F_Redgiant

[GambiT]

http://files.filefront.com/FF+RedGiantrar/;9138252;/fileinfo.html

http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a253/RobbHeb/ff_redgiant0000.jpg
http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a253/RobbHeb/ff_redgiant0001.jpg
http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a253/RobbHeb/ff_redgiant0002.jpg

[dkr]

I think night :)

GREAT idea for a FF map btw.. loved playing it in UT

[MightyLotu]

snow theme at night with teamcolloured lights that light up the walls all over the place

[hughJ]

I've started to find that there's a strong correlation between visibility and enjoyment level in regards to the maps. :P If it must be at night, please make the bases well-lit to make it easy to distinguish classes and teams. :)

[Fragile]

thanks for doin' this map. i know i said i would, but due to unforeseen consequences, my free time has withered.

[SizeableSSonic]

Aww, you were doing great too.

Anyway, I don't ever remember Redgiant being in UT, I only remember it in TFC...

[mistermojo]

snowey would be kind of cool, instead of outside walls, you could have frozen snow with platforms "built in"

[Ihmhi]

GambiT showed me a few screenshots of redgiant and it is looking positively ace!

So do not worry about it guys, it is coming along nicely. I know because I am always interrupting his work. dX

[GambiT]

SS's in first post

[Player]

The lighting makes everything look flat

[Dr.Satan]

looking great...definitely needs to be fine tuned, but it looks sweet!

[barronofhellion]

wow thats a lot of work to come out of the blue like that... congrats and keep up the good work

[Ihmhi]

The lighting makes everything look flat

I actually think the lighting is pretty nice... it seems to give everything a sort of comfortable glow to it. I am ever so sick of the insane lighting (http://www.vgcats.com/comics/?strip_id=224) in mapping in some games. Subtlety is very underappreciated.

[GambiT]

i dont think anybody noticed and i forgot to mention. if you look at the 3rd SS all the way to the left you'll see a door. i'm planning on having a ladder going up to the top floor/balcony or whatever. it will be like the ladder on well going up to the top of the base only instead of walls it'll be like part of the mountains i plan on having surrounding the map. i am only doing this on the side you spawn from.

[Dr.Satan]

lmao ihmhi that comic was great!

[Player]

On another note: it is possible to overdose on curves.

[GambiT]

its ok player i will make another version JUST for you that will be blocky as hell.

[Fragile]

what are the sides of the yards looking like right now?

[GambiT]

sorry didnt realize i didnt take SS's of that. i've yet to really mess with the sides, im still debating on how i want to do it. i'm thinking maybe have the wall cutting in the mountain side are something. here is a SS from a few compiles ago that shows a little more of the sides than the previous SS's. i'll take one or two tonight when i get home.

http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a253/RobbHeb/180008.jpg

[Player]

its ok player i will make another version JUST for you that will be blocky as hell.lolsensitive; from one extreme to the other...

I just think there are too many curves, it has destroyed much of the flow of the map and in some parts it looks really awkward. Pictures 15 and 16 are, I believe, a good example of this.

[GambiT]

i think the curves make it prettier than it would be if it were sharp corners. besides you dont get hung up as much on curves.

can you be more specific to the curves your talking about in the SS's(the last 2 right?)

i am open to suggestions, if you present me with something that you think would look better in a certain area than what i have and i agree, i will certainly try it out.

[Ihmhi]

If I were a srs mapper I would probably only put sharp curves/corners on a map where I wanted players to get stuck.

Curves look nicer IMO and more importantly they can be used in ever so many ways for movement skills. Well's bunker roof, for instance, has a very tiny curve (I think like 8 hammer units high?) in the middle of the roof. If you hit that with a double conc (or one good HH) you will sail straight up to the enemy roof from ground level.

[GambiT]

new SS's first post, i realize that a lot of things still need tweaking. right now i'm wondering how it plays, if i need to make any major structural changes. i still have a list of stuff to do. it will be up on 3 different servers in the coming days, definitely before this weekend.

