DM-1on1-AncEte
Map Info
	File Name dm-1on1-ancete.zip Author Luzz Gametype UT Deathmatch Date Added 11-06-2004 File Version 1.00 File Size 543 kb Player Count 2-3 Map Description Small ghotic-style map. Please try and rate this!!! Review Rating 3.5 User Rating -- Overall Rating 3.5
Review
Reviewer ArcadiaVincennes Awe Score:  0.5/3 Date 11-12-2004 Build Score:  2.0/3 Review Schema Cast Score:  1.0/3 User Point:  Overall Score:  3.5/10 DM-1-on-1-Ancete An ancient place is the setting for this map. What place, though? Is it a temple? An old castle? I’m not really sure. The gameplay is probably the best aspect of the map but even this suffers. Let’s examine this more closely… AWE: 0.5 The theme is an ancient place but that’s about all I’m able to determine. The texturing is bizarre with shrunken textures creating repeating rock/stonewall patterns on all the walls. Also, there were some windows/holes in the wall where the texture on the wall behind the window was the same, or similar, as the texture on the wall the window was in. This created an odd effect of sections of the wall seeming to move back and forth and up and down as one jumped around looking at them. This could have been fixed by having either more lighting contrast in the area beyond the windows, or having a different texture. The textures in general were aligned but I’m not sure as to what they were aligned to. They were also all too similar and blended together so one area was different from another but just barely. The decorations were very sparse with little-to-no trim, and, well, there just was not enough of them. The rooms were 90% bare, or more. The author relied mostly on beam geometry to decorate and considering these were mostly up near or at the ceiling, it really left the rest of the map lacking. The author also concentrated a lot on water with each room containing a pool, but the sound of the water was a flame sound. The one nice water aspect was two thin rivulets streaming down two pillars with a small nub jutting out causing the water to fall away from the pillars. The music was the title track which didn’t really fit well. Finally, the lighting was bland and uninspired. There were little obvious light sources, little variation of color, and it all seemed a little washed out with very little shadow definition. Overall it was a series of rooms with some pools of water in each one and beams that didn’t really add anything to the theme. Decorated sparsely, lit badly, and with a bizarre water sound and texture use it’s certainly an ancient place. But I still don’t know where. BUILD: 2.0 Purely in terms of construction, the author seems to know what he’s doing. The brushes are all placed well, the ramps and stairs are of a sufficient height/slope and the beams are all implemented well. It just there’s so much geometry that doesn’t seem to have a function. I didn’t get stuck anywhere and everything was easy to access. As for the sounds, there really wasn’t any except for the water which, as I mentioned before, seems to have a fire sound applied to it. Overall, it’s competently assembled, but nothing really seems to go together and the sound is a mis-fit like the rest of it. CAST: 1.0 Gameplay wasn’t much better. There was a little bit of z-axis and the bots did take advantage of it. However, it was predictable and, like the rest of the map, sparse. The flak area was too cramped with a very narrow hallway giving access to the next room and no room to maneuver overall leading to lots of deaths. Despite the keg of health being nearby, the bots seemed to ignore the ripper and that area in general. And the keg of health was just lying nonchalantly on the floor in the corner of the ripper room - no risk/reward for trying to get it. Other than the flak room the bots seemed to get around pretty well and used the limited z-axis well. The weapon placement was satisfactory overall but the author decided to leave out the rocket launcher. The health pickups were spread a little un-evenly. Finally, the FPS was satisfactory overall but dipped from time to time. To put it all in perspective, this is an ancient place that has been robbed of decorations, lighting, and gameplay. The ambiance is just barely there as is the gameplay. Empty room to empty room, water that sounds like fire, a flak pit of death, textures that merge with each other and are too similar, everything is just plain off-balance. The authors’ building skills are promising but everything else needs work. Unless you want to see one of the naked lady textures from the original UT, this map is a miss.
Map Comments
Luzz 11-07-2004 06:02 AM MST   Please rate this map (first released)!!! Gargorias 11-07-2004 06:25 AM MST   Sorry I couldn't rate this level for you because there are issuess that need addressing. The main issue is lighting. You may want to add some real lights to the level, preferably flames and get rid of that bright ambient light, the level is too washed out!. Real light sources will create nice shadow effects which is what I would expect in this environemnt. The crosses in the ceiling should have light coming through either from moonlight or sunlight and this would cast a nice effect on the floor. A bit more trimming here and there might not go astray either. Layout is reasonable for a fist attemp but needs some tweaking. Fairly decent attempt if this is your first level though.