succesful and popular maps/mods made by Created 7 years ago2016-12-09 21:58:39 UTC by hfc

i wonder do you guys any of you involved making a mod or map that succeed very well and/or loved by masses? is it possible for me, since i cant make radical mods on my half-life? what are the secrets of that? lets talk about this. i hope this thread go useful for me and others.

A map you say?
I made dm_5nights for Counter-Strike 1.6 and it's my only map to ever reach 5000 views and 2000 downloads.

How did I succeed?
1. Trends
YouTubers started their career with trendy games (Happy Wheels, Minecraft and FNaF). So I thought, why not to make a FNaF map for CS? I did, and the outcome kickstarted my progress on GameBanana.

2. Patience
If your map will take 2 years to finish, let it be. I still have some projects from when I started mapping, and they're still not finished.

3. Good music
Always listen to music while making anything. It increases productivity. I myself have a pretty small playlist of 70 songs (some people have 100s and 1000s). I made ts_untergrund while listening to south-Slav folk songs, for example.

Here's a fail, too.
About my cancelled mod, 'An unknown game':

That thing was an epic fail XD
I made 100 promises, but delivered none. I had the workload of a factory. The mod had many planned features, but back then I had almost no modelling and coding knowledge. Also, I had many other things to do, besides the mod.
I even planned to include my imaginary girlfriend in there, how I met her etc.

Archie and I have answered questions like this a few times while working on The Core. I think the best way to go about it is to work on it for a while without worrying what other people are going to think. Make something that you enjoy playing yourself, then work on detailing it (It's not 1998 anymore, Half-Life can handle a lot more detail these days)

When you've got a few maps completed, present them here, or on ModDB and be prepared to take criticism. People know what they like and they will tell you if your work isn't as good as it could be.

Don't get worked up about people who post "This is shit" or "Terrible." They're not contributing anything and aren't worth your time. If you're lucky, people will offer more constructive feedback that you can work with.

At the same time, people who say "Perfect" or "11/10 OMG!" are equally unhelpful. Yes, it's nice to see those comments, but as soon as you start thinking like that, you're going to go believe that you can't continue to improve on something.

I did work on my mod for 6 years, with a halt of 6 because I was unable to continue because of my lack of skills and because I could not find the solution for certain problems I have with the development. After that rest I did restart from zero, and the results worth the effort. Fortunately I have had unvaluable help here.

My mod have reached this numbers:

Downloads: 6553 and growing
Views: more than 95000
It is present in the MatrixWikia page.

And many other things that made it, until now, unique. It is my second creative big work apart of a comic I´m working on since the year 2003 (that´s other history).

Maybe it is not Counter-Strike in terms of success, but I´m very happy with what I have reached.

The trick about making a mod is, know the game on which is based as if you have made it, know every monster, its behaviour, how every entity work, and don´t hesitate in learn the programming language with which it is written.Be patient, start from simple and add details as you go on. Don´t pretend to overpass what is already done until you master every part of the development tools.

Ask for help, but providing as much info as you can, and if you can not progress at all, ask for a more strong help, spoonfeeding must not ashame you, it is a step that many of us modders have done at least one time while making a mod. And, most important of all, be grateful and give ALL and DESERVED credit to the ones that helped you.

And if you get stuck, don´t worry, take a rest, do other things, and restart from where you stopped, i will grant you more fun and satisfaction with your work. Believe me, It will makes you work faster and better, here´s an example of what´ll be on the v1.0 of your mod and in the v2.0:To avoid loosing time and efforts make things as tidy and clean as possible, make as many backups you need and don´t forget to write on paper any new ideas you will have. We are all busy people, and sometimes we forget that genial idea.

And, also important, BE PERFECTIONIST!!, don´t pretend someone that have played games for at least 5 years will like your work if he/she sees the same HL default models with only the skin changed, and things like that... Remember what has been done in Paranoia, Arrangement, Bid for Power, and, why not, Counter-Strike, for example...

these are awesome. i readed them all. they are very reasonable as advice. and awesome works done by you. sorry for cant replying long. i got exam 3 days later. i wanted to comment long for appreciate your works. but cant post today. i tried to write something i didnt closed that window from a while when trying to study exam. but i didnt think any words to reply yet.

For now, just study, study and study. That's the most important thing.
Half-Life modding is done during free time. I always get good results, because that is my priority.

Keep it up with your exams!!, real life must be your priority my friend

Also, there are somethig every newbie modder must have in consideration.

A mod is the alteration of content from a video game in order to make it operate in a manner different from its original version. For example: Even if they were launched as standalone games, Opposing Force and Blue Shift could be considered as mods, they are games that add new enemies, maps, sounds, weapons, etc. to an already existant story, adding new situations ALL related to the original game. Is like the chapters of a story, in HL the starring was Freeman, in Opposing Force was Sheppard, and in Blue Shift was Barney (was he?).

