I imagine that you would have everything as nodraw, then texture the obvious looking parts that would be visible to player first. If there is a HOM effect or something is missing completely, then you would go back and be sure that you texture it.
Now that I think about it, it sounds like a good way to optimize the map from the very beginning.
I told you guys it is TF2
OMG! TF2 IS FINALLY GOING TO BE RELEASED~
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.
So true... I actually had another mod project that I was leading called "Rebellion" (yes, the same name as my current project, but it was radically different). It took a long time to find a good team, but I did find them. I picked up a coder who seemed pretty good. We started developing for an alpha release, but well... the whole problem started with CVS access to the code. I had no intentions in running off with any of the content, yet the coder who set up the CVS had more access than I did. I guess you could say it was a bit of an ego trip, but I wanted at least as much access as he did to the entire CVS (since well, it was hosted off of one of his server boxes which he had root access to). He didn't allow it, we quarrelled over it since I wanted to be able to coordinate the entire direction of the team until everything is stabilized, and I ended up having to kick him out since he wanted to restrict access for me to merely the art sections. The whole team fell apart after that.
You can gather whatever morals you want from that, but if at all possible, I'd like to avoid that same situation again by perhaps creating a team where no one is above anyone else and there is no opportunity to do that (democratic socialism if you want a government system to compare to).
I think the whole fact that someone who doesn't contribute to the actual core development of the game is someone who is running the show isn't exactly someone who is commonly looked up to as a leader. Sure, Laidlaw MIGHT not have any real gaming credentials, but he also isn't the project lead of Half-Life or Half-Life 2. He is merely one of many who work for Gabe Newell.
Well... I ended up fixing it by centering the entire map geometry in the middle of the grid, as well as making the entire skybox brush a lot smaller. Guessing it is the brush size limit, I dunno.
Haven't finished the texturing at all... waiting for the full Source SDK to do that.
Well, either that, or the lighting sucks so far. 
A few updated screenshots:
(note: I didn't really add to the first area with the forward bunker since I figured that I'll save the rest of the geometry in the main complex area. I most likely will end up expanding it a bit, though.)
[Blocked Image: http://img128.exs.cx/img128/2820/reb_snowoutpost0000.th.jpg] [Blocked Image: http://img128.exs.cx/img128/5580/reb_snowoutpost0002.th.jpg] [Blocked Image: http://img128.exs.cx/img128/7423/reb_snowoutpost0004.th.jpg] [Blocked Image: http://img128.exs.cx/img128/631/reb_snowoutpost0006.th.jpg] [Blocked Image: http://img128.exs.cx/img128/8987/reb_snowoutpost0007.th.jpg] [Blocked Image: http://img128.exs.cx/img128/1157/reb_snowoutpost0008.th.jpg]
"too many indices for index buffer. . tell a programmer (32814>32768)"
I'm not precisely sure what this means... can anyone explain? :x
This happened with my latest build of that snow map that I was making - the error appears when i try to run it in CS: Source.
Stratesiz: Supposedly, in one of the earlier Hammer builds for Source, you could blend between any two textures... for some reason, you can only blend if you choose a texture that has "blend" in it, and it can only blend with another predetermined texture. If they revert it back to how it was though, it'll make the terrain look a lot better.
Rebellion
I dunno, its just a three letter prefix that I thought up at the last minute.
Alright, I think this will be one of the maps that I will actually release, but it's still unfinished... here's what I have so far (BTW, I will most probably have this map take place at night):
[Blocked Image: http://img111.exs.cx/img111/3726/snow_test20000.th.jpg] [Blocked Image: http://img111.exs.cx/img111/9096/snow_test20001.th.jpg] [Blocked Image: http://img111.exs.cx/img111/2941/snow_test20002.th.jpg] [Blocked Image: http://img111.exs.cx/img111/2303/snow_test20006.th.jpg] [Blocked Image: http://img111.exs.cx/img111/7661/snow_test20008.th.jpg]
Is there anything that you guys can suggest at all in terms of gameplay elements, structures, etc.?
Alright... no problem
I'm trying to combine both the outside environment and the inside environment of the bank for the "Rebellion" mod... What I'm thinking is that the Combine will come from the street in front of the bank (either from the apartments or perhaps have them running from the sides), they will raid the bank much like what Gordon did in HL2, and then try to overrun the defenses outside and inside of the bank. Hopefully this works out alright.
