Echo Canyons

[browndl]

A VERY LARGE, yet very simple death match map based on a desert canyon.

The map is bot pathed.

It includes default weapons, but it is suggested you run a sniper rifle mod as the default sniper rifle will not shoot across the map.

caveat emptor: I have run around the map, beta testers have run around the map, but this does not mean that you will not encounter any invisible blocking volumes. I hope you don't, but you might.

Video to reveal the map.



Link to download.
https://www.ut99maps.net/maps/sniper/DM ... anyons.zip

I hope you enjoy.

[UTPe]

wow, this map is fucking huge
nice work Dark Sniper, another western/desert/canyon-based map. I like the textures, the skybox and also the relaxing background audio. thanks again for your work !
this is a perfect map for oldschool sniper camping ("no run" mod not installed) for a 20-players TDM (10 vs 10) or for a DM with at least 16 players

cheers,
Pietro

[EvilGrins]

suggested you run a sniper rifle mod as the default sniper rifle will not shoot across the map

That's a good thing, you should have to move in order to get to some targets.

[OjitroC]

Yeah, it's really big which is great (I just love big maps)

Very enjoyable - lots of stealthy hunting and sniping. Once again, great concept, great atmosphere, lots of nice touches. As you say, needs a good sniper rifle with a long range and high zoom (my AWM has the former but not the latter, but I can still get headshots across the map, which is good!).

Interested to see it is based on Dagolhell - I certainly recognised parts of the landscape from that map as I moved around. Really nice idea to use that as a base and retexture it, etc.

As with your other maps, likely to remain in my 20 or so Current maps folder (ones that I'm playing at the moment) for a long time - so playing five of your maps at present, including Deckard's Revenge, which is a big favourite, and (a version of) Sniper Town.

[EvilGrins]

Okay, so the play area is ginormous....

...those arrows are pointing at bots.

There's some BSP, which is to be expected on such a large map, but nothing major. Following bots I saw points where what they were standing on disappeared but then popped right back up.

Not having UnrealEd anymore I can't verify this...

...but it appears at least 1 spawn point isn't in an ideal location, and there's no way to get out of there.

Near as I can tell, bots seem to go everywhere.


Not entirely sold on the musical selection, it ends too abruptly before starting over.

[OjitroC]

Not having UnrealEd anymore I can't verify this...
...but it appears at least 1 spawn point isn't in an ideal location, and there's no way to get out of there.

That's almost certainly PlayerStart23 - has an outgoing connection to the nearest Pathnode but that node has no outgoing connection to the next node (on a steep slope) and neither is there a connection from this next node to the one beyond - there are only incoming connections (so a bot could come down to the PlayerStart but not go up from the PlayerStart). So a bot spawning at PlayerStart23 won't go anywhere really.

In passing, Pathnode98 has no incoming connections and it's part of a route down from higher to lower ground.

[browndl]

Not having UnrealEd anymore I can't verify this...
...but it appears at least 1 spawn point isn't in an ideal location, and there's no way to get out of there.

That's almost certainly PlayerStart23 - has an outgoing connection to the nearest Pathnode but that node has no outgoing connection to the next node (on a steep slope) and neither is there a connection from this next node to the one beyond - there are only incoming connections (so a bot could come down to the PlayerStart but not go up from the PlayerStart). So a bot spawning at PlayerStart23 won't go anywhere really.

And it did not show up in map checker. If you are one who only plays OFFLINE and you know how to use the editor, just navigate to that player start and the second pathnode from that player start "PathNode431", if you will lower that down some and rebuild the paths, it will reconnect going both ways.

No matter how much effort you put into building and optimizing it never seems to fail that some defect shows up immediately after release.
The nature of the editor when trying to compile these very large maps it seems.
I hope this doesn't kill the fun for anyone.   
Auto merged new post submitted 3 minutes later

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As with your other maps, likely to remain in my 20 or so Current maps folder (ones that I'm playing at the moment) for a long time - so playing five of your maps at present, including Deckard's Revenge, which is a big favourite, and (a version of) Sniper Town.

Appreciate your kind words. Sniper Town Depot will always be a favorite of mine. I did my own remake of that map when I returned to UT99 mapping after a decade and a half break. I was greatly shocked at how poor my brush work was back then lol.

My Sniper Town Depot remake/ update https://www.ut99maps.net/maps/sniper/Sn ... ot2022.zip

[OjitroC]

No matter how much effort you put into building and optimizing it never seems to fail that some defect shows up immediately after release.
The nature of the editor when trying to compile these very large maps it seems.
I hope this doesn't kill the fun for anyone.

Not to worry - it certainly doesn't affect the fun in playing the map.

What I hope is a helpful suggestion (and something you may already do) - when 'messing around' with the pathing in maps I use sektor's MapGarbage bCheckUnReachPaths check - this indicates all the nodes that may be too high for bots - looking at each of these should help to reveal one way connections on a slope in particular. Actually I often run that check and bTryFixHighNodes together - the latter check will lower high nodes somewhat. Then I run bCheckUnReachPaths again to see if there are any high nodes left - if there are I move them slightly and rebuild the paths. I may also use bBotifyMyNodes which lowers pathnodes whether they are too high or not.

[EvilGrins]

1. Is it just me or are the clouds moving?

2. Spotted this thing while looking from bots' perspectives, but couldn't find it myself. What is that?

[Red_Fist]

Seems the best way to break up the bots and "want" to play and making them appear more Human is using pickups to have them cycle through a map.
Along with pathing, you can make them get around in ways that even one shieldbelt or shield can change the WHOLE map gameplay for bots even if every path-node was perfect.

ADD
Actually what I was getting at, if you mess around with max desirability and just watch the bots play, it has an effect on a map as a whole, not just areas. But doing that doesn't just make them repeat the same things but like a magnet to the way you sort of want the map to play out. It takes a lot of watching though.

[OjitroC]

2. Spotted this thing while looking from bots' perspectives, but couldn't find it myself. What is that?

A bunch of dried grass - the deco you see placed around the map.

[EvilGrins]

2. Spotted this thing while looking from bots' perspectives, but couldn't find it myself. What is that?

A bunch of dried grass - the deco you see placed around the map.

Then why is it in the sky?

[OjitroC]

Then why is it in the sky?

I would guess it's a very minor oversight - not surprising given the size of the map and the likely many and varied challenges presented by building on and extending/altering an existing base (Dagolhell).

It's not something that impacts gameplay at all nor does it detract from the visual quality of the map.

[browndl]

1. Is it just me or are the clouds moving?

2. Spotted this thing while looking from bots' perspectives, but couldn't find it myself. What is that?

Clouds are moving, sun is shimmering. And there is a single patch of grass that is floating in the air...
A gift from the editor that decided for some reason to throw a patch of grass into the air which was only discovered on my end 10 minutes AFTER release.
Sorry for the late response, I was attempting to respond earlier when a thunderstorm knocked out my power.

[a9902957@nepwk.com]

This looks really great. Downloaded.
Should also make for a nice XVehicles and SLV2 playground.