I've started work on a replacement for "The Planets" map I made awhile ago and I have created this thread in the interests of posting my current progress, building up some hype for the map, and for getting feedback on the design changes I have made.
To recap, the original map known as "Planets" or "The Planets" was well received and went through several revisions as I fixed various bugs that arose and added new features. The principle of the map was always to have separate build spaces wrapped in space theme as inspired by Gmod's popular Spacebuild gamemode. The planets consisted of hemispherical interiors surrounded by one or more DTS spheres to form an outer sphere and inner atmosphere/sky. They were designed to emulate the appearance of the planets within our solar system. Eventually (and thanks to the help of Nitramtj) different degrees of gravity and kill triggers were added to appropriate portions of the map. Build pads were added around key planets to aid in the construction of orbiting space stations. My own developmenton the map stopped when I was in the middle of a third revision of the map which had rotating DTS spheres and a separate cloud layer.
This new map will be significantly different in appearance from the original, but will keep the "essence" of the map that separated it from all of the slate/slope edits that preceded it. I've posted a list of features/changes below that should make it into the new map....
- "Planets" will now be cubes in general shape
- Ground textures will be studs of varying colors
- Name change from "Planets" to "Worlds"
- "Worlds" will now reflect interesting environments, not the planets in our system
- "Worlds" will be placed at reasonable distances from each other
- Smaller "Worlds" to encourage concentrated development
- Surface details (Mountains, craters, rivers, foliage, etc)
- Focus on a small overall file size
- Single release of the map to reduce confusion and work load
- Small selection of miscellaneous, unique build spaces
My main objective is to make a unique map that will be fun and hassle-free to play on. I'd like to encourage and inspire creative building. These are two things I failed to fully achieve in my last map, but certainly something worth striving for and the concept deserves a second shot.
The most obvious change is in the general appearance of the map; whereas the original map aimed to replicate our solar system, "Worlds" will emulate a pseudo system with it's own batch of cubular build spaces. Overall the map will be very "Blocko" with stud textures on the ground and terrain that fits in with the baseplate 'cubes' that are now a default feature in BL. Speaking of terrain, part of my plan to inspire creative building is to add more features to the planets surface so rather than just being a flat you may end up seeing rivers, hills, craters and more on the various worlds.
I'll attach some W.I.P. screenshots of the worlds I am working on right now in Constructor. I've thoroughly tested the interiors in game and it works seamlessly with the bricks (such as the baseplate cubes). Interiors and bricks handle lighting slightly differently and I have yet to find a way to match up the colors perfectly, but it won't be distracting when complete. Since I am not messing with the scale of the interior in game, the placement of bricks and lighting of the interior is flawless; this fixes perhaps the greatest set of issues with the original map.
If you have any suggestions for cool ideas I'm open to them.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LXTzHaWm1-E (Grass prototype video)
Show Posts
