Tue Apr 23, 2013 1:45 pm
Quartz Map List
Looking at my Q-Serv thread, I realized that, with Kaen's Gold Maps server hosting most of my good maps on a far superior host, Q-Serv had faded away partially due to laziness but also as a result of being redundancy. I really support Kaen's Gold Maps idea and I like the concept of a lot of my better maps being hosted there, and only bothering to show my other maps on random occasions when I am online.
However, I also noticed that my map list on my Q-Serv was pretty swag, and I think the whole idea of having notes explaining my process of making a few of the maps was relatively interesting. As such, with this thread I will be emulating that element, without the context of a "server" but rather the context of "these are all my maps."
So, here are all of the maps I have in my possession or remember having at some point, or it's in storage, or what have you. If you come up with something not on this list, please let me know! I'm also TRYING to put this in chronological order, but I can't promise anything; being around for six years starts to make things a bit hazy.
Level List:
Dungeons:
Adventure - My oldest surviving dungeon. Went for the image of twisting dungeon hallways.
Q-Party - Very old and broken. Was the biggest dungeon of its time, although obviously it's been massively one-upped since. Its biggest appeal was probably that all four teams could function in some manner, although you had to be clever enough to figure out how.
Quartz' Mini Dungeon - This level is honestly kind of terrible both in appearance and in challenges. Challenge #2 is pretty cool but that's about it.
Quartz' Super Fast Mini Dungeon - I love this map, because 1 minute and 30 seconds is extremely fast but just barely do-able. Because of this it's a legitimate challenge.
Yellow Snow - Gone through about a million updates. Pretty happy with its current state, although there are undoubtedly tons of older, lame versions floating around. It was made as an immature, silly response to Arctic.rs' "Snow Series."
35 x 5 - This was my first Dungeon made in Bitfighter.
QuartzdaDuckgeon - Team vs. team dungeon that doesn't actually suck. The theme is me poking fun of the Church of Latter-Day Saints, even though I am rather fond of it. Hint: It's me screwing with bobdaduck.
Q-Emporer's Revenge - My take on Emperor's Revenge.
Quartz' 2nd Mini Dungeon - This is my most recent dungeon and damn am I proud of how hard and brutal this map is.
CTF:
Castles - I made this for Rick when he unveiled his modded Gibbed! Returns server that utilized that half-implemented Engineer function that GarageGames had left in the code of Zap. It was made specifically for screwing with Engineer. Much stupid fun was had making invincible defenses. It's crazy how many clones of this map have been unveiled. Discovering that this map was my legacy in Bitfighter was part of what encouraged me to come back a few months ago and start making maps again; I want to top myself.
To Maze Or Not To Maze - This was pretty cool back in Zap days. Now it's crap. I wouldn't mind taking another stab at this idea at some point however, and I probably will. Expect the hallways to be less cramped however!
Forts - My sequel to Castles. It featured pretty bright Goal Zone graphics and such. It's pretty much better, truly, although the bases are cramped.
The Land of the Lost - This was super cool in Zap days. Huge map that emphasized the invaluable Repair module. I am currently trying to remake this, but I have a hard time with filler.
So Close, Yet So Far - Tedious CTF with a unique layout.
CTF-Compass - My oldest CTF that remains worthwhile. I made it specifically with 2v2s in mind. Fun stuff.
Figure It - I made this in 15 minutes one time while I was bored. Almost positive I made this in Bitfighter. It's awful which is why you never see it being played. Ever.
Castles v.9001 - Me once again trying to one-up my old Castles map while simultaneously making fun of myself.
Bumper Field - Me combining a really gimmicky silly center with solid base design. The map still just doesn't play very interestingly however.
Rack City - So this one is a bit interesting; I made it completely uninspired, which is very much unlike me. All I did was keep in mind what made maps like Kompressor's Gambit popular and design a map that gave players main routes and side routes that are the staple of large-player battles. I'm ashamed of how ugly the map is but it plays well, so.
Snow Castles - I have yet to release this. I made a very cleanly designed Castles and put in sam686's snow script. Unfortunately that script broke in 018a, which is why I have yet to unveil this.
Three O'Clock - Ummm ... this map is terrible, why did I make this.
Bot - Me trying to make a moderately simple CTF layout so that bots could play it worth a damn, then adding a really weird teleporter route that's pretty cool and reminiscent of Gibbed! Twisted Halls.
Retrieve:
They Call Me Crazy - One of my only successful attempts at creating lots of filler walls. This one survived the jump to Bitfighter quite well, although I have since changed it somewhat. The layout is basically the same, but it is three-flag Retrieve when it was originally five-flag, because five-flag is terribly difficult. It had one full capture to win back then, however, so I wasn't completely off my rocker.
Twofer - Once known as "Cute and Cuddly" and apparently made for Furbuggy, this map survived the jump from Zap to Bitfighter admirably. This is my oldest good Retrieve map.
