The Mapcore Mod Team

    I've been here for a couple of years now and I've always wondered why there hasn't been a Mapcore Mod Team. There's so much talent around here. Imagine what great things you could do together. I know there have been collaborations between members (FMPONE has worked with a number of you) but never a mod. Or perhaps this happened before my time. Normally I would let something like this rest but after all the interviews I've done I just see so much potential.


    Now I'm not being naive. I know for a fact that most mods are way too ambitious, don't make it past the pipe dream stage or ultimately die due to people losing motivation and moving on. It's hard work (I've been in 2 mods which never saw the light of day). But still, there are possibilities especially with this crowd. This post is meant to test to the waters and see if there's any interest. There's no ambitious plan, no preferred engine or killer design doc for the next big thing on the indie scene. No, none of that. The question is simple, who out here, has the time and the motivation to team up with others and take it from there? Perhaps nothing comes of it but getting together and having a talk doesn't hurt anybody.


    Perhaps by now you are thinking:"Who does this guy think he is? He's not designer, he doesn't have credentials to be a team lead!". True, I'm not designer, I don't have credentials and I have absolutely no ambition of being a team lead. All I want is to bring interested people together and if something comes of it, help out with whatever I can (PR, Testing, Hosting, etc). Nothing less and nothing more. So, I always encourage discussion so feel free to post your thoughts and let us know what you are thinking.


    I'm going to hit post now and I'm really curious to see what becomes of this topic. Will it be ignored and fade away? Perhaps a couple of replies and then fade away or will we get together and chat?

    Quote from Minos

    I'd love to create environment art for blocked out levels


    I don't know if time permits but I would be willing to help as I can (as well as have the mighty Minos teach me some things ).

    Great idea, there's so much talent on MapCore that could produce something brilliant if they collaborated. I guess the trick is finding something that enough people want to work on.


    I get why Tomm doesn't want to see an FPS mod (there are so many!) but I sort of think that seems to be where most peoples' experience lays around here, and also the genre with the most mod-friendly games. Of course, these days it's probably almost as viable to create a new standalone game using a free/affordable engine like Unity.


    Personally I'd love to see a mash-up of Left4Dead and Quake 1 single-player. Something with bat-shit-crazy/scary monsters, fun weapons and very little narrative so as not to limit the level designers too much.

    I thought this was about the Mapcore Moderation team, and Sprony was going to tell everyone about the weird stuff we do in the trees together at night. Thank God he didn't tell everyone about the weird stuff we do in the trees together at night, that would have been really awkward.


    I don't think we should make a generic FPS. I think we should go more in a Aliens or Dear Esther type direction, more of a focused experience that does something fucking crazy we can all be passionate about. More interesting that way. Single-player a must. Seems like it's gotta be UE4, Source2 ain't out...


    If there's one thing I know about this community, it's that we can make shit.

    Do you think you could make the process transparent for newbies by letting us shadow along and see how a collaboration process would work?


    I get the process of creating a level by myself, but I'm clueless as hell how a group of people streamline and exchange info and pass along work to each other all under 1 map file.

    Quote from kinggambit

    Do you think you could make the process transparent for newbies by letting us shadow along and see how a collaboration process would work?


    I get the process of creating a level by myself, but I'm clueless as hell how a group of people streamline and exchange info and pass along work to each other all under 1 map file.


    Obviously that's something that would have to be organized and coherent, there would have to be a mutual understanding by small groups in order for that to work. Groups of maybe one or two people per map, organized like how Minos was saying, would probably free up a lot of people to do what they're best at. That's how it works in CS usually.


    The biggest problem with mods is that people go AWOL and aren't accountable for their work, that always ends up happening because at the end of the day, people aren't being paid, when they could be elsewhere.

    A mod about the crazy stuff the MapCore Moderation team do in the trees together at night would be very intriguing.


    Long-distance working relationships can be really difficult, so I figure anybody who signs up needs to be aware not to be too "precious" about their own work -- i.e. if they disappear off the radar for a few weeks with no explanation they shouldn't be offended or surprised if somebody takes their most recent contribution and continues work on it without them. If everyone agrees to update a Google Docs spreadsheet with their latest progress at least once a fortnight then whoever's leading the team can keep a watch out for AWOL members and give them a friendly nudge to check they're still alive/motivated, and will also be able to see where the project needs more or less work put in to it etc.

    If it's source, count me down to help with layouts and scripting.


    I should say...


    The FIRST project should be something as simple as a Half-Life 2 level. I know I bent shawn's ear about this a while back and I think it still holds true.


    If you can't come together as a team and finish something simple like a standard Half-life 2 level (or Farcry level ect.). You prob won't be able to do much as a group.


    I would urge everyone to keep this in mind.

    I think the problem is more fundamental than keeping track of stuff with a spreadsheet or even scope. The main issue is why should people care to work on it, what is their incentive, what is the point. Money is a motivator, and I'm sure if Mapcore made something good there would be money to be had, however, that still doesn't provide creative direction, doesn't help us directly decide what to make. UE4 could be motivating in that it's a new exciting engine, but I don't even think that would be enough in the end because it's presents too many open-ended possibilities. Concrete, simple motivation would require a goal or an objective everybody can work towards. A standard HL2 level doesn't rise to that level either, although it is at least concrete. People would have to say, during this stage of the process, "we should make a three part HL2 level with a distinct beginning, middle, and end; which tells the story of escaping from a sinking ship". Something like that I actually think has some chance of success in this context, but then the hardest part would be to get everybody to agree with the overall mission statement and creative narrative arc.