[[AE] 82694]

sweet can't wait.

[GambiT]

once you play it(this weekend) please post ALL comments good or bad here, i will keep a list up to date in the first post. i am willing to compromise so that we ALL enjoy this map.

[Dr.Satan]

omg i want to play this map sooooooooooooo bad...have you finished it yet?

[GambiT]

im getting a leak now when i try to compile. only thing i've added is the nogren and nobuilds since last compile, so it shouldnt be hard at all to fix. the point file is not helping at all, in fact its way out in the grid away from my base. i'm going to redo them tonight and let it compile while i watch "House".


only other thing is i have NO experience putting textures into the bsp, so i need to figure that out asap.

would i make the RES file show each individual texture and vmt i used or just the folder(ff_redgiant)? and that would make y'all DL all of them right?

[nodnarb]

http://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/Bspzip

[GambiT]

i compiled it last night, will try that tonight.


also, do "nogrens" work? or not?


i put them in my map, and they dont work, wondering if i done them wrong or if they just dont work.

nobuilds work though.

[GambiT]

BSPzip
PakRat
Map Analyst MAN


which one? i'm new to this and want to use the one that is easiest...

[[AE] 82694]

Well how many files do you have. Most that I have put on the server go something like this.

mapname/maps/.bsp,.res.lua
/materials/vgui/loadingscreens/.vmt,.vtf

Those are the two main folders and files in those ones unless I fucked up some place. It all depends on how you set up your map. If you have custom sounds and textures then I think they have to go some place else but thes guys know better than me.

Edit: then zip or rare your choice.

[GambiT]

i have, right now, 1 custom texture(the snow[hl2] and dirt[FF]) but i also have 2 more blend textures i made for the skybox that isnt in yet. the textures are in "materials/ff_redgiant" so would i include the folder "ff_redgiant" or include just the textures in the folder? i imagine that i would just include the folder and everything in it would go with it, but ya never know.

i'm also considering making my own signs.

once i release the map i will also release the textures on here for the mappers around here, there just wasnt enough snow textures for me.

[[AE] 82694]

Just look at your server ftp.

materials/ff_redgiant/texture name.vmt,.vtf

Edit: sorry about the edit again.
I learned all this stuff from uploading files to the server. I keep a working server copy on my desk top of all the important files.map zips, map files , map bz2 files. So I have unziped compressed up loaded all that shit all the maps from here.

[GambiT]

the beta is on [AE]'s server, the IP is in the first post.

please post ALL comments here, good or bad.

it will be on Old Timers server shortly as well as our's, i will let you know when the map is on them.

[trepid_jon]

Pretty cool theme going on. Dark maps tend to be less played, so be careful with that. Jesse and I came close to making cz2 a day/dusk map just for that reason, but decided we like cool lighting better than player counts.......or cause we thought we made it bright enough (but who knows?).

I'd say this area seems kinda bland...
http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a253/RobbHeb/180008.jpg

But it's still early, I guess. So yeah...make her smell pretty.

[GambiT]

i love dark maps. this is how that section looks currently:

http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a253/RobbHeb/ff_redgiant_b010006.jpg

it is still early, and alot of tweeking to do im sure, it'll look ALOT better once i get the mountains in.

[zSilver_Fox]

YES! SNOW!

I love you.

[GambiT]

lol im flattered, really, but i already have to many to keep up with. :lol:

[barronofhellion]

well just got a chance to play... have to say its looking great... if you make the snow shiny like you said it think it would look even better.. however i happen to notice that snow+fog+spy = worthless heh
-edit imo i would put a railing where the spawn room is to make it look like your not floating
http://img522.imageshack.us/img522/3909/ffredgiantb010000bk9.jpg

[4est]

i love dark maps. this is how that section looks currently:

http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a253/RobbHeb/ff_redgiant_b010006.jpg

it is still early, and alot of tweeking to do im sure, it'll look ALOT better once i get the mountains in.