Double Lucky - Old Zap map that's actually pretty decent. "Double Lucky" is a reference to a very minor character in Naruto who had that catchphrase. Hint: It was annoying as shit.
The Cave of Echoes - Apparently made for the Innovation contest for Bitfighter. Interesting concept, awful execution. One of my only takes at asymmetrical base layout. I succeeded at that, as it is balanced, the map is just boring and horribly bottleneck is the problem.
Pathetic Humans - Went through a major design change before being what it is now.
Diamonds Are Forever - I designed this one while in class, although obviously the Diamond theme came later. I heavily emphasized making a strange center.
Tight Space - Remake of a very old four-team Retrieve map of mine. I don't remember what it was originally called, I'll have to look for that later. Anyway it looks like it's great but plays badly.
InFILTERation - Bad puns + Massive Slipzone + Hilariously painful centerpiece graphic = this retarded map. It's good for a laugh but becomes tedious quickly.
Cavity Search - Probably one of my maps that I'm most proud of. 4-flag CTF where you retrieve 3 flags at your base and 1 in the center where competition gets heated very quickly. Very competitive, fun map. It is named Cavity Search because I was thinking about naming it some sort of Cave, which resulted in me thinking "Cavity." Then I realized that Retrieving is basically a search, so ... Cavity Search. Gross.
In The Deep - This started out as me trying to make some sort of underwater station looking thing, but it just didn't turn out that way. Its gameplay is solid but it is rarely played for whatever reason.
Surfing With The Alien - This map is the epitome of me making a level that has rock solid gameplay and then adding silly graphics until I was content. It ended up looking somewhat robotic and alien, so I named it "Surfing With The Alien," which is an album by guitarist Joe Satriani. I initially made this with the idea of "stock retrieve map" in mind, but we'll see if it actually gets to be stock or not. By making it pretty I kind of ruined the stock map feel, but I'm happy with the map regardless.
Aztec - Me proving that I can work from a reference in Bitfighter and make a badass graphic. I have never used the SVG tool, as cool as it is. Combine awesome themed graphics with decent gameplay and you get Aztec. I'm also very proud of its silly-ass description.
Ring Around the Rosie - This is me starting a map by creating 9 teams and then thinking "okay, what the hell can I do with 9 teams?" The result is a pretty damn unique, simple but effective map. I'm proud of this one.
Balls to the Wall Retrieve - I started with the outline, and then as four-team maps tend to play horribly I decided to revisit Cavity Search's concept of dominating a foreign base and increase it to each and every goal zone. I then decided I wanted a maze in the middle, and what better way to make a maze than randomization via levelgen? There is a lot of replay value in this map due to its random elements, even in flag spawns. There are a total of 24 different variations of the center map. Moderately large, it is perfect for BBB.
HTF:
Q-HTF - This map is godawful. I thought the design on my sweatshirt was pretty cool so I made it in Zap. HTF was just recently discovered so I was like "let's make it HTF!" Annnnnd I dunno, it's just awful. It plays horribly.
Firefight - Made in Zap days, and it's actually pretty good. I emulated the stock HTF map found in some older versions of Zap to make this.
Maya - First map I made getting back into Bitfighter just a little ways back. A good solid start, I think.
Head in the Clouds - I have no idea what I was thinking when I made this ... I sort of made the outline and then came up with Angels vs. Demons, sort of wanted to do an asymmetrical layout but pansied out. So I just made it thematic and stuff. The middle has a levelgen that bobdaduck designed.
Around the Bend - Remake of an old Zap map I made. I really thought the layout was cool but it kind of fell short, so I sought to give it some justice. The description is a bad reference to a Broadway play that I'm forgetting the name of.
Wub Wub Wub - "I want to make an HTF with three methods of attack and only one method of escape." Then I also decided to make a forward base in the middle, and utilize Teleporter Delay. Interesting map although scoring is godawful difficult.
Diamond Dust - Essentially Firefight 2.0. I wanted to theme a map off of some popular sodas for whatever reason ... and then I added diamond shards and stuff and ... I have no idea. The centerpiece is the Pepsi logo because lolololo so funneh~
WATERMELONS EVERYWHERE! - I was rude to Lisanna and felt bad so I wanted to make a map for her. Of course the very next day it turned out she was a lying bitch, sooooo I ended up taking that back. I soon realized the team colors were very watermelon-esque, so I designed a fancy-ass watermelon slice and went from there. The title and description are a reference to the Korn song "Dead Bodies Everywhere," which features a piece of lyric in the bridge "You want me to be! Something I could never ever be!" So ummm ... yeah no idea what I was thinking, but it's funny so why not.
Captain Planet - This guy Sicilica made a badass map called Planets. It is excellent in concept but mediocre in execution. This is my take on the concept, and it's not released yet because it will make use of a 019 feature. And yes, the name/description is a gay joke making fun of the show Captain Planet. This is what happens when good level names elude me.
Zone Control:
Ninjaman - Two things: I wanted to take another swing at the Pirates vs. Ninjas theme I did long ago in Zap days. Also, I thought that the way levels in the game N were laid out could be interesting Zap form. Then for some reason I completely lost all inspiration and sought to finish the map anyway, and you end up with the godawful Thank You, Drive Thru rip-off that it is. I will probably revisit this map at a certain point and do justice to my original intentions. The name "Ninjaman" is a reference to the name of the main character in N, and the description is me screwing with the lyrics to Lady Gaga's song "Summerboy," which has in the bridge the lyrics "Hey there Summerboy, I'm takin' off my heels." Replace Summerboy with Ninjaman, there's my description, GG. Truly a bizarre thing I did there but it's amusing so why not.
Snail World - I like to joke that I was high when I made this map. This is me combining a whole lot of different ideas; diagonal walls everywhere, an outside track of speedzones. Then I made one of the walls look fancy and realized it looked like a snail, and there is where I came up with the name "Snail World." I thought this sounded like "Small World," thus the description "It's a Snail World, after all!" The two pieces of text "A little-known fact about snails is their development of our modern day teleportation technology" and "A little-known fact about snails is their development of our modern day high-speed railway" is me poking fun at naming a map "Snail World" despite its fast-paced nature.
Serpentine - LAWL I'M GONNA MAKE A MAP THAT LOOKS LIKE STYLIZED CLOUDS! And then burn out half-way through ... I originally intended for the map to be huge and asymmetrical but I honestly burnt out because man is it a shit-ton of work to make a level look that good. Despite this, the gameplay turns out to be pretty fantastic. It eliminates the usual Zone Control problem of "okay, the guy has the flag, and we can't keep up with him." I couldn't come up with a witty description so I just plain left the description out. The name is obviously based on the appearance of the map. I am glad this map was deemed worthy of stock, although I wonder how the team names eluded our developers. "Gentlemen" and "Mentlegen" rather than Blue and Red. It's a Team Fortress 2 joke meme reference that's incredibly stupid.
The Grid - So I wanted to make a map with awesome Tron-esque graphics, combined with the theme of "the grid" and light cycles and stuff. I came up with the usual grid-like ZC design that's been done a hundred million times but put a unique spin on it by making a very time-consuming levelgen that randomizes the wall structure of the map. Doing this without compromising the level's stylish appearance proved to be very challenging. This map took a long time.
Bubblegum Wars - I thought, "LAWL, LET'S MAKE A MAP AS GAUDY AS POSSIBLE!" So I did. Annnnd the gameplay turns out to actually be pretty decent to boot. Cool! I realized that the colors I picked were both very much reminiscent of bubble gum and went with it. BubbleGum Wars sounds incredibly silly, and it probably spawned from my earlier creation of a Baldur's Gate character called "BubbleGumPinkSoldier," who was an evil mercenary with incredible strength who wore all pink. The description of the map is obviously a nod to Duke Nukem.
Soccer:
Spooning Leads to Forking - I made this while in the car on my laptop, which is very strange indeed. I was bored and decided "man, someone needs to make a good, simple, but fun soccer." So I did, by making it a basic layout with very strange looking walls that served to bounce the Soccer ball and make the map indeed challenging to score a goal. It took a lot of testing to make the map difficult with its wall angles but not too horribly difficult. The map name is courtesy of my sister, who was in the car with me at the time. I asked her for a map name and she said "Spooning Leads to Forking," which is a moderately dirty sexual innuendo, in case you missed that. From there I made the team names "Spooning" and "Forking" to make fun of silverwear, and then the description is another horrible pun "Ohh, fork it all." Upon playing this map a few times I noticed people would both intentionally and unintentionally get the ball stuck in their spawn ... so I cruelly added hostile goal zones, and IMO it's the best integration of hostile goal zones in a level that I've seen.
Arena Soccer - I saw an old Soccer map I made that was a giant Q, which I thought was amusing and kind of cool. So I remade it, as a sort of Arena-styled Soccer map. Too bad the level sucks balls. At least the description is amusing. "Let's get ready to RUMBLE!! lol j/k peacelove&dope" Do I really have to explain it? No thanks.
This is a Bad Map - I designed this map in class. It just turned out to be pretty crappy gameplay, what can you do.
Tasty Pina Coladas - Spooning Leads to Forking 2.0! Similar in design and gameplay but with an amusing theme. I dunno. I had fun making it.
Core:
Core Colosseum - Umm, Colosseum is one of my favorite stock maps, so I took the at the time new Core gametype and put it in Colosseum. It's okay but not brilliant.