    Good points. Starting with something everybody knows is a good way to test the viability of the team. I'd like to throw the following two concepts in to the hat:


    HL2 Episode

    Set around the time of the main HL2 campaign, so the combine still have their breeding lockdown thing in place etc.


    Somebody (the player) fleeing City 17 comes across a remote mining town populated by a group of civilians with lots of makeshift fortifications, built around a small stretch of river which they drink from. Shockingly, the community has a "ward" with around 20 pregnant women, all just a few weeks away from giving birth. Nobody knows how they got pregnant, but in the interests of humanity they must be kept hidden from the combine. Queue one or two missions clearing nearby areas of combine scout parties, one of which takes place at a nearby combine-held water-treatment complex that seems to feed some weird chemicals in to the river and must be destroyed. Just as the women go in to simultaneous labor the combine launch a large-scale attack on the town and you have to defend for long enough for the women to be helped on to a reinforced coach/people carrier and flee the town through a backroute. You jump on the back of the coach and have some fun "on-rails" shooting until you think you've got to safety. Then you hear a nurse on-board the coach screamin in terror, and levitating half-combine babies with telekinetic powers emerge from the windows! Queue boss-battle against weird floating baby things.


    L4D2 Campaign: THEY CAME FROM OUTER SPACE

    The survivors come across a looping broadcast in a safe room, encouraging them to seek salvation with "The Order of the Space Druids", a cult group who believe that the zombie apocalypse is a sign that humanities alien ancestors will return to Earth after a millennia of absence. Figuring it sounds a bit wacky but they may as well join up with other survirors, the players follow further broadcasts and billboards with a distinctly Druidic theme to the cults' remote farm, where they've built a stone-henge structure to broadcast to the aliens. Sadly all of the cult members have since become DRUID ZOMBIES(!!!)(with black cowls so they're difficult to spot) so it's up to the survivors to put the cults' prophecy to the test. They fight their way through some crop circles to get to the henge on top of a hill where they trigger the final battle. Eventually a UFO(!!!!!!!!) appears overhead to beam them up to safety.

    Plz make something narrative and not about weapons, a game in space where you have to explore the whole universe could be amazing imo


    The first step in making a team would be.


    1. Ask everyone interested to join.

    2. Look at wat we can do with the people we have.

    3. Brainstorm about the mod, definition of the deadline and the goals.

    4. Recruit people we need right now, mostly coders if we don't have them here.

    5. Brainstorm about the story, theme, coding, engine, etc...

    6. Create a pattern of the mod, and iterate it until it reaches what we want. This pattern should be made by the most skilled in the team, the rest gives feedback.

    7. When it's ok redefine the deadline with the actual team.

    8. Split the mod into some small parts to make, everyone can pick up a part and work on it.

    9. Iterate.

    10. ???

    11. Profit


    A cool thing would be to keep the creation process visible to everyone, not only to mapcorians but really everyone.

    Quote from FMPONE

    I thought this was about the Mapcore Moderation team, and Sprony was going to tell everyone about the weird stuff we do in the trees together at night. Thank God he didn't tell everyone about the weird stuff we do in the trees together at night, that would have been really awkward.


    I don't think we should make a generic FPS. I think we should go more in a Aliens or Dear Esther type direction, more of a focused experience that does something fucking crazy we can all be passionate about. More interesting that way. Single-player a must. Seems like it's gotta be UE4, Source2 ain't out...


    If there's one thing I know about this community, it's that we can make shit.


    Dammit Shawn, we all agreed that what happened in the trees stays in the trees. You don't see me going around telling everyone you can suck a tennis ball through 10 meters of garden hose now are you?


    Quote from kinggambit

    Do you think you could make the process transparent for newbies by letting us shadow along and see how a collaboration process would work?


    I get the process of creating a level by myself, but I'm clueless as hell how a group of people streamline and exchange info and pass along work to each other all under 1 map file.


    If anything comes of this it will be as transparent as possible. It's a community thing and we're not going to be all Doctor Evil in his hidden lair working on his secret experiments. It's also a great way of attracting new people to the Core. It has to be accessible to everyone and promoted as we do with the articles and interviews.



    Yes, the shared Google doc already has a lot of ambitious ideas. When I started this thread I first wanted to test the waters. Clearly there is a lot of interest. So now it's all about seeing who's willing to commit so we can form a team. I would strongly advise not to jump in immediately. We need to get to know each other. We need to see if we can work together and we need to see if we can get stuff done. A small mini Half Life 2 mod would be a great exercise for this. About the length of the original Half Life Uplink demo.

    Would be awesome to cook something with Mapcorians! Then again, I'm not entirely sure where to find time for myself to do that because I'm already working on a project (where there actually have been some from Mapcore before).

Participate now!

Don’t have an account yet? Register yourself now and be a part of our community!

Register Yourself Login