I haven’t had time to add any new updates to this blog recently as I’ve been working super hard at my new job at Irrational Games working on Bioshock: Infinite. I probably won’t have time to add any new updates to this blog until the game ships 
Update: won’t be posting for awhile
Two Quick Screenshots from Indecision
Now that I revamped CTF-Dehnaria, I’ve been working on finishing up the level for the Titan Quest map Indecision so that I can start placing spawns and adding quest specifics. I am about a day from being done with the level, but I figured I’d share two images I took of the level in its current state, one of the beach area and fringes of the town and the other of the haunted graveyard section where players can fight undead creatures.
Seashore and the Fringes of the Village
Haunted Graveyard
Dehnaria v1.2
After spending a little time polishing my old CTF Unreal 3 map, it is ready to be released as version 1.2! Most of the gameplay specific changes were fairly minor, including optimizing AI pathing to avoid stuck spots. Most of the work actually went into the visuals, including making the decoration more appealing, covering up BSP corners with actual static meshes, and putting a bunch of work into lighting fixes. The first version was way too dark, so I worked to up the overall lighting in the level by room, without decreasing the interesting contrast of high and low areas of light.
Map Files
The official published map files for version 1.2 of CTF-Dehnaria can be found here:
CTF-Dehnaria v 1.2
There is a readme.txt included that gives instruction about how to play it. You do need a working copy of Unreal 3 in order to play it.
Screenshots
Video Footage
A fly-through video of the map can be seen here: (Make sure to click on 720p!)
Polishing CTF-Dehnaria
So, before I moved too far forward with the new Titan Quest map, I thought it was in my best interest to go back to two of my previous levels and polish them up. Right now I’m working on fixing up CTF- Dehnaria. Pretty much, I’m brightening the lighting overall as looking back now, I think it’s a bit dark for a multiplayer map. In addition, I’m also adding much more interesting deco to the scene. I’m covering up sharp edges built from a bsp mesh as I believe it makes the map look very old school, when polys were limited. I’m also adding more decoration to the walls and ceilings in general as I believe they look a little boring in their current state.
I will post pictures and hopefully a video later today of my changes.
Error: “Invalid Region Reference” when trying to link two portals?
If you are creating an entrance to an indoor area, whether it’s a cave or a building, you will need to link the two portals together in order to actually enter the interior in-game. However, you may experience this error the first time you link two portals in your map:
Error: Invalid Region Reference
If this error happens, it is a fairly simple fix. All you have to do is rebuild the pathing + maps, save the level and re-open it. Try to re-link the portals after you re-open and it should work properly without any problems!
First Screenshots – Indecision
For an update on how the Indecision level is going, I’m working hard on the world building aspect of it currently. I started out making a rough blockout, pulling from the paper design, making sure the pathing distances seemed reasonable and the terrains were the correct height. When I was satisfied there, I divided the map into different sections in my head. Taking one section at a time, I am currently working on finalizing the art for each section.
Polishing an area consists of several steps: heightmap painting, terrain painting, basic static mesh placement, accent pieces and deco to bring a sense of place to the space.
Heightmap painting
I start off polishing up the heightmap (aka: terrain height) painting and make it look less ‘uniform’ than my quick blockout. I also add a bit of randomness in there, since it is rare that ground is completely flat.
Texture painting
Next, I choose a texture palate that matches the original concept that I have for the space. I paint down the basic textures first, which usually consists of a base texture for the ground (usually dirt or sand), one for underwater, and one for the rocky slopes. Then, I paint in the subtle player path through the space. Depending on the space, I will often layer another basic style texture on top of the first in some spaces (aka: paint grassy areas over the dirt).
Finally, I start layering new textures on top of the basic ones to add a dynamic feel to the space and to make it look less uniform. Also, I try to keep in mind what the space is being used for and that will determine what layering I do on top of it. For example, if it is a space that is often traveled, I will make the ground more run down and less grassy spaces. If there are trees that are starting to fall, I will layer over leafy textures on the ground.
Static Mesh Placement
Pulling from my original design on paper, I already have a general idea what the sense of place is for each area. I start thinking of how I can accomplish the design by first placing simple static meshes (aka: houses, trees, large rocks, walls, etc). next, I will add accent deco pieces, which includes organic elements (bushes, smaller rocks, natural rubble, etc) and human-made elements that make the area feel lived-in (like baskets, wood piles, equipment used for work, etc).
So far, I have completed the first two sections of the map, which you can see in the pictures below (note, the pictures only show one section of each area, not the whole thing). Next, I will continue creating the spaces and then moving on to adding the quest elements and setting up the quest in the Quest Editor.
Spawn Location on the Coast
Coastal Area
Village Area
Player not spawning in the correct location?
If you are building your own map using the Titan Quest editor, you may experience a fairly major bug involving the spawn location of the player. Because Titan Quest saves the previous location of a character, if you move the spawn point of your map to a new location, it will not use the new coordinates for the spawn location, but the old spawn location.
