Yalara Roleplay

Description
I consider myself a fairly hardcore roleplayer - It's just about the only thing I do in JA and the only thing I do in any multiplayer game. Now I've heard of Yalara several times but I've never heard any details on it (I haven't concerned myself with it; I'm too busy playing Mandalorian) so I resorted to Wookieepedia! It had this gold mine of information to share with me. >_>

[quote]Yalara was a primitive planet.

Jedi Master Broden Kel Verdox installed a cloaking device which kept the entire planet hidden. This was to protect the primitive civilization.

Darth Vader, however, sent Noghri there, who wiped out the indigenous population.

The Imperial Remnant, under the command of the Disciples of Ragnos, attempted to lay hands on the cloaking device. In order to avert this, Jedi Knight Jaden Korr destroyed the whole device. [/quote]

WOW, THANKS FOR ALL THE INFORMATION. Uninformative jerks. =_= Anyway, on to the map. It is the author's first (Which impresses me) and last (Which saddens me) map. Fortunately the author has provided the source code for the map so if anyone else takes up the task of improving this work of art they have what they need. I'm also surprised at the quality of the map due to the relatively short time that it was created in. You start off in the spaceport, which is a wonderful area with two wonderful ships you can enter and run around in. They even have working laser cannons! My only qualm so far is the lack of spawning points. There is only one spawn point, so I can foresee many-a-spawn-kills on populated servers. Also in the starport you'll find a number of smaller ships and starfighters, some wonderful benches, vendor stalls, travel information, data terminals, and more. It is a very well-done depiction of a starport and it really gets you in the RP mood. Another great addition is the sound of a ship flying overhead or taking off every few seconds.

Continue through the big imposing door that is so familiar in many maps and you enter an area that seems very familiar if you've ever been in an airport. It is the 'waiting area with travel information and departure times and computers for employees and lots of benches' room. Very well done, again. Continue through the next door and you're greeted with an amazing scene (Very realistic and, once again, gets you in the mood for RP). If another. You come out to a winding ramp down to a bridge that extends over a river to a town. On your left is a massive waterfall and a cliff, and on your right is another cliff. When we enter the town we come across a marketplace-type district with more vendor stalls, clothing hanging up, and TVs on display (A lovely touch is a sparking TV that has fallen off the table and broken) Continue through the streets and you are travelling through more vendor stalls, plants, pop machines, benches, and signs. The architecture and setting of this town very much reminds me of Antioch (Both the real Medieval setting and the JKA map based off of it.)

In the town you'll come across a military base with all your essentials such as a prison, command room, armory, etc, a hotel, a cantina. Everything you'd expect and it is all very well done. My only problem is the lighting; rooms are very bright without any lighting source and it slightly dampens the immersion effect of the map. If you put in some lighting fixtures and added some shadows and whatnot, the rooms would be perfect. Also included is an old abandoned warehouse-type building that leads down to a dark room with sparse lighting, a bunch of crates, some wooden chairs, lots of weapons, and an entrance to the sewer. It's a perfectly done rebel/terrorist/criminal building. There's also a tram station, which is VERY well done and VERY well lit. It is quite possibly my favorite area of the map (My second favorite would be the criminal-warehouse.

There are several areas where you can enter the sewers and crawl around and even get to this outdoor scenic-ruins area. The textures here are rather repetitive and I feel like some swaying grass and more trees should be added to it. There's lots of things to explore, such as some caves and a temple and whatnot.

Overall this map is extremely successful at what it set out to accomplish - Be an immersive, complete map for RPers, and I can see that I'm going to love roleplaying on this map for a very long time. Another plus of it is that although it's such a complete, dense, and great map, it's not too big; it doesn't take forever to load like some maps (Cough Atlantica Cough) and thus will be able to be played on by many RPers. I didn't hear any music while I ran around the map but I checked in the PK3 file and there IS a music file, so the author tried to add some. The main problems of the map are the repetitive textures in some areas (Mainly the outdoors) and the poor lighting in some areas (Mainly indoors, such as in the hotel. Some areas however had spectacular lighting such as the Tram and the warehouse.) I STRONGLY suggest somebody to take up the task of improving this already spectacular map by improving the textures, lighting, and adding some music. I'd love to see a version two of this.

~Laam'inui