RPG Carida Academy

Description
[quote]A role-playing game (RPG; often roleplaying game) is a game in which the participants assume the roles of fictional characters. Participants determine the actions of their characters based on their characterization, and the actions succeed or fail according to a formal system of rules and guidelines. Within the rules, players have the freedom to improvise; their choices shape the direction and outcome of the game.[/quote]

In case any of you were wondering what an RPG is. >_>

Roleplaying maps are my favorite type because, well, I'm a roleplayer! How about that? I've reviewed a few RP maps in the past and most of them were somewhat lacking in the... pretty department. It seems that roleplaying mappers just find a map and shove in as much RP content as possible without trying to make it look all that pretty; fortunately that's not the case in this map and the mapper has managed to make a military base, something that COULD have been a bunch of ugly gray boxes everywhere, into something pleasing.

You start off in a courtyard of sorts with a landing pad and various consoles and whatnot. On the landing pad is the much beloved Republic Gunship, but this is no ordinary gunship brush. When walk into the gunship's hatch it teleports you to [i]another[/i] landing pad with the same gunship and a very different looking planet. The first is swampy and this is sandy, but each is tied together with the gunship. The use of the gunship to travel back and forth between two parts of the map is a really neat mechanic and makes you feel like you're being dropped off for a mission or were just ferried back to base.

The two parts of the map are a military base and a scary warehouse that looks perfect for urban combat. The warehouse has very nice lighting and a really dark atmosphere, but something I noticed was that while the lighting was good, it was still not coming from a source. Try adding some lamps into your next update. The warehouse contains a bunch of old boxes and shelves and the occasional prefab-barrier that looks like it was set up as a defense. It's pretty easy to imagine going in with a squad of soldiers and storming the building.

The other half of the map is the military base and it is a pretty nice looking base. It has everything from lobbies to offices to firing ranges. There's even a firing range for normal weapons and then a firing range for long ranged (Sniper rifle) weapons. Every officer's office looks very nice and a few of them even have lobbies outside of them. The barracks might be my favorite part of the map with long rows of bunks with cool cyan lights shining at their heads; there's even a door that leads to a shower room, though there's no toilets anywhere which confuses me. There's also a medbay and several conference rooms as well as a storage room with plenty of weapons to pick up. The base layout was a bit confusing, though, so it would be nice to have maybe some holographic signs or something to point people toward the room they want to go to.

The map makes extensive use of Inyri's KotOR models and not only does it add an air of familiarity to the map, but it also makes it just look so much nicer and more varied instead of JK3 boxes. The music on the map is the track "Prologue" from the Republic Commando soundtrack, which I love; "Prologue" is my favorite track from any Star Wars game by far. It fits perfectly with the map as it feels militaristic and has both ups and downs to it.

A few improvements could probably be made in the next version, though, such as fixing a few misaligned brushes (I saw one on the sand-planet-landing courtyard place. In the wall.) and fixing up a bit of the lighting. The base's lighting just seemed too boring and bland. I also think a bit of interactivity could be added now that the main structure has been added and maybe a bit more eye candy could be thrown in to make it even prettier. Overall though this is a very solid map and I recommend it to anyone who needs a good roleplaying map.

~Laam'inui