That looks absolutely amazing... DO THE DARK!

[GambiT]

lol i saw the snow makes the spy ALOOOOOT easier to notice.

the fog is going to be pushed back a good bit more, thats one of those things i like to test while doing a full compile to get a good feel for what it needs to be.

the spawn room wont look like that when i drop in the skybox, the whole map is going to be in the middle of the mountains. i've already made the different blend textures for it(or the vmt's anyway). right now im trying to see what i can pull off with terrain generator, but it just doing smooth well to me, may just have to touch it up in hammer.

[[AE] 82694]

Talked to Gambit yesterday threw friends voice now when ever I read his posts I hear his damn voice.:shock: :lol:

[Kapoentje]

First of all, good luck with this project, I'm looking forward to the final result :)

Second, a little question: if I remember correctly the Redgiant map in TFC had mirrored bases (instead of the usual rotated), is this also going to be the case in your incarnation of this map?

Keep up the good work!

[GambiT]

no it wont man sorry..there are a couple of reasons why, but i think it works out good like this.

thanks for the comment's y'all.

[barronofhellion]

serious though i still would put a railing there just for people to get the idea that you can't keep walking there... that was the 1st thing i wanted to do , was see how far down the drop was ... then noticed oh theres just skybox there

[Kapoentje]

no it wont man sorry..there are a couple of reasons why, but i think it works out good like this.

thanks for the comment's y'all.

Well I prefer rotated over mirrored as well fyi ;)
I never understood why the TFC version was mirrored in the first place.
Other than that Gustavo's work has always been top notch :)

[4est]

I would love to see the night version

[Ihmhi]

Well I prefer rotated over mirrored as well fyi ;)
I never understood why the TFC version was mirrored in the first place.
Other than that Gustavo's work has always been top notch :)

I think when you have identical bases, rotated is always best... when you enter the base, if the flag room is to the left, it should be to the left on both bases, ya know?

[GambiT]

serious though i still would put a railing there just for people to get the idea that you can't keep walking there... that was the 1st thing i wanted to do , was see how far down the drop was ... then noticed oh theres just skybox there

im working on the skybox now

[trepid_jon]

i love dark maps. this is how that section looks currently:

http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a253/RobbHeb/ff_redgiant_b010006.jpg

it is still early, and alot of tweeking to do im sure, it'll look ALOT better once i get the mountains in.
Very cool.

And I agree, night maps are the best. Playing around with different lighting is the shit.

[zSilver_Fox]

I'd want fences with a huge drop down into a valley, with a climb & conc course down below in an entirely seperate visleaf, with lots of snow and stuff. And penis.

[Kapoentje]

I think when you have identical bases, rotated is always best... when you enter the base, if the flag room is to the left, it should be to the left on both bases, ya know?

Agreed, in CTF having identical bases is needed. Otherwise people start argueing about advantages towards other teams, although this is not the case when an author just mirrors bases imho.

Sorry to go offtopic, but would it even be possible to create a CTF map with 2 distinctly different bases which is balanced? In TFC I know of only one reasonable attempt, I believe it was by either Zouave or Gustavo (unfortunatly I don't have the name of the map).

[Ihmhi]

I think that was darkness... one base was human design, one was Xen design.

[Dr.Satan]

yep darkness, and even in the leagues they forced you to switch teams 15min in to make it fair for both teams so it was 4 15min rds instead of 2 30min rds.

[4est]

yep darkness, and even in the leagues they forced you to switch teams 15min in to make it fair for both teams so it was 4 15min rds instead of 2 30min rds.

WTF league was that? I don't recall STA, TFL or UGC doing that.

[GambiT]

ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh


soooooooooooooo here i am working on the mountains now for about 5 hours off and on, and i accidentally right clicked my task bar(vista) and must have clicked something and closed hammer!!!! and did NOT prompt me to save!!

son of a bitch....

luckily i save often but didn't because i wasn't sure i wanted to keep what i was doing, turns out i did but didn't save..

