DM-Folos
Map Info
	File Name dm-folos.zip Author EvilSwanky Gametype UT Deathmatch Date Added 10-13-2005 File Version 1.00 File Size 3.56 mb Player Count 2-6 Map Description Actually thought for CTC3, but I think it's not good enough for the package itself. The polycounts are sometimes near the 800 mark so be sure to have the necessary PC. I suggest you use a 2Ghz PC with a Radeon or better. Kudos to the author of pb_totalizer, whom's name I forgot. Be sure to call me so that I can add your name. Kudos also to S'Calain as he made a nice Waterfall mesh for me. Comes with the needed richrig and a small story as well. Oh and some people say it is too dark. I admit that this might be right on some systems. I think it has something to do with the graficcards being used, as it does affect only some systems and not all, overall the map was dark but very moody and playable on my system (besides the fps problem... as I said - you need the right rig). Have fun. "Folos was one of the biggest cities on that dying planet. It was a beautiful planet, and Folos was one of the most beautiful cities on that planet to live in. But when the Vsys Mining Corp. set a virus free by accident, everything was lost. It overcame everything, people, vehicles, tools, villages and even cities. Near below the surfaces a few places remained untouched, and this places now Areas for Deathmatches! The Folos Sewer Access is one of those Combat Arenas. It isn't proven, but there might be a possibilty to leave that planet before it dies. Fight for this one chance." Review Rating 7 User Rating 7 Overall Rating 7
Review
Reviewer ArcadiaVincennes Awe Score:  2.5/3 Date 12-24-2005 Build Score:  2.5/3 Review Schema Cast Score:  2.0/3 User Point:  0 Overall Score:  7/10 DM-Folos (UT99) An industrial facility once again transformed into a deathmatch arena. What could be different about this one? Well, we have textures from Hourences and Barneyboy, a custom waterfall, and dark, dark lighting heavily sunk into the lower end of the light spectrum. It's pretty, it's dark, and it's fun. AWE: 2.5 Deep red metal ramps, brick and rock walls, and machinery is what immediately strikes one as they enter the area. The texturing is well applied and well composed, albeit repetitive. Every place in the map looks exactly like every other place – aside from the waterfall. Still, the blend of metal, rock, and brick work well together. Nothing is obviously misaligned and great care and time was obviously put into applying the textures on the myriad of BSP. However, all the individual pieces look like all the others leaving a varied, but overly homogenous feel to the texturing. The lighting is well chosen to match the texture palette and implemented well as well. I’m not so fond of the purple highlights dotting the map but that may just be me. The red is omnipresent, however, and a little oversaturated for my taste. These are just minor complaints, however. The big problem I have is that the place is just too dang dark. There were a few ramps where I walked up them and the screen was completely black until my view passed over the top of the ramp and I could see red lights again. Also, the lack of overall light combined with the deep saturation of the red, and the blending of the brown textures with both the darkness and the red, caused me to be unable to see much of the architectural forms. This caused great confusion and hampered gameplay considerably. The architecture is really very, very nice here – when you can see it. Everything from the doorways to the arch supports to the rock pillar supports, to the massive pipes running through the areas all are implemented very nicely. I really have nothing bad to say about the architecture at all except that it’s difficult to see it, and that, like the textures, it’s a bit redundant. In general, the texturing and architecture are the best parts of the awe. They’re both extremely well implemented if a little repetitive. The lighting also smacks of the same quality overall, but the darkness is a serious problem. BUILD: 2.5 The BSP quality is very good. There’s an excellent use of semisolids and the majority is aligned to the grid. With the amount of BSP detail it’s a wonder I didn’t find more HOMs, as it was I only found one small one. And I doubt I’d be able to find it again. The integration of the BSP terrain and the ‘standard’ BSP was also well done. The bot pathing was good and they seemed to get around quite well. The map was zoned adequately as well. The sounds were pretty well implemented throughout the map. The locational sounds were nicely varied through the map as a whole with slight differences between some of them which led to a nice variety. The only general ambient sound I could find was a wind sound in the middle that was a bit too high-pitched to fit with the location, but it did add a little more ambience to the map. The triggered sounds were a bit of a disappointment as there’s only one, really. More of these placed around the map could have provided better aural clues to enemy location, especially in terms of the darkness. Finally, the waterfall was well made and implemented. Overall, an excellent build with my only gripe being the soundscaping. CAST: 2.0 The gameplay here has the potential to be very good if it weren’t for the darkness. The lack of sufficient light