Old School Finished Entries

    Mino's is lovely, especially with 'oh hello internets~', but Erratic's just pips victory for me. Very clean geometry, texturing and lighting, but without being boring.

    Seriously guys, all the entries were good and reminded me of why HL was so fantastic back in the day (and still can tug the gaming heart-strings).

    yay, Finnaly, I've played all the maps.

    Oldmen:

    This map is very small, but has a lot of room's and corridor's that join in the most different way's. A Very fast deathmatch style and with relly good r_speed's. In this mapa, I coulden't find the Gauss or even E-gon, Id on't know if this is good because they are very powerfull weapon and they could make the gameplay very different (I can't say if it would be better, need's many people to play it!). I think you could Improve it by making some changes in lighting, like, maximize the contrast ( -gamma 0.9, -bounce 0 -dscale 1, but that last could change your map in a radical way...) and put somo darker areas.

    Simple but Great map

    Flashback:

    Good Lightting specialy in the room of the Crossbow!, this room was very phantasmagoric! This map has a good shape too, but the r_speed's were way too high. I think that in this case the vis was compiled in -fast mode, even looking at a wall i got 1500wpoly...

    The weapon placement wasen't so good, the Egon and Gauss are really easy to get. Why not putting a trap there? or something that make harder to get it? And, finnaly, in the outside part you can go off the map using gauss, just clip it! and at one of the sides you can see many rock's that's should be NULLed.

    Dm_hookup

    This rock is really well made, a great brushwork! The r_speed's are very high, but I Suspect that the VIS was compiled using -fast parameter's, just like the Erratic Map!

    Very beautifull places but the curved (I don't remenber the name, but it maked with the Masked texture called TENSION) is really annoyng because it has a LOT of faces! This is not hl2 man... but that's ok if the r_speed's don't come across 1000wpoly in normal VIS.

    And, one more thing: The gauss was placed quite well, beacause it's in the middle of a big room (so you can be spoted from many way's while tryng to get it), The Egon was very good, but in that room, where we have two big Pipes, you can actualy get above than just using the Gauss! so, place something thre, like Snarks/Satchel, Medkits and Battery's!

    Dm_rocked

    It's a Arena like map! Yea, very differen't but with really high r_speed's this isen't good because there will be many player's in the same room with this r_speed

    Ok, those Moving Boxes are really Noise man! it's crazy, you should turn down the volume or try a better sound for than. You should too give an Rumble sound comming form the rocket, it should be good. Make sure to put some clips beacuse I could get off the map using Gauss, or try to put something good there like gody's~~

    I Would suggest too make better teleporte's, some special effect's like sounds would be nice. The item Placement Could be better in some places too. Try putting some Snark's and that should be very Fun for who is down there!

    Hestia

    Really Beautifull map! some hl2 like lighting (those spotlight's~~) and great Brush / Texture use!

    But those 3kwpoly aren't that nice for this map... You could really have maked it quite the same just by having an average of 1,5wpoly even the Windows Have a lot of Brushe's

    I Liked that car passing over and over.. and over.... and he never stop passing there!! hahha that's was fun trough.

    The map Gameplay was cool man. and dont' forgot to rename your map to hestia or rename the pack/title here to dm_hestia, it can make some trouble while trying to load the map.

    Dm_avon

    That Blue night Lightng was freaking cool! the level was well desingned and the r_speed's keeped in mind! You could do some changes in weapon placement, the Egon wasen't that good but thos Closing door's where you can get the Rocket and the Gauss was a really Great idea! But don't orget: The Gauss door diden't closed automaticaly and you can activate the button from inside this room (a bug froom hl where you can press button's from the other side...) . You could put that Egon inside the house of the 3rd shot and make something cool to get it!, and, at the roof of the train you could put some Snark's/Grenades/Satchel's.

    Yea, that's it. and the Easter is very cool.

