exonimus

There's more on jkfiles, but that's another story. The review of her map mentioned Nozy being defrosted. Perhaps 'cryogenics', i.e literally the study of how stuff behaves at very low temperatures, but in our case also stuff like freezing people and bringing them back to life afterwards (or whatever our interpretation of that theme might be) is also a decent suggestion?

Noted! @@Silverfang I'll add you to the list. @@Inyri, Because you have actually released a map. I know you're extremely criticial of your mapping skills, but I'm confident that given the practice, your maps would've become at least as good as your models. Care for a one-week refresher course, perhaps? I think the best thing to do is get some more theme suggestions by the participants, so most people are happy with it once we start. I suggest we put it up for vote once most people have replied. The major themes until now (massively summarized): -ruined/fallout/USSR kind of thing (+escape from butcher bay) -more archy/curvy/fantasy(lotr/GOT/myst, whatever) kind of style, with the possibility of some futuristic touches -cyberpunk, although this would require some more screenshots We can always combine these themes if nothing else, e.g. a curvy/gothic sort of building in a futuristic wasteland.

Seconded! I am currently (since a few weeks) quite the game of thrones addict (watched season 1 in one day). A massive upvote for anything inspired by game of thrones. If we're doing something eyrie-inspired, I totally want a feature where players would voluntarily launch themselves into the keep's central death pit just to enjoy the skybox/sights. But I digress. What I am worried about is the scale of such a project, though. As long as the level is relatively small, we can spend more time on detailing, but keep the total amount of time spent on mapping at a relatively low level. Not that I'm against a larger scale map by any means, but we do have to consider the implications of scale here. Same for fallout, although you might have to give some examples of 'escape from butcher bay' theming.

Hmm, that shader needs some work, didn't remember it being THAT incredibly dark But yeah, agreed. Perhaps we really need to start anew and have something that's truly 'our' work. Could you provide some more screenshots of a cyberpunk related theme? I think I kind of like it, but I'm not too familiar with it, and I keep finding quite varied screenshots. Perhaps steampunk is a decent related concept? And yes, gotta love LOTR styled stuff. But minas tirith might be too much of a "this is what we're gonna do and how we"re gonna do it" kind of thing. I love something like this, though http://imgur.com/a/LkCt1#9, (mind you, the link is wrong. Look for #9) a sort of a LOTR style haven/port/river kind of thing or whatever. edit: perhaps a combination of some of these. This is some concept art (never ingame) of a myst world named Takotah, I think. It's a combination of 'myst', 'cathedral', with a touch of more futuristic/shiny/steampunk-ish stuff, and perhaps even an option to combine it with some more lotr-like gothic architecture, thus creating not a true cathedral, but still something related to it in style. Perhaps an interesting direction? http://i.imgur.com/REaNO.jpg Or we could combine other styles, e.g. "steampunk" and "lotr" or "myst" and "star wars" or whatever.

True. For any SW related location, I was mainly thinking of some locations (aside from those I mentioned, true) that aren't really in the movies or anything, but perhaps have a concept picture or two so we have some idea of a style to start on and freewheel from there. Come to think of it, I doubt "cathedral" is a truly interesting theme as well. Edit: I just came across an older thread on jkhub by @@Polterninja34 who apparently had an idea similar to this. Feel free to join. @@Delta_135 also expressed some interest there. Same story edit: I actually stand corrected. We DID start with a theme for the 2nd PMA, but not for the first. The first PMA just started as an untextured box, someone created something in it, and we went from there. We could do either of these approaches actually. Anyone feeling adventurous enough to create a very rough random design and start a style, so to speak? Also, whatever we do, I suggest we do keep the map small, so we have enough time to work on details. edit: I accidentally removed a part of my post which wonko later quoted. Sorry!

Liar. No need for false modesty here And you're not late, we're still in the brainstorming phase. Any suggestions, theme-wise? I'll add you to the list.

