KF-OilRigSubstation

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ArmyofSlayer

FNG / Fresh Meat
Dec 10, 2015
4
0
0
Had a full 10 round playthrough with 6 players great playing map just one thing you might want to look at when we all stayed in the sub room the zeds spawned pretty slow but if we did not stay in that room spawned fine great looking map good work
 

sander_cohen

FNG / Fresh Meat
Dec 23, 2015
17
0
0
Hey thank you so much for setting it up on your server and playing it. It means a lot to me when people help me out like that.

Your feedback is much appreciated and I will look into the sub area.
Thank you!
 

ZerrethDotCom

FNG / Fresh Meat
Jan 21, 2016
38
1
0
Bruges, Belgium
www.zerreth.com
This is one GIANT map :)

feedback time:

There are a lot of very large hallways, but they feel kind of empty & slightly maze-like. Try adding more details like ventilation & pipes overhead. Maybe some support beams etc. Half-Life 1 comes to mind where there were colored pipes going from the central ignition chamber to all the separate areas. Adding stuff like that grounds you in the world and gives you a trail to follow and something to communicate to your teammates.

Also try to break up very long straight sections. Put a forklift in there, some crates or slant the wallway up/down or curve it a bit. That will help take away the DOOM style level design.

Lighting wise, try to strategically think of light as a way to guide the player, removing light from dead ends & adding light near a doorway or stairs.

The boring way to light a room is to just add ceiling lights and have uniform lighting all over the place. Try to think of certain things / setpieces you want to highlight. A generic design rule when distributing light: try to have the play area lit up 75%, the walls 50%, the ceiling 25% and setpieces & escape routes 100%.

Visually also try to place "filler" lights as a way to simulate radiosity aka bounced light. UDK Lightmass used to do this automatically, but tripwire has replaced the lighting system and now you have to do it manually, old school UT3 UDK days :)

There are also some sections of your map that are completely pitch black. So when your flashlight runs out, you can't see anything. That can be a deliberate gameplay choice, but I would add some very slight fog so that you can at least see some silhouettes of the enemies around you.

( In general, Left 4 Dead 2 is a fantastic showcase for great level design. )

Zed spawn wise, because of the long hallways without any nooks or crannies, zeds need to walk a long straight path towards you. This can lead to an entire wave just walking in one long line towards you. KF2 usually despawns zeds and respawns them in a spawnzone nearby, but cannot do this when you see the zed from a mile away. (this is where the crooked & broken up gameplay wise hallways would help a lot)

Some small bits:
There is a texture missing on the ceiling at the base of one of the stairs.
Some weapons and grenades in the racks are missing textures.

I really like the giant submarine. I would take that element and treat it like the central hub of your map.

Phew... that was a mouthful :) I'm interested in seeing how this map develops. ;)

Technical stuff: Yes precomputed visibility is a b*tch, it takes 4-5 hours to do a full rebuild on my map with my computer, and I was forced to dramatically reduce my overclock on my CPU as it fully stresses my CPU to the max beyond anything else. I usually build it overnight while I'm sleeping for public releases, but when testing with friends I don't bother with it.
 
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sander_cohen

FNG / Fresh Meat
Dec 23, 2015
17
0
0
Hey thank you so much for this huge feedback. It means a lot to me when I get help.

The lighting idea sounds great, I will look into it. The breakdown of the long hallways should be no real problem. But I think it would be just to much for me too somehow reconstruct the map to make the Submarine the central hub ot the map.

But I totaly understand your points and can agree on each one of them. I learned so much during creation and now with all the feedback I think I am prepared for future projects.:)

I would love to look into every suggestion that you made right now and update the map as soon as possible. But unfortunately I have to learn a lot for upcoming exams, so most things will probably get looked at after the exams (end of march:().

So thank you for your time to play my map and write this detailed feedback! It helps a lot!
 

ZerrethDotCom

FNG / Fresh Meat
Jan 21, 2016
38
1
0
Bruges, Belgium
www.zerreth.com
But I think it would be just to much for me too somehow reconstruct the map to make the Submarine the central hub of the map.

...

But unfortunately I have to learn a lot for upcoming exams, so most things will probably get looked at after the exams (end of march:().

Yeah it's a bit close to the deadline if you don't have the time for it, I think tripwire would have benefited to have scheduled this competition in the summer vacation, instead of right in the middle of the exams. I know that a lot of students in gamedev in my old school would have definitely entered if it weren't for their exams. (which are quite a lot of work and can get pretty crazy when doing projects/prototypes in teams of 4)

I'm kind of surprised that there does not seem to be a lot of people or anyone really from the polycount community entering this competition. Could be that they're in stealth mode and at the last minute drop a bombshell of a map :)

Anyways, good luck with the exams. I'm so glad that I've graduated and don't have to endure that ever again :D
 

sander_cohen

FNG / Fresh Meat
Dec 23, 2015
17
0
0
UPDATE:

Hey there, I updated the map and want to share the changes I made.
- Precomputed Visibility was added
- More detail and break down of longer floors
- More spawns in the submarine area
- map a little bit brighter

Also that was the last update for some time now. I really took every moment I could to squeeze in these changes but now I really have to learn for my exams. So if you still notice anything wrong with the map, tell me though it might be that I will not update for a month now.

I also have a question. At the end of January I filled out the Entry-Form for the contest and I had to put a link in it that allows the developers to download the SDK-Version of the map. How can I update this link to the new version I made?
 

sander_cohen

FNG / Fresh Meat
Dec 23, 2015
17
0
0
Thank you for your kind words. I really enjoyed building the map and would love to make other maps. I already have some ideas.:)