Wonko's World: The Map

Since JK2 is just super active, I think there is no better use of my time than to make a map for wonko's world

I've already done quite a bit of work on this map, and I know the direction I want to take it. Alas, a picture is worth a thousand words, so here are the shots:

This area is based on work that ShroomDuck did for the map Bespin Pads, originally slated for release in the SD Map Pack. However, it never got very far. The pads are all Shroom's maps, while most everything else is my work over what he originally had.


Most of the map work I have is untextured. SO there's a lot of detail, but it's hard to see it with it all being the default purple.







I'm trying to be a little bit original and avoid things that have been done to hell and back



Though i'm also sticking to some tried and true concepts (like the typical duel of the fates style generator room below)


Here's what my layout is:

The blue indicates areas that I haven't done yet, but I'm relatively certain what will go there. You can see that I plan on having a stereotypical clan map wing: this will likely be the style of mapping whose tradition started with jedicouncilgc. I want to stick to that tradition without being to redundant or copy-catish, so I haven't started work there yet and I'm not very sure how it will go.

I am also working on a cloning lab and a robot factory. These are relatively untouched domains-- I've yet to see a robot factory map, and the only maps with cloning facilities are Kamino maps where the cloning facility is the entire focus of the map.

Near these areas I also plan on including an environment simulator. What this means is an indoor room with vegetation and rock surfaces, and perhaps some matrix-style shaders for effect. This is something I have finished but not yet imported into the map.

The Casino Quack will also make an appearance in this map. I don't know of ANY casino maps for JK2 or JKA. This is another prototype map by ShroomDuck, which I worked hard to try to save for the map pack. None of my ideas wound up sticking, and the latest version of the casino is a mostly untextured mess. By relegating the role of the casino to just one room of many in this map, it should be a piece of cake. The rooms on both sides of the casino, the "fun room" and the lifesize pinball room, are both finished but untextured. The pinball room was made by me, and is as it sounds-- a pinball room where the player is the ball. The fun room is a room that has been mostly made already as well (though by either ShroomDuck or Kavu-- I'm not sure). This is a comically oversized room with gigantic playing cards, poker chips, and other casino wares.

What I've circled in blue indicates a lower level to the map that I haven't done much work on. This is because I'm not sure what will go here apart from rusty corridors and a repair bay.

The red circle is a huge-ass elevator. This will lead way down, underground, to a rocky labyrinth area with caves and ruins. It will also lead to an underwater observation facility, with fishes swimin' around and whatnot. It will be freaking magical. This whole level is something I won't start until the above ground bits are mapped, textured, and lit though.


So, this is a pretty ambitious project, especially for a mapper who's gone in and out of retirement. If anyone is a half decent mapper and wants to offer their services, feel free to post and request in on this.

Also, if anyone can do 2d graphic design, I am in need of some textures. Particularly, I need textures for the casino. I need a roulette texture:
http://www.livedealersdirect.com/images/roulette.jpg

poker chip textures (multi color, both the top and sides of the chips)
http://www.justthechips.com/images/PokerChips.gif

and playing card textures
http://mykidstime.ie/blogs/galway/files/2009/11/playing-cards.jpg

I could take care of the textures.

I could drink a cup 'o eggnog and fall asleep in front of the T.V!

Loki wrote:I could take care of the textures.

That'd be lovely!

Boognish wrote:I could drink a couple of quarts of eggnog and fall asleep in front of the T.V!

fixed

what can i do?

im not good but i got free time 2 make something....

Lucario*)WoN(~Donuts~ wrote:what can i do?

im not good but i got free time 2 make something....

Perhaps, at the least, think of ideas?

I have a feeling that this map will turn out awesome! There were some older attempts that ended up nowhere... but I'm sure that we can get past that and do something super-creative.

Good luck!

Maybe we could have different sections devoted to the different academies and maybe some sort of kitchen or bakery...I'll get back to you guys on that stuff.

Yay! God bless u kai

That map is looking good.

I had actually started making a kitchen for the map ages ago but I'm a noob mapper so it don't look great lol.

Hell yeah, Kai! Ambitions for sure, but man it'll be awesome.

I love your idea of rusty corridors on the lower level... I like old rusty things. Think Matrix-style run down beaten up broken city slums. It has so much character compared to a bright and shiny new city. Have you ever played Knights of the Old Republic? Draw some inspiration from there. Perhaps parts of it could be busted up and overgrown with vegetation... the wild life reaching up and reclaiming parts of the area.

Robot factory... Daleks.. yes. More hidden Doctor Who references. Tuck a blue police box away in a hidden secret room somewhere that you have to go through a maze or figure out a puzzle to get to.

