[CONTEST] Ancient Temple

Description
[b]Jan-Feb 2007 Contest Finalist - Intermediate Skill Level - To see the winners, check our [url="/info/ContestArchives"]Contest Archives[/url].[/b]

Well, its time for me to come out of suspended animation for a little while again, this time to help review some of the finalist maps for the recent JKFiles Duel map Contest. Now onto the review! :)

Well, I must say that when the contest was in progress, this was one of the first maps that caught my eye. ‘How come?’ I hear you say, well in one word: colour. This map is one of the most colourful maps I’ve seen in a long time, the combination of that fantastic skybox, and the nicely coloured lighting, was very striking!

I know quite a few people commented that this map was too small, however I’m not so sure. Personally I think it’s a very nice size for a duel map, it’s not so big that you can get lost in it. But its not so small that you cant get out of the way if your opponent decides to do a kata! There’s plenty of room for running and jumping, and the little temple in the middle makes a nice central feature.

However I would agree that the rest of the map is a little sparse. Perhaps if some of the walls were made more crumbly, with some large chunks of stone laying around or maybe some more plants were added to the main area, it would give it just that extra edge on the detailing side of things. :)

Now, onto the architecture. Although architecturally simple, the temple feature in the middle of the map has a pleasing shape to it, along with that the trees also fit quite nicely around it. One of my favourite parts was the very beautiful looking water. The author obviously spent some time getting a very nice water shader together, and I think the results look very nice and professional!

Another feature that I particularly loved was the fantastic skybox, which I think fits perfectly with the theme of the map, and also the lighting which is very well used here.

As with all maps there are always some things that could be improved upon here. There were one or two little errors here and there like one little missing texture on part of the temple. But the main thing I feel could be improved is the area beyond the walls. The terrain was rather flat in this area, it would be cool to maybe put some easygen terrain in here. For those who don’t know what easygen is, it’s a program, which you can use to generate terrain to put into your map. It looks complicated at first, but its really easy once you get the hang of it!

A tutorial for Easygen, along with download links can be viewed here:
http://www.map-review.com/index.php?page=tutorial_view&id=12

As always of course you can use the JK2/JKA modding forums here on FileFront to ask any questions. :)

So lets round up some pro’s and con’s:

Pro’s:

[*]Well balanced for a 1v1 Duel.
[*]Very nice skybox and excellent custom water shaders.
[*]Good lighting.
[*]Simple but nice architecture.

Con’s:

[*]Some minor errors.
[*]Not particularly suited to guns play, though there are pickups for such.
[*]Needs some more detailing to fill the map out and give it that extra edge.
[*]Having lots of trees in the area outside the walls decreases the framerate quite a lot, remember duel maps need good high FPS.

All in all though, an excellent good looking map here. Keep up the good work mate!

Why not give it a download? ;)

Bot Support: Yes
New Textures: Yes
New Sounds: No
New Music: No
Game Types: FFA, Duel (It could do with the power duel gametype being added though)

~Nozyspy~