MS_Quest update! (Pictures!)

[Cyax]

Yes, I have been working on MS_Quest, I have taken five pictures to prod you people into waiting on my map.





A picture that shows the vast change better looking mountains can bring upon a vale.

 

[Thothie]

Sweet... Really in desperate need of a complete series to take over the server from time to time.



Did you just have your character toss those torches onto the ground there? Or did you find a way to get msitem_spawn working?

__________

"If you ever read any anthropology, one of the first things you'll notice is that primal cultures simmer up all of their mystery and magic and power and ask their teenagers to drink deeply." -Grace Llewellyn

Saint Thoth

 

[Cyax]

I just threw them down to get a good screenshot of the place.

 

[J-M v2.5.5]

I damn hope those cylinders in the secret dungeon are func_wall, Cyax.

 

[Crow]

I think that is something only I do

Very nice btw.



My series is complete...

 

[Thothie]

Hey Cyax, what were you trying to ask me before my server went to poop again? Heh...



I think I'd personally rather see cylinders rendered as func_illusions, and then surrounded with a clip brush - but that's just how I was tought. You are getting some crappy FPS there.



I've stripped a bunch of NPC's and scripts from Edana in hopes that I can cut down on server crashing during transitions. (Don't worry, all the ones that work are still there). I'll have to see if that helps. Healer boy and the mayor's chest still generate errors, but I don't want to remove them. :/



BTW - does anyone know if the cider quest works? If not, I may remove the barwench, as she generates errors like mad.



I realized that the music for Orcplace wasn't on the content server, which is probably why so few people managed to get in it (including Cyax). Fixed that... also added a wall of monsterclip between the pool and the orcs (by dupping the door). Hopefully it doesn't get abused. It wasn't an issue until I saw what happened on that map when it was mostly archers. Nothing like archer whores to make you completely rethink your map design... We STILL need a working Highlands for Crow's series though.



...which is also why I also just broke the ladders on Helena. Hopefully it will further discourage archer whore behavior, and prevent server crashes. (Also cut back on Trolls a bit to compensate). Won't re-post till I've seen how it goes.

__________

"The true measure of a man is how he treats someone who can do him absolutely no good." - Samuel Johnson

Saint Thoth

 

[Cyax]

Crow, to fix your Highlands map, I have a few solutions.



1.) Lights like that could be because you do not have any lights in the map, throw in a light_enviornment and all will be fine.



2.) Could be caused by a leak. Run the game and type "pointfile" in console, and find the dots and follow them.



3.) Or you could jsut put a box around the map, and compile it. (This method is really laggy and not to be used oftenly)



Hope this helps man, highlands was anoying to do when i was getting lag spikes.

 

[Thothie]

Eh, in a response to a conversation posted on my server:



From time to time, all the transitions on my server break down and refuse to respond to input. This started happening well before I edited the maps. I dunno if this is yet another MS bug, or something unique to my server.



Also, as noted in ye old thread, the sewer transition in Edana doesn't go anywhere, yet. It's titled "under construction", but I realize that the text for transitions doesn't always show (yet anoter MS bug). If anyone has a good sewer map, or a sewer map that could be ripented into one, by all means, I'll make it top priority.



Note, also, that you can get to the few custom maps that have passed my inspection from the healing pool in Edana, and this saves you a step (and likelihood of server crash) over the Gateroom.



edit: added an 'under construction' sprite to sewers to make that clear.

__________

"Unless your Father can make the me piss my pants when i see a check, leave me alone." - Death, Saikano

Saint Thoth

 

[JabbahRulz]

Yes, I have been working on MS_Quest, I have taken five pictures to prod you people into waiting on my map.





A picture that shows the vast change better looking mountains can bring upon a vale.





A glance into Baldos's spiffy new lawn!





A secret dungeon, good luck finding this!





A cave within the main vale of M2_Quest leads to this zone, through here will be the forest of shadows.

Hey cyax nice to seeya. Not bad map. Unfortunately. Worst.Fps.I.Have.Ever.Seen.Lol

 

[J-M v2.5.5]

Please try not to quote five images next time, thanks.

 

[Cyax]

Hey guys... Still been workin on the map, fixed tons of light bugs, made the valley that is shrouded in darkness, not a glowing becon of light, fixed the light error that came from Swamp of Sorrows, and glared a giant light beam onto the opposing mountain. Fixed a faec that would vanish allowing sight out into the outside region; redid the blocky "Edana" sign. Corrected many problems where player would get stuck and not able to get out. (Ex. Jumping on a ramp facing a solid wall, the ramp is too steep and locks your character inposition.) Noticed that the music did not work anymore, switched it and now it does. Noticed unaligned textures due to roof of the house, aligned those properly. Added a cellar to Baldos's house. Got monster spawn to RESPAWN monsters, 75% baby brown bear, 15% brown bear, 5% giant brown bear, 100% 3x boar. Made the caves that linked vale oen and vale two of M2_Quest more ralistic, aligned textures of some foliage. Added more terrain detail; fixed error which allowed player to arrowclimb off the map... Well, I did a lot more but my hands are getting tired, they say a picture tells a thousand words... So how about I just throw up a few pics? Here you go!







