Fiodis's "Zorolar: Volcanic Asteriod" is another example of the much-maligned "first map," and while there are some commendations that can be given, I'm afraid it certainly deserves its fair share of some criticism as well.
The best things to be said here are some important ones: First, the author is obviously trying to be creative, in that his world is not set on (pick one) Yavin, Geonosis, or Tatooine. Second, there are none of the original map textures in there (except for a small part that's viewable thanks to the flyers, but was obviously not intended to be), including a change in the worn-out Yavin sky to a much more appropriate nighttime sky.
However, there are several points of contention I would make. The biggest point is that this is a two-CP conquest map. Yep, two CPs. That means you just fight and fight and fight and gee, well, the map might as well be an assault map because there's not a lot of conquering to be done. It's possible, of course, to win by conquest, but winning by conquest by capturing a single CP isn't any fun either.
The second point is that the map itself is pretty bland. Yes, the author did make a good effort to make it different from the multitude of "first-map-Yavin-IVs" out there, but new ground textures does not an exciting map make - at least not by themselves. There is a little terrain variation, but for the most part it's just a flat map, with a small assortment of hodgepodge props near each CP. Also, adding flyers to your map is a fine idea, but it's worth it to make sure the flyers have sound, and it's also worth it to make sure that it doesn't look sloppy once you get up in the air. It's a lot easier to see the sloppiness around the edges of a map when you can free-fly.
Additionally, the hero assault/conquest maps feel pretty unimaginitive. Yes, some of the heroes have new names, but they're basically the same heroes you're used to using in hero assault (and in the case of hero assault, they're the exact same units, just with different localizations). Adding a pistol or a chaingun as a secondary to a Jedi just feels a little silly when it's really the only change you've made.
Finally, filesize. Gee whiz, this is over 600 MB uncompressed - for a single map. That's uncalled for. There are a lot of ways to trim filesize - the biggest one is going to be not including a completely remunged all.lvl, imp.lvl, cis.lvl, rep.lvl, and jed.lvl. Heck, there are some .lvl files you can just straight-up delete; having tur.lvl and any of the SIDEshell.lvls is unnecessary.
-Mav
ZOROLAR: VOLCANIC ASTEROID This is my first-ever- map, so I hope it doesn't crash. I dont' see why it should, but you never know. ---------------------- Anyway, for those who actually read ReadMe's: Zorolar was once a planet whose sun has long since gone supernova. Now it floats dead in space while the last bit of radiation in its core warms a dying planet. GCW: The Rebels have discovered this planet/asteroid in the Outer Rim and have established a small mining operation to extract ores from the cooling magma. The Empire has learned of this operation and, naturally, has come to shut it down. Unfortunately for them, they couldn't spare too many cargo ships, so the Imperial's camp might seem even smaller than the Rebel Alliance's. CW: No story. Just a little Clone Wars addon. (See the CW Conquest note). Modes: GCW Conquest: Play Conquest in the GCW era. Self-explanatory. GCW Hero Assault: Play Mos-Eisley style Hero Assault (mostly - see NOTE ON THE NAMES). CW Conquest: This is the part that might require an explanation. CW Conquest is meant to be Hero Conquest. Play Conquest with hero-type teams and all that. The units in this mode are custom. (See NOTE ON THE UNITS). To install: Go to C:Program Files/LucasArts/SWBF2/GameData and make an addon folder there if you don't have on. Then, copy and past MBP into your addon folder. Congrats! Credits/Thanks: So, once on an RPG server I thought of making a map. And I called out to my friends there, "Hey! I'm making a map! Does anyone want some custom units?" And they gave me plenty of suggestions, some of which I was unfortunately unable to include due to my limited extent of modding knowledge. (Couldn't get the HARO unit to work in-game, sorry, Dragon; and a lot of the ones you asked for, Fallen, I couldn't get in either. But hey, this is version I.) So, first on the Credits/thanks list, thank you, Hero_Unit, (Jedi)Ldr.Fallen, MetroidNut, Omega, DarthVader'sCat, and Benndack. I did not make all of the props/units in the map, of course. Thanks goes to the following: Conversion Pack Team - For the ARC LA-AT Pinguin/Aman - for the Clone Assassin model (Shadow 21) 666rulerofclones - for converting the BattleFront 1 EMP grenade assets ARC_Commander - for the skin template for the Clone Assassin model Falco - the Clone Assassin's Vibroblade models Master|Rancor aka MetalRancor - helping Pinguin remove block from the Clone Assassin's COMBO file Caleb1117 - various props used Squipple/Eddie - Various props used Redline - for the dead units props PhantoM - for the MacGyver skin Thanks also goes to the GameToast Community for answering my million and one questions abou modding. Thanks! It is altogether possible that I have forgotten someone here. I don't ahve a good memory for this sort of thing. I apologive ahead of time to the modder whom I forgot, and thank you for your contribution. NOTE ON THE UNITS - Units I had not been able to include (but will try to in version II) - HARO, Caedus, Tahiri, Starkiller, Grefty, Commander Dak, Jaina Solo. And more. NOTE ON THE....er, thing - One of the stormtroopers assigned to go to Zorolar was unfortunately wearing some sort of magnetic device in his armor. When he landed, the device activated and snapped him to Zorolar's magnetic field, breaking his neck. Now his corpse is being dragged across the ground. Sorry about that, I'll try to get him out in version II. NOTE ON THE NAMES - Due do some strange cicumstances, a few things have escaped from the CW Conquest mode into the Hero Assault mode. For instance, Yoda has been replaced, accidentaly, by an identical Magma Gremlin. How he got there is beyond me.
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