[Ihmhi]

ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh


soooooooooooooo here i am working on the mountains now for about 5 hours off and on, and i accidentally right clicked my task bar(vista) and must have clicked something and closed hammer!!!! and did NOT prompt me to save!!

son of a bitch....

luckily i save often but didn't because i wasn't sure i wanted to keep what i was doing, turns out i did but didn't save..

Shoulda saved a copy of the file so you would not lose the work you did and not mess up the original either.

Is there no autosave that you can recover? >:

[GambiT]

yea but i dont like autosave, but i tell ya what, i turned it on after this.

this doesnt mess up the original, every time im about to change something major i "save as" something else. i usually save as 1 then 2 then 3 and so on, the beta is 30 i believe and im on 34.

[shadow]

I like the night snow theme, but I'm gonna have to agree with player on the curves. Though you don't abuse them as badly as some people do, I would caution you to remain sensible with them. :)

[GambiT]

beta DL in first post, please post some feedback

[Hawk Eye]

ff_foglands
CTF map where you can only see 10 feet in front of you.

Sentry guns are a bitch, but spies will be used constantly ;)

[GambiT]

spies stick alot ALOT better in fog. the fog is not as bad now.

[Zatoichi]

love the map layout. only things i would do are:
make the "eles" push a bit faster
as for the columns on the sides..i think they just need the same lines that run throughout the map underneath the platforms..also the map is supposed to be sorta dark..i think that it could benefit from more/stronger shadows, say underneath the ledges and platforms..i think that would help the side columns as well. buti had great fun playing the map..i like the subtle changes and think that it is farely well balanced..but thats just my humble opinion.

[GambiT]

i agree the push speeds need to be tweaked.(how much more of a push would you suggest?, some ppl are happy with it as is, some ppl aren't, i need to find a medium)

the columns and shadows, i actually thought about having the lights at the top shining down casting shadows of the ledge the lights are in now(that you can jump on)

and i was thing about flowing the texture onto the floor b/w the columns but not sure that would look to good.

the lighting needs work, it doesn't feel cold enough to me.

thanks for your input.

[Zatoichi]

yeah i went back and messed with lifts and maybe just make the push more width (if thats possible) because if you jump right in the center it does a decent job but if your a hair off, its very slow and sloppy, which might be a good thing because enemy O can now use them. i think putting lights behind the columns is a good idea, that way the shadow can kinda hide the details on the front of them. i think more contrast between dark and light areas will help with the coldness feeling, but as you stated lighting needs work. example would be the ledges in the middle area, if the lighting above caused a hard shadow below them, on the wall, in areas like that it would reinforce the white snow on the ground and the light concrete texture of the bases...or maybe im crazy lol

[Scuzzy]

We loaded this a few days ago, I played it for the first time last night. Excellent map, everyone on the server thought it was a blast. VERY well done Gambit.

[GambiT]

thank you Scuzzy, i appreciate that. Did y'all wait until i left or what? lol

[GambiT]

MAX_MAP_DISPINFO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


max displacements, son of'ah bitch, gotta start over :cry:

[Player]

Lolcurveoverdose :P

[GhostBuster]

Nice map man, i liked the foggy thing, altough i think it looks pretty empty if there are no props or mountais "behind" the map u know, good job!

[GambiT]

thanks, i have mountains in it now, been working on it all day, i should have enough of what i wanted to do done so i should be able to compile tonight.

[GambiT]

new beta is out, link in first post.

i was in a hurry to get it together as i'm about to leave, please let me know if i screwed something up.

and as always feedback is needed and welcomed.

[[AE] 82694]

:twisted: Fucker:twisted: More work for me. I'll get it put up right now.
^meant with a smile^

EDIT: I got the map put up on the server. But I seem to be missing the mountain textures. I checked and double checked the server and fast files and all the files in the zip are there.

