weird flare usage it seems at times (or it could be the color of the light, I did not check). A lot of the lights cast white, uninteresting glares to the nearby surroundings and I personally feel there is an overuse on fixtures in general. I kept finding myself wishing that the map had used half as many fixtures and that the author spent more time on the radius and glow of each one. The Heartbreaking: The gameplay. I almost cried, I swear. The layout is ok, there are places for Z-axis and across catwalk/ramp fighting. There are enough guns to make it interesting. What went wrong? Well the most noticeable thing is the playability. You’re reading a review from a guy who can handle quite a lot from a map (just looked at how much I enjoyed DM-Nirvana2) and when I say a map can get choppy, you can bet your sweet little muffin pie ass that the map can get choppy. It wasn’t game stopping choppy, but there was significant chuggage, I think because of the rain. I do suspect that many polys weren’t merged in places and that the author’s brushwork may have contributed somewhat. I don’t see this getting much server time. Bots didn’t put up much of a fight and they can get caught in places easily. There is a teleporter in the map (which uses a FUGLY warp texture btw) that seems a little wack, I found myself backed up facing a wall one time with my rocket launcher clicking on the final turn of the last rocket barrel. You can imagine my frustration when my screen turned bright white as my player painted the interior of the teleporter crate. I haven’t said the F word that loud in a long time. Oh by the way, the music is nice, but I still don’t see why this is called Menace. The Prophet’s very heartbroken Verdict: I saw elements in this one that would have made a much cooler map. But when I look at this, I see a work in progress. The playability may turn a lot of people away. I sincerely hope the author corrects the errors and releases the real DM-Menace. I gave the awe score a 1.5, although with the errors I mentioned fixed I would have given it higher. I would have rated it lower, and it probably deserves lower, but there really are a lot of details in here that average mapper overlooks.
Map Comments
Sauron 02-28-2003 08:39 PM MST Rating: 9   Wow, lot of details in this map, if i remember well there are two trains in a metro station, and the rain is awesome. I think that Bots play well because i lose all the time :). Only that the map run slow on my machine :)(a P2) DagrooN 03-04-2003 01:35 PM MST Rating: 8   Nice z-axis, weapon placement and deco. horned demon 04-28-2003 05:49 PM MDT Rating: 9   damn, KamI's maps are good. of coures thats when she dosent forget any files ;) KaMi 05-23-2003 05:45 PM MDT Rating: 7   thx for the coments :) and sorry for the map size. EDIT:Hehe gyokusai it was a failure that i didnt realized and that TNT revealed so be careful :) EDIT2:I send another copy of this map with the name DM-MenaceV2 without the textures utech4.utx and riching.utx for users that have this files already but have a bad conexion and they want to download the map :). Vertigo 05-16-2003 12:26 PM MDT Rating: 7   OH MY GOD!!!!! i played it in my bro's comp, and it rocks but i cant dl it on my comp and it sucks :'( I CANT DO THAT COS MY BRO LIVES 300KM AWAY FROM ME. HAHAHAHA FINALLY A HAVE DL THE MAP. AND FINALLY AFTER PLAYING IT DURING SOME TIME I HAVE TO CHANGE THE SCORE A BIT Cyrss's Itch 04-30-2003 04:52 AM MDT Rating: 8   Whhhooooaaa...big,nice graphics. Nice one Daniel Get him to slo-mail(post) the CD(get him to d/l others too(map-type pak)...worth it quillion 04-29-2003 10:43 AM MDT Rating: 8   i like this map a lot, looks very smart and finished. texturing is very pleasing, its just a very little amount on the crampy side, but really fun:) love tha trains. i like this mappers stuff alot, has good style Fodder McFly 04-29-2003 12:47 PM MDT Rating: 8   Map size is giganic. Besides that, wow... TNT 04-29-2003 07:38 PM MDT Rating: 6   nice map what it reminded me of right away was DM-Alcatraz or DM-Aberrance because i felt that the richrig textrues where use in a similar