Taspir Power Complex V3

Description
Taspir, or FFA 5 as it is known in multiplayer, seems to be a map that a lot of people like. However, I was never very fond of the Taspir map in MP, mostly because I kept getting lost in it…:P Seriously! The insides of the three towers around the map all look the same, and I could never tell where I was or which floor I was on. Mind you, I did get lost in [i]my own map[/i] once... Errm, perhaps I shouldn't have said that.

Ehem, anyway, on with the review! Well, we have a big treat for you here today. Fans of the previous two versions of the Taspir Power Complex map will be drooling to get their hands on the latest version no doubt. Never fear, for your download is near (well just at the bottom of this review actually)! I think people who have never heard of this map, or perhaps didn’t like the previous two versions will be won over by the latest maps incredible features.

Since this is such an [i]epic[/i] map, this is going to be quite a lengthy review, even then I will have to cut bits out, since there are such a huge amount of features in this map, I would have to write a book to cover them all!

If you have been waiting for this map, my nice long review will be a good thing for you, since it will take you marginally longer to scroll down the page to get to the download button, thanks to its length. Hopefully this will build up the suspense and excitement just a little bit more. :P

Anyway, where do I start? This is such a HUGE map that there is a lot to cover here. In fact the main map could really be two maps in one (I shall come to that later). Although I should really call this a map pack, since there are actually a number of maps included in the .pk3 here, including a night time version of the main map, and also a CTF map and a couple of duel maps!

Since there is so much here, I will concentrate mostly on the main FFA map of the files title.

First of all lets have a look at the:

[b]Architecture[/b]

The architecture of the original Taspir map was pretty simple, yet at the same time distinctive. The author here has improved the architecture for the original areas of the map; however, the real challenge comes when you start adding new areas to the original one. The thing is, to make the transition between old and new as seamless as possible, you have to build your new areas in the same style of architecture as the old areas. This makes the map seem more of a whole, rather than an obvious mixture between the original parts, and the new additions. Trust me when I say that this is a difficult thing to do!

The author has done an excellent job here, merging the original Taspir areas with his new additions. In some areas, I honestly couldn’t tell where the old map ended, and where the new additions began, they were that well blended together. That is a difficult thing to do, so well done there mate! :)

[b]Additions[/b]

Well, where do I start?! There are so many new areas to explore here, I could spend all day writing about them! One of my favourite areas was the ‘clan bedrooms’ area. This seems to be a feature on quite a lot of clan oriented maps, such as Sith Council v2, however, I think the bedroom area in this map is the best I have ever seen in any clan themed map. It is well laid out, there is lots of space and the furniture is much more realistic than I’ve seen in other maps. Importantly though, the furniture here is also properly sized, so no gigantic desks or chairs, they are the right proportion to the player character!

We also have new areas added to the top of the towers in the main part of the map. There are some landing pads with spawnable ships, gun turrets, and even what looks to be an air traffic control tower! There are also many other features up here, however, another one of my favourite areas was down below…

Going through a door in the mountain side down at the bottom near the lava takes you into what must be the reason for the maps name; the Power Complex. This is a large area inside a huge cave, with power generators, lots of walkways with girders, pipes, and all manner of industrial looking apparatus filling the area. Also most impressive is how the lava is down below, lighting the cavernous space with its fiery red glow. On a side note, I also want to say how much I was impressed with the new lava texture, it is a vast improvement over the original Base JKA lava texture!

The most colossal addition to this map (in fact, it could be a whole map in itself) is the massive space area, filled with asteroids! There is a space station with spawnable ships, masses of asteroids and other features, and my favourite part) a huge asteroid in the middle much like the one seen in Episode 2 during the dogfight between Jango and Obi Wan. It has several holes in it, and a sizeable area inside, so you can test your piloting skills out trying to fly through it! ;) Even more clever, the way to get to this space area is simply to get one of the spawnable ships and fly it up into the sky…you are then teleported straight to the space sector! If you want to go back to the planet’s surface, then all you need to do is fly towards the planet in the skybox in space. A very clever system for moving between the two areas that I haven’t seen done before.

Even after all that, there is still a huge amount of new features and areas to explore on this map, you can keep coming back day after day and keep finding new things!

[b]Interactivity[/b]

Once again, I could write a book with the amount of interactive features there are on this map! As I have already said, there are spawnable ships in various areas of the map for flying around in, as well as many new areas which have interactive features.