The casino room is an awesome idea. I'd love to see a couple more fun areas like that branching off the casino. Games, slides, water slides even, dunking booth? Target practice.. I'm just throwing out ideas here that could be quick simple things. Definitely slides. There should be a whole slide funhouse or something. Oh, funhouse.. I like mirrors.. I love that mirror in the Yavin Final map. Can you make a funhouse mirror room? Giant mirror room with a maze off the side of it. Takes you to the Tardis! There we go.

There definitely needs to be a bakery, seeing as we need a place to plot and create our ridiculous pastries for world domination. Perhaps this can be the theme for your stereotypical clan area. Start with a bakery and just add wings off it for each Academy with separate kitchen tools for each type of thing. A place to bake cakes, different things for pies, special donut kitchen with a takeout window or something, and a room for candy rollers and all sorts of sugary stuff. And, of course, the Marshmallow room will just be a cozy little outdoorsey area with a camp fire for roasting the 'mallowy goodness. And a button or something that unleashes the 'Mallow of Doom! Take some of those ideas and run with 'em. Then branch off that for the rest of what you want to do with that clan area.

I like the environment simulator idea. It'd be nice to have an upper upper outdoor level too of some sort if you can find a way. Not an outdoor "room" like jedicouncilgc... but I like green outdoorsey stuff involved in maps somehow. I always liked the part of the jk2 Yavin Swamp map where you swim under the water, under the rock, and back up into a little cave-like looking overgrown with vines area. Maybe turn that into like an upper level open air arboretum or something. I don't know... not necessary by any means, I just want to make sure there's greenage involved somewhere. You could even just make an open air cloudy area.. maybe clouds that you can jump on going up and up.. a challenge or game or something. Maybe both. Go with it, make it your own.

As far as the underground area you described.. extensive labyrinths of caves and parts of that a maze and an aquarium and magical awesomeness.. yes. Yes times a thousand. Water is important here. Caves drip water into pools, and there should be crystals growing out of some of those pools and the water is kinda glowy when you get to the crystal cave area (just like the crystal cave in KotOR where you create your lightsaber) and an Indiana Jones style rope bridge to cross a deep crevice.... yes. Spend some time on this part of it. Take the KotOR cave and merge it with the underground area from the jk3 map Helm's Deep v2. If you haven't played that map on jk3 yet, go play it. I'll give you a tour. That's by far my favorite underground cave type thing anyone has ever created and this can be that and more. Here's the crystal cave from KotOR 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Am_S2e1n9gQ I couldn't find a good video of the bigger, better looking KotOR II version, with pools of blue water and such, but you can get an idea at least of the crystals. Take that giant open crystal room you see in that video and just plaster crystals all over the place, on every surface, kind of like a more realistic crystal cave would be. I like that idea.

The other thing I love in maps are secrets. Be sure to include lots of secrets. Fun secrets, not pointless ones just to have a secret room. Maybe take some fun casino side rooms or something and hide them. Hidden games, secret crystal meditation rooms in the underground caves... With a map this large, also, there should be an easy means of traveling to different parts of the map, but not silly obvious teleports lined up in a row. I'm sure you'll figure something good out.

And one last thing, the obligatory bar. It needs to be stocked with plenty of that Ol' Janx Spirit, and all the materials necessary for creating a Pan-Galactic Gargle blaster. http://www.hhgproject.org/entries/pangalacticgargleblaster.html With instructions under the bar maybe. And it probably should have some of the tasty pastry creations we've come up with stocked in the pantry too.

So I know that's a lot of ideas there, but I'm hoping most of that you already have planned. I just wanted to scribble all that inspiration down when it hit me. Take what you can use and go with it.

Wonko the Sane wrote:Hell yeah, Kai! Ambitions for sure, but man it'll be awesome.

I love your idea of rusty corridors on the lower level... I like old rusty things. Think Matrix-style run down beaten up broken city slums. It has so much character compared to a bright and shiny new city. Have you ever played Knights of the Old Republic? Draw some inspiration from there. Perhaps parts of it could be busted up and overgrown with vegetation... the wild life reaching up and reclaiming parts of the area.

Robot factory... Daleks.. yes. More hidden Doctor Who references. Tuck a blue police box away in a hidden secret room somewhere that you have to go through a maze or figure out a puzzle to get to.

The casino room is an awesome idea. I'd love to see a couple more fun areas like that branching off the casino. Games, slides, water slides even, dunking booth? Target practice.. I'm just throwing out ideas here that could be quick simple things. Definitely slides. There should be a whole slide funhouse or something. Oh, funhouse.. I like mirrors.. I love that mirror in the Yavin Final map. Can you make a funhouse mirror room? Giant mirror room with a maze off the side of it. Takes you to the Tardis! There we go.

