ONS-RapaNui
Map Info
	File Name ons-rapanui.zip Author scarface Gametype UT2k4 Onslaught Date Added 08-03-2004 File Version 1.00 File Size 7.93 mb Player Count 8 - 16 Map Description Yes, after two months hard work I finished my third UT2 map... enjoy oh, look at the white plants they change their color ;) Review Rating 7.5 User Rating 9 Overall Rating 8.5
Review
Reviewer ArcadiaVincennes Awe Score:  2.5/3 Date 11-02-2004 Build Score:  2.5/3 Review Schema Cast Score:  2.5/3 User Point:  +1 Overall Score:  8.5/10 ONS-RapaNui (UT2004) An onslaught in paradise missing only the trendy boat drinks with umbrellas makes this map gorgeously unique. The Easter Island theme carried close to perfection situated on an island that lends itself to pleasingly frantic node battles. One for the ages it is a must on your hard drive. Awe: 2.5 A beautifully detailed map that leaves little to be desired. It contains custom textures and static meshes that really bring the theme home. Combined with a tight use of terrain with many layers and gentle pools of water the AVA factor simply cannot be ignored. Add the subtle emitter effects and the good use of ambient sounds and you have a nearly flawless theme. Nearly flawless because there a few inconsistencies that stick out but only if you look for them. Firstly, there are two stretched textures. One of them is a simple groundcover texture that peeks out from below the other layers occasionally. It looks low-rez/stretched and pixellated compared to the other textures used to layer the ground. Another is the peaks of some of the highest rock outcrops - at the top of the steep sides it is stretched a bit and could have been resolved with a different XY rotation in the terrain layer properties. Something that struck me as a little off, probably because I studied Geology in college, is the sand and rock/pebble texture used around the water streams and pools. They are mixed together rather haphazardly, crossing the streams/pools at various angles, sometime perpendicular to the direction of water flow. If the author had made these consistently following the flow, or sand along the stream borders and the rocks/pebbles at the stream centers, it would have been better. As it is they do not look bad, quite the contrary, it’s just something that pulls at my mind whenever I see them. The lighting is somewhat overly ambient. It’s certainly daytime, and obviously close to noon based on angles of shadows to trees that the projectors create so there is not much depth of lighting to shadow. This leads to fairly equal lighting throughout the map. Perhaps an afternoon/morning setting would have produced a more dynamic setting with some nice long shadows cast by trees and the various rock outcrops. The author has introduced an extremely varied landscape in terms of vegetation that really lends credence to the idea of a lush, verdant south-pacific island and the custom Easter Island Head statues really complete the theme. The emitters of butterflies at the nodes are very well done as are the custom jump pad flower petal/leaf emitters – they make very nice touches. Overall, a delicious theme carried out with precision and planning. A few aesthetic changes could have been made but nothing really stands out truly awkwardly. Build – 2.5 Contributing to the theme is the overall build. Easter Island is basically the top of a vast underwater volcano that sticks out above the water. The build of the island reflects this in its rock outcroppings separating the travelable land around the edges and the large more-flat-than-not central node area which should be interpreted as the former bottom of the volcano’s crater. The use of static meshes, vegetation layers and water all flow together very well. I was never stuck by some unexplainable corner or volume and everything seemed well-aligned. I did get stuck once or twice on some terrain but only when piloting the Leviathon – yes there’s a Leviathon in the map – or the Goliath through the narrow paths of the map. The terrain is well smoothed throughout so I’m not exactly sure what was causing the sticking. The terrain at the edges continued past the blocking volumes and really helped the playable map blend into the skybox well. The projectors and emitters looked great and were put to good use as were the water effects. The only parts that struck me as oddly built were the entrance/exits of the various streams. The author placed a defined stream head in the form of a rounded hole with a shallow depth sticking out above the water about the height of the player. In front of this, he placed a tall grass/reed static mesh. Now, mostly all the vegetation in the map is walk/drive-through, and rightly so - except for the tall grass/reeds in front of the stream sources. Now, this isn’t very odd in itself, it’s just that the blockage extends out into the water away from the source much further