[MAP] Thud in the Sand


(Mateos) #21

Double-posting for comments:

  • Nice level design and lighting!

  • The VIS could be improved a bit, Allied spawn for instance it as 47k tris with several map parts rendered while not in sight.

  • Limbo cameras are missing.

  • Once the dyno is in place and the gate destroyed, the related entities could be hidden so the the icons disappear from the command map.

  • The tunnel ground could be touched a bit so it isn’t plain flat :slight_smile:

  • There is a single way from last objectives to the Chevy Truck, one alternative way would be good imo.

  • The closed metallic gate on the right of the Chevy Truck has an upside-down eagle ^^’

  • Optionally you could add a solid mover to make the secured dyno solid.

  • The pipes you have inside building go directly inside the concrete: a little joint, like a metallic square, would fit :slight_smile: Most of them are hold by ceiling fixations which is good, but not the ones at the very bottom of the map, where you can reach the Anterwinde controls

  • In the room with the safe, you have the top of the ceiling decoration, thus not visible, textured. You could fly a bit around the map checking for these, even though they’re rare enough to have an impact on performances, that would represent less faces to load and render, a faster compile and smaller BSP in the end :slight_smile:

  • The rocky surroundings could be done with a shader, so the texture isn’t cut on the edges, and you could also by this mean rotate it a bit so it looks more natural.

  • A locations file for the Fireteam window would be cool too: http://wolfwiki.anime.net/index.php/Target_location#For_Completed_Maps

  • Very optional, some ambient sounds could be a good thing to try here and there, especially in the outside parts

A lot of efforts has been put, and everything from buildings to ground and walls decoration are detailed, very very good! :slight_smile:

Haven’t checked waypoints yet, will see when I get some time; I do hope to recall about them when it happens ^^’


(WuTangH) #22

Thanks Mateos, looks like you spent some time with the map heh :smiley:

My to-do list is getting pretty big, I had to make a text file for it :o …Today I finally started some serious working on map and added another floors to buildings so they are higher and hills behind them will not be needed… like on goldrush.
I hope it increase some fps too…

About bots… Ive got few complains about them… Mr. Niek said it is just basic template for bots, and Lammert didnt thouch it after… So I guess they are sitll a bit buggy :rolleyes:


(Micha) #23

Feedback from a TM member:

A bit of feedback for Thud in the Sand. I was giggling like a kid when I saw the download was called etpub/tit.pk3 heh. But yeah, I don’t like the map. On our server at least the low fps is a killer on the first part. I bossed single digits for the majority of it and others complained of it too. The second part in the tunnels is difficult. It’s one big funnel for axis rifle nades and an mg to lock it down. When we somehow an obj and went to the truck axis was able to completely lock us out of the tunnel and keep us outside just by spamming nades etc. It’s the kind of map that needs an additional way to enter the bunker complex.

All in all I can see it being a fun map but the way we have our server, combined with the numbers of players and the horrid fps losses during the first part it’s just. Ick.

Overall, a nice looking map which needs some more tweaking :slight_smile:

Another feedback:

Apart from the “tunnel-syndrome”, I’ve also had two recent server crashes, both after this map. Don’t remember the exact error, but it’s something like g_entconfigstring overflow. Don’t know if it’s coincidental, but I’ve thrown the map out as well.

http://teammuppet.eu/home/index.php?/forums/topic/15575-thud-in-the-sand/#comment-167162


(WuTangH) #24

Thanks for posting it here :slight_smile: Those are main problems that people talk about and I hope to fix it… However, I tried things at 1st allied spawn but FPS never changed… Thats probably the only point where I dont know how to continue without deleting whole structure :confused:

The next version will be a bit different, not just bug-fixes…:slight_smile:


(Mateos) #25

I can help optimizing the VIS.

For the another feedback, it’s probably due to too much entities, like Venice :confused: Dat netcode.
Without removing entities, it could be improved by reducing entities’ names, also the script containing the voices played usually with wm_announce’s.


(-SSF-Sage) #26

[QUOTE=Mateos;551105]

For the another feedback, it’s probably due to too much entities, like Venice :confused: Dat netcode.
Without removing entities, it could be improved by reducing entities’ names, also the script containing the voices played usually with wm_announce’s.[/QUOTE]

Here is a tutorial about this subject (and other optimisation too)

https://dev.etlegacy.com/projects/etlegacy/wiki/Mapping_and_Textures#Mapping-and-Textures-map-makersrsquo-page

Keyword: Configstrings


(WuTangH) #27

Thanks for link Sage, it will definitely help me in optimisation as I had no clue that f.e. names have effect too. :slight_smile:

I hear 1st time about crashes, but it shouldnt happen even on big servers so I try to lower entity number and all other things… looks like a lot of work…


(Mateos) #28

It does happen on large servers, for instance Venice can be played from start to end with a few players, but when the game has to sync stuff between more players, when it hits the max, it’ll kick out all the players (and kick anyone trying to rejoin until the map is over), but will not crash… ^^’ And that’s happening during the map progress, not after it has finished… First time I see this kind of crash. silEnT?


(Micha) #29

I will ask him about the mod. Might be etblight or bastardmod which are both based on etpub.

EDIT etblight was the mod he used (etpub based mod)


(WuTangH) #30

Ive got reports that on NQ there are problems with shaders that I used from other maps (water and MLB dynamite)… They work good on my map, but other maps with these shaders have some problems with few textures…
I packed only shaders that I used, and it worked good everywhere, except NQ (afaik till now). So here is same map version but with fixed shaders so you can have both Hotchkiss and tits in maps rotation. :slight_smile: