Two New Multiplayer Maps: Desert Requiem and AvP2-Auriga

[Olde]

Hey everyone, I'm very pleased today to present two new maps from the AvP Classic community. The first is Desert Reqiuem by RhapsodyInGeek. The following is a trailer for his map:

And here is his map's description:

Twilight descends upon an arid planet. An outpost has been made by a dig site that has unearthed an ancient temple of inhuman origin. The excavation has both alerted the custodians of the sacred site and awoken an infection once again festering beneath the sands...

Desert Requiem is remake of a map I made when I was around 12 or 13 years old called Desert Storm (one of the first custom maps released for AVP, and one of the only to be made with the hideous GeomTool). I lost the map ages ago, but around 20 years later was able to find it again thanks to the preservation efforts of the AVP Classic Community including some dumb kid's box canyon map in their Ultimate Map Pack.

Replaying it a couple years ago, I was a bit surprised by how well I could see kid me's intent in the design. I had some really good ideas buried in the flat dunes, but I hadn't yet developed the skillset needed to express that intention. My designs were beyond my abilities.

I decided to play around with Inteng again recently, to see if I might be able to document what are largely forgotten tools for a landmark game. What ended up happening is me developing a new workflow utilizing Blender to develop maps for a 25 year old game that time forgot. Seeing as this year marks 25 years of Aliens versus Predator 1999, what better celebration for me as a game dev than to remake the first game project I ever released? My idea was to try to make the map 12 year old me had dreamed up, using the skills I've developed across 2 decades. I think I largely succeeded; I want to believe 12 year old me would think what I've made is so cool.

I want to give special shoutouts to the AVP Classic Discord, especially Olde for his time and knowledge and interest in helping me figure out how to make all of this work, and for his tutorials inspiring me to actually go through with making this thing. Also for volunteering to bug hunt on the map before I made a fool of myself.

To install the map, just copy the sub-folders within the DesertRequiem folder (avp_rifs, graphics, sounds) into your AVP installation directory. The map should then be available in multiplayer.

The map is intended to be played Species Deathmatch, but should work fine with any game mode. It is also compatible with co-op, though expect a few issues with AI navigation.

I don't know how many people will play this, but if you do I hope it becomes a staple for your seasonal AVP matches!

Happy 25th Anniversary, AVP'99!

DESERT REQUIEM LINK: https://www.moddb.com/games/aliens-vs-predator/addons/desert-requiem

The second map releasing today is a conversion of the AvP2 map, Auriga, made by yours truly. It's very faithful to the original map, with an interesting mix of dark and bright lighting. The ladders work too, you just have to jump into them. The map will not work in coop mode.

AVP2-AURIGA LINK: https://www.moddb.com/games/aliens-vs-predator/addons/avp2-auriga
ALTERNATIVE MIRROR: http://avpunknown.com/avpclassic/files/maps/avp2auriga.zip

[x-M-x]

Epic

[Corporal Hicks]

They are looking fantastic, Olde! Nice work!

[Olde]

I can't take credit for Desert Requiem but thanks for the kind words about Auriga!

[BlueMarsalis79]

Title typo.

[Olde]

Thanks, the title has been corrected.

[Olde]

Recently I've developed a more intricate way of creating complex lighting to simulate alpha masks (because the game unfortunately lacks this ability), and as such I've been working on getting more interesting and authentic lighting and textures integrated into Auriga. It's been difficult and time-consuming to do but hopefully it will be worth it in the end.

[Olde]

Here are more in-game screenshots of progress.

[Olde]

Well this is certainly interesting. We've just discovered a handy new lighting trick for how to retain pitch black areas while at the game's maximum gamma setting. Previously Auriga's lighting was designed for default gamma, which is around 35%, because this was the best option at the time to get good vibrancy and maintain total darkness in some areas. However since this new discovery, I've redesigned the map's lighting around the game's maximum gamma setting, which is what most players set their game to. Even though I expect most people will play it using the maximum gamma setting, it will still be somewhat dark and capable of keeping its share of totally pitch black areas. Essentially you won't have to switch back and forth between gamma settings to see the map's intended look.

Below are comparison screenshots entirely on the 100% gamma setting. The old images obviously relate to our initial release and the new images are the revamped ones for our forthcoming update.

[CANNON]

Wow this is awesome! This game is still playable?

[Olde]

Yes, the game is still playable and being played currently.

I'm finally finished with updating the map's lighting and adding other refinements. I've updated the map release on ModDB and on AvPUnknown servers. A little interesting note here: this may be the first actually practical application of the species-specific flags in any custom map. The invisible ladder entities have been given the marine-only and predator-only species flags (these are hidden flags), so they do not appear for the alien, creating a smoother experience for alien players wall-crawling up the ladders. Special thanks to Bobblen for figuring out how to apply these hidden flags to objects without Leadworks.

MODDB LINK: https://www.moddb.com/games/aliens-vs-predator/addons/avp2-auriga
ALTERNATIVE MIRROR: http://avpunknown.com/avpclassic/files/maps/avp2auriga.zip

[CANNON]

Thanks for letting me know and that's awesome - how do I Play?

[Olde]

The game is available on Steam or GOG for purchase.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/3730/Aliens_versus_Predator_Classic_2000/

[CANNON]

Thanks