More WIP screenshots of the PM-BlacktopRemix renovation. You’ll notice how I’m slowly making texture seams and the main box that encompasses the world disappear. There’s still more work to be done, but the original was 675 surfaces and this so far is 3278, so I’d say it is an improvement for sure.
Sometimes I wonder if people really understand what I’m trying to do with renovations. It is not just about making the map look pretty. My NAB map renovation projects are made to be a re-imagining of the original author’s intent. That is to say, a person has an idea, and it is a wonderful idea in the conceptual stage. But then the same people lose patience or realize they are not as adept with 3D art as they thought and they give up or run out of time or patience.
I try to breathe new life into these less than perfect maps, and while it may be true that it lacks much of the original construction, I always start by recreating every last brush of the original before adding new content. The idea behind this is to not only make it resemble the original in structure, but also in flow. When it really comes down to it, the environment itself does little more than control the flow of fighting. The eye candy and wow factor is all adjustable on a sliding scale of time and effort, and contributes little if not nothing to the actual fighting. *
You might think it seems a little presumptuous to remake someone’s work like this, but to this date I have only gotten two kinds of reactions from original authors (80% of original authors don’t even play NAB anymore anyway) as paraphrased below.
“That piece of junk? I made that when I was like ten, (thanks for fixing / I don’t care that you fixed) it up.”
“I am so happy that you remade my map, it is really cool and it is like really close to my original idea.”
So yeah, I think I’m doing a pretty good job so far. **
* Don’t get me wrong, looks make you want to spend more time overall in an arena, but good flow can make an ugly map playable. I will admit however that being immersed in a particularly pretty arena will result in some affects to gameplay if you stand still, staring at the neat building or whatever for too long as I aim my Triplestrike alt-fire at the back of your head.
** Actually, I do get negative reactions to renovations on occasion, they’re just all from BENJAMIN. I swear Ben, if you complain about this one as much as you did PM-Railroad (WHICH I REMIND YOU was nearly identical to the original) I swear I will make all your NAB guns explode each time you fire them!
