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Map Feedback - Hinterlands
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HiRezKate Hi-Rez Team Member Joined: Tue Aug 24, 2010 4:00 pm Posts: 792 Location: Dome City	Map Feedback - Hinterlands Submit feedback and terrain glitches below Quote: When you find a terrain glitch press [ to bring up the quick console and type 'bugit'. Looking at the input.ini file, bugit also appears to be bound to F12 by default. bugit will generate a creenshot and a text log that the dev team can use to find the exact spot on the map that was the problem. Posting this info in the map section is FAR more helpful than "X is buggy as s*, hirez, you f* suck at making maps" The bugit logs are located in \Documents\My Games\Tribes Ascend\TribesGame\ScreenShots\<MapName> You'll need to use something to downsize the file in order to upload it to the forum (mine are ~6meg each. stupid .bmp's) I use Irfanview (free) and the "save for web" option to get them down to around 250k. When posting this information, it helps to use the following format: ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- <brief description of what you were doing/where you were going> <text dump of the log file (using quote or code tags helps)> Code:* [1051.03] Log: Log file open, 11/10/11 12:53:41 [1051.03] Log: Dumping BugIt data chart at 2011.11.10-12.53.41 using build 7748 built from changelist 742347 [1051.03] Log: MapName: TrCTF-Drydock [1051.03] Log: Description: [1051.03] Log: BugItGo 30345.4434 -23603.0293 6076.5356 -8846 3403 0 [1051.03] Log: ?BugLoc=30345.44,-23603.03,6076.54?BugRot=-8846,3403,0 [1051.03] Log: ---=== GameSpecificData ===--- [1051.03] Log: Log file closed, 11/10/11 12:53:41 <attached or uploaded screenshot> Attachment: TrCTF-Drydock-PC-10-12.53.410.jpg ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- remember that you can also use bugit to get exact map positions for mesh and texture errors as well notes for the rest of this thread What I'm looking for here is map-specific feedback and bugs. Comments on the game mode itself just clutter up this thread. I have no control over the design, so posting complaints about the Arena playstyle isn't very helpful to me. I'm looking for bugs, aesthetics comments, and gameplay suggestions that I can work on myself or pass along to the art team. zaktorokko wrote: I like how the actual level is designed, although the walkways may be a little too thin because I was getting pathetically easy grenade kills left and right. The sky is horribly bright to the point of being disorienting. Is the sun 15 miles away from the surface of the planet? It's incredibly difficult to see anything above the horizon at all. Something keeps pushing me around in midair too. I couldn't find any sort of trigger or pattern to it, but I was busy being blinded by the sky and shot at by 5 guys so it was hard to look for any sort of indicator of when I was about to get flung sideways. ^^ This is an example of a good feedback with bugs that I can research, and aesthetic suggestions that I can pass long to the art team. Please, help me help you with maps, as there are plenty of other threads dedicated to thoughts on the gamemode. _________________ MagiCandyBar wrote: Soon.™ blackchimes wrote: WORST MAP EVER, TOO SMALL/TOO BIG, THE HILLS ARE NOT HIGH ENOUGH/THE HILLS ARE TOO HIGH, THE FLAG IS TOO EXPOSED/IS NOT EXPOSED ENOUGH, SNIPEFEST, TOO MUCH GREEN/ BLOOM. YOU RUINED IT HIREZ
Tue May 08, 2012 2:09 pm

HiRezKate Hi-Rez Team Member Joined: Tue Aug 24, 2010 4:00 pm Posts: 792 Location: Dome City	Re: Map Feedback - Hinterlands A few notes about Hinterlands! - As of today (May 8th), some of the smaller rocks on the terrain still have collision. This will be fixed next patch. - There are no inventory stations in this map. This is done on purpose, and meant to encourage spending credits on something other than strikes _________________ MagiCandyBar wrote: Soon.™ blackchimes wrote: WORST MAP EVER, TOO SMALL/TOO BIG, THE HILLS ARE NOT HIGH ENOUGH/THE HILLS ARE TOO HIGH, THE FLAG IS TOO EXPOSED/IS NOT EXPOSED ENOUGH, SNIPEFEST, TOO MUCH GREEN/ BLOOM. YOU RUINED IT HIREZ
Tue May 08, 2012 2:10 pm

