So, I've gone for a new style for this year's contest... it's sorta Egyptian-meets-the-future. I cannot deny the obvious, so I gave it a bogus, pseudo-Egyptian name--Temple of Phaestiadite. It's pretty big, but movement to all areas is made easy via 2 teleporters. It's nearing completion, but I want to throw it out to you guys to see what you like, don't like, etc. before I run out of time. Anything is fair game.

The rest of the pics:





A wireframe for those who want to try and piece it together:

Having seen some of pics on the EC, its really good and the texturing does give it that Egyptian feel.

Grand, in an Asp-like way. Me likes.

Good job on the solid architecture and usage of lighting. And the texturing work to make it feel immense.

THe only concern I have that it seems to be too clean. Like it was recently built?

I wouldn't bother with clouds, i'd just have an azure sky. Too many people put clouds in the sky.

It reminds me of classic UT levels. But it's even prettier.

Asp, your levels are always nothing short of pure awesome. I'm sure JK's engine must fear and hate you, for all you do is push it to the limit constantly. It's a really beautiful map, and I vote that you keep the skybox.

It's not a skybox.

You have really sharp shadows, therefore it makes sense to have a cloudless sky.

Detty has a good point. I'm going to make a quick sky texture to see how it looks.

[Edit]


I think he's right. >:D [/Edit]

*looks both ways*

Use the sky texture and sun texture from Dead Cell!

That should give the sky some realism

(You don't have too btw, I just thought it would be cool to use the same concept to make a wicked sun texture. And maybe you could add a glare effect and spice it up )

Also, maybe you could make the sky fade into a sandy color near the ends to make a nice effect

(P.S: The best way to do this is to use a Flicker cog and one giant inverted box 3do :P)

I think some high clouds would do that sky well. It makes it look boring.

Anyway, the second post of screenshots looks too bland, and could use some of the detail textures of the previous shots.

Otherwise, it still looks too clean. I don't care if it's futuristic. Wear and tear makes maps "feel" rather than just play.

I also think your size choice is unwise and risky, but that may or may not be realized in time.

You are so good at this.

Amazing.

It does look too clean and new though. I would add some degree of decay in the form of props (fallen bricks, etc.) and textures (stains on the walls, cracks in the bricks) to break the repetitiveness and give it some life.

As far as the sky is concerned, a clear blue sky makes perfect sense, it is Egypt after all.

I think the sky is really not much of a concern, because it's easily changed. I have been working on some detailing and "damage", and should have some pics tonight. I've also been tinkering with the idea of making slight changes for a CTF version, which would take place in a night setting.

Maybe it is new?

If it's new there still have to be many imperfections, albeit a lot more subtle (which is a much harder task in my opinion).

The temple itself is supposed to be relatively new. However, I think a bit of damage here and there wouldn't hurt. But, as Freelancer said, making a somewhat new structure look damaged is a bit difficult. I will be adding damage, but it's going to be one of the last things that I do for this map. I started messing with it and came to the conclusion that it's going to be quite tedious, and that eats up a lot of time that I simply don't have.
As an alternative, I added a few lightbeams and saw that adding even one would make all the other openings in the roof look out of place. This means for every opening, I'd have to design some form of lightbeam. This isn't an option because of the sheer amount of custom 3dos I'd have to make that have to somewhat match each light path.
In turn, this brings me right back to where I started from--and that's only pissed me off even more since I don't have much time left to fiddle with the finer parts of this map. All I can do now is

I love your texture patterns.

[QUOTE=Blood Asp]But, as Freelancer said, [/QUOTE]Fardreamer.

Egypt meets the future? Sounds like Stargate to me...

That's awesome. I was planning on doing something like this a while back. my only suggestion is to make more "glowing" things.. my level was going to be based off of the cuotl from rise of legneds. here are some pics of the game.

http://pcmedia.ign.com/pc/image/article/700/700498/rise-of-nations-rise-of-legends-20060406024437546.jpg

http://pcmedia.ign.com/pc/image/article/690/690641/rise-of-nations-rise-of-legends-20060222112144970.jpg

http://pcmedia.ign.com/pc/image/article/685/685405/rise-of-nations-rise-of-legends-20060202024328458.jpg

It's nice, but I think the lighting has too much contrast for being an open outdoor level

You don't have much time, Asp. Submissions end on the 16th

Updated, somewhat... I've been adding weapons and testing the flow a bit. I've also altered the lighting contrast a bit to soften the shadows.

Your lightbeam-foo is weak. All I see is an abundance in clean textures and high low contrast shadows.

Stop sucking so much.

(For those that don't like reading my posts, don't reply.)

That's okay, you already replied to yourself

I have no idea what you're talking about.

Given the detail of the 3rd and 4th shot, the walls in the 1st and 2nd (in your last post, Asp) seem a bit bare.

Sock's textures are timeless. No matter how often I see them, they still rock. Despite tiling like ****, they are awesome.

Well, I've tried to spice some things up a bit more with the comments I've received. Like or hate?

the sloped grates stand out too much in the shadow

I liked it better before. Especially the last tomb area.

But needless to say, it looks damn good. I mean, my comments earlier were in spite of it looking awesome.

Well, I wasn't satisfied with my last attempt, and I think I've come up with a better solution:


A little extra something


Anywho, I've pretty much ran out of time to mess around with the finer points. I'm going to finish adding the powerups and get ready for a beta test run. I wanted to add a trap cog, but I don't think I'll have enough time to get one implemented.

Any last minute ideas are always welcome, though.