Ducks Rock - So basically I started designing my first Core map, and I made these awesome bases ... but I had no idea what to do from there. One day bobdaduck and I decided hey why not, let's do a collaboration. I thought he would make an asymmetrical base or some such, but instead he ended up making the map symmetrical and designing the center. Anyway the map is super cool and very fun. I thought the inclusion of his janky black hole thing was kinda dumb but it's still a great map. For some reason we decided very early on that the team names would be "Standing Rib Roast" and "Burn Toast." We decided on Ducks Rock as a name for obvious reasons ... He's a duck and I'm a rock. The description, "No ducking way two peepz made this rocking map" follows the same theme. For some godawful reason "Burnt Toast" has turned into "Burnt Todst" in many versions of the map. We have no idea how this happened.
Launchpad McQuack - I have no idea ... gears, and circular layouts, and three teams with interesting colors, and ... yeah. Launchpad McQuack is a character from Duck Tales, and in Scott Pilgrim vs. the World Scott exclaims "alright let's start off the set with launchpad mcquack!" to which Stephen Stills replies, "Err, that's not the actual title..." before Kim quickly cues them to play the song anyway with no further explanation.
Progressive - This map happened as a result of my frustration with how Launchpad McQuack played. I got tired of Core circlers and stuff and sought to make a map that disallowed people from doing that terribly effectively. I ended up developing an interesting, progressive map, thus its name.
Encore - Ended up being a stock map. This map just plain felt natural to make. Like Progressive, I sought to make a map that felt as if it went in stages; breaking down the middle walls, then taking out the first core, going onto the final core.
Bubbles - I wanted to make a circular-style Core map, but knew that it could result in disastrous gameplay as a result of Core circle-jerkers. So I very intentionally sought to make that difficult. The description obviously ties the map name into the Power Puff Girls.
BitBash:
Intermissive - Basic small arena map. I ended up redoing it at a certain point. The name of the map is a reference to the stock map Intermission.
Cure for the Itch - Another basic small arena map. The title and description is a reference to the Linkin Park song "Cure for the Itch," which is basically a giant turntable solo that's completely badass.
Ampitheatre of Death - This map actually started out as the two-team Bitmatch "Boner" which I'm sure pretty much no one remembers. Then I completely morphed the hell out of it into this cruel, fast-paced arena.
Quartz' Mosaics - Umm ... this is my err ... "ode" to cloakdood's mosaics series ... unfortunately, unlike Mosaics, it sucks balls.
wat. - This is me screwing around with making walls look solid when they are not through messing with poly walls. I turned it into a sort of modern art gallery looking thing.
Search and Destroy - Yeah, the one-life concept? You're welcome. Obviously somewhat inspired by Call of Duty's actually good gametype.
Manhole - I saw a cool looking manhole on my college campus and was like damn ... that'd be awesome to recreate in Bitfighter. Since I'm actually pretty damn handy at working from a reference for this game, I recreated it almost exactly as it appears. One of the pieces is a bit small in comparison to its real life counterpart, that's about it. This is the map that everyone accuses me of using SVG converter on, but honestly if you just load it up in the editor it's quite clear that it was not made in such a way. So please shut up and give me some damn credit for being good at something, thanks? I've only been doing this shit for six years, you'd hope I'd actually be decent at it or something.
Ampitheatre of Despair - Me ripping off Invader Alex because he came up with this idea although I did not like his execution. The description is a reference to Gladiator, I believe.
This Map is All Bad - Once again me ripping off Invader Alex. I prefer to say I expanded on his idea though, and made this white-out map even more disgusting by putting Resource Items everywhere that are, of course, invisible.
Hunters/Nexus:
Mini-Colosseum - Because Colosseum is awesome but far too large, I cut out a lot of the empty space.
Forest of Fear - I wanted an arena-style map where ambushing people from inside walls was prevalent. Also I made a funky outside design. Cool stuff. The description is obviously a reference to the saying "I didn't choose the gangster life, the gangster life chose me" which is probably the most poetic thing any of those swagfags will ever come up with in their entire life.
Bag of Cats - This is me making a Hunters map that looks incredibly different everywhere ... it's crazy and non-sensible but it plays great regardless, which was my goal. To say something is a "bag of cats" is to say that it is insane, thus the name.
Gate - I'm not a fan, but I just sorta wanted to make something that looked like Stargate and some other Satanic shit. Thus this map happened.
Open Season - raptor says "hay somebody make a 4-team Nexus map for BBB" so even though I thought he was crazy I tried it. Turned out decent. The team names are lulz worthy, and the description is obviously a reference to Larry the Cable Guy ... yeahhhhh.
Deathmints - Still not sure what I was thinking when I made this. Like seriously ... so much what. I dunno.
Rabbit:
Pacman - So I worked my ass off to make a Pacman map that had the nice curved walls like in the actual game, and then went around claiming it was "lol teh best evahh!!" yeah I dunno man.
Pacman v.9001 - Me revisiting Pacman ... again ... like everyone else. I dunno.
Ninja Bunny - Small redesign of Forest of Fear to fit Rabbit gameplay. Also the outside of the map looks even more Satanic. The description is a reference to the "Cheapass Game's Devil Bunny Needs a Ham." Damn hilarious, little known game. I'm great at obscure references.
