WIP The Temple of Mechanism

[IrocJeff]

If you haven't already fixed the issue with the path_corners here is what you do. Select you "train" entity and add a key "linear"  value "1".  That should get everything moving at the same speed around the corners.

[lil_binger]

ty Jeff, that was one thing for JA I needed to fix, the other thing is the rancor, I was gonna post a topic in modding assistance if nobody replied. It could be with the rancor I put one in with my pk3 for JA and one JA already has may have had a conflict?  The rancor in JA looks all washed out and doesn't looks as nice as it does in JO. I'll look into it though.  If I can't figure it out in a reasonable amount of time I'll post a tiopic in modding assistance asking for help.

 

The rest of the stuff is fixed.  Golf hole sound effect now is triggered every time  and not just once as with the beta. 

 

 

Edit:  As for the model of the rancor, I think that's just due to lighting differences between JK2 and JK3.  I'll try to light it differently in spots with some different color lights and find the one that works best for JA.

[lil_binger]

Friday update:

 

Left to do:

 

Main outside area:  JA speeder bike racecourse, I tested a barrier for the water to make speeder bikes work and it works awesome.  All I really need to do to make the speeder bikes work better is to add in some jumps or something with the triggerable racing surface.  WIth the pedal to the metal, you can take a speeder bike around the entire water course.  I expect for JA a maximum amount of racers for the course would be 6 to make it competitive.  The caves in some areas of the course you could race 4 wide, corners maybe 2 wide racing at full speed.  This aspect also help out the JA version a lot more than JO.  Outside you can spawn a bike and go pretty much anywhere you want to go in the map.  I imagine you could get a bike to the tram and the large ranor area eventually if you don't bump into a lot of stuff.  For the course however, there's not much to bump into except for a wall.  You can run the course basically undamaged without any other competitors running at full speed

 

dojo details :  needs swords on the wall or something, old torches need replaced with new ones.

 

Rancor area; with the big rancor and lava:  The door / cage under the rancor will no longer spawn a rancor for JA.  The cage is at the top of the steps, If a player isn't on the same level as the rancor, the rancor will not try to attack you.  I really can't lower the cage under the rancor because of the md3 feet of the rancor.  I do want to add a little function to this area.  Inside the cage there is a teleport to the main temple area outside.  It won't take a whole lot to re-purpose the area, I may only need to add a detail or 2 to make it work.  Also the rancor is kinda cool but only for a short amount of time therefore, I am going to make it as a distraction for a cut through from one area to another so you don't need to fight the rancor or anything, you just have to get past it to move on to a different area.

 

Rancor cage area:

 

Hmmm, did I put the rancor somewhere else???

 

Corridor details:  There's still a few empty passageways and they need some stuff.

 

Lava Pit details:  this area is basically a lava pit made as a cut through.  This area needs a bit more appeal.  It's a little dull since I changed the lighting a bit before I removed the light from the lava shader so this area hasn't seen an update in a little while.

 

Ritual area:  Top of the mountain, this area is unchanged since I put in an observation platform to view the area.  The observation area is from Binger's Bespin with textures changed.  I've got a little bit to do in there to make it look better like re-texturing a few things and make the observation area look better with a small amount of brush work. This area also has 2 corridors which need some details and maybe a texture update.

 

Golf:  There are a few holes needing an update.  I did try to fix one but it needs adjusting.  The last few holes are still unfinished but I have widened the last few holes to give me a bit more room so they only need some details now.  I've worked on the water fall a little bit.

 

So lots of work really to be done but I already have an idea to finish most of it so, I hope progress is swift.  There is still a little fps work to do in the main area.  Show tris still showing stuff I shouldn't see in some spots.  Yes the beta release is outdated now but it's still valid.  All I really need to know is if there are some rpg elements I could add for the rpg guys and wether or not you guys like the golfing part.  I work with 2 monitors and one has gtk and the other has the game.  I'll run through the map and fix stuff on the fly.  For JO, all that is left is what has been listed above.  The majority of the map will remain unchanged.  Every so often I'll compile a JA test to check out a few things so I am keeping stuff to do for the JA version and stuff I place in the test compile I'll copy over once I want to test something else for the map in JA.  Testing stuff out for JA is about complete however, the next step is to add some details to the race course like jumps or something.  Oh and I just thought about something....how about a spinning log in the water somewhere, spinning just fast enough to run on or something.  2 or more people could try to stay on the log as long as they can before falling off.....hmmm....only need one brush and entity for that eh?  And that might create some small simple entertainment.  I grew up skateboarding and bmxing and snowboarding.  Driving around in a car looking for new places to skate I think has conditioned me to look into my map to create fun stuff.  For skateboarding I would see a ledge or a loading dock and could just imagine the possibilities, who would ever thought, learning to skateboard would help me make better maps for this game.....lol

