[i]I started this log to help explain, for my own curiousity if nothing else, “what mappers do with their time”. It’s basically a record of what I did on La Rochelle to get from idea to A2 release. It will eventually get formatted as an article for my website]
CAVEAT: As your read thru this, I think you’ll not that I’m a very inefficient mapper - redoing things several times (e.g., command maps). It’s just my style. A good chunk of the time is also learning new things and creating new assets, though I also saved a lot of time by importing objectives and prefabs from other maps.[/i]
Daddy … What Do Mappers Really Do?
Soooooo …, how did this map come about and why are you keeping track of your time? Let’s answer the time question first. I started wondering how much time I put into each map, so I posted the following question in the Splash Damage forums, “How many man-hours do you put into a map before it’s finished”, with the following results:
< 100 man-hours 18% [ 5 ]
100 - 150 man-hours 18% [ 5 ]
151 - 200 man-hours 11% [ 3 ]
201 - 250 man-hours 18% [ 5 ]
> 250 man-hours 33% [ 9 ]
This made me even more curious as to how that time was spent. So, I started a new map and started recording how much time I worked on the map each day and the details of what I did. The total time spent, to get to my first public release, was approximately 93.5 hours over 34 working days as of 4/24/05. Three other people, in addition to myself noodled around the .map file to help detail areas, create entities, or debug the map.
Historically, depending on the target community (e.g., pub or comp) the first playable portion can represent 50-80% of the total time invested in a map.
As far as the new map goes, I just had a crazy idea that I wanted to do a submarine pen (ET needs more maps with submarines) and a rail yard with trains, since I really liked the rail yard maps from CoD. I was also looking for a dynamic objective similar to Reactor where the team had to control and area for a set amount of time. I liked the fights over the crane controls on Hummer’s Raiders map, so I grabbed that and modified it.
Anyways, if you ever wanted to know what mappers do, here’s a good overview.
Pre 2/19 (2.0 hours)
Wrote up a concept sketch for the map and posted it in the ETNation and GameArena forums
Discussed map with various people, updated concept sketch based on discussions
Started looking for mapping partners
2/19 (3.0 hours)
- Started mocking up objectives using work from Dubrovnik (key card), Raiders (crane), and Remagen. This was all done in a separate test map. A good part of this time was just studying the Raiders .script to make sure I understood how everything was working.
2/20 (3.0 hours)
- Completed objectives box map with .arena, .script, limbo cameras, etc and compiled. Everything works as originally planned.
- Posted concept sketch in ETNation and GameArena forums for commentary and to see if anyone would be willing to help work on map
(2.0 hours)
Started laying out main map areas and map hull. Tracked down map leaks.
2/21 (4.0 hours)
- Mocked up layout based on prefabs from Detoeni (subs and torpedoes), WolfProject (trains) and Zeppelin (warehouses).
- Created allied spawn and axis spawns
- Revised layout and cooridor routing
- Compiled objectives test map into .pk3, tested, and uploaded
- Tracked down more map leaks in the structural mockup
- Blocked out some buildings with caulk
2/23 (2.5 hours)
- Clipped submarine model in a separate .map file to make it easier to see brushes
- Played around with a look and feel for the railyard area (building architecture, supports, etc). - Overhauled the look and feel of the submarine pen and opened up the outer doors
- Mocked up a couple of different supports/lighting styles for hallways, posted screenies on ETNation for comments
- Probably spent an hour with Brevik on IRC talking over various layouts of the hallways and submarine pen based on some mockups he forwarded to me
2/24 (6.0 hours)
- Built out railyard area using the new style
- Applied same style to the loading docks
- Made tunnel for crate to move from train yard to the sub pen
- Redid look and feel of all portals and doorways
- Imported the objectives from the test map and adjusted positioning
- Added additional trains and flak guns by Leno
- Uploaded objective test map and structural mock up for feedback
2/25 (3.0 hours)
Planned:
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Add ladders to sub pens
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Open up roof (allow more play by Field Ops as well as forcing decision to provide support fire or ammo)
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Make both subs dynoable and script movers (more interesting and logical, as long as pen area is easy enough to attack)
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Open up crate route to workshop and add dog leg (provides another route from train yard to mid map area)
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Add CP, which controls script mover doors from loading docks (provides another axis of attack)
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Debugged map, func_explosives were missing an origin brush
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Added script mover doors to short route from allied spawn and moved entire hallway up a level
2/26 (3.0 hours)
Incorporated feedback from GameArena and ETNation crowds:
-Created a control building where the crate controls were, to give some cover
-Extended the axis spawn to include a balcony, bridge access from balcony, and connected the bridge to the control building.
