[Accepted] ChaoStar Application

[ChaoStar]

Yourself

Name : Zach
Age : 17(Yeah, I'm young.)
Country : United States of America.

In Game

How long have you been playing ? How did you discover the game ?
Well, I've been playing for maybe 2 years, I believe. I discovered the game when a fiend passed it to me, and said I might enjoy it. (and by pass I mean send me the link to the homepage)

What are your favorite game modes (exept coopedit)? Why?
It's a toss-up between FFA and Insta. I love FFA just because you can keep on surviving by collecting health, and honestly there isn't much to it just get weapons and kill shtuff. And well insta because it's fast and fun. Also I play with trackpad so I can disprove people who complain about having a trackpad.

When are you usually online?
Difficult. I'm off an on, and usually I'm on the computer about for 3/4s of the day. With a project, I plan out when I should be on, and I have no problems waking up at 3AM to work on stuff. Yeah, I'm dedicated.

Why Mapping Hell?
Vampirefrog asked me to, and I was like "yeah okay sure"
What will you bring to the team ?
Well, not sure honestly. I've been lone wolfing for quite a while. I guess I have persistence? Patience? A gazzillion hours to spend? And I guess I have a somewhat unique art style but don't quote me on this; but then again who knows I could be a clone. I'm just happy to work on big stuff and get shift done.

Editing

What do you prefer to do in coopedit? Why?
I like making geometries, honestly. Texturing is a pain but it's fun also lighting is really entertaining, I can spend hours tweaking lighting in rooms to make them look nice.

How many mapping projects did you start?
Two. The first I finished, and the second I'm about 500 hours into it.

How many maps have you finished? How many have you uploaded on quadropolis (links) ?
I've finished one map. I'm still tweaking it, because I don't think it's good enough to be on Quad (also because I just got my account activated today finally :v)

What is your favourite kind of map ?
Eyecandy. Huge. Inspired by works of art like Myst, my tastes drift toward the surreal.


Other

I like your application process. :3

[vampirefrog]

Please attach some ogz files so we can examine them in detail. Or at least screenshots or videos. I think you can embed videos with [ html ]

[ChaoStar]

Here you go, my only complete map. And a screenshot of an incomplete one. (but you've seen the incomplete one anyway, so.)

[Apollo]

 You have skillz ( Judging by your incomplete map that you showed the other day ).
Though there are things to be learned as of yet;  there always are, for everybody, but I think you could get a grasp pretty quick.

We should have a co-op session some time to see what all you can do.
 

[ChaoStar]

Sounds good.

Any times or dates in mind? I won't be available on Monday or Tuesday this week, but besides that I'm a-ok for most times.

[vampirefrog]

Ok, Zach, based on monastarial and the mirari map you showed us earlier, you have my vote.

A quick review of monastarial:

It starts out in a very rainy cloister, nighttime with white clouds. The rain is very thick and this adds to the general moodiness of the starting image. There is a pool that seems to have been filled with water by the rain. On each side of this cloister there are entrances with three arches each, two short arches besides a tall arch. This adds to the monastery feel, and tends to take you to that type of architecture.

As I began to explore, the first thing i found was a deep pool with 4 angel statues at the bottom. That was extremely creepy. There was a teleport down there and it teleported me to the same cloister, but this time with 4 angels at the corners of the rain-filled pool (mentioned above). In the middle of this pool there is a teleport that sends you back to the first pool, which has a quad damage. You are forced to pick it up by the teledest location.

So now I'm back at the starting pool, with quad damage. I begin to explore another room, this time a larger pool with a waterfall. There is steam at the bottom of the waterfall, a well-known effect for adding a bit of waterfall. Apparently, it makes the water seem hot and steamy. With some stairs, this room leads to another waterfall room, this time with a ladder. After another stair set, you end up at the first floor of the initial cloister. It's pretty spacious, with some carved-in 45 degree corners, with various pickups in each of them. One thing i noticed, there are mapmodel columns - my problem with these is that they get old after you've seen them a few times, so i'm in favor of custom mapmodels, to keep freshness. Also, the column model in sauer is egyptian-styled, which didn't fit in 100% with the monastery theme. There is a railing at the edge, which is really thick. This 1st floor has 4 exits wich basically lead back to the ground floor.

There is another room going from the starting area, with a fountain and a small pool. They seem decorative. They're not greatly detailed, but the fountain seems finished. It's a big blocky thing splurting out water into a small surrounding pool with a raised edge. After that a ladder leads to another room with ladders and water at the bottom. They lead into another empty and dark (unlit?) room which leads back to the first floor walkway. This seemed kind of pointless, but i suppose it adds to the flow. Perhaps a few more weapons and such might have been placed here, to lure players/circulation in there.

Another room going from the starting area contains a very small pool with bullets floating above it, another ladder, another room with water at the bottom (and grenades in the water beneath the walkway), and that leads back to the 1st floor walkway.

Going back to the room with the pool and the angels at the bottom of the pool, looking above the pool there is an overhang with a jump-pad that flings you into another ladder room with water at the bottom and then up to the 1st floor walkway.

So that's it for details. It seems that the key feature of this map is the angels thing. You go to the bottom of a pool, then you see the angels (creeeepy), and when you touch them they disappear and when you climb out of the pool they're now at the corners of the rain-filled pool . Assuming you ignore the teleport sound

The lighting is simplistic. The open part uses a dark bluish skylight, which looks fine, and the other areas use the lamp mapmodel with simple one-point lights, some areas being unlit (but visible due to ambient light).

I guess some parts could have been more detailed, the lights more subtle and moody.

This is all fine. ChaoStar has my vote based on this map (definately not a noob map, but one can always improve), and on the mirari map which he has shown us (a work-in-progress).

[Apollo]

The monastary map has room for improvement, detail wise.
The part with the angels and the alternate map, that really got me. An absolutely -excellent- idea.

That, and seeing your incomplete map in co-op, you have my vote as well.

[ChaoStar]

The monastary map has room for improvement, detail wise.
The part with the angels and the alternate map, that really got me. An absolutely -excellent- idea.

That, and seeing your incomplete map in co-op, you have my vote as well.

fsdfg. I forgot to take out the telport when I posted it. Yes at the moment I was thinking of a way to make it maybe CTF friendly. I've been playing with the lighting- after going into the second map from that teleport, it would be essentially the same map, however sunnier and probably some changes in geometry and weapons. (of course there would be spawns there.) however it seemed really confusing so I'm not sure how to implement that in this specific map- but implementing it in something else might be really fun. (alternative being maybe a mirror that you can walk through or something.)

[vampirefrog]

Yo, CS, are you active anymore? We'd like to mark inactive members as inactive.