Greetings NS mapping community.

After 3.2 goes public we are going to look at publishing a official map pack containing the best of what the NS community has to offer. This will be an optional install for both clients and servers and will hopefully help the more creative and productive of you to get more feedback from the NS community while also offering more variety to players who enjoy it.

We still haven't made any final decisions on how the maps will be selected, but it will probably be coordinated by an existing member of the NS team with assistance from some of you. If you think this is a good idea and would be interested in submitting your map for this project then reply here with details of the map you would be submitting and any thoughts you have on the project.

I would like to submit two WIP maps I am making.

ns_incubus (a siege themed map with hopefully good deisgn and a twist)

ns_x (name pending) my next project after incubus.

Incubus is my primary foyar back into mapping after so long of not doing it and the loss of so much data from my HD going funky.

I would not expect to see siege maps included in a map pack. We'd be looking for classic ns maps and combat maps only.

Hear, hear...

I'm not sure if Droggog is still working on it, but co_minas looked very promising.

then perhaps the next one

I'm not entirely sure on Incubus' direction just yet

Wow, what a great idea to get the community involved again. I wish I had the time to do a classic NS map for you guys. Good luck to the people who are going to try to get their maps in.

The funny thing is I was thinking of pm-ing one of you lot some time this week about releasing an "official" mappack.

Why not release two mappacks? classic/combat pack and an alternative pack? I don't know if you support the siege, mvm/ava gametypes. But fact is that they are here and seem to be quite popular, I can't help with the selection of those maps though, since I've never played/seen them ingame... Aso some of them are modified version of other maps I hear, which would exclude them without concent of the official mappers' permission...

I've seen the impact of an officially supported mappack at another modding community (bf42, Forgotten Hope). Since they don't have an ingame downloading system for custom maps in bf42, which makes custom maps have an even harder time. Also the average 50Mb+ filesize doesn't help. Yet they have released 6 mappacks over the years they have been developing FH. And these maps are played regularly, with the simple reason they are released in an officially supported mappack. It opens up a new window towards the players who just visit the website or their server site to read news on the mod.

I have a fe suggestions from community members who seem no longer active here, but won't post them yet. Maybe they will wake up. If they don't, I'll post them here and hope they can be contacted for sourcefile release (troublesome at least)

My maps

- ns_achio
* needs to be updated to ns3.2 (minimaps) and hive target on death/targeton spawn need to be added to a teleporter. Also it has the 4 unique gameplay elements, which might exclude it from the pack...
- co_cerberus
* freshly released might need playtesting first. I'm new at this combat gametype, but I think I got it right. Have been looking at the official combat maps and peeking at co_moira for insights

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offtopic: Also how the heck are these transparant minimaps created. Sprite explorer says alphatest as type, yet I can't get them to be the least bit transparant o.o"

Ns_Nexus


(screen is darker than in-game)

This would pretty much be the most detailed, most complex, and most in-depth NS map (ambitious but thats what it sounds like from people's feedback). Its niche would be for the players who want the opposite of bland flat hallways and seemingly haphazard placement. Although best played with more players, the 6v6's are still balanced.

Some people absolutely love it and cant get enough of its unique features; some people hate it and cant handle its few issues.

But, Nexus is about to be released in its Beta 3 version, and I dont even know what else I could fix with it. You can download the ns_nexus_b3_test to check it out, there's been no bugs found during its playtesting so I'm just going to re-release it with proper minimaps as ns_nexus_b3.

Selling points:

---Long-term gameplay; RT layout designed like Tanith's (a 5-5 'divide') to encourage long, epic games (oh G4B2S, how you've rocked the Nexus epics )

---Per-room gameplay; every room was designed with all the 'fun' gameplay aspects in mind, i.e.: large vs tight; innovative cover; marine hiding spots; ceiling architecture etc

---Per-room balance; every siege has a 'proper' amount of vent access, every room has a long-though-out LOS vs Cover balance (taking into account the strategic purpose of the room, some having been given marine- or alien-oriented balance on purpose)

---Per-Hive/MS balance; Marine Start, as well as each Hive, has one 'easy' node and a second node which is fairly easy. As such, each team, no matter the start location, should be able to have at least 3 nodes. Its a formula that I noticed in many of the better official maps.

