DM-Arena42
Map Info
	File Name dm-arena42.zip Author ChromeBallz Gametype UT Deathmatch Date Added 07-08-2004 File Version 1.15 File Size 946 kb Player Count 2-5 Map Description After Liandri bought up virtually every suitable tournament location in the known universe, they started building new arenas from scratch. Arena 42 is one of those arenas. Situated in the tattered husk of an old elementary school, this arena should teach you how to fight. ----- see comment. Review Rating 3 User Rating 4 Overall Rating 4.0
Review
Reviewer Frieza Awe Score:  0.5/3 Date 07-09-2004 Build Score:  1.5/3 Review Schema Cast Score:  1.0/3 User Point:  +1 Overall Score:  4.0/10 DM-Arena42 is a pretty good first map for a beginning author. And I surely expect him to make some nice maps in the future. Usually beginning mappers slap a few cubes together, put in a gazillion lights without sources. Slap in some weapons (Or not even all the time because ‘Its Instagib!11 yu0 n44b!’), call it a map and releasing it on Nali City. Resulting in bad scores (Or good scores because ‘T3h gameplay r0xx0r roflmalololollolz0rsxx!11!!’). And that pisses me off. I was releived to see that atleast there are still beginning mappers that DO put time into their maps. Chromeballz is one of those and as I said before, for a first map DM-Arena42 isn’t such a bad map at all. According to the little story Arena42 was built by Liandri specifically for combat and isn’t an already existing location which had been transformed. Well, Liandri must’ve hired some bad architects then (Alright, lame joke ;) ). As you could’ve guessed the architecture isn’t very interesting. However, compared to other first maps it’s a blessing. Even though the overall architecture is cubic, Chromeballz took the time to trim (Yes! Trim! How many beginning authors trim their maps? There are even mappers that are already more advanced and still forget to trim off the edges.) all the walkways, doorways etc. This makes the map look much better. Also, another thing most first-timers don’t have, is sourced lighting. Although the lightsouces aren’t spectacular looking, the fact that they are there is a big plus. Too bad that the lightboxes that accompany them are badly aligned to the light texture. They should’ve been smaller and are floating a bit above the brush itself. The nice rounded doorways and two cool arches in the centre show that the author clearly knows his way around the 2dshape editor, yet another thing most first-timers know nothing about. The weapon bases made for the weapons add a little extra spice to the visuals. Chromeballz manages to break loose from the crowd of bad first maps by giving his lights some color, may I say nice colors. You could divide most first-time mappers into two groups: Those who cram their maps full with white lights, or those who cram their maps full with a plethora of overly saturated lights that make your eyes hurt so badly that you want to shoot yourself through the head to stop the excruciating agony. Although the lighting is better then in most first-timers, it’s still boring in general. There are not enough colors used through eachother, which results in rooms with just white light, or rooms with just another color. It would’ve been nicer if the rooms had more types of lightsources to contrast eachother. The textures were aligned fine, though, not that it’s really hard with the cubic nature of the map. The texture choice was rather boring. The same base, wall, floor and trim texture was used all over the place. With some interesting texturing the map could’ve been much better looking. This map lacks in the gameplay department. Though first of all I’d like to say that the recommended playerstart is right on the mark. 2-5 is perfect for the size of the map. Flow is maybe the biggest bottleneck of the map. Z-Axis constricts itself to but 2 floors, which isn’t very interesting in fights. Furthermore the flow of the map is bad. One of the rooms has only one way in or out for example, that’s a flow killer. The item placement, and then specifically the ammo placement I found a little annoying. All weapons were present on the map, which was maybe a bit of overkill for such a small map. However, all of the weapons didn’t have any ammo of the same type near them. You constantly had to walk across the room to get more ammo. I’m of opinion that there should be atleast 1 pack of ammo near the corresponding weapon, and the other packs scattered around the level to make the player search for it. Now, the latter effect is still achieved, only in hectic fights this often results in being out of ammo before the right ammo has been reached. Then again, the massive amount of weapons makes up for it. I did find myself with just an impacthammer every once in a while. The only special powerup to be found is the redeemer which is ok for the openness of the map. A pity however that it hasn’t been put in a spot that is either hidden or risky too get. A small dive and it’s in your claws. Another con was the overkill on the health, but that wasn’t overly annoying ;) Now the botplay is fine. The bots actually do get the redeemer which is nice. The elevators are not properly set up unfortunately. Hence the bots have quite some problems with them. A note to the author. Placing justpathnodes on the elevator is not enough. You have to add 2 LiftExits at the entrance and exit of the lift and one LiftCenter right in the center or the lift (Well.. duh! :P ). Then you have to set their tags and blabla, but there are enough tutorials about that subject. No single point for the sound category. The map is dead silent! The map is taking place in the city so I would’ve really expected some carhorns and dogs barking. Furthermore the lights could’ve hummed a little. On the background plays standard UT music as ever. Conclusion: Really not a bad map at all for a first map. However, in my scoring I am not ought to take that in consideration. Hence the low scoring. I’m looking forward to seeing more from this author, I think he might develop himself into a quite capable mapper! Awe: 0.5 Build: 1.5 Cast: 1.0
