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Posted: Wed Nov 29, 2006 10:10 pm
by ChrisP
TFL players rarely, if ever, bothered to play most of the maps listed above (a few notable exceptions excepted) so I'm not sure it'd be worth the trouble to port them just so M2 players can not play them as well.
Posted: Thu Nov 30, 2006 12:03 am
by A-Red
There aren't many TFL players though. If ported to M2, there would be a much larger potential audience, and it's likely more people would play them. Maybe.
Posted: Thu Nov 30, 2006 3:46 pm
by t o x y n
Did you guys not see the point I made earlier? There will be maps chosen to be used in my tournament. If one big plugin (like Magma's TFL pack) was made, other stuff can be included for fun. The Magma TFL pack is something that just about every Myther has loaded these days, and its limited since it didn't even include all the Unity2 maps and left out some of the aformentioned maps.
I think the talented map makers of this community should be putting as much new stuff out there as possible. We're not looking to make the next WW2, AvA or Mazz here folks, its a set of maps that will see usage in a tournament and will water the thirst for many old schoolers that haven't been able to play these maps in years, and the newer players who like cool 3rd party maps. Tournaments are grounds for a lot stuff: meeting new people, playing new maps (or old ones), having fun, learning how to be a better player, etc. This is the best way I can think of to instantly boost the popularity of a new plugin. The community is small enough that word of mouth will travel faster than ever before, on top of news announcements noting the new maps with the tournament announcement.
Posted: Thu Nov 30, 2006 3:55 pm
by Baak
I for one am totally with you.
Just like you said: it's not trying to be a ultra-huge-comprehensive-never-to-be-completed TFL porting project, but something that brings over the maps that didn't make it in the Magma map pack.
For players such as myself it is *great* to be able to play TFL, since on a PC I couldn't play the original TFL other than in software-rendering mode (ugh) and was extremely happy to be able to play the solo and multi maps via M2.
I say: nay-sayers be damned!
Keep up the great work. Man, I
really want to play Torpidinium!!
Posted: Fri Dec 01, 2006 1:17 pm
by ChrisP
A-Red: I should have clarified; even when there were far more TFL players than there are M2 players today, no one bothered playing most of these maps. Pretty much the same way no one now plays 99% of the maps created for M2. A better investment might be to mappack those M2 maps, but then lets not forget the permissions issue. Badlands, for instance, never wanted their maps compiled in such a way.
toxyn: I agree with a lot of your sentiments. Large mappacks are definetly the way to go to get people to have a variety of maps loaded. I learned that while making maps for TFL a long time ago, and it's why I created the TFL Multipack, UTB and UTBx for M2. And sure, a tournament can help get people started playing the maps.
However, having also ported all the stock M2 multiplayer maps to TFL, in addition to vice versa, I've got quite a bit of experience in the process and I can tell you it's an insane amount of work to do it accurately. You need two computers set up next to each other, one of which can run Mac Classic, as well as the time and patience to place hundreds of scenery objects per map in the right spots. For each object, you have to rotate the camera around and fiddle with it to get it in approximately the right spot. If a few of your trees or bushes are just slightly off, trust me, there'll be lots of players who will deride the port as quick and sloppy.
Once I had the free time and desire to port TFL maps, but not even remotely so now. If anyone else wants to do it, my point is they should consider if they want to potentially commit more time to a very tedious chore than the gross time that will be spent playing what were, for the most part, unpopular TFL maps.
On the other hand, there is one possibility that might make it worth it. Iron Duke has (or had prior to a HDD crash) a tool he created that greatly speeds up the process, which he used it to create the Fallen Levels. Far as I know, he's the only one who's ever had this tool. Apparently it was buggy and a pain to use and Iron doesn't like to distribute anything he considers less than perfect. I'm sure he doesn't have time to teach anyone how to use or fix any bugs, but who knows, maybe he can be talked into giving it to someone serious about porting TFL maps. Otherwise, you really are looking at a massive project.
Baak: I may be a nay-sayer, but I do agree, if there's one map worth porting, it's Torp.
Posted: Fri Dec 01, 2006 7:58 pm
by Eddaweaver
ChrisP wrote:I've got quite a bit of experience in the process and I can tell you it's an insane amount of work to do it accurately.
Tell me about it
Baak: I may be a nay-sayer, but I do agree, if there's one map worth porting, it's Torp.
I agree, Torp looks great. It would be excellent to have it in the MWC07.
Why don't you guys start with Torp, and consider others after it's done.
Posted: Sat Dec 02, 2006 3:12 pm
by t o x y n
Sounds good, but I still have yet to find just one person to even start a temporary team of map makers/porters & testers.