Best mapper ethics: One error nullifies total quality of your map.

A single problem can lead to a player suffering.

(Ex. forced death by typing "kill" in console.) Very few mappers actually care for their maps enough to test places and make sure the player cannot get stuck. Please do! I do this because I wish to make the flawless atmosphere that all players can enjoy.



Well, no more pictures from now on... This is to just give you a little fuel to get excited over my seires... If i post too many then it will not be an exciting experience to play them!

 

[Cyax]

About the FPS, someone tells me higher is better... Another person says lower is better... I say, as long as it doesn't interfear with gameplay, its fine! Those FPS/R_Speeds will not interfear with your gameplay, I am runnnig a crappy comp and these maps sing.



P.S. Took all old screenshots but the one you can compare the new one with... Please note the lighting issues that have been fixed!

 

[Crow]

It looks darker. Which is the point yes? I don't see a huge difference with that part. Detail structure-wise is much better. I'm horrable at makeing convincing cliff faces gotta figure that out.



Yea the fps what exactly is that i see alot of poeple complaining about it.



EDIT: i noticed the lights in the backround on the first pic. Is that what you meant?

 

[Kuroneko]

High FPS (frames per second) = good

High R_speeds (Render speed) = BAD

 

[Cyax]

Yeah thats what I meant; I was just asking for the FPS, because some people were telling me that low was better...

 

[Crow]

And having bad fps is the fault of the map or the computer?

 

[Thothie]

FPS = Frames Per Second. If it gets low, movement gets choppy, and people start screaming "laaaaaag".



...and since you have no control over the computers your map will be played on - tis best to blame the map first and foremost. 8)



I remade Gateroom eight times simply because the FPS dropped from 100 to 90 when looking in certain directions, which is why it took so darn long. 10 fps loss is a lot, for this system, as in my experience, if I'm getting 90FPS, just about everyone else is getting 5.



For most people, you shouldn't get less than 80% of whatever your refresh rate is, if you have vsync on. For most non-tech savie people that's 60Fps in Windows XP (so 48 FPS minimum). The only situations you might allow going below that is when you have stacks of bodies laying about, or some truly spectacular special effect you aren't going to have to maneuver around. Even then, you really want a solid 60+ anyplace where you're going to have to tricky jumps or fight. This is, after all, an engine designed to run on 1998 hardware.

__________

"This is on me." - Dorothy Parker's suggestion for her tomb stone

Saint Thoth

 

[J-M v2.5.5]

I think Cyax told me his video card isn't so good so if he gets around 40 - 50 FPS everything should be fine.

 

[Thothie]

His old maps are very well put together FPS wise... Maybe a little too well - everything kinda looks like you're inside a Nintendo 64 game. Granted, these are the old ones, I've not yet seen the new ones - I'm sure there's more to them.



Cyax's old maps have, well, nothing to do in them... Crow's old maps are horrifically assembled, but at least they're interesting. If only we could somehow bring these two minds together and have maps that are both well made and interesting.



Then again, I think all the clients want is really intense battles. Judging by the files accesses, Orcplace and Helena are still the two most popular maps on the server by far. (Small maps with heavy combat). Helena at least has a goal.



BTW, Orcplace doesn't normally lag as bad as it did that one evening you guys were on... Turns out I had 4 Bittorrents running on the other computer that I forgot about. (I'm surprised the lag wasn't much worse). It does, however, have major flaws. (/me beats Crow for Carving with Cylinders and boxing his map).



I've added Cyax's old maps to the server, but I haven’t gone through them all, so I'm not sure if they all connect properly. I simply refuse to crawl around in The Dark Cave to find out if I'm missing a map or what not. How are the new ones coming?



...and while I'm at it - why did you ban an Adventurer from my server? :\

__________

"I was married by a judge... I should have asked for a jury." - Groucho Marx

Saint Thoth

 

[J-M v2.5.5]

Me?

 

[Thothie]

No... Cyax.



Edit: I removed three of the four Helena chests from ms_swamp, as that's just way too much cash in one place, IMO. I also, as always, added spawn points to all the maps (I don't run maps people can't join). If you object to either, please inform.

__________

"Too lazy to press Ctrl-Shift-Q for random quote."

Saint Thoth

 

[Cyax]

I didn't think so many people would actually accept to ban adventurer... It was meant as a joke but it really did ban him...



Oh and, MS_Quest goes to MS_Swamp and MS_Caves, MS_Caves is a dead end, and MS_Swamp goes to MS_Town. MS_Town goes to MS_Swamp only.

 

[JabbahRulz]

k jm next time ill post the images seperately = post spam

 

[J-M v2.5.5]

I don't think that comment was funny to be honest :roll: