Azarael already knows that Im working on it, everyone else doesnt (I suppose).
Since I find the current HellbenderWorld pretty ugly due to several reasons (outter wall, bad pick of water texture, rough and egdy terrain, too simple bsp cubes and the most important is the random mix of random somewhat tech-textures/meshes that doesnt fit into this at all) I decided to take the map and give it a complete new look instead of just complaining how bad it looks. It escalated a little bit as I got more and more into details which I didnt really want but whatever. Now it looks more like a AS-map than a RACE-map but I hope you will like it anyway
I should say that Im not finished with it yet, I would estimate the completion-status at around 60-70% but I wanted to post some screenshots of my progress already to receive some feedback and maybe ideas. Instead of just putting the screenshots in here now, Ill also say a few sentences about the content of the screenshot, like what I changed, what I still have to change, etc. If you want to see screenshots of certain areas (or bigger size) then you can also just request it here and Ill provide them later. For now its just two screenshots 1200x675 that give a rough impression of how it looks / how it is going to look.
Number 1:
First of all you will notice that there is pretty much nothing left from what once was there. I removed the first plattform with the 3 Avrils and replaces it with some kind of a rooftop from a building. Further down I decided to use more flat bsp instead of the uneven Terrain. To kind of keep the little challenge the bumpy terrain had I "destroyed" some of the tiles on the floor and placed them in some random order so driving just straight isnt possible. I changed the 3 ramps which used to be there into a narrow "bridge" or whatever you might call it. Its got the same width like the ramps which where there before (I also had some different ramps in the beginning but they didnt really fit into all that so I changed them again). The small Terrain hill is still the same more or less. Its still Terrain but its smoother/more detailed now (I believe 4x as detailed). Then behind the cement block of the crane theres still the narrow bridge which was there before, just a different look. Behind that there is also still the U-turn on the terrain which used to be around a small hill with a tree on it and a cliff with water below on the other side. Now its a small building and cliffs that go up instead (first obj, shouldnt be too risky to drive). But I removed the simple floating bsp cubes behind that with a solid bridge and a real tunnel. Down there where the 5 support-pillars are is still the first objective. Its still open so you can still point an Ion Painter there. I also removed the HitscanBlockingVolume because I think you should be able to stop other Hellbender which are ahead of you. Usually the first ones to get up the small Hill of Terrain got the objective without encoutering any more resitance from the other team.
Now the 2nd Objective: I still have to make some kind of a drawbridge which will get lowered by the crane once the first objective is done instead of the magically flying bridge which was there before. While we are at this I want to say that I tried to give everything a little more realism because Im against just floating platforms or the same floating tracks over and over again. The Heli-pad with the connection to the building and the grate-bridge up there that lead into the next tunnel are still the same (there were plattforms before) just a different look. The hill with the two fire-thingy-things once was a simple bsp pyramid with two tunnels. The two tunnels are still there, just through that "pyramid-like" shaped hill. Behind that theres still the path around with more terrain + grate-bridges. There are also two smaller lakes up there to keep the "if you drive off the track youll die in the water" - effect. Up there once were two blocks that moved up and down to somehow annoy the drivers a little bit. I removed one of them completly and changed the other one into some kind of a rotating generator which is inside of the hill. It has exactly the same moving frequence like these moving blocks. Below that crane in the background (which is moving slowly btw) there once were a few plattforms that were shaped like a "2" on an digital clock. I removed them and replaced them with a roof of a building that is still "under construction" (I dont mean like Im still working on it, it just looks like its not completly finished
) After that comes another grate-bridge to another Heli-pad which lead over some temporary-like planks onto the crane where youll have to drive across with the hellbender to get to obj 2 which is that garage door of the right building. The crane is narrow but you can still easily drive over it if youre a good driver. People that have problems with the S-shaped bsp of the third obj might have some problems here too. I also removed the blocking volume in front of it so you can actually shoot the benders driving over there with the shock rifle (which can still be found inside the tower) to annoy them. You cant really fall off at the back though cause I added some fences there but if someone is shooting with the shock at you, you will definatly have trouble getting over the crane in one piece. Again, this is to have an option to stop benders that are ahead of the rest to give it a little bit more challenge. The opening-pad for the garade is also unprotected so you have to be careful to not get shot by the campers on top wearing lightning guns or shock rifles.What has still to be done that is seen on this pictures? The Terrain in the background and on the sides still need a lot of work. The hills look way too unrealistic and the flat terrain on the right will turn into something else of course. The building in the middle with the crane on top still has an empty wall on the left (which cant be seen on this screenshot) that needs something to look at instead of just that plain concrete texture. And the water/river will get its own mesh with a TexPanner which will follow the direction of the river, alpha-blent edges so the transition "water to land" looks more realistic and not this hard and several UV maps with different texture coordinates to smoothly blend over the river-splitting parts. The waterfall in the middle already uses all this + the particle effects which looks quite nice in real-time I think.
Number 2:
Most has already been said, its just a shot from the opposite side. You can see I still need to work on the complete third objective since its just how it has been. I changed the ugly tower into another Tower which fits into this map (fyi its the TV-tower of frankfurt - the city where I live: http://frankfurtgermany.ca/images/frankfurttvtower.jpg ) The teleport(ers) up there are still there as well as the shock rifle and the two Ion Painters. The camping roof-top is also still flat without obstacles other than the tower to keep the gameplay. Oh right, I forgot to mention that on the crane there on the very top (the support with the two steel-ropes or whatever they are) I put a redeemer up there. You have to walk across those cables and can easily get shot by the campers on the building and fall off so its kind of risky. And since the last jump to the second objective is kind of high you cant just go back there and get the redeemer once you completed it. I also removed the possible passage that gets available once you completed obj2 to get to obj3 since I couldnt think of any realistic way to accomplish that, so you will just have to teleport back to the start and use the normal passage.
Well yea, I think I explained everything that you can see more than necessary
The last thing I should say is that despite the unlike-Race-like pretty detailed graphics it still runs very smooth so far (for me). Ive been having minimum 60 FPS on highest detail on the worst-performance-parts of the map so far. It will drop slightly more due to the more details to come but I think it should be fair enough if I think about having less than 20 FPS on Derby lately (dont know if someone changed the map and fucked it up or idk but its weird). So yea, the details shouldnt be a problem for framerate.Feedback? Ideas? Critic? Go for it!
// Please dont sue me for spelling mistakes
// fixed some of the major mistakes
