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WIP: Bespin Escape

Posted: Sun May 03, 2009 4:54 am
by Jendo7
Story:

GCW era: The Empire is making a sweep of all Outer Rim settlements and have discovered with the help of a bounty hunter that a small band of rebels are hiding in Cloud City on Bespin, the central settlement in this rich tibanna gas region.

CW era: During the Clone Wars the CIS and The Republic were fighting for control of this rich planet for the bountiful natural resource tibanna gas that was used in weapon production.

I decided to make a map that is loosely based on the climactic ending of episode V: THe Empire Strikes Back with an escape route leading to the Millennium Falcon.

This is my first ever map and I only started after several months of studying the mod tools and the zeroeditor documentation. My first concern was to have a map that was primarily set up for game play. I didn't want it to be just about eye candy although that has become easier as I get to know the editors functions through trial and error. I have set out the bot paths and have planned out their route along the maps design of tunnels and skyway bridges that leads to the Millennium Falcon.

The Empire are the attackers in the GCW era and the Republic are the attackers in the CW era. So far the planning paths have worked out well although initially I had several bots falling down the chamber shaft but have now resolved that after a few late nights.
So far my greatest triumph was getting the carbon freezing chamber animation to work after several failed attempts resulting in ctd.

As it's my first ever map I can't really give anyone a good estimate of how far I have got but I can say that the gameplay element is now working really well and it's just a matter of adding boundaries, a few death regions and mainly completing object placement and design etc. As I want it to be the best for my first attempt, it could take a while with the different elements I would like to implement like a load screen movie, music and sounds etc.

Jendo7

Screens:

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Re: WIP: Bespin Escape

Posted: Sun May 03, 2009 6:29 am
by EA711
Oh no not another bespin map :P J/K This one looks very good, I think Its a bit to big though, I like the falcon. Maybe you could add a non military speeder?

Re: WIP: Bespin Escape

Posted: Sun May 03, 2009 9:18 pm
by MasterFang1
looks good, add a lot more buildings.

Re: WIP: Bespin Escape

Posted: Sun May 03, 2009 9:23 pm
by Ty294
Ya, so you don't just see out forever.

Re: WIP: Bespin Escape

Posted: Mon May 04, 2009 7:11 pm
by Jendo7
Thanks! Things are going well... I've now got two death regions in the carbon freezing chamber, the skyway bridges have supports and I have started to add more buildings so you shouldn't be able to see the horizon. I've been trying to figure out how to make the shipped cloudcars into props. I know you have to delete some info in the ODF file but so far it hasen't worked.

Re: WIP: Bespin Escape

Posted: Mon May 04, 2009 8:02 pm
by breakdown
take a normal prop ODF and modify it so it calls the model of the cloud car.

Re: WIP: Bespin Escape

Posted: Mon May 04, 2009 10:26 pm
by Ty294
Or just change the classlabel to "prop" instead of "flyer".

Re: WIP: Bespin Escape

Posted: Tue May 05, 2009 2:21 pm
by Jendo7
The reason why I couldn't see the cloud car in game was that I forgot to change the [Properties] GeometryName to prop in the odf:

bes_prop_cloudcar.odf

[GameObjectClass]
ClassLabel = "prop"
GeometryName = "bes_prop_cloudcar.msh"

[Properties]
GeometryName = "bes_fly_cloudcar"

... and resulted in this error message:

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It took me about 3 hours to figure out what I'd done.

Then I changed it:

[GameObjectClass]
ClassLabel = "prop"
GeometryName = "bes_prop_cloudcar.msh"

[Properties]
GeometryName = "bes_prop_cloudcar"

And it worked:

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I thought I was going a bit :x lol

Re: WIP: Bespin Escape

Posted: Tue May 05, 2009 3:15 pm
by EA711
good if you made more late evening/close to sunset because that was how it was in the film and it will make it different from the original.

