Reviews

These are some of my favorites. /cheap

These maps are so bad, I can't stop playing.

This is easily one of my least favorite maps. While the design isn't too terrible, the weapon balance and placement is just ridiculous. Shotguns are the only weapons on this map that are worth anything and you can only find them in 3 spots. 2 of them are right next to each other in a huge open area, and the other is hidden away in a corner.

If there are no real good players in the game, it's probably not a problem. But, if there is at least one good player, he will easily be able to camp around the shotgun spawns and one-shot anyone that tries to get near him since it is a very open map and there is a clear line of sight to pretty much every part of the map. The person will never have to leave this location, since there are unlimited shotgun shells here.

Don't host this unless you want the good player in the game to completely dominate everyone else.

I couldn't decide whether this should have 4 or 5 stars. The smaller levels are OK, and don't reflect the same quality that I see in Riki Tiki Tavi, which I think is an awesome example of what an XL map should be.

The first time $lave gave me a walk-through in Riki*, I imagined 6-8 player team-netgames in it and thought it would be a blast. I've played it about five times since then and it continues to grow on me. Yeah, it's big but it's got lots of good terrain to suit all types of fighting styles.

I agree with the other comments that $lave has really delivered on these new maps. Even if the smaller maps were dogs (which they're not) this would be a strong pack, but with Riki* being so good I have to score it as one of the best out there.

Actually, this is pretty good stuff, showing a huge step up from the previous two packs. Ascent is extremely well-done; it looks amazing. Riki Tiki Tavi is a really fun map as well. A previous comment on how it's too large to be playable is, in my experience, incorrect; a group of 6 worked quite well, which is what I would expect out of an XL map.

The use of All Shapes on the two largest maps is spotty and imprecise; I think they would have worked better without the Juice augmentation.

I like that there's a lot more ammo, and the lighting and shading has seen a huge boost. If all of the maps were like Ascent, this would have been the easiest 5 I have ever given. Unfortunately, the consistency isn't there yet, and the weaker links detract too much from this little pack.

I'm just kidding. I'm actually very impressed with this pack. The first two maps seem a little rough, and there's a headbanger poly on the first level (poly 93 is too low when you're coming down the nearby stairs); I think the impression of roughness comes from the lighting, which is not very differentiated from one area to another.

The last three levels, however, are just superb. They make me think of Coriolis Loop, with their nuanced architecture, large horizontal and vertical spaces, and general coolness. Bonus points for your usage of multiple texture sets in some of the levels; it's subtle enough that it doesn't look out of place. Please make more maps!

Cosmic Clouds is definitely a robust pack. The level design is complex and it is apparent that $lave worked very hard on these maps. I am looking forward to playing more of his maps in the future. The XL map is definitely too large to be playable, but that is my only complaint. Ill definitely be hosting these maps on the meta. Congratulations, $lave, on a job well done!

$lave is definitely getting better at mapping. All of the maps in this pack are nice looking, and the flow seems pretty good too. I don't actually play online so I can't say for sure how these work in netgames, but it seems like the last 2 maps would be too large. November Rain is probably the weakest map in the pack, just because of the massive open areas. The last one in the pack looks nice, but again, I think games would be too slow on it.

I look forward to seeing more maps by this author.

Version 2 is even better. There's some incredible talent at work here.

This edition of the contest map collection isn't as good or big as past ones have been, but it's still more solid than most independent maps of recent times are. I wouldn't say this contest brought out the best in me, but it got me back into mapping, which is a feat of its own.

Very useless physics, the only thing I noticed was that I was running faster (wow!), and upon getting hit by some projectile I found myself floating above the map or stuck in the ground. I wouldn't recommend hosting this on a multiplayer map.

The other reviews capture how I feel about the flaws in this pack. Otherwise, I think it's a really neat collection unlike most of what we have today. It's a reminder of simpler times, maybe. For the kinds of games I play now (very casual), the lack of weapons isn't so bad.

I also agree with Treellama; pare it down do the maps you think are essential and then work on those.

If one of them is not playable, why did you include it?

I've played these maps from the first versions and still have great fun with them. From the point of the player, I have nothing bad to say about it- I love all of these maps and I think they are perfect in every mode...

