This is the fourth (and hopefully final) public test.
New in this version:
Based on comments from the previous version, I extended all of the beaches outwards and made them less jagged. I also reworked the cave system to make the rooms a bit less boxy and added some new pathways to make them flow together a bit better. I reworked most of the dirt and stone mix textures to larger sizes so that they would repeat less noticeably and look a bit more "natural" (by Minecraft standards, anyway.) This also helped me simplify the geometry of several rooms, especially the stuff I designed in the first alpha, since I didn't need to depend on BSP as much to break up monotonous texture patterns.
I replaced the old mountain on the eastern edge of the map with a new area, consisting of a house on a hill with a small cave underneath. I initially made a "natural" structure there, but wasn't happy with it, so I asked my son to build something in Minecraft that would look good in that spot. He came up with that house design and the lava skylight.
Muir pointed out to me that grass normally doesn't grow on Minecraft beaches (unlike Texas beaches) so I put in some scrub there. While I was at it, I also put in a bunch of flowers, and fixed the grass (and similar masked meshes) so they don't have little lines around the edges of the mesh when viewed from a distance. (This is thanks to DGUnreal, I found his post https://forums.epicgames.com/threads/572381 explaining the fix when looking up something else on the forums.)
The opacity issues with the water should be fixed on most skins now. Highly complex skins like my Hologram pack still won't be visible under water. I revamped the lava animation as well. It's not quite as fast as in Minecraft, but looks a bit better this way, I think.
Bots are improved from the last version. Due to the unusual (for UT) terrain style, the bot network connects paths that aren't traversable. So I had to proscribe (mark that you can't go from this node to this other one) paths all over the place. Most of the various hidden paths still aren't pathed, and probably won't be unless they prove to be problematic on my server.
The jukeboxes still work by pressing "E" to activate a song - but this time there is a nice little animation of a disc. There are also a few other custom emitters, check out the TNT and lava. With Great Emerald's invaluable help (I wouldn't know where to start on my own) I made a random music script that chooses one of the five included ogg files randomly at the start of the match. It works online, even. That's also why there is an item frame with an emerald in it that probably does not open any hidden doors. I really wanted to embed the music mutator into the map but no matter what I tried, one of the referenced class files would not store itself, so I've set it up as an external mutator. (It's called by the map automatically, so you don't have to set it as a mutator. By the way, the mutator will work for other maps, but as long as they have a music track set up, both the normal song and the Minecraft song will play at the same time.)
There are now some paintings in the level; some are from Minecraft, one is of a beam warlord from the Disastrous Consequences server, two others are based on artwork from UT99 and UT2003. And there's a portrait of an enderman somewhere. Also, i put in lots of signs. And I redesigned the health pickup base.
There are now all kinds of ambient sounds from Minecraft. I used DGUnreal's ambient voice actor for the various mob sounds. Not only does it randomize the location and directions of the sounds, it also doesn't make them play loudly in the Unreal Ed when you press the preview button unlike normal sound emitters. I highly recommend it. There are various triggered sounds as well, such as when you grab a DD.
So that's about it. I plan to release a tweaked final version in a week or so. Feedback is appreciated! I need to squash those last-minute bugs.
Credits:
MINECRAFT TEXTURES, SOUNDS AND MUSIC COPYRIGHT MOJANG. (http://minecraft.net/)
All other custom meshes and textures by Jefe.
"Multi Adrenaline" based on DGUnreal's version.
"DG_AmbientVoice" actor by DGUnreal.
Random Music script by Jefe and Great Emerald. I've included the code so you can modify it to work for other maps. .
Thanks to everyone who has given me feedback and ideas, including Muir, Dragon7350, Hollon, Imperial, Cancer, Demonslayer, Ollievrthecool, Budboy and Robosaber.