Date: April 9, 2000 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Title: Grazer Station Filename: map-jlctf1.pk3 Game: Quake 3 CTF Author: Joel Baxter (aka Johnny Law) Previous work: None (awww, his first map... how cute...) Email: **email removed**; if that fails: **email removed** URL: **invalid URL** Thanks to: - The denizens of the QBoard and the Quake3World level editing forum, for advice and entertainment. - Iikka Keränen, for the IkbaseQ3 texture set. - Justin Fisher, for the groovy skybox images. - David "Zoid" Kirsch, for Q3 Threewave CTF textures and shaders, and of course for popularizing CTF. - The original author of the Q1 Threewave CTF bolt-and- hammer logos, Brian "Whaleboy" Cozzens. - Mike Jackman (author of TexMex) and Ty Matthews & Neal White III (authors of Wally) for tools for getting the bolt-and-hammer logos into a usable file format. - El Santo Negro of Clan Plaid for taking those old logos and making the "nostalgia logo" panel textures used in the bases. - Dave Eaton II, author of NPherno's MD3 Compiler (which I used to modify the spotlight models). - The various authors of the GIMP (GNU Image Manipulation Program), especially Tor Lillqvist for the Windows port. - Clan Plaid for being my "gaming support group". - Everyone who gave me feedback. I'll probably leave someone out (sorry!), but in alphabetical order that includes altrdst8, Btbl, Cornelius, DrZuess, Frenchy, Kala, keditok, nix, Matt Simpson, and Sliver. Gracias. - Shadowdane for help with sound file format conversion. - Of course, Robert Duffy, Paul Jaquays, and the rest of id software. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ * Play information * Deathmatch: Can be fun sniping a truckload of bots CTF: Yes, 8-14 total players recommended Bot skirmish support: Yes, although please see jlctf1-bots-readme.txt To install, place the pk3 file in your baseq3 folder. If you wish to try the map out alone or with bots, you can access it through the in-game Skirmish menu in CTF or FFA mode. (Alternately, you can start the map with the command "\map jlctf1" in the console, after setting g_gametype to 0 for FFA or 4 for CTF.) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ * Random comments * Setting: A small planetoid towed into low Jupiter orbit to host a communications and supplies relay post for researchers; abandoned for decades, and with tidal stresses causing dangerous core heating, it's not exactly an OSHA-approved work environment anymore... but it'll do for a game of CTF! Design notes: Here's what I was trying to do with this map. Who knows if I succeeded, but this might explain some things you notice about the map: - First, I was disappointed with the simplicity of the original Q3CTF maps. As someone who was "raised" playing CTF on the Quake 1 singleplayer maps, I wanted a map that took longer than a few seconds to completely figure out. This is the result. Still a lot less complicated than some Q1 maps ("Ruins of NeoMinonk" for example), but more involved than, say, Q3CTF1. :-) - I wanted to make a map that had a little more subtle style than the baroque-techno and disco-dungeon looks prominent in Q3. - I tried to design a map that provides many options for offensive and especially defensive approaches, and one that encourages teams to spread out and find different roles if they have the manpower. - I wanted to reward team communication. - I wanted to prevent fast flag run routes, and balance risk and speed considerations among the routes. Flag routes shouldn't branch in ways that allow FCs to easily shake close pursuit. There should be bottlenecks in the connectivity between the two halves of the map. And a FC should not be able to effectively hide from the enemy team by staying in any one spot. (P.S. though I don't agree with all of the following doc, it's interesting: **invalid URL**) - I wanted to provide some situations that make weapons other than the RL attractive, but also some situations that encourage rocket-jumping. - I wanted to play with the fun features of Q3. :-) This includes visuals, of course, but also the way that the removal of the grapple and introduction of jumppads affect combat. Speaking of which, this map has not been tested with a grapple, and I can think of at least a few ways in which a grapple might be Bad News for gameplay here. Give it a try if you must, though... might work out OK for all I know. Player tips: Thanks for reading the readme. :-) In return, here's a data dump of useful factoids that might not be immediately obvious. (Probably best to skip this part for now then come back after you've had a look at the map.) - The ammo on the high center walkways is sometimes RL ammo, sometimes LG ammo. The powerup is sometimes Quad, sometimes Battle Suit. - There are a few places in the map that use a "force field" that is visible from only one side. It is always anchored to a certain texture that looks like a light fixture of sorts. You can shoot