    Hazlab

    A very Differen't map: In one moment you are in room's that remenber the high tech hl places and in another, you are playing Quake! Woha, that's not bad

    But those Dynamic Lights Killed my Voodoo. like, 40 light's with the Candle Animation? please, turn it off! This lightmap "animation" is very hard vissible and you could get some really nice inprovement in the map. The Sprite Isen't that ok, there is a trick to Lock one of the axis of it using the Env_beam entity, it's very easy man.

    You could also swap the trigger_hurt thing in the gauss room: Make it harder to get the Gauss, not the ammo!

    Oh, and in that room, where we get an projector like thing you could put the mapcore logo using Additive at the place where the light comes out!

    Kabelen

    Very confusing for the first time, but those trigger_push thing's(simulating a wall hack, hua~~) where very cool. and the Reverse Cascade was very annoyng (but cool).

    Please! Put something that warm's the player that there is a portal in those places, like, you fall from one floor to another and PAM, you are at a tottaly different place.. Something like sprites, Special Effects Brushes (Additive, Flickering with a good like portal textura), adn Sound's

    The r_speed's where a little High (1,5k in some places) you could try to raise it man! The Weapon's placement where a kind Random and a LOT of Gauss lyng anywhere. This could make an intersting gameplay for your map, but, again, only testing it with a lot of people...

    Great map trough.

    dm_itsnotabigtruck

    Hua, that's name is too confusing man. Try something more compatc~~

    Ok, the Design of the map is Reallty differen'tYou have the Engine Basement , The Big Engine Room, The "reccpeiton " Room and the Control part. All mixed up with an Freaking sci-fi Brushwork, but the Texture is really bad in some parts, too bad, it could improve by a lot the map.

    The lighting is ok for some parts, but if you used more small light's/spotlight's insted of high intensity ones you could improve it a lot.

    Ok, the r_speed is astronomic but you said you coulden't compile without VIS, but there is something VIS HATES: Cylindrical Shapes with a LOT of faces. Man, this is not a Hl2 map! you could improve the performance of the compiler tool's just by making simplier cylindrer's and shapes (even clipnodes problem would go away with this!)

    the item placement isen't that bad, but one of the gauss is very simple to get and there is no egon (or i dinden't find it). You could compensate player's that go trough very hard patchs with something good, like the egon. And don't forget: The gauss can leave you trough many places....

    I would sugest for everybody improve their maps to the max and them we can launch the mapcore mapmapck!

    And My English is not that good ;D

    Yeah I kept wpoly in mind and I think I did a good job on that

    Personaly, my favourite map is Erratic's. The brushwork is really clean and impressive. The lighting could be slightly better with a little -gamma pass. Anyways, its a solid map and I couldn't believe erratic made the entire map in 3 days... crazy shit

    DM_Hookup is really good too. The brushwork and ammount of detail is amazing. Once again lighting could be better with a gamma pass. I also think the layout is excessively simple. The rooms differ a lot from each other without breaking the consistent style though, and that's a good thing.

    Mamus' map is undoubtly the most creative one. Once again mamus gives us a twisted map with interesting and funny entity work. I loved this one

    Hestia is another piece of good work. The special attention to little details like sounds and small objects really makes this map stand out. I also loved the lighting a lot. But the wpoly kills the map's playability It's still an extraordinary addition to alysson's portfolio.

    I also had a quick look at hazlab and I found it a weird map. The different styles clash is an unique thing and the lava pit gives a nice old school feeling, however that room is almost unplayable.

    DM_Rocked was also a nice surprise. The layout is simple but seems to work, and the setting is really old school. Cool stuff KT!

    I still have to check out kabelen's map, it looked very nice from the screenies.

    A general hint to everyone: Work on your sounds. They really make a map stand out and improve atmosphere.

    Anyways, this contest was a pleasant experience and I'm glad to see many guys actually finished their maps We should have more of these.

