Grendelkeep -> post your feedback

[lilalurl]

A short while ago, Gator, member of the IGS clan:
http://www.igsclan.com/new/
who initially worked on the conversion to ONS of Grendelkeep, gave me permission to edit his work.

The most recent edit made since then and available on the server is ONS-{IGS}-Grendelkeep-SP2.

If you have any feedback/comments/suggestions, especially if you spot some issues, feel free to post them here so that they can be discussed and investigated.



Edit: Now that there are two pages of posts, I guess it is time to update the first post with new download links.

Last version: SP5
http://tarantola.alexandre.free.fr/CEON ... eep-SP5.7z

[lilalurl]

SP3 should be soon on the server.

Fixes an issue with a playerstart at the center node where you could spawn slightly tilted on the left side (and stay that way until you died).

Download link for those who prefer to get the map directly

[laboRHEinz]

Hi lila!
Thank you for your works on Grendel; Imo it's another nice NV map. The only issue i could think of is that it is in fact nice to play with lower player counts, let's say 6 to 20 players. But as soon as there are more players, the match most likely will end up in a classic standoff, thus leading into overtime. Maybe this could be improved by adding a 3rd path. There still are several locations left where nodes could be placed e.g. in the middle room in front of the cores. What do you think?
Greetings, heinz

[lilalurl]

Sure. I'll take a look in details to see which locations could host a node with enough cover so that it does not turn into a pure spam fest.

If you, or anybody else, have suggestions (screenshots appreciated), please post them.


Besides, thanks to the new version of Wormbo's Onslaught Specials, we could try and keep the current link setup for when the player count is < 20 and use the additional nodes when there are more players.

I have not experimented with it yet, but it should work as I expect it to do:
http://forums.epicgames.com/showthread. ... st27600948

And from the docs at http://wiki.beyondunreal.com/User:Wormb ... deSettings:
"byte MinPlayerCount
The minimum player count required to activate this power node.

The node will be disabled and potentially removed from the network if less players are in the game."


I will start working on that in a day or two so if you people have comments/suggestions, now his a good time.

[lilalurl]

As working on gio's map radarmap made me think it was not optimized in Grendelkeep, here is a new version with a fine-tuned radarmap (took me two tries as there were some hidden actors in the map , which I did not expect and hence after the initial rebuild several static meshes lacked collision ):
http://tarantola.alexandre.free.fr/CEON ... eep-SP4.7z


Right now, there is no radar image. Since it is an indoor map, it is not really doable.
Best I could think of would be to use a picture from the top view in unrealed.
It would look like this:
http://tarantola.alexandre.free.fr/CEON ... pradar.jpg

On the other hand, since it is a relatively small map, I don't think a radar image is needed.

Opinions?




Regarding additional nodes: I am not certain that the map could really bear more nodes right now.

I'd rather experiment by adding one or two more stone corridors.
Or perhaps adding some walkways. For some time, I wanted to use the transparent glass walkways that FewPosts made for UC2-Horizon_2010. Perhaps however it would look out of place as it is from a style than Grendelkeep's?:
http://forums.epicgames.com/showthread.php?t=712178

And then placing nodes there. These nodes would be the optional ones (using Wormbo's stuff if it works as expected).
Therefore the new corridors/walkways would be used as a play area when there are enough players (new nodes activated).
And when there are less players, it would work as alternate paths to reach some places (of course it will take more time than the direct path).


Opinions on that matter too?

[laboRHEinz]

Hi, SP4 is up, thanks again!
Regarding the radar image, I didn't see problems yet; will look at it when playing.
As for the glass walkways, well, I don't think they fit to Grendelkeeps style; the map is middle-aged looking and then future-like walkways? Hmmm ;-)
But I do think there is room for another nodes i.e. a 3rd path, e.g at the underpasses. It's kinda hard to explain, I'll try to edit&post an image. Hopefully, I'll make it next weekend (during the week I usually don't find the time for extra works...)
Imo, a 3rd path would intensify the gameplay, atm there's a bit much walking, not enough fighting hehe ;-)

[lilalurl]

Regarding the radar image, I didn't see problems yet; will look at it when playing.

There should be no issue (at least I hope). It is just that it has no background image (the radar box is empty except for the nodes, cores and links).

As for the glass walkways, well, I don't think they fit to Grendelkeeps style; the map is middle-aged looking and then future-like walkways? Hmmm ;-)

Perhaps we could say the map is steampunk or something like that :
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steampunk

But I do think there is room for another nodes i.e. a 3rd path, e.g at the underpasses. It's kinda hard to explain, I'll try to edit&post an image.

Please do. Adding a node, lockers and playerstarts should not take long, so if you tell me exactly where, I can easily add them. And at worse, if the changes do not work, they can be quickly removed.

[laboRHEinz]

Perhaps we could say the map is steampunk or something like that :
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steampunk

lol @ steampunk
wasn't meant as critique, I LOVE middle-aged looking maps ;-)

Didn't manage to create a picture of my node setup idea...hopefully I'll make it this weekend..

[laboRHEinz]

What about this node / link setup?

grendel1.jpg (245.02 KiB) Viewed 17097 times

The blue pathes are upstairs, reds downstairs. So, upstairs is something for the spam and massacre lovers, downstairs for the sneaky guys :-)
The new nodes would be 4a/b (in the center room in front of the core) and 6a/b (in the corner of the underpasses)
Just a suggestion :-)

[lilalurl]

Ok, I think I get the idea.
Not 100% sure about how things will be when played, but at least it is worth a try and as said previously, this kind of changes can be easily reverted if it does not work.