Posts by Fletch

  • Mapcore should pwn the Valve Map contest

    Here's my two cents after thinking about it for an evening. We should really have as many teams as we can field. If you feel comfortable making the map by yourself, do so. If you want a 2 or 3 person team, do so. I'm fairly certain that with our talent base we can probably get 4 or 5 really solid submissions together.

    That being said, I think the following gentlemen's rules should apply:

    1) Don't run around acting secretive about your map. It breeds distrust in the group.

    2) That being said, if somebody tells you about their map, don't steal their ideas or concept.

    3) We should all try to pick one or two dates so that we can get together as a group and do some playtests together. That way we can have at least two or three beta runs at a map before final submisison.

    4) If it gets towards cruncht ime and your project is dead in the water, offer your help to the other teams if you can give it.

    5) Don't be a jerk with the money if you team wins. If somebody was making map objects for you at the last minute but wasn't on the official submission sheet, send them like a 20 or 30 buck gift certificate for amazon.com or something.

    6) The overall goal of this project needs to be asserting some community dominance. Even if we only pull one prize, that's a big deal. If we manage to pull two or even all three (not very likely, but it could happen), we're officially the top spot for HL2 development. That benefits everybody, even if you're not competing.

    That's just my suggestion. I'm going out to Best Buy today to actually go buy the freaking game (I'm poor). It's kind of funny that I'm buying a game so I can immediately open up the editor and get around to playing the game this weekend.

  • Finding a mod team worth your while 101

    In his own bizarre way, Duffy makes a good point. Let me explain.

    This is the criteria I use to look at mods:

    1) Creative Idea/Design

    2) Experienced coder in place

    3) Mature/focused leadership

    4) That Intangilbe 'Thing'

    1) A mod has to involve some level of creativity. If it is SP, it needs to have a good plot idea in place. Nobody wants to play a story they've played before. Similarly, nobody wants to play a mod that doesn't go anywhere or engage them. It seems too many mods polarize towards one direction or another. If a mod is multiplayer, it needs to have a good hook. One thing that always saddened me about HL multiplayer mods was that they all seemed to lump together in the pseudo-realism category. If you look back at Q1 and Q2, all kinds of off the wall mods came out. Ones with crazy fast paced deathmatch, ones with insane weapons, ones with realism, ones with slow, sublt gameplay. Hopefully HL2's new engine will help put togethr a mod community more focused on original ideas instead of CS clones.

    2) I'll live by my statement till I die: Coders make the mod. People can crap out gun models like nothing else (there is no need to ever make another uzi model every again). Once the community settles down, there will always be plenty of mappers. Sure, right now, those people will the skills to pick up Hammer quickly will have an advantage, but that will disappear over time. But coders are worth their weight in gold. Coding is long hard work and is really the backbone of any mod putting out a new idea. They're responsible for the stability of the mod overall as well as making versions that won't lag people to death online (again, maybe the new SDK will help that). Having a good coder that won't run away in anger with all the code is the.

    3) More mods have died because of internal fighting than all other reasons combined. Even the strongest teams cna be split by petty fighting. Hell, it's the freaking history of Mapcore itself. Having a strong, solid leader who can resolve conflicts and keep the mod on track is key. A little ego is a dangerous thing when you've got 30 people on your team. Two people fighting turns into 10 people fighting, turns into everybody fighting, and pretty soon half your team walks out with half your game assets. A good leader also knows not to put people on the team who are going to disrupt the unity. Plus, I'm not working for a 14 year old who can't continue a conversation because it's bedtime.

    4) This is the hardest thing to peg down. It's that intangible specialness that certain mods have and others don't. Holy Wars is a good example of that. They just had such a unique way of doing everything. The maps, the models, the gameplay, the attitude. It all had a special feel to it. Part of it is tied to idea #1 as far as being creatively design, but there is a lot more to it that is hard to describe. It's the way the textures look, its the way the website looks, its that feeling you get when you look at a mod and go "Damn, that looks fun." It doesn't always gaurantee longterm success, but it means that the mod will most likely be released, and hopefully remembered.

  • CLASSIFIEDS POSTING GUIDELINES (Revised Dec. 16, 2005)

    Classifieds Code of Conduct

    Revised September 30th, 2008

    I. Purpose of Classifieds Forum

    Classifieds exists so that artists, mods, clans, game companies, and other interested parties can solicit or offer help. All other threads will be moved or deleted without warning.

    II. Code of Conduct

    A. Posting

    When posting a new thread, please provide as much information as possible. If you are soliciting help for a mod, please link to the mod’s website and/or media. Posting some sample media images would be extremely helpful, but is not required. With all posts, please provide relevant and correct contact information, especially if you will not be checking the thread often for replies. We also suggest you check the “Notify me when a reply is posted” box so you can keep track of the post.