Well, yes. And no. Basically, previous pass me arounds have had only a very general theme, like "egyptian-ish ruins" or, "area on nar shaddaa", where one person started building something, and others added rooms and improved upon the stuff already there, trying to remove as little of other mappers' work as possible, just add to/improve upon it. Of course, a pass me around without any theme whatsoever would probably be too random: it would be kind of lame if I'd build a nar shaddaa room, the next guy would link it to a jedi temple room, etc. There HAS to be a very general unifying theme to this all to work, just to make everything fit together and to have some idea on the style that's going to be involved. The idea is to combine all of the participants' skill and interpretations on this theme to create something awesome, where one mappers' inspiration might lead to anothers' inspiration or creativity. Once you get the map for a week (or two weeks, though not consecutive, depending on the speed/size), you can do anything you want with it, as long as it adds to/improves upon what's there. As I stated in my previous post, there are two options: either, as before, a very general theme, or a freestyle interpretation of an already existing level, giving a bit more structure to possible ideas, but lessening creativity to a certain extent. I'm sure many of you would prefer the first one (I'm good with either) and I was merely proposing some ideas, which might have been too specific already. A general theme would be "dromund kaas temple" or "nar shaddaa site", "abandoned ruins (on...)", (or anything non- SW related of course), "secret base on hoth", "room built in doom 3 style", "moon base" etc. My own ideas were just random things which I'd love to see happen at some point, and I think it would be great if others had ideas on themes/things they'd want to see built in a jka map as well. Perhaps something you've always wanted to do but never got around to, or a theme which inspired you, an area you once visited, whatever. Can basically be anything. Everyone (also non-mappers) are welcome to insert some original ideas! edit: @@Szico VII you might want to DL landing zone 17, the first PMA, and read the mappers' log that's included to get an idea on how such a thing works, and how others are basically inspired by what's already there. To be honest, I can't remember exactly how we got to decide the first and second PMA's theme, but I think it was a vote after some people proposed some themes. (Either that, or @@Pande dictator'ed, but I think vote) @@Milamber, sure thing! also, if @@mrwonko's version is recent enough, continuing the already existing PMA2 is of course still on the table as an option. I'd love to see the file and some screenshots.

Go right ahead with both! You're absolutely welcome to help. The more the merrier =)

Fair enough. We'll start fresh then I guess, although I'd still love to receive wonko's version to see how far along that was. I might finish that one myself at a later stage. So, themes then. Any suggestions? I think we first need to decide whether we're going to do a sort of "recreation" thing, or a more "freestyle" kind of thing. I'm in for both. edit: some personal mindblurbs: -A proper cathedral. I still believe JKA has NO proper level with a cool cathedral that has both the outside and inside done with nice patches and stuff. I'm thinking for a sort of "london streets" theme here, recreating perhaps a cool cathedral from inside and outside, with a few of the surrounding buildings. This might limit creativity due to a too strong theme, though -I always love ruined/abandoned places. I'm thinking Chernobyl/ fallout kind of locations here. However, perhaps this might inspire a too square soviet-ish building style, although this might pose an interesting challenge for variation. -My personal favourite: recreation of a certain star wars location that has not really been done before. I remember a thread from 2011 on the filefront forums where @@minilogoguy18 requested a KOTOR location, namely the valley of the Dark Lords which looks really really cool, and allows for some cool mapping tricks as well. IIRC he offered to model some of the statues we might need. I wonder if that offer still stands . Topic here: http://forums.filefront.com/sw-jk3-modding-mapping-editing/439898-kotor-valley-dark-lords.html Perhaps recreation of a lesser known location is better so we have more artistic freedom. I would personally give everything to see a more freestyle interpretation of the dark force temple on Dromund Kaas (http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Dark_Force_Temple), because the inside in MotS sucked, but the theme itself is so amazing. (Purple, anyone?) Link for info: (http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Dromund_Kaas) edit: I just found out SWTOR has actually already done a rendition of dromund kaas. See here (4:13 onwards) http://youtu.be/pQJIjKiZ8SQ I'm not sure I quite agree with this rendition though (I like it more as a sort of darker/ruined place instead of having it cluttered with renovation style stuff), although this rendition is still incredibly cool, especially the main hall with those huge ass statues (@7:37). I know the map as a whole is too large for a PMA, but we could do just a small part. I've had plans to do this myself in the past for a mod I used to work on, before RL got in the way. -Basically similar, but smaller: an artist's interpretation of an old df2 and/or MOTS duel or other similarly small map. This gives us the basic layout, but the outdated graphics give us enough artistic freedom to work with, imho. From what I recall, there have been some attempts at this before, by @@Inyri (5-6 years ago; VOTJ tower), among others.

How recent is your version? Mine was labeled v3, so I suppose I was the third person working on it.

Mmyeah, here's to hoping has backups. I've added him on xfire. If he doesn't reply here by tomorrow, I'll go hijack his thread on FF or something

Exactly my thoughts. Trying it would be an interesting experiment, but a project such as this would not be the right place.

@@MoonDog, We haven't said anywhere we're going to do it in a 3d modelling program, as I also completely have no skill in this area, neither do most mappers, thus I don't think he was seriously suggesting it. Wonko was merely playing with the idea.