    Ok, I've taken the time to test some maps (without other player though) and these are my conclusions:

    Comboman:


    Wow! Original. I admire the fact that you tried to implement two types of gameplay: hallwayshooting and open air shooting (I'm not a native Engish speaker so bear with me here). I personnaly don't like the one-way hallway's you have in your onderground part. It takes time before you get the layout and I love free space when MP'ing. The outside part of your map offers that. It also has very ''area 51'ish'' feeling to me. Good job!

    Avon:

    This map has a really awesome theme. It really drawed me into the map and even got me almost thinking sometimes I was playing a SP map. The lighting is simply decent. All in all a very complete and neat map. Looks like someone really took the time to start ánd finnish a map on a decent matter. Allthough I don't expect anything less from min0z, I really really like this map. Must play this map in MP with you guys!

    Hazlab:

    The map with the projector! I think your style is very quakish and I like that. I like the lava and I like the atmosphere you created. Allthough I think the brushwork is a little bit simple and the texturing could be more varying (maybe sometimes a bit more apealing to your theme), I think this map looks pretty good. It sux though that I have never seen anything more of your work so I can't tell what standards you normally have. I also really wanna know what kind of gameplay this map brings. Not bad!!

    Hestia:

    Avon's very different looking twinbrother. I really like how you created one big scene here. Your eye for detail shows in every corner of your map and emerges me into your level. Although I think I might have some trouble manouvering in your map sometimes, I think this map brings good gameplay to experienced players. Must play for every hldm player!

    Hookup:

    This is a surprisingly good looking map with intruiging brushwork, consistent texture use and probably good gameplay. I personnaly really couldn't put my finger on the atmosphere. It's strange and sometimes didn't quite make sense to me.. A thing that struck me was that not all player starts have been positioned very good (facing a wall when starting) but that's not something I'd be lying awake for. Also: I think you might be the only one from the maps I've tested to have a.. jumpsuit! I really liked this map.

    So I gues I can say that, over all, I'm very impressed by the quality of all maps! It's really fun to see that so much people joined in and actually made something they released!! That's just awesome! Sorry for the maps I dit review yet, no time left now!

    As for my own map.. Wow yeah those crates are indeed noisy!! Damn! I know for a fact that my music was on loud and I changed the ingame volume to very low.. If I only knew.. I also noticed that some rockfaces don't show up and indeed, I need to place some clipbrushes in order to prevent skywalking. Also: I want to add an easter egg but frankly, I haven't had the time to do anything to my map since I released it.. Sorry!

    I think it's not a bad idea for everyone to polish out their maps and then to release a final mappack. But that's up to yourself I guess!!

    Good job people!!

    Quote from von*ferret

    Whys it your favorite ken!?!?!

    It looks solidly built and is the one that comes off the most as an "old school hldm" map in my eyes, while still maintaining the creativity to stand it above the rest. Dunno just my opinion.

    Quote from JonM

    Sier, I think the problem was the name wasn't long or random enough...

    the problem was in crap of the map. I decided to do a map with r_speeds < 600 but most of guys made really nice looking maps bug with high r_speeds... Now I don't have time to make V2 of this map but I have something form few weeks ago (before the exams at studies started)

    It was a bit "kick in the balls" that only 1 or 2 persons said whats wrong with my map and how it plays... Main problem is that we are making maps for other level designers (we watch details and so) but we have to make maps for players so my map was for pure DM as contest title said. If you are making map for non-player contest forgot about r_speeds...

    From the second side: It was my firs HL map so it has to look crappy

    here are the screenies from editor:

    [Blocked Image: http://mati.planetquake.gamespy.com/mathldm1v2_1.jpg]

    [Blocked Image: http://mati.planetquake.gamespy.com/mathldm1v2_2.jpg]

    Well I think you're taking this a bit personaly seir. Since no one has a server that we can test on its a little harder to get organized play tests. It didn't state a rspeed rule if I can remember correctly so if you were confused you could've asked. I think mino and co did it responsibly where they made it look good and playable. Either way you should be looking at this as a learning experience and not as a chance to burn bridges.

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