UTMC - The Oculism
This is a design based on the idea of a node control kind of map, which I think would be a good change of pace in the world of Unreal Tournament. The map should function equally well for several other modes of gameplay given it's design, which I will be trying to do a 3/4th view of it and possibly an overhead view.
This first rendition is the idea which sparked the design shape of the environment. I'm trying to maintain a similiar look to older Unreal Architecture while putting in elements that will allow the game engine to really show off the lighting and specularity aspects that have historically given UT a good amount of it's unique appearance.
The map itself is based around controlling 2 of the 3 nodes for as long as possible within the length of the game (timed or point total goal driven). Team play is more focused in this mode with less emphasis on single player score, rewards for playing your part are given out based more on how well you perform at a given task, with less emphasis given to kill count and more towards time spent on a control point, how long you've managed to stay alive in combat situations, and your success rate at attacking or defending a given node.
The map has a central power unit that is needed to be controlled to power your communications/battle station. Controlling it longer allows you to activate defensive units to further hinder the opposing team. There are 2 stations, controlling one allows usage of the siphoned power from the main power unit to activate one. A team must control one or both of the two for a given duration in order to gain points for the team and win the game.
Here is the initial concept and currently working in some details and textures and spatial relationships. Well gonna work on it a bit more tonight, hope to knock out a good bit more of it.
This first rendition is the idea which sparked the design shape of the environment. I'm trying to maintain a similiar look to older Unreal Architecture while putting in elements that will allow the game engine to really show off the lighting and specularity aspects that have historically given UT a good amount of it's unique appearance.
The map itself is based around controlling 2 of the 3 nodes for as long as possible within the length of the game (timed or point total goal driven). Team play is more focused in this mode with less emphasis on single player score, rewards for playing your part are given out based more on how well you perform at a given task, with less emphasis given to kill count and more towards time spent on a control point, how long you've managed to stay alive in combat situations, and your success rate at attacking or defending a given node.
The map has a central power unit that is needed to be controlled to power your communications/battle station. Controlling it longer allows you to activate defensive units to further hinder the opposing team. There are 2 stations, controlling one allows usage of the siphoned power from the main power unit to activate one. A team must control one or both of the two for a given duration in order to gain points for the team and win the game.
Here is the initial concept and currently working in some details and textures and spatial relationships. Well gonna work on it a bit more tonight, hope to knock out a good bit more of it.
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I have a few too many inconsistent elements at the moment, but the foreground bunker area now reflects in the background elements and we can see how they fit into the area now. They slide up off the floor after being activated from controlling the power and communications station for long enough. This would make defending the point easier but also encourage focusing the fight around controlling the power units. Alternate attack angles allow the bunkers defenses to be used against the defenders too though.
At any rate, here's an update, basically done with the furthest most elements from the viewer at this point, working my way forward and now have a good amount of shape understanding to work my way forward with.
As the background is now very near complete I think good emphasis on the foreground and details of various materials should give the background even more strength and conviction when compared to the foreground. I see at least two perspective issue I will need to warp tool or liquify out but that shouldn't be too difficult.
So anyone have anything useful that I might be totally missing at the moment?
Now I'm not really sure why you spent time going over spelling out the mode you envision it with. UT has had that mode since the beginning they call it Domination http://strategywiki.org/wiki/Unreal_Tournament/Domination
I don't think you're done with this and here's a whole bunch to read for you to think about how to improve the piece.
Right now I think this is very hard to look at and see what's what, your choice of blinding highlights and overall values are the biggest culprit to this. I think you're a victim of your own imagination and trying to just go straight into details and flashy effects too early on, where as you should spend more time constructing it in basic 3d forms first so it doesn't look so wonky.
Clearly you have really unique architectural details in your head but it's getting lost in all of the madness. That's a problem that the image is hard to look at, because this isn't even with people running around. Try to imagine yourself as the player for a moment and what this area might look like in that view. A good way to check yourself is to run through some questions.
Would a player be able to stand out from the area?
- Probably yes because its so bright.
Would a player be able to navigate well through the area?
- Probably not because it's so bright, IE blinding glares from the lights would be like staring into the Sun.
Is the path-area clear enough to distinguish from non-playable areas?
- I would say on the right hand ramp yes, but the left side is a complete mystery.
Explore a bit more with colors, it's a bit redundant to have everything brightly lit and having it glow with neon strips, it seems like you're trying to convey light shafts coming through the ceiling but with an already super bright area it doesn't read as good as it could for an effect, to understand a bit on the physics of why light shafts appear it's because the air has dust in it which makes the other areas (not being hit by the light) darker and the whole area becomes more atmospheric. You can also play with the ship colors itself, right now all of the metal is just standard stainless steel gray and it would be nice to see some more variety.
But most importantly you should work on your values, grayscale light and dark is how our brain figures out forms and depth. Your current scene is too similar across the board in values so try to to separate plane shifts in values better. Basically I'm telling you to think of the light sources you've set up. What is the primary light source and where is it coming from? what is the secondary light source and what does it effect? How bright are the lights? ect. These kind of questions inform where we put highlights and shadows which right now you have (blinding) highlights but you don't have the form shadows so nothing reads properly.
Overall I like your idea, but don't go overboard in cluttering up the scene. Less is more in this sense, try to put the details out of the path so they don't get caught in it (Left side). Try to be more subtle in your choices of light and dark to convey better atmosphere and depth. If you work on fixing your values and thinking about where the lighting effects an area I think it will be much more presentable.