Lesson 9

By: Deathbliss

Deathbliss

The complete Deathmatch Map process: Creation, Preparation, and Submission:

In this lesson you will learn EVERYTHING you need to know about a Deathmatch Map while making one. The steps are roughly as follows:

CREATION:
- Decide upon a theme for your map
- Begin making the map
- Add a special feature to go along with and/or bring out your theme

PREPARATION:
- Basic BOT PATHING
- Taking a LEVEL SCREENSHOT
- Layout of weapons, powerups, items, etc.
- Making your map a Deathmatch Map
- Finishing up the map and testing it for performance

SUBMISSION:
- Every step you need to take to get your map reviewed

By the end of this lesson you will be able to easily complete al the steps listed above. You may even get to see what kind of review I get when my map is submitted. However, while this is a cool idea there are a few problems. I am the one submitting a map here as I have been wanting to take what I have learned from Sniper Heaven and create a map specifically for review so I can see what areas I need to improve in. The problem here is yours will be just like mine if you follow along with me and it'd pointless to submit a slew of clone maps by different authors. Yet you will all need to create your own Deathmatch Map eventually if that is the direction you desire to go and a review would be extremely helpful to you. To solve this I suggest you follow along this lesson, and then hopefully by the end of the lesson you'll have an idea for a map of your own. Then it's just a matter of contacting me for help if you want to iron out the rough spots. So this is the direction this lesson will take - you will learn how to make a Deathmatch Map and then your "homework" will be to create one of your own. I'll provide all the tips, tricks, and assistance as best I can. The second problem is that there are a few areas I am lacking knowledge in. For instance - it seems every time I increase the DRAWSCALE on a decoration - players can walk right through it. One of the reasons I didn't put any boulders in the Outdoor Area is that when I tried it the boulders allowed you to swim through them - very disappointing. This seems to apply to all DECORATIONS from the CLASSES BROWSER even at their default size. Despite these two hurdles we should be ok, and I have some cool ides to share with you. So let's get started, shall we? I've had an idea since my Quake map creation days for a simple theme of a level. This theme while I'm sure fairly common is interesting nonetheless to me. I will build a simple cylinder to the following dimensions: Now one of the many flaws I have is this attitude of "bigger is better" and to be honest mostly it's untrue. This however may be too small but it'll make a quick tutorial and will help keep things simple. One thing I have learned is that when you make bigger levels they take longer to complete and you may burn out before you ever finish them. So we'll see what the other end of the scale is like here. Now I have a choice - stairs or a ramp going up. I'm going with a ramp. The idea here is a "king of the hill" style map with a few twists. You start somewhere on the walkway in this cylinder and the best weapon is on top. I'm calling it "Canned". Well I have textured with ANCIENT again to keep the theme of our lessons together, I have used GOUGEDK2 sized to 2 for the walls, AZ-FLOOR sized to 2 and ALIGNED to FLOOR/CEILING for the floor, and ACEILIN1 sized to 2 and ALIGNED to FLOOR/CEILING for the ceiling. Once you have everything looking good you may want to sprinkle some LIGHTS around and a PLAYER START, and then REBUILD/SAVE so you can look around. There are a few things you don't want to do when making any kind of map and one of them is you DO NOT want to mix styles. In other words don't use Starship textures in an ancient castle. However I will be using a lot of metal and lighting that would seem to not be apparent in a stone construction. I have a few devious reasons for this and we'll have to see how I do. Hey, what can I say? I'm a rebel at heart. Now for the ramp, build a cube to the specs below and align as seen below:

This ramp will be used several times in the level. Now we need a walkway around the cylinder. There's two ways to do this:

1. Build several short cubes the same width as the ramp to go against each side of the cylinder and make a walkway (otherwise known as the wrong way).
2. Make another cylinder that you can hollow out the middle of and fit it right even with the ramp (the right way).

