CTF-Egyptian-Harbors
Map Info
	File Name ctf-egyptian-harbors-2004.zip Author BIG-MICK Gametype UT2k4 Capture The Flag Date Added 03-22-2004 File Version 1.00 File Size 16.65 mb Player Count 10-14 Map Description None Review Rating 6 User Rating 8 Overall Rating 7.0
Review
Reviewer Ironblayde Awe Score:  2.5/3 Date 05-25-2004 Build Score:  1.5/3 Review Schema Cast Score:  2.0/3 User Point:  +1 Overall Score:  7.0/10 AWE: 2.5 Egyptian maps are hardly difficult to find these days, but not many of them look this good. This large, asymmetrical CTF map features two temples on either side of a busy harbor filled with ships and rafts. The architecture is very detailed and impressive, making good use of the stock Egyptian meshes along with a number of custom meshes that the author has made, particularly out in the harbor. Lighting is very nicely done as well, mostly in shades of orange and red as the map is entirely lit by torches and sunlight. There are interesting-looking shadows everywhere. This author has had a lot of practice working on the Egyptian theme, and it shows. Visually, this is definitely an impressive piece of work. There are a few things I didn't like about the visuals. First, the water in the harbor is so boring that it's barely recognizable as such. In some places it almost looks like there's nothing there. I can understand the need to optimize a bit in that center area, but I think the water could have been made to look better without sacrificing much performance. Water also appears inside the bases, and in there it looks much better. Second, the author has included some edited versions of the Pharaoh statues from the Anubis static mesh package, and the changes are not good. The new texturing makes them look almost cartoonish, and something about the way the author put the new versions together makes the lines between polygons far more distinct, so the statues look decidedly out of place. In fact, several of the custom meshes the author has included with this map suffer from texture alignment or lighting problems, but usually the effect is subtle, and you have to be very close to notice it. The statues are easily the worst offenders on that count. Third, the narrow staircases inside both bases look terrible from the side. The ones I mean are those whose undersides are cut away, rather than extending all the way down to the ground. The undersides are cut at an angle that doesn't match that of the staircases' ascents, so they get too thin at one end and too fat at another. Sometimes a staircase is even made of multiple brushes that don't go together at all. (Author: See, for example, Brush707 and Brush721.) Finally, the harbor outlet has a number of unlit surfaces in it that are visible from certain areas in the map, and I don't know what purpose they serve; they simply look out of place. The pyramids are actually hovering slightly above the ground. Normally you wouldn't be able to tell, but the overbright surface beneath them makes it noticeable. I give the author a lot of credit for creating that area, though. It's inaccessible, and as such is only there to complete the look of the map. It's always nice to see mappers make that much effort just to accent the visuals. Thankfully, most of these problems are minor ones, noticeable only in certain areas, and only when you're not distracted by fighting your enemies. The rest of the map is impressive enough to keep the awe score very high, but this could have been a 3.0. BUILD: 1.5 Unfortunately, the map has a number of technical problems. There is a great deal of BSP geometry used to construct this map – over 10,000 polys' worth – and the brushwork there is not particularly good. The author needs to take more care to keep his brushes on the grid, and to use semisolids where expedient; there isn't one in the whole map, despite the use of many complex brushes that cut up the BSP at irregular angles. Fortunately, most of the brush alignment errors are obscured if not hidden completely by static meshes, so that's not too big of an issue. There is perhaps too much BSP geometry in the map as well, particularly in the central harbor, where the high level of detail and low level of occlusion combine to punish the framerate. I think that in many cases, the author forwent static meshes in favor of BSP in order to allow complex shadows on those surfaces, of which there are many. That's perfectly fine (the shadows look pretty cool), but even taking that into account, I think that the central geometry could have been constructed in such a way to make performance somewhat better out there. A little more time could have been spent working on the collision for this map. There are a few meshes whose collision models are too complex, several whose collision volumes could have been tightened up somewhat, and even a couple of collision regions I thought could have been removed completely. For instance, there are small plants growing around the outdoor region above the blue base, and they have big collision boxes wrapped around them. They look like something that could be used for a deco layer on terrain; you should be able to run right through them. There's another place where a Pharaoh statue has a scaffold built around part of its height, and it looks like it might be an interesting place to snipe from, but the whole scaffold is enclosed in a collision volume, so you can't reach it. Also, there is a pair of raised gates in front of the flags, and they don't have any collision at all, so if you jump towards them, or while underneath them, your head passes right through them. There are some issues with the bot pathing that need to be worked out as well. For one, the whole network is too complex. There are a lot of pathnodes in this map that don't need to be there. This unnecessary complexity may be one of the factors that contributes to the more serious pathing problem, which is that the bots fall in the harbor far too often. The harbor can be traversed by jumping from raft to raft, usually with the aid of numerous jump pads that have been placed on the various vessels. The bots tend to use them less often than they should, and so they end up in the water. This is by no means a minor issue; in my first test game, in which I