Hello everyone!
I have played a lot of custom stories and almost all of them was not absolutely well (i mean they was poor on maps design + a lot of bugs, necessity to find a bunch of keys on each level and, i think the most important, atmosphere).
And I have tried to create my own custon story with attention to these details.
I hope that you will try to play my Custom Map and tell me, what are you thinking about this.
While I'm at it, I may as well play & review this one too. What-ho!
------------------------------------------------------
Spoiler below!
- I'd recommend Mediafire as the place to upload these. But whatever floats your boat.
- map_cache files don't need to be included. They just increase filesize.
- Grammar Nazi brain mode activated. If the woodcutter found THE castle, that would mean that it's a specific castle, which you then fail to specify. It should be A castle. Don't take it to heart.
- Not bad so far. I would recommend a boxlight, though.
- I can't go there without lantern. You forgot an "a". At this point I will assume English isn't your first language.
- Oh boy. My Grammar Nazi brain is exploding. I'll not comment on the errors, as it'll make quite thewall of text.
- Some of your Gobo's are upside down.
- Common lighting error. Light doesn't shine through windows in all directions.
- I'm told to make a ladder....but I'm not sure how to go about doing that, as I cannot jump.
- Ah, use the saw with the wood pile.
- Thank you, random naked guy. Not sure why he's here, or how I know he used to own the castle.
- I'd like my lantern, please. I can't see anything.
- Unfortunately, I hit the "BAMBAMBAM" scare, which then killed suspense. The creepy whisper noise I Heard when opening the chest with three tinderboxes was nice, though.
- Ooh, a button.
- Lock the bedroom door...I would, if I had the key.
- Ah, got it.
- Enlarged, locked closet. I detect a monster attack shortly.
- Knew it!
- Jeez, my guy certainly likes to intrude on this castle. "Oh, let's go sleep in the bed, drink some wine, and have a good time."
- To the Wine Cellar!
- YES! Welders between the cellarbase walls. Ah, people are finally wising up.
- Man, my guy is a jerk. Let's sell this guy's wine off!
- Did you really just not have the bottle in there at all? Good timing, though. I was feeling the same way. Who needs the bottle anyways?
- And done.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Honestly some of the best mapping I've seen released recently. Things could be better, here and there, but it was relatively well done. Not much of a story, nor reason as to continue forward, but it's definitely not bad. Keep it up!
So I took the time to play this, was pretty good! Some advice though, first you need to add more color to your billboards and lights! From what I saw all of them were solid white, this can look good in certain scenarios but in general you want to mix it up. Try to color them to the time of day you're aiming for the map to be, it will give it a lot more atmosphere and such. Second, and this is probably my biggest complaint, no boxlights! this is a vital element to all custom stories, yet so many people skip them altogether. And while I'm on the topic of lights, you should have more pre-lit ones. I noticed almost all the light in each of the rooms was coming from windows, while this can look good you should always try to have a few lit up candles. Another rather big thing was there was no skybox, this is another vital element to custom story creation if you're gonna have any scenes where the player goes outside or even looks outside, as a black sky just looks bland and unrealistic. The puzzles were original, but very... unrealistic I'd have to say. I mean even if you are a wood cutter there is NO WAY anyone could construct an entire latter with just wood planks and a saw, especially in that amount of time. There also didn't seem to be much of a reason for why you were there or what the place you were at was, or in other words there wasn't much of a story to it. I was also able to see the closet scare coming from a mile away, but that's just because I've played enough custom stories to know what to expect when you see an oversized closet with all that said though, this was a very solid story! Not the best, but it was good. Understand that I'm only saying all this to help you, I'm not trying to just bash your story. But anyways, I hope you make more custom stories in the future (since you obviously have talent) and maybe take into account some of what I said
Posting Freak
(This post was last modified: 02-02-2012, 08:48 AM by Kman.)
More about the box light thing. It's not that a box light is necessary, but when you have a place so dark that you cant see anything in the dark corners without night vision. And using the night vision purposefully to see is just stupid gameplay. You don't want the player to search pixels around the room by crouching and waiting at every black spot. So test your maps and make sure they are player friendly with enough light to see around, especially if you don't give the player a lantern. So just reinforce the spot lights that come from windows with large darker point lights (light does scatter around when hitting something). Box light can give the whole area a slight tint of a dominant light color (for good example values check TDD maps).
Another thing that bugged me is the fact that you disabled jump. That took one obvious solution for the ladder puzzle away; stacking boxes. Which is most likely what most would have done at that point. The more solutions to a puzzle, the better usually.
Obliv: "Common lighting error. Light doesn't shine through windows in all directions".
I disagree! If it looks good its fine. And when you really start to think about it, light can come like that from windows. Might just want to make them brighter at some places. (also its more dramatic, example: pretty much any TDD map)
But what bothered me more is the fact that your sky is pretty dark green/brown and there is light coming into the mansion through the see-through windows with bright white light. Where does the light come from? People won't notice such things, but now you will hopefully be bothered with it and fix it :)
Kman: "Another rather big thing was there was no skybox, this is another vital
element to custom story creation if you're gonna have any scenes where
the player goes outside or even looks outside, as a black sky just looks
bland and unrealistic"
maps/main/ch01/03_archives.map
And I suggest keeping almost constant check on how TDD did their maps, it just helps.
Kman: " And while I'm on the topic of lights, you should have more pre-lit
ones. I noticed almost all the light in each of the rooms was coming
from windows, while this can look good you should always try to have a
few lit up candles". What? Why? If you want to have a cold/abandoned feeling, better not use warm colored lighting. And then some might wonder who lit those candles...
I see "build first, then think about gameplay/story" mentality here. You had good atmosphere for the place, but it lacked in other departments. Keep on making stories!
Spoiler below!
"necessity to find a bunch of keys on each level"
making the player search for a bottle from a rather large area is not that much different.
AddTimer("damn_you_developer", 5, "mission_completed");
that saves you from hate though :u
Search
Member List
IRC
Help
The Guest - Custom story
with all that said though, this was a very solid story! Not the best, but it was good. Understand that I'm only saying all this to help you, I'm not trying to just bash your story. But anyways, I hope you make more custom stories in the future (since you obviously have talent) and maybe take into account some of what I said 
