Paris Bastille - Beta 1

(Uchronic) #1

Hi,

Here is the first public version of the map I made with Bob le Roux : Paris Bastille !
It’s still a beta so any feedback is welcomed. :clap:

If you put it on your server, please send us an email to let us know.

  • BACKGROUND : Paris, France, summer 1944.
    Paris is being liberated. Even though the occupying forces has received
    the order to burn Paris before it can be liberated, they have refused
    to do so for various reasons.
    But an axis commando, hidden in a basement near “La Bastille”,
    still believe that they must execute this order.
    Their objectives are two pillars, located underground, that support
    an important building.
    An allie commando has secured the area, scealed the entrance and are
    waiting for reinforcement.
    They must protect the entrance to the underground, and the
    two pillars.

AXIS :

  1. Destroy the Yellow Pillar (west).
  2. Destroy the Red Pillar (east).
  3. Destroy the wall to gain access to the underground.
  4. Capture the forward spawn point.
  5. Construct the Foot Bridge.
    6 & 7 : Construct your command post, and destroy the opposite one.

ALLIES : Defend at all cost !

Some pictures explaining the background :





parisbastille_b1_p06.jpg800x600

parisbastille_b1_p07.jpg800x600

parisbastille_b1_p08.jpg800x600

Note : this is FICTION.
The map is more or less realistic, but all of this is just a game.
If the description of this period time is not accurate, please let us know.

More screenshots here :






You can download the map here :
http://etmaps.free.fr/parisbastille_b1/parisbastille_b1.pk3

(kamikazee) #2

Aha, I’ll give it a try right away!

(Ifurita) #3

Well, don’t take this the wrong way but I think the composition and scaling feel very off. However, this is a subjective and stylistic call, so take it for what it’s worth.

In some cases your light textures are huge and in other cases (e.g., round lanterns) the tiled textures look not quite appropriate

I think what strikes me as wrong though, is the Frankenstein of styles (mostly downstairs) thoughout the different rooms. I’m sure you have a good reason for it, but you go from different wall patterns, different pillar patters, different overhead support types, different light styles, different light positions, etc, that don’t lend itself to a very cohesive feel. If you took all of your underground shots and removed the ‘paris bastille’ label, one would almost think they were all from differnt maps.

On the other hand, some of the basic brushwork looks very nice. The rubbled hallways are very nice as are some of the rooms, most of which look pretty open and need some detailing to make them feel lived in.

Just my 2 cents from looking at your screenies.

(Pytox) #4

I will also have a look at it :slight_smile:

(kamikazee) #5

I agree with Ifurita,to me it even seems as if different areas are made by different people.

Allso note the hallway with the flooded arches seems unusefull, it’s a huge way around if you know the room is at the top of the command map (most north) and the objectives are south…

Some whining from my side goes to your command map, the objectives shouldn’t be placed on it. This is my personel opinion though. Maybe some painting-skilled one who could help improving it?

EDIT: Allso note the axis spawn: they have to break trough some kind of barrier to start playing? Seems BAAAD for pub play.
What if a bunch of noobs ask themself how to punch those barriers, staying in the cellar forever? (remember the icon, it shows a fist)
Or one tries to blow it up using a dyno or grenade?

These are some things you may have missed during the planning…

(Ifurita) #6

A barrier at the beginning isn’t anything too unusual. Sometimes its can just be a delaying mechanism to give the D a chance to set up in the beginning, but allow allies to spawn close in subsequent waves

(Uchronic) #7

To Ifurita:
Well… When i was posting here, i knew there would be some … experienced comments. And I was expecting from you comments about “you really should read my T junction tutorial”. :smiley: (which would be appropriate i know i know)
By the way, I used some furnitures from you “Vengeance” map, and I am currently making a list of the prefabs I used in this map so that fair credits could be done.
I really like your work, and your website is really useful, and making you *.map is just great. So, I take your comments very seriously but…

For the map.
I’ll take into consideration you comments about the lights, but it seems that I don’t really understand what your are trying to say. Maybe because English is not my first langage…
So if you could post screenshots, it would be perfect.

Cohesive feel.
If you feel like outside and underground are two different worlds, well you’re right, it was my goal from the beginning.
For the underground, bunker and ancient undegrounds are supposed to be quite different too.
So, maybe i’ve missed you point, but it seems that it is the way i imagined it at first.

Thanks for the rest.

To ikazee :
The flooded arches : well, it is a secondary path : longer but it gives an alternative. And it is large (wide) to avoid slaughtery as it was on the alpha.

Command map :
Objectives : well… while playing i’ve realized that most pub players don’t take the time to read the objectives in the limbo. So, it gives the possibility to remind the objectives, while staying in the map.
About the painting skilled help, well… i would not be against as black background is not the more realistic one !
I tried to look again at Schaffer’s site but it seems to be offline.

For the wooden barriers to destroy in the Axis Hideout.
The axis are supposed to be hidden in a basement, avoiding the liberation troops.
And I thought it was annoying to make rotating doors. So I made them “explosive”.
And as Ifurita said, it is also for Allies to organize their defense as they seem to loose pretty fastly the flag in general.
From what I’ve seen, most players know what to do in front of them.

Anyway, thanks a lot for the feedback!!!