---Weldables; counting 7 currently, with perhaps the most original weldable ever seen (check out Mag Pump room; it'll take at least two tries to fully understand what REALLY happens)

---Vents; the second all-encompassing Vent map (after Nancy), except: you can learn these far more easily; they're actually drawn on the minimap; far, far better visuals; and marines can make great use of them (if they can find a way in) for some insane ninja'ing

---Sieging; every siege possibility was planned before the hive rooms were even begun in Hammer, hence were perfected upon completion (bar one which is fully fixed in beta 3)

---Runtimes; are spot on

---Hive layout; the first NS map to feature a pyramid hive layout, where MS and each hive are actually equal distance from each other (other maps that have tried this have only had the hives equal distance from MS, but then their distances were whack)

---Visuals; I've taken the engine as far as it'll go, though perhaps there's room for some Particles as I'm not totally familiar with them yet; visuals were reviewed heavily in beta2 and then fully upgraded in beta3

---Continuity; the map was designed from the very beginning as a full Space Ship, and every room was pre-planned to have its purpose

---Sound; proper ambience is found in just about every room

---Ready Room; Beta 3 finally has an acceptable one

---Secrets; not the unfair/cheating type, but more of the Caged - SkillJumps type (rouchly 4); some giving access to the Vents, some to great vantage points, and some giving ninja hive access

---Entity Count is roughly 217


Bad Points:

---Complex; Although the basic layout isn't actually complex, the two areas with vertical importance make the minimap harder to follow; visibility of the Vents on the minimap add to its complex look

---Large; despite the 10 nodes and the actually smaller-than-all-others minimap, it is more compact, and especially, vertical, making this map feel peculiarly large for its actual X/Z dimensions

---Commander View; comm's are semi-hindered by vertical aspects, but this is only an issue with newer comms (I'm a vet comm and in all the games ive commed on Nexus, the problem areas showed themselves and were all optimized by Beta3); of course, if a marine calls for Med in the View Halls (the only area directly and fully under another, being Chromo Hive), a comm can still easily move to the side for a full view of the View Halls, but the med icon will bring him to Chromo

---R_speeds; they reach 1k in a few places on-the-ground, and 2k in one place for comm; but realistically, on my computer that can barely play BF2142 on the lowest settings, there isnt a single noticeable slowdown even with 30 players


PM me here or email beavatron at hotmail, for info on the next release or for feedback.

Please look into contacting the creators of ns_hulk (Rendy_Czech) and ns_source (Lt. Gravity).

There was also a community co_map made by Hanz Gruber & co. but I dunno if that got finished. It looked freakin sweet though.

For the voting you could have a general nomination list, then knock that list down to a final shortlist, then get all creators of maps in the final shortlist to vote on eachother's work and pick the winners.

Or, even better, find a server in the US and in Europe (and Oz if poss) that could host the shortlist mappack and get the constellation to give feedback on all the maps. You could run a few polls (best for compatitive play, best atmosphere, best combat) and see what the consties have to say. I'm not saying the constellation is any better at giving back constructive crits, but it would allow for you to orchestrate part of the selection process in 'private' and since the consties would feel 'privileged', they'd be more likely to populate the servers you ran.

By the way, better late than never. This mapping community has deserved some official help to promote its brilliance for a looong time.

This is a great idea. I would love to see this happen.

I'd also love to finish Vargus in time for it to be considered.

And I nominate Kouji's map, Ns_Achio for consideration as well.

Cheers,
~ DarkATi

ah.. Memories. Ya know I dunno what we did with that map....

Here you go my first ns map!
http://personal.inet.fi/hima/quazilin1/ns_rampage.zip
I haven't touched it since I released it years ago but I think it's pretty playable and bug free...

Woo! Given the number of maps nearing completion/recently completed, I was also thinking something like this would be a good idea! With 3.2 being the hopefully last version of NS before source (as I understand the plan to be) I figured a mappack would be a great way to extend the game while everyone waits for source! It's great to see an official stance on this!

