The Oilrig [W.I.P.]

Post GTA1/GTA2 maps here (finished and work in progress).
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JohnTooray
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The Oilrig [W.I.P.]

Post by JohnTooray »

Update: 2014-11-02

Hi there,

a few days / weeks ago i started making a map set on an oilrig. Sadly I don't have the time to finish/test it at the moment. But I don't want to drop it because I like the concept. So I decided to release it as work in progress. Maybe someone likes to continue my work.

Oh, and don't bother me for the textures. I originally intended to make a custom sty File mixed from bil, wil and ste, plus some custom textures and animations (the fire for example). Maybe I will do that in a month or so, if time allows.

cheers,
JohnTooray


Screenshots and download:
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2014-11-2
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Last edited by JohnTooray on 02 Nov 2014, 11:53, edited 5 times in total.
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Re: The Oilrig [W.I.P.]

Post by BenMillard »

Have you seen Pyro's level called Battlezone? That made me think an oilrig would be a great setting for a GTA2 level and I've wanted to build one for ages.

This looks like a good start. The size and geometry of this level is decent. It's likely to become a playable and popular arena level. Very few new maps actually manage to reach that level, so I hope you continue with this one.

I would always recommend using the original textures for new levels. The Industrial District from GTA2 uses bil.sty and has a huge variety of power infrastructure, warehouse buildings and metal frameworks. They all look good and most of them will 'mix and match' neatly.

It's wasted effort to spend ages making beautiful levels if they don't play well. So many modders make that mistake and the result is their levels are rarely played. I have to say the current use of textures is too patchy and that will distract from the gameplay.

Pick one building style and use it consistently across the level. It may look boring in the editor but it means players can focus on the gameplay. It lets you make lots of refinements and try radical layouts without it taking much time.

Successful GTA2 levels are usually the result of 5 complete rebuilds, sometimes even more. So be prepared for that if you want to make this into a classic level - I think it has the potential.

(EDIT) Elypter and I play-tested this a couple of times. It's already playing well, very intense!

It rewards clever aiming and fast weapon switching, a bit like Vedic Temple. Some areas are 'dead zones' and the underfloor walkways are not that helpful. Also the boat is not really used and Invisibility is a bit of a lame reward. Low fences should let you shoot through them.

But overall the geometry is excellent, especially like the hole in the middle and jumping on/off/between rooves. Neaten the texture work and then I'd recommend everyone give this a try.
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Re: The Oilrig [W.I.P.]

Post by Sektor »

There's also 57th Street Drilling Vessel but that looks more like a warehouse than an oil rig.
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Re: The Oilrig [W.I.P.]

Post by elypter »

I built deep water, i thought i posted it here some day in the past, and deep source could maybe also seen as oilrig.

http://gta2dare.omnitude.net/_maplump/_ ... /bc_dw.jpg
http://gta2dare.omnitude.net/_image/06_ ... dsv2.0.jpg

edit: images too large
yur sa'nok ngeyä
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Re: The Oilrig [W.I.P.]

Post by BenMillard »

Would be nice to have a CRANE sticking out over the water, as scenery.

Player start points could be in a ring on top of the helipad with their backs to each other? That would create a "face off" situation at the start of the level. That has a unique range of tactical choices given the automatically assigned weapons, availability of Double Damage, proximity of water and running away on the lower level.
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Re: The Oilrig [W.I.P.]

Post by Sektor »

It would be better without invisibility.
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Re: The Oilrig [W.I.P.]

Post by Cuban-Pete »

I'm smelling a MW2 mission, but I like the smell. ;)
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Re: The Oilrig [W.I.P.]

Post by BenMillard »

Will you be working on this level any more, John? It could become popular.
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Re: The Oilrig [W.I.P.]