[GambiT]

fixed, first post

[GambiT]

first post!!

im done with this map, time to move on, hope you enjoy!

[squeek.]

first post!!

im done with this map, time to move on, hope you enjoy!
One of the few maps I'd D/L without seeing SS's. But seriously, put some shots of the final map up.

[GambiT]

sorry squeek forgot, i put a few in the first post.

[4est]

sorry squeek forgot, i put a few in the first post.

That is one SEXY map. I love the night and winter theme.

[GambiT]

will re post link later, compiling now. we found a gap in the player clip that alowd you to get in the skybox

sorry..

[Dr.Satan]

just checked it out and this looks perfect! good job man...I will update my mappack post later today with this!

[GambiT]

done...download in the first post, enjoy!

[a082]

download link?

[[AE] 82694]

done...download in the first post, enjoy!

What he said. page 1 post 1

[GambiT]

no i pulled it, nobody wanted to beta test it and let me know what might be wrong with it, now that i "released it" ppl are finding things, somethings you'll have to deal with, but the reason i pulled it was because of a missing brush that allowed you to see into one of the bases from outside. i will recompile tonight when i get home, i already fixed it.

[[AE] 82694]

LMAO, "Here we go again" I'll check tonight after work and replace the files again.:p

[GambiT]

:-) , well if they would have checked it out during beta this might have been found. but nooooo, they wont mess with a map until its complete. they can deal with it.

[GambiT]

ok done, link in first post.....again

[Zatoichi]

wow love the final product, only thing i see that could improve it, is whatever is used to give locations, dont know if thats in the lua or what, i noticed when i threw the flag it said "flag thrown," and no location, then i noticed no text in the hud to give position. other than that, id say top notch man.

[GambiT]

thanks dude, i forgot completely about the locations, and its not something that can just be added to the LUA. sorry man, will remember for acropolis2

[Dr.Satan]

no locations saddens me...you should fix it sometime...maybe in a future release?

[Player]

Did I hear someone say Acropolis2? I really like that map : )

[GambiT]

no locations saddens me...you should fix it sometime...maybe in a future release?


um...prob not, but maybe...i'm done with this map, unless somebody whos good with LUA gets with me to help me do somethings i wanted to do with redgiant, then i'll also add the locations, and then release as FF_Rediant_G or something, but it wont be re-released as ff_redgiant

[GhostBuster]

God i hate filefront, i cant download anything due my country (there are never enough "slots".. never)...

[4est]

God i hate filefront, i cant download anything due my country (there are never enough "slots".. never)...

Watch this sever for a time when it's playing Redgiant. It allows downloads from the server.

8.6.8.213:27015 [AE] Clan - Fortress Forever 1.11 - San Jose, CA

[there's nothing here]

I like snowy nights.

I can see that in your first pic.. but shouldn't there then be a bit snow on everything? I don't see any on the battlements..

Also, the sky is as clear as a summer evening. But it's snowing! Even though it is night, shouldn't it be at least a bit grey? I'm not sure if it's like that around the world but, when it snows here, the skies are actually pretty bright.. maybe it's because of the clouds in the air, or the snow reflecting light into the sky, I don't know..

[there's nothing here]

I actually think the lighting is pretty nice... it seems to give everything a sort of comfortable glow to it. I am ever so sick of the insane lighting (http://www.vgcats.com/comics/?strip_id=224) in mapping in some games. Subtlety is very underappreciated.
I think the idea is ambience!

Oh yeah, the map's sexy btw.

[GambiT]

thanks, and in the country/woods where there are no city lights, yes it will be pitch black and snowy. although you will still see the clouds around where the moon is, lol.

the random snow i wanted to put all over the map, but decided not to as to finish with it and move on, i'm not a patient person.

BUT!!!

if a willing LUA coder/competent person gets with me and helps me with somethings i wanted to do with redgiant, then i may release as a different name, and if so i will also include the locations in it.

[Scuzzy]

Setup, Uploaded, Compressed and Fast/DLable. Danke chief!

