Posts by jackophant

Thanks for the replies people! I know how to use the vertex tool and carve, but my problem is adjustments.

When I have my slanted wall with the hole cut out for the window/door prop, if I want to make a height adjustment to the prop you can't just drag the bottom of the brush up to shrink it as the incline changes and obviously stick out from the wall around it. I would have to recreate that brush just to carve it again.

I guess I just need to work out a system of placing all my props, make sure I'm happy and then carve it all up...

Quote from Squad

If you haven't done so already, I suggest you get a close look at how monastery is build. It's the easiest way to get these angles on buildings.

I have been over monastery with a fine tooth comb, seeing the final result is one thing, but getting there is my problem.

Quote from MaanMan

Edit; I had a run around your map. There are a few places where it is very maze like. A general rule of thumb is don't have two hallways connect to each other, have them connect into a room. I drew two suggestions on how you could improve the layout. http://imgur.com/n9Mvtdu

Thanks for the suggestions, but they would create some huge sight lines:

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Thanks for all the help everyone

This sort of thing:

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And, evidence of it used in valve's map ar_monastery:

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Does anyone know of any "techniques" for brushwork?

I've not had a problem carving holes for props in the past, but I'm currently stuck as the Tibetan theme has slight angles on all the buildings which just made me ragequit hammer. I've worked out I need to work with some sort of func_detail facade around the basic brush, but it gets so fiddly and feels so... inadequate. Is there really no easier way?

In all honesty, I've rarely got a map this far into development, so it's probably more likely massive gaping holes showing in my detail work experience than anything else!

I beg your pardon, I got the wrong end of the stick. These are final minimaps, there's no point putting much time into them until you have settled on your map. I would imagine this is a final detail, so I wouldn't worry for now. There's no given way to make them look, just what the mapper decided is best. Valve have some very clean ones, and others are a bit more artistic. I wouldn't worry A simple overview made black and white would do fine for play tests.

Can't find a csgo radar tutorial? http://bit.ly/1ymD77Q

Check out 3kliksphilip and topHATTwaffle for hammer tutorials.

Quote from Sjonsson

Don't ever play Dota 2 with randoms.

Also, I feel an urge to post this as I just learned of its existence:

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Oh god... he has a dota video...

This is how I first heard of Ray Sipes:

I casually like to remind JZFB (from faceit / armshousetv) of this song. Feel free to do the same if any of you run into him

nah, maybe if you cut corners or choose a shitty manufacturer, but as I once saw on a forum (may be slightly paraphrased, but you get the point):

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Choose any 2 of the following 3 when finding a powerful laptop:

• high performance
• easily portable
• low price

I chose the first 2!

Build quality doesn't feature in the list as it depends on the manufacturer. I think ASUS have fantastic build quality in any of their range, budget to premium, but MSi are fairly... poor, regardless of price. My friend had an MSi notebook and you could literally pick it apart with your nails. We would take bets on which part had dropped off the next day in colllege

Make no mistake, the build quality of the GIGABYTE P35 is fantastic, and as non-apple laptops go I personally think it's pretty easy on the eye. Slightly gaudy stickers on the screen bezel, and the bezel itself is a bit large and plasticy, but yeah...

I've had a Dell Studio 1749 which is literally a tank despite being very plastic and a little mismatched in some of the moulded parts, but this thing just keeps going! The gigabyte is honestly a great build, and I reckon it will have comparable if not better longevity.

i do now! goodbye team!

I forgot to buy the stickers on the 26th and completely missed the first day. I forget again and then with the final day I couldn't even make bronze...

I didn't bother taking part at that point... First trophy I've missed

Quote from blackdog

Jackophant wrote somewhere else he would have some hints for companies to consider.

Thanks for the heads up!

Aside from portability, what are your requirements? My view on portability is that anything is portable if you try hard enough. You need more criteria to be clear on what you're buying.

What sort of screen size do you want? if it's not replacing your desktop a 17" screen might be a bit too large and hefty. But if you want it for mapping 13" and the rise of these new 14" laptops might be a little on the lower end of screen real estate.

I actually bought the gigabyte model above the one you list there (P35W) a couple of months back. I think it's a fucking marvellous machine. I can't see how ours are different tbh (mine has hot swappable bays?), but easily a contender to any MBP (equivalent spec MBP is more in the region of £2k FYI, I looked) and with the haswell chip the thing just goes for days, it's crazy. (Seriously, I love this laptop... Like a child).

There are a few custom places as well, but with the customisation comes a size problem. They aren't stupidly large, but they arent 2cm thick like the P35s. Spec to what you need, keep track of the price easily enough: Utopia Laptops

There is also AORUS. I had my eye set on one of these, but they seemed to be quite hard to come buy. Almost had to buy from LDLC.com!

