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The Jedi Academy Map Project
Oct 14 2003 05:41pm

NofrikinfuN
 - Retired
NofrikinfuN
Welcome to The Jedi Academy Map Project!

Recently, a thread was created on the JAK forums asking for our suggestions for a new map. Monty came up with the idea to give the map a University feel, and I ran with it! I've laid out a full site to reflect my ideas in the hopes they would be produced, and now theres a team working to do just that!

Mapping Team:
FaDed, Virtue

Contact a member of the team if you think you can be of some assistance. :D

Please, give any suggestions you have on this thread! Don't forget to vote in the poll!

http://www.angelfire.com/oh4/nofrikinfun/

This post was edited by NofrikinfuN on Dec 16 2003 07:45pm.

Poll
How does it look?

vote results

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Comments
Oct 30 2003 08:11pm

NofrikinfuN
 - Retired
 NofrikinfuN

Oops... I meant TWO weeks. :D

TWO weeks, not three.

Doh!

EDIT: WOO! POST #100! LOL

This comment was edited by NofrikinfuN on Oct 30 2003 08:12pm.

Oct 30 2003 07:45pm

Flash
 - Student
 Flash

Three weeks? *Waits patiently*

Oct 30 2003 07:43pm

NofrikinfuN
 - Retired
 NofrikinfuN

Oh, I also wanted to mention that I have hand-drawn 2 of the outer courtyard designs! :D (You'll find out which ones, eventually.)

I still have to redo the designs in paint, but hopefully that won't take too awfully long. After I post those, I'll still need to design the other two outer courtyards, a space area, a dungeon area, basement areas for the facilities, the temple facility and finally, the swoop track. Someone requested a bar... But I dunno about that. Maybe we'll have a small bar area in the Lake/Garden area... :D

Again, a beta version of the three maps should be out in two weeks, but don't expect it to include all the listed features that we're shooting for. This map may take some time to FINISH. ;)

Keep checking back, more is sure to happen. :)

This comment was edited by NofrikinfuN on Oct 30 2003 08:10pm.

Oct 30 2003 05:05pm

NofrikinfuN
 - Retired
 NofrikinfuN

Unfortunately, Exar, It had to be arranged more like a contest between the three groups. Too many creative differences, varying timezones etc... The map would have been twice the job it is for a group that large. :D

Not to worry though. Each map will have its strengths and weaknesses, and all maps will have at least a beta in the next couple weeks. ;)

Oct 30 2003 04:43pm

Achilles
 - Student
 Achilles

Very nice comments 3th, but you didn;t have to post it twice :D
I thank you for your help :)
_______________
Padawan to the great Katan
JA Brother to D@RTHM@ULR.I.P. Vladarion, may he find peace in the afterlife.


Oct 30 2003 04:12pm

3th
 - Retired
 3th

edit: doh!

damn back button on the mouse! sorry! :D
_______________
this is the internet, be serious damn it!

This comment was edited by 3th on Oct 30 2003 08:32pm.

Oct 30 2003 04:05pm

3th
 - Retired
 3th

this isn't necessarily a response to what i've seen so far, it's more of a style guide in response to what i see go wrong a lot in user made maps. enjoy if you will :)

make sure that you have structure in your maps. i.e. think about how the walls and ceiling are held up. and make the structure itself visually interesting. get creative with the form of the columns and beams, there's no rule they have to be just one extruded square or rectangle. long corridors of flat slab walls and ceilings are just a little too boring and get visually monotonous.

think of combining structural elements and lighting fixtures as well. don't limit yourself by lighting a room with just small sconces or fixtures stuck to the side walls. make the light "fixtures" a significant element in the character of the room (if approprate). think, cool massive columns or beams with lighting integrated into them.

another thing to keep in mind is consitency. maybe develop one or two cool lighting or structural elements, then make variations of those. this way you don't have to reinvent the wheel for each room, and it lends some unity to the whole map. when you think about moving from one space to the next in a large building, you rarely get hit with, "whoa! where'd the heck this come from?!?!" each space seems to fit in with or relate to the previous one. this is often done in mapping by using a limited texture and color palatte, don't go wild by using every single cool texture you can find.

the last thing i'll mention is: stay away from huge massive rooms. this is lag-hell once a lot of activity starts going on in there. if you have to make a massive space, interior or exterior, try to get creative with the landscape. see if you can block part of the area from being all visible at once with a change in ground plane or by adding hills/mountains/walls, whatever. and always check your r_speeds! (poly count, or whatever they call it here.) just because YOU have a 128 meg vid card, DOESN'T mean that everyone else does! ;)

i could go on but i don't know if anyone even really cares, so i'll stop. :D hopefully this was helpful to someone. thanks for reading.
_______________
this is the internet, be serious damn it!

