Map assessment and pathing enhancements

[evilgrins]

Questionable pathing, jump pads causing bots to bounce endlessly, lots of running into walls and going nowhere...

Assess.

[Nelsona]

Questionable pathing, ... going nowhere...

It's not questionable from my view, I'd rather prefer to use n00b term, to not use Insanity or other various definitions not suitable for a public post and mature people.
It's all crap, all paths must be re-created here.
I'm still having the question to myself about how many minutes was testing this genius his "awesome" trash... and reason for releasing this mess into public.

Let me see, now we gotta ask permissions for fixing and finishing this unfinished work... I think we deserve credits for recovering map else it would stay in this lousy stage...

This will have some of those fancy rooms good at nothing deleted. In CTF purpose is capturing flags and defending team flag not looking at walls - these "mappers" are not really playing UT as I can see...

[evilgrins]

I'm still having the question to myself about how many minutes was testing this genius his "awesome" trash... and reason for releasing this mess into public.

Not everybody cares about bots, as you know. Some people toss maps into servers with the hopes people will play them and there are no bots around. Same kinda people that write to forums and ask "How do I kill all the bots so they don't get in the way of the actual players?"

Let me see, now we gotta ask permissions for fixing and finishing this unfinished work... I think we deserve credits for recovering map else it would stay in this lousy stage...

Too early to worry, also there was no contact info. I'm reviewing the other works to see if one was included with those.

This will have some of those fancy rooms good at nothing deleted. In CTF purpose is capturing flags and defending team flag not looking at walls - these "mappers" are not really playing UT as I can see...

Sometimes when playing CTF you gotta kill time while your team gets the flag back. For when you get back with the enemy flag but your own flag is gone.

Side rooms have the advantage of giving you somewhere to hide while that's happening.

[Nelsona]

In a properly pathed map and NsCTF game, you won't escape anywhere with Flag wasting time for keeping score advantage - it was one of my goals from my controller, and here probably is place for improved codes...
Then here:
- duplicated actors have been deleted having no use;
- monsters behind glasses ON-Line are not having any valid deal: Monster is not full relevant and uses bStasis - not all NOOBS are knowing UE1 rules and what do these means, but they can draw miss-aligned cubes and craps - removed useless area; ...
- Red Team was using a PlayerStart in that spot heading nowhere - losing team. I don't get these dumb ideas;
- Another teleporter was teleporting player to some suit and back immediately - I can't get these attempts at spamming collision calculations, UE1 has chances to crash here;
- Paths ? I think I cannot call those things paths;
- BreakingGlass set bNoDelete - What the heck is this ? Did anyone hear about custom scripting in MyLevel ? No, they might be deaf...;
- Doors triggers opening door only from one side ? You have to be kidding...;
- Kicker for height where Traslocator is an easy option ? It doesn't make any sense - This is CTFGame not flying goats;
- Triggers triggering nothing - all deleted;
- Jelly crap "defaulttexture" is now Greeeeeen and Translucent/Masked for figuring assets correctly and doing things on the right way - editing ergonomics aspect;
- What exactly were those white brush blocks ? Let me see: STEALING, COPY-PASTING - I know what is about, I'm not that dumb as I'm looking like.
Credits ? Yeah... next century in December. Pathing was not the only issue here, it was trash all the way.

Now let's do more testing here:

CTF-STFU_rS877.7z

(198.82 KiB) Downloaded 144 times

Exactly, there are not needed any brackets Mr. King - I'll bet on 3$ that map works without brackets .

[evilgrins]

This is really done, likely doesn't need anything as it plays fine... but I know if I release it without you seeing it you'll give me grief, so...

Only potential gripe, and it may be mainly due to intense action, is there's a "bridge" in the center of the map and no bots ever go up there. Could be as the action is too intense, this is not a big map, nobody has the time to go up there, but something to check.

Do not adjust the Skaarj, they're fine.

Anywho, assess away!