way,i would have like to see more of the UTTech4 textures used being that its a much bigger packet 12meg,i also droped through the grate work thats right be4 or after the sheald belt loc. more then once, it seems that the collision hull has a small bsp hole,i'v found when making a collision hull what works best is to size it 2 units smaller then the brush it sitting in or blocking,it just works better not to be touching anything, that would have been the end of the game if not for the translocater, and the use of the trains was realy cool,to bad its only for 1 sec. should have made it stop blow off steam then start again ya but who's got time in a DM map to stand around watching trains,just a thought,1 more thing most of the lifts seemed to be too small all but one,now with all this said i still enjoyed this map and i'm not knocking this map its well done and i'm sure there was 100+ hours put into the map,just pointing out some spots that i felt are in need of work, keep up the good work,i'd like to see some more maps Dipstick 04-30-2003 09:34 AM MDT Rating: 8   I've would have given it a 10 but the map is to small. Good map none the less. :-) {DS}~UneverC 05-01-2003 05:25 AM MDT Rating: 7   Lovely areas in this map they have spent some time on creating a proper atmos,Utech4.utx has got some nice textures in it and as TNT says-It would be nice for people to use Utech4 more...Otherwise invest in a scanner/digiCamera and create new .utx(but put in .zip when u/l'ing!) I am working out UnrED2 at the moment(gonna try it out!!) and hope to u/l something fantastic in the future ;o Drake 05-01-2003 09:07 AM MDT Rating: 8   Fantastic map Daniel, great atmosphere and gameplay. gyokusai 05-19-2003 07:27 PM MDT Rating: 8   Wow, fantastic, yeah. Though it feels a bit cramped at times, and some of the elevators indeed seem a bit too small. But gameplay and especially the atmosphere--including the soundtrack--incredible! One question, BTW: Returning from the shield belt location a little too much to the left, and it's right through the textures & down into the waterhole. That's a bug or a feature? Anyways: it's soooo cool! Great work! EDIT: Yo KaMi, I will! Hadn't seen, btw, that TNT had already found that little glitch--reading his posting is like falling into that hole through loose textures after the first missing commas ;-) (no offense, TNT :-)) EDIT, again: The Prophet's certainly right, with texture misalignments, lighting, and stuff. But I'll stick to my rating since I think this map's atmosphere and love-of-detail make up for it. Doesn't mean, KaMi, you shouldn't try and make this map a 10... :-)) SirTahngarth 05-19-2003 01:57 AM MDT Rating: 5   I think the review score is a bit low, but i agree with the content. this is a very promising map that just has a lot of technical errors that need working out. i encourage the mapper to update and rerelease the map. :) Mxtrmntr 05-27-2003 05:34 AM MDT Rating: 5   Like DM-Factory, the map shows a lot of potential but suffers from some flaws. Get rid of the mentioned problems, and the results might be really good :) EDIT: DarkEve: UTTech4.utx actually features in this map's .zip file. [Admin: No, the author updated the zip. ] blazerunner 05-19-2003 10:34 AM MDT Rating: 7   Sweet map! It has some very nice finishes. It feels a little congested and closterphobic to me. Also, when you get to where the sniper rifle is, Its in an odd place to snipe other players. But other than that, it's a very well done map! The_Real_Meneer_Aard 05-19-2003 10:37 AM MDT Rating: 8   think of an 11 mb texture pack to decorate an 2 mb map... This map is soo detailed, its worth the download size. SeeD 05-19-2003 02:16 PM MDT Rating: 3   Waste of time, IMO. Sorry. It tries to be real but fails completely. Bad texture usage made me lost the credibility on this map. Keyboard Monitors placed on unreachable places and other stuff I just won't mention. The only kewl thing that I found were the trains moving while you're battling. Besides that, I dislike it completely. Go for something more original. Shao 06-03-2003 07:15 PM MDT Rating: 10   pretty nice done ^_^