Yavin Dueling Grounds

Description
Greetings all! It's your friendly neighborhood Yami! I'm honored to be a new staff member here at JK3files, and for my first file review, we will be looking at version 2 of rPopn's "Yavin Dueling Grounds". But first lets take a look at what Inyri had to say about [file="77256"]Version 1[/file]:

[quote]This map is supposed to be set on Yavin, although the only thing that really shouts "Yavin" to me is the skybox. It's small, but probably big enough to support a small FFA (probably no more than 4-8 people before feeling cluttered). It consists of a central platform, with what looks like a jungle gym in the middle, and four towers jutting out from each side of the platform. Each tower has a couple of good sniper locations (complete with rifle). Naturally you'll need to be careful, because if you're sniping everyone will know where you are!

The rest of the map seems geared mainly toward guns, although the 'jungle gym' I mentioned earlier suggests that if you want the full experience, you'll need Force jump at the very least. Guns are littered across the map, but are fairly accessible. There are also enough obstacles so that a guns battle won't be quite as cut and dry as if you were on a wide open map.

The texturing and brushwork on this map are a little bit bland, but very functional. So while it may be an eyesore to a certain extent, it should provide decent gameplay. To be fair, I've seen texturing much worse than this. It could just use a little style. The lighting is also not too bad, but could definitely be improved. Not a bad start, though!

Bot Support: No
New Models: No
New Textures: No
New Music: Yes

~Inyri[/quote]

Well, sadly to say, not much has changed. Only a couple of things have been added; a few little walls to hide from enemies, and a breakable box in the center of the platform. My guess is, the author just figured out how to make a breakable item and decided to find a place to stick it in his map. But I guess it adds...something.

Some of the lighting has been changed as well, and while it might be a little better, it still doesn't fit the sky box. Try adding a sun entity to your next version. It adds a touch of realism, cause sunlight doesn't create little white balls of light everywhere. It's one big beam.

Also, the author changed a couple of the textures. The texture work is still nothing spectacular, but it all fits together well, except for the "jungle gym" in the middle. The texture just looks odd, and could have been lined up better.

Okay...Only 2 more things I need to mention before I go. The music is in the file, but doesn't work in-game. And when I listened to the song, I'm kinda glad it didn't work...Cause I would have turned it off anyway. Also, don't plan on getting to the map via the in-game map list. The author entered the wrong filename in the ".arena" file. So you'll have to type "/devmap yavin2" in the console.

Overall, it's a stable map for a small, quick ffa or a duel. Just don't fall off the edge! rPopn, keep working and take some tutorials on lighting and brushwork, and you could make a pretty decent map some day. Keep up the good work!

Bot Support: Nope
New Models: Zip
New Textures: Zero
New Music: Yes, but doesn't work
Secrets: Nada

~ Yami