Disland
The Massassi Temple » Levels/Mods » Jedi Knight Multiplayer Level » Disland
Description
Disland is my land. Disland is your land. Haven't you always wanted to play Jedi Knight in the Happiest Place On Earth? Well, now you can! Sort of. You'll find much of the theme park landscape, including a couple of working rides. Being a large level this ought to work well for games with lots of players. Up to 16 players supported.
Screenshots
Level Info:
Ratings:
3D Preview
User Comments:
Register for Commenting System or Log In
Register for Commenting System
3D Preview developed by Stephan Reiter
I love it! Lately there have been so many crappy JK MP level released, but this one makes up for all of them! The rides are great!
I can't seem to find Pirates of the Caribbean, though. I think I may have found it, but I'm not sure. Also, why isn't there a boat for Small World and what I think is Caribbean? And what is that ride that takes you around a small island in a "boat" (that Imperial speeder thingy)?
Sorry about all the questions, but the place can get kind of confusing! Can you make an update that includes a park map? But confusion aside, I still love the level! Rating = 10!!!
The level didn't seem to flow too well, and while it was quite large, this space was mainly streets with buildings that didn't have much of anything in them.
Final Verdict: 6
* * * * * *
"I find your lack of faith most disturbing..."
Rating: 6.
First, I wish to bring to light that the rating system must be observed carefully. If a level is average, it should receive an average rating. If there are faults in the level that do take away from its overall quality, the rating should reflect such. Finally, if one aspect of a level is "awesome," that does not make it a 10.
A rating of 6 addresses the fact that no serious faults were present, but there were lots of finer points which did not meet "excellent" (10) standards.
My personal feelings are that you should have worked on this for a while longer, before releasing it. The level is NOT all gimmick, despite all the "ooh" and "ahh" comments we have seen already. In this level is the great potential for promising play and replay value.
Players with slower computers will suffer great framerate decline because of all the translucent surfaces and intricate 3dos. Some textures drain system resources, as well. The possibility for competent gameplay is somewhat prevented, but by no means entirely.
AESTHETICS
Architecture:
No doubts here, the author worked hard. Some sector cleaves reflected expertise. However, most of the level was very boxy, lacking variety.
Texturing:
I don't claim to be the end-all texture expert, but these textures were poor. Not poor, in quality, but poorly chosen. Some of these mats simply don't fit, despite the necessary atmospheric changes in the level. The floor and underwater "ground" texture selections were the poorest of all. Finally, there were a few tiny cleaves which left dflt mats exposed, but nothing that a lot of people would pick up on.
Lighting:
Extremely poor in some places where I felt lighting was needed. I have been to Disney World, myself. Something I noticed about their rides was that the lighting was focused on what they wanted you to see. No, this level isn't supposed to be EXACTLY LIKE DISNEY WORLD, but we can definitely take a lesson from it. The lighting, too, was haphazard, but sufficient. Average.
Dynamics:
These were what made the cries "ooh" and "ahh" burst forth almost instantly from downloaders. COGs were successfully placed and implemented. The timing of some of these was a bit faulty, however.
GAMEPLAY
Item Placement:
I thought it was rather careless. For such a large level, more frequent item placement is necessary -- especially considering how often newcomers will get lost in Disland. Some rooms are stocked to the brim with items, while others are just empty. Shield and health pickups are nearly non-existant. Ammo is not necessarily easy to come by. It appeared as though the items were the last things added to the level, and that they were added haphazardly. Items were present, yet they were not placed logically, or with great foresight.
Flow:
Being an amusement park, I think the flow was somewhat appropriate. There are far too many dead ends, however, and unless players know their way around before playing, they will get lost.
Playability:
Many players will be needed, indeed. I will use one of my creations for the sake of proving a point. In my level, Haven of Shadows, part of the level was that adversaries would HAVE to be hunted down. My level was constructed so that such a task was feasible. I could not imagine hunting anyone in Disland. Games of four players or fewer will end in frustration, for lack of RPG or DM.
OTHER
Gripes/Glitches (in no particular order):
Some trees sound like metal when you walk on them.
Never place a 3do behind a wall surface flagged as "sky," unless you know what this entails.
Sky textures need extra lighting if you don't plan to flag the surfaces as "sky."
All real water moves. Falling water in waterfalls definitely moves.
The motions of objects used in key motions should be planned in advance, so they do not overlap.
