you all realize right?

yeah some people do not even care about what things look like.

crossfire 2 map sucks

badly

euhm :$ i made that map

/me fleeeeeeeeees

edit : oh and btw , i created it , because NOONE creates maps ... so i thought : hmm , if i made a map and threw it online ,everyone would join ( and they do ) , but the map is extremeley fun aint it duff

map was called "Deathbox7b"

dont lie nazul i know who made that map

curman , i made deathbox7b ...

i can tell you , 10b was NOTHING like thise it was just for testing but people kinda liked it ,so

it's on this server btw : 24.132.135.252:27015

I went ahead and ported iceworld to HL2DM, just to get it out WITH the mapcore URL on it. Wrote it in a pixel-font with brushwork flat on a wall, after an attempt with alpha painting didn't render properly in-game... Not to mention the bloated filesize it created. (It's about 700kb now.)

You know how much iceworld gets around, and having http://www.mapcore.net tagged on it isn't a bad thing. (At least I would hope)

I've been hosting a dedi server for about a day and a half now, and about 900 unique users have connected, downloaded it, and left cause of my horrible connection. :roll:

and i am hosting that map... it pwns and nazul made that map... yes he sucked at mapping you dont want to see his previous versions. evrybody spawnend on the same spot. throwing grenades to kill themselves and other

i wanted to join a server running airboat or something, but it was filled with Nazul and some other kiddo. 2players max, what the hell were u thinking nazle

whaha pwnd;)

nah ,i dlled the map from some arsch on a server ,had ping 900 so couldnt really see the map , so i made my own server and "kiddo" joined

but i got A question , ive run through about 9 ent's prop_phys etc. etc.

but i can't get my watermelons to do what i want ..

and that is ,stay on my gravity gun and get shot away , they just fade back to their old spot when i pick em up !??!?

Because they're idiots?

Seriously though, I don't think mappers particularly like the idea of distributing a really crappy version of their map for testing which is purely for gameplay tweaking -- it's a kind of pride thing. The community might be a bit hostile to this too ("WTF SHOW US SOMETHING WHEN ITS WORTH SHOWING ASSHOLE" etc).

If everyone tried to get a test of their map arranged and the community around here helped in getting the tests done, the maps would play a lot better. That's definitely what I plan to do, and it'd be better for everyone if others did the same. Save the detail until later -- get a gameplay version done first.

You don't even have to necessarily build upon the gameplay version afterwards, you could just rebuild it properly and with all your texturing/modeling/optimization trickery from scratch afterwards whilst sticking to the same layout. Just get a shittily built map with a lot of thought put into gameplay (does it take the same amount of time for each team to get to a certain key point if it's CS:S? does each spawn point have a decent weapon within reach of it if it's HL2DM? does each side of the map's capture point have the same amount of locations to cover it from if it's DOD? etc..) and have it tested.

KTHX.

Private, pre-arranged playtests would be a great addition to mapcore. Organizing playtests could be as elaborate as an entire forum section devoted to scheduling playtests, (where mappers could post a possible play time and server), to a simple, quick ask around on IRC. Playtests comprised solely of other level designers would certainly help out to balance out the gameplay of an upcoming map.

It's no mindfuck for me Duffy, and I'm sure plenty of other people around here map with gameplay in mind above anything else. I think this post is going to really help out newer mappers though, especially those that seem to be designing the layout of their maps as they go along, rather than establishing it from the outset.

Sure, this can work, but it's risky. It's far more reliable to get a good plan of exactly how your map will play, and then build upon those blue prints. Not only does this prepare you for the industry where you'll undoubtly be given specific themes and such to keep to, but will also result in a lot more fun maps coming from this community, as well as helping you to keep focused on the map since you have a solid plan and won't just end up scrapping it. More finished and fun maps equals more recognition for mapcore, and that's always good.

It's like, I'll look in the level design forums, and hardly any of the WIP pics seem to show any kind of consideration towards how the map will play whatsoever. It's all about looking good and then thinking about where key points and such will go afterwards. If I took a WIP shot from some guy working on a big map for example and he'd only finished a small part of it before taking screenshots, then drew an arrow somewhere into the background and said "Okay, what's going to go there?", he probably wouldn't have a clue.

I dont see how a big open feild with some big boxes for cover can be so much fun..

Quote from DUFFY

i dont understand why this is such a mindfuck for most of you....you spend hours and hours on making a map and then when you make it and no one cares to play it all the time is wasted. when doing multiplayer maps, fun comes first (IE every map for counterstrike thats popular). for single player, who gives a shit, go wild, show us that post middle age architecture that you find so amazing.....but no one wants that garbage to slow down their FPS when all they care about is fragging the guy in front of them.

Again, Duffy speaks the truth... in his own unique way. People like to play fast and think as little as possible. This DOES NOT mean that we all need to start making killbox maps. Those maps tend to be popular for one reason: they're very small to download. Server ops are more willing to host a 200k map than a 5mb map if people are going to download it off them. Also, during the learning and adjusting period we're all going through right now, killboxes are quick and easy to make.

MY own personal feeling is that tiny crappy maps (like fy_iceworld) aren't fun. I like to play things where my performance has something to do with my relative skill. This is the problem I have with HL2DM right now. The maps have so many props lying around that they become killboxes. They're simply an excuse to play with the grav gun. In HLDM, the gameply equired to you effectively know how to navigate each map and use each weapon smartly (mmm trip mines). Right now, HL2DM doesn't have that. You can have the best aim in the world, but it doesn't matter when you're in a cramped room with 8 file cabinets being tossed around. It's chaos over skill. Eventually players are going to get tired of it.

So if you're planning on entering Valve's contest, for the love of god make sure your map rewards those with skill instead of those who can mash their grav gun as fast as possible.

Yeah, the gravity gun is very fun, but it becomes a bit tiresome when you can completely obliterate anybody with it, at any time, anywhere. This is mainly down to there simply being too many props to chuck around, which means that if you're facing off somebody carrying the ultra-powerful alien gun thingy, it means shit all since they can just throw a table at you and kill you instantly.

Quote from Marcos

I dont see how a big open feild with some big boxes for cover can be so much fun..

it's not , that's why my map isn't a "big open field" and doesnt have 3v0l crates in em

i'm doing a final version now ,gonna name the maps i make ( the nublars ) : nz_"insertNUBmapNAMEhere" so you know where to look

oh, the final includes Cubemapping

i dont know bout you but i use alot of strategy in hl2dm, i always go to get health, i know where the weapons are, and i always drop some grenades in the spawning areas. theres alot of chaos but theres some strategy underneath it all.