CTF-DagnysBigAssMap-V2
Map Info
	File Name ctf-dagnysbigassmap-v2.zip Author DagnyTaggart Gametype UT Capture the Flag Date Added 03-21-2004 File Version 1.00 File Size 761 kb Player Count 10-16 Map Description This is a radically improved, far better-looking, smaller version of my first map. It's still very colorful, but at the same time it has a dark, industrial feel and a much wider variety of textures. Basically, except for the general design, it's a completely different map. I did the item placement with the intention that the map would be good for 5-on-5 clan play and pug matches, so you won't find an overabundance of ammunition or weapons, nor a redeemer or invisibility, and the map only has two jump boots. It should be good for 10-16 players, regular weapons, low gravity instagib, and Strangelove. This map has been played some in 5-on-5 "pugs", or "pick-up-games", and it seems to have competitive game play when the teams are even. Several experienced clanners think it's a great map. (To play in the Unreal Playground pugs, which are a huge amount of fun, come to irc.gamesurge.net channel #pugup during prime time. The channel and server generally host about five or six pugs per night.) Other maps by the author: CTF-Dagnys-Dark-Delight-LE102 CTF-Dagnys-Dark-Delight CTF-Dagnys-Tubes-Of-Spam CTF-DagnysBigAssMap ---------------- (July 22, 2004) Ironblade--thanks for taking the time to do a review. Just a couple comments. The reason why I cut those brushes in half in the center area was so that I could take the same texture and align it "top to top" (or was it "bottom to bottom"?). The textures on the upper (cut-in-half) brushes are rotated 180 degrees relative to those on the bottom halves, so it wasn't as simple as just scaling them to fit the brushes' heights. Unfortunately it did leave small seams which I didn't think was that big of a deal. I agree that the bot pathing is borked. When I was working on the map I told myself that my primary aim was for it to be played online and for it to be suitable for 5-on-5 clan play (hence the lack of a redeemer). So I didn't invest too much time in the bot pathing. I figured that as long as the bots could take the enemy flag and return it, that it was good enough. Maybe I just have a bad attitude, but I think it's too late in the history of UT to invest a huge amount of time in bot pathing and I don't think too many people want to play with bots anyway. Thank you very much for generously including all of those screenshots in your review. Hope to see you in an Unreal Playground pug sometime. (Maybe we could play the map and see how it does 5-on-5, eh, heh heh.) Review Rating 2 User Rating 4 Overall Rating 3.0
Review
Reviewer Ironblayde Awe Score:  0.5/3 Date 06-29-2004 Build Score:  1.0/3 Review Schema Cast Score:  0.5/3 User Point:  +1 Overall Score:  3.0/10 AWE: 0.5 Whatever other criticisms one might justly level at this map –- and there are quite a few, as we'll see -– the author at least holds to truth in advertising: this is a big-ass map. Its dimensions, while on the high side, are not exceptional; it's the architecture that lends the place its sense of immensity, or rather, the lack thereof. This map consists primarily of a cavernous chamber built in the shape of a figure eight. A few passages burrowed through the central rise, a corridor leading up to a sniper perch on each side, and a small assortment of ramps surrounding each flag are the only deviations from the overly simplistic construction, and a handful of team symbols and Unreal logos are the map's only concessions to ornament. Needless to say, it fails to impress. The author has drawn on a number of different packages in texturing his map (some of which are part of Bonus Pack 4, so you'll need that installed to play), and the choices are remarkably poor, a cacophony of materials chosen without regard for attractiveness or consistency. Marble of various colors, metal of various types, stone with decorative inlay, and a few other materials I can't put a name to are used side by side. Worse, some of the walls near the flags are covered with a noise texture, and many of the others are solid black. Those textures have no business being used on such large surfaces. As in most maps of this aesthetic caliber, the lighting generally consists of boring, pure white and eye-wrenching, fully saturated team-colored lights. The odd thing about it is that whereas such an effect is usually done with a small number of lights with gigantic radii, suggesting a simple obliviousness on the author's part, in this map the effect is implemented very deliberately, using an array of over four hundred Light actors. Virtually all of the surfaces are set to have bright corners, thus making most of the map appear unlit, as though it were simply constructed with horrible, pre-colorized textures. Also, the primary walls and ceilings are all set to Special Lit, so the