HexDM2
by Squonkamatic
Some Smart Alec on a Quake2 Vanilla server [gee, guess which one?] took me to
task the other night for whining on and on about how much I despise the
"Jail" maps from Quake2's single player game when run as deathmatch
levels. "OK, well if these blow so much, what makes a good map in your
book, since you are some kind of expert ..."
Heh; I love it when someone just hands me a departure point for a new
article. A game level [like any other creative form] either sucks, or it rules.
Plain and simple. The trick is getting a knack for being able to describe why
one form is any better or worse than another example. So let's use Hexagon's
superlative Hexdm2 as
the subject, and tick off the list of attributes that puts this little gem in
the "rulez" category.
In no particular order of importance, a good map has --
 1]
A CONVINCING SENSE OF PLACE OR SETTING: HexDM2 achieves this
effortlessly; a nice little subway/city hybrid level, with a palpable
twilight/dusk flavoring to the atmosphere, a building that you can actually go
inside of to do all sorts of fascinating things, and the finest renditioning of
trashed subway cars this side of SiN's single player "subway.bsp"
level I've seen, except for maybe Alien Vs Predator's map of the same name,
which this level reminds me of a lot, actually ... Check plus, with
an extra merit point for including the nicely scaled signs. SiN has some great
sign textures; it's good to see them being used.
 2]
COMPETENT CONSTRUCTION OF ARCHITECTURE: Hexagon came up with a specific
idea/vision of what he wanted to see and concentrated on that alone, putting
aside concerns like far-out physics attributes or some Drano fume inspired
vision of Hell. Hexdm2 has no pretensions about what it is -- a 2 to 6 player
deathmatch level set in a urban environment with a little subway tunnel. Hexagon
concentrated on rendering this place as well as he could, and more or less left
the gimmicky bells and whistles out of the mix. No jump pads, lava traps,
revolving spinning DEATH TURBINES or Voids of Arbitrary and Hideous Oblivion ...
just the streets, the buildings and the tram tube, all rendered with a competent
hand familiar with what SinEd is capable of. Check plus, with an
extra merit point for "admirable restraint".
 3]
LOGICAL AND BALANCED ITEM PLACEMENT: while Hexagon took it easy on the
number of weapons used in the level -- and zero powerups, not even a Shield --
they are placed in memorable, more or less centralized locations that are easy
to get at and remember. I like the placement of the Rocket Launcher especially,
in a dead end alleyway that is a potential death trap. Granted both of the
plasma weapons are located in the same building [the only one you can enter],
but the blind stairways and tight confining spaces more or less rule out
favorable camping positions. The "main weapon" in the map is actually
the Chaingun, located out in the open for all next to the entry tunnel down to
the subway. Hex also showed some insight when placing the all-important Sniper
Rifle on a rooftop with no way to get up there except by spawning on the roof's
sole deatmatch start. But my favorite touch has to be the shotgun and
accompanying box of shells sitting on the benches in the larger subway car. Nice
touch. Check plus, with an extra merit point for the apple on the
desk by the fire escape. Gotta love it when someone uses a food health item in a
DM level.
 4]
LIGHTING EFFECTS THAT ADD TO THE ATMOSPHERE WITHOUT CALLING ATTENTION TO
THEMSELVES: the author took great care when lighting this map. The windows
of the building glow in the twilight. Underground, the placement and targeting
of the lights help to complete the illusion of a wrecked, abandoned subway lost
in some pit of a tram tube. The outside area has an ambient radiosity to it that
emits just enough illumination to make the street lamps and signboard lights
glow with a realistic looking yellowish soidum bulb hue. Hexagon's use of
colored lights is so subtle that you aren't even aware of it; the map just looks
right, and if all of the illumination sources were glaring default plain white
lights, the level just wouldn't be as complete. Check plus, with
yet another merit point for "keeping it real".
