Map Face lift: Stage 1

I don't know why but I always like to think of making structural changes to something in 3d as a "face lift" or re constructional surgery. I think it started when I had to remodel a character's face, and I literally cut off the nose, made a new one in its place, and welded the vertices back in. Anyways back on topic. My goal is to release alpha 5 by friday. The first 3 days of the week will be spent rebuilding each stage back to the needed quality for playtesting. With the rest of the time spent checking the map for any glitches, lighting issues, or whatever I can find that isn't major. If all goes to plan I will post a short series of screenshots of what is different or new from the previous version. Today, my focus is on stage 1.

The Problems

Player navigation was confusing and the space between the upper and lower area's didn't flow well from one to the other. Also players we unsure of where their cart was at the start of the round.

Before


After


This image best illustrates the change made. The entire area is now in the open. In the first screenshot the tunnel at the lower left hand part of the screen was the only path (other than via spawn) to get from the bottom to the top. Also players who jumped down from the upper area to the lower area took fall damage upon landing. The middle building breaking up the openness of the area effectively contains an elevator for the cart. This allows me to place track in the lower area, hopefully giving players an extra visual cue that their cart is in that area. An elevator also provides a logical method to get the cart from the lower level to the upper level.

Before


After


The entire geometry of the area is now different. I removed the entire building in the area and replaced it with open space. Needless to say the "skyline" of the area is completely different and new now.

Before


After


From a distance you can see the track for your teams cart and that there is more to that area than the original design.

Before

After


This is in the shared middle area. The old design was more or less a place holder that hid the gate as it opened at the start of the round. The new one is mostly the same size, it now looks a little less awkward.

Thats it for today. Stage 2 progress should be up tomorrow. :D