[Nelsona]

This is simple, I don't understand why were not added paths here. I marked as Pink potential future routes which now are missing...

ILR_Misssing_Links.PNG (928.52 KiB) Viewed 2800 times

In theory it should not take too much time doing these... but I'll look around if something else it's not good.

Edit: Done ?
- Rotated a few PlayerStarts;
- Adjusted a bit a few nodes;
- Removed Aerial Ones;
- Added ramp access + AlternatePaths

Cute map, nice designed...

CTF-UTDMS-300k-iLikeRockets_rS264.7z

(212.97 KiB) Downloaded 123 times

[evilgrins]

Cute map, nice designed...

Most of the 300k maps tend to get highly praised, which is why i went looking for them.

Moving right along...

So, again, UTDM-monsters need no pathing. Nature of this map they pretty much have free reign and I'd like to leave them to however they naturally get along. Aso, keeping them the size they are.

I'd like you to assess bot pathing, and figure something with the teleports.

All around the map there are lamp posts, and on top of those are teleports.. which I assume are supposed to send players to the structure at the top where health, shields, redeemer, and other power ups are. But the teleports are not anywhere they can be easily accessed (maybe move them lower to the base of the lamp posts) and there doesn't appear to be anything on that top structure for them to come out or get back down with.

Map as it originally was gameplay wise things were over in about 3 minutes. I added cannons to up the difficulty and then UTDM to make things tougher. Now on average games last 8 to 10 minutes.

Tested with 8 bots, 4 to a team, with a max score of 5.

[Nelsona]

Teleporters are tagged as Destinations not as Sources, so they are heading nowhere. If case that you failed details they do not include any pathing data, also those air PathNodes around are one-way only, these being entirely useless.

Lol_Paths_CTFSlime.PNG (1.14 MiB) Viewed 2764 times

Perhaps I failed to figure some lines going to those nodes and not only one-way, and also there might be invisible paths undetectable paths to-from Teleporters .

I think this was supposed to be used with a custom Translocator or using "Escalating" - there is no any normal access at that area, maybe using other stunts or something specific which normal people won't use in their games...

So hint me how to setup access at those items...

[evilgrins]

Barring unusually bouncy jumpboots or reorienting those teleports to places up there, no idea.

I'd opt for bat-wings but there's no way to fly fast enough with those not to get shot down by the cannons... unless you fly further back on your own side. Despite their range, the cannons don't start targeting anyone until they reach the middle of the map.

How's the pathing overall?

[Nelsona]

Perhaps too much for this area and has junk data too...

Code: Select all

NoIncomingPath: PathNode39 is not having incoming connections.
NoIncomingPath: PathNode64 is not having incoming connections.
NoIncomingPath: PathNode67 is not having incoming connections.
NoIncomingPath: PathNode68 is not having incoming connections.
NoIncomingPath: PathNode69 is not having incoming connections.
NoIncomingPath: PathNode70 is not having incoming connections.
NoIncomingPath: PathNode71 is not having incoming connections.
NoIncomingPath: PathNode72 is not having incoming connections.
...
NumReachSpecs: This map has 820 ReachSpecs shown as direct paths in Navigation Network.
NumReachSpecs: Also this map has 1884 ReachSpecs as shortcuts aka PrunedPaths in Navigation Network.
NumReachSpecs: These are not visible in Editor but they are used by Pawns.
NumReachSpecs: After calculation we have 2704 ReachSpecs.
...
MaxNumFound: I found a sum of 3678 reachspecs defined in map, from 0 to 3677.

Conclusion: Map's file-size can be reduced and processing navigation as well... JumpBoots won't help reaching there. This map is pathed for the sake of pathing and not for a good Bot play. Let me think at a simplification solution and... VALID teleporting...

Edit: Cannons are not a really good idea here but you can figure what's up with Bots in this version...

CTF-UTDM-Cannons-Slime_rS740.7z

(608.59 KiB) Downloaded 135 times

If it's about adding something like this to my gaming repositories cannons are going to be removed...