[lil_binger]

Small update, progress is still on going. Lately, I have been going through the map trying to get some more RPG elements into the design in some areas that need it.  The top area of the mountain, inside the entrance will now be a Jedi Council area.  That is the most fitting spot for one and it's looking good.  No pics yet though.  I may have a few rooms in a couple corridors nearby for Management office / room and I have an idea I may add a few substandard rooms underground.

 

As far as the rest of the map, details are being added to complete some areas and make them look more finished.  The rancor area getting a few additions and some more fps work separating an area or 2 a little better.  I also plan on testing some flying vehicles in the map and see if I can come up with something.  Flying vehicles may be a bit of overkill however, I am trying to put a little piece of something in the map everyone would enjoy.  Currently the map is only ffa.  When finished it should at least have a couple game types but it's not made for any specific game type except maybe ffa.  All the spawn points are relativly close together.  There is one spaced apart just a little near the slide.

[lil_binger]

updated pics:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[IrocJeff]

Its looking great from those images.. Maybe add in more light sources or torches on the walls. Mainly just in the 1st and 6th images in the above post.

[lil_binger]

I'm thinking some kind of tiki torches for the lava cave instead of ones on the walls in pic 6.  The council area, I thought about dropping in a chandelier but I like the view above the seats which lights the area with the light from the eclipse / skybox but could definitely use some on the wall.   I did take a lantern and a wooden post from a water cave and made a half support with the lantern hanging from the end for the pit area in the map you may have seen before, nothing in that area basically but I have some lanterns and torches in the pit area and I took pics of the area but doesn't look good enough yet to post a photo.  I still have some work to do in the small lava pit area.  I've thought about bringing in the half support and the lantern into the council but definitely needs light sources like a lot of the map still but I'm getting them in there slowly but surely. 

 

I'll work a little here and there all over the map when I do.  I'll region one area out and complete some stuff, then move on to another area, skip and jump around from place to place then doing some unplanned stuff including already starting a new thermal golf hole set in a factory kind of setting ready to make another hole and piecing a courtyard area together to have the golf map from the temple of mechanism connected to a courtyard then connected to yet another adventure thermal golf course in a different setting. I've only put in a couple hours on that though.

 

I'm just wondering about the rancor area.  I kinda like it but I kinda don't I plan on working it a bit more and getting the second slide in (or removing the slide entirely). and adding a bit more light.  The plan was to have a roaming rancor npc in there but they act a bit funny because of the terrain.  A Rancor just wants a totally flat surface and pretty much nothing else.  Make it walk over something and it glitches out and the animation is not there.  You'll see it appear on top of the obstacle or rock or whatever, then appear again on the ground and start chasing you again.  I thought about removing the lava and have them roam the pit in the rancor area but I like the lava look in the area.  The rancor and slide idea was and idea I had for a different map.  Basically I'm trying to think of ways to make the area a little more interesting and have more stuff to do.  Plus I clipped the rancor all out so why not let people enjoy it more so I am trying to add a little more access to it.  After all, I believe when people see a big rancor, the first thing they'll want to do is to jump in his mouth.  I have changed things just a liltle bit, since I added more access to the rancor in that area I have reduced the access a bit from the outside. 

 

Basically I had a dedicated teleport to the rancor area but now that teleport is a somewhat random teleport.  You might teleport to the rancor's mouth, you might teleport to the training area or the golf course or tram.  It's pretty much one single teleport trigger with multiple targets.  I have done this before with other maps but never random, it would still teleport you to the same area just different targets.  I have heard of people dying somehow with the old method I have used but it never happenned to me.  The new teleport in the temple map every time I jump in I am simply just teleported.  Sometimes to the same place more than once but eventually I did teleport to every area where I set a target.  I never died teleporting however I must still consider this a possibility.  And I have not tested the random teleport with JA yet.

