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| CTF-MineWars | | | Map Info |
| | | | File Name | ctf-minewars.zip | | Author | Unknown - None Given | | Gametype | UT Capture the Flag | | Date Added | 12-15-2000 | | File Version | 1.00 | | File Size | 1.04 mb | | Player Count | 8-8 | | Map Description | None | | Review Rating | 4.5 | | User Rating | -- | | Overall Rating | 4.5 |
| NC2 map imported without screenshot. |  | | | | Review |
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CTF-MineWars (UT99)
A tight CTF map in a former? mine. A mine cart, exploding walls, and dropships all inhabit the mine providing an interesting CTF.
AWE: 1.5
The texturing is pretty much the same all-throughout the map. Rock walls that extend from room to room all in the same texture. The only texture difference is in the dropship which is typical UT99 grey metal with red and blue highlights. Nothing's really strikingly unaligned but the different angles used in the mine geometry can make it seem so.
The lighitng is adequate but a little clumsy. All the lighting on the red side is red-hued, and all the lighting on the blue side is blue-hued. This gives a fire-lit ambience on the red side, which is appropriate because almost all the light sources are flames, and a night-time ambience on the blue side. Which is bad because almost all the light sources are flames. There are some nice shafts of light extending down from the skybox above but these are really only used along the initial mine car track which you probably won't see again after the first use. The flame lights tend to create nice pools of light but some of them end up giving some rooms an ambient lit feel as well.
The architecture is both simplisticly straigthforward and complicated at the same time. The landing area/flag room is pretty much a cube. The following entry areas into the main map are almost straight rectangles. From there, the architecture pretty much is odd-shaped blocky rooms that are joined with portions of walls that explode to create jagged-edged doorways into the next odd-shaped blocky room. In general the arhcitecture in the areas you'll be spending most of your time in is an interesting idea that's repeated through the map with little to no variation.
Overall the textures are completely lacking in variation, the lighting is colored incorrectly for half the map with some ambient-lit areas, while others contain nice pools of light. The architecture is basically repetition on one idea with no varience. In general it seems like a good idea for one area but then repeated without purpose through the rest of the map.
BUILD: 2.0
The BSP work here is really quite complicated and the author must have fought against many BSP holes during its construction. Jagged door edges and oddly angled walls must have brought him to the edge of HOM madness. The mine car works well and it somewhat disspointing seeing as how you'll probably only use it once if at all. The exploding walls seem like they're activated by player proximity triggers and they work well and convicingly even if there seems like little point to them. Unfortuately, once they're blown, all the excitement is over because nothing else will happen to them. A big disappointment is ambient sounds. Or, the lack thereof. There are some hotspot sounds - the mine car, the dropship, and the explosions, but that's about all you get.
In general I applaud the author's BSP work and the mine car and explosions, but the other aspects of the build are a let-down.
CAST: 1.0
The gameplay is a mixed bag. The starting area has you falling out of a drop ship directly over flag and you pick up a shock rifle hanging in mid-air as you drop. There are several wrong things here. First, having the spawn area directly over the flag. It's considered bad taste to put the spawn points directly in the flag area because there's nothing more frustrating than killing the opposing team only to have them re-appear on your head as you grab the flag. Second, this offense is made worse by the defenders automatically picking up a weapon that's quite deadly in experienced hands. Not only are the defenders spawning back right over the flag, but they're doing it ARMED. Big no-no. Another problem is that other than the drop from the drop ship, there's no z-axis in or near the flag base. The last problem is that one of the two exits is a straight-shot hallway that leads to another, longer, straight shot hallway. This practically guarantees death for a flag carrier and so of the two exits, you're really only ever going to utilize one, which takes a lot of strategy out of the match.
As for the rest of the map, there is z-axis but access to the z-axis is fairly limiting. It's certainly profitiable to make use of it considering that's where the shield beld and keg of health are but most of the time, you'll find yourself on the ground floor.
Weapon layout is a little off as well. The first problem is the aformentioned shock rifle. The rest of the weapons are scattered throughout the map and there's no location that really suits placing one weapon over another because all the rooms are about the same size despite the variation in shape. The redeemer is especially badly placed. In the center of the map it hovers in mid-air over one of the few z-axis access points. It's up for grabs by anyone, there's no risk in getting it, and it's pretty useless in this map anyways. It really shouldn't have been included.
The bots will travel the map but really only use the z-axis to grab the shield belt and keg of health. Otherwise they'll rampage through the center ground level and that's about it.
In general the gameplay is not so good from the z-axis access deprivation, the bad flag-room setup, and the complete lack of landmarks to steer yourself by due to the identical texturing and the lack of distinctly shaped rooms.
To put it all together, the map is bland, the lighting is wonky, the flag room is completely borked, the weapon layout is neither good nor bad, and there's a section of the map you just won't use after the first time. MineWars is an interesting concept repeated without purpose. Usefull for mappers trying to figure out triggers and player transport, it isn't really good for anything else. |
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| | | | Map Comments |
| CyMek
04-24-2005 11:17 PM MDT | | This is a nice map... for one that was made 5 years ago.
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