BL_Dungeon
by Squonkamatic

You ever had one of those "Gee I wish I'd thought of this back then" experiences, when you come upon something that would have been great back at a particular time when ... well, you were doing something you don't normally do much of anymore?

I kind of felt this way when sifting through my SiN CTF levels map pack for inspiration this afternoon and came upon Turbo's amazing BL_Dungeon. Even as late as last winter me and the gang over at the Gameranger Macintosh online gaming service used to have regular, rocking, 8 player plus CTF matches hosted by one player or another. In all that time, I never once thought about hosting this map. What a shame; this would have been great.

There are maps, and then there are game levels. I have a tendency to make maps -- little connected boxes with other little boxes in them with weapons and ammo perched here and there. Turbo's BL_Dungeon is a game level, in comparison. It reflects a deep awareness of not only what SiN is capable of, but the process of making a map for it, from conception to execution to coming up with a stupid loadscreen document to give play information, even if it is in German, and a few screenshots while the map loads. It's a package, and one of the best thought out maps I have ever seen for any shooter game, period.

If anything, BL_Dungeon takes me back to the days of Quake, when buildings were blockier and textures were flatter and everything had a kind of "gothic" feel. BL_Dungeon's excellent setting is also very reminiscent of classic Quake: a castle type enclosure with various rooms, moats, a very cleverly designed underground sewer channel, a couple of nice little traps from which there is no hope of escape and instant humiliation, plus a palpable zest for the very process of building a level's architecture. Turbo didn't spare the rod at all as far as providing the level with little design touches that all amount to a very carefully planned and exactingly constructed world.

The team bases themselves are an inspiration -- once enters either of two identical house structures into an elaborate sitting room decorated with paintings and an invitingly warm fireplace, then descend into a labyrinth of tunnels and vaults that lead to first a torture chamber [complete with an iron maiden, crucifixion racks and a hook on a chain that looks like it would do something really nasty], then a sort of inner sanctum/altar room, where the flags await on a raised dais.

Then things get interesting; the best escape route is through the sewer channels. Now, how do you make sewers, a sort of requisite CTF level attribute, work in a castle? Easy -- make it accessible through three sort of "guard well" openings that fall down, down, down into the water, and connect them with a series of vaulted overspill chambers with flowing water, waterfalls that create bubbles as they spill into a larger vat, and place armor and ammo items in ingenious nooks that can only be reached with a grapple hook. And speaking of grapple hooks, seal off all exits from the sewers except for the well shafts, so that the only way out is by grappling. Wallah -- instant medieval sewers.

Well, maybe not instant. I have been working on this stupid, simple Temple level for a few months now off and on, and none of the architecture employed even comes near the complexity of construction that went into this map. The houses all have frameworks of wooden rafters supporting their very realistic looking roofs, the watercourses are constructed from individual slabs of stuff assigned surface attributions to make them look like they are flowing in specific directions, and the detail of every structure is painstakingly rendered. I am especially impressed with the spiral staircase constructions Turbo made in the labyrinths leading to the flag chambers, and then there is that scaffolding outside ...

I love it when I come upon creative forms that make me ask myself, how did the artist come up with that idea? Maybe Turbo had just seen Braveheart, I don't know. But he took the time to not only make a raised platform with a scaffolding for hangings and beheadings in the central yard area [a logical item for any castle courtyard], but he made one with a trap door that drops one into a splendidly rendered "cage" structure, in which a player would be a momentary sitting duck while collecting goodies before managing to grapple their way out, a feat that took me two or three tries.

It was during this effort to transport my ample player model out of this cage that the nostalgia of "Gee, I wish I had hosted this map back when SiN CTF frenzies were a nightly phenomenon." The reason is that this map suggests such a keen awareness of how SiN's very special CTF game works. It took me a few attempts to realize that just adding some SiNTek and Hardcorps banners, flags and a couple of Heliguns to a map is very different from making a level that caters to that specific variant of gameplay. Think of CTF_KungFu or CTF_Hip, and try to imagine how boring they would be as straight-forward SiN maps. The same kind of voodoo is going on in BL_Dungeon, and that is why it's such a shame I never forced it on the players I would host. I always just thought of the map as "exceptionally well constructed", but there is more than that going on in here. What a shame.

Still, there is a lot to be gained from just the experience of looking at the level. I am especially inspired by the "pre-fab" lighting structures he designed and used. SiN comes with a nice "world_torch" model that you can stick an "fx_flame" entity on top of to make a torch, but that wasn't good enough for this maniac. He made a very cunning framework to go around some of his lights that cast shadows on the ground, since the light source is emanating from inside and spreading in all directions. And the sewer channels are lit with a very simple chopped triangle of brick that has a fire entity placed on top of it, all of which looks logical.

If you take the time to notice, certain areas of the map are decorated more with cast and shadowed light patterns than brush constructions. And through a very restrained and deliberate use of colored light effects, Turbo was able to help further define the specificity of certain elements to the map, such as the well shafts with their flickering greenish glow or the poker-hot red lighting down in the torture chambers. The lighting is also consistent and never spotty throughout the entire level ... if you've ever wanted to know how to light a SiN map and make it look good, look around in BL_Dungeon.

GRIPES DEPARTMENT ALERT: Yes, there is one thing that bugs me about the level. Since Turbo placed his little torch constructions every few relative feet in the map, and "fx_fire" entities make a little crackling fire sound by default, the whole map is more or less creaking with this torch sound. That's great -- I hate maps that are Dead Silent, but there are certain sections of the map that seem to be crying out to me for a little ambient sound enhancement ... Running water sounds in the sewers, maybe some wind up on the rooftops and battlements, or some of the Hellish moaning creature and surgery saw sounds from the Xenomorphic level sound packs.

Shrug. Like that really matters. BL_Dungeon is a feast for the eyes, with all of it's detail touches like railings on the stairs, decorated interiors and marvelous attention to lighting. And as I like to point out, during the heat of combat with rockets zinging about you won't notice the sounds anyway. It kind of makes me sad that I cannot report from a player's perspective on the level, because out of all of the crummy maps I have seen for so many games, this is one of the gems that really deserves to be played.

Host it, and I will join.

Download BL_Dungeon from Ritualistic's stash of SiN files at 3ddownloads.com by clicking here.

SQ112602

email: squonkamatic@excite.com

Visit Squonk's SiN website for downloads of map and skin packs, and other goodies, at http://www.squonkamatic.net/sin.

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