Other:
WORK IN PROGRESS. I need to go do other things. Feel free to leave feedback regardless.
However, I also noticed that my map list on my Q-Serv was pretty swag, and I think the whole idea of having notes explaining my process of making a few of the maps was relatively interesting. As such, with this thread I will be emulating that element, without the context of a "server" but rather the context of "these are all my maps."
So, here are all of the maps I have in my possession or remember having at some point, or it's in storage, or what have you. If you come up with something not on this list, please let me know! I'm also TRYING to put this in chronological order, but I can't promise anything; being around for six years starts to make things a bit hazy.
Level List:
Dungeons:
Adventure - My oldest surviving dungeon. Went for the image of twisting dungeon hallways.
Q-Party - Very old and broken. Was the biggest dungeon of its time, although obviously it's been massively one-upped since. Its biggest appeal was probably that all four teams could function in some manner, although you had to be clever enough to figure out how.
Quartz' Mini Dungeon - This level is honestly kind of terrible both in appearance and in challenges. Challenge #2 is pretty cool but that's about it.
Quartz' Super Fast Mini Dungeon - I love this map, because 1 minute and 30 seconds is extremely fast but just barely do-able. Because of this it's a legitimate challenge.
Yellow Snow - Gone through about a million updates. Pretty happy with its current state, although there are undoubtedly tons of older, lame versions floating around. It was made as an immature, silly response to Arctic.rs' "Snow Series."
35 x 5 - This was my first Dungeon made in Bitfighter.
QuartzdaDuckgeon - Team vs. team dungeon that doesn't actually suck. The theme is me poking fun of the Church of Latter-Day Saints, even though I am rather fond of it. Hint: It's me screwing with bobdaduck.
Q-Emporer's Revenge - My take on Emperor's Revenge.
Quartz' 2nd Mini Dungeon - This is my most recent dungeon and damn am I proud of how hard and brutal this map is.
CTF:
Castles - I made this for Rick when he unveiled his modded Gibbed! Returns server that utilized that half-implemented Engineer function that GarageGames had left in the code of Zap. It was made specifically for screwing with Engineer. Much stupid fun was had making invincible defenses. It's crazy how many clones of this map have been unveiled. Discovering that this map was my legacy in Bitfighter was part of what encouraged me to come back a few months ago and start making maps again; I want to top myself.
To Maze Or Not To Maze - This was pretty cool back in Zap days. Now it's crap. I wouldn't mind taking another stab at this idea at some point however, and I probably will. Expect the hallways to be less cramped however!
Forts - My sequel to Castles. It featured pretty bright Goal Zone graphics and such. It's pretty much better, truly, although the bases are cramped.
The Land of the Lost - This was super cool in Zap days. Huge map that emphasized the invaluable Repair module. I am currently trying to remake this, but I have a hard time with filler.
So Close, Yet So Far - Tedious CTF with a unique layout.
CTF-Compass - My oldest CTF that remains worthwhile. I made it specifically with 2v2s in mind. Fun stuff.
Figure It - I made this in 15 minutes one time while I was bored. Almost positive I made this in Bitfighter. It's awful which is why you never see it being played. Ever.
Castles v.9001 - Me once again trying to one-up my old Castles map while simultaneously making fun of myself.
Bumper Field - Me combining a really gimmicky silly center with solid base design. The map still just doesn't play very interestingly however.
Rack City - So this one is a bit interesting; I made it completely uninspired, which is very much unlike me. All I did was keep in mind what made maps like Kompressor's Gambit popular and design a map that gave players main routes and side routes that are the staple of large-player battles. I'm ashamed of how ugly the map is but it plays well, so.
Snow Castles - I have yet to release this. I made a very cleanly designed Castles and put in sam686's snow script. Unfortunately that script broke in 018a, which is why I have yet to unveil this.
Three O'Clock - Ummm ... this map is terrible, why did I make this.
Bot - Me trying to make a moderately simple CTF layout so that bots could play it worth a damn, then adding a really weird teleporter route that's pretty cool and reminiscent of Gibbed! Twisted Halls.
Retrieve:
They Call Me Crazy - One of my only successful attempts at creating lots of filler walls. This one survived the jump to Bitfighter quite well, although I have since changed it somewhat. The layout is basically the same, but it is three-flag Retrieve when it was originally five-flag, because five-flag is terribly difficult. It had one full capture to win back then, however, so I wasn't completely off my rocker.
Twofer - Once known as "Cute and Cuddly" and apparently made for Furbuggy, this map survived the jump from Zap to Bitfighter admirably. This is my oldest good Retrieve map.
Double Lucky - Old Zap map that's actually pretty decent. "Double Lucky" is a reference to a very minor character in Naruto who had that catchphrase. Hint: It was annoying as shit.
The Cave of Echoes - Apparently made for the Innovation contest for Bitfighter. Interesting concept, awful execution. One of my only takes at asymmetrical base layout. I succeeded at that, as it is balanced, the map is just boring and horribly bottleneck is the problem.