- Extended entire width of railyard to make room for the control building
- Narrowed crate route to make it a little more of a bottle neck since it’s still a very fast route of attack
- Reviewed a couple of style suggestions for the sub pen by Brevik
2/27 (2.0 hours)
- Handed master off to Brevik
- Built stairwells around sub pen bridge
- Noodled around with some styles for interior supports and lighting
- Rerouted some of the hallways to make them more straightforward
2/28 (2.0 hours)
- Restyled 2 hallways iwth new textures, supports, and lighting
- Styled loading docks in the same motif as hallways
3/1 (1.0 hour)
- Continued restyling rooms and corridors to be imported back into Brevik’s work on the sub pen. - Restyled rear axis spawn
3/2 (1.0 hour)
- Made track texture using mrfin’s track texture from Bridges
- Made some more railcars (2 styles of hopper cars, box car, oil car)
3/4 (1.0 hour)
- Improved clipping on subs, fine adjustments to make sure clipping followed prop shaft and propellers
3/5 (2.0 hours)
- worked on lighting of the train yards and rooms and tweaking the trains
- Started work on a railroad crane car, based on the Goliath crane. Made this prefab in a separate .map file.
- Screenies and testing some lighting
3/7 (1.5 hours)
- terrain - get the overall dimensions right, adjusted alpha map
3/8 (1.5 hours)
- terrain - extended terrain to cover the submarine pen area, so had to redo the steps from 3/7
3/10 (1.0 hours)
- cut and vertex edited terrain to fit general rail yard, loading docks, and submarine pen
3/12 (1.0 hours)
- Toyed around with alpha masks for some wording textures
4/3 – Basically decide to give up mapping for ET –
4/4 – Had second thoughts and decided that Rochelle was far enough along where I can do enough to kick it out as a beta1/alpha2 and then find someone else to take over it
4/5 (2.0 hours)
- tracked down leaks, imported terrain into map, tried to track down stretching brush.
(10.0 hours, by Brevik)
- Built out and detailed the submarine pen
4/6 (3.0 hours)
- Obtained submarine pen from Brevik and imported into .map file
- Adjusted hallways to fit his entrances
- Synched up textures, vertex edited ground by loading docks, imported improved sub clipping,
4/7 (6.0 hours)
- Redid command map
- Lots of fiddling with lighting in the sub pen area. Trying to work with fade lighting to get enough light in the sub pen without making everything look too washed out. Spent most of the time waiting around while compiling light stages
- Got some help from Chruker to replace the model2 key in the script_movers with a dummy tag so that I could use misc_gamemodels and still have them sink
- Added more lights and lights junior to throw more light on the sub model
4/8 (3.0 hours)
- Added an east pen room + spawn point activated by Axis CP, so had to redo command map again
- Tweaked all door frames since I didn’t like the bounce caused by the 4-unit floor piece, which broke up flow thru doors. - Added ladder to get to upper platform and had to tweak the catcher bars.
- Also tweaked spot for the crate to make it look like it broke open. Couldn’t get this to disappear when the crate was delivered, so it resulted in very nasty z-fighting
4/9 (4.5 hours) (1.5 hours learning how to do alpha textures with partial transparency, then making signs for map, 1 hour play testing with Shitstorm guys and a few others, 1 hour discussing feedback and getting suggestions, 2 hours making changes)
- Fixed some z-fighting and mismatched textures
- Moved spawn entrance to eliminate direct line to cargo tunnel
- Redid crate to look more like a pallet of explosives and deleted broken crate brushwork at the delivery point
- Added some clip ramps to facilitate movement
- Synched up some wm_announces in script and made script corrections to side door
- Added supports to cargo rails
- Adjusted map coords (need to redo command map … again)
- Still trying to fix glass in Allied spawn
- Moved allied spawn from controls to original axis spawn
- Fixed some brushes that weren’t meeting
- Fixed some bad ladders
4/10 (3.0 hours)
- clipped ledge over doorways so that axis can’t get up there
- Prepped and positioned some posters
- Retextured rail ties to get rid of sparklies
- Added crates and barrels to the outside of the train yard
- General FPS tweaking
- Added more crates and stuff inside, more as placeholders
- Fixed lots of z-fighting and - Fixed spec clipping.
