[MAP in progress] TheRiver II Redux - first screenies

(]UBC[ McNite) #1

Hey guys,

its time to let you all have a glimpse of what I was busying about and asking all the stupid questions about fog, water, gameperformance, etc. etc. etc. in the last weeks.
We are working on TheRiver II Redux… its an improved version of The River II.

As it turned out the gameplay is already very good and provides with tight battles, there are no changes on the objectives. The Improvements are about better balance between the teams and classes…
At this stage it is not yet sure whether we r completely focussing on making it a tight map for publics or whether we concentrate on the gameplay for competitive gaming. The next playtests will give us more of a clue about that. If you are comp gamer and interested in playtesting… plz let me know :smiley:

Main Improvements:

fog throughout the map results in more cover on long distance and takes a lot of power from the snipers (which can be a pain on The River II), this is changing the gameplay a lot as we found out in the last playtests.
water surface of river is completely opaque now… the green dot indicating the objective carrier can no longer be seen through the water surface, this gives the doc carrier a lot more chances to survive swims.
changes on the Tram Station and Tunnels which will give the Allies even a bit more cover/ advantage in the attack on the Tram Station, a barb wire barrier will give 2-3 secs delay so Axis can set up a defense before the first wave of Allies comes in.
VO will tell the players what to do in the 2 stages… its incredible how few players check the command map for objectives, and lots of (comp) gamers seemed to not have the attention span to work out what to do.

All in all the gameplay is going to be tougher and will call for even more teamplay. Camping in general is harder because quite some spots get changed with regard to that. Camping snipers will be crippled by the fog immensely. Only a covop that moves around a lot to get into good positions will be of any value to his team.

well… and of course large parts of the map got a face lift :smiley: but you can see that in the pics…

For those who like to discuss the balance of a map here are the travel times. Spawntimes are Axis 20 secs, Allies 15 secs which makes the fighting over the main objectives of both stages slightly offense bias.

Info for the mappers:
VIS has been improved a lot (VISdatasize is at 130.000 now… was 200.000 in final compile of The River II) which results in better FPS (it has to be mentioned though that fog makes the FPS drop by 15-20 compared to no fog in the bad spots.
Terrain is not done yet… that is why you see pretty edgy lines between the terrain textures on some screenies.

edit: Any suggestions about changes on gameplay are of course welcome.

(EterneX) #2

Very nice looking picks will have to try it out tonight.

(]UBC[ McNite) #3

Erm… i don’t think you can dl the map anywhere. Playtests have been private, and in case it got leaked, you ll see that in the map (even which testversion got leaked). There won’t be a public release until the map is final. This is just a teaser :bump:

(Tranny) #4

its incredible how few players check the command map for objectives, and lots of (comp) gamers seemed to not have the attention span to work out what to do.

So true.

The map looks pretty good to me mate.
Nice work.

(Northerner) #5

i always loved that map and cant wait to check this new version out!

(]UBC[ McNite) #6

Got asked on etnation about the detailed changes from The River II, so i think i can as well list them on here too:

1.) gameperformance: seriously improved technical build of the map = pretty good FPS for a such an open map with fog (i get at least 85 FPS in the real bad spots with AMD XP 3.000 64 bit, 512 MB RAM, HIS IceQ x800Pro 256 MB, all important fighting areas are about 100 FPS and more)

2.) graphics and lighting: better look overall, more atmosphere, more realistic lighting, playermodels are lit everywhere (the caves were very dark, that s fixed now), no areas that are over-bright, so all in all its a more “even” lighting that s more pleasant to the eye


(pic shows the new and wider cellars with the breakable wall that leads into the cave)

3.) spawn- and traveltimes: are a bit more in allies favor, especially around the tram station. The whole first allied spawn has been redesigned, and the ways to the tram station too. Allies spawn on a high bridge and it takes quite some skill to use the descent to gain serious speed, but that can safe 1-3 secs of travel time too.

4.) objectives: no changes on the objectives (1st stage: repair engine panel to get forward spawn, 2nd stage: capture castle flag and steal the docs).
But we ll have voice objectives, a constructible flag at the broken engine panel, and in-game command maps… so nobody will have an excuse for not knowing the objectives :stuck_out_tongue:

That s about it. All suggestions for improvement are welcome.

(Northerner) #7

looking awesome so far!
cant wait for more!!

(]UBC[ McNite) #8

Lastest update: Woah I even got the voice objectives all work… freggin’ scripting work, especially when its no straight line of events that can happen.

We ll have some more playtesting this week to find the last bugs and missing textures. I d say this map is going to be released pretty soon.

(Mark.C) #9

It looks mightily impressive.

gj.

(Loffy) #10

Real fun map to play. It has a nice flow to it. And the doc run is scary (will you make it, all the way?).
//Loffy