And there's this Laptop Buying Guide. Most of it is common sense, but it's worth having a butchers just to see if there are some tricks you didn't know already.

But what I will say is this... DO. NOT. EVER. SCRIMP. ON. LAPTOPS.

I know a guy who went for a laptop... £800 version had 4GB of RAM, £820 had 8GB of RAM (literally the only difference). He refused to spend the extra £20 and forever regrets it. You've got a good budget, but if you can, save that little bit extra.

I tried to look at the efficiency of what I was buying, there are a lot of laptops that sport >1080p screens. When battery life is important and the GPUs are often underpowered, those extra pixels are a serious case of diminishing returns. They push the price up and reduce gaming performance/quality.

Sorry, this has been a bit of an unstructured splurge of information, links and opinions. Hopefully you can extract something useful out of it.

double post, read below

I personally don't understand why they can't use those soundproof booths they have for other games. I wouldn't want to sit anywhere near my opponent in such an information sensitive game.

This back to back square layout they are using is intriguing, but... I don't know...

I just witnessed the unadulterated molestation of HR by NIP, they got played like one of these new teams in the competition.

I have to say, cheating scandal aside, it's nice to see some new teams make it into this large tournament. It's always the same faces with fairly similar expectations.

Have to say I've been crazy busy. Being in a keen CSGO team is quite demanding D:

Quote from Marcem

Soo MM seems to be entirely broken while Valve's out for DH (still trying to figure that patch timing out...). Deranked despite top fragging by a lot twice, going on a solid loss streak of about 10 or so.

Top fragging is meaningless, it's more about the win/loss based on if matchmaking expected you to win or not. If you are fragging a lot, it usually means your team aren't pulling their weight, and if there is a disparate number of frags, I have found it often means you will lose.

I couldn't deal with my shit phone anymore. I bought myself the Moto E and I have to say it's a cracking little phone. Aside from the very minimal "bloatware" motorola have put on it, I've installed the google now launcher and it may as well be a nexus device! Ha!

Undecided, but based on the massive failure to get the Nexus 6 out there (I missed the 32GB midnight blue GPS shipment) I may hold onto this phone until stock is more stable. This way I also have a solid back up phone.

My boss brought in his Note 4 and when I held it...

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I love the size! I want this nexus so damn bad!

I like having stock and the option to install CM. This way round im forced to use CM, which isn't a bad ROM at all, but I'm a vanilla man. ANYTHING, I always enjoy playing how it was envisioned by the creators, bad or good until it gets so old it needs help to run (a la my samsung galaxy s running a kitkat rom!)

Quote from Puddy

Rumors are that these guys aren't the only pro players who cheat. This is gonna be interesting! Might come some last-minute VAC bans before DHW.

Can't pro players enter some sort of contract where they pay shit ton of penalties if they are caught or something?

They should be, as this sport becomes larger and larger, it needs a better framework to protect the game from its players, and followers for that matter. VAC bans are pretty serious anyway and ruin a player's reputation, but there should be fines on the entire team/organisation similar to how if a shop is caught selling alcohol to underage. That way it forces teams to be vigilant, and not play dumb "oh look we won DHW2014 with a hacker, nvm!"

Quote from Vilham

Second one is bullshit. You need 10 wins to become ranked, that's 5 days back to back playing and ensuring 2 wins each day.

I don't think it's so bad. For a smurf account, that's a looooooooooong time.

But to someone new, that's 2 wins not games. If you're new and struggling then 2 wins a day may seem quite a challenge, and you may want to get used to the other game modes anyway.

I think it's quite an elegant solution rather than saying "100 games until official matchmaking"

Quote from dux

Where's PC please.

My understanding was it was always going to be January/February 2015

Look to valve... You cough up whatever the going rate for csgo is these days and have plenty of IAP options if you want to use them which is the real winner imo.

It's companies like EA who charge crazy money and then recycle all their assets, throw in a couple of maps and guns and then charge crazy money again. Just to clarify, I'm talking about DLC options in something like battlefield, not the same approach they take to making the next version of the IP xD

I find it hard to fathom how some spells aren't more/less powerful than others. That's what I loved about magicka (have you played it?) that it was the basic elemental spells in combination that made the game so crazy. There were some really OP combos you could use* but you were all on a level playing field. It was your wide knowledge of a variety of combinations and the speed you could cast them which set you apart from the rest.

Speaking of magicka, it's a fairly cheap game with some paid DLC: extra missions, multiplayer arenas and silly clothes you could use.

*

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such as combined water and fire makes steam, steam takes up one element slot and can be combined with lightning which water can't. that way you can get a target wet AND do bonus lightning damage all in one /rant

The impression I'm getting is a little similar to the hero picking screen in Dota2, but for spells?

I wish it was in the UK much better than bloody football