I've put together the list of maps (from this thread and the thread on PM.net), and I'd like to pick the more popular/interesting ones if I can get a team together soon. Otherwise, I'm going to have to abandon this part of my project and move on.
Posted: Sun Dec 03, 2006 1:27 pm
by Eddaweaver
I could help with placing scenery and terrain in the authentic original positions.
Btw, Torpidinium was made by Fisj, the original (If I Had A Yeti) mapmaker. He was also one of the Myth III development team.
...
Posted: Wed Dec 06, 2006 4:13 am
by TheHelmet
I'm not sure how much I'd be able to help, my spare time will be pretty rare the coming weeks/months..
I re-installed TFL a couple of weeks ago, went through my collection of 3rd party stuff and quickly realized there are quite a few gems in there. I've been wanting to see a proper port of Sieve since I started playing M2.. same with Torp.
I'm fairly certain wop is Wights of Passage, which used Assassin for TFL (I might be wrong about the Assassin thing though).
If someone could export the original cmaps I could fiddle with that part I guess
Posted: Thu Jul 05, 2007 6:54 pm
by iron
So ... um ... well ...
Having dragged my weary bones back to the round table of Myth developing, a spark of interest in mapmaking has flared to life in the rusty recesses of my soul.
Rather than embark on something original & burn out before its half done, I thought I'd resurrect the mappack#2 concept & see how it went. I've ported a couple of maps over the last few days, and so far so good. Glad I remembered to back up my old TFL->M2 Mesh Converter proggy
Ergo - if there's any interest in this map-pack, can I have some votes on what should be included? What are the real classics of TFL multiplayer that'd still be enjoyable today?
To kick it off, I've got the following listed already:-
Sieve
Torpidinium
Echoes
Valley of Ruin
A Calling Ctulu
Wights of Passage
Blood in the Wadi
Raisin Barn
Battle of Stirling
Forged North (maybe ... its such a pretty snow map)
I'm trying to keep the list from blowing out, as no-one will want to download a 100mb zipfile. So, what are the classics? Are there any in the above list that wouldn't work in today's Myth world? Also are there any Demo maps that really rocked? Please let me know, as I'd prefer maps that are actually good to play
Btw if you know of any old-skool players that are still active & might have a good knowledge of these maps, please do me a favour & either get them to respond here, or failing that post their thoughts here yourself. I'm really after as much informed feedback as possible.
Posted: Thu Jul 05, 2007 8:52 pm
by t o x y n
NZ40 =P
Posted: Thu Jul 05, 2007 10:03 pm
by Frumius
Torpidinium!
and
Wights of Passage!
(Both by Fisj?)
The Assassin game on Wights of Passage was totally unique, and I loved it. When the assassin target on a team was killed, instead of it being Game Over for that team, all their units went way red in health! So you still had a wee chance to maybe get a kill in yourself if you were lucky.
I would love to have Torpidinium and Wights of Passage for M 2. L O V E to have 'em!
I met Ooga back on Torpidinium in the dim ages of TFL. Haven't known anyone else on myth that long. In fact, I pester Ooga to port it now and then, but I think it's not exactly his bag.
Posted: Fri Jul 06, 2007 7:26 am
by Avatara
I think the current map selection is great. I always liked the other badlands maps (cove, the heart of the forest), but I guess they were never popular.
Anyway, thank you Iron for porting those great maps.
Posted: Fri Jul 06, 2007 10:58 am
by Doobie
That's a very good start Iron,
I'd say it might be worth adding rocky mountain moonshine to that list, and that autumn map by sandman, that came right at the end of TFL's lifespan so it didn't get much play but I thought it was pretty cool anyway.
Oh, I might be interested in helping with some testing, I know most of the maps on that list pretty well.
Posted: Fri Jul 06, 2007 3:38 pm
by PrplPplEater
iron wrote:
To kick it off, I've got the following listed already:-
Sieve
Torpidinium
Echoes
Valley of Ruin
A Calling Ctulu
Wights of Passage
Blood in the Wadi
Raisin Barn
Battle of Stirling
Forged North (maybe ... its such a pretty snow map)
Great List
Lotta memories of LAN play with my older brother on all of those
The only other maps that I can think of (but probably don't merit being ported) are If I had a Yeti (I think this was already ported??), Bob's Moon Waffles (with Zero-G!
), 16 Inches and Accumulating and Electro's Swedish Slugfest (not too sure on this one... the memory is uber-fuzzy on this map).
Was the stock TFL map The Dire Marsh ever ported?? The Dark variant of that was always a favorite FFA of mine.