Water textures do not generally make sense as walls.
When Jedi Knight textures do not fit the scenarios, there are lots of ways to make your own.
Although the Star Wars ride's scrolling stars was a pretty good idea, it may be even better to create an animated mat. The original Star Trek was notorious for scrolling stars in different directions to give the feel of space travel.
There were two waterfalls side by side, which appeared to have caves underneath them. Those "caves" give the illusion of a secret passage which cannot be entered.
I found a paper-thin wall or two.
I'm not sure I understood the purpose of the dflt hallway?
There's a big tree set in a stand, whose surface is mistakenly flagged as metal.
The sand-textured ramp doesn't seem to fit in.
The shooting gallery targets do not respawn.
The spiral staircase is paper-thin, as well.
Earthen water channels are very rarely box-shaped.
Some trees just kinda looked ugly, in my opinion.
The scrolling ramps were not synchronized, and the angle at which some conveyor belts were made to operate was far too obtuse.
Although some Jedi Knight 3dos were welcomed, those such as the rusty "street lights" may not have been.
Some sector-cleaved computer consoles were textured in less than a satisfactory manner (my opinion).
Final comments:
I had a lot to say about this level. Much of it was opinion -- at that, opinions which may or may not be shared by others. There is a Dutch proverb however, which illustrates my underlying sentiments quite nicely: "Tall trees catch much breeze." David Sevy, your level has the makings of a tall tree. I hope that the breeze, or my criticisms, will help you in your next projects.
Your work yet again confirms that the JK editing community is not lost. Thank you.
And on that note, I'll download the level, and see just what the COGs look like...
SM_Sith_Lord, Mystic0 & Dark_Jedi_Yun: Thanks!
bobafett_765: Pirates is the "ride" that you enter by going down the ramp that's just past the entrance to the Indiana Jones area. The Imperial Speeder was a substitute for the Mark Twain and/or the Columbia - just a way to cruise around Tom Sawyer Island.
Lord_Grismath: Yes, it is very boxy, and some of the texturing is repetitive. The boxiness is largely a result of my fear of creating HOM - something I hate very much. The repetitiveness is because I have almost no inherent ability to create textures, so I tried to make due with JK's textures and sometimes it was a stretch to find something that I *thought* would work.
TRA_Scourge: Thanks for all the tips.
Silver: Sorry, but until I get a machine that runs Outcast I don't think I'll be making any Outcast levels. Anyone who IS in the "business" of making Outcast levels is certainly more than welcome to take this premise and improve upon it for the JO crowd.
NomadSoul: Sorry about the framerate. The few extra MHz do seem to make a difference.
I cried for wasting 3 lousy megs of space.
Dark_Jedi_Yun:"I have so much positive things to say about this level so i'll say one word that will describe it all. "AWESOME!"" ---- Then spit it out fool, this lvl downright sucks!
Sith_Da_Axe: "People, please. Sometimes there is more to making a great level than good looks. This is a great level. It just feels, how can I say it? It just feels right. It feels real. This will definently be staying on my hard drive."
1. The looks were horrible and the rides were gay. It sure as hell doesnt feel real, i think its worse than the real park: Disney World. It's a small world had extracted bar music with ugnaughts? unbelieveable. simply pathetic.You could have at least dled a small world midi or wav. file. Oh, and give those poor ugnaughts some skins that actually LOOK like the small world people for God's sake. Space mountain was just a large and very basic elevator on a course through walls in which the author placed stars.
2. I found the mats and 3d0's repetitive and basic. The terrain was... how to say... BLAND. a few houses here and there amd a few trees and familiar objects in which he spent no time looking for any good mats and 3d0's. (all of the ones he used CAME with jedi knight)
3. this is the only *close* to good thing i have to say, i did not experience and poor fps, but that must be my AGP 128MB GeForce4, and my 2ghz comp with 50 gigs of hard drive.
Why did i mention my hard drive? Because even three lousy megs didnt even stay on it for 5 minutes!
I give this lousy map a 2 for me feeling bad for you wasting so much time playing with basic cogs. Now if this was one of your first maps,and you were trying to figure out JED, then i would understand. If that was the case, I'd turn around and apologize, and possibly give it a better rating for any inconvenience... hehe.
P.s. right before i turned in, i decided not to rate it yet, i will rate it when you tell me how long you have been making maps... LOL