Is there any way you (and perhaps some other modelers) would be willing to hold a very small side project, where you (under the same rules: no more than a week) work on one or several very simple object models, exchange with other modelers if needed, and thus contribute to the map, depending on the direction in which it goes? Would really make for some more general awesomeness.

Nice, that makes us three at least, four depending on whether @@mrwonko feels like joining in with us commonfolk still using radiant as well. To repeat his point: any person that cannot map, but is good at making concept art and/or has original ideas is free to contribute as well, as we still have to decide whether to continue the current map (if pande replies within the coming few days) or whether we start anew. What would you guys (specifically looking at @@Szico VII and @@MoonDog )prefer? edit: just thought of a pm by @@TwinHits the other day. Perhaps he/you'd be interested as well? I also remember some screenshots by @@OmegaSigma, perhaps he'd also want to contribute? (provided he'd use caulk. ) It's just a few hours/days of work, after all. Feel free to redirect any (aspiring) mappers etc. with at least some experience to this topic as well, so we have a better chance of truly getting this ball rolling.

@@Jango40, do you know how to map? @@Szico VII Would you be potentially willing to have a go as well? Any suggestions/ideas? SEEING AS YOU EDITED MY POST BUT ABSTAINED FROM REPLYING TO THIS TOPIC. D:

Would you be willing to spend just a few hours/days on it as well, @@Milamber? Also, we could pull something like this for map objects as well. That way, both the modelers and the mappers (with .ase) could join in, and everyone profits.

Problem with that is, I think not many of us (including myself) have experience with making maps in blender. I, for one, would be happy to learn, but I think it lowers the quality since everyone will have to learn a new way of doing things. What is the advantage of doing it in blender, by the way? (I have no real experience in blender, so I'm asking this out of interest)

CONCERNING THE POLL Gothic/LOTR-ish pictures here: http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_mak739nBVG1rpunp6o1_1280.jpg http://imgur.com/a/NNOOI#7 Futuristic/dystopian/cyberpunk: here: http://imgur.com/a/2dTXb#7 MYST (extremely varied. You might want to google "myst age" "riven age" "myst 3 exile" "myst IV revelation" or "uru age") http://dni.wikia.com/wiki/List_of_Ages I wasn't sure where to post this, but I feel this might be the best place for it. Some of you might remember a map called Nar Shaddaa Landing Zone 17 (here: http://jediknight3.filefront.com/file/Nar_Shadda_Landing_Zone_17;105657) a map that was created by the map-craft.com team, a bunch of mappers hanging around on the now sadly defunct map-craft forums. Some people included in this team were @@Pande, @@mrwonko, @@Nozyspy, @@NAB622, @@Crazy Assassin, lazarus, myself and some others I inadvertently forgot to mention. What most of you guys don't know, however, was that there were plans in the works for a second 'pass me around' map with an Egyptian theme, and even a third was being conceived. The second one was quite far in progress and looked amazing. However, these have never seen the light of day (AFAIK) as mappers lost interest and the map-craft forum finally disappeared. The basic idea was that mappers got to hold the map for a certain amount of time, work on it, then pass it on to the next person. I tell you all this because I was recently skimming through my old maps directory, and came across my version of the second pass me around map. From memory, I believe @@Pande had the latest version at the point where we quit, but I'm not 100% sure, I don;t even know if he's still around or whether he still has it. Now, there is a point to all this ranting. I would like to use this topic to gauge any potential interest of people willing to participate in a similar project on these forums (either continuing this map, as I'm sure we can arrange permission for, or start anew) I have no clue how many mappers hang around JKHUB, and it might not be at all feasible, but I did not want to let this potential gem of a map die without effort. Please let me know if you feel this might be a nice idea, and are willing to contribute (no matter your skill level). I'm not sure if anyone is in contact with pande (I noticed a pande account@@JKHub, so I hope it's the same one ) as I'm sure he could provide some screenshots, as I only have an older version, but I, for one, would love to see this finished. edit: Volunteers up to this point (18-01) -Szico -Pande -Mr Wonko, perhaps with some time restraints -Moondog -Twinhits -Magsul -MUG -Delta_135 -Exonimus -Silverfang:models (tiny chance of mapping too? ) -perhaps Minilogoguy for some side support? -Milamber for some not too demanding side stuff and general criticism.

I'm actually rather intrigued by this effect. According to my assets files, there's only an effects/world/waterfall3.efx, which looks like different (at least scaled up version) compared to this effect. It this a default or custom one? Also, I like the first few screenshots edit: we talked on xfire. The waterfall effect is from one of the bonus maps. The solution to your issue is probably changing some things about the angle/velocity in effectsed, as we discussed. I'm sure fellow mappers on here can answer any questions you might have after attempting the tutorial on nab's website