Pathetic Humans - Went through a major design change before being what it is now.
Diamonds Are Forever - I designed this one while in class, although obviously the Diamond theme came later. I heavily emphasized making a strange center.
Tight Space - Remake of a very old four-team Retrieve map of mine. I don't remember what it was originally called, I'll have to look for that later. Anyway it looks like it's great but plays badly.
InFILTERation - Bad puns + Massive Slipzone + Hilariously painful centerpiece graphic = this retarded map. It's good for a laugh but becomes tedious quickly.
Cavity Search - Probably one of my maps that I'm most proud of. 4-flag CTF where you retrieve 3 flags at your base and 1 in the center where competition gets heated very quickly. Very competitive, fun map. It is named Cavity Search because I was thinking about naming it some sort of Cave, which resulted in me thinking "Cavity." Then I realized that Retrieving is basically a search, so ... Cavity Search. Gross.
In The Deep - This started out as me trying to make some sort of underwater station looking thing, but it just didn't turn out that way. Its gameplay is solid but it is rarely played for whatever reason.
Surfing With The Alien - This map is the epitome of me making a level that has rock solid gameplay and then adding silly graphics until I was content. It ended up looking somewhat robotic and alien, so I named it "Surfing With The Alien," which is an album by guitarist Joe Satriani. I initially made this with the idea of "stock retrieve map" in mind, but we'll see if it actually gets to be stock or not. By making it pretty I kind of ruined the stock map feel, but I'm happy with the map regardless.
Aztec - Me proving that I can work from a reference in Bitfighter and make a badass graphic. I have never used the SVG tool, as cool as it is. Combine awesome themed graphics with decent gameplay and you get Aztec. I'm also very proud of its silly-ass description.
Ring Around the Rosie - This is me starting a map by creating 9 teams and then thinking "okay, what the hell can I do with 9 teams?" The result is a pretty damn unique, simple but effective map. I'm proud of this one.
Balls to the Wall Retrieve - I started with the outline, and then as four-team maps tend to play horribly I decided to revisit Cavity Search's concept of dominating a foreign base and increase it to each and every goal zone. I then decided I wanted a maze in the middle, and what better way to make a maze than randomization via levelgen? There is a lot of replay value in this map due to its random elements, even in flag spawns. There are a total of 24 different variations of the center map. Moderately large, it is perfect for BBB.
HTF:
Q-HTF - This map is godawful. I thought the design on my sweatshirt was pretty cool so I made it in Zap. HTF was just recently discovered so I was like "let's make it HTF!" Annnnnd I dunno, it's just awful. It plays horribly.
Firefight - Made in Zap days, and it's actually pretty good. I emulated the stock HTF map found in some older versions of Zap to make this.
Maya - First map I made getting back into Bitfighter just a little ways back. A good solid start, I think.
Head in the Clouds - I have no idea what I was thinking when I made this ... I sort of made the outline and then came up with Angels vs. Demons, sort of wanted to do an asymmetrical layout but pansied out. So I just made it thematic and stuff. The middle has a levelgen that bobdaduck designed.
Around the Bend - Remake of an old Zap map I made. I really thought the layout was cool but it kind of fell short, so I sought to give it some justice. The description is a bad reference to a Broadway play that I'm forgetting the name of.
Wub Wub Wub - "I want to make an HTF with three methods of attack and only one method of escape." Then I also decided to make a forward base in the middle, and utilize Teleporter Delay. Interesting map although scoring is godawful difficult.
Diamond Dust - Essentially Firefight 2.0. I wanted to theme a map off of some popular sodas for whatever reason ... and then I added diamond shards and stuff and ... I have no idea. The centerpiece is the Pepsi logo because lolololo so funneh~
WATERMELONS EVERYWHERE! - I was rude to Lisanna and felt bad so I wanted to make a map for her. Of course the very next day it turned out she was a lying bitch, sooooo I ended up taking that back. I soon realized the team colors were very watermelon-esque, so I designed a fancy-ass watermelon slice and went from there. The title and description are a reference to the Korn song "Dead Bodies Everywhere," which features a piece of lyric in the bridge "You want me to be! Something I could never ever be!" So ummm ... yeah no idea what I was thinking, but it's funny so why not.
Captain Planet - This guy Sicilica made a badass map called Planets. It is excellent in concept but mediocre in execution. This is my take on the concept, and it's not released yet because it will make use of a 019 feature. And yes, the name/description is a gay joke making fun of the show Captain Planet. This is what happens when good level names elude me.
Zone Control:
Ninjaman - Two things: I wanted to take another swing at the Pirates vs. Ninjas theme I did long ago in Zap days. Also, I thought that the way levels in the game N were laid out could be interesting Zap form. Then for some reason I completely lost all inspiration and sought to finish the map anyway, and you end up with the godawful Thank You, Drive Thru rip-off that it is. I will probably revisit this map at a certain point and do justice to my original intentions. The name "Ninjaman" is a reference to the name of the main character in N, and the description is me screwing with the lyrics to Lady Gaga's song "Summerboy," which has in the bridge the lyrics "Hey there Summerboy, I'm takin' off my heels." Replace Summerboy with Ninjaman, there's my description, GG. Truly a bizarre thing I did there but it's amusing so why not.
