jumprun by NaturalSpringWater (jumprun) - ..::LvL - Quake 3 Arena Maps (Q3A Custom Maps)

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jumprun by NaturalSpringWater - 25 Feb 2009

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Video Readme Maps by Author

Game type:	Experimental
Weapons:	x2
Items:	x10 x9 x7 x8
Bots:	No bot keywords yet
Theme:	No theme keywords yet
Textures:	No texture keywords yet

Rate release: Currently 7.84 / 10 (19 votes)

156

7.84

5686f8097c022e5b6bb898018d62f7fd

Your vote:

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Jumprun is, as the name implies, a jump run in which the player has to complete 7 stages within a set timelimit (15 minutes) using flawless execution of a sequence of movement-based skills. The first 3 stages involve combinations of walking/running, crouching and jumping; the 4th stage centres on accelerator and bouncepad strafes and jumps and the 5th stage puts the grenade launcher to good use, while stages 6 & 7 put your rocket-jumping skills to work. As a reward for all this effort there is a quadded jump at the end of stage 7 which will take you on up to the finish line and into the winner's box. NaturalSpringWater has included weapon and ammo pickups, health bubbles and battlesuits to aid you along the way.

While the run can obviously be completed within the timeframe given, the time restriction can be frustrating during the learning phase of the map - so I would suggest loading it as a devmap initially and noclipping your way over to individual sections until the jump sequences are mastered. Alternatively a defrag menu file (written in notepad and saved as a .defi file extension) may be written for it so it can be played under the run menu of this modification.

Checkpoints are featured at the beginning of each stage, so there is no need to restart at the beginning of the map when failing to complete a section. Slime features as the main obstacle after overcoming the jumps themselves and a variety of colour-coded walls located in the final rocket-jumping stages also function as obstacles that will respawn the player back to the last checkpoint.

Visually, the design of the map is fairly consistent throughout but I would like to have seen the 2 rocket sections swapped around and the textures used in the initial stage and jumppad section replaced with those used in the remaining stages (they're a little garish) - but this is purely a personal preference.

On the other hand, there is the matter of the blue glowing pentagram which is used throughout the jumpad and grenade stages as both a moving platform and a vertically moving obstacle. Given this item presents itself as no real obstacle vertically, I would have been happy to see it left out altogether and replaced with something more traditional (and in keeping with the overall design of the stages) where it is included as a moving platform. The initial section could also be tidied up and retextured so the ascending path doesn't look like something that was cut out of craft-paper.

The author notes in the readme file an imbalance to the map concerning the difficulty levels of the 2 rocket stages but I personally didn't find this bothersome. It is not uncommon for DeFRaG mappers to place the hardest jump sequences at the beginning or in the middle of a map which, in the long run, is a time-saving feature eliminating the problem of having to continuously repeat whole sections until the thorny jumps are mastered.

Another problem noted by the author is the presence of the grenade launcher from the previous stage in section 6 - intended for completion with the rocket launcher only. To be perfectly honest, by this stage I was grateful for its assistance in a couple of the jumps and felt it worked nicely as a combination weapon-jumping section. While I can't offer any real solution to the problem, I wonder if it's possible to set disable_weapon_grenadelauncher 1 at this point in the maps configuration.

Strangely enough, the areas where I had the most difficulty are probably not as the author had envisioned. For example the last jump in the slime on stage 3 before making the ascent along the walls (if I wasn't hitting the upright, I was pulling back too early or too late) and the jump-crouch combo off the bouncepad in stage 4 gave me more problems than most of the weapon jumps.

So what to make of all this?

Essentially, a skills-based run that suits its purpose well but could do with some cosmetic surgery. Worth the download for those who want to test and improve their movement skills. And as with all maps of this kind; it requires some time and patience. It kept me off the streets for awhile.

-Mark

2031

Posted comments:

#5 FragTastic

09 Jan 2012, 01:06 EST

Excellent map for Rocket Launcher! I love it! 10/10

#4 mark
Not registered
09 Mar 2009, 20:59 EST

thanks for clearing things up - i think this would explain why defrag mappers only give you enough ammo to complete the required jump and why in other maps (where there are alternate routes, or more than 1 jump combo possible) it is easier to give the player the weapon again in later sections rather than just leaving an ammo pack - cheers

#3 Anonymous
Not registered
07 Mar 2009, 02:53 EST

Hi mark - you make use of the target_give entity. If a target_give targets an ammo pack with a negative "count" value, the player's ammo will decrease. I knew this back then; but the problem with this is that if you strip more ammo from a player than they have, they go into the negatives, and are able to shoot infinitely. So you need to know exactly how much they have and take away exactly that much. Since weapons supply up to a certain ammount of ammo, and give +1 after that, you can give the player a weapon first (with a count value higher than how much ammo the player could possible have, so 200 will always work), then immediately after take away that much ammo. If the player is able to shoot off a shot right in the middle, he'd get infinite ammo, but this is hard to do. If you want to be sure, run a check by doing the process again 1 or 2 seconds later when he wont expect it.

#2 Mark
Not registered
04 Mar 2009, 12:26 EST

Thks nsw - i had alot of fun (and frustration) doing this run. just out of curiosity how did you solve the problem of weapon disabling? (i know you can use a numeric matrix which sets weapon availablility on maps - but i think this is a server side only cmd). thks once again

#1 naturalspringwater

28 Feb 2009, 15:58 EST

Hi i just wanted to say TY for the positive feedback. I can tell you clearly put a lot of effort into understanding the map before reviewing it; this is very good. What you said about the painful texturing in certain rooms, i couldn't agree with you more. And as for the grenade ammo issue - i have recently solved it when it came up in other maps like bball. but like several of my most recent releases, jumprun is a map whose .map file is long lost, and there are changes i only wish i could make. thx again for the good review (:

Edited: 28 Feb 2009 AEST