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Taspir Power Complex V3

taspir_power_complex_v3.zip

Description

Taspir, or FFA 5 as it is known in multiplayer, seems to be a map that a lot of people like. However, I was never very fond of the Taspir map in MP, mostly because I kept getting lost in it…:P Seriously! The insides of the three towers around the map all look the same, and I could never tell where I was or which floor I was on. Mind you, I did get lost in my own map once... Errm, perhaps I shouldn't have said that.

Ehem, anyway, on with the review! Well, we have a big treat for you here today. Fans of the previous two versions of the Taspir Power Complex map will be drooling to get their hands on the latest version no doubt. Never fear, for your download is near (well just at the bottom of this review actually)! I think people who have never heard of this map, or perhaps didn’t like the previous two versions will be won over by the latest maps incredible features.

Since this is such an epic map, this is going to be quite a lengthy review, even then I will have to cut bits out, since there are such a huge amount of features in this map, I would have to write a book to cover them all!

If you have been waiting for this map, my nice long review will be a good thing for you, since it will take you marginally longer to scroll down the page to get to the download button, thanks to its length. Hopefully this will build up the suspense and excitement just a little bit more. :P

Anyway, where do I start? This is such a HUGE map that there is a lot to cover here. In fact the main map could really be two maps in one (I shall come to that later). Although I should really call this a map pack, since there are actually a number of maps included in the .pk3 here, including a night time version of the main map, and also a CTF map and a couple of duel maps!

Since there is so much here, I will concentrate mostly on the main FFA map of the files title.

First of all lets have a look at the:

Architecture

The architecture of the original Taspir map was pretty simple, yet at the same time distinctive. The author here has improved the architecture for the original areas of the map; however, the real challenge comes when you start adding new areas to the original one. The thing is, to make the transition between old and new as seamless as possible, you have to build your new areas in the same style of architecture as the old areas. This makes the map seem more of a whole, rather than an obvious mixture between the original parts, and the new additions. Trust me when I say that this is a difficult thing to do!

The author has done an excellent job here, merging the original Taspir areas with his new additions. In some areas, I honestly couldn’t tell where the old map ended, and where the new additions began, they were that well blended together. That is a difficult thing to do, so well done there mate! :)

Additions

Well, where do I start?! There are so many new areas to explore here, I could spend all day writing about them! One of my favourite areas was the ‘clan bedrooms’ area. This seems to be a feature on quite a lot of clan oriented maps, such as Sith Council v2, however, I think the bedroom area in this map is the best I have ever seen in any clan themed map. It is well laid out, there is lots of space and the furniture is much more realistic than I’ve seen in other maps. Importantly though, the furniture here is also properly sized, so no gigantic desks or chairs, they are the right proportion to the player character!

We also have new areas added to the top of the towers in the main part of the map. There are some landing pads with spawnable ships, gun turrets, and even what looks to be an air traffic control tower! There are also many other features up here, however, another one of my favourite areas was down below…

Going through a door in the mountain side down at the bottom near the lava takes you into what must be the reason for the maps name; the Power Complex. This is a large area inside a huge cave, with power generators, lots of walkways with girders, pipes, and all manner of industrial looking apparatus filling the area. Also most impressive is how the lava is down below, lighting the cavernous space with its fiery red glow. On a side note, I also want to say how much I was impressed with the new lava texture, it is a vast improvement over the original Base JKA lava texture!

The most colossal addition to this map (in fact, it could be a whole map in itself) is the massive space area, filled with asteroids! There is a space station with spawnable ships, masses of asteroids and other features, and my favourite part) a huge asteroid in the middle much like the one seen in Episode 2 during the dogfight between Jango and Obi Wan. It has several holes in it, and a sizeable area inside, so you can test your piloting skills out trying to fly through it! ;) Even more clever, the way to get to this space area is simply to get one of the spawnable ships and fly it up into the sky…you are then teleported straight to the space sector! If you want to go back to the planet’s surface, then all you need to do is fly towards the planet in the skybox in space. A very clever system for moving between the two areas that I haven’t seen done before.

