Map Concept

[Higor]

Software SS on the back side of the cave.



Behind the blast door there should be a core, and stepping on the platform would expose it (making it rise), the platform will emit purple beam as indicator it is enabled.

Those two boxes hold containers, placing one inside would trigger special functions, as said before, those would be quick respawn and platform disabling.

EDIT: The trigger works for both teams, defenders can rise their core to prevent it from being hit with chainsaws.

[Higor]

These are the high corners where the tunnels that go to the underground river start.



It will be a long way down, and any part of the mountain makes a potentially good spot for teleporters.

It is a single brush with 267 faces.

There is intention of seamlessly connecting the brushes in all 8 directions, this means 5 of them will be part of the sky zone.
The sky zone info marker will auto adjust it's position to simulate a single seamless terrain that perfectly connects with the terrain from the play zone.
For more info about this feature, see here: http://www.ut99.org/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=3809

[Higor]

See the full image for better details.
Second terrain brush made, 215 faces.



The red square is where the portal exits will be placed.

There will be shallow water above the dirt textured ground.

The minimap should illustrate what parts of the map these represent.

PD: Already coded the core attacher.

[|uK|Grimreaper]

can i provide u with adobe photoshop ? :P

[AuSSiE^uK]

Ooo, watching this closely

Very nice work

[|uK|Cube]

Wich programs are you using besides UT editor?

[.seVered.][]

Wich programs are you using besides UT editor?

Would you beleive me if I told you, NOTEPAD!

[|uK|Cube]

I would but i'm talking about programs wich are not standard for mapping thus ( Photoshop, GIMP, UTED, Notepad )

[Higor]

So far I haven't used custom textures, yet, so no texture image programs so far.

But since you're asking, I use these sets of programs:
Pallete making: Wally (ancient HL .PAK and .WAD editor), then export these into Photoshop palletes, honestly, it's far more useful for custom gradient palletes than the others.
Image making/mixing: Photoshop 7, newer versions don't offer much and this one is lightweight.
Quick image converting: GIMP, allows to save into the .PCX format UnrealEd uses to import without affecting the pallete.
Font making: UnrealEd, 'TRUETYPEFONTFACTORY'.
Font hacking: Photoshop 7 to make the custom image (based on original image).
Font hacking: XVI32, hex edit both the font's image and pallete into the custom one, with this, I can make smooth, black colored, transparent fonts using STY_Modulated drawing style (black letters, grey background).
Package hacking: UTPT, shows me where to hex edit a package (or map), can even decompile .U packages.
Gizmo Manager: Coding outside of UnrealEd, self written batch scripts to generate text files, mostly related to maps' T3D files.
Modelling: MilkShape3D, Sculptris (rarely used), Blender (format conversion, supports nearly every 3D format).

In this map, the special code is done in UnrealEd and the brushwork is a combination of 2D shape editor and Notepad, which is properly explained here.
In this case, I make lots of different shapes, and form the brush surfaces one by one, this is an even more complex method used than in the UT99 post I've developed right as I worked in this map.

Steps:
-
Surfaces facing the sky:
Create simple shapes using 2D shape editor, they have to be made taking into consideration the final 3d form, even if you progress by 5 polygons per addition, it's a slow work.
Add the shape in 'SHEET' mode, make sure it has no rotation or scaling applied to it, then do 'TRANSFORM > MIRROR ABOUT Z', because those shapes are facing down.
NOTE > ALL SHAPES ADDED FROM 2D SHAPE EDITOR FACE DOWN.
With the mirroning, they face upwards, now move the brush to a preset origin location (0,0,0) is recommended, you know the brush is on 0,0,0 because it's clickable dot (which is not connected to any surface) is there.
If you want to move the entire brush, do it using VERTEX EDIT, the brush center dot MUST ALWAYS BE AT (0,0,0).
Vertex editing explained here
Now repeat the step until you made a nice set of (0,0,0) centered shapes, all connected, facing upwards and forming a nice rectangle from the top view.
NOTE > WHEN VERTEX EDITING, ALL THE SCALING AND ROTATION PROPERTIES ARE RESET TO 0, WHICH IS A SIMILAR EFFECT TO 'TRANSFORM PERMANENTLY'.
-
Surfaces completing the brush (sides and below).
Choose one of the 4 sides, make a shape with 3 sides (down,left,right) and with the top sides divided by N points (being N the amount of points to connect with the main ground shape).
Add the shape, knowing it faces downwards you must rotate it until it matches the dots you must connect and the low sides.
Move the shape to the preset origin (0,0,0) in this case, and vertex edit it until it matches the dots, also shape the lower points (which aren't connected to the top shape) so that it makes somewhat a cube, as seen in the screenshots).
Do the same with the remaining 3 sides, and the lower surface which would only be a square.
Now if you notice one of the side shapes is deformed due to high deformations in the main shape, you can either make the lower 2 points higher or lower, or remake the side shape with an extra point on the lower surface.
-
Select all brushes that together make the whole terrain, make sure it doesn't go beyond 1000 polys..., copy them, paste into notepad.
In notepad:
You'll see a lot of actors, if you properly (0,0,0) centered them, the simply copy the surfaces from all the brushes into a single brush.
Then remove the FLAG=8 or FLAG=WHATEVER property on each surface to make it solid.
The result is one brush with all the faces, delete the other brushes, make sure you don't erase the BEGIN MAP and END MAP on the document.
Copy all the text, paste back into the editor, you now should have a complex brush.

About the seamless skybox, that will be explained later...

[Higor]

Finished the remaining square, now that should be exactly a quarter of the map, given the map's symmetry it's half the work.


On that flat grass patch (and a little further close) should be the red minibase, which has a tunnel that ends right above the base's portal.
Decided to make the minibase spot a little closer to the red portal in the middle patch to make taking this minibase harder for the attackers.

The mountain on the right might seem like a good place to make a teleporter... until you see that cliff on the left between the mountain and what would be the red portal.
That cliff also has the purpose of support location for snipers trying to defend the minibase location, this way, defenders don't actually have to go through the river to reach the minibase spot and defend it.

Edit:
Forgot to mention the little hill there, that is a nice spot to hide when there's too many snipers on the cliff, and will have a little cave inside...