Map Battle 26 - Vote & Final Images

[Jest@]

Wow, you fine young lads have done me proud again! 19 entries for this theme, Underground, and a good degree of variation on what could have been a very repetitive theme. There were a few early images unmarked as final or wip, but everyone who marked their images Final should be here. If I've missed you out, or messed up somehow, let me know as soon as possible!

Quite a few new entrants this time round - Welcome, guys, I hope you had a good time with this! Here's hoping you keep on coming back, like the nasty little crack addicts I know you are... :

As always, if you wanna make your voice heard on the map battles, particularly if there's a theme you think would work well, head on over to the Suggestions thread. We'll be kicking off the next battle next Tuesday, if that suits everyone!

So, go forth and vote! Remember, you're not meant to vote strictly on any criteria like technical execution, use of the theme, etc (although those things will no doubt feature in your decision), the main criterion for voting is just overall aesthetic quality - whichever one looks most awesome! Have fun choosing!

Click the images to see 'em full-size. If you fancy, you can see the pics in many glorious, new-fangled ways over at the Photobucket album.







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904









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CactusFantastico











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Caporaltito











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DarkIceJack











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The Doctor











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Elv02











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Habboi











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Jister











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Joe_Dirt976











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Killa Cow









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LiveWire











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Mendax











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Mephasto











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Novorod











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RawMeat3000











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Sawo











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Shadow801











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Spas12











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Spirit55555

[Zipfinator]

Great battle! I'm voting for Shadow801, but Mendax and Doctor impressed me too.

[stoopdapoop]

I'm particularly fond of killa cow's

[Shadynader]

RawMeat3000's effort i like most.

[Habboi]

Ah good! Well this is a tough decision as always...

In the other thread I mentioned how I liked the Egyptian one by Mephasto and because it was his first I thought I'd give him a chance. He said he learnt a lot and I think that's good! However...I was the one who suggested Livewire entered and he told me he learnt a lot making that subway. He actually started mapping way back when he played one of my old levels so it's good to see him progress so well!

So while I like the other entries...

904 was pretty nice but it just didn't catch me sadly. Love the atmosphere though.

Cactus tried...I think he needs to learn more about lighting

Caporaltito was very imaginative but his lighting was the only thing that let me down. A bit too white. Good broken floor tiles though! You should use them in another map.

The Doctor was very unique. A sort of futuristic train station and since I take the tube every week to uni I quite like it :> I wish it had people or trains with a bit of blur to show they were moving...+1 for custom content.

Jister: My my, hard not to choose this one. It's simple and yet very atmospheric. It's just a shame he didn't build a hive at the back like people suggested.

Joe_dirt: Sexy shadows mate!

Killa Cow: He was the one that made me start working on my map. He showed me some WIP on the first day it was announced and I liked it. Shame it was taken on low quality...This was a hard one not to choose as well! I think others should vote for him for me!

Mendax's: is good but it needed more. Had he added a hole in the third pic with broken bricks for example, I might have chosen it.

Novorod: New member, he said it was his first map and it's a very good first map. Using Interlopers tutorials he did a very good job. I don't know why I'm not voting for this but there's too many to choose :<

Raw Meat: That'd make a damn sexy DM map! Can you imagine people jumping off and shooting and those bridges on different height levels! Only drag is the lighting again...Needs less white and more yellow like in Crowbarska's unfinished map in his portfolio.

Sawo: Reminds me of Doom :O Atmospheric and well another hard one not to vote...:<

Shadow...Not so bad but it's a re-used map and I don't see much work put into it. Perhaps I'm wrong!

Spas: I only liked the last picture...The lighting was good in that one.

Spirit: A strange one...Simple and yet it's like a movie scene or something...Didn't really catch me sadly.

That's it. I think I missed one and that was because they didn't really impress but a good effort none the less!

My vote goes to Livewire

*edit*

No offence to Jest@ but when you click my pics it doesn't enlarge very much. I hosted them for you on my site on full quality. It's needed or you can barely make out some things :<

http://www.habboi.co.uk/compo26_habboi_pic1.jpg
http://www.habboi.co.uk/compo26_habboi_pic2.jpg

Pic 3 is fine ^^

[Spas12]

fantastic effort everybody, lots of entries. rawmeat gets my vote though.

[Sacul15]

For me it came down to RawMeat3000 and Caporaltito, but I went with Caporaltito because it was more unique, in my opinion. Great work, everyone, and I'm not just saying that. There are some really fantastic entries. If you don't get many votes, remember that doesn't make your entry bad by any means. It's quite possible that you were many people's second or third pick.