Pittyswains Joined: Fri Dec 24, 2010 12:36 am Posts: 2126	Re: Map Feedback - Hinterlands Not sure if this is intended, but the moat bottom seems to have a sharp edge instead of a smooth one. This leads to being unable to ski out if you take a quick dip, since you basically hit a wall down at the very bottom. (It kinda looks like you simply fall through the dirt floor that's supposed to round it out) _________________ shayd wrote: Ok But why do all combats I see take place like this: Two or more guys slide on the ground at huge speed which in real life would make your shoe evaporate to other dimension and meantime spamming those bombs or new players trying to be fair shooting a machine gun
Tue May 08, 2012 5:51 pm

thelastspace Joined: Sat Feb 06, 2010 4:01 am Posts: 19	Re: Map Feedback - Hinterlands Aesthetically, I don't think it fits well within the tribes universe. I get a real faerie/avatar vibe from the color palette. I think it would look better with a much more murky color scheme. From i design perspective, it seems weird that the water surrounding the middle island kills you, since there are also puddles placed throughout which do no damage. I don't think making the surrounding water just water is would be a huge problem. The rocks seem out of place as well both in color and their placement. Everything seems a little too structured/symmetrical for this type of environment. I'd much rather see a combination of ship debris and trees/fallen logs placed strategically in a way that enhance gameplay. Some low fog on the terrain might help the atmosphere/murky feel as well. I think it would be cool if instead of a lone island in the middle, there was a crashed ship and crater as a product of the crash. Then that would allow for ammo caches to be distributed in various places. (couldve been some sort of supply ship) I also think this could be an opportunity to incorporate various debris possible hanging from vines or in other ways to enhance the map's playability. As it stands now, it feels pretty bland with just the terrain and i dont current trees provide much of a tactical advantage. I know this sounds pretty negative but I guess it comes with the territory (i used to make t2 maps so im used to a harsh community lol). Will probably edit with more feedback later after I get some more playtime. Last edited by thelastspace on Wed May 09, 2012 7:19 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Tue May 08, 2012 6:25 pm

Greenvalv Joined: Sun Sep 18, 2011 8:54 pm Posts: 41	Re: Map Feedback - Hinterlands I find this particular plant in this map and Tartarus to behave strangely as you move. Reminds me of old pre-2000 games the way they rotate like that. Is this permanent?
Wed May 09, 2012 3:04 am

thelastspace Joined: Sat Feb 06, 2010 4:01 am Posts: 19	Re: Map Feedback - Hinterlands Also, for some reason depth perception seems to be an issue for me and others have mentioned it in-game. Not sure if its just the scale or what, but i do think the mission area is slightly too big. There are some small gaps in the surrounding forcefield bounds, but so far its just been an aesthetic thing, haven't been able to get outside yet.
Wed May 09, 2012 7:00 am

GhostDogKilla Beta Tester Joined: Wed Jan 27, 2010 7:34 pm Posts: 1	Re: Map Feedback - Hinterlands thelastspace wrote: Also, for some reason depth perception seems to be an issue for me and others have mentioned it in-game. Not sure if its just the scale or what, but i do think the mission area is slightly too big. There are some small gaps in the surrounding forcefield bounds, but so far its just been an aesthetic thing, haven't been able to get outside yet. I have to second this opinion. I have a feeling that it has to do with how dark the map is, but I am having a very difficult time judging depth perception. Playing as a Brute, this makes it very difficult for me to land my spinfusor shots on target. I was thinking about possible explanations last night, and another possibility could be the difficulty of seeing the shadows. It's interesting because I never really gave shadows much thought until now, but I definitely think they help with gauging enemy height on certain maps. Another possibility is the texture of the landscape, and again the darkness of it, makes players "blend in" a bit, making it difficult to discern height. I like the style though, reminds me of Pandora at night! **I've been playing tribes since the original, love you guys for bringing it back, and so successfully! I enjoyed Global Agenda as well but this fit seems oooh so nice
Wed May 09, 2012 11:35 am

