this is the last time i change anything
So I'll download it and throw some feedback at you anyway. I hope you'll consider it.
A map can always be improved.If I explain things you know already, as I probably will, feel free to ignore it, I just want to make sure we're on the same page.
Anyone reading this is free and welcome to disagree with what I say and to correct me.
LayoutNot much to say here. You did a great job and I think this map will become a favorite for effic and insta. I love the jumppad teleport.
PickupsMain reason for this reply to be honest, so it comes next. I know the map's aimed at effic and insta, but I still want to bring this up.
For the size of your map, I think there are too many items. You can argue that this comes down to a matter of preference, but I see it like this: Part of the challenge in ffa is managing your ammo and health, and trying to deny your opponent the items they need by taking them for yourself. That strategic potential is greatly reduced or lost altogether when a map throws at you everything you need, anywhere you go.
sandstorm is a very small map compared to most duel maps out there, yet it has more items than most.
For the referencerockets (4): A powerful weapon, so ammo should be used sparsely. Depending on how dominant you want the RL to be, either one or two should be appropriate, or at most three if you really enjoy rocket spam. 4 is too much for this map. I recommend 2.
bullets (4): Same as above. Personally, I would consider three of both over the top, four of both is worse. This being such an open map makes the abundance of bullets more of an issue than rockets. I would place only 2.
shells (4): A lot of ammo per pack, and usually serves as a secondary weapon, so their placement is more of a matter of how far a player needs to walk before finding their first pack of shells. Usually, anywhere from three to five is fine, as is 4 for this map. You might want to have these well spread out across the map, so I'd move
this one and place it somewhere
in this general area instead.
riflerounds (3): On average, frequency should be somewhere between shells and rockets/bullets. 3 is generous but fine, consider moving one of the two packs in the lower part of the map and placing it somewhere in the area to the right of the jumppad. Is there a reason you want to of them in the same spot?
grenades (3): Same as above. Consider reducing number of packs to two.
cartridges: If you're feeling cheeky. I like your cartridges placement across the map (:
health (7): The number here varies. Some maps have very few health packs (complex, hashi), some maps have a lot of them. Just be aware that this has a big impact on the way a map plays. The more health there is, the easier it is to keep yourself alive and stay in control of an ffa game. That's not necessarily a bad thing, it may be intentional. 7 is a lot of health for a map as tiny as sandstorm. Personally, I like maps with a medium amount of health, so I would have placed anywhere from 3 to 5.
Keep in mind these are suggestions assuming you're aiming for a balanced, average distribution of ammopacks. If you want your map to be heavier on some weapon type than another, it's fine to add more of that and less of the rest. I simply think the gameplay suffers from having too much of rockets
and bullets, and then some of the rest.
The placement of GA, YA and HB is great.
What's up with all the flags?
LightingI can't find anything wrong with it, the lighting looks great. I especially like how you placed the bigger radius light of some of the outdoor lamps close to the ground. Whether it was intentional or not, it creates a soft spotlight-like effect that I don't think I've seen before.
ClippingThere's one decorative bit that can get in the way of jumps from and to the little rocket platform. Just moving it up one or two cubes looks just as nice and solves the problem.
Before -
After plus some clipping
I was going to mention the skyclipping you put over the stairs on this map and pandora, but after noticing how nicely they make movement smoother down the stairs and diagonally, I think I like it. Two things to consider: They change the way grenades bounce off the stairs in a way a player won't expect. It also seems like an odd solution to a problem that should be solved on the side of the game engine. But then again, there's a lot more mapping tricks that fall into that category.
I understand the cartridges are a joke, but for consistency I think it'd be better to
clip all pillars the same way. If you do jump on there for whatever reason, it sucks to slide off because it doesn't behave like the rest.
For the same reason I'd clip the greenarmour, even though it's usually hardly a problem. With
something like this, you can prevent the odd case anyway in which a jump doesn't quite make it up from the taller side.
Some pipes that were left out could also use some clipping. I managed to get stuck between
these, and
the small ones can bounce you off if you riflejump against the curve in the wrong way. Can't do this section without some nitpicking.
Geometry and TexturingThe geometry is nice in most parts, some details like the pipes, turbines and framework pieces all around the map and in the background add a lot to it.
I don't like the way
this pokes out instead of following the wall. Nor do I like the way the
lamps aren't aligned, although that may be on purpose? It's not easy to find a satisfying solution for that corner, but I prefer
something like this.
I think there is some room for improvement on the texturing. Some parts look good, others show you've gotten a little lazy along the way
hmmm (: Some parts look a little too flat to me because they have neither interesting texturing nor geometry.
I like the floor pattern you used
down here a lot more than the rather repetitive one in the
top section.
If you experiment with all the textures available to you, and try to match geometry with texturing, you can discover a lot of ways to make sections look more detailed without requiring a lot of geometry. Example on framework:
before and
after. That goes off into nitpicking territory again though, maybe for the another map.
btw i pimped your pipe (:That's all I can think of now, I hope we can take a look at the map and try to find anything I may have forgotten. All in all, it's a great map already - it's hard to find anything significant to complain about here. Keep it up
tl;dr: fewer ammopacks please
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