This is yet another area mappers may stumble on - but the simplest way is as a general rule always the best way. So make a cylinder 32x512x512-16 and align it as below. ADD that cylinder to the world and then make another also as seen below - this one you will SUBTRACT from the exact middle of the first cylinder. Here's the pics: Then make a cube 32x96x256-16. Align like below: Now make a builder room 4000x4000x4000 and texture with something light. Drag the walkway and it's parts that you've just built into this room. Make the RED BRUSH large enough to surround it on all sides without touching anywhere, and be sure to also RESET SCALE. INTERSECT the entire thing, EXPORT it and call it something like canned_walkway then drag it back into the level. Start stacking the whole shebang (the walkway and the ramp) like so: No, it's not an apartment in the projects ... Be sure to DELETE all the stuff in your builder rom now that you're done with it. So we have 6 levels for players to fight on - I'd say you could have up to 12 players in here before performance drops noticeably - however I hope I'm proven wrong. Well you may as well REBUILD then SAVE AS DM_EXP1 (or your level name - Canned in my case). The DM preface tellsUnreal that the map is a Deathmatch Map. Without it your map will not be automatically playable as a Deathmatch Map. You may as well give the level a test run. You should easily be able to make your way all the way to the top now. I want to balance the level so remember our window frame tutorial in Lesson 2? Well make a cube 246x16x440-16. You'll see that it makes a nice fit with one small square space top and bottom (with the grid re-sized to 2) on the opposite side of the room from the ramps. ADD this window-frame-to-be and make another 246-32x16x440-48. SUBTRACT this new cube and you'll have a nice frame. I am using ANCIENT/BASE/MOSSROK3 and have set the size of the texture to 0.5. Make a sheet that fits right inside and texture with SHANEDAY/DAYSKYB and be sure that you have the options set to REGULAR/2 SIDED/SOLID but nothing else. Once placed in the fame be sure that FAKE BACKDROP is checked. Align and center them in the wall, like this: Well I decided to use a wood texture instead not only for the frames but also for the edges of the ramps and walkways. Now we need starting positions. I am placing one on each ramp for a total of 6 per side, that's 6 each on the opposite all facing each other with the windows on one side of the player and the ramps on the other when they enter the level. This will prove useful in keeping most of the fighters playing here from being disoriented when they start ;) For lighting I placed one light 1 or 2 dark gray grid unit(s) away from each window, right about at the center of the window. You all know how to make a skybox, so I'll leave you to that at this point. If you need to refer to the lesson look for the Lesson 3 link in the box below. I am experimenting with placing a piece of terrain in the skybox for a realistic set of mountains. You may do as you like, whatever I learn will be in the advanced skyboxes tutorial I'll do later. Now we need to discuss WEAPON/POWEUPS/ITEM PLACEMENT, and BOT PATHING.

First we need weapons all along the ramps. Since I am working with the version of UnrealED included with Unreal Gold don't be suprised if I mention weapons you don't have - just substitute as necessary or ignore completely. To get to the weapons (in case you've forgotten) just open up the CLASSES BROWSER then go to INVENTORY, and finally WEAPON. Everything you'll need is here, and I am placing the weapons so they are accessible right after you reach the top of the ramps. At the bottom it would make sense to have an AUTOMAG and some ammo along with some health. Seems to me the main feature of this level is to work your up to the big guns, so at the top we will have either a ROCKET LAUNCHER, EIGHT BALL, or both. On the first level I'm placing a FLAK CANNON. The next one will feature and ASMD CORE, and the one after that will feature a GESBIOSLUDGE RIFLE. The third tier will have a STINGER, and the fourth a MINIGUN. The fifth will have a RAZORJACK, and the sixth and final tier will have the EIGHTBALL. In addition I will be adding the ROCKET LAUNCHER at the top, the CAR RIFLE somewhere in the middle, and the on the floor a SNIPERRIFLE (seen as RIFLE in the list) in the shadows to spice things up. HEALTH will be placed in quantities of 1 each on each tier across from the weapons. Here is the end effect:

