[OpenArena] Under Working: what should have been and wasn't

Due to the lack of competitive maps for OpenArena, I set out to create something to fill that void (a void which, IMHO, was finally filled with pulchr's excellent pul1duel-oa, released in 0.8.8). That something was am_underworks. The idea is simple: a multi-tiered map with just the basic weaponry in places where its placement makes sense from a competitive point of view. Because it's meant to be played in clan games and the like, I went to clan forums and sites in order to gather people for testing. In the process, I've learnt another lesson: be careful with the feedback you're gathering, as you may not be able to please everybody.

The first released version was am_underworks. I was inspired by Unreal Tournament 2004's DM-Compressed map, with those platforms standing over the arena in the upper floor. Eventually I wasn't satisfied with the map. So a redesign went into place, with this original version fading into dummy out territory in 0.8.8.

This redesign was called am_underworks2. Visually it has nothing of the genericness of the first version. Instead, the map took place in the entrance area of a facility, and had four distinguishable areas: a warehouse, a generator, the sewers surrounding the generator, and the main yard; due to this the map was an instant pick for Domination and Elimination games. Helping the theme were textures and models nicked from Nexuiz. The earlier versions had some houses in it, which were later cut and turned into the pillars the map has in the released 0.8.5 and 0.8.8 versions. I still have some of these earlier versions with those small houses, but I have to find them someday. After some negative post-release feedback and the feeling that the map wasn't going to perform as I expected, I've made some changes for the 0.8.8 version of underworks2. Namely, there's finally a connection between the generator area and the sewers, a pillar was added to the warehouse area, and the cage containing the generator was opened, with a hole going into the sewers. Not to mention the improved lighting.

For the older versions pack, I took both underworks and underworks2, fixed some bugs (including a VERY notorious one in underworks1 where spectators couldn't move out of the starting position) and added several missing stuff and additional support. Still, as much as I love the last incarnation of underworks2, I can't help but think that the map could have been planned better before release, with extra emphasis on vertical fighting. So, for the moment, here are some places where you can check the series:

• am_underworks (0.8.8)
• am_underworks2 (0.8.8)
• Supports: Free for All, Last Man Standing, Team Deathmatch, Elimination and Domination.
• 085am_underworks
• Supports: Free for All, Tournament, Team Deathmatch, Last Man Standing.
• 085am_underworks2
• Supports: Free for All, Tournament, Last Man Standing, Team Deathmatch, Elimination and Domination.
• am_underworks2-oa3
• Supports: Free for All, Last Man Standing, Team Deathmatch, Elimination, Domination and Possession.

If you have Nexuiz or Xonotic installed, you may want to check out the adaptation of that map for that game in the form of am_workingnex. It has an additional level reachable either by teleporter or laserjumping.

Have fun!

[OpenArena] McKinley says hi!

Another tribute map! This time I've tried to recreate a more complex, yet well-known map that most Quakers hold dear in their CTF hearts: the McKinley series (McKinley Base in the ground-breaking Threewave CTF for Quake, McKinley Revival in Threewave CTF for Quake II). Two bases, a frontal entrance and a secondary entrance from a water pit, the middle area is a bridge suspended over a big pool of water... In order to stay mostly true to the originals, the grapple (then a dummied out item) had to be added.

However, the initial version of the map, simply called am_mckinleyish forgot an important part: the turn between the bases and the ramp to them was omitted, and as a result, the bases were smaller than in the originals. Not to mention, due to my noobiness at that time, it was... very badly built. To my surprise, however, it still plays well. The first versions of this map date from 2008 and 2009.

Since I was starting to dislike the idea of directly copying the maps (and OA in general was starting to steer away from being a clone artwork-wise, i.e. no more tribute maps), I've decided to shake things a lot in the version that shipped with 0.8.8, named am_mckinleyish2. The general structure of the map was still there, but the bases and their respective areas would be connected by way of teleporters, and the bases would gain some more entrances (there are four of them, one via teleporters, other via rocket jumping, and the other two by lateral entrances). Other changes include the powerups being at the same distance for both teams, and the underwater chamber being moved more to the middle. It now was (almost) a symmetric map.

There's mot much more to mention about these maps, and I don't really have plans for them at this point, but I'm leaving their mentions here for completeness sake, and because I still like these maps. Here are the places where you can find them:

• am_mckinleyish
• am_mckinleyish2 - 0.8.8

Have fun!

[OpenArena] Too much lava: the LavaArena saga.

This series started life as an unreleased map for Unreal Tournament, called DM-LavaArena. I'm not sure if I should release this at all, considering its ugliness, the imbalances and all that which comes with the earlier maps. Maybe I'll update this post with some pics of it, if I can find the map in a backup.

Before continuing, you may have heard this piece of advice somewhere else, but it needs to be repeated, I fell into this mistake, and if you're taking a look at this article wanting to learn something, I would like it to be this: Never release your first 6 maps. No matter how good they are, chances are that only you and a small handful of other people may find them fun, and that doesn't mean they're truly fun. I have learnt this lesson the hard way, and it took me a lot of years before I've finally learned it.

