Hi, I am just finishing off my first map, I even bought the Map Editor Book, not very impressed, a lot missing.

Still, one has to live with it. In the Map Editor, there are 3 Spawn icons 1 red 1 yellow and 1 white. What is the White one for?

Also it says 8/8 spawn for each side, but no more than 64, Does it mean you can actually put in 32 per side, but the minimum is 8?

Thanks in advance

Reegs

Whits spawns are for Deatmatch. When placing those, make sure they arent too close together. Also make sure they arent placed so that when players spawn, one will end up running up behind another. Bad spawnage can ruin a good map

Yes, you must have at least 8 for each team. I recommend placing them spread out instead of close together so spawncamping/spawnrapage is limited or impossible. I perspnally prefer putting 4 or 5 groups of 3 team spawns in various locations, and sometimes I put a lone spawn in enemy territory just to keep teams on their toes. It can also help a deadlock or domination break.

Keep practicing with the editor, and I also suggest playing a few games online if you can to get the feel for how the matches play out.

quote:

Originally posted by Reegs:
I even bought the Map Editor Book, not very impressed, a lot missing.

Really, now?

Thanks, value your comments, have been online very few good maps, seems to be more of the Quake scenario just keep blowing things away, the biggest gun wins. The reality of unreality just keep dieing.

not the biggest gun. my AK wins
well, actually the AR16 is damn strong sometimes.

was wondering. you said a lot is missing from the book (I haven't bought it) so I suppose you should be quite knowledgeable about map editing. did you buy it because you needed to learn some things, or simply out of curiosity?

and is it about mapping, level design, or both?

i recall them asking for stuff to put in a book, im thinking maybe they just listed a whole bunch of tips but not really in a form to learn the editor itself

The FarCry 2 Map Editor Guide is a 300 page TEXT BOOK about map making and player psychology, as well as military tactics and risk-reward systems. It's not missing anything. I'd say it has a lot more than the average person could understand without some knowledge of game design.

Not sure what could be missing. It even tells you each item in the editor, where it's located, and what it could be used for.

i haven't seen the book myself is the layout in a tutorial form that starts off with a basic map and evolves into something bigger?

I have worked with 3dsMax since its inception so I know my way around a 3D setup, and have been involved off and on with Map Editors for a number of years. The great thing about Far Cry 2 is its spacial ability, that was the exciting bit. Most games have limited space. a lot of comments have been made about the game which I am sure you have read, so I wont go into that. I should also say that the editor overall was a good idea and it functions reasonably well, however it limits real development and could have been built far better and offer the Map Builder far more scope. Perhaps it's development was governed by time or a budget.

These comments are purely about the Editor, which incidently crosses over into the "Book". I should also point out that I am only interested in being able to follow the concept behind Far Cry 2, not trying to emulate another game. My main objective was to build an exciting Map that challenged the player, but with realism.

There are a number of parts that form an illusion of 3D realism and its ultimate performance, you can break it down into

a) The Space itself: its scale and how the models interact in that space. What is the size of a human in this space. There are no gudielines in the Editor or Book, what measurement does the Editor refer to. I had to work that out for myself. When you start with a new map, go to Map properties and you have Small, Medium and Large. Does the actual space change, on mine it remains the same, so what's the point, does the size of the Models change NO. The size allowed is 512 x 512 x 255 that is your working space, taking that as a starting point I would guess a Large Map is 512 x 512 x 255, a Medium around 256 x 256 x 255, small 128 x 128 x 255, (the Height/Depth to 255 + -1 allows for 1 of Water).

b) Texturing of the Area, I must admit I find it hard to understand why one is limited to the use of only 4 basic textures for the terrain. Surely they could have included extra textures.

c) The Governing Environment: Atmosphere is critical in a game and the Editor really covers most of what we would experience in real life, however, what's missing is the Rain even Lightning, Swirling waters, water currents that can carry you away, and/or drown. Could they have included wind currents for the Paragliders,etc. Lighting, Shadows and sound all play apart in "the experience" carefully placed lighting, sound etc. can be a godsend or a problem for the player. I am just going on about what could have been.

d) The Models/Objects: Overall the quality is very good, the sizes are visible on the open window once you have click it. No way for the Editor to import custom models and that is a real shame

That is the physical side of the editor, however the player experience is basically controlled by the AI of the game, however you can influence to a certain extent the flow of the game as Agent000Kevin says.

My gripes with the Editor, When positioning models for accuracy you have to type in the exact co-ordinates, a turning toggle is far better. With a single screen the windows for the Objects are restrictive one way around it is to use dual screens and push the Objects window on to the other screen and then expand the Window. By using this method you can actually see all objects in that section without having to scroll through the list. I worked on the basis the area is in metres, so the new area is 512 x 512 x 255 The smallest grid size being 16M x 16M. Using the initial block textures is fine apart from the lack of choice
., however if you use the one of the Terrain covers from the Collections you have no way of returning to a clean area without affecting everything else, I resorted to using Dessert Light, but it still leaves a splattering of bushes. What are the cameras for? There is no real explanation. Occlusion blocks require careful placing as in other editors there are no real examples of how to use, I was always under the impression that you use them predominately in internal setups not open space scenarios, I need to investigate this area. On the main bar there is a reference to "Make Beautiful" no reference anywhere, what does it do?

Another annoying part especially for me is the directional controls of movment W,S,A,D it would have been good to use the directional arrow keys, I can work a lot faster that way. Test in Game lacks the facilities used in the game so you cannot get a real feel of what is happening, and it doesn't cover the range of weapons. Hw much damage does a grenade do? what is the range of a sniper rifle. etc. the idea is to make a real good game and not just guess.

When you come to the book it appears to be cncentrating on Game Play design and interlacing it with Far Cry 2, It is more like a teaching aid of Game Design. But when it comes done to specifics it is seriously lacking I was hopeing for a lot more, a complete set of Building tutorials from basic to really complex, it states what you should do but lacks a lot of how to. But saying all of that I found some interesting tips and some very good pointers, was it worth the money Yes, any knowledge is worth something. As a real tutorial for the Map Editor as I have said I found it lacking. As yet I haven't found a set of tutorials that I could direct somebody o and know they have a solid well constructed set of tutorials of how to and why.

More comments to follow,soon