VonSchlupeurk Joined: Sun Dec 11, 2011 6:05 pm Posts: 448	Re: Map Feedback - Hinterlands Since there are no inventory stations at all , the central island seems rather pointless as it's risky to fight there , with no cover. It does have a TDM vibe , I've seen people ski in circles just to be able to regenerate. Trees are mediocre as vantage points as they occlude most of the ground below. edit They cannot support supply drops either , so that only really leaves ammo nuggets and suicide to get reliable supplies from. The uneven ground makes mortar bounces unpredictable and generally useless. It does add diversity and makes spinfusor splash a little harder to connect. People tend to fly in circles on that map , so we're seeing less blue plates. I believe it is the most soldier-only arena , since the extra height in combat is so advantageous here. _________________ Tactician bronze badge : 500 XP. Getting it from a supply drop in combat : priceless. Last edited by VonSchlupeurk on Sun May 13, 2012 5:16 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Wed May 09, 2012 6:41 pm

-Huff- Beta Tester Joined: Mon Jan 11, 2010 3:07 am Posts: 1972 Location: Texas	Re: Map Feedback - Hinterlands +1 for adding an inventory station in the middle island, it's kind of pointless to go there with the lack of cover. Also, maybe make the death moat more obvious? I just skied right into it on my first playthrough and watched several others do the same. Amusing I suppose, but I didn't think it would kill me.
Wed May 09, 2012 7:24 pm

thelastspace Joined: Sat Feb 06, 2010 4:01 am Posts: 19	Re: Map Feedback - Hinterlands the center island does have an advantage though, visibility of the entire map
Wed May 09, 2012 7:29 pm

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Map Feedback - Hinterlands

Author

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HiRezKate

Hi-Rez Team Member

Joined: Tue Aug 24, 2010 4:00 pm
Posts: 792
Location: Dome City

Map Feedback - Hinterlands

Submit feedback and terrain glitches below

Quote:

When you find a terrain glitch press [ to bring up the quick console and type 'bugit'. Looking at the input.ini file, bugit also appears to be bound to F12 by default.
bugit will generate a creenshot and a text log that the dev team can use to find the exact spot on the map that was the problem. Posting this info in the map section is FAR more helpful than "X is buggy as s***, hirez, you f*** suck at making maps"

The bugit logs are located in *\Documents\My Games\Tribes Ascend\TribesGame\ScreenShots\<MapName> You'll need to use something to downsize the file in order to upload it to the forum (mine are ~6meg each. stupid .bmp's) I use Irfanview (free) and the "save for web" option to get them down to around 250k.

When posting this information, it helps to use the following format:
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
<brief description of what you were doing/where you were going>
<text dump of the log file (using quote or code tags helps)>

Code:

[1051.03] Log: Log file open, 11/10/11 12:53:41
[1051.03] Log: Dumping BugIt data chart at 2011.11.10-12.53.41 using build 7748 built from changelist 742347
[1051.03] Log: MapName: TrCTF-Drydock
[1051.03] Log: Description: 
[1051.03] Log: BugItGo 30345.4434 -23603.0293 6076.5356 -8846 3403 0
[1051.03] Log: ?BugLoc=30345.44,-23603.03,6076.54?BugRot=-8846,3403,0
[1051.03] Log:  ---=== GameSpecificData ===--- 
[1051.03] Log: Log file closed, 11/10/11 12:53:41

Attachment:

TrCTF-Drydock-PC-10-12.53.410.jpg

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

remember that you can also use bugit to get exact map positions for mesh and texture errors as well

**notes for the rest of this thread**
What I'm looking for here is map-specific feedback and bugs. Comments on the game mode itself just clutter up this thread. I have no control over the design, so posting complaints about the Arena playstyle isn't very helpful to me. I'm looking for bugs, aesthetics comments, and gameplay suggestions that I can work on myself or pass along to the art team.

zaktorokko wrote:

I like how the actual level is designed, although the walkways may be a little too thin because I was getting pathetically easy grenade kills left and right.

