Map WIP: Monalisa (early alpha)


(Cronium) #1

From the moist, harsh and dangerous Swedish lowlands of Skane emerges three devoted mapmakers. You will know them as SoS, The Sons Of Stollig…

Mona Lisa was first meant to be a small and simple map, but you know, when the ambitions grow… They grow pretty much… :slight_smile:

We decided not to use any prefabs at all, so we are making as much as we can from scratch, both textures and models. Why are we doing all this then? Well, to learn about game design, and to get us a decent work sample so that we, hopefully, will get a job somewhere as digital artists.

So, this is what you’ll get, and remember, it’s still alpha!:

The Story:
Deep within the forests of Norway dwells the evil German warmonger Herr Stollig. The eccentric German general is known for his large art collections which he would guard at the cost of anything, even the whole Third Reich army. Unfortunately the Allies need his mansion to keep their soldiers warm when the winter cold strikes. Herr Stollig doesn’t care about the mansion but there is one, big, problem. The most precious piece of his collection still hangs on the wall behind the desk that is now owned by his arch enemy Sergeant Fuller. The Axis MUST retrieve Mona Lisa!

The objectives
The map is supposed to be played in both free (public) and stopwatch mode so there is one guarding team (allies) and one attacking (you know, the other ones). The objectives is under a heavy testing and developing phase, but this is how far we have gotten so far: The axis spawn in a large bunker that is under siege by the allies. They have to blow up a large steel door that blocks their path. The door leads into a large underground garage (allied forward spawn). If they manage to fight their way in and grab the spawn point the allies get pushed back and spawn in a big mansion.

The first objective is to blow up a generator that is wired directly to an electric fence that protects the main objective, Mona Lisa. Once they have the painting they have to escort it back to the bunker.

What can the allies do to stop them? This is only loose ideas, but we thought that it would be cool for the allies to have something to build… :slight_smile: So maybe a couple of walls, tank defenses, perhaps one more door, some MG:s and a tower. This is only ideas so we’ll put some of them there for you to test!

The Geometry
Images say more than words… So here’s a bunch of them (remember, it’s the alfa version. Not all textures are our own, but they will be!)!

As you can see it’s an alfa so there’s no proper lighting, texture correction or enviroment (building) tweaking.

Misc

A couple of custom objects. Some are still WIP:s.


WIP Tiger tank


Decoration for the mansion


Clean version of the truck (the colours are too saturated though)


Clean version of the truck (the colours are too saturated though)

SOS are:
Fre2d
Hains
Cronium


(redfella) #2

Looking good SoS.

Though, I don’t know if making your own texture set is gonna help you at all. Especially if you are just learning the art. Imo, it may be better to just drop the idea of making your own textures and just use the standard ET set. This was you will be able to concentrate more on the level design and the details that will reside inside it. Just my opinion though.

Of course, if you have a member of SoS that is completely 100% comitted to making a set then go for it I’d say. Just keep in mind that making a set is not the easiest thing to do.

Anyways, besides that the screens look good. I’m am not really a big fan of “bowl” terrain… ya know, when the only perpose of the terrain is to block the player from the void. But imo you did a nice job of making it look somewhat natural while also allowing it to serve its purpose.

Perhaps some trim around the windows would be nice. There kinda unrealistic right now. Adding to this, you can also use trim on doors, ceilings, roofs, walls, etc. Trim is the key to making a map like this look pretty. Add some fireplaces too. Fog also, and a little bit of smoke rising from the fireplace outside.

gl and carry on. :wink:


(Cronium) #3

Thanks for the crit! Remember that this is a quite early alpha so we are just concentrating on the gameplay. The trims and atmospherics will be there when we reach the final stage, trust me!

About the textures. We work with the map 10 hours a day and we have experience of 3d art since before. We are making the map as “own” as we can because we are looking for jobs, and we think that the best way is to show the employers that we know all elements of producing 3d art is to do everything by our own. We are not producing texture sets, we just want our map to have it’s own look :).

I agree with you about the terrain. It’s very ugly… We have a few ideas to solve this problem, one of them is to make large forests (you can solve that pretty smooth with alpha mapping) and nice skymaps.


(HerrK) #4

Really great job SoS,
i like the screenies…specially the textures and the own models (benz-truck) :clap:
What is the Status of the map…in percent?
Is there soon a Beta- or even the Final-release???

(NdK) :wink:


(¤SoS¤fre2d) #5

Hi Mr K (and suddenly it all got very Kafka-ish :weird: )

The map is approx 40% finished. We have a playable version, but we´re currently adding a couple of objectives that´s going to be thoroughly tested in the clan community before release.

Thanks for your encouragement, and for advertising us on your site!

All models and textures will be available for download on our upcoming website. Stay tuned!


(redfella) #6

I like the Panzer… But it needs more detail. As you obviously know I’m sure. Nice job. :wink:


(Loffy) #7

Hi!
Is the terraing (bergskedjan) all detail? Is there a VIS-blocking brush underneath it? Have you used HINT brushes yet? You need a steady and high fps on an outdoor map like MonaLisa. (I like the main story behind the map: steal the art.)
My map Berserk suffers from low (40-50) fps in some outdoor areas, on large servers (>20 players).
I played MonaLisa on my computer yesterday. My daughter had downloaded it from some server - so I guess it is “out there” on some public servers. Anyhow, I liked it. Nice terrain and design. The barbed wires need “trigger hurt” (to injure people), but u knew that
:slight_smile:
Good luck!
// Loffy


(HerrK) #8

@ fre2d:

Thx for the info and i hope you say here in the forum answer if the website is online! :slight_smile:

(NdK) :wink:


(Cronium) #9

Yepp, the terrain is made Easygen so i think it’s detail. There is currently no vis blocking och HINT brushes at all. We thought that it would be the last thing we do before the Beta.

Our barbed wire is made out of velour and cotton so there will be no hurt triggers… :wink:

We are replacing the wire by something else because it’s overdimensioned and looks like a funny sausage.

Have a nice day, and cheers!
:drink:


(Drakir) #10

Ser kanon ut! Ser fram emot att testa kartan när det blir klar! Snart har vi en hel tomtearmé av Svenska mappers! :clap:

Transl. from Swedish:
Looks great, looking forward to testing it when its done! Soon we will have a whole army of Swedish mappers!


(Cronium) #11

hehe, absolut! hmmm, undrar om tomtefar är programmerare eller grafiker… Iaf kul att se att det är sÃ¥ mÃ¥nga kreativa människor som kommer frÃ¥n vÃ¥r kalla lilla land!

No translation for you, i’ts just swedish jibberish :wink:

Sorry for the low update frequence… This week has been a bit slow because of illness and vacation. I’m currently working on our website and it will be online next week.

Stay tuned for more updates!


(sock) #12

Ummm it has a lovely dark atmosphere. I can just imagine hearing the deep hum of a nearby generator and muffled sounds of artillery above.

Sock
:moo:


(Cronium) #13

You will be satisfied, we promise!