This map has a total of [b]56[/b] scripts which control and enable certain things to happen around the map. Now that probably won’t mean a lot to most people unless you are a mapper. But let me say that most maps have [i]no[/i] scripts at all! And the ones that do have scripts, generally speaking don’t have that many. In that light that 56 scripts in a single map, is a huge amount and must have taken a lot of work!

There is one particular secret, which probably involves a fair few of those scripts, which will make your eyes pop out with the incredible changes it actually makes to the map, however that is a secret, so I shall say no more. :P

Perhaps the best interactive feature of this map is the ability to customise it for your own clan. I know on some clan-oriented maps, various different clans that use the map will replace the original clan’s textures (logos and such) in the .pk3, with their own textures and logos. Thus when they play the map, the original clan’s logos and textures have been replaced with their own, thus customising it for their own use. This map is very special however, in that this is the first map I have ever come across that has this ability [i]built into the design of the map[/i] which means the map was meant to have certain textures replaced so clans can customise it for themselves!

[b] ***Full instructions on how to do this are on the authors website, you can find the address in the readme below.***[/b]

As well as that, there are a huge amount of teleporters hidden throughout the map which take you to various secret places. Including secret observation rooms, rooms with lots o’ buttons that do various things throughout the map (including changing the music), excellent sniping positions, secret areas for duelling in and so on.

A nifty feature in the hidden duel rooms is the auto return feature, so if you are defeated in the duel, or die any other way, you are automatically teleported back into the duel room you were in before. To leave the room or disable this feature all you need to do is just walk to the exit sign, and you are teleported back into the main map.

[b]Extras[/b]

In reality, this isn’t just one map, but actually [b]six[/b] maps! First of all we have the main FFA map, which comes in two flavours, both a day and a night version! The night version gives a whole different feel to the map, and is very well done.

Then we have a CTF version of the main map, which has had several areas changed, including the main platform in the middle of the map, which has been made dramatically smaller. It also new moves up and down, and deploys a small ramp to get onto it, all by using the console near it. This was very well made, and could be useful for all kinds of things, especially duels and such. The layout of other areas is also slightly different, but still similar to the main FFA map. The red and blue flags are housed at the top of the towers, which are lit by red and blue lights respectively on the outside.

Moving on, we then have another tree Duel maps! Two of them are the same, being the main platform area from the original map, once again coming in night and day versions. A really cool (and somewhat scary) feature of these maps is that the lava down below the platform starts to rise every so often, accompanied by a small earthquake…until the lava engulfs the two lower platforms / areas leaving just the main platform up to! So if you are duelling down below, and the earthquakes start, you know that’s your que to move to the upper platforms, or get engulfed by rising lava! The other duel map, is another area from the new main map, the underground cavern where the power plant is. This makes a fantastic place to duel because of the numerous walkways and the deadly lava down below! ;)

[b]Conclusion[/b]

All in all this is an absolutely epic map, and I’m really not exaggerating when I say that. It really is [i]that[/i] good! It has endless secrets to explore, new areas to discover, incredible interactivity and on top of all of that, it has been tailored to also suit the needs of clans.

As far as interactive clan themed maps go, I really do believe that this map sets the new [b]gold standard[/b] in terms of the huge amount of features it offers, and the overall consistent excellent build quality. And if you are wondering about low FPS, the author also included another .pk3 in the .zip file (Tpcv3_low_fps_fix.pk3) which disables certain features which may slow older computer systems, thus making the map even more accessible to people.

This is an absolute [i]must download[/i] as far as I am concerned, I haven’t seen a map with this many things to do, secrets to discover and new areas to explore for longer than I can remember!

Come on guys, give this map a download, you know you want to! ;)

[b]Main Map:[/b]

[b]Bot Support:[/b] Yes
[b]New Textures:[/b] Yes
[b]New Sounds:[/b] Yes
[b]New Music:[/b] Yes
[b]New Scripts:[/b] Yes (TONS of them!)
[b]Game Types:[/b] FFA, TFFA CTF


[b]CTF Map:[/b]

[b]Bot Support:[/b] Yes
[b]New Textures:[/b] Yes
[b]New Sounds:[/b] Yes
[b]New Music:[/b] Yes
[b]New Scripts:[/b] Yes
[b]Game Types:[/b] CTF

[b]Duel Maps:[/b]

[b]Bot Support:[/b] Yes
[b]New Textures:[/b] Yes
[b]New Sounds:[/b] Yes
[b]New Music:[/b] Yes
[b]Game Types:[/b] Duel, Power Duel

~Nozyspy~