(kamikazee) #8

I can still view this site: http://schaffer.game-host.org/

(Northerner) #9

uchronic, could you please make a README file to include with your map?
it looks like a large fun map and i would like to get it put up on rtcwfiles but we dont accept maps
without a README file. i started one for you, but if you could finish it i would appreciate it, like
your website if you have one, and an email address for peeps to get ahold of you!

Basic Information

Designer : Uchronic & Bob Le Roux
Web Site : http://www.???
email address : ???

Map Information

Game : Return to Castle Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory
Title : Paris Bastille
Filename : parisbastille_b1.pk3
Version : Beta 1
Release date : 09/11/2005

Installation : Place the parisbastille_b1.pk3 into your etmain folder

Description

Paris, France, summer 1944.
Paris is being liberated. Even though the occupying forces has received
the order to burn Paris before it can be liberated, they have refused
to do so for various reasons.
But an axis commando, hidden in a basement near “La Bastille”,
still believe that they must execute this order.
Their objectives are two pillars, located underground, that support
an important building.
An allie commando has secured the area, scealed the entrance and are
waiting for reinforcement.
They must protect the entrance to the underground, and the
two pillars.

Objectives

AXIS :

  1. Destroy the Yellow Pillar (west).
  2. Destroy the Red Pillar (east).
  3. Destroy the wall to gain access to the underground.
  4. Capture the forward spawn point.
  5. Construct the Foot Bridge.
    6 & 7 : Construct your command post, and destroy the opposite one.

ALLIES : Defend at all cost !

Additional Map Information/Credits

Note : this is FICTION.
The map is more or less realistic, but all of this is just a game.
If the description of this period time is not accurate, please let us know.

Testing

This should be a beta version so please report all bugs to *************

(Uchronic) #10

EDIT : You’ll find the Read Me here :
http://etmaps.free.fr/parisbastille_b1/parisbastille_b1_readme.txt

(Schaffer) #11

I tried to look again at Schaffer’s site but it seems to be offline

Not anymore. It’s hosted on a mates server and he had some technical issues. I would volunteer to help you with it since your map is looking pretty darn good but unfortunately I’m too busy. Got myself tied up with The Price of Peace mod which is well worth waiting for.

You can PM me if you want any specific tips on how to do things that may not be explained all that well in those rather crappy tutorials that I started writing about 2 years ago. I create CMs differently now anyway so don’t belive all of that rubbish :slight_smile:

(Uchronic) #12

Schaffer :
Good ! I’m going to read this again, maybe it will help me improve the command map, or not as you seem to say !
Thanks for you comments and good luck with The Price of Peace.

PS : I have edited my post to insert a link for the readme

(Schaffer) #13

I’m not saying it wont help you, in fact I can’t comment as I havn;t seen your CM that you did. What I am saying is that the methods that used originally, which feature havily in the tutorials, are poor methods and there is a better way which is also simplier. I would still do the terrain using vectors but there exists a base paper texture which I didn’t originally have. This base paper sits in the downloads section. Also, in conjunction with the base paper you should be overlaying multiple copies of the terrain layers using different blend methods to get the “Fluffy Gimp” look. The same applies to the buildings.

Last comment I’l make for now is never ever ever use a 256x256 tracemap to build the CM. I have a mod which you can also DLed which allows you to generate a trace at 512x512 or even 1024x1024. Have to thank some one else who I cant remember his name for the inital work on that mod but he is mentioned in the read me.

(Uchronic) #14

A little update on this post to tell you that, finally, the little website of the map is online :
http://www.parisbastille.free.fr
It has been done pretty quickly, and I hope you’ll find the answers to the questions people are oftenly asking me.

To Schaffer :
Thank you for the additional advices.
But I think I still have a lot to do, because the firts command maps I did for this map, and with the help of you site, were not really convincing. This is the reason why I eventually used a black background.
Anyway, this command map is not final, so I’ll try to improve it.
For the current command map, you can see it here : http://www.parisbastille.free.fr/themap/parisbastille_b1_cc_brighter.jpg

(Fusen) #15

played this on a server about 2 weeks ago, seems like a nice map for the start but once you get into the caves I couldn’t help but get lost on every spawn and I normally am quick at learning maps :confused:

(Uchronic) #16

Humm :???:
Well, I can give you some advices (that work not only for my own map) :

  1. Before moving, look at the command while in the game. You’ll know where you are and where you can or can’t go. :banghead:
    You can see the command map here

  2. Before rushing, look at the panels with arrows on it. In ParisBastille, it cannot be more simple : red panel for red pillar, yellow panel for yellow pillar. :smiley:
    Don’t rush, sometimes people run near some panels and don’t see them.
    Just look carefully at what’s around you. There are a lot of panels.

You can see here, with a screenshot on the alpha version, an example of these 2 panels

  1. When you’re an allie : Decide where you want to go before jumping out of the allied bunker. :uhoh: This underground bunker is between the 2 pillars. And, to avoid SK, it is higher than the ground level, so you cannot jump back to it.

You can go pretty quickly from the spawn to one of the Pillar. But once you jumped out of the bunker, you’re just like the axis, you need to make a detour to go to one pillar to the other. This, of course, was designed to avoid double planting on the 2 objectives in a very short time (as on Oasis). :blah:

Note that when you’re an axis, you’ll eventually always go near a pillar whatever pathway you may use. :bump:

I’ve made a “Tips” section on my homepage, if you want to know all the different pathways, for example for the Yellow Pillar

Note that on the “next version” of the homepage, i’m making plan to improve the command map, and to help the players to find their way.