SephFF's WIP

[SephFF]

This map you see are all subject to change. I am a relatively new mapper. I do have a minor in game design that I completed at the Savanah College of art and design so I was able to pick up on JKA mapping in a timely manner. So far I been working on this map since about October last year. In December I had multiple people play test an alpha version and I will soon have the beta ready for testing.

The original idea of this map was to be used for JAWA league. It is designed to be able to host a very wide range of events and activities. However I also wanted this map to be a sorts of a playground. Fun to explore and try different challenges in the map. The map is a strafer/snipers haven but also great for merc and enough room to fly some ships around in. So I been slowly polling ideas from the community in general and trying to learn as much as I can. I am full open to all ideas/complaints you may have so please to hold back against me. As soon as I can release a beta ill be sure to update this as I go.

Current features:

• Weapons placed
• Health pick ups placed
• FFA spawn points
• One Tie-fighter spawner (1 min timer)
• Working elevators in other areas, not (main building)
• Seph tears
• Map transition cam
• Working doors
• Main hangar door if open will stay open unless you close it, the others close on their own.
• Custom skybox
• Vertex alpha blended terrain
• Few tested/working jumps with jump slope shoots for fun

Heres a list of things that still needs done:

1: Main building rebuilt/textured/detailed (being rebuilt so -vis, or basically only things that should render are being rendered for optimized FPS in duel tournaments)
2: Update admin room
3: Script the F̵̢͔̦͎̮̺̯͕̠͇͈̪̺̽̏͂̈͗̐̊̏̋͛͜͝͝Ų̵̨̪̠͚͈͈͕͙͕̤̤̤̋̿̉͆̒͐͑̓͘̕͘C̵̨͒̃͐͛́̋̈́͘͠K̸̘͔̅̈́̿̽̒̒̈́̊̋̓̉̓̋͝I̸̛͈͉̓̀͌̊͌̊́̑̊̿̌͋̉͝Ñ̵͉̗̰͜G̵̛̠̦̘̮̪̿́ͅ elevator (I hate scripting) what I am trying to script is not easy. 
4: Finish secret reward areas
5: bot routes/TFFA spawns
6: Test and add some more strafe jumps
7: (I'm gonna TRY to do this) Horizon blend map to look seamless to skybox.
8: Employ testers to test map again since so much as been added.
9: Improve lighting

 

Videos:
recent terrain testing thanks to @mjt and @AshuraDX

Spoiler

 

quick vid tor of map WIP
 

Spoiler

 

also a big thanks to @AngelModder, @Helena Revan @ensiform @Artemis @Mooku @SomaZ
who helped get me this far....tons of advice or tips or pointers. and also JK hub and JK community discord! if I missed ya ...let me know ill be sure to add ya. just let me know. hard to keep track lol.

oh also huge shout out to @Szico VII I never got to meet this dude but his source maps and tutorials have been life changing. I recommend everyone check out his work.

Edited July 18, 2021 by SephFF
typos

[Cor]

What a beautiful skybox!

[SephFF]

3 hours ago, Cor said:

What a beautiful skybox!

Thanks! took me like 2 weeks to make in photoshop....it was an extremely painful experience lol.

[AshuraDX]

@SephFF I'll show you my process for skyboxes before you make the next one, that'll be less painful

[SephFF]

Testing fish for secret area... I used Szico VII's horizon blend tutorial to make the water and blend the terrain to looks like its going from dry to wet sand....I am using his skybox in this so ill still need to make my own for this area. still in its infant stages of testing... will be using what i learn in this to make a new secret area in main map for ppl to enjoy.

Video:

Spoiler

 

 

 

[Futuza]

Excellent start to this map, the layout looks great and I'm excited to see what the finished textures and lighting will look like when you're through.  Also, guess you got started for the Summer contest early with that horizon blend map eh?

[SephFF]

On 7/29/2021 at 8:39 PM, Futuza said:

Excellent start to this map, the layout looks great and I'm excited to see what the finished textures and lighting will look like when you're through.  Also, guess you got started for the Summer contest early with that horizon blend map eh?

