ns_ maps seem to be all the rage these days, so I've jumped on the bandwagon. I totally revamped the other layout and I actually have some (WIP) screenshots. So here we go:









Unnamed as of now. Any ideas?

Too open, skulks will get Pwned.

~ DarkATi

That's a lot of RTs. Neither team will be able to effectively deny res to the other. And the hive on the left looks like it's just a short jaunt from MS. Definitely shorter than either of the other two hives. Lighting is a bit flat, but I realize it's WIP. The architecture seems good in those shots.

I thought MS was supposed to be open to give the marines the advantage in the defense. Also, I actually was thinking that there were too few RTs. Strange. But I'll see about fixing that.

I'm going to shrink the distance to the top-right hive, after calculating the distance at about 50 seconds (that is, if the ready room avatar runs as fast as an average marine).

This looks good to be only WIP. It might be a bit open. MS is not supposed to be way too open, just a bit.
Also, you have !12! resnodes. I would remove 3 of them and fix the locations of some of them.

the corridors are way too large and open, and the lighting is pretty boring. but its a very good start.

i have some thoughts on the layout though.

if you have read the article about the spider thingy diagrams you will understand that such a circle in the map, based on a marine's movement is not good for gameplay

try connect data core, power conduct and 2ndary ventilation, delete the resnodes there and try placing one in the middle of those 3 locations
also i suggest to delete cyro bay ore nanite control

your architecture is good but your screens look very grey, try stain it with lightning and make for example a glowing strange futuristic machine
and a big respect to your creative naming of locations - i just cant think of good names

I think it's good for first WIP shots. Lacks colour though, and the skulk graveyard corridor could be altered to balance it for both teams. Try making the roof less flat and give it a shadowy rut for skulks to crawl along before dropping down on the marines below. As for the colour, the textures are probably fine, you can change the colour with some effective lighting -making it more moody.

Use Tommeki's suggestion for the CargoBay MS switch and theBert has got a very good point vis-a-vis the linear Marine movement (unless the vents are accessible and passable by a lone Marine).

As for the RTs:

- Move the Gen RT to FuelStorage ad kill the EastAcess RT.
- Make DataCore Rt take longer to get to from both nearest Hives.
- Kill NaniteControl RT*

* This is because it is the closest of the two central RTs to WasteProcHive, which in turn is furthest from MS and as such does not have to compete with Marines for one of the RTs closest to it. It's also highly advisable not to have a Dbl res in the centre of a map as the Marines will always relocate to a new position equidistant from all Hives, with 2 secured RTs and also lying slap bang in the middle of many shortest paths from one side of the map to the other.

New shot, extending off the bottom-right of the MS. Lighting is a bit flat, I know, but I'm trying to give the MS a sort of controlled look. The wires on the left hide a skulk-vent leading to where the elevator at the end of the hall exits.



I took out the fuel storage area completely, and I was thinking about removing the circle on the left. And you guys are right about the RTs; thanks for all the feedback! I'll try to craft a revised layout sometime tomorrow (or Monday).

EDIT: I have no clue how to revise the skulk-shooting range problem, aside from totally revamping the area. I was thinking of making an overhead ventilation system, but that doesn't seem very fitting. I want to stay away from crates and the like as well, as I've always relied to heavily on them for spice (and I want to try to develop a more mature mapping style). Although the idea of a ceiling rut is good, it still doesn't seem sufficient (as a skulk, I always hated running along ceilings). Anyways, the more ideas, the better.

Warning! Warning! Hydroponics Hive seems like it has Waste Syndrome. It's a very short walk from Marine Start to Emergency Command and a short walk from Emergency Command to Waste Processing. If the aliens start in Hydroponics, it's an easy matter to relocate to the double node or either hive room and cut the aliens off from a second hive.

Generally, a layout works MUCH better if the middle hive is approximately equally far away from its neighbors and if all 3 hives are about equally far from Marine Start. Otherwise one hive is decidedly the "gimp" hive that nobody wants (and is said to have "Waste Syndrome" after tanith's Waste Handling.)

I generally like the layout, but I see lots of potential gameplay problems, so you might want to think about it in terms of travel time, resource locations, and choke points. If you make any location too important, it becomes a deadly relocation point around whose control the whole round revolves (see Mess Hall on ns_nancy prior to 3.0 beta 5)

Keep these things in mind...

the screens are looking wery good, i kind of like them, they are cleen but not empty
the ceeling need a bit more work in some places though

Mess Hall in the old nancy, but relocating up the ladder or at least securing it just completely kills the map! I don't think the remake made that significant a change, the problem's still there, it's just moved a few feet.

Nice new corridor, but stick in some light panels. Remember they don't HAVE to be light textures, as you can change any texture to give off light. If you find something you think might look good glowing a bit, give it a go!

Some more pictures. First one starts at the bottom of the lift.









As you can see, some overlay textures (i.e. the ones I made) look pretty bad, especially over the yellow lights and the white bar lights. I've looked everywhere (including these forums) for an overlay light tutorial, to no avail. Somehow, by reducing the FX amount on the additive scale it makes the texture darker instead of more transparent, even though the overlay texture should be fullbright because of texture lighting. Does anyone have any ideas?

I forgot to mention, I made the MS area more narrow, giving skulks a marginally larger amount of chance to survive.

Been wasting a lot of time ghosting around in VHE. One more shot, though.



I got off my lazy bum and made some new textures (well, one or two textures) for the lights. I also took out the pipe at the top, and added some generic-looking support beams to round it out.

EDIT:



Extends off the left of the MS. Right now there's just one huge hallway (from the elevator to this shot), equating a skulk shooting range. I'm gonna keep thinking about possible solutions, but suggestions are welcomed.

It's definitely lacking something. Try putting in some backlit grated ceiling sections and some skulk scurryways...