Snail World - I like to joke that I was high when I made this map. This is me combining a whole lot of different ideas; diagonal walls everywhere, an outside track of speedzones. Then I made one of the walls look fancy and realized it looked like a snail, and there is where I came up with the name "Snail World." I thought this sounded like "Small World," thus the description "It's a Snail World, after all!" The two pieces of text "A little-known fact about snails is their development of our modern day teleportation technology" and "A little-known fact about snails is their development of our modern day high-speed railway" is me poking fun at naming a map "Snail World" despite its fast-paced nature.
Serpentine - LAWL I'M GONNA MAKE A MAP THAT LOOKS LIKE STYLIZED CLOUDS! And then burn out half-way through ... I originally intended for the map to be huge and asymmetrical but I honestly burnt out because man is it a shit-ton of work to make a level look that good. Despite this, the gameplay turns out to be pretty fantastic. It eliminates the usual Zone Control problem of "okay, the guy has the flag, and we can't keep up with him." I couldn't come up with a witty description so I just plain left the description out. The name is obviously based on the appearance of the map. I am glad this map was deemed worthy of stock, although I wonder how the team names eluded our developers. "Gentlemen" and "Mentlegen" rather than Blue and Red. It's a Team Fortress 2 joke meme reference that's incredibly stupid.
The Grid - So I wanted to make a map with awesome Tron-esque graphics, combined with the theme of "the grid" and light cycles and stuff. I came up with the usual grid-like ZC design that's been done a hundred million times but put a unique spin on it by making a very time-consuming levelgen that randomizes the wall structure of the map. Doing this without compromising the level's stylish appearance proved to be very challenging. This map took a long time.
Bubblegum Wars - I thought, "LAWL, LET'S MAKE A MAP AS GAUDY AS POSSIBLE!" So I did. Annnnd the gameplay turns out to actually be pretty decent to boot. Cool! I realized that the colors I picked were both very much reminiscent of bubble gum and went with it. BubbleGum Wars sounds incredibly silly, and it probably spawned from my earlier creation of a Baldur's Gate character called "BubbleGumPinkSoldier," who was an evil mercenary with incredible strength who wore all pink. The description of the map is obviously a nod to Duke Nukem.
Soccer:
Spooning Leads to Forking - I made this while in the car on my laptop, which is very strange indeed. I was bored and decided "man, someone needs to make a good, simple, but fun soccer." So I did, by making it a basic layout with very strange looking walls that served to bounce the Soccer ball and make the map indeed challenging to score a goal. It took a lot of testing to make the map difficult with its wall angles but not too horribly difficult. The map name is courtesy of my sister, who was in the car with me at the time. I asked her for a map name and she said "Spooning Leads to Forking," which is a moderately dirty sexual innuendo, in case you missed that. From there I made the team names "Spooning" and "Forking" to make fun of silverwear, and then the description is another horrible pun "Ohh, fork it all." Upon playing this map a few times I noticed people would both intentionally and unintentionally get the ball stuck in their spawn ... so I cruelly added hostile goal zones, and IMO it's the best integration of hostile goal zones in a level that I've seen.
Arena Soccer - I saw an old Soccer map I made that was a giant Q, which I thought was amusing and kind of cool. So I remade it, as a sort of Arena-styled Soccer map. Too bad the level sucks balls. At least the description is amusing. "Let's get ready to RUMBLE!! lol j/k peacelove&dope" Do I really have to explain it? No thanks.
This is a Bad Map - I designed this map in class. It just turned out to be pretty crappy gameplay, what can you do.
Tasty Pina Coladas - Spooning Leads to Forking 2.0! Similar in design and gameplay but with an amusing theme. I dunno. I had fun making it.
Core:
Core Colosseum - Umm, Colosseum is one of my favorite stock maps, so I took the at the time new Core gametype and put it in Colosseum. It's okay but not brilliant.
Ducks Rock - So basically I started designing my first Core map, and I made these awesome bases ... but I had no idea what to do from there. One day bobdaduck and I decided hey why not, let's do a collaboration. I thought he would make an asymmetrical base or some such, but instead he ended up making the map symmetrical and designing the center. Anyway the map is super cool and very fun. I thought the inclusion of his janky black hole thing was kinda dumb but it's still a great map. For some reason we decided very early on that the team names would be "Standing Rib Roast" and "Burn Toast." We decided on Ducks Rock as a name for obvious reasons ... He's a duck and I'm a rock. The description, "No ducking way two peepz made this rocking map" follows the same theme. For some godawful reason "Burnt Toast" has turned into "Burnt Todst" in many versions of the map. We have no idea how this happened.