Yeah....For the summer contest map, so far progress is looking good on it, no custom textures yet. working on trying to get the buildings done right then ill do terrain/water and blend stuff with appropiate textures. I think i'll make this map its own thing for the contest then add it to the main map. For the contest, I do not plan on doing the inside parts of the buildings, I think that would take too long to detail correctly. ill probly save that for the main map.

Honestly might not be a bad map for duel/FFA/TFFA... that is if I can keep the FPS okay of course.

WIP images: bout 8 hours of work to get to this point... started map fresh so I can blend the water in right.

Spoiler

 

 

 

 

Edit: question.... im torn on the idea of limiting players with clip brush....I personally prefer I am free to go where I want in a map, leave clipping to stairs or weird edges to stop players from getting stuck.

Would people prefer they are limited to a small section of the map? or have the whole thing open to them? I can understand reason for it, to keep game play to certain areas only. Just would like opinions on this.

[Futuza]

7 hours ago, SephFF said:

 

im torn on the idea of limiting players with clip brush....I personally prefer I am free to go where I want in a map, leave clipping to stairs or weird edges to stop players from getting stuck.

Would people prefer they are limited to a small section of the map? or have the whole thing open to them? I can understand reason for it, to keep game play to certain areas only. Just would like opinions on this.

What I would suggest when it comes to map borders, if it isn't too much work (granted that clips are way easier and less time consuming), is creating natural borders that fit within the map itself to prevent you from going further.  There's a couple of things you could do with an island map. Consider some examples: a strong current in the water that pulls players who go too far out into a whirlpool which kills them, piranhas that kill people (an area full of fish that do more and more damage if you don't leave it), jagged rocks that are too steep to navigate, trees/buildings/kelp that block the path, etc.  It's fine to use the clips, so long as you justify not being able to move past it with something physical/real.  One of my map pet peeves is invisible walls.

[SephFF]

8 hours ago, Futuza said:

 One of my map pet peeves is invisible walls.

fully agree.... I like the fish killing ppl idea....mainly because I live near an ocean and oceans can be damn scary sometimes lol. 

 

With how jump works in this game and the RDFA cancels/water glitch/inverted poly glitch sorta forces map boundaries to be annoyingly tall.....I highly appreciate your input. Think ill do buoys that show where fish can murder you.

[Futuza]

Just to be clear, I totally think it's fine to use clip brushes when you have some sort of object/thing that physically appears to block the way.  For example, in the poorly drawn map below, you have some spikey rocks that are covered by a clip brush preventing the player from actually moving past them. 

But yeah Buoy's should work great with the fish, I was thinking something like this, but that works too.  Heck even map edges like water that just plummets off the edge of a flat earth might also be interesting.  Like this. 

 

[SephFF]

4 hours ago, Futuza said:

Just to be clear, I totally think it's fine to use clip brushes when you have some sort of object/thing that physically appears to block the way.  For example, in the poorly drawn map below, you have some spikey rocks that are covered by a clip brush preventing the player from actually moving past them. 

 

hmmm I like this....also in love with the drawing....here is mine based off your feed back.

overhead few of map in editor.

Spoiler

 

 

I'm hesitant to add more to purple area since current map size is 17,184 X 17184 units.... gatta make it big for believable horizon blending.

 

also some more images if it now...

Spoiler

 

 

[SephFF]

caustics are great

 

Spoiler

 

 

[JustJordyn]

On 8/3/2021 at 9:42 AM, SephFF said:

also some more images if it now...

  Hide contents

 

I'm itching to ask. Is this Costa del Sol?? Because it is looking super cool.

[SephFF]

On 8/8/2021 at 9:07 PM, SebTheAlchemist said:

I'm itching to ask. Is this Costa del Sol?? Because it is looking super cool.

......UUUH lol here is a video showing some updates...may answer your question lol


Video:
 

Spoiler

 

 

[SephFF]

small update:

poor quality stream but it was my first time trying youtube streaming.