Oct 30 2003 03:28pm

Cyb
 - Student
 Cyb

Looks great :D:)
I very much like to have a more structured and thought over map than the default ones ;):D
Keep up the good work :)
_______________
~~ Love all, trust a few, do wrong to none! ~~

Oct 30 2003 02:28pm

Lord Exar Kun
 - Student
 Lord Exar Kun

is it like a contest or are all three teams working on the same map?
_______________
-Retired april the 19th 2004

Oct 30 2003 09:37am

Garos
 - Student
 Garos

Hey, who got me to do a slight variation of your map, and what ever happened to it???:confused:

Oct 30 2003 02:10am

Achilles
 - Student
 Achilles

Yep, and no they will not be empty :P
Yes the textures will be touched up later.
_______________
Padawan to the great Katan
JA Brother to D@RTHM@ULR.I.P. Vladarion, may he find peace in the afterlife.


Oct 30 2003 01:26am

Flash
 - Student
 Flash

The layout looks fine, although I'm hoping that all the rooms shown won't be completely empty.:) However, the rooms look dull and have too many repeating textures.

Oct 29 2003 09:17pm

Achilles
 - Student
 Achilles

Here are some screenshots for the side wing rooms, http://www.angelfire.com/dragon/achilles/Academy/shot0027.jpg
http://www.angelfire.com/dragon/achilles/Academy/shot0028.jpg
http://www.angelfire.com/dragon/achilles/Academy/shot0029.jpg
http://www.angelfire.com/dragon/achilles/Academy/shot0030.jpg
http://www.angelfire.com/dragon/achilles/Academy/shot0031.jpg
http://www.angelfire.com/dragon/achilles/Academy/shot0032.jpg
http://www.angelfire.com/dragon/achilles/Academy/shot0034.jpg
http://www.angelfire.com/dragon/achilles/Academy/shot0035.jpg
http://www.angelfire.com/dragon/achilles/Academy/shot0036.jpg
http://www.angelfire.com/dragon/achilles/Academy/shot0037.jpg

I know the lighting sucks right now, bt remember it is still being proccessed, I find myself adjusting this map over and over and over, and oppinions would be great ;)

Thank you
_______________
Padawan to the great Katan
JA Brother to D@RTHM@ULR.I.P. Vladarion, may he find peace in the afterlife.


Oct 29 2003 07:01pm

NofrikinfuN
 - Retired
 NofrikinfuN

I recently drew out a preliminary design for the Vehicle Arena, as well as a couple ideas for the Swoop Track. Hopefully, I can get them translated to paint sometime tonight so I can get them posted.

Until then, PLEASE throw out ANY ideas you have, for ANY area of the map. We need this info now, before the maps are too far along. Eventually, any little idea will make for a LOT of work for our mappers.

So get those ideas in, pronto!

Oct 28 2003 08:16pm

NofrikinfuN
 - Retired
 NofrikinfuN

As FaDed said, the idea of a central spawn area is to try and make every trip equidistant to another. This way, everything is the same distance away every time, rather than two steps to one place, two miles to another. Averaging the distance like this should make it less of a journey, in most cases.

Being a big map, however, you may want to have Speed 3 handy. (Think of it as exercise.) :D

Improving on strafe jumping technique may be in everyones best interest as well. lol

In all seriousness though, I don't think any trip will be too awful far. And I'm sure each group will be doing extensive beta testing to determine whether something needs tweaked.

That brings me to my next topic. Some of you may wonder why there are three seperate mapping groups. Well, as we all know, everyone has creative differences. Too large a group becomes cumbersome in mapping, besides. Eventually, 3 different groups formed of those wanting to make the map I designed, so there they are. :D

Now, this also raises the question: Which map will be used, assuming all 3 versions are released? Well, the only real solution I can think of is to put it to a vote. We should put all 3 versions on rotation when they're usable, and eventually we will probably have a poll to determine which becomes the official JA map. Meanwhile, the second place map may be named the official JASE map, and both can evolve according to their respective needs and uses.

There is, however, one flaw with this system. Students will of course be biased to either whatever is more flashy, or whatever is more fun to play around in. (No offense intended... Learning is just not first concern for the majority of students ;)) This is not the intention... We may instead hold a closed poll within the JAK/JAT/JAC to determine which map is the most useful for teaching purposes.

