I thought about that for quite a long time and today I made the first brushes. I started with the pent area. Since I dont have much experiance in mapping it will take some time for sure.


Map Download: Lava Station Beta 6
Map Locs: q1anni-beta6.loc
Map Demos: Demos

Map Info:

► Weapons 2 RL, 1 LG, 1 SNG, 1 SSG, 1 GL
► Items 1 RA, 1 YA, 1 GA, 2 MH
► Powerups 1 Pent, 1 Quad, 1 Ring

Playable @ qw.quakeservers.net:28501 /28502 / 28503

Nice that someone still thinks qw is worth making maps for! Don't be afraid to ask the div0s for advice about what works in top level gameplay and don't be afraid to change things!

A quick note on on the superficial aspects of map design (while not exactly important at this early stage of development, it's just about all I can help with): Supposedly "random" arrangement textures, like stone walls, look terrible when they're covering large flat areas because they repeat so often, so maybe go for a less organic look and throw up some manufactured wall textures, or some additional features to break them up, or both! Generally things look better in qw when the designers take the manufactured approach instead of trying to make things look natural, due to the low polygon count and the sharp, angular platforms and walls. Texture-work might seem like the least important aspect, but a poor job will instantly turn off a worrying percentage of players.

Also, be aware of the bug where you can stick in obtusely and acutely angled walls. This is the reason most qw walls are arranged at 90 degree angles. For instance, if someone takes the pent and gets knocked down towards the lava, they could conceivably stick into the corner, where you have the small 45 degree sections, and rocket climb all the way back up, and it doesn't look like you have intended for this to be possible.

Those kind of tricks are the best. Not like the designed trickjumps on cmt1b

q3dm14 might be pretty cool in qw too. I'm surely interested in the end result.
So far the textures are killing, but like you said you are new and only just started. So I'm sure it will be allright.

Well this is my progress so far. At the moment I focus on size. I spend a lot of time running trough the map to find places that are out of proportion. Dont blame about textures or layout. Design comes later )

Keep it up anni!

I liked that map while playing q3, alltho it wasnt on a very serious level of play (lan ffa)

Added some more pics in first post! If someone is interested in helping out let me now

Need:
- Bunnyhopper
- Bugfinder
- Ideas

Hey just out of curiousity, are you open to rearranging the item placement so it's not a true remake? I'm not sure the map as-is will work too well in qw.

What items and how many of each are included so far?

Maybe a teleporter deep in lava, so one can get out with pent.

Well if pent is caught in the lava by mistake now and then it wont decide every game!

Removing the risk of getting pent? There should be significant risk in getting the best power up in the game.

The whole point about the Pent (or battlesuit in q3) placement is that it should not be easy nor risk free to get it.
sspecially without rjump.

In quake3 there's also kind of a skill to denying/pushing someone down in the void(lava here) if your team is unable to get it.
Like shafting someone who makes the rj away from plattform, or shooting them in the back with ssg right before, or blocking them while they try to jump over etc.

NO, if you arent able to rj then its your fault At the moment I`m thinking about a teleporter near the tube on pent area because I hate windtubes! And it would work in one direction anyway

Well, I just thought it would be stupid to sit in the lava for 30 seconds unable to do anything (using kill command shouldn't be an aspect on any map). *shrug*

It could easily be made into a void, skull-style.

Doesn't kill pent.

Haha, no way!

I remember that was a bug in pre-war that was fixed in later versions of ktx. If you wanted to make this a feature, I'm sure you could ask the ktx devs to implement voids that kill pent but still rendered it immune to crushing, etc. Almost all european servers are constantly updated (except for xs4all) and, on the longshot that this project will successfully enter leagues, there will be plenty of time to update the major servers which aren't Renzo's.

It's just an idea.

Added map dl alpha01 ^

Its just to get a feeling, main brushes are done now i have to work on the details

Btw, maybe ive missed something but what are the intended game modes on your map anni?

I think it will probably be better for 4on4 in qw compared to q3 (and it was the best q3 4on4 map for those that dont know )

I'd even go as far and say it should be optional for teams that wants tb6 in next eql (doesn't matter it is still under development).

anni: I think the big rooms in q3 are okish because of the combination of rail/slow rockets. But in qw I think adding some obstacales in big rooms/coridors will improve the map and help creating those choke-points maps like cmt3 lack.

Willgurht doesn't all doors between rooms create that? Having a few big rooms is no problem but mostly that map already has enough cover as it is.

imo it gets boring to hang out in extremely large rooms trying to shoot a guy far away.
the weapons in qw just arent designed for very large rooms i think
bigroom in dm2 and pent area in dm3 are large enough imo but im sure there are ppl who favour large areas

anyone out there who enjoy large rooms? explain why!

Here is my result of today: alpha02
- switched back to BASE style -> retextured all areas
- added lot of spawn points
- added turbo elevator in pent room
- finished ssg room
- finished mega/ya room
- added ring
- added sng

Map has too much space. Big rooms just don't feel right like they do in q3. It's all so very very open. Maybe adding roofs will improve this a lot tho.
Some extra objects, nothing special and not too much might be a good idea tho.

The way the map now is the controlling team should keep q/lg area safe. From that location it's easy to keep both ya's too. LG is by far the most important weapon on the map right now since there are lots of wide open areas where lg owns rl with ease.
I also suggest a turbo elevator from ring to ra room.

A note about spawn points: I was always a fan of the 8-spawn system where every man has a specific job to do on match-start. More than that, and important items might be neglected. Fewer than that, and you get unnecessary telefrags which lead to an unbalanced and inconsistent start.

8 spawns makes the map MUCH easier to learn and reduces the elements of luck and confusion during the first minute.

8 spawns might be good at start but confusing in game. While opponents just wait right before your apearence and do 20 min spawnfrags. More spawns = more possiblity to escape.

Kiwbuis the ra room isnt finished yet. Atm I`m not sure what to do. My first idea was to put in some boxes and some pillars here & there. But that result in ra room appeared still to big. I will most likely build up a wall around the ra area with two entries. One will be the big stairs and one from rl. Enemys would still have a chance to sneak in using the hole above ra.

I will defently speed up the Ring Ra elevator on same level as pent elevator.

Well, spawnraping isn't common at all except on maps where many spawns are in close proximity, like dm2 water/tele (incidentally the map with the joint most spawns).

I would argue that it is proximity of spawns, rather than number, which causes spawnraping. Dm3, for example, only has 6 spawns (3 less than dm2), but the only potential spawncamping spot is at sng/tele, which is far less effective than dm2's. Cmt1b and cmt3 both have 8 spawns, but they are thoughtfully placed, and, as such, deny any significant spawnraping opportunities.

Place spawns well and you reduce the spawnraping. Use 8 spawns and you reduce the time it takes for the map to reach a good level of play without compromising the gameplay, and I think that's a significant factor in map design. But, if you can find a way to do that without 8 spawns, then I guess it doesn't matter. It just seems to me that 8 spawns is the easiest way to do it.

Beta available: Lava Station Beta 1

available @ Dybbuk 89.149.194.72:27600 /27700 /27800

First mix demo: HERE

keep testing