Gooday all.

We have released a new map - The Geonosian Battle Arena.

Please post your comments in this thread. It would be greatly appreciated :)

Link : http://www.jk2files.com/file.info?ID=7782)

Zeus

ok, lets start:

After the first look at it i though it looks ok, a bit boxy but ok, but after looking a bit closer i see some things i think you should know.

It looks REALLY bad when there are spots of light coming from nowhere. This is supposed to be an outside arena! Its also supposed to be a arena of soft and smooth curves. it looks a bit edgy to me...

I also think that you could have taken the trouble of making an apropriate skybox. To just use the bespinsky just seems lazy to me... it also seems to small for the geonosisarena...

I cant comment on the gameplay since i got a program error everytime i tried to load your mod :D

there you are, some constructive critisism...


-Buck out :duel:

Ok first off, Why si it "boxy"? Because of framerate. If I made it smooth to the actual arena standards you probably wont even laod it. Let alone be able to download it. If you'd like to give us a skybox DO IT :D. Its not lazy ness we are busy 2. If I made it the size again of the arena your PC would not load it and again probably wont even download it.

Ive started a second arena. http://innostudios.com/projects/arenabattle3.gif)

If you have erros loading this you either have XP or cant follow directions well enough. Thanks for the feedback ;-)

that arena looks sooooo much better. But you might need to make the centre feild bigger. Everytime i try to d/l your mod it doesnt let me into file-front. Is there any other link to the mod d/l point

Im uploading to my server. Jk2files sems not to be working in the Download department :-/

Haha, sorry ShadyZ, I don't mean to laugh, but they wouldn't need to send us a skybox....it comes with the game :)

The reason I didn't use a skybox was because it caused too many shadows and it didn't light the map well. The spots gave it an eerie feel in certain areas.

If you want another place to download it from you can get it from

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/zeusjk2/files)

The password is zeus

Enjoy

Zeus

Zeus! Get online please. I need to ask a few things! :D MSN

Another place you can get it

http://innostudios.com/projects/sp_genarena.zip)

Zeus please?

That screenshot you posted looks very nice. I suggest you try to create the arena as accuratly as possible then release several versions with different levels of detail. Why won't it run on xp? you do realize that this is a major flaw in your map. I can load the map, but everytime i die the game crashes and i have to restart JK. Anyway keep up the good work. Its a great map.

Nt really sure why it doesnt work with XP as well. We'll do our best on V2. But people have to understand we cant get it 100% accurate. Thanks :)

it worked with mine, and it was pretty good too. except jedi master or knight wouldnt work on XP, so i had to play on jedi mode. I hope to see version 2 out of it. And more ep 2 jedis besides kenobi would be a great addition.

I finally had a chance to test this map and as far as the XP crashing goes, I think it might have to do with the Battledroid model you guys are using.

I've always had trouble with getting that one in SP. I always do a SP conversion of any model i download from the Internet. Just for fun and for taking some screenshots and that Battledroid model always crashed the game whenever i loaded it. I suggest using Prophets excellent battledroid model for any new versions.

Why anyone would want to use anything except Prophet's Battledroid is beyond me. They guy even made a specially packed Stormtrooper replacement for SP.

Battle Droid for MP (http://www.jediknightii.net/files/index.php?link=file&id=854)

Stormtrooper to Battledroid (http://www.jediknightii.net/files/index.php?link=file&id=853)

Yes that one I heavily wanted in the map but Zeus said it would make the files too big. So thatll most likely be in V2 for higher performance Pc's.

I've had another little test and it seems that i was right. I opened up the pk3 and took out the "roger" Battledroid and replaced it with the Prophet Battledroid and it ran fine. No more crashing, not even after dying.

Yes that one I heavily wanted in the map but Zeus said it would make the files too big. So thatll most likely be in V2 for higher performance Pc's.

I see what you mean. I checked out your pk3 and you have a lot of stuff you don't need. When i make a NPC, i just base it on the MP model. I don't need to copy texture files and such. That saves a lot of space.

