DM-Arkaine
Map Info
	File Name dm-arkaine.zip Author Alexandre Gametype UT Deathmatch Date Added 08-21-2003 File Version 1.00 File Size 1.06 mb Player Count 4-10 Map Description This is certainly my best UT1 DM map that i've ever done. the gameplay is a mix of large corridors (like in curse) and open areas that play on 2 level. the sphere is gothik and the action take place at night. try this map with 6 bots and have fun give any feedback or bugreport on: alkazex@hotmail.com and try my other UT and UT2003 maps on: www.alkasmaps.be.tf thanks for downloading Review Rating 5.5 User Rating 6 Overall Rating 5.5
Review
Reviewer AMmayhem Awe Score:  1.5/3 Date 10-02-2003 Build Score:  2.0/3 Review Schema Cast Score:  2.0/3 User Point:  0 Overall Score:  5.5/10 AWE: 1.5 Now here is a nice looking ancient map, nothing amazing in architecture, but nothing too basic either. Nice trim work, broken floor tiles, and just enough angles to keep things from being squared off. The towers seen outside don't look bad either. Texturing is quite brown though, with some extra orange decorations around. It all fits nicely to the theme. Extra brushes added to the walls to split up the texturing looks excellent. Mostly the same textures are used throughout, but they're applied well enough so it doesn't look monotonous. Probably the better part of the awe score other than lighting. Lighting looks good for the most part, some areas don't have light sources. Looking at the coloring in the editor, it's strange how it the author did it, and in some cases looks slightly off. Blue lights in with red lights, and even some over saturated lights. Needs a little perfection yet... The torch lights have the flicker effect on, which isn't that bad of an idea, it just doesn't look quite right, too dark at points maybe. But it does look a little more realistic than the torch wavey option. Coronas are perfect. BUILD: 2 The map is relativly quiet. Flowing water is the loudest sound, there's plenty of wind too, but mostly the crackling sounds of the torches, which aren't heard much during a battle. Brush-work is pretty straightforward, nothing fancy. Nothing to report for here really. CAST: 2 As with all but a few maps, gameplay is the strongest part. Bots get through every part of the map with no problems. 10 players would be about this map's capacity, 8 players is more ideal. Item placement is great, with the exception of the minigun, which is in a short, but rather tight dead-end. A place for the minigun could have been built a little more open. That would be the only true complaint about the flow as well, other than it seems that you are in halls a lot, it's hard to explain, you will just have to see for yourself. Some of the health seems to be grouped together a bit, like 3 med boxes within a few steps of each other. And the vials are in groups of 5. But it's really about the right amount of health, sometimes it's hard to come by, but there is health in every "section" of the map if you will. SCORE: 5.5 Yet another decent map, that's about average, but not quite in with the classics. It's really lost somewhere in between, which this map doesn't deserve the fate of, so download it now and start fragging.
Map Comments
darkjaxx 10-06-2003 03:21 AM MDT Rating: 5   No mainarena..... No special things.... Too ordinary.... He's just too dark... Only archtectural can save this level from a low score I think you should make a version 2. You gonna make a mainarena now? theBAMNman 08-28-2003 06:55 PM MDT Rating: 5   Visuals are a bit plain and the lighting is dark (mostly on the players). Item placement is decent, but sometimes health is too concentrated and the two powerups are a bit close for my liking (not to mention the 50hp of health vials along the path between them). Gameplay is also decent, with two levels that come in play often enough to be called z-axis play, but not often enough to counter-balance the flatness of the map. I like how the map has just enough paths to be complicated but fairly easy to learn. Verdict: average AMmayhem 10-02-2003 07:42 PM MDT Rating: 5   Has a borderline score. Complain about it if you'd like but download the map and play it first if you are going to do so. Alkazex 12-26-2003 05:29 AM MST   Txs for review and comments ^^ Why always main arena? Curse has no mainarena and it's for me the best UT Dm map. PapaBear 10-05-2003 06:29 PM MDT Rating: 8   I thinks it's a great map. Great twists and turns, lot's of nooks and crannies to surprise the foolhardy players/bots. I did notice the bots sometimes getting stuck facing the walls - easy kill, but they did seem to be smart enough to use the objects as a defense. It's a keeper - great job. NOTE TO Alexandre: I think maybe a few little "hidden" passages in the upper levels would work well with your map, perhaps a version 2? avatar 10-06-2003 10:46 AM MDT Rating: 6   the gameplay for this level is really top notch - i've seen some maps with great eye candy and they just have the flow of molasses. the thing that detracts from this level's experience overall is the lack of texture variety - it gets dull looking at basically the same walls over and over [although in the heat of battle, you don't really notice it all too much ;)]. i'd really love to see another (new) map by this author in the future with improvements. Manticore 10-23-2003 01:13 AM MDT Rating: 7   My eyes! I can't see! Look, (pun) this map is too dark. I have to close the blinds to play this during the day and I still can't see that well. Generally a good job but it could probably do with being just that little bit brighter. If you do post a version 2 that's not so dark I will download that as well because what I can see looks good and flows well. Now that I've played this map at night when I could see it I'd like to add that for a corridor style map without arenas its fragadelic and I'm upping my rating. ThaKillaTwinz 09-10-2004 04:24 PM MDT Rating: 7   This map looks nice...when you're in a dark room. Best crypt map i've seen since DM-Essence. Kinda has the curse vibe, as the author says. I just wish in that room with the water, that the water was animated and wasn't set on that "4 way pan" or whatever where it goes up, down, left, and right over and over again. scirmast 01-02-2006 07:59 AM MST Rating: 5.5   The layout is very bad, and ruins the map. Not much more to say about it.