ORL's maps have been reviewed @ Underworld

[foq]

Deep sea eh? That would'nt be for me. Stay safe, ORL.

[ORL]

Yeah, deep sea. Thats where you catch the big fish so you can eat em! I'm going at night time which is when the fish mostly come out. But it sure would suck if a storm happened to roll by......

[foq]

That's why I said stay safe. heh

[scar3crow]

Honestly, I stopped playing the first episode in the first map because it hit upon one of my biggest pet peeves. The broken bridge with the warning message, yet the bottom is visibly and there is obviously no reason for it to be a danger to me... aside from the trigger_hurt that gibs me. Sorry, but sourceless damage pisses me off more than anything else in a map, particularly when it is an instant kill and the brush work doesnt even imply you should be hurt (I could take that fall in real life and not even wince on impact!). Some neat little bits when I noclipped around, but too many things that just outright turned me off.

[Baker]

Are you referring to the bridge that had the "Don't fall" message when you were on it?

If so, yeah the fall didn't look deadly. Next time he can make it a bottomless pit or something.

It's not too hard to see how the maps could be improved upon for the next time ORL starts to make maps, but the thing I liked about them is that despite some imperfections, they were fun to play and quite different from the norm.

I'd rather play an imperfect map that is enjoyable to play, and in the case I never had any idea what to expect next, than some of the maps that are masterpieces with predictable situations again and again.

An example of a masterpiece map with sterile gameplay is A2D2 by Pingu. I'd play Orl's maps over that map and the ones like it, 10 times out of 10. Orl's maps were unpredictable and had cool, neat little things like winding ground tunnels and I also thought it was nice that for one, the monsters were living in an imperfect place as I don't see how monsters would be living in fine palaces and temples :d Do Ogre's look like they could build anything nice? They don't even dress well.

[ORL]

Honestly, I stopped playing the first episode in the first map because it hit upon one of my biggest pet peeves. The broken bridge with the warning message, yet the bottom is visibly and there is obviously no reason for it to be a danger to me... aside from the trigger_hurt that gibs me. Sorry, but sourceless damage pisses me off more than anything else in a map, particularly when it is an instant kill and the brush work doesnt even imply you should be hurt (I could take that fall in real life and not even wince on impact!). Some neat little bits when I noclipped around, but too many things that just outright turned me off.

I can understand how that might get you frustrated. Originally, there were many spikes below the bridge, ALOT of spikes so it would seem you fell and got stabbed through one. But the spikes were causing very high r_speeds, even full vissed and had to be removed. And since I wanted to release the episode at a certain date, I just removed the spikes and left it as it is. There were more serious issues in other maps I had to fix also. But yeah, that pit should have been made deeper, guess I didnt give it much thought at the time.
Well its to bad you didnt like the episode, everyone has different tastes in maps. But perhaps you might like the next one I make.

[joao93]

I played 2 of your maps and I thinked they was a bit repetitive. If you do something different in each one,it will be very nice.

By the way,none of you thinked of creating some Serious Sam-like maps? No,really. It's like this: a huge map with no obstacles,nothing,just a square and some ground,with lots of monsters coming on your direction.

Wow that should be great. :d

[ORL]

I played 2 of your maps and I thinked they was a bit repetitive. If you do something different in each one,it will be very nice.

By the way,none of you thinked of creating some Serious Sam-like maps? No,really. It's like this: a huge map with no obstacles,nothing,just a square and some ground,with lots of monsters coming on your direction.

Wow that should be great. :d

Something like that isnt very possible in Quake. Quake cant handle so much open space and alot of entities on screen. It simply wouldnt work well.

[Spirit]

Just before scar3crow says it:

Darkplaces could handle it

[Monster]

Yeah with DPMOD monster mod, there are tons of open spaces that you can annihalate monsters with. Download DPMOD and try it one day joao... Just go to multiplayer..join darkplaces servers... and choose the DPMOD monsters server.

[joao93]

Alright,thank you mister.

[underworldfan]

It's not too hard to see how the maps could be improved upon for the next time ORL starts to make maps, but the thing I liked about them is that despite some imperfections, they were fun to play and quite different from the norm.

I'd rather play an imperfect map that is enjoyable to play, and in the case I never had any idea what to expect next, than some of the maps that are masterpieces with predictable situations again and again.

An example of a masterpiece map with sterile gameplay is A2D2 by Pingu.

HI all, and thanks for your comments on my review.

Baker, this is an interesting and good point you raise about the different types of gameplay. Essentially, i agree with you that some maps have too predictable (what you also call "sterile") gameplay. I also agree with you that ORLs maps were imaginative and different, and i mentioned this many times in my review.

I personally think A2D2 is a good map though, nothing wrong with the gameplay.

I think its all about balance, unpredictable gameplay is good, but it must be balanced by not being to unfair or weird/boring for the player.

[Baker]

Weird/unfair game play is annoying, that is for sure.

[sielwolf]

Weird/unfair game play is annoying, that is for sure.

yes, but you have to take into account that for an (new)author who knows his map inside out it�s not easy to imagine what might be difficult/unfair, proper beta testing is the key here I think.

[ORL]

yes, but you have to take into account that for an (new)author who knows his map inside out it�s not easy to imagine what might be difficult/unfair, proper beta testing is the key here I think.

Your right. I determined the difficulty of my maps based on how good I am. Now I realize, never to do that again. I dont mean to brag, but I am very skilled in Single player, which is probably why my episode is hard for many players.

Also, please explain what you meant by "proper beta testing".