Anyhow, it's a bit obvious that I'm not finished, I haven't textured much of anything yet, plus I didn't get all of the basic geometry in. It's a bit hard to see all of the detail since I'm using the gray dev texture for now
[Blocked Image: http://img89.exs.cx/img89/4433/hammer7.th.jpg] [Blocked Image: http://img89.exs.cx/img89/1669/hammer8.th.jpg] [Blocked Image: http://img89.exs.cx/img89/1691/hammer10.th.jpg]
Sweet... alright, thanks for answering the questions everyone. Heh, sounds a bit disconcerting to hear that there's a high chance of your first through fourth/third map being shit, but eh... that's fine.
1.) How does one make a smooth road going left, right, or a smooth inclination? I have a test map that I set up where I had a bunch of wedge brushes edging the road to the left, but I imagine that it would just cause the r_speeds to go up drastically once the map is filled with all of those turns.
2.) What is the height and width of a player model in HL2? How much allowance do you guys usually add to the player when determining how high a door frame should be, or perhaps when the person goes into a crawl space, how much allowance do you give in that situation?
3.) When you guys create a map, what is the first thing that you try to mesh out in the map before moving on to creating detail, adding more basic geometry, etc. For example, in the test maps that I've created so far, I tried to get the terrain first and then the geometry. In other cases, I try placing flat brushes for the concrete surroundings for the buildings, and then place huge blocks of brush to represent the buildings.
4.) Would you much prefer to create a map model and import it in, or try to create it as a prefab instead?
5.) Any sort of fundamental tips that you guys can give to a newbie mapper? Anything common newbie mapper fallacies that you guys can point out?
Thanks in advance.
Why are hollowed cubes bad anyway? I mean, it seems like it does what most people do manually in one step. :x
Oh yeah.. and how does one make a smooth indented road leading up to a straight road? Do you guys use the displacement maps for that purpose?
My question to you guys: what can you see in the map that could be added? Any sort of general map ideas that you can infer from this?
[Blocked Image: http://img34.exs.cx/img34/5065/hammer4.th.jpg] [Blocked Image: http://img34.exs.cx/img34/2794/hammer5.th.jpg]
Currently, we have a forum set up at http://www.83rdclan.net/phpBB. I'll try to get a website setup at a domain sometime in the near future.
For now, we only need mappers and coders. If there is also a demand for them, we might need map modelers as well. If you are interested in this mod and want to contribute, email me at merc248 AT gmail DOT com, or you can PM me on these boards or sign up on the forums and post on there about it. I myself am trying to learn Hammer 2, and I have modeled things such as weapons in the past with Maya (so please... don't think I'm just a mere "idea man". )
For those who do not want to commit completely to the team but still want to contribute, keep in mind that the common level design will heavily reflect the Eastern European architecture presented in City 17.
Basically, the game is cooperative multiplayer where the players find themselves defending against an endless assault of Combine forces. The game is based around the insurrection during Half-Life 2's single player game which pits the citizens of City 17 against the various Combine forces (Citizen Protection, Striders, etc.). Perhaps in either the first release or subsequent releases, the guerilla fighters will find themselves in varying situations where they will fight against other enemies, such as ant lions, zombies, etc. The central aim would be to implement the Combine AI in multiplayer, however.
There will be two classes to choose from: medic and defender. The medic will have the ability to heal as well as revive any nearby teammates (before the reinforcement timer runs down at least), but will not be able to carry the pulse rifle and the rocket launcher. The defender will be able to carry every weapon but of course cannot heal or revive.
The Combine forces will always equal to double or triple the amount (or whatever ratio the server admins chooses) of players in the game. They will head for an objective, while the players will of course have to keep them away from this objective. In order to do this, the players can employ objects within the level in order to serve as barriers and as cover against hostile fire. There will also be ways to impede their progress by way of using makeshift draw bridges (like in single player), etc.
Because the players are guerilla fighters, they will always have a constant shortage of ammunition; this will encourage frequent "ammo" runs to pickup weapons from the dead bodies and carry them to a commonly agreed weapon cache.
