We’ve been making some more progress on our next map. Read on for what’s new!

As you might recall from my previous article on the map progress of Unvanquished, we have another map in progress, being worked on by residentzack from the Warsow project and EmperorJack from our own. Much like Plat23, Thunder, Yocto and Parpax, it will be part of our default map pack when we hit beta next January. Of course, it will be done well before then, and we might have a version for you all to test this summer. Much like our other maps, it will be covered in glorious bump mapping, but it is a notable departure in that it is our first map to be designed by someone from outside of the Tremulous community, and it will be developed using modular design.

As the name implies, the map is set in a sort of futuristic urban environment. It has a multi-level design, with railings to hopefully prevent human players from accidentally tipping over some of the ledges up top. There is an even blend of long corridors and tight corners to ensure that there are good spots to both ambush stray humans and duel with larger aliens. Bridges and ramps will connect various areas of the map, which as you can tell has quite an immense amount of surface area. There will be lots of hiding spots.

We’ll be making some new textures for the map when we have the layout done, and as you can tell, map will have a blue tone to it. Portions of it will be dark and gloomy, presumably on the lower levels where scary things lurk. Above, beyond a glass dome, the skybox will contain eerily darkened skyscrapers off in the distance. Ruins, or is the conflict still hot? We may never know. It’s best to focus on the battle at hand, as gazing at the city around you for too long will leave you vulnerable to a roaming marauder.

Here’s a diorama of the map itself. The large area to the right of the map corresponds to the concept art in the previous section. Proportions will definitely be changed, map objects will be strewn around in tasteful places to ensure that the map is kept balanced yet flavorful, but the one thing to take away is that the map looks much larger than the diorama suggests. I would estimate that it will end up being medium-large or even bigger than that, somewhere between the size of Parpax and Thunder.

Here’s our human model standing around on one of the platforms, to provide you with a sense of scale. Of course, this is not a proper shot of the map, because at this stage we’re in the process of blocking it out. When you create a map, the first thing you do is make an empty map with placeholder textures to ensure that you’re fine with most features of the layout before you get into adding the fine detail, like map objects and decorations and actual textures.

Once we’re done blocking the map out, which should be sometime soon, we’ll have much more to show you. It’s an ambitious map project, and one that has been in planning for quite some time now. Of course, we’re an ambitious project ourselves, and we’d love to know what you all think about the map once it’s ready to playtest. Until then, keep playing Unvanquished, and see you next week!