Map Comments
quillion 07-12-2004 08:07 PM MDT Rating: 4   not bad tbh, but my biggest thing is the texturing, its alittle bland. try adding more supports and stuff;D atleast you trim your stuff:) hf getting better, like me is:) [EDIT] not your own skybox you say! tut! tut! and may i say this map is nowhere near an 8 :s deth502 06-30-2004 07:52 PM MDT Rating: 7   Nice map, great flow :} Dead Man Walking 06-30-2004 09:25 PM MDT Rating: 7   Good overall map. Redeemer too easy to get and it seems that the bots don't try for it. The textures look bland,but I think it's too much lighting. A little shadow here and there breaks up the walls. I like the skybox, Solid arch and great flow. GTD-Carthage 07-07-2004 04:51 AM MDT Rating: 6.5   I fine and simple map. The textures look a bit too plain and the lay-out is very simple. But, unmatched is its gameplay. The bots work fine there and always use the lefts without hesitation. An O.K. map. - Updated Comm: An updated version of the map. The darkenned lighting looks better now! ChromeBallz 10-10-2004 02:41 PM MDT   I'll be blunt, i'm new at editing... this is the very first level i ever made. Thanks for the feedback all! Master roshi, it has been submitted a few times because the map is updated due to the feedback i got here and in irc. This is NOT a beta, hasn't been for a while. It's just been modified after the initial release. Are you giving me the low grade because i keep trying to improve my work even after it's release? version 1.15 is the final version of this map, it includes a hell of a lot of bugfixes. I won't concern myself with updating it anymore, since i shouldn't really be indulged in my first map that much.... I promise i'll stay away from the update button from now :x qyokusai, by hollowing out the building in which the school was, and building some new stuff there :) ghostwheel, i know i'm not a good mapper (yet), i try to take all criticism seriously, and i try to improve my skills. If you are suggesting that i judge other people's work by the quality of my own maps you're seriously mistaken. Why should i give a high score to other people's maps when this one got a 3? (tbh, i would ahve rated this one lower.....) Jez, potted plants, where? Master roshi 07-06-2004 06:14 PM MDT Rating: 1   This map has been submited 3 or more times. If this is a beta map please submit them at the nalicity play testing forum. "http://forums.beyondunreal.com/forumdisplay.php?f=171" and not the map hub please. And if you are not registered at these forums please go here. "http://forums.beyondunreal.com/register.php?" GRed (V)èg@ 07-09-2004 02:52 AM MDT   only thing i liked were those curved supports in the middle room the rest of the map looks flat also i got stuck in the trim after using one of those lifts in the middle room when i got to close to the wall and maybe the pool uses to much space is hard to step sideways and other things, not bad being your first map the trimming on the doors look great i also noticed the weapond pads nice touch. gyokusai 07-09-2004 07:41 AM MDT   How do you build a new arena from scratch in the tattered husk of an old elementary school? Ironblayde 07-09-2004 02:19 PM MDT Rating: 3   I agree with Frieza. This is not too bad an effort considering it's a first map. Congratulations to the author for avoiding a lot of the classic rookie mistakes. :) SaMBoY 07-10-2004 02:18 AM MDT Rating: 5   pretty good, not the best around, but still fun for a much around run around :P FTPlus 07-12-2004 08:33 AM MDT Rating: 8   actually I liked the architecture. nice shape makes the map not boring altough the textures were a bit dull. To bad the elevators aren't correctly set, and the seems to be hovering. But I made the kind mistakes also when i made my first map. After your first map been such a succes you must make more :P keep up the good work Manticore 07-16-2004 06:03 AM MDT   Probably a good map for instagib fragfests..... Taydawg 07-24-2004 04:06 PM MDT Rating: 3.5   blah. i had more fun when i fkd up the editor and made a BSP hole to hell. Checkmate 08-07-2004 05:21 AM MDT   Redfist what are you doing in hear chrome looks like his map is better then all your remake's combined LOL Shadowlurker 08-09-2004 06:43 AM MDT Rating: 2.5   It is betetr than your maps though, Ghostwheel. CursedSoul1 08-09-2004 08:05 AM MDT Rating: 2   lurker is right though :) Bot40 08-09-2004 10:28 AM MDT   LMAAOAOOOOO GHOSTWHEEL AND REDFIST Jez 10-10-2004 10:07 AM MDT Rating: 2   Please don't include potted plants in ANY map... I launch rockets at them and they still stand. How realistic. Sigh. Nahand 10-10-2004 01:24 PM MDT   *sigh* ... you can always try in your house. They'll blow alright... redfist 12-16-2004 02:12 PM MST Rating: 1   And yes the ONLY level here,it has NOTHING in it just brushes and a waterzone,very boring gameplay,very plane map. So make a new map allready,no "I am a gamer" excuse stuff, I want to see both you and cursedsoul colaborate on a redone quake1 map for ut or ut04,c'mon lets see all of you guyses skills. But your next excuse is gonna be "oh we could never stoop so low to copy a map" but I would still want to see how you skilled mappers make an old map for a new game,show me SoH_Ghost3021 12-16-2004 06:45 PM MST   good job for a first map, now you see how hard it is! :P (to map) nice architecture and decent story especialy for a first map, lookin forwad to seing some more stuff from you in the future! i will not rate this map for one reason: its a first. i'll rate your next one, though! :)