I'd definately submit the next version of moira for this, I'm just working on a couple of lighting bugs right now, but I'm close to being ready for a fresh release within the next couple of days. The basic layout has been in play for over a year now, but the new version I'm ready to release soon improves upon it in every way. (I've decided it'll be known as co_moiraD as I'm personally unfond of numbering schemes, but I don't want versioning trouble to appear for people either. So yeah... co_moirad works pretty good. )

Entity count is 260, mostly due to semi-dynamic infestation and dynamic (switchable) lighting.
R_speeds are mostly under 800 in big areas, maybe reaching as high as 900something but only from specific angles in specific spots.

The "gimmicks" I've added are fairly passive and non-game determining. It's standard combat play.

(See the "post your screenshots" thread for... screenshots!)

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As far as getting a hold of old maps, there were some really gems out there. What sort of scope are you looking at?

ns_marineris is another fantastic map... forget who made it... uhh... And given Lt. Gravity's previous efforts to spread the "quality custom map" word, if someone could get a hold of him, I'm sure he'd love to have ns_source in this.

Or are you hoping for "current" fairly uptodate and recent maps? I started creating a mappack of "quality" maps a few months ago... but I think I lost it switching to a new computer...

I'd be willing to help in anyway, though I'm a tad limited due to my dialup connection.

Great idea though!

i nominate my crappy ns_unknown.. i honestly have no clue how it plays out cause i've never seen a game on it. :-P

I nominate ns_marineris (cause its awesome) and ns_hydrosity (cause its moist)

Anyone remember Kawak?

He had some awesome unfinished maps

Also ns_oasis is nice...

And I don't know... how about official maps that have been cut over the years? Mineshaft, agora, and even Mendasps upcoming ns_bast_classic?

co/ns_leren... still have the source files. Basic layout was done, but it died eventually. Belg lost light files as far as I know. And that was one of the most important part of the map. I might post some pics later on.

Original thread can be found here: http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/index....showtopic=82574

Ontopic: this sounds like a great idea, though I wonder... why mappack and not just include in the game? Also, I hope I will finish either ns_grey or ns_amp (2007 contest) so it can be included. I don't think I'm such a great mapper, but it'd be friggin' sweet if I had some 'official' stuff.

I third the motion to consider Marineris.

Also Kawak is probably my favourite mapper for NS, but since he never finished anything he can't really be included

Naigel and others: Finish Leren PLEASE!

yeah.. i'd like to see the old ns maps make a return.. agora, mineshaft, and even delta.

Cool! I wonder if my co map will be done in time to submit for consideration...

co_engineroom




What all would be needed for a submission? Just the .bsp or all the build files?

As for co_engineroom:

I'll have to load up the official CO maps to be sure, but it's probably on the large size for a CO map. Though, I'm planning on having plenty of interactive sections, plenty of vents for the poor skulks and lurks, and one or two easter eggs thrown in before everything is said and done.

vargus and nexus are two i'd nominate.

A great idea but- and apologies for sounding like the devil's advocate- isn't anyone worried that this could divide the community even more? IDK about other scenes, but there's scant few good servers in Europe.

Still, a good move for those looking for map variety.

there's few good servers left.. period.

the theoretical chance of bringing in more players far outweighs dividing the community further.

i don't think many servers would have a reason not to at least try them out or pick the ones they like.

My map: co_rock

Sounds interesting. Hopefully I'll have enough time to get my combat map done. but alas I did promise myself I won't rush this one as I usually do

Its a great idea my third version of co_bluebay will be in tests in few days i will post it for sure...

Since i finally got beta1 finished id like to see my map in the pack too
ns_disonberg

I also nominate ns_hydrosity. It's a very good map, but few people want to play it due to the file size and the map is absolutely ginormous.

I'd also nominate ns_fenris since I put a fair amount of work into that map myself.

[quote name='Kouji_San' date='Feb 7 2007, 11:19 AM' post='1604466']

My maps

- ns_achio
* needs to be updated to ns3.2 (minimaps) and hive target on death/targeton spawn need to be added to a teleporter. Also it has the 4 unique gameplay elements, which might exclude it from the pack...
- co_cerberus
* freshly released might need playtesting first. I'm new at this combat gametype, but I think I got it right. Have been looking at the official combat maps and peeking at co_moira for insights

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I second this mans 2 maps for nomination!

mmm moist.