The sky is horribly bright to the point of being disorienting. Is the sun 15 miles away from the surface of the planet? It's incredibly difficult to see anything above the horizon at all. Something keeps pushing me around in midair too. I couldn't find any sort of trigger or pattern to it, but I was busy being blinded by the sky and shot at by 5 guys so it was hard to look for any sort of indicator of when I was about to get flung sideways.

^^ This is an example of a good feedback with bugs that I can research, and aesthetic suggestions that I can pass long to the art team.

Please, help me help you with *maps*, as there are plenty of other threads dedicated to thoughts on the gamemode.

_________________

MagiCandyBar wrote:

Soon.™

blackchimes wrote:

WORST MAP EVER, TOO SMALL/TOO BIG, THE HILLS ARE NOT HIGH ENOUGH/THE HILLS ARE TOO HIGH, THE FLAG IS TOO EXPOSED/IS NOT EXPOSED ENOUGH, SNIPEFEST, TOO MUCH GREEN/ BLOOM. YOU RUINED IT HIREZ

Tue May 08, 2012 2:09 pm

HiRezKate

Hi-Rez Team Member

Joined: Tue Aug 24, 2010 4:00 pm
Posts: 792
Location: Dome City

Re: Map Feedback - Hinterlands

A few notes about Hinterlands!

- As of today (May 8th), some of the smaller rocks on the terrain still have collision. This will be fixed next patch.
- There are no inventory stations in this map. This is done on purpose, and meant to encourage spending credits on something other than strikes

_________________

MagiCandyBar wrote:

Soon.™

blackchimes wrote:

WORST MAP EVER, TOO SMALL/TOO BIG, THE HILLS ARE NOT HIGH ENOUGH/THE HILLS ARE TOO HIGH, THE FLAG IS TOO EXPOSED/IS NOT EXPOSED ENOUGH, SNIPEFEST, TOO MUCH GREEN/ BLOOM. YOU RUINED IT HIREZ

Tue May 08, 2012 2:10 pm

Pittyswains

Joined: Fri Dec 24, 2010 12:36 am
Posts: 2126

Re: Map Feedback - Hinterlands

Not sure if this is intended, but the moat bottom seems to have a sharp edge instead of a smooth one. This leads to being unable to ski out if you take a quick dip, since you basically hit a wall down at the very bottom.

(It kinda looks like you simply fall through the dirt floor that's supposed to round it out)

_________________

shayd wrote:

Ok But why do all combats I see take place like this: Two or more guys slide on the ground at huge speed which in real life would make your shoe evaporate to other dimension and meantime spamming those bombs or new players trying to be fair shooting a machine gun

Tue May 08, 2012 5:51 pm

thelastspace

Joined: Sat Feb 06, 2010 4:01 am
Posts: 19

Re: Map Feedback - Hinterlands

Aesthetically, I don't think it fits well within the tribes universe. I get a real faerie/avatar vibe from the color palette. I think it would look better with a much more murky color scheme.

From i design perspective, it seems weird that the water surrounding the middle island kills you, since there are also puddles placed throughout which do no damage. I don't think making the surrounding water just water is would be a huge problem. The rocks seem out of place as well both in color and their placement. Everything seems a little too structured/symmetrical for this type of environment. I'd much rather see a combination of ship debris and trees/fallen logs placed strategically in a way that enhance gameplay. Some low fog on the terrain might help the atmosphere/murky feel as well. I think it would be cool if instead of a lone island in the middle, there was a crashed ship and crater as a product of the crash. Then that would allow for ammo caches to be distributed in various places. (couldve been some sort of supply ship) I also think this could be an opportunity to incorporate various debris possible hanging from vines or in other ways to enhance the map's playability. As it stands now, it feels pretty bland with just the terrain and i dont current trees provide much of a tactical advantage.