I agree with ryoko's review. The texturing is a bit bland, but otherwise decent--nice attention to detail. Differential shading and lighting are generally excellent.

Flow is mostly good but then there are weird things like deep water, lava pits, water cannons, dead-end rooms, peculiar shaped elevators, etc.

The 21 maps all have a similar feel, so what you could do is thin them out a little, get rid of some of the not-as-good-looking ones, fix up little flow annoyances, add some weapons, and this would be a solid pack.

Two things:

• All of these maps need more guns, without exception.
• The architecture between each level is fairly repetitive, with no real differences between them.

Some of them do actually look nice, and although there are some real oddities with flow in some places, this pack actually has several near-winners. They just need some fine-tuning.

Great job, there are some really nice maps in here! Although it is not at a Paradise Lost level, I will definitely host this pack! Keep up the good work, even though many of these maps are very good, it could still use some polishing in my opinion.

EDIT: I have now played these netmaps online, before I had only ran through solo. I would give this pack 3 and a half stars, it is good but needs work in a couple specific areas before it can be really enjoyed.

First, the maps all need more weapons and ammo, and both need to be placed better. many times I was left running around weaponless, as were most people I was playing with, try and make more weapons closer to spawn locations, a player should always be able to get a weapon and ammo within 3 seconds and should rarely run out of ammo.

Second, a couple maps, although I love the designs and architecture, had disrupted flow and/or balance. One map features a large underwater area with hallways, and a pool which you can exit that area by and which has a 2X energy canister in it. 2X health is usually a bad idea, as are underwater areas. I love that maps layout and it looks great, but it is simply too big and the underwater part kind of ruins it as well. I would take out the water, and replace the float up exits with platforms, and also trim down the size of that map. A couple other maps simply had hallways which felt to tight and/or had 90 degree turns. You should probably never have a 90 degree turn in a hallway less than 2, maybe one and a half WU's wide, and for hallways shorter rounding the corners is a good way of fixing that problem. I also think one level was set to rebellion, which is a bad idea.

I love the layout of these maps, but they do need work before almost any of them could be hosted on net. If I didn't really like these maps and think they had great potential, I wouldn't be giving you this much advice, please understand that it is purely constructive criticism, I really would like to see these maps reach their full potential!!

finally some maps for A1M1! sit on my face is nice...

This is a very small, minimalist map, with some shotguns/SPNKRs/SMGs/2 ARs in it. You wouldn't want more than 3 players on this. You probably wouldn't want to duel on it, either, because of the weapon choices. That kind of limits its usability.

Flow is decent, partly due to a lack of anything interesting in the map. It's really just one small room with a couple hallways, a door, and a teleporter to a sniper ledge.

The texturing is horrible. Absolutely terrible, the mapmaker didn't even bother to align things properly. Hopefully he spent more time on Christmas presents for his family. There is also no differential shading, and negligible lighting.

So, if you asked Santa for a small, ugly map for exactly three people to play on, it appears he delegated that task to nameless.

those three words are what describe this pack, Great Architecture, Astounding Juice Work, Fun To Play With 2+ people,

-NAMELESS-

This is probably the best texture pack out of the three. Look great close up and from afar. Anyone who still plays M1A1 should immediately download this pack.

Some are great, some aren't. While these textures are high resolution, many of them are not only very different form the originals but also have some serious problems that make them lose their visual appeal.

As of now, the TTEP project is being revised by members of the community, so I would hold off on this version and wait for next release.

These are very well made high resolution textures. The colors make the environments seem slightly more realistic than that of the original as well.

Definitely worth a download to anyone that has a graphics card that supports OpenGL

• Arena area is huge.
• Only areas out of the arena are on the north side. And they don't lead to anywhere useful.
• I count 4 teleporters that lead directly to the center of the arena.
• No differential shading
• There is a ledge overlooking the arena with areas you can't shoot through, but can walk through.

Not worth a download.

badass, keep it up!

In my opinion the textures in this pack are the best out of the three. Simply stunning. Excellent work!

These textures are out right amazing. Really you should be really proud of the hard work you put into these. If your system can support it, get these, or your really going to miss out.