Launchpad McQuack - I have no idea ... gears, and circular layouts, and three teams with interesting colors, and ... yeah. Launchpad McQuack is a character from Duck Tales, and in Scott Pilgrim vs. the World Scott exclaims "alright let's start off the set with launchpad mcquack!" to which Stephen Stills replies, "Err, that's not the actual title..." before Kim quickly cues them to play the song anyway with no further explanation.
Progressive - This map happened as a result of my frustration with how Launchpad McQuack played. I got tired of Core circlers and stuff and sought to make a map that disallowed people from doing that terribly effectively. I ended up developing an interesting, progressive map, thus its name.
Encore - Ended up being a stock map. This map just plain felt natural to make. Like Progressive, I sought to make a map that felt as if it went in stages; breaking down the middle walls, then taking out the first core, going onto the final core.
Bubbles - I wanted to make a circular-style Core map, but knew that it could result in disastrous gameplay as a result of Core circle-jerkers. So I very intentionally sought to make that difficult. The description obviously ties the map name into the Power Puff Girls.
BitBash:
Intermissive - Basic small arena map. I ended up redoing it at a certain point. The name of the map is a reference to the stock map Intermission.
Cure for the Itch - Another basic small arena map. The title and description is a reference to the Linkin Park song "Cure for the Itch," which is basically a giant turntable solo that's completely badass.
Ampitheatre of Death - This map actually started out as the two-team Bitmatch "Boner" which I'm sure pretty much no one remembers. Then I completely morphed the hell out of it into this cruel, fast-paced arena.
Quartz' Mosaics - Umm ... this is my err ... "ode" to cloakdood's mosaics series ... unfortunately, unlike Mosaics, it sucks balls.
wat. - This is me screwing around with making walls look solid when they are not through messing with poly walls. I turned it into a sort of modern art gallery looking thing.
Search and Destroy - Yeah, the one-life concept? You're welcome. Obviously somewhat inspired by Call of Duty's actually good gametype.
Manhole - I saw a cool looking manhole on my college campus and was like damn ... that'd be awesome to recreate in Bitfighter. Since I'm actually pretty damn handy at working from a reference for this game, I recreated it almost exactly as it appears. One of the pieces is a bit small in comparison to its real life counterpart, that's about it. This is the map that everyone accuses me of using SVG converter on, but honestly if you just load it up in the editor it's quite clear that it was not made in such a way. So please shut up and give me some damn credit for being good at something, thanks? I've only been doing this shit for six years, you'd hope I'd actually be decent at it or something.
Ampitheatre of Despair - Me ripping off Invader Alex because he came up with this idea although I did not like his execution. The description is a reference to Gladiator, I believe.
This Map is All Bad - Once again me ripping off Invader Alex. I prefer to say I expanded on his idea though, and made this white-out map even more disgusting by putting Resource Items everywhere that are, of course, invisible.
Hunters/Nexus:
Mini-Colosseum - Because Colosseum is awesome but far too large, I cut out a lot of the empty space.
Forest of Fear - I wanted an arena-style map where ambushing people from inside walls was prevalent. Also I made a funky outside design. Cool stuff. The description is obviously a reference to the saying "I didn't choose the gangster life, the gangster life chose me" which is probably the most poetic thing any of those swagfags will ever come up with in their entire life.
Bag of Cats - This is me making a Hunters map that looks incredibly different everywhere ... it's crazy and non-sensible but it plays great regardless, which was my goal. To say something is a "bag of cats" is to say that it is insane, thus the name.
Gate - I'm not a fan, but I just sorta wanted to make something that looked like Stargate and some other Satanic shit. Thus this map happened.
Open Season - raptor says "hay somebody make a 4-team Nexus map for BBB" so even though I thought he was crazy I tried it. Turned out decent. The team names are lulz worthy, and the description is obviously a reference to Larry the Cable Guy ... yeahhhhh.
Deathmints - Still not sure what I was thinking when I made this. Like seriously ... so much what. I dunno.
Rabbit:
Pacman - So I worked my ass off to make a Pacman map that had the nice curved walls like in the actual game, and then went around claiming it was "lol teh best evahh!!" yeah I dunno man.
Pacman v.9001 - Me revisiting Pacman ... again ... like everyone else. I dunno.
Ninja Bunny - Small redesign of Forest of Fear to fit Rabbit gameplay. Also the outside of the map looks even more Satanic. The description is a reference to the "Cheapass Game's Devil Bunny Needs a Ham." Damn hilarious, little known game. I'm great at obscure references.
Other:
WORK IN PROGRESS. I need to go do other things. Feel free to leave feedback regardless.
† Exploits of Quartz and bobdaduck - Pleiades Maps †
† 19-year-old Quartz mad about lawn removal †
† 19-year-old Quartz mad about lawn removal †
raptor wrote:sometimes I think getting Quartz to use plugins is like getting my mom to use a computer