Post by JohnTooray »

Yeah, I'm still working on it, but at the moment I have no windows driven laptop. And with ubuntu it's just not fun... not to mention that the mispad compiler is not working with wine. (or I'm just to stupid :? )

But expect a new release within maybe one or two weeks ;)


cheers,
JohnT.
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Re: The Oilrig [W.I.P.]

Post by JohnTooray »

Update!

The main changes are:
- map is now using bil.sty
- the boat has moved to the north side // added the requested crane ;)
- slightly changed the gangways under the platform.
- added some pipes so that you have at least two ways to get off the boat

Have I forgotten something? Oh jeah! Removed invisibility ;)


cheers,
JohnT.
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Re: The Oilrig [W.I.P.]

Post by BenMillard »

It looks way better with the new textures! Here are some more detailed observations:
  1. If you rename oilrig_bil_overview.jpg to oilrig.jpg it will be the preview image in Game Hunter.
  2. You forgot to optimise the .gmp file.
  3. Description in the .mmp is actually the title of the level. It should say Oil Rig, not A battle on an old oilrig. I hope to open the .mmp file to find what it was called in the list of levels!
  4. Short fences should allow weapons to pass through them.
  5. The tunnels are not really useful and just make the level confusing.
  6. There was nothing on the boat so why would I ever go there, now? Maybe put Electrogun on it.
  7. The highest spots don't seem to have anything on them in the North and North-West.
  8. Water animation is too fast. Try using a frame delay of 3 instead of 1.
  9. A bit monotonous with so many buildings using the same green roof.
  10. Central drilling tower wrapped in a supporting frame is well made.
  11. Pipes from Armour to central tower could use part of an 8:1 slope, making it vulnerable to good Molotov shots.
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Re: The Oilrig [W.I.P.]

Post by JohnTooray »

Thanks for the suggestions, Ben!
  1. Ok, will be fixed with next release
  2. Well it IS optimised with TMs Editor. Don't know, why it is still this big. Maybe it's a problem with the optimizer.
  3. Will be fixed.
  4. Narf! I have actually done this before, but it got messed up again changing the .sty-File. Will be fixed.
  5. Don't know at the moment. I think with more than two or three players they may get more useful. But I have not really playtested that.
  6. Well, actually there is something on the boat: player 6 starts there. And there is a restart zone.
  7. At the moment that's right. The problem is, that placing something on those roofs benefits only player 1 and player 2 (i think).
  8. Will be fixed.
  9. Yeah, there is still some improvement possible.
  10. Thank you!
  11. Will be done!
It may last awhile again. My girlfriend is working out of town for a week again taking her laptop with her.
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Re: The Oilrig [W.I.P.]

Post by JohnTooray »

Ok, just a quick update before the Laptop is gone. See my post above for changes.
As for the .gmp optimisation: Now it works again. Either there was something wrong with oilrig.gmp or I'm just stupid.

cheers,
JohnT.
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Re: The Oilrig [W.I.P.]

Post by JohnTooray »

Well... Update!

Nearly one and a half year later. But... whatever :D

After some nice rounds with two friends of mine I came up with some changes:

1) reduced/changed underground gangways for a faster gameplay
2) added pipes and changed position of the kevlar to make the two high buildings in the north more useful
3) repositioned the second heart (to the boat). In the last version it didn't even show up... There is some weirdness going on with the script compiler...
4) possibly some other changes, which I made long time ago and don't remember ;)

so far...
JT
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Re: The Oilrig [W.I.P.]

Post by BenMillard »

Downloaded but won't have time to review right now. Am going to a Scalextric club tonight, back about midnight. Might get a chance to review tomorrow.

You've done the right thing by continuing to improve a level which was already a good start. This definitely had the potential to become a frequently played deathmatch arena in Game Hunter.

(EDIT) Played it with Ibiza_Driver and got a big win but it wasn't really fun. The infinite weapons are good for testing but a more conventional arrangement, where each player respawns a single good weapon, would encourage people to use more of the map.

I think it might be too big. The buildings are certainly too big, they just get in the way and annoy the gameplay.