What you can do when you make an NPC, is just copy the skin and .glm file into your mod and then tell people to download the MP model for the textures. You can even put a link into your readme. Personally i don't really think you need to include the "complete model" into your mod unless you heavily modified it. People that download your map are usually the same people that also download other maps and models, so why should they download it again, when they probably already have the MP model. This can save you a lot of space.

My personal mod directory(not a real mod, just something for fun)that i put my NPC's in, is about 4,5 mb's and is entirely based on the MP models i have in my base dir. And i have at least 30 new npc's in there.:eek:

Another thing about your NPC's: I noticed that all the stats for your NPC's are maxed out. That's waaaaayyy to difficult. They don't have to be that difficult to be entertaining. It's just frustrating really. I gave up playing after I got Sniped 84 times from half a mile away.
Battledroids shouldn't be that strong. Clonetroopers should be more intelligent and accurate than Battledroids. Put a little variety in there. You were right for creating a seperate droid commander, but he's really not different from the regular one in stats.

One more thing about the NPC's: SCALE. Battledroids are pretty tall, scale them that way. Padmй is shorter than Obi-wan. Anakin is taller than Obi-Wan, but not as tall as a battledroid. ETC...

Listen to White Shdw, his advice is spot on.

Now for a little of my own :)

For the high end release I would suggest taking the battle droids, lowering all their stats, especially their health and equipping them all with the standard stormtrooper blasters. Then to balance it out so it is still a challenge have the level simply spawn more battledroids so that the Jedi are overwhelmed rather than outskilled. This will make the experience much more movie accurate and much more fun.

I also think you should change the games structure. Instead of having the game play like a seek and destroy mission you should focus more on creating a survival type experience. In the movie its Just Anakin, Obi-Wan and Padme, then the Jedi, then finally the clones. In your maps first release it went Anakin, Obi-Wan and Padme, Clones, Jedi then i stopped playing as I became frustrated with the crashes lol.

I'm not sure if this is possible but you should have the arena spawn droids from the several entry points at fixed intervals so that there is a constant inflow of enemies. As the game the intervals between droids spawning should steadily increase. As time passes the Jedi should arrive, and then as the game becomes extremely hectic as more and more droids arrive and more Jedi die the game should come to a climax and the clone troopers should arrive protecting the Jedi and ending the game when you enter one of the dropships.

As for the arena itself, you should make it as large as what we saw in the movie and as accurate as possible. That said if you cant recreate something movie accurate and it looks bad replace it with something simpler or change it all together. The large sand arena map is extremely different from the movie but it is still fun and looks fairly good. You should definitely model the 4 poles in the arena with one fallen and the chariot thingy that Anakin and Padme take cover in. Whatever you do Im sure it will look great, the real issues are with the gameplay.

I also think you should make Jango Fett jump down from the balcony into the arena at some point. His stats should all be set to full and his health should be fairly high to make him a worthy apponant.

If you manage to pull this off with everything working this could be a very enjoyable map and I assure you it will be very popular. It will no doubt take much play testing to figure out the right amount of droids to spawn so it isn't too easy but not too difficult but in the end it will be worth it. I also encourage you to release the map as a co-op release as I think most fans would love to take on the geonosis arena with a friend by their side.

I think one thing that would greatly improve the next release is pumping as much work into the new arena as humanly possible. Yes, you have lives. Yes, you might be very busy. However, I'm sure there will be plenty of people willing to help you if you get a good start. You need to keep the facecount low, but that doesn't mean you need to have redundant textures or turn it into the triangle arena. Your first map was a decent start, but Sand Arena II still reminds me of the geonosis arena much more, and it is much more complex but still runs quite smoothly. It might not be a bad idea to base it vaguely off of that design, and just add all the necessary modifications.

Oh yeah, and co-op is an absolute must.:D

Coop would be cool. I get to be Obi-Wan though. ;)

what about a multiplayer version of this map?