Re: WIP: Bespin Escape

Posted: Thu May 07, 2009 6:48 pm
by Jendo7
I have been trying different placements of the Millennium Falcon to see if I can make it more movie accurate; The screen below shows the falcons new placement highlighted in relation to my first idea in zeroeditor.

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Below is rough idea of what it could look like in game as I haven't added the landing gear or finalized the bridge.

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This is my first idea which I still might use.

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What is the general opinion. Should I stick with my first idea or change it.

Thanks

Re: WIP: Bespin Escape

Posted: Fri May 08, 2009 10:36 am
by EA711
the second idea is better.

Re: WIP: Bespin Escape

Posted: Fri May 08, 2009 4:26 pm
by jango
i agree with EA711, the 2nd is better and more accurate to the movies. you should make it flyable and hold some passengers.

Re: WIP: Bespin Escape

Posted: Sat May 09, 2009 11:01 am
by breakdown
I reccomend you perhaps lower the ground or soemthing if you want realism,

I made a map a while ago "Bespin Bridge City" which can be found on my Filefront Page (bhfbreakdown), if you want any ideas. It wasn't really a hit or anything, so I never bothered to update it further.

Re: WIP: Bespin Escape

Posted: Sat May 09, 2009 3:07 pm
by Jendo7
Update: Localization is complete, I have the right music for the map and have also improved the lighting as you can see from these comparison screenshots. I've also completed the new Millennium Falcon placement and as you you can see from the screenshot it is much improved and more movie accurate. Adding background buildings is taking up the most time as I want them to look right and give a sense of a large city scape.

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Edit: Sun May 17, 2009 10:19 am

Small update: Added two flyers; Psych0fred's Trooptrans(no sounds) for the GCW era and a Republic Gunship for the cw era with added sounds. I've also been able to get cruisers and the sun to appear in the sky dome. Still to do: Building placement to complete, mini-map and fly-through movie.

edit: nearly forgot; added Rends container props from his Coruscant City assets to a few landing zones.

Re: WIP: Bespin Escape

Posted: Wed Jun 03, 2009 1:47 pm
by Jendo7
Update: I've decided to continue with the next version of the map. Below are screens of the new ground texture and colour which I think corresponds better to the surrounding buildings.

Sorry for the double post.

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Re: WIP: Bespin Escape

Posted: Fri Jun 05, 2009 11:26 pm
by EraOfDesann
Wow, that texture looks great! It's definitely an improvement over the last one.

Re: WIP: Bespin Escape

Posted: Sat Jun 06, 2009 12:00 pm
by Jendo7
Thanks Era... I think it worked well :)

It did take a while to get the colour right, but eventually after several failed attempts, I was able to get a similar tone as the shipped Bespin by blending two different colours together. This modding is definitely harder than I thought it would be, but very rewarding when things go right.

At the moment I'm having difficulty adding passengers to the Trooptrans without disabling third person view for the pilot and have already had a few CTD's :?

I'll keep everyone posted but I may have to forgo this idea.

Re: WIP: Bespin Escape

Posted: Fri Jun 12, 2009 8:06 am
by newguy99
Hope your maps coming along without to much trouble(unlike mine lol), I know there are quite a few people excited about your second verson! Keep up the modding!

Re: WIP: Bespin Escape

Posted: Fri Jun 12, 2009 9:20 pm
by Jendo7
Thanks :)

Update: Added quite a few props to the courtyard area and container props on the walkways, so there is now better cover. I've also added another CP on the lower level, so the battle is more widely spread and each team has two controlled CP's each. Planning paths have been improved with routes leading up two seperate walkways.

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I'm still having trouble adding passengers to the Imperial Troop Transport without disabling 3rd person view. I did try and use flyer sections from ggctuk's transport ODF, but the same thing happened. I know SteveK14 was able to do it, as he has them in his Oasis Duel map, so it is possible.

Re: WIP: Bespin Escape

Posted: Fri Jun 12, 2009 11:50 pm
by EraOfDesann
Looking great. Personally I think the map is fine without a fully functional air transport. It's not as though there are many places to fly to. :P