than I would have expected; it seemed a bit unnatural. To conclude, it’s a very solid island that’s very competently crafted. The only real complaints were occasional terrain sticking for the larger vehicles and the inexplicable blockage farther away than necessary from the stream sources. Cast 2.5 Despite a lower than usual framerate, the FPSs are not too bad. It certainly is understandable considering the quantity of static meshes, emitters, and projectors. The author did a good job optimizing this and I find the framerates acceptable despite not being at the level of the retail maps. As for the bots, they certainly know how to do their jobs. The node configuration is like Severance and the bots will certainly put up a fight for their nodes. The gameplay largely centers around either the center node, which is wide open and provides for a lot of back-and-forth, and one of the nodes closer to the core once you’ve secured the center. But the nodes next to the base are where the main problem comes into play. At one of the nodes next to each core, a Leviathan spawns. The Leviathan is decidedly not a plus to the map. The map is too small and too cramped to really use it effectively and it should have been replaced with a goliath. A big vehicle is needed, but the Leviathan is too big. This is especially true if the attacking team takes the node closest to the enemy node and grabs the Leviathan. The attacking team then theoretically has two Leviathans in their possession and that’s way too excessive for this map. Once that happens there is only a very short drive until the power core is in range and there’s not really enough time for the defending team to rally and defeat the Leviathan. This is really the only serious flaw in the map. Also I never saw a bot use the Leviathans unless I had undocked them first. The Leviathan issue is such a large flaw in gameplay in the map that I was tempted to score it as a 2.0 but the remaining gameplay definitely makes up for it. Just be prepared for a quick finish if the attacking team gets ahold of the Leviathan closest to your base. The only other issue I had was that the terrain and decorations are so consistently varied throughout the map that I had no idea where I was going unless I crested a hill or glanced at the radar map. There is one directional indication that’s a very nice touch with some flowers that change color, red, blue, or white, depending on who controls the node they’re near. But these give no indication of where one should go next. Altogether, the map plays very well despite the Leviathan. And I’m willing to forgive the lowered framrates just so I can appreciate the beauty of the island. To sum it all up there are some visual inconsistencies in the texturing but it’s nothing that really turns your head. During the matches there will be some great fights and the only thing to pay attention to is not getting your large vehicles stuck on the terrain. Enjoy the butterflies, the noon-day sun, and stay out of the Leviathans’ way. Grab a lawn chair, climb to the top of a rock bridge, and sip your drink as you watch the battle below.
Map Comments
Manticore 08-03-2004 06:24 AM MDT Rating: 8.5   Fun ONS and, in my opinion, one of the best terrain/outdoor maps.... ever. SilverHairDevil 08-03-2004 06:09 PM MDT Rating: 9.5   OMFG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Eyecandy - check Gameplay - check F#&@*&g Fun - check!!! Again i can't use the forums for some reason but i have a question. How make a team player start? When I set the team number to 1 = blue, and im blue i respawn in a red one with a 0 team number. I never spawn in a blue 1 number spawn. Also how do you make team turrets for minigun - same problem as player starts? Also check DM-pablo deli if u may and see if you can answer those question. PLZ!!! nacon 08-03-2004 12:47 PM MDT Rating: 9.5   realy, one of the best ons maps, very nice terrain&gameplay - lot of new static meshes&effects, best ons map realy penistrator 08-03-2004 01:45 PM MDT Rating: 9.5   ............ just right above my comment mentionend souldividersjosz 08-03-2004 01:58 PM MDT Rating: 9.5   this map just screams OWNAGE!!!! T3KT0N 08-03-2004 03:25 PM MDT Rating: 9.5   I put it on the server after 5 minutes trying it. It's a great map. Good plan,good Levi access good transport. :) 9.5 Erez 08-03-2004 03:45 PM MDT Rating: 8.5   Fantastic visuals, great gameplay, I like your work a lot scarface. I noticed certain things reminiscent to your previous map like the custom jumppads (now with petals) and the butterflies flying all over. Though, one thing that bothered me was to access to the cores was too simple, you can just open the leviathan near the linked node and take the core down in two shots. I don't know maybe it contributes to the fast-pace gameplay :P. Overall, this map is great and refreshing, this is a recommended download and as for