through the force field in either direction, but you cannot pass through it. If you try to approach it from the invisible side, you will just be blocked. If you approach it from the other side, you will either be blocked (at the tower trapdoor), bounced away (at the sides of the central enclosure), or vaporized (at the top of the central enclosure). Sorry it's not consistent, but anyway the point is no harm done unless you are trying to rocket jump onto the top of the central enclosure. - All doors throughout the map have the same "handle" graphic on them, and the same general texture. Once you've found one door, you now know what they all look like. All doors are two-way except for the door that allows you to drop down onto the RL. The other doors give you access to the basement and access to a little cache of Stuff in the flag room. - It doesn't hurt to look for ways to take shortcuts with strafe jumps and rocket jumps -- there are plenty. The only shortcut you REALLY need to know, however, is how to rocket jump from the outside area to a tower deck. This provides another base access route. Truly "leet" RJers might be able to do this in one forward jump from the ground below, or one backward jump from the nearest "spatula" elevated walkway, but I find that to be hit-or-miss. It's easier to do an RJ from the medium-sized cubical light fixture on the ground against the central enclosure wall. The fastest and most reliable way though is to do a low-impact RJ onto the roof of the "shed" that covers the drop-down to the RL, and then RJ from there to the deck. - In the tower, you'll find a trapdoor that opens to allow you to view the basement below. You can stand on, and shoot through, the force field that covers the opening. Anyone below can also shoot at you but they will not be able to see you. If you push the button on the far wall of the tower, a green light will appear around the trapdoor and the force field will release, allowing you to drop down into the basement (don't hit the lava!). The green light will turn red 2 seconds before the force field returns. Don't get caught halfway through the opening when the force field returns -- it's nasty. - One more note about the tower. On the way out to the sniper deck, you don't have to jump over the hole in the deck. Just run forward and the trim on the floor will pop you over the hole. - In the base, use the tilted jump pad just by running straight forward onto its lower part. Nothing fancy required. Sorry if you find this confusing at first... I had to cut back on the active area of this pad to avoid some "misfire" jumps. - The jump pads on the floor of the base can be used to reach the yellow armor or the flag if you're careful. Approach them from the side near the platform you're trying to reach, and as soon as they activate, press forward or backward to guide yourself away from the "natural" destination and toward the armor or flag. You'll probably need to strafe some too. This is tough... not sure if it's a useful trick "under fire". - Speaking of tough tricks, it's possible to strafe-jump from the flag platform onto the tilted jump pad. - If you hang around in the basement for a while, you'll hear and see some stuff happen. This is randomized a little so I wouldn't recommend trying to use this event to precisely time anything like powerup respawns. - Remember that in Q3, thin walls/floors transmit splash damage... - Finally, in case you didn't notice: there's more than one way out of the basement. Try the "elevator" at the back. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ * Map specs * Base: None; new map from scratch New sounds: One id sound modified for lower volume; three public domain sounds (modified a little) New graphics: Yes; see the credits above, plus textures and shaders created or modified by me Editor: Q3Radiant 1.81 and 1.97 Build time: A few minutes here & there spread over about 3 months Brush count: 3515 Entity count: 459 Max polygons in view: approx. 8000 * Imagelist size: approx. 3 Mtexels ** Compile machine: P3-733, 128 MB Compile time: approx. 6.5 hours * This is the max r_speeds value with gun display enabled, 3D icons, 3D items, and high detail geometry. ** This is the imagelist size at r_picmip 1 (2nd-highest texture quality). ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ * Known issues * There are four warning messages about G_PickTarget printed to the console when you start the map. I know exactly what the cause is, and in this particular case those messages are guaranteed harmless. There are some visual blurps here and there, mainly lighting mismatches that I can't seem to get rid of and minor cases of The Sparklies that don't respond to the usual treatment. Nothing you'll probably notice, so I won't tell where they are. :-) Sparklies seemed to increase after I switched to using the leaked 5.x NVidia reference drivers. May be driver problems, may be map problems, but not worth the trouble to worry about. If you examine the skybox closely you can see seams where the sides meet. This is NOT a fault of the excellent skybox images provided for me; this is, as far as I can tell, a problem with the Q3 engine. If you're a spectator and you try to go through the wind tunnel leading to the tower, there's a chance (for some reason) that you will be pushed "outside the map". You cannot block open the door over an RL drop-down. If you're standing there when it wants to close, it will chop up and down rapidly and you had best move elsewhere. This is an unavoidable consequence of making a reliable one-way door with Q3's slightly bogus doors-and-triggers features. It's fine with me I suppose... I don't really want players to be able to hold that door open anyway. Finally... the bots. Sigh. Check out jlctf1-bots-readme.txt if you want to play bot skirmishes (and if you would not rather be happy in your ignorance of the problems). :-) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ * Copyright / Permissions * All graphics and sounds in this archive remain property of their respective owners; they are used here with permission. The author reserves all rights to the contents of this archive (pk3 and text file) not superceded by prior claims and not waived in this document. The modified public domain sounds are an exception; they shall remain public domain. You may of course make this map available on a Q3 game server, and you may install it for a Q3 client to play the map alone or on a game server. You may make this archive available as a free download, or freely distribute it on some recording medium (such as a CD-ROM), provided that the entire contents of this archive are present and unmodified. If any fee is being charged for access, bandwidth, media cost, use of content, or any other purpose specifically related to the distribution of this archive, you MUST first contact the author and receive permission. You may not use this map as a base for creating other works without permission from the author. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Bots are functional in this map, but they're not too keen about a few things. First of all, there are two types of jumps that they do not understand. 1) The "express elevator" from the basement to the flagroom. 2) The jump from the flagroom to the tower. I have some ideas about tricking the bots into understanding these jumps to some extent, but it will require me either learning the .aas file format or getting my hands on the source code to bspc. I've been unable to get any information about id releasing that file format or source code, and I'm tired of waiting. So I'm releasing the map as-is. If at some point in the future I can improve the bots' behavior on this map, I'll release an add-on pk3 file with the new .aas file. Note that bots can still find an exit from every area in the map, and they can also find an entrance to every area except the tower. To get into the tower though, a bot has to spawn there (it can't figure out how to rocket jump up there). There are two other bot problems that are even less likely to be fixed. First, I'm pretty sure that bots don't understand how to get through the tower trapdoor, although I've seen them push the button. Second, there are some simple walkway-to-walkway jumps that bots will not do. For example, they refuse to jump to the flag platform as long as there's a route to get there without jumping. Which kinda sucks for the bots offensively. They also won't jump to the yellow armor in the flag room lobby (except for rocket jumps). I actually figured out a way to restructure the walkways so that they would make that jump if you commanded them to, but it made the walkways a bit odd for human players, and bots would still never do it on their own initiative. Which means of course that bots on the enemy team would never do it at all, as far as I could tell. So I un-did the change. When you're playing with bots, just consider that yellow armor "yours" I suppose. These issues mean that an all-bots team will be handicapped when playing against a team that has a human player (more than usual). This is not ideal, but I'm not going to mangle my map to the degree that would be necessary to make the bots happy. If you want to play CTF against bots on this map, you can still have a good game by adjusting other possible handicaps to compensate, like team size and bot difficulty. I also find that it's more fun if, when I'm the flag runner, I avoid using the jump-to-tower as an escape route from the enemy flag room... against bots that route is just way too easy, especially with small teams, since they can neither follow you nor (apparently) predict where you will be going. Bottom line: the map in general is just a little too complicated for the current Q3 bot technology. I may be able to improve the bot behavior at some future date. But the real solution, of course, is to play with people instead of bots. :-)