 5]
SUBTLE USE OF SOUND CUES TO FLAVOR THE ENVIRONMENT: Well, he kind of
slipped up in this department, but the more I work with SinEd myself, I start to
understand how designers might overlook adding sound effects. The main problem
is with the editor itself -- with the good old Macintosh
Quake1 map tool Quiver, you simply selected an ambient sound from the
selection of entities, and bingo: croaking frogs. SinEd requires one first to
have the foresight to know to use a "trigger_noise" entity as well as
the knowledge of how to set the .wav selection key with the desired example from
SiN's formidable bank of ambient sounds. Even compared to mapping for Quake2
with Worldcraft it is a bit of a pain in the ass, and since Hex was obviously
[and correctly] more concerned with the look and feel of the map, I can
understand his overlooking this little cherry on top feature, and forgive him
because the map is just fine as it is. Check minus, but a merit
point for making a kickass map even without them.
 6]
DETAILING TO HELP DEFINE THE SPACES, LIKE FURNITURE, SIGNS AND OTHER LITTLE
TIDBITS: Hexagon has an obvious love of the SiN furniture models, going so
far as to not only make a nice little desk with appropriate items on it, but
even a roomfull of what I guess was his favorite chair model. There is also a
nice use of things like storage crates, a convincingly smashed floor section
leading down to the basement, and don't forget the subway benches he made from
scratch and his little custom textured billboard. My favorite touch? The little
pool table on the top floor of the building you can go into. Check plus.
 7]
A CONTINUATION OF THE ESTHETIC OF THE GAME IN QUESTION: here he hit the target
dead center, as far as making a map that seems like a logical extension of SiN's
universe, and in a direction that no other mapper really seems to have
contemplated. I always wished that Ritual had given us a SubwayDM ... Hex seems
to have shared this sentiment, and shows remarkable insight with his use of
texturing and lighting to capture what looks and "feels" like the
original model. Just scaled down for realistic game sizes, with some buildings
and a street thrown in for good measure. Attaboy -- Check plus.
 8]
A GIMMIE 'BONUS REMIX VERSION' OF THE MAP FOR DIFFERENT GAME VARIANT[S]: Hexagon
secures his "A" grading for this map by including a Capture the Flag
version that is just as playable, if not more due to the Grapple Hook as you
swing from building to building like Toby Maguire. The architecture of the level
is subtly different in places, and the CTF mod does not feel "imposed"
on the map at all ... Team Base positions both have their pros and cons [Red has
better weapons but Blue is easier to defend], and Hex even gave is a nice
battarie of CTF Heliguns as well as lots of spawn points for powerup techs. Not
many SiN CTF levels are suited for 1 on 1 games, but HexCTF actually holds up
quite well for two as it does for six. Check plus, with merit
point for bothering to do it at all.
 What
else can one say? The map rulez, and the above is like the
"proof" to the equation. It's too bad that the little weasel I got
into the verbal shoving match about the Quake2 "Jail" levels will
probably never see this, cos he could consider himself owned. And what
about those "Jail" levels, anyway? Yes they are all very competently
made and have a convincing sense of place, lots of nooks and crannies to hold
the melted butter, detailed tidbits, and environmental flavorings that make them
quite unique. So why don't I like them? Because I left one entry off of my list:
PERSONAL TASTE. I just think they blow in deathmatch ... no need
to get excited about it, Yo.
One final oddity about HexDM and HexCTF that raised an eyebrow while
preparing this tome ... I am the kind of ham-fisted wannabe mapping dork junkie
who will fret for weeks over getting an item aligned in space just exactly the
way I want it, and lit with just the right effects ... I take time with the
texturing, and more often then not end up re-building things that don't work
out. Yet in his author info text, Hexagon lists his "construction
time" of this remarkable, nearly flawless level at, and I do quote,
"About 5 hours :)".
Give me a break ... no way.
Download HexDM2
from Ritualistic's
stash of SiN files at 3ddownloads.com
by clicking here.
SQ080502
email: squonkamatic@excite.com
You can access Squonk's archive of SiN:
Gold Map of the Week reviews over at Macgamer.com
by clicking here,
and don't forget to visit his multi platform friendly SiN site for custom map
and skin pack downloads and other goodies at http://www.squonkamatic.net/sin.
Related Links:
· Ritualistic's Sin Section
· Ritualistic's Sin Forums
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