Even after all that, there is still a huge amount of new features and areas to explore on this map, you can keep coming back day after day and keep finding new things!

Interactivity

Once again, I could write a book with the amount of interactive features there are on this map! As I have already said, there are spawnable ships in various areas of the map for flying around in, as well as many new areas which have interactive features.

This map has a total of 56 scripts which control and enable certain things to happen around the map. Now that probably won’t mean a lot to most people unless you are a mapper. But let me say that most maps have no scripts at all! And the ones that do have scripts, generally speaking don’t have that many. In that light that 56 scripts in a single map, is a huge amount and must have taken a lot of work!

There is one particular secret, which probably involves a fair few of those scripts, which will make your eyes pop out with the incredible changes it actually makes to the map, however that is a secret, so I shall say no more. :P

Perhaps the best interactive feature of this map is the ability to customise it for your own clan. I know on some clan-oriented maps, various different clans that use the map will replace the original clan’s textures (logos and such) in the .pk3, with their own textures and logos. Thus when they play the map, the original clan’s logos and textures have been replaced with their own, thus customising it for their own use. This map is very special however, in that this is the first map I have ever come across that has this ability built into the design of the map which means the map was meant to have certain textures replaced so clans can customise it for themselves!

***Full instructions on how to do this are on the authors website, you can find the address in the readme below.***

As well as that, there are a huge amount of teleporters hidden throughout the map which take you to various secret places. Including secret observation rooms, rooms with lots o’ buttons that do various things throughout the map (including changing the music), excellent sniping positions, secret areas for duelling in and so on.

A nifty feature in the hidden duel rooms is the auto return feature, so if you are defeated in the duel, or die any other way, you are automatically teleported back into the duel room you were in before. To leave the room or disable this feature all you need to do is just walk to the exit sign, and you are teleported back into the main map.

Extras

In reality, this isn’t just one map, but actually six maps! First of all we have the main FFA map, which comes in two flavours, both a day and a night version! The night version gives a whole different feel to the map, and is very well done.

Then we have a CTF version of the main map, which has had several areas changed, including the main platform in the middle of the map, which has been made dramatically smaller. It also new moves up and down, and deploys a small ramp to get onto it, all by using the console near it. This was very well made, and could be useful for all kinds of things, especially duels and such. The layout of other areas is also slightly different, but still similar to the main FFA map. The red and blue flags are housed at the top of the towers, which are lit by red and blue lights respectively on the outside.

Moving on, we then have another tree Duel maps! Two of them are the same, being the main platform area from the original map, once again coming in night and day versions. A really cool (and somewhat scary) feature of these maps is that the lava down below the platform starts to rise every so often, accompanied by a small earthquake…until the lava engulfs the two lower platforms / areas leaving just the main platform up to! So if you are duelling down below, and the earthquakes start, you know that’s your que to move to the upper platforms, or get engulfed by rising lava! The other duel map, is another area from the new main map, the underground cavern where the power plant is. This makes a fantastic place to duel because of the numerous walkways and the deadly lava down below! ;)

Conclusion

All in all this is an absolutely epic map, and I’m really not exaggerating when I say that. It really is that good! It has endless secrets to explore, new areas to discover, incredible interactivity and on top of all of that, it has been tailored to also suit the needs of clans.

As far as interactive clan themed maps go, I really do believe that this map sets the new gold standard in terms of the huge amount of features it offers, and the overall consistent excellent build quality. And if you are wondering about low FPS, the author also included another .pk3 in the .zip file (Tpcv3_low_fps_fix.pk3) which disables certain features which may slow older computer systems, thus making the map even more accessible to people.

This is an absolute must download as far as I am concerned, I haven’t seen a map with this many things to do, secrets to discover and new areas to explore for longer than I can remember!