Edit:I thought I might as well give my opinion of each.

904: Good stuff, but it was just too dark to really see its quality.

CactusFantastico: Definitely a good start. Fix the lighting and you have it.

Caporaltito: I've gotta say, the beam of light really made it for me. My only criticism is that the pillar is a bit too white.

DarkIceJack: A solid entry, but it just doesn't stand out as much as the others.

The Doctor: Great work, I'd love to play it. It is obviously underground, but it just doesn't have that underground feel to it, if you get my meaning.


Elv02: Another solid entry, but like DarkIceJack's it's just not unique enough.

Habboi: Gotta love the moleman. I liked it, but it seemed too fantasy-ish for my tastes. That's probably why people will vote for it, but that's just my personal opinion.

Jister: Fantastic idea, and you would have pulled it off but some of the textures make the setting feel unnatural.

Joe_Dirt976: Good work, but like some of the others it just doesn't really stand out much.

Killa Cow: You could have taken my vote if the bottom had the same style as the top portion. Like Habboi's the fantasy feel just didn't appeal to me.

LiveWire: Probably my third choice. No real complaints here.

Mendax: I like the final result, but it's just a little dark, and like I mentioned earlier a bit spacey. Great entry though.

Mephasto: Very unique, and if you made those textures yourself great work. But it's only one room. It would have been much better with separate rooms and maybe a corridor of some sort.

Novorod: Great stuff, especially for your first time working with hammer. Fix a few texture and lighting details and you would have had an awesome entry.

RawMeat3000: Like I said, a close second. I love the steam and of course the vertical depth.

Sawo: Another solid entry, but it's a bit dark and the sections don't appear to be connected. I really love the first screenshot, though. It reminds me of the caverns level from Goldeneye 64.

Shadow801: Looking good. No big criticisms- just didn't stand out as much as some of the others.

Spas12: Another excellent entry. No problems as far as I can tell.

Spirit55555: Not too bad, not too bad. I just wish there was a little more to it. Good entry though.

Congratulations in advance to the winner, and to everyone who participated. Keep up the good work.

[whiffen]

I was thinking of entering this battle and my first plan was literally exactly what rawmeat made. I wanted a large cavern with a bridge spanning across with metal panel structures embedded in the rock.

I don't know if I could have matched that quality though.

Looks great ^^

[Meotwister]

I had to go with Killa's, it's something I'd like to see more of in the future, that style of presentation. You could make some prints of that killa.

[Elv02]

You missed critiqing mine habboi... Anywho, great job everyone! I'm going to edit this post and vote tommorow as I'm to tired to post a good though for all... I though mine was decent but did lack that creative and imaginitive egde some of you captured. I was strained for an idea and came up short I guess... That and summer vacations in the way...

In the end I gained experience and entered my first (and not last) map battle ever!

Good luck everyone!

[RawMeat3000]

904- Needs more lights! I can hardly see anything (my monitor kinda sucks at showing extremely dark colors) and what I can see looks all the same because there's only one light and one color.

Cactus- Same as above, need to add more and varied lights to your scene.

Caporaltito- I like the theme, and the floor looks great, but in the end everything comes off as too simple. A lot of it probably has to do with the single white light (white is almost never a good idea) in you scene. The addition of candles could have helped immensely.

DarkIceJack- Everything about this is good, the only thing I don't like is that there's nothing really that grabs your attention (unless you count the crosshair). My favorite entries always have something you're supposed to be focusing on, some sort of main attraction.

The Doctor- Love the design, my only quibble is that it feels very empty, the addition of a train maybe would have made it better.

Elv02- Decent, but I've seen it all before. It's not bad, just not particularly good.

Habboi- It's fairly good, but all of the props just give it a cluttered look, the whole scene doesn't seem to harmonzie.

Jister- Very unique, but suffers from lighting issues: one- it's all the same color, two-the volumetric light is screwy.

JoeDirt- Yours was one of my favorites, I love the first and third pics especially. Just perfect lighting. Great detail.

KillaCow- Amazing. You got my vote. It's just so pretty.

LiveWire- While good, and greatly detailed, your scene just didn't draw me in, like so many have in the past. Another case of been there, seen that, I guess.

Mendax- I love the architecture, but other than that there isn't much to look at here. Plus it doesn't feel very underground.