meant that I had a very difficult time telling where opponents were, as well as where it was safe to jump over a gap and caused all kinds of misestimations. Fortunately, you’ll not often plummet to your death as the everpresent ramps ensure, for the most part, that you’ll not fall too far. But it was still very annoying to constantly miscalculate where the geometry was. The bots traversed the map quite well. In fact, the used most of the map consistently. In a map where there are no ‘quick’ ways up, usually by lifts, the bots have a tendency to stay on the ‘bottom’ of the map. Not so here, so kudos go to layout, pathing, and pickup placement that therefore entice the bots to travel up and down the map rather than just down. The weapon layout was pretty good too. My only suggestion would perhaps have been to switch the RL and flak locations as the RL location is a little too cramped with great potential for self-afflicted splash damage. I also found that there was not quite enough health scattered about – or that it was a little too ‘tucked away’. Perhaps a few more health packs or instead, using vials more liberally would have helped more. One last item-related issue is that sometimes it took some effort to find a weapon right after spawning. Either rotating the playerstarts in a more direct direction to the closest weapon, ore moving some closer to a weapon would have alleviated this. Finally, the FPS could be an issue for some people still on older PC’s. Down low, it’s not much to worry about, but up high when looking aross the map, framerate will be a gameplay-affecting issue for those on older PCs. Despite these small flaws, the layout, accessibility and zaxis all make this a very fun map. It flows well, has an interesting layout, and the bots will travel. If it only weren’t so dang dark. To put it all together, this is fairly high quality stuff. The visuals may be a bit repetitive, which makes getting lost relatively easy, and the darkness will deceive you many times, but if you’re willing to up the gamma, then you’ll probably have a fun time on this one. Lower-end PCs may want to stay away, but for those that can keep the frames up, it’s worth a download.
Map Comments
Lok 10-13-2005 01:25 PM MDT Rating: 7   The pics are really dark!!! just because of the author's name , I will try this... edit: yep , after a lot of try, i said that this map is too dark... i like the theme (like hell) the song make me think like a walk at Norfair ( Magmoor) ; anyone play to Metroid here?... Good Theme !!! but really dark...:s the flow is good and the ambiance too!!! Good job overall, too bad for the brightness... :s Ve//DeTTa 10-13-2005 01:41 PM MDT   I like dark atmospheres too, and get complaints of my maps being to dark sometimes. Theres a fine line as to whats dark but still playable across all systems. I also noticed more maps for UT with huge poly counts- including mine. will try your map soon...dialup + 3meg file = :( FraGnBraG 10-13-2005 02:08 PM MDT   i will add a score after i (re)play this map a few times at home -- i did play the beta very much and i remember it had good gameplay and FR was decent on my P4 (so i don't think polys is much of an issue for this map) you want high polys play a 1000-poly paranoid map, LOL! jk ljp =P ) ps- swanky u should bump up the gamma on the screenies, at least a bit :) Denny 10-13-2005 02:43 PM MDT Rating: 7   Not bad at all, i mean Swanky makes some good maps and this falls along those lines as well. Some may think it's a bit too dark, i thought it was prefectly fine. Texture usage worked well and arcutecture was good. The bots played the map well and kept up with me throughout the match. It can get a little laggy in the central area looking down from the highest platform but it isn't that big of a deal, people with older systems may have tougher times though so be warned. All in all, not a bad effort. If you like Swanky's other maps, you'll find the same in this (which is all good). If you're new to Swanky's maps, then this is a good start. Noce Job Swanky. P.S. - You should make you're next map using Hourences' newest texture packs, i think a Swanky map utilizing those textures would be awesome. redfist 10-14-2005 08:17 PM MDT Rating: 6   Ok your gonna kill me ,but,,,,,,,, First off not anything about YOUR level, but it drives me crazy when I can't get to areas that I can see in maps.Especialy inside maps,mabye it's because I am single player brainwashed, this map would do real fine for a single player round. This map leaves me yurning for more white light,the color bothers my eyes and makes me not want to play it. Colored areas are fine but as atmospere it aint very good unless it's a small area. The FPS be killin man,I see you use dynamic or effects by the water outside I can see it on the glass,but if I stand around the top it gets too choppy ,I did not run bots this round either.