Posts by Thrik

  • Hl2dm map. No name yet

    Imo, you need to work on getting more smoothness to the general design of your level. You seem to have a lot of sharp edges on corners and stuff which would look a lot cooler if they were rounded. Since we're on Source now, and your level is indoors thus can afford even more detail than usual, there's not really any excuse to not be doing so.

    Other than that you just need more detail to give each area its own personality. DM maps need to have clearly distinguishable areas so that if you spawn somewhere, you know exactly where you are straight away (assuming that you know the map already to a limited extend). Whilst colour coding and stuff was the older, less realistic way of doing this, now you can just cram different details and such in to make each place unique -- even if the rooms initially look very similar like they do now.

    I am of course only judging this on the screenshots, so I can't really gauge how well you've made each area unique without having a thorough run-through myself.

  • dm_underpass *download beta 3*

    Lol, yes. It looks pretty good outdoors, but your indoors suffer a bit. Those pipes are definitely a problem, because it seems like it'd be physically very unrealistic to have pipes in those positions.

    http://www.w00th4x0r.com/hl2dm/dm3t0009.jpg

    In that picture for example, why are the handle things on the pipes totally unreachable from the platform? One of the pipe turns around on itself halfway through too, which doesn't really make any sense. All these things have a big impact on the immersion and will be picked up by people, so be extra careful with that stuff.

  • you all realize right?

    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.

  • you all realize right?

    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.

  • you all realize right?

    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.

  • What is this crap?

    No, don't email us. We're very aware of the problems which have been causing widespread lack of connectivity, and having to answer more emails on the subject won't speed things up.

    Whilst you should be able to connect to at least some servers on our server list (particularly the European ones), those that are currently out of commission will be up as quickly as possible. Thanks for the patience. ;-*

  • The Last Citizen MOD

    Biohazzard, as much as I respect that you want to help out the community by bringing another modification to it, when members of the professional gaming industry (that means that they make "real" games) and a host of amateur developers who are very likely to go into the aforementioned industry are telling you that you're doing something wrong, it's generally a good idea to actually listen to them rather than trying to defend yourself.

    I can see that you want this mod to work and all that, but developing it for Half-Life 1 is like signing your own execution order. Listen to the plethora of posts above and switch to Source, before it's too late.