Mephasto- You've obviously put a lot of work into this one, so kudos for that. Unfortunately all the time you spent making textures and models, may have been better spent on your brush work and expanding the scene. It also doesn't feel very underground. Could make for a great bombsite map for CSS, though.

Novorod- Yours was also one of my favorites (and that was before I knew it was your first map). You have much talent, and I hope you'll stick around and participate in more battles (we have models battles, too! If only Jest@ would get around to starting one!).

sawo- A bit dark, and a bit simple. Could use more details and enough light to show that they're there.

Shadow801- I really love the red metal. Really really love it. Why wasn't there more of it?!

Spas12- Great scene, lots of detail, but why oh why would you let the crosshair show up? The last pic is my favorite, with the blue area being my favorite spot in your entire scene.

Spirit55555- It's unbelievable how good yours looks considering how simple it is. Great job.

Amazing battle everyone!

[joe_dirt976]

damnit, so many good ones. I'll have to wait for tomorrow to decide who gets my vote. Funny thing is, i could vote for myself, but wheres the fun in that. good work everyone, rawmeat... holy crap dude, nice work

[nub]

Tough choice between Killa-Cow and Habboi. Killa-Cow's idea really caught my attention, but it didn't feel completely "underground" to me. More like receding inwards. Habboi's map was very interesting as it depicted someone actually living in caves and how some of the natural features actually provided that person with essentials, like lighting and a place to sit. That really got me and is what made me choose him.

[jister]

nice collection of screens if you ask me

[Mephasto]

good job everyone. My vote goes to Jister like i said earlier, its just brilliant idea and execution, that synths have lair like that underground and work like bees. Im not sure is it just my computer screen but those rock textures looked little odd, you should have made that hive to backround btw but still it impressed me.

904: it has odd light that gives it "sick" feel, basement is still great idea..
you should have changed that light so we could see it better

CactusFantastico: First pictures ceiling looks odd and too flat, also its too dark to my taste.
i liked third picture most.

Caporaltito: cool mausoleum, tho i think that WHITE(WTFBBQGOD??) light and pilar ruin it..
also that brush arc on first picture looks odd. i like floor tho.

DarkIceJack: hmm i dont know, it just didnt hit me.. its ok but not great..
rock feels somehow unnatural and too flat.

The Doctor: Its cool scene but i really think its too empty, maybe you should have added diffrent trains and more benches to it?
Kiosk and stuff like that could also worked, to fill it.

Elv02: Not bad but there is nothing special to my taste either, it could fit black mesa very well

Habboi: Brags for that moleman, its freaking hilarious you did think very well what could that molester using in hes home.
i like that (matchbox?) behind him in first picture, its good but i dont like fantasy that much

Joe_Dirt976: its good but maybe you used too much props for it? i dont think you choose best pictures to present from it,
i liked that one with red light most of them.

Killa Cow: MUSHROOM GOD WHY, i liked model tho well, its good scene but i dont like fantacy that much.. i liked topside much more.
also rock texture looks streched out.

Limewire: cool scene but you really should have modelled that cart cause its center of attension, i like that announcement sign.

Medax: light and water are pure sex in this one, those cs textures fooled me. i did think first you made them yourself, cool architehture.

Novorod: great scene for your first work, but that soldier kinda ruins it.. in future you could have modeled that sub. btw what the heck is that
heli doing there? where can it get out, or is it just stored in there.

Rawmeat3000: i like how you build those bridges, its good scene also.. id like to see closer picture from that water wheel. i didnt like those metal panel railings tho.
seem too unnatural to me.

Sawo: that cave is great and textures also, i like it. but it does not have any special over any other work sadly.

Shadow801: its cool and i like red metal. Its kind of unfair that you spend time making it BEFORE this battle, i dont know could i eaven vote for it cause of that :/

Spas12: great scene, remind me of that rebel car repair shop in halflife2 after ravenholm chapter.

Spirit55555: now thats and odd scene.. but i somehow dont like it much. there isnt much in that scene.

and last my words about my own entry, im little dissapointed that i didnt have time to build more chambers to that tomb.. Making proper textures and models took a awwfull ammount of time and battle was just 3 weeks up so i ran out of time. But like i said earlier my real prize is that i learned so much new things from bumpmaps, models and texture making. Thats important and will have long term effects on my future work that will help me out greatly

btw rawmeat, was it not pretty clear its underground? i made walls bumpy so those would look like beign carved into stone. i tried to keep limitations of that time architecture in mind while making it.

edit: added small review from everyones work.