Looking for beta testers for an all-new DM map

[Earthling]

Over the past month or so, I've been working on a DM map for Serious Sam: The Second Encounter. The map has reached a state where beta-testing is needed to further fine-tune the map's playability. Gamemecca.net has been gratious enough to agree to spare some server cycles to beta-test the map, so now all I'm lacking is the players.

And that is why I'm posting here, as these forums seem to have the greatest concentration of active Serious Sam DM players. See below for images, and please e-mail me at earthling@seriouszone.com if you feel like you're up for some fragmatch action.

http://www.kolumbus.fi/silmu/babylon1.jpg
http://www.kolumbus.fi/silmu/babylon2.jpg
http://www.kolumbus.fi/silmu/babylonfinal.jpg
http://www.kolumbus.fi/silmu/babylon4.jpg
http://www.kolumbus.fi/silmu/babylon5.jpg

[SALvation]

Damn those pics look sweet. I'd even load up Sam again to help out.

[OUTLAWS WHOCARES]

Most impressive.

We would be more than happy to help out.
If you want gamemeccamaps.net can host the map for you.

[Sepra]

:w00t: Looks great. I cant wait to try it out!! :jammin:

[Black Rose]

WOW this looks awesome :wootrock:
wonderful details seems to be a great work :thumbs: :thumbs:

Can´t wait to test it :jammin:

[Pure_Evil]

Looks so sharp! :thumbs:

[JayChyl]

Great Map man, for me creation that kind of map would take aboit 1 month :hmmm:

Anyway all here, Earthling is a guy from Seriously, he have the same standing as Rodzilla, so he don't need a host, he is hosting it at Seriously. :jammin: :thumbs:

[OUTLAWS Tip]

Sweet looking map!
:thumbs: :thumbs:

[»°ßåD«]

Yo earthling..Pick me Pick me!!!! :lol:

[OUTLAWS Spike]

Cool map Earthling!! :jammin:

[Earthling]

Actually, I decided to make the map an open beta, now that I have a proper server set up.

Everyone, get the map from http://www.kolumbus.fi/silmu/efflintest.zip, and hop on to 66.54.130.215:25670 for some nifty fragmatch action. :cool:

EDIT: Actual IP is 66.54.130.212:25678.

[Sirc]

I just tried it out. Very cool! :thumbs:

One problem - when I try to move on the grass area at the bottom it lags out horribly. I can move around on the sidewalks around the outside of the grassy area, but the minute I step into the grass, bam! Lag city. :bawling:

[SoulReaver]

thnx ill try it sometime :thumbs:

[OUTLAWS Spike]

It lags also when you try to jump to the rocket launcher in the center! :bawling:

other than that and while on the grass, that's the only probs I've seen, very cool map!!

[OUTLAWS Ada]

Where do you unzip it and put it please? :hmmm:

[OUTLAWS Spike]

One other slight problem is the serious shoes on the inside, if you grab them be very careful running around inside or pick up all the health pills you can, cause your gonna need em!! imo I would take out the serious shoes.

[SALvation]

Originally posted by OUTLAWS Ada@Jul 24 2003, 01:55 PM
Where do you unzip it and put it please? :hmmm:
:w00t:

[OUTLAWS Ada]

Oh typical! :rolleyes:

THE MAP!!!!!!

[OUTLAWS Spike]

Originally posted by OUTLAWS Ada@Jul 24 2003, 11:55 AM
Where do you unzip it and put it please? :hmmm:
here ya go!! :oooo:

[OUTLAWS Ada]

Thank you! :oooo:

[YoungGun]

Originally posted by Sirc@Jul 24 2003, 05:42 PM
I just tried it out. Very cool! :thumbs:

One problem - when I try to move on the grass area at the bottom it lags out horribly. I can move around on the sidewalks around the outside of the grassy area, but the minute I step into the grass, bam! Lag city. :bawling:
don't forget that you also got stuck on one of the ramps.

[Sirc]

The grass area and the center building are so laggy that you can barely move. That was on the server. When I ran the map myself it wasn't a problem.

I also got stuck where I'm standing in the screenie, and YoungGun had to kill me to free me. I'm the one on the ramp.