 

Many thanks for the points Jeff 

[lil_binger]

and the council picture in the floor is Egyptian hieroglyphics I found a picture of then added in a couple lightsabers to his hands then put a Stars wars cymbal around it   The pic is early stages of development.  I haven't spent much time in this area lately but it's been on the list for a while.  Thinking about adding rpg elements into I decided the map did need a jedi council area and that area didn't have the best significance being there. It was basically just a place to fight and fall into the lave and access other area, now it will have a better purpose and some management rooms or offices will add a finishing touch.  I've basically only got the chairs arranged and the floor redeveloped in the pic.  I decided closing the floor but leaving the lava pit underneath and making it a council area would be pretty neat.  The disappearing floor may turn into a couple doors that open but doors always cause a little problem when you want to drop someone into a pit of lava, they have a better chance to escape.  A disappearing floor?....poof....gone...collect the ashes.  lol

[lil_binger]

I've taken a break for a bit.  I've got a lot going on currently, I hope to get back to it when I can

[lil_binger]

Progress being made.

 

I really should make maps for JA because I always run into barriers making them for JO.  I might make a v1 of this map in JA which is still playable in JO, then make a legitimate JA version v2 a bit later with a bit added depth.  I basically tested them map and it was unplayable in JO with the amount of stuff in the map (efx, models, entities, sfx).  It worked great in JA. JA limits are at least twice what it is for JO.  So I may add a bit down the road for JA.

 

Right now I've been trimming off the fat of this map.  It really got too big to make it feel complete with torches etc than Jedi Outcast will allow.  But I think it's a good thing with this map.  I'm squeezing together some stuff and getting rid of 3 areas I liked but really had no real purpose to be there.  Redefining what areas of the map a player would be drawn to as the areas of the map progress, there were some obsolete spaces brought in from other maps that just didn't need to be there.  This will speed things up a bit getting where you want to go.  Also, once I reconnect everything the map will be a lot closer to being complete.

 

I have added rooms for a couple offices and bunks recently for rpg guyz, so even though I removed some stuff I've added some areas with some importance to them.

 

For JA version 2 of this map, I've got a large cave area I made previously I've thought might be fun for a flying vehicle dogfight...

 

 

I'll try to get some pics soon.

[lil_binger]

a little bump with some news...

 

last post I talked about posting some pictures, and I think I may be close enough to just finish this map off and call it a day instead of posting some pics.  I'm done with re-edesign etc. Everything is connected.  Pieces falling into place.  I added on to one last area which is working out nicely.  I have just a few simple details left to place around the map and then will give it a final critique before releasing to edit a few things and tweak anything else I am not happy with.   Hopefully the next forum post will be confirming a final release instead of more pictures.  There is a lot in the map (additions etc.) I have not commented about on this wip thread since the beta release.  I believe this release is leaps and bounds beyond the beta version.  It was good to take some time off and take another objective look at something. 

[lil_binger]

beta test link....

 

beta test done.

[lil_binger]

I just took a bunch of pictures.  Here are a few.  The map is looking good and working well.  I've still got a few tweaks left to do.

 

 

 

[Langerd]

How did You made terrain so smooth shade? And Do You make it in gtkradiant? Or diffrent program?

[lil_binger]

much easier than you think Langerd.....I take a brush and cut it until I like it, then I stretch it around until I like it, and cut it again if I don't like it and delete the excess pieces.  It's an easy process.  I don't stretch using verts often, as those will cause many problems in most cases.  Just click, click cut with the split tool.  Then once I like the shape etc, I'll cut off as much of the overlapping brush off that I can to fit where I want it.  As far as the shading and light, it takes a little practice and a few compiles to adjust the light until I like it.  There aren't any values given to a rock, the only worldspawn value that affects the map lighting is _lightmapscale.

 

The lights, the 2 inside rings for the light in radiant, I don't let them touch the surface in most cases unless there is a light or torch nearby.  This allows for softer lighting and just takes a little adjusting for position and strength to make it look good.

 

 

And one more thing with the pics posted, they are photoshopped a little because they are a bit dark.  The map is set during an eclipse in the sky texture.  The screenshots were a bit dark so the images I posted are not exactly what would be seen in game.

[lil_binger]

I can feel the end is nigh for this map.  I'm still adding in some finishing touches here and there but they are minor ones.  Just a little light here and an adjustment there. 

 

Here's another pic of the updated tram area.  The opposite side of the tram is now accessible on foot and looking better than ever.