(and this is comparing to other maps) And here is the same thing I told you on another level you did about that dang floor texture,it is scaled to big,any floor like that ,those traction marks are big nubbins,The texture and smoothness for the lights would be much better if you rescaled that texture down to what a real floor would be like. The layout is or might be fun,but the fps is screwing it all up to be played up to it's potential. I like the map ,it is built good,but not a good round for DM,lighting,fps,the layout is a tad convoluted -ish. Forgot one thing,that perfectly sharp right angle chainlink fence spot don't look right,I think it needs a thin trimmed edge. souldividersjosz 10-14-2005 03:46 AM MDT   Nice map, the lighting, atmosphere, soundscape and architecture were pretty good, and the layout/map itself would've been a good map to play a lot, but even though I have a rig heavy enough to play UT2k4 with full registers open, the map lagged HARD, especially when walking on a side of the map and looking towards the middle XY wise. Too bad that FPS kills the map Fuzzy Logic 10-16-2005 12:46 PM MDT Rating: 3.5   It's not too dark to see, but, those fps drops... Even on my FX-5900 this map is virtually unplayable. With an improvement in fps this map could be ok. As it is, bleh... Revalation: ignorance is bliss ;) My rig has considerably more power than required and runs stock UT2004 maps at 100 fps. I'm not going to spend half a grand on a couple of 7800's just to play a UT map - out of proportion or what!!! Revelation 10-15-2005 03:33 AM MDT   Oh boy, you are one of those to say "Doom 3 sucks because my Pentium 1 can't handle it", right? Btw, the map description says you need a fast PC. Ratings like that are stupid imho. I'll rate later, screenshots look nice. Arch-E-Tech 10-15-2005 07:42 PM MDT Rating: 7   this is well made but ???? There are errors for one you have an area where you have rock where the metal is not textureed oppps> :D that is a mistake - one the rest is nice though game play isnt that great not vrais :) and so Awe :2 Build; 2.5 Cast:. 1.5 User point:1 Total score : 7 scirmast 10-15-2005 07:22 PM MDT Rating: 6.5   Swanky, you gotta make a new version with framerates fixed! There is nothing else wrong with the map, but in the center area the low fps makes this map just unplayable. Harsh reality is, that while you've spent a lot of time on the map and gone this far, all of that is going to waste because of a small thing like this, and nobody wants that! OK, what I meant is that it seems like a small thing but actually is huge when gameplay is considered. If you get an FPS friendly version, the map would surely receive 8 from me! milb 04-11-2006 12:59 PM MDT Rating: 7.5   I think there're not that much things left you can do to optimize the framerate. And I'm sure swanky allready has tried to opzimize it. Edit: ups, no rating! Let's make it short! It's a 7.5 Derdak2rot 10-16-2005 02:59 PM MDT Rating: 7   i liked it , not as good as Vrais , but it have a nice layout and ideas . didnt have problem with the fps , it just become a bit floppy on the upper level , maybe the room is too open , but it dont kill the gameplay on my rig . not your best but its a nice work Swanky . Agent X 12-20-2005 06:50 AM MST Rating: 7   This map is big, and has massive z-axis. I liked the lighting and textures as well. Expect a wide open area with multiple floors to get the drop on someone. Also expect low framerates in certain areas like other people have mentioned. EvilSwanky 12-24-2005 06:34 AM MST   Heh... thanks for that review AV especially on that very day! heheh. :) Thx to everyone else as well. I still wonder why that map occurs so damn dark when it runs quite lit (but not very good fr-wise) on my rig and on those of my friends as well. :/ I did try to optimize the framerates, but it didn't really work out. There's a whole lot of polys and nodes + some dynamic light in the map that you can see from the upper decks. That causes great FPS losses up there. However, if I'd change a thing, the whole map looked different than before and much of the feeling would be lost. So this map will sadly be one for the high end users. Defeat 12-26-2005 06:56 PM MST   >This map is better for online play than bot play for the reason of it being hard to see your opponent due to the texturing. That isn't really a bad thing but the bots can see you even though you can't see them(very well). IMHO the water falls are very nice but I would have liked them to be coming from each separate pipe instead of how they are now. Sounds are everywhere making the entire map seem alive and the music suits the map fine. As for the whole lighting/darkness issue here is my opinion: It is ok, the bright whitish/blue lights and the darker redish lights go together fine. For me, the entire level is lit up with no place too dark. One last thing is that on the "S" shaped water area it doesn't look like you oriented the texture to match each side. Overall this is a very nice map but only suited for online play becuase of it being hard to see your opponent in some areas. a_z 02-03-2006 12:10 PM MST Rating: 7.5   you did an excelent job on designing, lack of light people seem to say, but thats very cool and chalanging in my oppinion. like the theme, but u got 1 major flaw: u got my 2.6 GH cpu+Aopen GEforce 5900 XT system to a depthpoint of a measly 18 fps. little less on the details next time? great job though Manticore 02-23-2006 08:13 AM MST Rating: 7.5   The screenshots may be dark but the map is o.k. for gameplay and looks. Nice one... Evilmrfrank 04-11-2006 02:01 AM MDT Rating: 8   GamePlay is great, visuals are good. Frame rates are a bit slow though, maybe thats just my computer though.... Good job on making an old theme seem new:)