- Improved clipping on sub conning tower so that a player can get into the tower
- Added some details to rooms
- Moved some rail cars around, added some, deleted some
Compiled and released new version for review
4/14 (0.5 hours)
- Played around a little to see if I could fog the ends of my sub pen to prevent the abrupt ending at the sky – failed
4/15 (0.5 hours)
- Added some hand rails around floor level of sub pen.
- Did some research into order of battle for submarine squadrons operating out of La Rochelle. Found references to 3rd and 7th Flotillas and U-96/U-256 associated with 7th Flotilla.
4/16 (4.0 hours)
- Added garage door prefab and played around with command map icons and a wall graphic using the 7th Flotilla insignia I found. Added lighting and conduits to the ceiling. Made new command map in a blue print style. Also did a WWGN poster and added more conduits.
(2.0 hours from Chruker)
- Made the first garage door prefab, tested, got feedback, then made the second door + switches and script.
4/17 (2.0 hours)
- Did more graphics work - on a thank you graphics. Imported garage door prefabs from Chruker and compiled. Spent about 20 minutes trying to figure out why alpha textures were working in my mapping environment but not my test environment, only to later find that my trains prefab pk3 had a copy of rochelle.shader in it also – DOH!
- Compiled and released new version for review
- Going to try for another map test (which never got scheduled)
(3.0 hours)
Incorporated feedback from Adacore:
- Tweaked sky height so that grenades don’t disappear into the sky,
- Added another high exit from allied spawn to protect against spawn camping.
- Found some places that needed to be clipped better.
And, improved lighting in stairwells. Tweaked script to fix East Pen spawn. Flag was setstated invisible, but you could still spawn there by keying in the setspawnpt in the console
(2.0 hours)
Incorporating map feedback from Chruker and ReyalP:
- Caulked unseen faces
- Deleted unseen terrain tris
- Changed structural brushes detail.
- Did some hinting.
- Fixed some z-fighting
- Extended length of wall by loading docks to prevent specs from seeing interior or map
Resulted in reducing tris count at worst spot by 1,200 tris (5%) and improving FPS from 72 to 83-85
4/18 (0.5 hours)
- Added cable extension so that the cable connects pallet with crane unit all the way to the sub pen floor. Quick test to make sure it works
- Packed everything up, uploaded, and will try for another map test
4/19 (2.0 hours)
- 1.0 hour running around test server with a couple of people (CrazyG and ReyalP) evaluating gameflow, FPS, and fixes.
- 1.0 hour making changes, added misc_vis_dummy, fixed some z-fighting and visible caulk, improved some clipping and floating crates
- Recompiled.
- Will think about adding target_locations.
4/20 i[/i]
- Added another forward spawn in Building 3
- Adjusted script a bit to make sure cable extension would go back to top of pen if the crate got moved back, tested, works fine
- Added more crates and shelves here and there
- Updated the WWGN poster
4/21 (2.5 hours)
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Futzed around with the .pcx file to adjust some of the terrain textures
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Took new screenies and annotated a command map for a description thread
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1 hour to make directional signs and another 30 minutes to add signs to the map
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Renamed all relavent files *_a2, updated .arena and levelshots.shader, repacked
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Stupid head! Spent another 30 minutes tonight because I forgot to increase the number of spawn points to accommodate a pub release
4/24 (0.0 hours)
- Arranged to have the map uploaded to the Shit Storm |Rage| server for public trialing in a campaign environment. Will collect feedback for a week or so, make changes, if needed, and make my last release.