DM 300K Shock Pit

DM 300K Shock Pit

UT Deathmatch, Medium, 4 - 8 players. Ancient Gothic Temple Arena. Released (Blito3 300k contest 2008 map pack) December 2008.

Map #6 for Blito3's Annual 300k Contest, November-December 2008. This layout was originally made in a 2002 map that I called DM-ShockPit, which was for InstaGib.

I did a number of layouts around that time but did not release ShockPit back then because I thought it was too simple - another IG layout from that time led to DM-FNB-RingOfStones which was extremely huge and complex compared to the tiny little IG maps.

Anyways I was sifting through a bunch of old map projects to see if there were any suitable for a "300K reduction" and voila - this actually worked out really well - with careful rebuilding it went from around 2000K down to 300K (and the 300K version is actually looks a lot better made!)

The original ShockPit had only warpzones for changing levels - these were replaced by teleporters for 300k because it saved a lot of K and warpzones are glitchy anyways. The gameplay, meh, no real improvement either way - it's one of those up/down potshot/runaway IG matches - I was able to add some trim brushes though, lol! So here it is - the 'ol Shock Pit - yeah, the name's kinda dumb :P but there _is_ a shock rifle, and also a pit! So we'll go with that :) Good luck against Lokai!!

Notes: This map was originally from summer 2002, iirc, probably took me a few days back then. The rebuild for 300K took around 4 hours altogether... Gameplay's not super great, but it's not bad either, imo. If you go 1vs1 against an inhuman bot, you might find it a bit tough!

Many thanks to Blito3, for the FUN contest, also Tom_caT for testing.

Music is Lock from the gameUnreal Tournament.

DM FNB Temple Frag

UT Deathmatch - Large, 6 - 16 players. Ancient Alien Temple full of Fantasy Art. Started August 2002, abandoned February 2003.

Later in 2002, the ShockPit layout idea resurfaced as the basis of a larger deathmatch project I called DM-TempleFrag which was to be one of a number of temples in the same location (on an alien planet in the UT universe). So the essence of ShockPit became the internals of a large and knarly ancient temple, but at the same time the similarities were superficial since the TempleFrag flow and game play were significantly different.

There was another tangent to the ShockPit layout, I used it as the basis for a CTF development during 2004 - CTF-FNB-ShockPits was a prototype of sorts that led to a larger ancient CTF layout developed during 2005.

Well suffice it to say that sometimes your first idea is your best idea, and it's pretty easy to ruin something by trying to make it more than it is (erm, there is a lesson here :) ShockPit was finally realized years later in, of all things, the Blito3 2008 300K competition!

I was looking to add a DM map during that contest mapping binge and revisited the original ShockPit with the aim of finishing it off proper and doing it in 300K! It was a tough bit of mapping, but I pulled it off and DM-300K-ShockPit was a really decent looking game play map in the end.

DM Shock Pit

UT Deathmatch - Medium, 4 - 8 players. Psuedo pantheon style Instagib arena. January 2002

This was another layout idea I'd had following my foray into online InstaGib in early 2002. Similar to DM-RingOfStones this layout was essentially symmetrical with forms arranged around a central object - in this case a large obelisk type structure with protruding radial beams connecting it with the arena walls. Tall openings cut into the walls partially concealed two long mirrored staircases rising together through the circumference of the arena and joining on a flat at the crest, where a warp zone led to a roof area. Directly underneath the obelisk structure was a circular pit, with some stairs leading up and out and warp zones leading to the roof level. Obviously, you did not want to get caught in that pit, lol!

I never really got around to coming up with a theme for this - or the RingOfStones map for that matter - and so there's no real lighting, trimming or decorating visible in any of the screen shots I have.

Altogether the map took about six hours to make, and then I spent about a week play testing and fiddling with bots and actors and then more or less lost interest.

This map seemed okay for the lowgrav-instaGib mode with 4 players, but also worked out alright with regular weapons. In a low-grav match, you basically ran up the stairs using the "pillars" formed in the walls for cover, and then could either stay up there and snipe until someone came after you, or either jump down, jump to the beams, or head to the roof, where you could either snipe down or joust. Through your travels you would use the big central obelisk for cover from snipers etc.

Being caught on the floor or in the pit was not too fun, really, you'd usually get killed fast in a spam fest. Well that said, there was certainly some potential for tuning the gameplay - it might have been a decent map back in early 2002, but I think I wanted to get back to my big urban warehouse project, so both the ShockPit and the little RingOfStones maps ended up going to the shelf to wait until some concrete theme ideas came along.