Did you borrow Fenris from FS2? just interested...

I think the point that sherpa makes is one that must be considered, and therefore we should try to keep the map pack reasonably small. I would think that a limit of 3 classic and 3 combat maps would be reasonable and would hopefully produce a map pack in the 15MB-25MB range. With this limitation the competition would be hot and I think we would get a really great selection of maps.

What I'd like to see happen is for us to get a mappack out within 4-6 weeks of 3.2 final release. We would then probably select some of the maps for official inclusion in 3.3 and publish a new pack afterwards with more custom maps.

I wouldnt worry too much about filesize since zippep maps are pretty small. Mine is 9 MB uncompresst, 2,6 MB with normal zip compression. Imo the community is divided between co and ns. The problem is there are too few pub players online for both modes and so co-servers with bots are often the only chance to play though it is really no fun nor competiton. I think new maps are a great way to get more people playing - you need new bot wps not? Die bots hrhr.

What sort of time frame are you thinking of, puzl? From the responses so far, everyone wants to get their already-made maps into this build, when while reading it I got the impression that there would be time enough to make a whole new map. So how long after 3.2 release were you imagining for this map pack? days? weeks? months?

I win.

And I saw a mention of this in the thread, but I'll make sure the Classic Maps included in the pack will have the minimaps cleaned-up, vents colored, labeled and have transparencies applied like we do with the official maps.

Gives JazzX a victory cookie. I already have the two colored/cleaned minimap types based on those from ns3.1. I'm just curious how to make those transparant ones. I can't get them to go transparant and of course I am doing something wrong

Not to de-rail the thread, but minimap transparency is a hack. Basically take your opaqe minimap and color every other pixel with your transparent background color - Red (255,0,0) by default. I've found that it is best to not apply the transparency effect over the labels, as it makes them too hard to read.

Ah, I wish my map could be included with this map pack, but I'd stand no hope . I just started and working on my first map, ns_crescent (I hope the name isn't already token ) and that looking at these amazing maps like nexus.... they make the hl engine look much newer than it actually is. Maybe I'll be able to catch a later map pack, because I wont rush this map.

BTW: If anyone wants to look at my map plans and make any idea's, I more than welcome you to. I want this to be a great map with a little bit of a unique game play.

Bumperoony.

I'd like to submit co_amenability, if possible, and if I have enough time (and willpower) possibly form it into an NS map.

EDIT - Oops, didn't see how old it was.

Sorry!

Heh, This thread is still active, just not ehm... Active with posts

The mapping forum in general has been a little on the "dead" side.

<3

Yep i'm still working on it. Currently -full compiling the (hopefully) FINAL version. Made many changes based on the feedback i got from various forums, playtesting by YO-clan, and at a LAN.

I'll bump the thread or make a new one with the file and a changelog shortly. I really like the idea of an official mappack, and hope co_minas will be good enough to be considered for a possible inclusion...

We haven't forgotten about this project, we've just been busy catching up on all the stuff that got sidelined during the 3.2 release crunch. I've been extremely busy at work with a project deadline, I've been busy at home buying and assembling my new pc, and we've had a very early summer here in Ireland, so I've been getting out enjoying the good weather. The original purpose of this topic was to forewarn all you guys of an upcoming opportunity to get more exposure for your work. I still think that it was a good idea to pre-announce the project, to give motivation to those of you who might be interested in participating. I'll talk to the team this week about the map pack and see if we can get the ball rolling in the next couple of weeks.

Bumperoony-tooney-tuesday!

Still gonna happen? Or gonna kind of wait out the summer a bit? Pretty sure there is still interest in contributing so long as someone can find the time to put it together.

heh, nexus is just about good to go

_v2 will be released in about a week, and its pretty much the final 'final'

Yeah, and I have co_mandaris on the track too, just needs some additional playtest

Please spare a thought for my training map, a hell of a lot of work went into it only for it to be turned down and never seen again

Also co_teabags has prooven to be quite popular and is definatly worth a look in

<a href="http://fishpowered.co.uk/main.php?page=portfolio&sub=level_design">Screenshots and downloads clicky</a>

IMHO your training map should be included within the NS install or at least on the main site files section, but alas my name isn't Charlie