New mapper looking for beta testers - Cole Hurst 1: Eaton

[bwyan]

UPDATE: Beta testing is now open to anyone interested.

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Hello everyone,

I am new to the forum and also to mapping in general. I've spent about 3-4 months learning DarkRadiant and creating a new FM for TDM. Now, I could use some help running the map through it's paces.

Mission description: In the northern town of Eaton, Lord Mayor Zelmer is hosting a lavish party at his luxurious estate... Most of Eaton's elite, the Queen and a famous musician will all be partaking in tonight's festivities.

I plan on making the map available for testing over on the "TDM Mission Beta Testing" forum as soon as I (hopefully, fingers crossed) have received a couple of replies

I've tried my best to make the mission as interesting as possible, but I fear that I may have made the plot a little too convoluted - hopefully not though.

During the Beta-phase, I am also hoping to recruit one or two voice actors, but I'm not quite sure if I ought to look into this separately. Any advice on this would also be greatly appreciated. Generally speaking, all the important voice acting is already present, but I would love to replace one poorly acted scene and also to have some non-essential dialogue recorded by someone other than me and my partner (and preferably by a native English speaker).

Thank you for your interest and thanks in advance to anyone interested in beta testing. I promise to be as receptive as possible to any feedback I receive.

Edited November 16 by bwyan
Added link to beta testing post

[Dragofer]

Welcome to the forums! It's always a nice surprise to see a new mapper emerge from the shadows

Regarding voice acting, definitely look at the TDM wiki entry and the TTLG voice actors list.

Regarding your map, I can see quite a few nice ideas there, but my feedback going by those screenshots is that those areas are quite wide open and it's therefore difficult to light them up adequately. How about looking at ways to divide them up, i.e. with pillars and maybe some dividing wall pieces inbetween? That way your lights illuminate a bigger portion of the walkable space, you have more points to attach lights where necessary and the player has more cover he can work with. One mission that does this very well is Full Moon Fever.

[bwyan]

Hello Dragofer and thank you for the warm welcome.

I will definitely look into the resources you mentioned regarding voice acting options - thanks for those.

In hindsight, I suppose that I should have scaled down some of my larger open areas (the screenshots I posted are primarily from those), but it would be quite challenging for me to redo those rooms - at least in a way where I can effectively make use of more visportals to allow for more lighting. Regardless, I will consider what I can manage without ruining the current layout.

Thanks for your comments

[demagogue]

I was going to say a similar thing. You don't have to literally make new visportaled rooms though. Breaking up that space with furniture, walls and dividers, z-axis variations (mounds and ditches, steps, platforms, etc.), lighting variations (standing lamps, desk lamps, etc.) will go a long way to making some of that dead space come alive.

Think about space in terms of creating variation, directing the player's eye, and telling a kind of story about the place, and generally the wider and more empty a space is, the deader it gets. The more you break it up the more alive & interesting the pieces become. And creating spots of light is especially important for gameplay because then the player starts thinking about how they'll navigate the room, and you've just made a big dead area into an interesting puzzle to figure out.

[bwyan]

2 minutes ago, demagogue said:

I was going to say a similar thing. You don't have to literally make new visportaled rooms though. Breaking up that space with furniture, walls and dividers, z-axis variations (steps, platforms, etc.), lighting variations (standing lamps, desk lamps, etc.) will go a long way to making some of that dead space come alive.

Think about space in terms of creating variation, directing the player's eye, and telling a kind of story about the place, and generally the wider and more empty a space is, the deader it gets. The more you break it up the more alive & interesting the pieces become.

Thanks demagogue,

I do have some of that going on in the other smaller rooms and hallways that the mansion consists of (also the city streets), but I suppose I really need to think of some changes for the few larger rooms that I currently have.

Thanks for the feedback!

[bwyan]

I have updated the screenshots to better reflect the perceived lighting while playing the game. I will consider what can be further improved based on Dragofer and demagogue's suggestions...

[Acolytesix]

I am so in. Mansion FMs are my favorite

[bwyan]

Just now, Acolytesix said:

I am so in. Mansion FMs are my favorite

Great! I will ping you as soon as it's available. I'm currently doing some changes based on the feedback I've received so far...

[Acolytesix]

As I too am learning DR on the side, I'm not into the tech/math part yet. All I'm gonna do is point out game play-thru issues  

My picture dump folder in TDM don't work, or it does, but I can't find the pics (I've searched everywhere over the years lol), so I take the pics with my iphone and post them that way. Images will differ in color because of that.

 

 

[JackFarmer]

Hello,

I can have a look this week during the evenings CET.

Edited November 15 by JackFarmer

[bwyan]

21 minutes ago, JackFarmer said:

Hello,

I can have a look this week during the evenings CET.

Thank you very much. I will make it available soon...

[bwyan]

@Acolytesix, @JackFarmer: The FM is now available for testing over on the "TDM Mission Beta Testing" forum.

[Acolytesix]