Come on guys, give this map a download, you know you want to! ;)

Main Map:

Bot Support: Yes New Textures: Yes New Sounds: Yes New Music: Yes New Scripts: Yes (TONS of them!) Game Types: FFA, TFFA CTF

CTF Map:

Bot Support: Yes New Textures: Yes New Sounds: Yes New Music: Yes New Scripts: Yes Game Types: CTF

Duel Maps:

Bot Support: Yes New Textures: Yes New Sounds: Yes New Music: Yes Game Types: Duel, Power Duel

~Nozyspy~

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README

***********************************************
     Star Wars - Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy
            Taspir Power Complex V3
       FFA, TFFA, CTF, DUEL & POWER DUEL
***********************************************

INFO:


Title: Taspir Power Complex, Version 3

Authors: Parabolic Mind - NAB622, Hypernova, PhasmatisApparatus, Ghosthree3, Yami_Ryou, StolenBlade, Diablo, Phred and Adrian

E-Mail: [email protected]

Website: www.geocities.com/parabolicmind or www.nab622.com

Filename: taspir_power_complex_v3_ffa.pk3
Filesize: 51.7 MB

Date released: 6/15/2008

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INSTALLATION INSTRUCTIONS:

Take the file "Taspir_Power_Complex_V3.pk3" out of this zip file and put it in your Jedi Academy game's base folder. If you used the default installation directory, it should be something like this: C:program fileslucasArtsStar Wars - Jedi knight: Jedi Academygamedataase

TO START:
Start your game, click play and go to "create a game". It will show up in the list for both FFA and Team FFA. Pick your gametype and go!

If you have low FPS, or if you have an older computer, you should also take the "Tpcv3_low_fps_fix.pk3" file and put that in your base folder as well.

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DESCRIPTION:

A remap/addon of FFA5. There are many extra goodies in here! For instance, you now have access to all floors in all buildings. There is a lava power plant (hence the name, Taspir Power Complex) in the lowest level of the building with the red lights on it. There is a secret teleporter hub, from which you can go to almost any major place in the map in just a few seconds. There are some ship spawners on the tops of the buildings as well as several strategically placed turrets to promote air-to-air, ground-to-air and air-to-ground gameplay as well!

Most of all, this map is CLAN CAPABLE! There are several bedrooms in the bottom of the blue building. The pictures on the wall are made to be easily CUSTOMISED to have images of your choice. Best of all, since most clans like to have their logos in maps, this map can have YOUR CLAN'S LOGO put into it! There are simple instructions on how to do it on my site. There's also a lockable council room, for those clans that like in-game meetings. There's a TON more, but I think I've more than exceeded a decent description space.

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MODDABILITY:

Yes, that's right! You can change and customize the way this map operates! You can also add your own clan's logo, and it will appear in the map!

First off, let's cover the logos. Your clan can put it's own logo in the map! This will be done through a private download to make TPC look and operate the way they want. Doing the logos is as easy as making a JPG image of your clan's logo, and then putting it with any script mods you make/download into a PK3 (I have made easy step-by-step instructions on my site). You can also change the pictures in the bedroom area to any pictures you like. To learn more, go to http://www.nab622.com/tpcv3/mods.html and you can do it all yourself. Very neato, huh?

I mentioned above that you can change the way TPC operates. I'll try and explain it simply.

All maps run from a compiled BSP file, which cannot be modified. However, TPC implements 56 scripts to perform different things. These scripts can be changed without having to recompile the map, so you can modify them however you want and make the map do different things. On my site, there are different scripts available that I have pre-programmed with different functions. If you want, you can see the code for most of the scripts (the super secret scripts will remain super secret).

If you didn't understand any of that, just go to the site - there are step-by-step instructions with lots of pictures to guide you through.

http://www.nab622.com/tpcv3/mods.html
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BUGS:

There are two known bugs:

The first is in the red building, at the flight of stairs going from the top floor to the third floor. If you roll off the top of the steps going downwards, you grab onto an invisible wall in the ceiling and hang there...? This has been there since v1, and it can't be fixed.