There definitely needs to be a bakery, seeing as we need a place to plot and create our ridiculous pastries for world domination. Perhaps this can be the theme for your stereotypical clan area. Start with a bakery and just add wings off it for each Academy with separate kitchen tools for each type of thing. A place to bake cakes, different things for pies, special donut kitchen with a takeout window or something, and a room for candy rollers and all sorts of sugary stuff. And, of course, the Marshmallow room will just be a cozy little outdoorsey area with a camp fire for roasting the 'mallowy goodness. And a button or something that unleashes the 'Mallow of Doom! Take some of those ideas and run with 'em. Then branch off that for the rest of what you want to do with that clan area.

I like the environment simulator idea. It'd be nice to have an upper upper outdoor level too of some sort if you can find a way. Not an outdoor "room" like jedicouncilgc... but I like green outdoorsey stuff involved in maps somehow. I always liked the part of the jk2 Yavin Swamp map where you swim under the water, under the rock, and back up into a little cave-like looking overgrown with vines area. Maybe turn that into like an upper level open air arboretum or something. I don't know... not necessary by any means, I just want to make sure there's greenage involved somewhere. You could even just make an open air cloudy area.. maybe clouds that you can jump on going up and up.. a challenge or game or something. Maybe both. Go with it, make it your own.

As far as the underground area you described.. extensive labyrinths of caves and parts of that a maze and an aquarium and magical awesomeness.. yes. Yes times a thousand. Water is important here. Caves drip water into pools, and there should be crystals growing out of some of those pools and the water is kinda glowy when you get to the crystal cave area (just like the crystal cave in KotOR where you create your lightsaber) and an Indiana Jones style rope bridge to cross a deep crevice.... yes. Spend some time on this part of it. Take the KotOR cave and merge it with the underground area from the jk3 map Helm's Deep v2. If you haven't played that map on jk3 yet, go play it. I'll give you a tour. That's by far my favorite underground cave type thing anyone has ever created and this can be that and more. Here's the crystal cave from KotOR 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Am_S2e1n9gQ I couldn't find a good video of the bigger, better looking KotOR II version, with pools of blue water and such, but you can get an idea at least of the crystals. Take that giant open crystal room you see in that video and just plaster crystals all over the place, on every surface, kind of like a more realistic crystal cave would be. I like that idea.

The other thing I love in maps are secrets. Be sure to include lots of secrets. Fun secrets, not pointless ones just to have a secret room. Maybe take some fun casino side rooms or something and hide them. Hidden games, secret crystal meditation rooms in the underground caves... With a map this large, also, there should be an easy means of traveling to different parts of the map, but not silly obvious teleports lined up in a row. I'm sure you'll figure something good out.

And one last thing, the obligatory bar. It needs to be stocked with plenty of that Ol' Janx Spirit, and all the materials necessary for creating a Pan-Galactic Gargle blaster. http://www.hhgproject.org/entries/pangalacticgargleblaster.html With instructions under the bar maybe. And it probably should have some of the tasty pastry creations we've come up with stocked in the pantry too.

So I know that's a lot of ideas there, but I'm hoping most of that you already have planned. I just wanted to scribble all that inspiration down when it hit me. Take what you can use and go with it.

tl;dr.

Kai, what size you want for textures? 512x512 alright?

Loki: 512X512 would be fine for the poker chips, but the roulette and the cards are very large. I'd prefer something around 1024x1024 for those. Thanks so much!!


Wonko: Great ideas. Really great ideas. You gave me some great suggestions, especially with regards to the rusty corridors. I think I know what I'm going to do there now.

Some of your concerns:
-Getting around effectively without silly teleports
-- This is something I'm working on. So far, all areas connect to at least 2 different rooms or areas, with the exception of the hangar and the casino. I'm working on making the hangar better connected. However, there will be a huge problem with the super-duper underground area. In my current plan, there is only one way to get there, via the one elevator (circled in red in my blueprint). I may work on adding other elevators, but I definitely agree that teleports would be a bad choice.

-Secrets
-- Blah. I haven't put much concrete thought into what should be done for secrets. I did think of a sort of "trophy" room that includes some of the Mario prefabs I did a while back behind glass cases (i made lifesize Mario characters from Mario 64 but they never got included in my map). I was thinking that MAYBE the big elevator to the super-duper underground place would need to be unlocked by finding 3 keys or something like that, but I'm not sold on this idea. I think that ideas for secrets will be something that comes further along in the process.


For those interested in helping, can you just post some shots of your previous work and briefly tell me what your ability is like? That way I can better assign some tasks to you. Most likely, I'll need people to work on texturing and lighting what is already mapped out.


WONKO: About this helms deep map-- does it work on jk2? i'd prefer to stick to jk2, but I do have jk3 installed. respond to this thread with your availability today and i'll let you show me a good time : )

I wouldn't worry about making the underground caves connected too much more than by the elevator. They're meant to be secluded by nature, right? They should feel that way. It was everything else that I just want to make sure doesn't feel like it's so far spread out.

