DM-Inferno, Well On Its Way.

So here's the fourth map that I've put together that I'm getting ready to go through the final process of "Making it purdy."  It's gone through a play test, and if it survives the next play test with the flames included, then I'm going to start on the fun environmental stuff.  That means the detail meshes and proper lighting rather than the bland "I light everything" light that it has now.  So, give the video a look!

For those of you who don't know, I'll just say it again.  This is entirely a "Does it play?  Is it fun?" map at the moment.  It's not been detailed with lights and proper meshes on the walls and floors yet.  This is what we like to call white boxing, though I honestly went a little further with some mock up meshes out there just to get the feel of how an object might look or be portrayed.  Yes, some of the rooms are OVERLY huge and ugly, this will change once I've decided the level is fun.  Hopefully, after this week.  I estimate I won't be done with this map until the end of December.  We'll see.

A few notes, it has changed through play testing already.  The central rooms with all the over head walkways and generators changed drastically.  There's now a ramp up to the top of the tube that makes it's way over to the center pillar and on up to the second floor.  I felt this was needed after watching my friends play the map a few times and getting feed back.  It was kind of lame there was only ONE way up at the time.  That's been fixed.  Now there's two!  I also feel the added space gives the room a little more depth.  On a side note, I also think I've made this particular room a little too complicated to do maneuvers on and still be able to blast others with out falling off.  We'll see.  I'll leave it up to the testers to tell me that or not.

Furthermore, the rooms at the ends of the flame tunnels have also gone through some adjusting.  I think it's fun, but we'll see what the testers say.  I've modified the upper level to put the two generators in front of the doors to the stair wells.  I received feedback that being able to see that distance with out moving around was boring, or looked bad.  So I adjusted it!  I've also added a bit of platform jumping too in order to get to and from the Flak Cannon/Rocket Launcher item.  Hopefully, it's awesome.  We'll see come testing day.

This map has been a blast to work with and I'm looking forward to perfecting it.  Playing through it already, I can see that I need to adjust the timers on the flame throwers.  I feel they need to be faster, as in, as fast as the player can sprint down the corridor!  I'll hopefully get that fine tuned and have it being awesome!  However, what I really wanted to talk about was my experience with Kissmet.  It's been a real hoot to learn, and really easy for those of us who get blinded by code lines.  Those flame tunnels were all done with Kissmet.  As my first endeavor in it, I'm quite proud.  I think it can probably be simplified a little more so than it is now, but I'm not going to touch it.  Don't touch what ain't broke, right?  [Hey, hey English people!  My spell checker thinks "ain't" is a word!  Har har.]

Anyhow, that's it for this week's update.  I'm leaning into painting miniatures again and I may put more focus on those guys for a while just to get a few boxes done.  I don't want to ship unfinished boxes to Montreal, so I'd like to get all the models built and finished, so that I can pack them in an awesome case I bought for everything.  Custom fitted foam for each model!  That's absolutely fantastic!  Yes.... Yes, I'm a nerd.  I must protect my babies the best I can.  My little marines, and tyranid bug things...  *pets them!*

Thanks for reading =)