Now BOTS in Unreal aren't incredibly stupid, nor are they incredibly bright. For most of the things I place in a level for the players and/or BOTS to pickup I just click over the area in the 3D-VIEW and place it. However, you may need to check out the item(s) in all views to make sure they aren't sinking into the floor. All weapons have been placed roughly 1 darker gray grid unit above the surface it resides at. This is so the BOTS can see it more easily, and so we avoid weaponry that isn't appearing to be all there in the level. ARMOR is next and placed in a similar manner, and I think a KEVLAR SUIT (try to find it - hint it's in INVENTORY ...) at the top by the window and a normal suit by in the same area but on the floor of the level would be adequate. Okay we got the basics of the items down - feel free to sprinkle other items around like the SHIELD BELT, INVISIBILITY, CLOAK, etc. I've placed an INVISIBILITY dead center in the floor so those working their way up have some help. Be careful in your ITEM placement. For instance, DO NOT place a TOXIN SUIT in the level, as there is not toxic area for a player to enter. I'm toying with the notion of a "crow's nest" kinda thing on the ceiling, and I'll fill you in if I do it. What I want to do if I pursue this is place a key in the middle of the floor then the challenge is to make your way to the top to the snipering area. But I have to figure out how top do this. For now let's finish the BOT PATHING. Yes, you've already started it and you didn't even know it. BOTS look for and follow along a path defined by various pickups, and PATHNODES. Go into the CLASSES BROWSER and find NAVIGATION POINT in the list. Go through that list until you find PATHNODE. With the grid re-sized to 2 you should separate PATH NODES a maximum distance of 7 darker gray squares from one another. Also they should be no more than 3 darker gray grids above the floor. You must also take into account the weaponry in the level. I think two PATH NODES per ramp (one at the top, and the other at the bottom) would be sufficient, and 1 or 2 per angle of the walkway. Here's a pic of one tier completed:

The yellow circles correspond to the PATH NODES. After you have done this REBUILD, SAVE, and then open up the REBUILD BOX again. Click on the far right tab which says LIGHTING. Do not change any settings, just click on the button that says PATHS DEFINE. Wait a moment, and then go into any of the views - for now the TOP VIEW will do nicely, and click on the green arrow to expose the mini menu each view has (if the menu isn't already there). Go to VIEW and click on SHOW PATHS. Now in that view there should appear some lines going from the PLAYER STARTS to the PATH NODES and/or items and weapons. This is what they mean:

1.BLUE PATHS are desirable routes. The BOTS will travel them the most often.
2.RED PATHS are not as desirable. The BOTS will rarely if ever use them.

What we need to do is determine if there is at least one BLUE PATH going up the ramp, and at least one BLUE PATH going around the walkway. In mine this may be a problem as in the ramp area I see only a REDPATH following the walkway around. I do see one BLUE PATH at least going up the ramp, and I also see a whole bunch of BLUE PATHS going from off the walkway at various points an onto the floor. This is ok for now but will be disastrous (and cool looking) later. You see even before we started pathing I tested this out with 11 BOTS and the performance was exceptional. However, I got onto the floor and it was a constant rain of gibs everywhere as BOTS fell or jumped of and died. So I am going to try moving my PATHNODES closer to the wall to see what I get. After this I moved the PLAYER STARTS back a little to the side. This cleared up the extra BLUE PATHS, and now I'm ready to test. Know how to get into observer mode? Go up to FILE and select PLAY LEVEL, once your in press ESC to get to the Main Menu, then select Spectator as your character. Find your latest DM file and select it, then start up a BOT MATCH. You can press the FIRE BUTTON to switch between BOTS - I will test with 2 BOTS for now. Be sure to either press F9 (or your screenshot button) or PRINT SCREEN on your keyboard when you are in Spectator mode. Look for a good vantage point that kinda takes in the level. You are now playing as a photographer and a scientist. The photographer part of you is looking for the best way to display his/her level,, the scientist wants to see the BOTS in action. I'm going in now ...

Okay, so they run from one group of pickups then the next, and rest a bit. This is usual but something I cannot control for now. It would be nice to make them work their way up but they serve the purpose of a gauntlet just as well. I enjoyed the feel of my match with the two BOTS, so I think we're almost ready to submit it. First off from earlier lessons you learned how to input a title, the author's name, and level music - so do that now. Next we need to classify this as a Deathmatch Map, so open up LEVEL PROPERTIES, find LEVEL INFO in the list, and then open up the CLASSES BROWSER. Go into INFO/GAME INFO/UNREAL GAME INFO and find DEATHMATCHGAME. Click on it, then go over to the LEVEL INFO list and find DEFAULT GAME TYPE. Click in the box that says "none" and click on USE. It should now say "UnrealShar.DeathMatchGame". Finally we need a LEVEL SCREESHOT so open up whatever image editor you use, and PASTE AS NEW IMAGE if you just pressed PRINTSCREEN or load the latest .BMP from the SYSTEM FOLDER in your Unreal folders area. RE-SIZE the image to 256x256. Give it a name and save it as a 256 COLOR BITMAP. Go back to UnrealED and open up the TEXTURE BROWSER. IMPORT the file and fill out the box that pops up as follows:

