DM Clocktower U-Damage Position Update

Hello again.

It's taken longer than I hoped to order and install additional copies of UT3 for playtesting.

While I waited for the copies to arrive I did some tweaking with the position of the U-damage power-up in the map.

Original U-Damage Location

Originally the U-damage was located on a small platform near the cogs on the ground floor of the map.

Original U-damage location level with the glass.

 The player could clearly see the power-up through glass on the second floor.

Original U-damage location above the glass.

I intended the player to see the power-up, descend to the ground floor, and then ride the teeth of the cog upwards to the U-damage.

In reality sucessfuly riding the teeth of the cogs upwards was extremely difficult, doubly so when in the heat of combat.

I decided to move the U-damage spawn to a completely different section of the map, the outside roof area.

 New U-Damage Location

I wanted the U-damage to be easier to obtain, but at the same time, it should still require the player to explore the map to discover. I decided to "hide" the U-damage power-up inside a billboard advertisting the power-up. The thought was that the player would assume the power-up is a mere adversitment and therefore ignore it, unless they look closely.

Billboards seen from above in BSP view.

The billboard is reached by a series of ramps and platforms leading upwards to the indent housing the power-up.

Billboard intent housing the U-damge.

The U-damage's new location should encourage players to fight amongst the rooftops more often.

- Sam

DM-Clocktower Post Presentation Edits

Hello again.

Firstly here's the updated timeline as of 27th January 2013 that I included in last fridays presentation.

27th January 2013 Timeline Update

To re-iterate I moved eveything along by roughly 15 days so I could edit the map based on feedback recieved.

This weekend I've made a few small but useful edits to the DM-Clocktower map.

Added Kill Z Volumes to Map

The pink cylinder shapes show the Kill Z Volumes from above.

Kill Z volumes instantly kill a player upon collision. I have placed cylindrical volumes around the buildings outside of the Clocktower structure. Now if the player falls off any of these buildings they will hit the Kill Z Volume and instantly die.

In Perspective view the geometry of the Kill Z Volumes can easily be seen.

Replaced Modified Lift with Original

 Modified Lift made up of two different BSP objects.

In the final version of the map, the lift will mostly be metal but will feature a glass partition in the floor. I temporarily achived this using two different BSP objects and moving them using the same piece of kismet. This caused the player to sometimes fall through the non-existent gap betwen the two objects, down the lift shaft to their death. I have fixed this bug by making the lift one solid object without the glass floor. (In the final map this will be a textured static mesh with both metal and glass sections).

Original Lift created from a single BSP object.

Added AI Lift and Lift Exit Nodes

The blue icons are the Lift Nodes. 

Each Lift Node links to a different Lift Exit Node 

on a different floor.

These pathfinding nodes allow the AI to understand the entrance and exit to lift systems in the map. Previosuly the AI would sometimes get stuck in the middle of a lift, and try to jump out of it before it reaches floor 2 or 3. Now the AI will wait for the lift to hit either of the "lift exit" nodes before disembarking.

The blue icon is the Lift Exit Node on the top floor of the lift.

Short update this weekend, but progress is progress. If all goes well I may be able to start player vs player playtesting next week.

- Sam