Kinda of looks like London Bridge but in space :).

I wouldn't say badmonkey is over the top with his praises at all. I can see the point about scaling down this map but to do so would be to destroy the gameflow that makes this map a treat. Due to its size, weapon placement is sparse, meaning you will need to work to get and hold a weapon. due to their positioning the rail gun and rocket launcher are the hardest weapons to get - especially considering other players will be trying to stop you from getting them, effectively disbling them from overpowering the game. You will be hard pressed to build up a frag count by just camping on them as they are exposed without health or ammo and other players can always take their game in the protection of the main building when this happens. Placing the mh on the bridge attracts players to this area. Ammo and health placed inside the building will mean once you are carrying a weapon you are going to want to head here and the precarious placement of quad and ya means a player will think twice before getting either of these things. At first glance the quad side platform appears underutilised, but given the bouncepads to the RG and RL are here + the personal teleport - well there just isn't a criticism here. Very well thought out.

Edited: 02 Aug 2008 AEST

I enjoyed the map but didn't like the railgun placement (I prefer it to be more central or at least symetrical). This was my only real gripe as it is easier to get the RG from one side of the map than the other (if my memory serves me correctly). Apologies if I'm wrong as I downloaded this map a while ago. Worth getting tho' as is fun for a few sessions.

This map has a good layout but would have better game play if it was scaled back by 1/3. It was just a bit too big- making the railgun the only weapon worth using, and there's only one on the map.

For what it is, this map has some fun moments...and Hr.O took some care here...no doubt. I look forward to his future stuff. Never give in to the eyecandy crowd if you want your map to actually be played! :)

Yes well if my name was Octavius that comment might be relevant (why the bloody hell does everyone do that? Oh well. I'm not really angry by the way, so don't take that the wrong way.)

I don't in general complain about the lack of "eye candy" in a level. Certainly, once it reaches the point of this level (fine looking but maybe not special) I couldn't care less. Whereas some people want the visuals to add to a map, I only care that they don't detract from my experience in it. And they certainly didn't here.

I was much more trying to point out some things BadMonkey didn't mention. Nothing that should make you not download the map, but merely tone down the "A must have!" comment. Probably for space fans, but all q3 players? I mean A Kiss of Death got a less warm review (so you don't take any offense...Jax_Gator is one of my all time favorite mappers).

Anyways, that's all meant in good taste. Well worth your while to download this if you even remotely like space maps, and probably you could get it anyway. BadMonkey just needs to get his compliments under control :-)

-Octovus

P.S. Re the R-speeds comment: That's true, but the mapper has to take this into account. Its up to you what detail level you produce, and if the layout/brush/entity-count of your map inhibits detail, that's a decision design-wise as much as anything. Not that, as I hope I've made clear, I care much for detail anyways.

ohh well a word from myself won't hurt i think.

First off all, thanks for d-loading, trying and giving you opinion. I realy appreciate it.

Few notes to be made though,

Yup you are right on the part that imho the reviewer was a bit over the top. He probably got the same blaze as me on this map hehe, let me explain a bit: I made this map mostly based on my experience with game-play, i play the game for fun as in low skills, bots started to give me a hard time on "hurt me plenty" that made me happy :-)

Second, erm the detail-and stuff, well heh, i confess, i'm still not to good at that (heck i'm learning, most of my learning experience till now was dedicated to get technicaly better and weew... For the non-mappers amongst you: that ain't easy. Besides, i think i found a style now, and erm... don't expect too much detail from me, i somehow like it cool and clean :-p.

And that brings my to the final point, the design limitations. If you, ao. Octavius had taken a look at the map with the r_speeds 1 command, it would have given you an idea of how far i went as in trying to add more and more eye-candy. It's simply hitting a ceiling (some places are round 10K- triangles, while 6-8K are normal for quake3 maps) heck, q3dm17 wasn't fullvised while this one is (saved me 2K-triangles so it was worth the extra wait)

My thanks to you are great, men i feel famous now :-) and thanks

Hr.O

and now get me some f movies of you making some interresting strafe-jumps (see title of map :-p)

I agree the map is ok. Pretty good for a first map, definately. But it's certainly not the amazing map that the reviewer made it out to be. I've been seeing a lot of bad reviews lately on lvl. And what I mean by bad, is that BadMonkey isn't being objective. A good review will state the good, AND the bad about any map. And hes not doing that. I'm not putting down LVL because I love this site, but I would just appreciate more honest and objective reviews in the future. :(

I agree with Octovus that the reviewer did not mention some of the not so good things about the map, and perhaps leading people to downloading a map which they expected better of and perhaps be harsh on the scoring for e.g.?

If you are a space fan, this is a map for you. Open space, blocky buildings that try very hard not to get in your way.

Although the comments about ammo and bot play are valid, I don't think that is easily solved for a map this big. Bots are usually very bad on space maps imo anyway.

Similarly the 'gap' does not have to be breached by jump pads or the bridge, you can actually strafe jump across.

Things that could improve, perhaps more vertical gameplay. Two levels with one of them being a thin strip might not work well for many players, and have more texture variation. Picmip 5 players are very unlikley to see more than two colours in the whole map.

Overall though, a well designed first level, well thought out with the aspects of 'fun' and 'different' largly dominating the design. I will definitley look forward to any space map that comes from HrO in the future

I remember this one, I dl'd one of your betas but I'm not sure if gaved you any feedback on it. It played pretty good in that beta so I'm going to dl the full version.

Congrats for the great review Hr.O!

Long time in the making paying off

Kudos

Solid flow

Smooth, simple (in a good way :)) construction

Ideal for CTF-conversion? ;)

Good job Hr.O, I had a feeling about this one. That bridge quad combo is WAY scary.

hey, way to go HRO! I played this map WAAY back in its early beta. Feels good to release your first map, eh? :)

Marking the first time I have played everyone one of the levels in an update (with the exception of Fast Baby)...here's some comments.

This map is very fun! Be warned, however, that it is very plain looking. The bridge is an inventive idea, but it's quite easy to get knocked off. Play with a good railgunner and getting between the two platforms, as the fairly thing bridge or an aerial method are your only choices. The inner rooms on one side are essentially a conglomeration of ammo and health, which detracts a lot from the inventiveness on the whole a lot. Bots also act pretty weird.

It's a cool level, but pretty basic. Definitely worth checking out...I just think the review kinda failed to mention any criticisms, so there's my thoughts! An 8 from me.

-Octovus