[Black Rose]

Originally posted by OUTLAWS Spike@Jul 24 2003, 06:57 PM
One other slight problem is the serious shoes on the inside, if you grab them be very careful running around inside or pick up all the health pills you can, cause your gonna need em!! imo I would take out the serious shoes.
yes same opinion.
I just discovered the map for myself and I think it´s a big map for a LAN Party :thumbs: Also it has wonderful details and some cool surprises :shifty:

Some minutes ago I tried to play on the server with sirc and younggun,
but it was unplayable cause of the lag. I stucked in the air and even as the two guys left I couldn´t move normally. It´s very laggy more than docking bay :bawling:

Is it the server? or the map or both :unsure:

If you can fix this it will be a very very cool map to play. :wootrock:

[Sirc]

Did you get it to work Ada?

I just dragged all three files from the zip into my "C:\Program Files\Croteam\Serious Sam - The Second Encounter\Levels\LevelsMP\Deathmatch\" folder and it worked fine. :thumbs:

[OUTLAWS Ada]

I'm in! Come back!

[Sirc]

Be right there!

[Sirc]

Wow, that was a blast! Very cool map. We had about 6 people playing at one point. :wootrock:

[OUTLAWS Ada]

GG all! Nice to play you all again - it's been a while! I eventually found the canon only to lose it in a breath! LOL :rolleyes:

[Sirc]

I got stuck in the same spot again. Spike helped me get out. :oooo: :w00t:

It was laggy, but I don't know if it was the map or the server. :hmmm:

[Black Rose]

can only kill you with the flamethrower :devil:
cause aiming is not possible for me :(

but this map is really cool :jammin:

[OUTLAWS Spike]

GG Y'all :jammin: I got kicked at the end again :bandhead: I can hear y'alls gg boing thing but can't see any of it. also did the text get wacked for y'all, this is what it looked like for me. :hmmm:

[Sirc]

Originally posted by Black Rose@Jul 24 2003, 02:53 PM
can only kill you with the flamethrower :devil:
cause aiming is not possible for me :(
Same here. Spike was owning with the shotty though. I don't know how he was doing it. :bandhead: :P

[Black Rose]

yes spike same looking here and during the game also like this :wacko:

oh yes GG all !! :thumbs:

maybe we can try it on an other server? :unsure:

[OUTLAWS Spike]

Originally posted by Sirc+Jul 24 2003, 12:54 PM--></span><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE (Sirc @ Jul 24 2003, 12:54 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'> <!--QuoteBegin--Black Rose@Jul 24 2003, 02:53 PM
can only kill you with the flamethrower&nbsp; :devil:
cause aiming is not possible for me :(
Same here. Spike was owning with the shotty though. I don&#39;t know how he was doing it. :bandhead: :P [/b][/quote]
Spike=not drunk yet&#33;&#33; :rofl:

[Sirc]

Originally posted by OUTLAWS Spike+Jul 24 2003, 02:56 PM--></span><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE (OUTLAWS Spike @ Jul 24 2003, 02:56 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'>
Originally posted by -Sirc@Jul 24 2003, 12:54 PM
<!--QuoteBegin--Black Rose@Jul 24 2003, 02:53 PM
can only kill you with the flamethrower* :devil:
cause aiming is not possible for me :(
Same here. Spike was owning with the shotty though. I don&#39;t know how he was doing it. :bandhead: :P
Spike=not drunk yet&#33;&#33; :rofl: [/b][/quote]
:lol:

That was my problem&#33; Sirc = not drunk yet either. :w00t: :drink:

[JayChyl]

Hmmm, this map needs a brush mipping (LODing) on the top of the grass is :hmmm: . Maybe there is, i got to check.

[»°ßåD«]

#All i can say . is that it was spikey... :devil:

[JayChyl]

Originally posted by Chyliniak@Jul 24 2003, 08:58 PM
Hmmm, this map needs a brush mipping (LODing) on the top of the grass is :hmmm: . Maybe there is, i got to check.
This can improve FPS and performance.

[Earthling]

Hey, thanks for the positive feedback.

Yeah, I think the Serious Shoes have to go too. Should I replace one or both of them with other powerups, in your opinion? Anything else wrong with the item placement?

And as you can see from the "Known bugs" section of the readme, the center lag is something I haven&#39;t been able to solve, as it&#39;s very hard to debug with it only happening when you&#39;re connected to a server. I e-mailed some Croteam guys about it, so we&#39;ll see if they&#39;ll be able to devote some time into solving the problem. If not, I&#39;ll just have to do some tedious debugging.