 

[lil_binger]

Announcing a public Beta test of The Temple of Mechanism

 

JK2 1.02 or JK2MV required.

 

Sunday (yes today) November 22nd at 8pm CET (Central European Time) / 2pm EST (Eastern Standard Time)

 

Download link will be available before the time for the test.  I will add a link at the beginning of the thread here for anyone to download and come join us.

 

This map is a lot of fun, built specifically for JK2 1.02 with all it's glorious glitches!  Which is one reason I love the game.  Lots of jumping around, many ways to die and a lot to explore!

 

I do hope to have the map ready very soon after the beta for a V1 release which I will also try my best to include a version for Jedi Academy at the same time.  I'm hoping to have it all ready to go by next weekend at the latest.  This weekend will be a final test to make sure everything works as it should for everyone and to make an adjustment here or there from any problems found during the public test.

 

I will try to post a link to download the map at least 2 hours early before the event.  I hope to see some of you there.

 

 

 

[lil_binger]

beta test link.  https://drive.google.com/file/d/0Bw0wzU8JHlPkYThyVG1ybGlwdVk/view?usp=sharing

[lil_binger]

new dl available due to technical problems.  https://drive.google.com/file/d/0Bw0wzU8JHlPkTjlPR09zZ2xULTQ/view?usp=sharing

[Boothand]

 

Had some great fun ^^

[lil_binger]

Good times for sure.  The test has set me back for releasing the temple of mechanism a little bit but it's for the better.  

 

We did discover the golf area was fun for strafe jumping for a jump track of sorts and some work will be done to make it a separate map. 

 

Some good ideas were formulated today   Thanks to all who tested.

 

I will leave the last link available to download a little longer.  JK3 should work pretty well, There are only a couple triggers for doors so triggers being glitchy in JA won't be too much of a problem.  And most triggers have a wait time so even if they trigger automatically, they won't be triggered over and over quickly.  Let me know though.  If JA guys would like to give it a test, it wouldn't take me long to have something for you.

 

The technical glitch we uncovered was having a few too many entities in the map for JK2.  JK3, no worries about entity limits  I had to make a quick compile after deleting some stuff real quick .  The first beta only 1 person could connect.  2nd quick beta 9 people could connect and 3rd beta I deleted all the fire efx in the map just so we could have anyone connect.  so beta you can check out offline, b2 can have 9 people and b3 as many as the server will hold (however b3 lost most of the fire fx and torches will be without fire).

 

I hosted a 1.02 server myself for a little while this evening and one friend stopped by and another connected while we were there..  It kept us busy for quite a while.

 

And the last minute addition of Boothand's antlers really ties the death room together. 

[lil_binger]

Attention:  JK2 

 

Temple of Mechanism beta test

 

Saturday November 28th at 8pm CET / 2pm EST

 

Last Beta test for the temple of Mechanism before final release.

 

Also testing ctf_mechgolf.bsp and mechgolf.bsp suggested by those in last weeks beta test event.

 

Come by and join in the fun if u dare.  Server name will reflect the map name.

 

I hope to also release a JK3 version after the beta test tomorrow.  As long as there aren't any major problems with the map, this beta may in fact be the final release.

[lil_binger]

Beta / Final release Link for the test today.

 

Thanks for all those who participated.

 

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0Bw0wzU8JHlPkOXJHWll6MG1xU00/view?usp=sharing

 

Some bugs were found.  So this is not a final version.

[Jango32]

Has it started? 

[lil_binger]

Started and done now.  I was there about 40 min early.  There was enough to be done to warrant another edit.  We did test and there could be around 16 bots and players in the map due to entity limitations for JK2.  I may look into shaving a few more entites away to increase the amount of people whi can connect.  There is some work being done on a particular server for a server side mod to separate logical and physical entities.  It would help a lot with the entity limits.  I do know a few things I can adjust to reduce the amount of entities in the map just a little more.  So one more edit.

 

ctf map needs some work.  It's not designed for ctf and I didn't put much time into it except for clips and weapons etc intended for use in ctf.  I think it has potential and I like the idea but that area may need a little redesign to accomodate ctf.  I may release the ctf separate as an add on pack or something.   Mech temple is basically ready after the next edit.  I am not sure how long ctf might take to polish or redesign or something.  Or maybe I will make an entirely new golf course using the same idea but work ctf into the layout much better.

 

I will leave the link available above.  do note it's not final and there will be something else available in the future.