CTF-Cathartic
Map Info
	File Name ctf-cathartic.zip Author Minister Fish Gametype UT Capture the Flag Date Added 06-04-2003 File Version 1.00 File Size 1.27 mb Player Count 6to12 Map Description None Review Rating 5 User Rating 7 Overall Rating 6.0
Review
Reviewer Ironblayde Awe Score:  1.0/3 Date 05-12-2004 Build Score:  2.0/3 Review Schema Cast Score:  2.0/3 User Point:  +1 Overall Score:  6.0/10 AWE: 1.0 CTF-Cathartic is a small- to medium-sized Capture the Flag game that takes place in an old building with a bit of a castle feel to it. The architecture is simple, but decent. There are lots of curved hallways and arched ceilings, some nice wooden supports and railings on upper levels, and a bit of decorative roofing outside to make things look interesting. However, it looks incomplete, mainly because there's very little trim to be found. Elevated walkways both inside and out, as well as the numerous arched windows and doorways, would all look a good deal better if they were trimmed properly. The staircases look very strange too; the sides are smooth but not vertical, so they look like ramps. Vertical smooth sides would have been all right, as would staircases that expand on a per-stair basis, but this mix of the two is unattractive. The author has turned to the Ancient set for most of his textures. It's an appropriate choice, and the textures all serve their purposes adequately. What bothers me here isn't the texture choices, but the alignment. It seems that not many people mapping for the original UT bother to align their textures fully anymore, and for the most part it's not too offensive except to people who commonly notice such little things, but here the problem is more serious. Specifically, the textures on the map's many arched ceilings, as well as the very steep "ramps" on the side of each staircase, are all aligned to the floor. Doing so stretches the texture to compensate for the fact that the corresponding surface isn't parallel to the ground, and the closer to vertical the surface gets, the more pronounced the effect. All those surfaces look terrible. Texture alignment is very poor everywhere else too, but that's a minor offense compared to the other. For once I've found a map with no oversaturated lights, but aside from that, the lighting is not good. There are some very weird things going on here. In keeping with the Ancient theme, nearly all of the indoor lighting is provided by torches, but although the flame textures are the usual orange, the author has set the corresponding lights to pure white. In fact, the only colored lights I could find in the whole map come from two opaque "windows" in each flag room. The author has stated that the sewer passages are supposed to have green light, but what they actually have is a green texture and white light. What's more, every light in the map is set to very low brightness (usually 48) with a very high radius. The overall lighting scheme is not the least bit believable, and very bland. There are some places that are completely unlit, too. Not enough to make the map difficult to navigate, but it's a little disturbing. (It's an easy mistake to make in a map like this; my own Ancient-themed map suffered from the same thing, and to a greater extent.) BUILD: 2.0 The author gets points for a mostly clean build. There's little BSP trouble, few superfluous brushes, and no cases of unmerged polygons or anything sloppy like that. Semisolids could have been useful in all kinds of places in this map to bring the node count down and avoid cutting the BSP up at too many odd angles, but since there are few errors in evidence anyway, this is mostly for the author's future reference than anything else. The map is zoned nicely too, although I don't particularly care for the CloudZone that sits between the map and the fake backdrop, because it kept killing me while I was trying to spectate a botmatch from high overhead. The map has several lifts, and although they work correctly, they stay open too long. This is something I've seen in too many UT maps lately: movers that don't have their default time values changed to something more appropriate. Also, two of the lifts (those found in the flag rooms) ignore actors while closing. This means that if you happen to be standing underneath the lift as it's falling, rather than hitting your head and returning to the "up" position as usually happens, the lift instead passes right through you as if you weren't there. It's pure chance that I found this, but I thought it was a little unusual. Bots play the map well. The number of nodes is perhaps too high, but I didn't notice it causing any trouble. There are AlternatePath actors placed to show bots the different ways through the bases, but although the bots did seem to use a variety of paths when leaving with the flag, they almost always opt for the same entrance. Perhaps a little more playtesting and tweaking could have fixed this. Don't get me wrong, though; single player works just fine. The bots go everywhere and grab everything, and even use their translocators in a few useful places, which is always nice to see. CAST: 2.0 Despite the map's relatively small size, there are five ways into each base. Playing defense in the flag room isn't a totally lost cause since it can only be entered from two sides, but defenders can expect to have a steady stream of visitors. Snipers, too, will be only moderately effective, as the central area can be traversed very quickly, and there are too many openings for one person to watch. This is definitely an attacker's game, and should appeal to players who like their CTF fast and aggressive. Item placement is just right. Every weapon except the Redeemer is available, and the map has enough rooms and levels that it doesn't seem like too much. You can find a use for almost any of the weapons in here, but the various hallways inside the building are pretty narrow, so it's going to be mostly close-quarters style fighting. The many curved corridors make the Flak Cannon especially deadly, and the Ripper and even the Bio-Rifle come in handy as well. There's a Damage Amplifier right in the center of the map, which heats up the game even more, and some goodies hidden in secret rooms in each base. The layout might actually be a little too tight for some players. That's personal preference for the most part, but there are a few things that could be better in the objective sense. For one, there's a room just in front of each flag room where the ceiling drops down low enough to hit your head on it if you jump, and that's not enough space. Getting your head caught on a ceiling beam while trying to jump forward is an irritant. Similarly, the sconces that provide the map's lighting stick out too far from the wall. This is partly an aesthetic failing in that it looks plain wrong, but it's a gameplay concern as well, because they're out far enough and down low enough that you can get caught on them in the middle of a jump as well. A handful are placed low enough that you can catch yourself without jumping. I don't think the collision needs to be removed completely from the sconces, but they should be brought closer to the walls to minimize the chance that they will interfere with the game. Finally, this is a pretty low-poly map –- the count goes up to about 300 outside, but is generally under 100 inside –- so it should run smoothly for everyone. FINAL SCORE: 5.0 A pretty average map, all things considered, but still worth taking a look at. The visuals need work more than anything else; as far as gameplay is concerned, it should be a fun experience if you like Capture the Flag games that manage to be quick without sacrificing all opportunities for strategic play.
Map Comments
Dhorde 06-05-2003 05:30 AM MDT Rating: 7   This Map is ok i think.. good layout but a bit dull because of the textures (just walked through thou) Razor 09-22-2003 02:17 PM MDT Rating: 7   Nice map, very tight and with many ways to get to the flag. lighting is too white, more colors would help-especially in the flagrooms. bots play good and easily score. Overall good map with nice flow. Minister Fish 02-26-2004 04:38 PM MST   Thanks for the user comments, even if your comments are dated from my reply and since the map still hasn't been reviewed. I think your user ratings so far are pretty much justified (just don't think the actual review will be as high, but maybe I'm just a pessimist, I'll be happy with a 6 from NC :P ). I wasn't really happy with the textures either. I wanted more of a Spanish architecture look and feel to it, but I settled for the Ancient textures. With lighting, I believe it should be used as environmental effects and not for base identification such as your suggestion for the flag rooms (because colored lights usually used in this fashion wash out player model colors). By the way, I do have the stained glass windows using the appropriate base color lighting in the flag rooms, just not overly colored. I used fire as sources for lighting in the map and I didn't want to use a bunch of different colored fires. So, yes, basically most of the lighting is of whitish nature. There is also the sewer rooms that goes underneath each base that has more of a greenish light.