I know this sounds pretty negative but I guess it comes with the territory (i used to make t2 maps so im used to a harsh community lol). Will probably edit with more feedback later after I get some more playtime.

Last edited by thelastspace on Wed May 09, 2012 7:19 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Tue May 08, 2012 6:25 pm

Greenvalv

Joined: Sun Sep 18, 2011 8:54 pm
Posts: 41

Re: Map Feedback - Hinterlands

I find this particular plant in this map and Tartarus to behave strangely as you move.

Reminds me of old pre-2000 games the way they rotate like that. Is this permanent?

Wed May 09, 2012 3:04 am

thelastspace

Joined: Sat Feb 06, 2010 4:01 am
Posts: 19

Re: Map Feedback - Hinterlands

Also, for some reason depth perception seems to be an issue for me and others have mentioned it in-game. Not sure if its just the scale or what, but i do think the mission area is slightly too big. There are some small gaps in the surrounding forcefield bounds, but so far its just been an aesthetic thing, haven't been able to get outside yet.

Wed May 09, 2012 7:00 am

GhostDogKilla

Beta Tester

Joined: Wed Jan 27, 2010 7:34 pm
Posts: 1

Re: Map Feedback - Hinterlands

thelastspace wrote:

I have to second this opinion. I have a feeling that it has to do with how dark the map is, but I am having a very difficult time judging depth perception. Playing as a Brute, this makes it very difficult for me to land my spinfusor shots on target. I was thinking about possible explanations last night, and another possibility could be the difficulty of seeing the shadows. It's interesting because I never really gave shadows much thought until now, but I definitely think they help with gauging enemy height on certain maps.

Another possibility is the texture of the landscape, and again the darkness of it, makes players "blend in" a bit, making it difficult to discern height.

I like the style though, reminds me of Pandora at night!

**I've been playing tribes since the original, love you guys for bringing it back, and so successfully! I enjoyed Global Agenda as well but this fit seems oooh so nice

Wed May 09, 2012 11:35 am

VonSchlupeurk

Joined: Sun Dec 11, 2011 6:05 pm
Posts: 448

Re: Map Feedback - Hinterlands

Since there are no inventory stations at all , the central island seems rather pointless as it's risky to fight there , with no cover. It does have a TDM vibe , I've seen people ski in circles just to be able to regenerate.

Trees are mediocre as vantage points as they occlude most of the ground below. *edit* They cannot support supply drops either , so that only really leaves ammo nuggets and suicide to get reliable supplies from.

The uneven ground makes mortar bounces unpredictable and generally useless. It does add diversity and makes spinfusor splash a little harder to connect. People tend to fly in circles on that map , so we're seeing less blue plates.

I believe it is the most soldier-only arena , since the extra height in combat is so advantageous here.

_________________

Tactician bronze badge : 500 XP. Getting it from a supply drop in combat : priceless.

Last edited by VonSchlupeurk on Sun May 13, 2012 5:16 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Wed May 09, 2012 6:41 pm

-Huff-

Beta Tester

Joined: Mon Jan 11, 2010 3:07 am
Posts: 1972
Location: Texas

Re: Map Feedback - Hinterlands

+1 for adding an inventory station in the middle island, it's kind of pointless to go there with the lack of cover.
Also, maybe make the death moat more obvious? I just skied right into it on my first playthrough and watched several others do the same. Amusing I suppose, but I didn't think it would kill me.

Wed May 09, 2012 7:24 pm

thelastspace

Joined: Sat Feb 06, 2010 4:01 am
Posts: 19

Re: Map Feedback - Hinterlands

the center island does have an advantage though, visibility of the entire map

Wed May 09, 2012 7:29 pm