Temple of the DRaGON

tropical setting. There's a bridge over the small river that leads to a large door. Before entering the building, I'm sure you are relaxed by the tranquil place you've just arrived at. Prepare yourself for the unexpected. Once inside, I thought this must be a map of contrasts. While outside it was bright and sunny and made a nature-lover out of me, inside is a large, round room full of marble and fire. A river of red lava runs around the outside of the room (and possibly under). Enormous columns demand your attention, with large DRaGON murals spotlighted and hanging from two of the columns. Obviously this grand entrance is like a lobby of sorts, a meeting place for those who've come to see the clan and their leader. There are tables and chairs set up on the platform and a small podium just below for the speaker to address the council. Far in the back is a large and quite intimidating chair for their leader, the Empress. If you can tear your gaze away from the shiny and mesmerizing marble all around, you'll notice some nifty little transporter things. One of those transporters will take you to a very Matrix-esque dojo. Murals are hung high. Daylight seeps in through the windows. Oooh ... and the best part ... some stuff is destructable! Yay! Take a different transporter from the main room and you'll find yourself in a very futuristically (is that a word?) textured duel arena. The entire room is actually dome shaped. If you know what that means, have fun with it. :D The four discs on the corners there are bouncy pad thingies. Yay! This actually reminds me of another duel map I played once on DarkSide servers. Just in it's gameplay, not design or textures. The third room the author told me what it was based on, but frankly, I've forgotten. :) I have a horrible memory. But I like this room! It's all stone and has two very deep, very cool windows with a view of like, um, outside. There's a patio of sorts with tables and chairs. Maybe Night Shade said it was based on Mask of Zorro. I think that's it. Well, in any case, great room for dueling. And finally there's a lovely room outdoors for dueling, with old stone textures and trees. Nothing exciting or special about this room, but it makes for nice variety. :) That last screenshot you see there is of the disco/bar included. There's room to duel up above on a glass platform. This room is actually not all that easy to find. In fact, there are about half a dozen secrets in this map. And I'm not telling you where they are, how to find them, or how cool they are. It's your job to hunt them down. Oh, and Night Shade asked me to tell you guys to not email him and ask him what the secrets are - he's not tellin'. ;) Just search and hunt and ... you'll find them eventually. Now, my favorite part about this whole map, besides the design in general is how the author handled music. Normally when I play a map, I don't listen to the music included because the loop of the same thing over and over is bound to drive anyone nuts. Look at what listening to "Country Roads" did to TMBJ! ;) Anyhow, so I'm taking this tour with the author of the map and I hear lovely sound effects where I've spawned. So I turn up my sound effects and remember to move my music slider up as well. But I hear no music. So we get to the first room and I notice this little podium over on the side. It has a music note on it. Naturally, I run over and press the button. !!! Matrix-flavored music starts playing. We go to the next room and there's another podium there. Yup. New music. And the music stops when you leave the room, cause it's like, sound effects and stuff. OMG Yay! I've seen this done before but it seemed more like a novelty. In this map, it's like specialized duel music depending on what kind of duel you're in the mood for. Night Shade's map reminds me a lot of other maps. I won't mention names of those other maps, but it's obvious that the author here was inspired by many different mappers. I have seen better maps before, I've played maps that I've had more fun playing, but can I just tell you guys something here? This is Night Shade's first map - EVER. I didn't notice any glaring errors anywhere. Sure, there were a few things I didn't like, but meh, there isn't one map out there that I like completely. For a first-time mapper ... no, I'm not gonna do that. This is a great map, period. I could totally see this map joining the rotation on many FFA servers out there. Fabulous job, Night Shade. :D Bot Support: No New Textures: Yes New Sounds/Music: Yes Game Types: FFA ~AmosMagee
When you first spawn into the Temple of the DRaGON map, you find yourself surrounded by a very bright and cheerful JK2 paradise. The water is as blue as blue can be and the lush landscape suggests a