Central drilling tower should be solid! Shooting straight through something so bulky is lame. It looks like it offers cover and that will make the central area more rewarding during battles.

45° edge on South-West of helipad creates a solid wall beneath it. It's nice to have a somewhat round helipad but the solidity glitch is too lame.

The doorway from boat is extremely vulnerable to Flamethrower from the sides. Flamer is very strong in this level.

Molotovs were quite useful in this level; please keep them. Some changes to the buildings would make them balance the flamethrower.

Rocket Launcher got more kills than Flamethrower at the start of the game. We only discovered how deadly Flamethrower is towards the end of the game. One of my last frags was using the Rocket Launcher, I managed to kill Ibiza_Driver just after he dropped down and started spraying Flamethrower. I jumped just after I shot and was quick enough to dodge the few flames he had thrown at me. Phew!

So overall it still has potential and there are some fun moments already. I really want to make my own Oil Rig level; it would be quite close to how your one is. So I'm happy to keep waiting for you to improve this level further...for now!

Don't make me wait about 1.5 years though.
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Re: The Oilrig [W.I.P.]

Post by BenMillard »

I'm often getting sync errors immediately when this level starts. Do you have an extremely rapid flashing light in Dusk mode or something?
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Re: The Oilrig [W.I.P.]

Post by JohnTooray »

Allright,

tried to adress some of your complaints:

I placed weapon generators and changed the infinite weapon script to pistols only (for the moment - had no time to test it yet).
The weapons so far: 4 machine guns around the drilling tower, molotov coctails on the pipes between the boat and the building at north west, rocket launcher at the high drilling tower pipe, shotgun at the southern tunnel entrance. No more flame thrower because it feels quite overpowered on this map.
The drilling tower is now solid (again). I also added and slightly changed the stairs/ramps to the buildings to speed up gameplay again. Also "fixed" the helipad-glitch...
And I made all the flashing lights permanent on... maybe that helps with the sync errors. Have to redo lights anyway.

And as for the boat doorway being quite vulnerable:
That's why there is the other exit where you jump to the pipes. The straight way up is faster, but the other one is kind of more secure and now has molotov coctails... ;)

cheers,
JT
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Re: The Oilrig [W.I.P.]

Post by BenMillard »

It's good to see some changes. These might not be the right direction for gameplay...testing with players is the only way to find that out.

Unreal Tournament includes Phobos Moon. It's a space station but the top deck has some similarities to the top of an oil rig. So I could make something as part of my Unreal Tournament Conversions map pack.

Flamethrower is an essential weapon on an oil rig! You made that trail of sizzling flames such a centrepiece that it makes me want to burn stuff. Lowering the buildings would make Molotovs and S-Uzi balance it a bit? Hey why am I giving you these ideas - I should keep them for my own levels! :D
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Re: The Oilrig [W.I.P.]

Post by Galactic Boy »

Map is quite good. At first, I congratulate you. But there some small issues:

-You have forgot shading the top of some blocks. (Ex: The top of the block 112,138,3)
-Why did you make the pipe which under to [fastreload] with 8:1 slope?
-The crane isn't necessary in this map.
-There aren't any lights at the south-west corner. It's very dark in dusk.
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Re: The Oilrig [W.I.P.]

Post by JohnTooray »

Thank you for your feedback. Good to know, people still play on it.

Adressing the mentioned points:
1. I actually didn't do shading at all except for the water. That's easy to fix.
2. That was due to a suggestion from Ben. This way the fast reload spot is vulnerable to molotov coctails.
3. It's just scenery. Was also requested by Ben and i relly liked (and still like) the idea.
4. Yeah. I haven't finished lights yet. It's kind of annoying to fiddle with this kind of stuff.

I might do a small update in the near future. Maybe within the next two or three weeks. But don't nail me down on this. I am quite busy at the moment.


cheers,
JohnT.
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