Well, I came up with a map idea that I thought would be really cool but unforetunately, I can't make it since I don't know anything about how to use UnrealEd. But decided I should share. Maybe someday when I get the time I can sit down and watch the 3dbuzz UnrealEd tutorials I have on DVD. Here's the map.
Its very highly influenced from two of my favorite CTF maps from UT2004, Grassknoll and DoubleDammage. Its a basic idea. One can dream, right?
Well that relieves me! When I first opened an UnrealEd program several years ago, I couldn't even figure out how to make a simple room. Closed it and never looked back but now I feel that I could give it a solid shot with these DVDs. Once I figure it out this will be the first place I make a WIP thread on my map. Any advice on the general design of the map though, especially on the building interiors? Seems kinda empty to me.
Especially if you're using static meshes, mapping is easy.
You need more than one bridge or jumppads to connect the two "upper corridors" of each side and some mighty pickup on the bridge (Udamage, Berserk, health keg, Redeemer). One path is restricting in CTF maps that are not made with a 1on1 concept in mind.
I learnt how to map by watching some of the vids off the collectors Edition. I didn't watch all of them. Just the first few to get me started. The one main thing the vids don't teach you is Terrain. Hourenses has a good tutorial on using terrain though!
I learnt pretty much the majority of it myself and through analyzing Epic's maps in the first Unreal Tournament (UEd2.0), later reused that learning concept with UT2004 (UEd3) and now UT3. UT3 is the most tricky UEd imo, simply because of Kismet. Kismet requires getting used to it, before I did everything through Special Events, Dispatchers, Scripted Triggers and such (UE1 and UE2) and movers were really much easier to do, now everything of that kind is done through Kismet. :/ For complex stuff that just took too much time to learn it myself, I used the tutorials at unrealed.info (German UEd-related site, great tutorial collection!).
Yes, a bit like that. Just make it two bridges instead of one or put a mighty pickup on the bridge and use jumppads at each end of the vertical "corridor" to throw the player from one side of the river to the other. To get the pickup, you will have to walk longer (being shot to the other side with a jumppad is faster after all) and you are an easier target, even if you use the translocator because you make your path longer. A superweapon would be worth the risk.
Kismet is (in fact) a modelling programming language inside Unreal Editor 4/Unreal Engine 3. It is supposed to remove the "troubles" with Scripted Triggers (and back then with dispatchers) and is made for easy and effective creation of events within a map.
You can control interpolation actors (moving objects, like lifts, doors and co, back then called movers - you will notice I prefer to name them with their old name as it was more direct), sounds, the dynamic music, the HUD, the camera, even properties of certain things through it and play animations with Kismet. It's a nice tool and usually not that hard to use for average mapping, unless you sit down at a single player map that has lots of events or a map that is made with complex events in mind and that's where it also has its negative side imo.
Personally, I think it just made simple stuff like movers and dynamic light in UE3 unnecessary complex (compared to UE1 and 2) seeing as matinee-based movers/interpolation actors are not really always necessary and how fast one was able to set their options in the previous engines compared to the Kismet trouble.
It's fairly easy to get into it if one knows what one wants to achieve and if one has enough time to become familiar with its nodes/actions though. It's not nearly as "annoying" as Uscript, it's just a little program inside UEd4 that lets you connect actions in a "connect the dots manner", so don't worry. You will find some tutorials on Kismet on the internet, very sure.
Other than that, it doesn't seem to be needed in your map, so don't worry about it.
-- Edited by Sly. on Friday 14th of December 2012 02:50:25 AM
Especially if you're using static meshes, mapping is easy.
You need more than one bridge or jumppads to connect the two "upper corridors" of each side and some mighty pickup on the bridge (Udamage, Berserk, health keg, Redeemer). One path is restricting in CTF maps that are not made with a 1on1 concept in mind.
Thanks for the advice! So should I kind of make it like FacingWorlds][ in the middle?
@Lord_PorkSword: I will look into Hourenses tutorial. Thanks!
Yes, a bit like that. Just make it two bridges instead of one or put a mighty pickup on the bridge and use jumppads at each end of the vertical "corridor" to throw the player from one side of the river to the other. To get the pickup, you will have to walk longer (being shot to the other side with a jumppad is faster after all) and you are an easier target, even if you use the translocator because you make your path longer. A superweapon would be worth the risk.
Kismet is (in fact) a modelling programming language inside Unreal Editor 4/Unreal Engine 3. It is supposed to remove the "troubles" with Scripted Triggers (and back then with dispatchers) and is made for easy and effective creation of events within a map.
You can control interpolation actors (moving objects, like lifts, doors and co, back then called movers - you will notice I prefer to name them with their old name as it was more direct), sounds, the dynamic music, the HUD, the camera, even properties of certain things through it and play animations with Kismet. It's a nice tool and usually not that hard to use for average mapping, unless you sit down at a single player map that has lots of events or a map that is made with complex events in mind and that's where it also has its negative side imo.
Personally, I think it just made simple stuff like movers and dynamic light in UE3 unnecessary complex (compared to UE1 and 2) seeing as matinee-based movers/interpolation actors are not really always necessary and how fast one was able to set their options in the previous engines compared to the Kismet trouble.
It's fairly easy to get into it if one knows what one wants to achieve and if one has enough time to become familiar with its nodes/actions though. It's not nearly as "annoying" as Uscript, it's just a little program inside UEd4 that lets you connect actions in a "connect the dots manner", so don't worry. You will find some tutorials on Kismet on the internet, very sure.
Other than that, it doesn't seem to be needed in your map, so don't worry about it.
-- Edited by Sly. on Friday 14th of December 2012 02:50:25 AM
So if I was to have a really complex indoor map with lifts and doors thats when I would need it? I'm not planning on having any of the in my map so I guess I don't need to know it just yet.
Any advice on the general design of the map though, especially on the building interiors? Seems kinda empty to me.