NAME: Screenshot
GROUP: None
PACKAGE: Mylevel

Then either leave the generate mipmaps unchecked or checked - your choice. Unchecking it seems to give a worse picture. DO NOT SAVE THE PACKAGE WITH YOUR SCREENSHOT IN IT!!! Go up to OPTIONS, then LEVEL PROPERTIES, and next find LEVEL INFO in the list. There should be a box that says Screenshot "None" in there. DE-SELECTALL then select your level picture (you'll see it in the list of texture packages as Mylevel now), and click in the box that says "none" and click on USE. Now when you open up this map, and all consecutively saved maps, you'll have a pic of your level.

Well all you have left to do is to BOT PATH each tier all the way up to the top. There is a little trick I'll tell you about so you can fool around with it. Right click on any weapon and go into it's PROPERTIES. Go into INVENTORY and find MAX DESIRABILITY in the list. By increasing this number you increase how badly BOTS want it. Something I picked up researching, feel free to test it out. Once you're all done REBUILD/SAVE, and take a deep breath. You are now going to learn how to submit your map. There are two main places to do this:

1. For specifically Unreal Tournament designed maps you should try Unreal Tournament Underground AKA UTUG. However, there are reviewers there that will review Unreal Maps if you ask nicely.

2. Since we are dealing with Unreal the next best place is Nali City.

There are 2 ways of submitting your maps - and in Nali City I believe you may have to sign up first. One is by e-mail (which they really don't like) and the other is via FTP. If you have a FTP (File Transfer Protocol) program and already know how to use it cool. Just upload your map into their directory. If not then the simplest way is in Netscape Find the Submit(FTP)files link and click on it. Then once the page loads go to FILE in your browser, and then UPLOAD FILE. Simple huh? for Internet Explorer you're on your own - sorry but I can't figure it out yet.

Well now you can create Deathmatch maps with ease and you can even BOT PATH them which few know how to do. You can take a pic of you level and when your level is clicked on in the Deathmatch Maps list it'll show the pic and give your level a professional appearance. Finally you now know how to submit these levels you create for others to review - which I recommend doing often so you can discover your rough spots. My compliments to you all, your dedication if you have been with me this far is phenomenal. We still have to answer a few questions, I.E. how would we get a BOT to use a lift, or trigger a trap, etc.? How do you make those mountains in the SKYBOX? Plus many more I'm sure. We'll answer some of those soon, I haven't decided where to go from here but most likely it'll be advanced skies, or advanced BOT PATHING. Once we've covered all the ground I can with you (and we're getting close) we'll start experimenting and trying various concepts together. At that point it'll be your turn to contribute, and to provide us all with fresh new ideas that will teach us new things. I'll start it off with my idea, and then I'll wait for you to e-mail me with yours - we'll continue from there. Now I leave you with a few notes.

Final notes on LEVEL SUBMISSION:

Here are a few things that I'm guessing reviewers look for in a level - I'll add to this later if I can:
1. Continuity - Both in the texture alignment, the flow of the design, and the level theme.
2. Performance - How well dos the map perform? How far can I push it? Is there any slowdown?
3. Flaws - For example are there any BSP LEAKS (when I'm looking around the level will I find invisible holes, and areas where a HOM ((hall of mirrors)) effect is evident)?
4. Features - Can I play against BOTS?
5. Balance - Does the fighting ever stay one-sided anywhere in the level?
6. Originality - Have I seen this before?

There's more I'm sure but basically a map reviewer is a level tester. As a map reviewer you may not be getting paid, or be in the gaming industry per say, but you have to do the same things as level tester would. You have to try to make the level crash, and test all the limits. Then you get to decide what to rating the submitted will receive. Please note that these are not official standards and each map reviewer may have different criteria - either less extensive or more extensive, so take these statements with a grain of salt. Follow them as best you can, and you should get a better score. That's what this little closing section was written for. I'll know more after they review my map.