Allright. First off, THIS SUCKS. Why are the Survivors in Japan in the first place? OMG U SUX
Just kidding ye. I am really impressed. The level of detail is astonishing and the custom textures and models make it really wonderful to see. To be honest, I don't easily say this, but I wouldn't find many cons. If I have to come up with some, I'll say this: - The loading screen poster would be better if it spanned the whole screen - The starting area's walls look a bit too clean IMO. It would help if you added a couple of decals on those. - The alarm car's windows near the area where the plane crashes into the building are not aligned with the car itself properly. Check it out in Hammer, you'll see what I mean - Yes, map1 and 2 seem to be too long. For the rest, this is really impressive. It's amazing and you really get the feeling that you're in Japan. Well done. I'll be following this from up close. If you want us to test more, let us know. You're right: it helps a lot when other people test your map a few times. I ran Haunted Forest so much myself that I totally missed some really blatant bugs and it also helped me tweak the lighting correctly when getting feedback from other people. How did you get those badass models anyway? You made them all yourselves? -Alexis On Sat, Jan 7, 2012 at 7:41 PM, Mark Edwards <[email protected]>wrote: > Thanks for the feedback Kev. A lot of people have said map 2 is too long > and it will be split up into two (just before the little shopping district > area). I thought map 1 was pretty short though, at least if you run > straight from A to B without exploring/getting lost, but I'll probably > delete the elevator event and just have the ladder going up which should > cut it down slightly. The ambulance you can actually see further back from > the house in map 2, the idea is that it got stuck at a roadblock so they > have to go on on foot. I had no other way of both giving a reason for them > to abandon it, and also block off the way it had already come from. I'm > going to try and put a moving camera in that pans from the ambulance and > over to the house to clear that up. > > The 'too many vertex format changes' error is apparently to do with brush > faces, from what I've read. As long as that error is scrolling through the > console, random brush faces flicker on and off to stay under the limit, but > I converted enough stuff to props that it's not really noticeable at all. I > don't know how I could even get rid of any more brush faces but I'll do > some more testing to see if that's causing the particle errors. > > As for the obstacles, those came up in testing too but I couldn't think of > a more realistic way of doing it in some places. I didn't want to put > barricade fences everywhere and zombies need to be able to get over easily, > but I'll try to at least make it more obvious which routes are blocked off. > I actually played map 3 for the first ever time with other people a few > days ago, and they got lost at the start too. You're meant to restart the > generators to keep on going up after they cut out, hopefully if I use some > instructor hints across the two maps it'll be easier to understand. > > Thanks for playing and giving some feedback anyway, I've tested so much by > myself with bots that I sometimes miss the more obvious things. I was going > to just leave it at this, I'm hoping to get the last 2 maps finished in a > couple of months. > > > > On 07/01/2012 15:42, Kev Edwards wrote: > >> hi Mark >> >> Incredibly impressive with a ton of new content. You've totally nailed >> the setting. >> >> Anyway, you're after feedback, so here goes... >> >> I thought the first two levels are far too long. It took me the best part >> of half an hour to get through each of them...on Easy. That's longer to >> play through 2 maps that it originally took me to play through any of the >> full Valve campaigns. Versus mode may well be a problem due to the length >> of these maps. Map 3 is a much more playable length. I'm not sure what your >> plans are for the remaining maps, but I think you could quite easily divide >> maps 1 and 2 each into two maps, rejig the current map3 into map5, add an >> appropriately lavish finale, and it's done. >> >> In map1 when the plane flies overhead I was getting 'too many vertex >> format changes in frame; whole whole not rendered' spammed. Could do with >> visually simplifying that area a bit. You mentioned particle effects >> occasionally not being displayed - it may well just be that you're just >> trying to do too much in that area and the engine is running out of >> available resources. You could quickly test this by temporarily removing a >> ton of detailing in that area and retrying the vpk on a server to see if >> that fixes the particle issue. >> >> The AI survivors had a hell of a job getting into the 'saferoom' at the >> end of map1. It took a few minutes of me messing around opening and closing >> the doors. To fix this open the doors into the vehicle then delete any bits >> of the navmesh under the doors to ensure they'll navigate around the doors >> when opened. Perhaps set the doors as initially open too. >> >> I found the transition from map1 to map2 very jarring - from a vehicle in >> Tokyo suddenly teleported to a room somewhere in remote Japan - but maybe >> that's just me. I guess I've just come to expect continuity and progression >> from level to level when playing a Valve game. >> >> There are a lot of dead ends that look as though the players can easily >> get over them, only to find the way is clipped off. Many of these clipped >> dead ends use props that players will assume they can jump over, based upon >> a few years of endlessly playing the Valve campaigns and other community >> campaigns. For instance, in map2 there is a chainsaw lodged into a fallen >> tree; this fallen tree prop is one I've jumped over a million times, only >> to find the area beyond is clipped off. >> >> At the end of map2 are a bunch of 'saferoom this way' arrows and such. I >> think you should remove these. It's pretty obvious anyway, and it's just >> confusing at the start of map3 when the survivors have to go back up into >> the cable car. I actually spent a few minutes wandering around that area >> trying to follow arrows, thinking I'd missed an opening somewhere. >> >> In map3 after getting off the cable car there's a ladder that can't be >> climbed up. >> >> Hope some of that helped. Amazing job so far on the campaign. :) >> >> -----Original Message----- From: Mark Edwards >> Sent: Saturday, January 07, 2012 3:31 AM >> To: [email protected].**com <[email protected]> >> Subject: [L4Dmapper] Yama beta >> >> I just released a beta of my L4D2 campaign which includes the first 3 >> and a half maps. I had a lot of help from this mailing list to get the >> map to this stage so I wanted to post it here, and get some feedback >> from other mappers too instead of the general community. >> >> Link to download: >> http://www.scorchingcraniums.**com/yama/<http://www.scorchingcraniums.com/yama/> >> >> Screens: >> http://www.scorchingcraniums.**com/portfolio/yama.html<http://www.scorchingcraniums.com/portfolio/yama.html> >> >> >> Also I have a problem I never got to fix before I released - particles >> (all default L4D2 ones) only load half the time, which is especially >> annoying with the plane crash sequence. They work every time in a local >> server but online they keep breaking. The particle rain also cuts out at >> some points which might be related. Are there certain flags or something >> you need to use? >> >> ______________________________**_________________ >> L4Dmapper mailing list >> [email protected].**com <[email protected]> >> https://list.valvesoftware.**com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/**l4dmapper<https://list.valvesoftware.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/l4dmapper> >> >> ______________________________**_________________ >> L4Dmapper mailing list >> [email protected].**com <[email protected]> >> https://list.valvesoftware.**com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/**l4dmapper<https://list.valvesoftware.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/l4dmapper> >> >> > > ______________________________**_________________ > L4Dmapper mailing list > [email protected].**com <[email protected]> > https://list.valvesoftware.**com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/**l4dmapper<https://list.valvesoftware.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/l4dmapper> > _______________________________________________ L4Dmapper mailing list [email protected] https://list.valvesoftware.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/l4dmapper