floors can be lit with a completely separate color, completing the grotesquerie. I haven't encountered many maps that manage to look this bad. BUILD: 1.0 While it's nothing to look at, the world geometry is constructed well enough. Most of the brushes sit nicely on the grid and line up with one another correctly. The author does have a tendency to use too many brushes in some places, however. This is particularly evident in the enclosed passages beneath the map's central rise, which is the only place in the map that comprises anything other than very basic shapes. Most of the walls are composed of two identical brushes sitting one atop the other, such that they're divided into twice as many polygons as necessary. Presumably this was done so the wall textures could be set on a surface slightly taller than their original dimensions, but it would have been easier (and looked better) had the author simply used a single brush and scaled the textures up slightly. As it is, the break between the two segments of each wall panel is a visible seam because the wall texture has obviously been mirrored across it. The author has also neglected to merge coplanar polygons, as can be seen in the room with the Shield Belt. Offline play in this map will offer no challenge, as the bot pathing is severely deficient. Bots will not run to either side of the ramps sheltering the Bio-Rifle and Ripper on each side of the map, nor will they ascend the sides of the central rise –- only the middle of it. The author's attempt to provide multiple routes for flag runners using AlternatePath actors has failed; not only are they positioned poorly, but they all belong to the same team. The bots will use their translocators to get safely down from the sniper perch, albeit it sometimes seems that they do so reluctantly, but there is a serious flaw in that path. Bots seem to think that they can use their translocators in both directions, and will attempt to do so even if they're carrying the flag! Thus a flag carrier might make it over the central rise, only to stop, fire his translocator a few meters, translocate, run back and pick up the flag, and repeat the cycle until a defender comes by with a Flak Cannon to put an end to his nonsense. Ambient sound has been totally neglected. Granted, with the extremely low level of detail this map offers, there isn't much of anything to be seen that would be making sound, but even something as simple as a soft wind echoing through the vast chambers would have done something to breathe a little life into the map. Maps should never be completely silent. CAST: 0.5 Items are placed conventionally, with weapons spread around pretty evenly, and appropriate ammo pickups always nearby, not in excess but not too scarce either. Three major powerups –- the Damage Amplifier, Shield Belt, and Big Keg O' Health -- can all be found in the center of the map, one underneath the other on the three levels of the central rise. There's no Redeemer, though it would have made a useful addition to the map given its size and openness. As to the actual gameplay, though, there's little one can say about the layout that I haven't already laid out in the Awe section. The map is little more than a huge figure eight dominated by wide-open spaces. It allows little if any room for strategic play and variety while running the flag. Such layouts become dull very quickly; I grew tired of it after just a few minutes. Especially now that UT has been around for so long, and its user-made maps easily number in the thousands, a map must have at least some interesting aspects to its layout if it is to stand apart. Nothing of the sort is evident here, nothing to differentiate it from the hundreds of similar maps that have gone before, and that weren't particularly interesting even when they might have had some claim to originality. FINAL SCORE: 2.0 Terrible visuals, deeply flawed bot performance, and somnolent gameplay make this a map to be avoided by all but the most die-hard fan of huge, open CTF arenas.
Map Comments
Cobra 03-21-2004 09:43 PM MST Rating: 7   Much better then the first version. Good light and texture. One grip the bots play is really not great in there, to almost nil. They don't try to cap or take the lower roure, and they can't exlock. To bad but great job!. ChromeBallz 07-06-2004 07:48 AM MDT Rating: 3   Rather repetitive and straightforward (read: boring) architecture and texturing, which makes the map (much) less fun to play imho. Shadowlurker 07-06-2004 08:58 AM MDT Rating: 1.5   flat, boring gameplay combined with terrible visuals. I suppose one could back up the gameplay, but that still leaves the incredably horrible visuals so the most this map could get imo would be a 4. Add my opinions into the mix.... and uggg. Improve on the visuals (make it look like a actual place rather than a... thing) though and I think you'll be well on the way to making good maps.