Alden Bates' Weblog

I like nature-ish maps more than techno ones, probably because they more reflect reality as it stands. Unfortunately UT is yet to emulate nature convincingly, but it's only a matter of time before graphics manage to catch up enough to make realistic scenery possible.

Tropica takes place on a wide island lush with plants and trees. Run-down wooden structures litter the beach around the power cores and two outermost nodes, while the central node is housed in a stone temple. On either side of the temple are stone towers. The foliage does give the island a nice tropical field, though there are a couple of places where the glitches show (mainly trees passing through stone!) you won't really notice them in the heat of battle....

Each power node gets a tank, a hellbender, a scorpion and three turrets. There's also a mega-health pack on the wooden platform directly behind the power core, which may come in handy... If your team mates sod off with allt he vehicles, the nearby tower has a lift in it which will take you to node 3.

Node 1: on the east shore supplies a scorpion. There's also a couple of health packs on the wooden platforms.

Node 2: on the west shore is a mirror image of node 1.

Node 3: in the centre of the island is housed in the ruined temple. It supplies a manta and a raptor (invaluable for getting to the redeemer (on top of the north tower) and target painter (on top of the south tower)) and is where much of the action will take place...

There are four node configurations supplied with this level...

Default: A line from the north power core, to node 1, to node 3, to node 2, to the south power core. Send some of your team to node 3 ready to take it once you've captured the node linked to your power core. You may also want to send someone to the opposing node to try to prevent the other team from taking it as long as possible, since there's a handy path to it...

Direct Link: As it says, a direct link through node 3 connecting the two power cores. Basically a race to the node - if you manage to win the ensuing battle and capture the node, be sure to leave someone there to guard the node, because the opposing team will immediately try to retake it.

Diamond Link: nodes 1 and 2 are connected to both power cores and node 3. Once you capture one of the two outer nodes, you should launch an attack on the opposing power node, because they'll be doing the same. If you can capture both, great! The centre node is less of a priority, though the Raptor is handy.

Triple Link: the most difficult - capturing any of the three nodes will allow you to attack the enemy core, so likely the most organised team will win... When using my test bots, the lower-speced bots were surprisingly able to beat the higher-speced bots with little difficulty.