Anyway, when I've learned how to map in OpenArena, back in 2008, recreating this map was one of the first things I did. The first version, just called am_lavaarena, shared the same layout as above. Eventually the map had a CTF version, called am_lavaarenactf (later shortened to am_lavactf for technical reasons) which was this map in a mirrored form.

Eventually, Sharpflame/PsiScythe, the creator of the popular ps37ctf maps, suggested the idea to add a bigger middle area, as the shorter version made the map like a race track more than a CTF map. I'm not one to turn down good ideas, and I like that middle area idea so much that not only I've made an extended version called am_lavaarenactfxl (later reduced to am_lavactfxl due to the game not recognizing longer names) but I've also incorporated that middle area into the original am_lavaarena.

Up to these points, the lava maps found their way into 0.8.8, though their origins can be spotted between the disgraced 0.8.0 version and 0.8.1, but there's still a lot of work to be done. Here are some shots of am_lavactf2, a redesigned, slightly bigger version of am_lavactf retaining the same idea but with some extras and a boost in performance and visuals.

Tied to these maps by theme and structure is a small Deathmatch map called t1-minilava, a small map for 1on1 based on half of lavactf2 with the same idea behind am_lavaarena. It's meant for no more than 4 players; there's a reason why it starts with t1 (tier 1). I'm still not happy with these maps, so once I can find enough time to recreate the next iteration of the series, I'll redo them.

There's still a LOT to be done with these maps, but enough chit-chat for now, here are the ways you can find the different versions of the lava series:

• am_lavaarena: 0.8.8
• Supports: Free for all,  Last Man Standing, Tournament, Domination.
• am_lavactf: 0.8.8
• Supports: Capture the Flag, One Flag CTF, Harvester, Overload, Elimination, CTF Elimination, Double Domination.
• am_lavactfxl: 0.8.8
• Supports: Capture the Flag, One Flag CTF, Harvester, Overload, Elimination, CTF Elimination, Double Domination.
• am_lavactf2 (Alpha 2)
• Supports: Capture the Flag, One Flag CTF, Harvester, Overload, Elimination, CTF Elimination, Double Domination.
• t1-minilava (Alpha 2)
•  Supports: Free for all, Last Man Standing, Tournament.

Have fun!

[OpenArena] The evolution of am_galmevish and a new version teaser

am_galmevish was my first contribution for OpenArena. It's a combination of three levels from the Unreal series: Morbias, Gael and Leviathan. The main dome is Morbias, but there are corridors from the extremes to the main level as alternatives to the double teleporters. These corridors have also direct sight to the upper level at the extremes.

The map's basic layout remained the same for the versions that shipped in OA 0.8.1 and OA 0.8.5, and can still be found in 0.8.8 (though the original galmevish is dummied out, and it can only be loaded through console). There's a noticeable difference between both versions, 0.8.1 is larger, and has a more varied weapon/item layout. am_galmevish2 in 0.8.8 also gained Harvester and Double Domination support. The 0.8.1 version of am_galmevish was fixed for their inclusion in the Older Versions mappack; there's a version in the Github repository which also has support for the newer Possession gametype and other fixes.

For the version intended to be shipped with the reboot OpenArena 3, called am_galmevish-oa3, there will be plenty of changes, as it's been recreated from scratch in order to tackle certain performance problems. The first and most noticeable change is the visual theme, as past versions had a castle theme, which became redundant with other levels. The OA3 version has an industrial theme, more in line with some current OA maps such as blitzkrieg3 and oa_dm3, but different enough so those maps can't be confused.

The second noticeable thing is that the map had layout changes in order to improve gameplay. In previous versions, most of the fight happened in the central dome, and the upper level wasn't visited as much. Therefore, four pillars were turned into jump stations, which propelled players to the upper level without having to go through the lateral roads or the teleports, cancelling the bottleneck. Another important change can be seen in two extra reaching points between the upper level end of each ramp and the upper level of the extremes. Also, one of the ends was turned into a jumppad while the other remained a dual teleporter.

The backyard behind the teleporter was supposed to be just an ambientation piece with a Levelord-esque easter egg, but after playing a bit of other games with secret areas, something I wanted to implement in an OA map for so long, I've decided to turn it into a secret area reachable by way of a small, hidden button in the dual teleporters extreme and a goodie inside of this former ambientation area. There's also a BFG in the map, but put down your torches and pitchforks, as you require a bit of timing in order to be able to pick it up!

Anyway, enough chitchat, as I'm sure you'll want to try these maps. Here's where you can find them:

• am_galmevish - OpenArena 0.8.8
• am_galmevish2 - OpenArena 0.8.8
• Supports: Free for all, Last Man Standing, Tournament, Harvester, Double Domination.
• 081am_galmevish (Older versions pack)
• Supports: Free for all, Last Man Standing, Tournament.
• am_galmevish-oa3 (OA3 Beta 1)
• Supports: Free for all, Last Man Standing, Tournament, One Flag CTF, Harvester, Double Domination, Possession.

Have fun!