The solution for this issue is to delete the character you had used previously to run the game and create a new character. Yes, it is annoying to have to do this every time you want to test a new spawn location, but at least they are only lowly level 1 characters 
Paper Design – Indecision, a Titan Quest Level
After fiddling around with Titan Quest’s Quest Editor a bit and seeing generally what type of monsters are available from the start, I’ve come up with a general paper design for the quest that I’ve tentatively dubbed “Indecision.” Here it is below:
Story
A young man interested in learning magic began his apprenticeship with a local shaman. However, this shaman was a little clumsy in his magic in general and wasn’t the best person to be teaching, since his spells often backfired. One day, the master shaman was attempting to teach the apprentice a rather complex transmutation spell, when it (of course) failed splendidly and ended up changing the apprentice into a satyr. The apprentice was furious, especially when the master could not change him back to his human form after numerous attempts. The apprentice vowed to seek revenge on the master because of his incompetence. That night, the apprentice stole the book of dark secrets from the master’s house and disappeared into the darkness.
The village the master shaman resided in had almost forgotten about his mishap, when a year later, the apprentice (still a satyr) appeared in the middle of the village and cast a spell that turned all of the citizens into satyrs, just like himself. He then cast another spell, causing all of the villagers to be under his control. Taking his newly formed army of misfits, he used them to overtake the castle, causing the king to flee to the coast, where the player happens to have just arrived by boat.
Progression/Beats
- Player arrives on the shore of an unknown island.
- Player meets a king, who explains that his castle was overrun by a band of monsters. He asks the player to kill the monsters in order to reclaim his throne (acquire Quest A).
- Player follows the path towards the castle.
- Player encounters two satyr monsters. They attack the player; thus, the player is forced to kill them.
- Player continues following the path. A crazed man runs across the path.
a. If the player follows him, the player sees the man getting attacked by a bunch of skeletons. If the player kills the skeletons before the man dies, the man will begin talking to the player.
b. The man explains how he accidentally turned the apprentice into a satyr and the apprentice is now taking revenge. The man asks you not to kill the satyrs as they are actually villagers. (acquire Quest B).
c. The man warns that you still have to kill the apprentice as he has gotten too evil and powerful to be reasoned with. In addition, the man encourages you to ‘kill’ the undead in order to ‘put them to rest.’ - Player fights his/her way to the castle, either choosing to:
a. Fight satyrs and undead (Thus failing, quest B)
b. Avoiding all satyrs and killing only undead instead (Thus fulfilling quest B) - Player arrives at the castle and kills the satyr shaman.
NPC’s
- King/village leader
- Crazed shaman master
Enemies
- Generic satyrs
- Undead skeletons
- Satyr Shaman Boss
Edit:
Here’s a paper map that I drew out and scanned in (apologies for the crappy quality around the edges, but it was taken from 2 different pages in a hardcover notebook).
Indecision Paper Design
Using Titan Quest’s “Quest Editor”
I kinda wish Iron Lore had made their editor names something a little less generic. For example, it is very difficult to search for tutorials and other information regarding Titan Quest’s Quest Editor. No matter which way you switch up the words (Quest Editor Titan Quest, etc), all the search sees is ‘Titan Quest’ and ‘Editor’. Thus, almost all of the results that come up are in regards to the regular editor, which is where you can create your physical map.
However, after much digging on the intarwebz, I finally found out that Iron Lore had actually included some helpful modding tutorials packaged with the game itself.
These files can be found in your Titan Quest folder > Toolset. For example, there’s a text doc there called Modding Quick Start which very briefly lists steps of how to get everything basically running using the 3 Titan Quest editors (for reference, they are the Art Manager, the Editor, and the Quest Editor). There is also a pdf called TQ Modders Guide that includes in-depth steps of how to make your own mod, including picture references. Information regarding using the Quest Editor can be found on page 50 of this PDF.
In terms of what type of quest I will actually be creating, I want to try to make something a little different than the typical “fetch quest”, “kill the boss”, or “rescue mission” types. I’m thinking of making a dual quest type arrangement where two people give you 2 quests and you can either complete one quest or the other depending on what your actions are (aka: kind of a ‘do you want to be good or bad’ type)
Starting a new Titan Quest Level
Since I’ll have a break after xmas, I decided I’m going to work on a new level. Instead of doing a multiplayer map, I decided to focus my efforts this time on a good single player experience. I debated using Unreal, but in the end I decided upon using Titan Quest as I can get the design of the level and the art in there fast since I know how to use the Level Editor. However, I have not touched their Quest Editor yet, so I’m going to teach myself how to use the Quest Editor to make an interesting single-player quest.
Still researching and thinking up concepts like what the quest story will be, what type of monsters the player will encounter, what type of environment, etc. I’ll post some reference images when I have a more concrete idea.
Edit: I just realized that several of my old Titan Quest level pictures show up on the first couple of links in Google and this blog shows up on the first page for “Titan Quest Level.” Woot!