You should definitely make secret rooms or areas out of any of the stuff you've done like the Mario characters that you haven't used. You posted screenshots of those a while back and they were amazing. Better yet, make it Kai's secret workshop or something to that effect, with all your mapping tools set out in your own little lab. Half-finished models of things, textures half wrapped around things, etc. I think you'd have fun making that.

As for the other secrets, I'm trying to think of non-traditional ways of including secrets. Something that hasn't been done too often before... and I get the feeling you'd like to do the same thing, right? Rather than just hidden rooms and such. I like walls that break, I'll say that. Maybe the underground caverns can have a lot of breakable walls that lead off to different areas, or sealed off rooms in the upper levels where you can break a wall open to get into it. Like the little closet picture room thing if you've ever seen jumper, where he can only get into it by jumping into it. On the outside it's just a wall.

And actually, I do like breakable things in general. Anything you feel like making breakable, please do. Like how Yavin Final has all the breakable pillars and things.

For Helm's Deep, if I'm on tonight, it's probably going to be late. Like, after midnight. I was going to say I'll check xfire when I get home to see if you're on, but you don't have an xfire thingy do you? There's a couple maps that have pieces of them that have the kind of magical qualities I think you're going for. I can give you a quick tour of some of my favorites. jk3 definitely has much better graphics than jk2, but I think it's worth seeing one or two of them anyways.

What time zone are you? I'm eastern time. I could catch you later tonight for some research

edit: yeah I don't have xfire anymores :C

Eastern time. We hit midnight at the same time last night, remember

Not sure exactly what time I'll be getting back tonight, but I'll post here and join the jk2 server when I do get back. It'll likely be after midnight or 1am though.

edit: If I find it's going to be much later than that I'll try to make a quick post when I'm out to give you a heads up so you're not waiting around all night.

OK! Sounds good.

A note about the Dr Who references-- some kind mapper has made a .md3 dalek model and a .map tardis prefab (only the blue box, but I don't know if I want to do the inside or not). So, Doc Who is confirmed for this map : )

Oh, bigger on the inside! Bigger on the inside! Even if you don't make the inside of the Tardis, make something that's bigger on the inside. A locker or something. I also always liked perspective shifts in maps, like where you're small and everything else around you is big. A desk or something for example.

Alright gang- wonko gave me a tour of some great maps, giving me some great ideas. Stand by for map updates

edit: if any mappers want to make something to contribute for the map, go for it! we'll try to find a way to fit it in, even if it's something completely different from the rest of the map.

If I ever use radiant again ever, I could finish teh kitchen.

But I prob never will xD

Someone made a silly little cookie classroom map a while back...

No offense to Sniper if he's still around, but I don't think that's worthy of being in a complete map

Wonko and I talked about music the other day. If you guys played the map big cannon on the SD map pack, the music on that map was custom synth & guitar tracks by =TW=Time (I think he's in CA now, if he still plays). Anyway, we are good friends (I've stayed at his house, and back before my family moved to Ohio I'd go to a concert with Time every summer). There's a possibility he could do another instrumental track.

Additionally, friend =TW=Mark does musicks. He does more vocal work (and it's incredible, it really is) but he does have one instrumental track which I am in love with: http://marklockmusic.bandcamp.com/track/shell

These are just temporary ideas. We can't use copywritten music as it violates JK2files new strict policies.

Wow, that is actually a nice song. It'd be great if Time helped out his school of cake buds

If I may, I think that the music should be more jovial and lively than just a sad or crazy soundtrack. The song is good, but maybe we can use something more "Wonko's World"-esque

i agree entirely. just throwing ideas out there for now-- i definitely want an instrumental track, i'm just not sure what just yet...

I'm going to say let's hold off on choosing music for now. Instrumental is the way to go, but I need to actually play on the map before I can say just how jovial or how serene to go. I do like the music you linked though Kai.

But for now, let's wait and see how the map develops. It's important to make sure the music is custom made for the map if that's the route we're going to go, and not just any old music that sounds nice.

As I said on the server earlier, Kai, whenever the map gets to an alpha-ish point we'll put it up on the test server, you can give me a tour, and then I'll be able to tell you exactly what kind of music we'd want Time and friends to create for us. The idea in my head right now is jovially serene. But I don't know what that means yet. I will when I play on the map though.

So I'm doing some reworking on the layout. I'll keep you updated and show some pics soon!

Someone said something about having made a kitchen map? I can't find that anywhere, if someone can post that here i can see if i can fit it in : )

Somebody made a cookies classroom map like years ago: https://schoolofcake.forumotion.com/t259-cookies-classroom
It's pretty lame though (no offense Sniper).