    B. Replying

    If you are replying to an existing thread, please keep your comments and questions constructive as possible. If you would like to post follow-up questions, please use a question and not a demand. Above all, be respectful to the poster. If you do not want to offer then help or ask follow-up questions, do not reply at all. Replies insulting threads/mods/games/individuals should be reported immediately to moderators, and they will be deleted as soon as possible.

    III. Regarding Mods

    If you are posting for help with a mod, please understand if nobody responds. Mods are a wonderful way to learn game development skills, gain practical experience, and learn to work with a team. However, most mods fail. Because of this, people are naturally wary about dedicating a large amount of time to new mods. Because of this, most people want to know that a mod already has a good foundation before extra people are brought on board. This is why we ask you to please link to your mod website and provide images of existing content (either links or directly posted images). Doing so will increase your chances of replies. As a general rule of thumb, if you don’t have a website (Geocities doesn’t count) and existing assets, you’re probably not at the right stage of mod development to be bringing on additional people.

    IV. Contact

    If you would like to directly solicit people on this forum, feel free to click the PM link under any of their posts. Additionally, visiting our IRC chatroom (#mapcore on irc.gamesurge.net) is another good way to ask for help. If you have any further questions, feel free to contact a forum moderator.

  • Looking members for hl2 mod

    First off I'm a Creative Writing major in college, so I'm not being dismissive towarsd writers. I write all the time. I submit work for publication. I'm not dismissing the craft at all. I'm saying the role of writing within mod is minimal at best. Yes, somebody is going to have to come up with the original idea or design, but you'll notice that in all the successful mods, that person also does actual work (mapping, coding, etc). A good idea is not enough to get the job done when it comes to making mods.

    Secondly, people join when mods show promise. Before the first beta, DoD didn't show much promise. Hell, after the first beta it didn't hsow much promise. But as time went on the coders gained experience and got better adn they brough new coders on as well. Then the better models and texturse and maps came on board because those people knew that their effort wasn't going to waste. Mod's don't get better in a day. It takes months and years.

    Marc Laidlaw was a sci-fi novelist for years as well as a writer for Wired before he joined Valve as a writer AND level designer. Again, thanks for proving my points.

    I'm drawing lines between the industy and mod development because they are tied together. The successful mods are often the ones that are run like actual businesses. The ones that fail are run like high school clubs. but if you want to point towards just mods, let's look at the fact that the most successful single player mods that actually have any sort of plot are usually "written/designed" by the primary level designer (See all of Neil Manke's packs, POKE646, etc).

  • Looking members for hl2 mod

    Counterstrike was created by two former members of Action Quake, one of the biggest Quake mods ever.

    DoD was originally shit, cubed. When they got better coders on board, better mappers and artists came on board as well. Proving my model posted above.

    If writing or coming up with good ideas is your talent, then you need to take up writing, not mod making. If you're truely interested in modding you need to pick one of the four basic categories (coding, mapping, 2d art, modeling) and make an attempt to learn. No mod will ever survive if the team members have to take commands from somebody who doesn't contribute anything beyond the storyline. First off because most people invovled will be between 15-25 year in age and have giant egos. Secondly because it's insulting to put 40+ hours into a map and have your leader spend 2 hours writing the plot. In the actual industry, all of the writers have a stable background in other aspects, usually level design since you can write and produce your own basic single player story once you get some skills in place.

  • Looking members for hl2 mod

    Well, since you ask, here's your answer. The community breeds expereince. The best thing anybody can do when learning (whether it's coding, mapping, art, modeling, etc) is to start of getting a good grip on their skills and then trying to get a low level position on a mod. This means doing the shit work and helping out. Then over time, they'll be able to get some expereince and start moving up in skill and capability, eventually being able to work on some of the upper eschelon mods and possibly get a job doing this.

    The problem is when you have mods (like many posted in this forum) that are start off and run from people who haven't worked their way up yet. They're at the bottom of the ladder yelling up at people asking them to come down. Hence why a lot of us tend to be..well... negative towards these people. It's great that they would like to start a mod, but there isn't a high likelylyhood of them succeeding. Hence why many people at MapCore are hesitant to join mod teams unless we personally know the people working on it or have a level of professional respect for them. If we joined every mode team with an enthusiastic leader promising that this will be the best mod ever, nobody would ever release anything because the mods always tend to fold.

    But really, if you'd like to contradict my logic, feel free. Please avoid using any arguements centered around "being nice" or "this mod could be different" because those will just make me laugh.

    Oh, and Valve wasn't a bunch of Newbs. They were formed with former game developers that had worked across many platforms and had some damn good resumes going in.