so people, im starting a single player level and i was wondering if any veterans have tips that make a good level. you know stoff like lighting, matting, cutscenes, etc. any help would be apreciated

http://commandchamber.net/articles/

Everything you need to know.

I've never read those articles so I may be sounding stupid, but i've always loved making SP because you have so much more freedom than MP. TAKE ADVANTAGE OF THAT, and use all kinds of different cogs that involve neat things enemies can do, for example an alarm goes off and a squad of stormtroopers lead by and officer stroll into a room in formation, that kind of stuff. Be really creative. I know there are some ship movement cogs here where either at things activated, level start, sector enter, ot adjoin cross it will play a .key of a thing, which is perfect for having an imperial shuttle take off just as you see it.

There is so much you can do with SP, so have fun with it. And use "GOAL!"

I agree with dash, SP editing gives you all the freedom and none of the pesky syncing problems. :]

Yeah, but it's a pain to get difficulty right. The best thing would be to implement the three difficulty levels JK already provides, but this is quite some work.

Single player is my expertese considering I am an editor for a filming company, director, writer, and camera man. I bring all elements of film into my knowledge of editing, so I'll share some of my knowledge:

Single Player levels are hard. Very hard. It's almost impossible to explain to someone who's never made a SP level how hard it truly is. HOW do you keep the game fresh? HOW do you make going into the next room different than the last? HOW do you organize the level so that it makes sense?

The answeres are varied with editors. My opinion is that gameplay can be kept fresh with fancy AI. [We have a lot of AI at massassi that rivals JKs.] This shouldn't be relied on, but when I can go into a room that was empty, then have a guy from a different hallway walk into this room while talking to a friend, I've just changed some of the action for the player who now has the lower hand on these 2. AI that wander the level as much as the player does also makes it impossible to think any one room is clear. Give some enemies patrols, while give others multiple different ways to go with a randomizer, and make them stay in a few public and logical places with a random timer. That way, the player can't assume he knows where an enemy is going to be next tme he plays the game. Also, make enemies chase the player down. It's an intense feeling to pick an enemy off and then run away, and instead of the enemies just continuing where they're going, they chase the player and hunt him down.
To add to this, I'd suggest using AI like Grismaths that have a cone of vision ala Metal Gear Solid. That way the player who wants to avoid confrontation doesn't have to fight every AI that comes within their radius of awareness [Which is anywhere around them in JK.]

Higher damaging weapons cause the player to think twice about ramboing a room, but instead convince them to use the cover you've layed out in the level. If you make their weapons kill you as fast as your weapons kill them, you've suddenly got a game worth playing.

Levels do NOT have to be straight. That's one thing that a LOT of these games today fail at realising. The rule of thumb is: Leave your goals wide open. Instead of "Get out of the compound via the B4 airduct." you'd say "Get out of the Compound." You DON'T want to have all locked doors except one. You DON'T want players to have to go only into a specific room before another. And most of all, you don't have to make everything work towards a goal. There could be some level DA security doors that are in the west end of the compound that the story doesn't tell the player is important. You might find the key on some random enemy, and then find out that there's a few goodies in the DA section of the compound, including a way out of the compound via the roof. Suddenly you've bypassed some gameplay in anoher part of the level, but you've also let the playe feel like they've accomplished something rather than just keep pressing foreward and going through your level.

Backtracking is NOT a good gameply mechanic. You know why? If there isn't a straight line anywhere, there won't BE backtracking. A level that is free and open is a level that truly discourages monotonous gameplay because the player will be able to take ANY rout he or she wants to do any of your goals.

Don't forget that cutscenes drive a game. If you can put together nice cutscenes, you'll even trick the player into liking one of the worst games. Take RE games for example.

Weapon placement should be REALISTIC. Not to mention, you don't HAVE to provide the player with healing units all the time. A great rule of thumb is to build your level realistically, then decide how things are going to play out. That is, you'd have a medical facility, maybe some medical cabnets in a dorm or 2, or a first aid kit in more public locations, etc. This gives the player a goal and a logical tip of the hat to how he needs to play. ALL ENEMIES SHOULD DROP THE GUN THEY USE!!!!!!!!!!! Reward a player who just beat the sniper by GIVING HIM THE SNIPER RIFLE. Also, allow the player to ACCESS THE SNIPER LOFT.

Make the level make sense. If something doesn't have actual realistic and logical usage.... don't include it. A room with weird boxes in the ceiling with a long pole patruding from them isn't cool archi, it's wasted archi. Make things look like they work, and if you're willing to, make some of it work. Interactivity with the environment is a great fun way to let the player feel like they're playing, rather than watching the gameplay. Even making tables movable so the player could push it against a door would be a rather cool gameplay mechanic that'd be easy to do.

That's about all I can offer for now. A lot of these ideas require a gigantic arsenal of JK editing powers, but if you can master them, you'll make a GREAT SP level.

JediKirby

Linear gameplay = one of the toughest obstacles to overcome in SP editing, I agree. People took Mario Bros. and kept the same idea going with 3d gaming...but for no good reason that I can tell.

Introduce something that wasn't directly incorporated into the game - for instance, a money and mini-quest system found in LoaM1 and LoaM2. Well-made cutscenes improve it a lot (though you need to find a balance between too many and too long and just right).

As for the actual editing - if you're not fighting Imperials, then vary the enemies. Don't have Rodian after Rodian after Rodian - or, if you are going to have that theme (perhaps you're stuck on Rodan?), give the Rodians different clothing.

To prevent any problem with too many visible vertices or adjoins, try to creatively place walls that obstruct the player's view just enough so that the JK engine doesn't freak out.

Find a consistant theme in your texturing. Don't do Nar Shadda textures right next to Valley of the Jedi textures. It looks bad. I know, in real life, buildings don't follow any consistent theme throughout the city, but one goal in making a single-player level is to make it look appealing, not wholly realistic.

If you have a very large map (as in LoaM2), try to implement an in-game map, or at least include a .JPG map in the uploaded .ZIP file so that people have something to refer to you if an NPC sends the character to a certain place.