Scuzzy

[GeoKill----->]

Try Checking out the Wiki for Map Location
http://fortress-forever.com/wiki/LUA:Map_Location_System
I just read it, and it doesnt seem that hard

[פֿяαιп βαмαgεפ]

Ah yes, played this map the other day, it's big, it snows, it's fun as hell.

Thank you GambiT. Have a cookie jar.

http://www.jeremylatham.com/images/canadian-budget-cookie-jar.jpg

[GambiT]

Try Checking out the Wiki for Map Location
http://fortress-forever.com/wiki/LUA:Map_Location_System
I just read it, and it doesnt seem that hard

i know how to add the location, i just forgot, thats my bad

[GhostBuster]

We`ll add this one to our mapcycle (once we got the custom mappack uploaded at our web... once we have our web finished.. lol just next week)

[Ihmhi]

GambiT, the file is under 60 MB - please upload it to http://www.savefile.com as a mirror. It's a no bullshit site... no "slots" or any crap like that. Only thing is files get deleted if they are not downloaded every 7 days.

[[AE] 82694]

Will this work for ya?
FF_RedGiant.rar (http://www.rawlie.com/file/FF/downloads/FF_RedGiant.rar)

But I didn't have any problems with filefront. The DL link is in the first post.

[GhostBuster]

Hey gambit, yesterday we did some practice in that map (plus its on our cycle), and lots of us noticed this really bad fps drop when somebady dies or when there is some chaos, but like really really bad fps drop for a few seconds, i never had this thing even on dustbowl or palermo or any of those chaotic maps... we still are going to let it at the cycle, maybe it was something that happend one night and thats it but still...

[GeoKill----->]

I was having the same thing but I wasn't sure if it was the Sn server or not.
I experience lag in the flag room and yard.

Maybe this maps need more optimization (sp?)

[GambiT]

hm..no telling..i dont lag at all, and never have on this map. i know alot of ppl on our server play it without lagging.really have to think about the computers each person has to, so i dunno.

what would ya'll like me to do with it?

[GeoKill----->]

Maybe it was the Server but I had a good ping
We had a total of 8 to 9 people in the server. At first I though it was my computer because I underclocked it due to some over heating problems I was having. So I dunno, if you think there's some parts that need optimization then go for it, if not then leave it.

[GambiT]

ok, where do you notice the biggest drop in FPS?

there have been a few ppl who say they lag bad on this map, let me know where.

what else needs to be changed/fix/added? other than locations.

[own3r]

Gambit, I can help you out with the fps issues if you want. After my exams (27th) I will have the time.

A summery of the problem:
The major issues with the map are the location of the windows, most of the time they destroy the tfc original's visblocking features while adding very little to the gameplay. Simply removing the windows/replacing with some other feature which blocks vis and putting in hint brushes would solve the problem.

On my laptop the fps were about 12 - 8 at the worst places in the yard outside the base where both inside the base and into the middle was visible for a loooong way.

[GeoKill----->]

Well I notice FPS drop when I come out of the Resupply room, the one that leads to the flag room

[GambiT]

keep them coming, it will be a little while before i get a chance to work on it and im keeping track of everything y'all say. so please, if you play it and come across something, come in here and post it.

thanks

[Fat-Suzy]

Sorry to dig up an old thread, but when i added redgiant to my server i noticed it was missing the skybox and some blend textures. With some quick filename hackery and a quick repack with pakrat, i got the map working.

I've heard this map has been unoperational for some time now, just wondering if it was just textures or if this map has some other fundamental issues?

Anyway link to updated bsp:
http://suzysworld.site.nfoservers.com/server/maps/ff_redgiant.bsp.bz2

And remember, you saw it first on Suzy's World :mrgreen::thumbsup:

[FDA_Approved]

People complain about FPS drops and crashing. I've never experienced this. I haven't played the map a whole lot all together, but I did see it fairly often on OT.