The second (I think it's still there) is if you make the lava solid, then go to the dueling room next to the power complex at the bottom of the map, walk on it the lava. It still hurts you a little bit - 4 hp per second.

But other than that, this map is as bug-free as several months of personal beta testing can get it. If you find something that seems like a bug, it's probably not a bug, but a secret area disguised as a bug...

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COMMENTS:

'PHT' is a legal word in the official Scrabble Dictionary that means "An expression of annoyance or disgust"! Isn't that great?!

OH, you mean comments on the FILE! Oh, it's great! It's a LOT of fun. I can't WAIT to play it on a public server with all the other people's!!

If you are epileptic, DO NOT PLAY THIS MAP. In fact, you shouldn't be playing JA at all....but this map has areas with flashing lights and things, and I don't want to be causing seizures. That would make me feel bad. :P
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SECRETS:

There's a lot of stuff in this map to keep you busy. Here's one of them: There is a teleporter hub that will grant you fast access to just about any area of the map. To get in, you have to complete a "test". The entry point for the "test" is pretty much the same as in V2, but the test is completely changed. In V2, you had to jump over a pit of lava with a disabled grapple hook. In V3, you have a huge slippy slide to go through without falling off. And yes, your grapple hook is still disabled.

Another thing to keep you busy: Hypernova has a multicolored vortex as his personal logo. Excluding the spinning vortex cube, there are 11 vortexes hidden around the map. Some of them are quite hard to find. I'll give up one: The slide that activates the teleporter hub has one on it...somewhere.

One last thing I'll spoil for you: There are 4 hidden duel rooms in this map. There are secret buttons you can push that will teleport you in, and when you die, it will automatically return you to the duel room you were in. Cool, no?

There are a LOT more secrets than that - look for them. There's stuff EVERYWHERE! I lost count when the secrets got over 50, and that was during V2.

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CREDITS:

First and foremost, credit goes to LucasArts and *cough* Raven Software. Their creation of that "abomination" called FFA5 (Buah-hahaha!!) gave us a good starting point. Second, we need to credit our music sources. The main music track is from Indiana Jones - Raiders of the Lost Ark, the second track came from Dark City, and the third track came from an old 1997 game called Pandemonium. The CTF and Duel music came from Jurassic Park II.

Also, VERY special thanks to Hypernova, who made a really nice lava texture (he must have made at least 15 of them)! On top of that, he stuck with this project to the very end, pushing it along with new textures, models, loading shots, and all kinds of other goodies. A lot is owed to him - TY HYP! It wouldn't be the same without your help.

Very special thanks also to Ghosthree3 for all his testing work as well. A lot of bugs were fixed because of him. :]

Thanks to NAB622's brother, who made a really nice looking planet for the space skybox. Finally, Thanks to the beta testers of V2 and also to Phred, Yakosan, Ey, Wawel, Stealth, Mystic, Traxas and many others I can't remember all the names of. They had LOTS of ideas for improvement.

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THIS MODIFICATION IS NOT MADE, DISTRIBUTED, OR SUPPORTED BY ACTIVISION, RAVEN, OR
LUCASARTS ENTERTAINMENT COMPANY LLC. ELEMENTS TM & © LUCASARTS ENTERTAINMENT COMPANY LLC AND/OR ITS LISCENSORS. I THINK SHIFT LOCK IS STUCK ON. WHO CARES. NOBODY READS THESE THINGS ANYWAY, ESPECIALLY THE PART IN CAPITALS AT THE END. SO I DON'T KNOW WHY IT'S THERE. SO I'LL MAKE SURE IT'S NICE AND LONG. THAT WAY YOU ALL KEEP READING IT BECAUSE YOU ARE INTERESTED IN WHAT IT MIGHT CONTAIN. BUT HAHA! YOU'VE BEEN FOOLED! IT DOESN'T CONTAIN ANYTHING WORTHWHILE! SO THERE! HAHA! AND YOU'VE WASTED YOUR TIME READING THIS! :P AND YOU GOT RICK ROLLED!

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