played with eleven bots, three of them ended up with negative scores because they killed themselves so many times. The problem could be lessened by using fewer pathnodes, explicitly setting some of the remaining problematic paths as proscribed, and perhaps defining some translocator paths for bots who feel compelled to try crossing without using the jump pads. On the plus side, there are ambient sounds everywhere – more than a hundred of them – which add to the atmosphere nicely. I didn't care all that much for the music, though. The main melody behind it sounds like too generic a treatment of what everyone thinks of when they hear the word "Egyptian." But that's just a personal preference, so you may disagree completely. CAST: 2.0 Whatever else can be said of it, the map does play pretty well. I always like seeing asymmetrical maps, just because good ones don't come along very often. The layout itself is actually not all that different between the two sides, so it's easy to learn, and more importantly, it's fairly balanced. There are three ways in and out of each base, but anyone moving from one base to the other must pass through the harbor, where the map is very open. Thus for any of the game's weapons, there is at least one place in this map where it can be used to good effect (though the Bio-Rifle isn't included). Item placement is mostly good. Weapons and health are always nearby when you need them. There are a pair of shields, one in each base; a pair of Double Damage pickups, one on either end of the harbor; and a Super Shield Pack, also out in the harbor. It's located within easy reach of one of the Double Damage pickups, so watch out for that dangerous combination. The part of the gameplay I like the least is the overuse of teleporters and jump pads. The jump pads are used outdoors, to traverse the harbor, and the teleporters are inside the bases. At least the teleporters aren't disorienting, as they don't change the direction you're moving. Still, I would have preferred to see the map constructed without them. I don't mind running a little farther in order to make use of a less-traveled path where I'm less likely to encounter resistance. Especially when playing defense, I prefer to have a layout that uses continuous paths wherever possible. Finally, as I mentioned in the previous section, performance does suffer out in the harbor, so you're going to need a pretty decent machine to run this map smoothly. There aren't any actors flagged for high detail either, so turning your world detail don't isn't going to help. I hope you have the patience for long load times as well, because this is an unholy monster of a map in terms of file size: 66 MB unzipped! FINAL SCORE: 6.0 An excellent piece of work visually speaking, this map unfortunately falls short of what it could have been, primarily due to poor bot pathing, low performance outdoors, and too many teleporters and jump pads. If you've got a nice machine and play this online rather than with the bots, two of those problems vanish, so I certainly recommend taking a look at this map. I look forward to seeing more of this author's work in the future, and I'd especially like to see him try a new theme. Nice job on this one.
Map Comments
sulkava 03-22-2004 04:57 PM MST Rating: 9   nice one, keep up the good work :P Manticore 05-25-2004 06:05 PM MDT Rating: 8   Incredible visuals. Incredibly complex gameplay paths. I think I prefer Fallen Idol which is a totally awesome egyptian themed map. (Except for the "Holy Shit" sound meshes). Additional comment to Big Mick below: Yes, I stand corrected. It's CTF-Idol-SE. The comment about the "holy ****" sound mesh stands. I think Idol is still one of my faves and I was using a screenshot from it as desktop wallpaper for a while... These maps illustate the difference between good and bad mapping. (Despite the fact many people complain about the graphics detail lagging their gameplay). Someone recently uploaded a map utilising Egyptian themed textures and smeshes; it was an architectural joke. They should have taken a look at your maps to see how it should be done.... Idol-SE is now in the maps folder for UT2K4.... BIG-MICK 05-26-2004 01:02 PM MDT   I think from the Holy**** reference..you mean idol-special-edition Manticore ..lol..anyway Big-thanks for your comments guys......Just saw the review....Ironblayde really got into every nook and cranny as all good reviewers should very nice job with the review...will certainly take heed of your many valid points about the technical side of things.After all mapping should always be a learning experience Huge thanks for taking the time doing the review Amisa 03-23-2004 06:18 PM MST Rating: 9   Whow ! A monumental work ! The harbor is a hard challenge I think. In the middle, the FPS are low and u need a fast PC. But very nice and interesting to play. Only the sea has a boring look. sandorski 03-28-2004 09:12 PM MST Rating: 10   This isn't a map, it's a work of Art! Reminded me of UT99's DM-Falkenstein, simply awesome!! Starman 03-31-2004 09:50 PM MST Rating: 9   This is a gorgeous map, but I have to knock it down one point for too many places to fall into the water. Even on a fast system like mine, if you're not watching your step, you're dead, and the jumppads even take you in the water if you don't take your finger off the forward key fast enough. kingmango 05-27-2004 01:59 AM MDT Rating: 9   This map is truly a work of art. The attention to detail is surpassed only by one's inablility to initially notice all the details. That's how good they are. You will see some small new thing every time you play this map. I don't particularly care for ctf unless I am playing with my friends, but this is one sweet map in all respects. :D cobra6 05-27-2004 09:32 AM MDT Rating: 9   What can I say? that is not being said all ready. Simply super! great map. If the bots play whas ok, I whould gave a 10. Super work Michael. Please keep on doing such great maps!. )Hidra( 08-09-2004 04:06 PM MDT Rating: 9.5   hey why this map ISin't in the Mothership? huh T0mbr41d3r 01-27-2005 12:45 PM MST Rating: 8.5   This map looks awsome, I really enjoyed playing it eventhough my PC almost threw up because its so big. Nice work on the details, a really good map.