I&#39;ll fix the getting stuck on the ramps thing in the next version though, I already know what&#39;s causing it, and it should be fixed on the other ramp, just forgot to do the same to both of them when I first encountered this bug.

The lag issues should be server-only... Try playing it in split-screen with only one player or something, and see if you still get major slowdowns anywhere.


EDIT: There&#39;s mip-brushing at points where I felt it would dratisticly improve performance. If you feel like there&#39;s a non-mipped brush that should be mipped, feel free to point it out.

[Sirc]

I say get rid of the shoes altogether. There&#39;s no open spaces to run in anyway. They might help with a trick jump or something, but otherwise the shoes are more of a disadvantage than an advantage.

Sorry, I didn&#39;t read the known bugs section. Oops. :angel:

[DiTomasso]

Downloaded the map. Acted as an server for two. Interesting surroundings, in this setting no strange things has happened to me yet.

Maybe to much power ups and different weapons. great grahics .

THX for your time and effort.

Keep up the works&#33;&#33;&#33;&#33;&#33;&#33;&#33;&#33;&#33;&#33;&#33;&#33;&#33;&#33;&#33;&#33;&#33;&#33;&#33;

:wootrock: :wootrock: :wootrock:

[JIMINATOR]

Originally posted by Earthling@Jul 24 2003, 03:04 PM
...Yeah, I think the Serious Shoes have to go too. Should I replace one or both of them with other powerups, in your opinion?...

...I e-mailed some Croteam guys about it, so we&#39;ll see if they&#39;ll be able to devote some time into solving the problem...
powerups? did you say powerups? It has been positively determined that powerups
are evil and distract from the enjoyment of the game... :P

and oh lordy, ada, please keep oz away from the cannon... :P

and lastly it sounds like you are trying to distract croteam from working on the patch&#33;&#33; :oooo:

that is a no-no&#33;&#33; :w00t:

anyway look forward to playing it tonight.

:thumbs:

[OUTLAWS OZRIC]

Originally posted by JIMINATOR+Jul 24 2003, 08:53 PM--></span><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE (JIMINATOR @ Jul 24 2003, 08:53 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'> <!--QuoteBegin--Earthling@Jul 24 2003, 03:04 PM
...Yeah, I think the Serious Shoes have to go too. Should I replace one or both of them with other powerups, in your opinion?...

...I e-mailed some Croteam guys about it, so we&#39;ll see if they&#39;ll be able to devote some time into solving the problem...
powerups? did you say powerups? It has been positively determined that powerups
are evil and distract from the enjoyment of the game... :P

and oh lordy, ada, please keep oz away from the cannon... :P

and lastly it sounds like you are trying to distract croteam from working on the patch&#33;&#33; :oooo:

that is a no-no&#33;&#33; :w00t:

anyway look forward to playing it tonight.

:thumbs: [/b][/quote]
:thumbs: I love the cannon ,,,it&#39;s my baby,,and its there to be used :thumbs: :P

Well done Earthling I think you have done a great job :jammin: :thumbs: The new map is innovative and refreshing to play :thumbs:

[JIMINATOR]

ok, i tested by myself and also on the server (by myself also)

I found horribly bad lag on jumping towards the center,
it would not stop until moving back out toward an edge

what i suspect is that on a server, the rendering engine
will calculate everything going out from each player until it reaches
an edge. at the center it includes tons of statues, trees and columns,
so it has to render everything.

a patch is probably needed to optimize the way that rendering
is calculated, but that isn&#39;t going to happen.

possibly applying lod (if not already) to all of the statues and so forth
may help... although i suspect if there are enough people in the central
area, it will lag no matter what.

i also don&#39;t care for the gravity sectoring. if the map was based on
it, cool, otherwise it is a little gimmicky to have it in one room.

the scale is off in a couple of places, like the sniper room. it makes
me feel claustrophobic.... I would rather see all rooms and
corridors being huge. for the jump pads also, they should not
bump you into the ceiling, but comfortably take you onto
a big upper level. (ie: docking station)

for the sniper, it could make for an unbalanced game, as there
are a ton of statues and so forth, and it is easy to get on top of
or behind them. a sniper would be hard to flush out.

