DOM-1on1-renegade
Map Info
	File Name dom-1on1-renegade.zip Author canuck Gametype UT2k4 Double Domination Date Added 12-23-2005 File Version 1.00 File Size 431 kb Player Count 2 - 4 Map Description this is my first map, so have fun:) Review Rating 2.5 User Rating 2.5 Overall Rating 2.5
Review
Reviewer Ironblayde Awe Score:  1.0/3 Date 03-16-2006 Build Score:  1.0/3 Review Schema Cast Score:  0.5/3 User Point:  0 Overall Score:  2.5/10 AWE: 1.0 Consisting only of a roughly octagonal room enclosing two smaller rooms to house the control points, DOM-1on1-Renegade offers little in the way of visuals. For a first map, it's not too bad. Despite the extreme simplicity of it all, the author at least has a basic understanding of how to create his world geometry. Though it does give the impression that the author carved out some BSP and then started adding meshes everywhere to pretty things up, the meshes chosen are consistent within the author's chosen theme and appropriately placed. Texture alignment is not a major concern since most of the points where surfaces meet are obscured by pillars or meshes, but the author should have paid attention to it on the various crates that are sitting around; the textures there don't line up at all. Most of the map's least appealing architectural features result from cutting rectangular holes into the map's walls and floors. In some cases, this is done to provide a recess in which to place a light fixture. I appreciate that the author wants to keep his meshes from sticking out into the gameplay area where they can encumber players, but the manner in which this was done is very unappealing, particularly when almost no light is getting into that recess and it appears almost completely black -– not something you'd expect to find around an object that's supposed to be emitting light. In other cases, the author has attempted the age-old trick of having bricks or floor tiles dislodged from their original placement to break up a boring surface. If you're going to do that, you need to make sure the hole is the size of a single brick or tile, and is positioned appropriately. In this map, it doesn't look like floor tiles are missing. It looks like some troublemaker with a laser knife has carefully carved perfectly square pieces out of the centers of individual floor tiles. Finally, the lighting is bland to say the least. Most of the map is lit by perfectly white lights, many of them still at their original brightness and radius settings. The lights are often placed a considerable distance away from their corresponding light fixtures too, which results in a strange blotch of intensity on the ceiling that has no place in a convincing lighting scheme. Two opposing sides of the map are lit with very conspicuous red and blue as though to distinguish between two teams' halves of the map, which makes no sense since none of the spawn points are team-specific. BUILD: 1.0 There isn't a whole lot to score here, as the author didn't have much work to do. He has used the grid and lined up all his brushes and meshes nicely so there are no ugly breaks between them as are often seen in first maps, which is good. He's also used BlockingVolumes in some places to prevent players from getting stuck on protruding objects or in small recesses, which is also good. But the placement of BlockingVolumes is not consistent; one side of the map will have them, while a nearly identical construction on the other side will not. I wonder if the author understands why zone portals are used, because they're absolutely everywhere in here. This tiny little map is divided into fourteen zones (not including the skybox) -– way too many. And there would be even more if not for the fact that several of the author's portals don't seal the intended zones off properly. To the author: there is such a thing as too many portals; they should be kept down to the minimum number necessary to partition your map appropriately. Bot pathing is an extremely simple affair, as it doesn't take much to get bots to run around a single room. Still, though, there are problems. There aren't any jump paths, so the bots can't get at the adrenaline pills and health vials that are placed atop crates, but far more importantly, this also cripples their ability to reach the control points quickly, which we'll talk about in the next section. CAST: 0.5 I admit, I was looking through the review queue and picked this out just because I wanted to know how a one on one game of Double Domination would work. I thought maybe the two points would be right next to one another, or maybe even that the author had come up with some way to have the map work with only one control point accessible. Instead, each control point is in a separate, small room, and those two rooms are located within a larger chamber, which wraps around the two control point rooms in a kind of figure eight. The control point rooms each have a single door, at the far end of the map, and a window which faces the center. Those center-facing windows are just tall enough that you can jump through them, which means that you can get from anywhere in the map to either control point very quickly. Unfortunately the bots can't jump through the windows –- the author placed nodes on the window ledges, but the bots need more careful pathing to tell them that they can double-jump through those tight confines. There are eight spawn points in the map, and although the lighting scheme and the author's zone names seem to indicate that he wanted these divided by team, any player can spawn at any point. (This turns out to be a good thing since one side has the Shock Rifle and the other has the Bio-Rifle.) From the four central spawn points, you can reach either of the Domination points in three seconds. From the four remaining spawn points, which are further from the center along the map's long axis, getting to the far Domination point is a little slower, but can still be done in four seconds or maybe a little less. So if your enemy is dominating and kills you before you can reclaim one of the points, you'll get a second chance, and a third. Maybe more. What this all comes down to is that unless the two players have completely different skill levels, a match in this map will probably last until one or both players quit in disgust. The spawn points are spread out enough, and the map is small enough, that you should always be able to reach a Domination point in time as long as you keep track of where your opponent is. I was able to hold off a much better player indefinitely, and chances are that you will too. Of course, you could stick four players in here, but the map is too small, and the game will probably only end once you all get sick of killing each other endlessly in a single room that has none of the features that make a deathmatch interesting. FINAL SCORE: 2.5 As first maps go, I've seen a lot worse, but I've seen a lot better too. There's almost no gameplay to be had here, as one on one just doesn't seem to work in Double Domination, at least not when the points are separated. If the author studies what went wrong in this map and works on addressing those problems next time around, I think he will improve in the future. For the moment, though, you can pass this one by.
Map Comments
goldfenix 12-24-2005 09:38 PM MST Rating: 2.5   I like your build and layout. The decorations as far as on the walls were alright... But the missing tile like look failed for you....