 

the main thing i like how tauntauns can go where a player cant.

 

Spoiler

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tVM0mrS2gIU

 

[SephFF]

testing skybox

 

Spoiler

 

 

 

 

 

[Mandalorian]

Beautiful. Not sure about the static clouds that are brighter. I'd make them not as bright maybe? This map is looking amazing.

[SephFF]

6 minutes ago, Mandalorian said:

Beautiful. Not sure about the static clouds that are brighter. I'd make them not as bright maybe? This map is looking amazing.

felly agree will have to adjust them....main reason i have them is so if flying a ship...you can kinda tell if ur about to hit the skybox lol

[Annubis1991]

Maybe silly question but will you release the first map someday?

[SephFF]

On 10/7/2021 at 6:41 AM, Annubis1991 said:

Maybe silly question but will you release the first map someday?

Yes lol....(Sorry for super late reply)  IRL can get in the way as well as skill with this type of stuff... IRL I'm retired jarhead now college student who does graphic design. Also got a wife and three kids + 2 dogs so its hard to manage all that sometimes. 3 main reasons i didnt release the first map YET... was -vis was bad causing major FPS drops and I want this to run smooth for most people. The second reasons is I suck at scripting and i'll need to find help with that for the elevator in main building. Three... This map is the first map I tried to make so its been a lot of learning involved. I'm slowly getting confidence I need to finish it tho.

 

In the mean time... before I work on that I wanna make a fun simple not too pretty Co-op map... and probly update it over time. ATM I 2 rooms made for it and wanna make a third before uploading it. 

The big main room is just a playground of sorts... mainly to teach movement mechanics in game like what can walk on what angle of slope... Glitch tricks...strafe jumps... rolling/crouching and a room to test max saber range. The Co-op part will have 3 difficulties... Hardest can be done solo... just requires to know expert jump mechanics. Next is kinda hard with 2 people but fastest way though the challenges. and last an easy route for people not good with strafing. Its just hard designing rooms with 3 difficulty levels but its nice to have options imo for solving something.

 

Spoiler

 

 

[SephFF]

Testing some things.

 

Spoiler

 

 

[Lazarus]

On 8/2/2021 at 6:56 PM, Futuza said:

Just to be clear, I totally think it's fine to use clip brushes when you have some sort of object/thing that physically appears to block the way.  For example, in the poorly drawn map below, you have some spikey rocks that are covered by a clip brush preventing the player from actually moving past them. 

But yeah Buoy's should work great with the fish, I was thinking something like this, but that works too.  Heck even map edges like water that just plummets off the edge of a flat earth might also be interesting.  Like this. 

 

What i did in mine (i have a cove in which you can technically go to open sea), is put indeed a clip brush there, however, in the water in front, a trigger_push in front of it, in the sea, so if you swim into it, it bobs you back like the current is taken a hold of you. Its not the cleanest solution, but still, i think it works just fine.

https://jkhub.org/images/nMXDnTL.png

btw, whats with the elevator music in your movies

 

[Futuza]

Yeah, something like that also works very well, especially if the current is visible to the player so they don't just think they're being pushed away for no reason.  The important thing, regardless of how exactly you define the map edge, is presenting the player with the illusion that there's something real preventing them from proceeding beyond.  Nobody likes an invisible wall, its very jarring and brings one out of the immersion.

18 hours ago, Lazarus said:

btw, whats with the elevator music in your movies

My what?  Which movies are you referring too?  o.O

[Lazarus]

8 hours ago, Futuza said:

Yeah, something like that also works very well, especially if the current is visible to the player so they don't just think they're being pushed away for no reason.  The important thing, regardless of how exactly you define the map edge, is presenting the player with the illusion that there's something real preventing them from proceeding beyond.  Nobody likes an invisible wall, its very jarring and brings one out of the immersion.

My what?  Which movies are you referring too?  o.O

That was a wrong quote, that last question was meant for SephFF

[SephFF]