onslaught lovers this is a must have! DW 08-03-2004 04:29 PM MDT Rating: 8   A great map, and absolutely amazing eye candy. the bots are well mapped and will give you a run for your money. My only complaint is in the lack of main core defense. I had the leviathin and from an outside node I took with it, I could blast at the main core. the next round the bots did the same to me. If that was fixed it would jump to a 10. Nicely done. Johannes Rexx 08-04-2004 01:47 AM MDT Rating: 10   Judas H. Priest! What a stunning piece of landscaping! And only a tasteful application of fog. The frame rates on my dual processor 2Ghz G5 at full 1600x1024 are very acceptable given that I turned on all the graphics bells and whistles maxed out. Great optimization. Too bad the author does not have another two months to make the map twice as big and add some shoreline battel grounds! Ownage! - Johannes Rexx [FBI]PoPoV 08-06-2004 04:10 AM MDT Rating: 6.5   why is the map flagged as official people can't dl it from server and redirect ??? great map nylevefalls 08-06-2004 01:39 PM MDT Rating: 7   hmm...statuses are way better in dm-moai2 (or somethig like that),as well as whole theme...still map ownz,of course. Katipo 08-06-2004 11:04 PM MDT Rating: 8.5   Love this map! Especially like the nice blue sky - something you don't see a lot of in UT2400 maps. Don't know why. nightshadow 08-07-2004 12:48 AM MDT Rating: 9   very very well done!! i liked how the giant flowers would change color when whatever node was taken. the terrain is damn near perfect. awesome job! my only suggestion is to include just a little indoor areas in the map. like a small base to hide in. hampel 08-15-2004 01:59 AM MDT Rating: 8.5   great map! :) Karlos 08-28-2004 12:42 PM MDT Rating: 10   The visuals are by far the best I have ever come across in an ONS map, or any UT 2004 map in fact! The gameplay is fast, furious and frantic at times, in a map of which in an online game, there is never an outright winner until the death of the match! I hope to see many more like this in the days to come! 100% spot on!!! Draco 08-28-2004 04:51 PM MDT Rating: 7   Nice tropical island theme. Hourences 08-29-2004 03:40 PM MDT   really nice ons map, much better as almost all ons maps out there, only a little too sunny happy for me, lacks some mysterie but still well polished and made Mulch_D 09-06-2004 06:33 AM MDT Rating: 9.5   This is right up there with Pipeline as one of my favorite ONS maps. Shao 09-06-2004 01:48 PM MDT Rating: 8.5   pretty OGnive 09-06-2004 03:21 PM MDT   Live in a lush land bathed in a totally tropical sunshine:) Horse 10-20-2004 08:17 AM MDT Rating: 9.5   very good map ! julian141 10-20-2004 02:50 PM MDT Rating: 9.5   PERFECT, a really fun map to play on while being visually good as well,WELL DONE razielyo 10-20-2004 05:57 PM MDT Rating: 8.5   Very good map :-) MrGatarax 10-20-2004 06:08 PM MDT Rating: 9.5   Looks like Far Cry... Deathbliss 11-06-2004 11:59 PM MST   I can't rate this yet as I haven't gotten in and played it with bots. But I did take a look around and here are some issues which should be addressed: #1. Static skybox. Please please please in the name of all that is holy stop making maps with unanimated skies! CLOUDS ARE SUPPOSED TO MOVE FER'CRYIN' OUT LOUD! #2. Some over scaled textures. #3. Some weirdness with the water. Overall a very good job, very detailed, and once the author address these minor issues it should be about perfect, provided of course the bots are good which I don't know yet. - Deathbliss RayZidane 11-08-2004 09:00 PM MST Rating: 8.5   better than far cry...... Dfour 02-01-2005 09:35 AM MST Rating: 9.5   Fantastic map sandorski 02-01-2005 07:21 PM MST Rating: 8   Great looking Map with lots of nifty effects. It has too many Leviathans in it though, by the time a Team has access to the NME Core, they have 2 Leviathans at their disposal. That's adding Insult to Injury. :-D Download goldfenix 10-27-2005 09:25 AM MDT Rating: 8.5   Really sounds like something off bionicle, but I really like this theme, so I am going to download it. Good island map you've made. Has alot of areas to go. The only problem is the terrain vertices are too big, so I was seing alot of pointy terrain. The textures were also scaled up too high as well. Music, once again, sucked for this theme and map. Could use ONS-1 or whatever. Best jungle music that comes with it. Wesley "Boreas" van Dijk 12-19-2005 09:05 AM MST Rating: 8.5   My only concern is the leviathans :| Sicko Teddy 12-19-2005 10:53 PM MST Rating: 8   Even though the map is all the same style all over the place , it looks great. I like those huts and totem poles. Wish there would be more palms some places.. But Levis are plain overkill- when an advancing team get 2 levis, it gets very bad and impossible to defend. You could make some terrain limitation, such as 2 totem poles that blocks the width of levi.