I find myself growing nauseated while playing the game. i think that it
may be due to the short corridors with lots of turns.

for the cannon room, ummm, ok. weird but...

lastly, please don&#39;t be offended at anything I have said,
I know that you are looking for constructive criticism in order to
make your map (or your next one) better, and these are only
my asspinions, and I don&#39;t know anything about anything anyway... :oooo:

:thumbs:

[Earthling]

ok, i tested by myself and also on the server (by myself also)

I found horribly bad lag on jumping towards the center, it would not stop until moving back out toward an edge

what i suspect is that on a server, the rendering engine will calculate everything going out from each player until it reaches an edge. at the center it includes tons of statues, trees and columns, so it has to render everything.

a patch is probably needed to optimize the way that rendering is calculated, but that isn&#39;t going to happen.

possibly applying lod (if not already) to all of the statues and so forth may help...&nbsp; although i suspect if there are enough people in the central area, it will lag no matter what.

Like I said, this is something I have not been able to fix, and it&#39;s in the "known bugs" section. I&#39;ve e-mailed Croteam about it, but if they won&#39;t answer, it looks like I&#39;ll have to start fiddling around with it until it works. There aren&#39;t really any experts on the way the engine renders, especially online, but I&#39;ve discussed this with LSD (he&#39;s a good friend of mine, and has worked on several commercial games using the Serious Engine), and he&#39;s as baffled as I am. I have a few things left to try though, so we&#39;ll see.


i also don&#39;t care for the gravity sectoring. if the map was based on it, cool, otherwise it is a little gimmicky to have it in one room.

If you mean the walk-on-walls part, I felt it worked better there than having a bouncer or something.


the scale is off in a couple of places, like the sniper room. it makes me feel claustrophobic.... I would rather see all rooms and corridors being huge.

Yeah, it was something I didn&#39;t take into account when creating the map. This is my first DM map, and I didn&#39;t really plan the map completely beforehand, but rather simply "let the map grow". I realize that some of the areas are too small, but that&#39;s a bit late to fix for now.


for the jump pads also, they should not bump you into the ceiling, but comfortably take you onto a big upper level. (ie: docking station)

I&#39;ll be sure to go through them and make sure they work properly.


for the sniper, it could make for an unbalanced game, as there are a ton of statues and so forth, and it is easy to get on top of or behind them. a sniper would be hard to flush out.

Well, there&#39;s no real sniper&#39;s perch, and ammo is only available for the sniper on the ground floor...


I find myself growing nauseated while playing the game. i think that it may be due to the short corridors with lots of turns.

:WTF: Like I said, the map did turn out a bit too small at places.


for the cannon room, ummm, ok. weird but...

What exactly is wrong there? I know the bouncer that turns you upside down is a bit freaky, but I felt like it was the best option, since other stuff would&#39;ve taken too much room... Or are you referring to the general theme of the room?


lastly, please don&#39;t be offended at anything I have said, I know that you are looking for constructive criticism in order to make your map (or your next one) better, and these are only my asspinions, and I don&#39;t know anything about anything anyway...&nbsp; :oooo:

Nah, no problem, I always appreciate another person&#39;s view.

Anyway, I think the two major flaws were that I didn&#39;t design the map beforehand, and I didn&#39;t have access to custom textures. Thus, some of the architecture could&#39;ve been executed better, and if I wanted to have a texture fitting to a specific piece of architecture, I had to make do with what I had, and the general feeling ended up a bit patchy. I think it turned out alright for a first DM map. ;)

[OUTLAWS The Machine]

I think the map is really cool. We are starting our LAN party today and we will definitly give it a try today or tomorrow. :thumbs:

[Sepra]

I dont know if the server is down or not but I just tried it with no luck. I did however roam the map on my own.

Very cool&#33;&#33; :cool:

As far as the grass It didnt really seem like lag. Jumping movements were fine and no jittering. You just ran slower.

I think the jump pads are fine except in one room where there are two side by side. (I think it&#39;s the spot witht he zig zagging health and armor. :hmmm: :WTF: ) The bounce to the ceiling is a little off.

:down: for the Serious Speed and I dont think another pup would be good in it&#39;s place :oooo: :angel:

Dont listen to JIM about the walk on walls thing. :P I thought that was cool and adds a different touch to the map vs &#39;another&#39; jump pad like you said. :jammin:

:lol: That cannon area was cool but I have a real fear of being elevated on small ledges so I think i&#39;ll avoid that area :rofl: The upside down thing was a little strange but it&#39;s nice to have something out of the ordinary IMO. We play with the same ole&#39; same ole&#39; all the time.


Overall I really like the map. I think it would be hard to play due of the size unless you had a good handfull of people fragging though.