I don't know for certain... Only time will tell. :D

Oct 28 2003 05:03pm

FaDed
 - Student
 FaDed

Jacen: no matter what you do, you'll have issues with spawning. the game engine is set up to spawn you as far away as possible from the place that you died. this is why we are going to have a central spawn area. keep in mind that this is looking to be a fairly large map, so you can still end up spawning far away from where you died, but it won't be nearly as bad.

Oct 28 2003 04:43pm

Odan-Wei Belouve
 - Student
 Odan-Wei Belouve

I think the plan looks great, can't stand to wait for the first screenies :D

:alliance:
Odan-Wei
_______________
Padawan and brother to SmilyKrazy :D - Adopted in the Belouve Family by Fizz and Bubu, BELOUVE ON! :D - Vladarion, you'll always be in my heart and memories - Spam-Padawan of Jacen Aratan ;) - [DJ is my beloved wife! :P - JA Family: Brothers:
Virtue, Furi0us, Vladarion, Hardwired, Janus, Axion, D@RtHM@UL, Motrec, Mike , xAnAtOs , Luke Skywalker; Little bro to SilkMonkey ; Special kind of brother to Kenyon ; Sisters in-law: Rosered, Ain-Soph Aur]
Photoshop works: click here


Oct 28 2003 04:27pm

Jacen Aratan
 - Student

I just have one plea: PLEASE don't make it like in the JA map, where you spawn 100 miles from where you died.

Oct 28 2003 04:01pm

Khalek[JAP]
 - Ex-Student
 Khalek[JAP]

Damn...this Khaleka person sound too similar for my liking:D
_______________
Brother to HW and Kyp Durron, padawan of the almiiiighty NFF. Traitor to the family and keeper of the LOLlipops (poisoned and otherwise). Jello's unwanted second cousin. Vladarion's moral lesser :)
http://www.crazyfray.co.uk/home.htm - major update coming soon, yeah right.... £3.00 to be pledged so far to the JA fund... :D Just type PLEDGE ME UP KHALEK in any interesting post, and if it passes the funkolology test, 50p goes in the kitty...:D This one's for Jacen...;) http://www.bash.org/?7838


Oct 28 2003 03:43pm

VirusD
 - Student
 VirusD

i dident look ur plans throw fully so i ma going to ask: WILL THER BE A BAR!! there must be a bar :D
_______________
'** I hated going to weddings. All the grandmas would poke me saying "You're next". They stopped that when I started doing it to them at funerals.**'
'**On going to war over religion: "You're basically killing each other to see who's got the better imaginary friend.**"
'**I Dont Lie! I Just Bend And Illustrate The Truth A Little**' - By me when talking to a friend.


Oct 28 2003 03:39pm

Achilles
 - Student
 Achilles

Hey Nof, you can change your post up top, well there is another map team, 3 people, 2 are in the Academy (SanosuKe and me) and Lil Killa. And Sared is working seperatly.
_______________
Padawan to the great Katan
JA Brother to D@RTHM@ULR.I.P. Vladarion, may he find peace in the afterlife.


Oct 28 2003 01:54am

NofrikinfuN
 - Retired
 NofrikinfuN

The Temple Facility will be used in one of two ways:
1) A ceremonial "Eye-Candy" kind of area.(Think a combination of the lost temple from v2 and the ceremonial hall in v4.)
2) An obstacle course along the lines of those faced in Yavin areas of the JK2 and JK3 SP mode. (Something to test proficiency in Force, Movement, and Sabering.)

Oct 28 2003 01:16am

Flash
 - Student
 Flash

For the wall grab room: Make lots of tall pillars/anything else tall and put them near each other. Have a platform at the top which is where the player wants to get to. Make sure that the player has to use wall grab about 95% of the time to get to the top (maybe add some areas where you have to do a normal jump). You could add some dangerous sections with lava beneath so you die if you screw up, and maybe have some kind of floating objects (crates, boxes, small starfighters, etc.) moving in between the pillars to make it more of an obstacle course.

After looking at the map: I noticed that room #3 is named Temple Facility. The name facility makes me think it has a specific use. If it does, could you please tell me what that use would be?:confused:

Oct 25 2003 05:22pm

Xanatos
 - Student
 Xanatos

Where are we on the map, i was hoping to help out earlier, but aint much i can do. But, where are we?, do we have some of the rooms done?, or just a part of it or something?
_______________



Oct 25 2003 03:02pm

Achilles
 - Student
 Achilles

LOL, soon my friend
_______________
Padawan to the great Katan
JA Brother to D@RTHM@ULR.I.P. Vladarion, may he find peace in the afterlife.


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