Mods that add whole new content and create an entirely new game are called total conversions. This is a more risky option, but gives you more freedom to create things without being restricted to the original storyline and characters of the game of which you are making the mod. But, WARNING!!, making a movie-based mod is a task very hard if you are a newbie like me, it will break your poor skull many times and only few of this mods have seen the light since 1999, when I have started modding (making counter-strike maps mainly).

Also a very important thing is to use the information of sites like The Snarkpit, TWHL, etc. to gain knowledge about the making of a mod. Remember that surely many of the things you want to do have been already done by someone, and probably the "how to" is reflected on some tutorial or on a Thread in those site´s forums. To make my mod I have used several tutorials, modified to fit my mod´s specifications. The ones I used are as follows:

[blue]-Team System with VGUI menu © BigGuy. (Modified)

-Team Spawn Points Fix © Put Put Cars

-Clientside radar © Botman. (Modified)

-Thirdperson camera © The "Future Wars" MOD Author & Mr. T. (Modified)

-Infrared-Nightvision © Xeno. (Modified)

-Muzzleflashes that Also Light Up World Brushes © Mazor (Modified)

-Automatically set collision Box by Model © Omega.

-Radio Commands © CidHighwind. (Modified)

-Hud Health Bars © Lord Draco. (Modified)

-Adding Full Weapons to Half-Life © Persuter.

Freezing players while shooting © -=ArcAdian=. (Modified)

-Spectator-Observer mode © The Wavelenght Snippets Database ( Unknown Author ). (Modified)

-VGUI Scope © Pongles. (Modified)

-Bot#10 © Botman (Modified)[/blue]

The rest of code was done by the WORST way of coding in the world, the "trial-error" method. Please, give a favor to yourself and LEARN WELL C++, or at least at some degree, before attempting to make a total conversion. I did not and I discover that coding is grateful when things go fine, no matter how many tries you compile the hl.dd and the client.dll, and a pain in the ass when you can not figure how to do things...

A good idea is to have a printed copy of those tutorials, and also of the files of the SDK that you think you will need to modify. I have some of those books bound by myself, among them the vol1 and 2 of the SDK (server and client side), the "all monsters handbook" the "all weapons handbook" and an unvaluable "HL Entities" vol 1 and 2 taken from TWHL.

Also, in the case of movie-based mods, and thanks to companies like McFarlane toys, HotToys and Threeezero, you can (must) acquire some "real" figures to help you make the models or, why not, motivate you!(I have three APU mechs and a sentinel).

As a good start in the modding hobby, there are, imho, three things with which you should start:

First: start your learning of the mapping program (Hammer or Quark that is what I use) making a simple box, enough big for the player, a pair of boxes and a npc or monster.

Second: after choosing a code editor (msvc+, Mingwc, etc) start making two basic modifications to a weapon, a monster and the player. I.e: health, damage inflicted, and other aspect like the speed, name, etc.

Third: with a modelling program do a basic modification of the skin, just to see how this work, in further stages you can try to decompile it, modify its mesh, and do a basic animation change.

This way you will have done...Your first mod!!!

But, for now, keep studying and we will talk later...

yes, i learned c++,hammer,some modeling, i was thinking im wise and knows enough things to mod sometihng. i spent time to modding experiments but not succeed even complete a reasonable project.

then i decided to make real mods and found this site.

i realized i was ignorent and i figured i wasnt know much about programming,modeling,mapping

even i was making complex brushes with carving and trying to code visual effects for half-life in serverside what a stupid.

eventually when i started to learn making real mod, i started to feel desperate and dismotivated.

i was thinking i couldnt spent anything more without progress. so then i wanted to ask for adviced to you. and you gave me well explanations.

and now i can make more wisely decisions because of your advices. and your advices also motivated me because i couldnt get rid from desperate when i couldnt see what beyond from startline. an experienced can see beyond the horizon.

thanks guys for your help. and your works are great i checked them i never imagine like these before. i also wanted to apreciate them. good luck on your next projects.

my exam is done for this week so i can make more maps for now.

i realized i was ignorent and i figured i wasnt know much about programming,modeling,mapping

I am (still) in this stage about coding, a bit less in mapping, imho. XD Don´t worry, everything will come with experience.

even i was making complex brushes with carving grin - and trying to code visual effects for half-life in serverside grin - what a stupid.

The visual effects is more a matter of choosing the right entity, and, in this case, some essays before getting the desired effect.

Using complex brushes through carving is... evil. Too many compiling problems will occur because of it. Also, if it is used for a few structures is fine, but always if it goes toghether with the func_detail entity. But also you have to be careful because tiny brushes will ruin your map ald let it un compilable. The compiling tools (HLCSG,HLBSP,HLVIS and HLRAD) also have a limited number of brushes with which you can "play" to make a map, more than that limit, and the compiler will crash.

eventually when i started to learn making real mod, i started to feel desperate and dismotivated.

Yes, creativity is often causing this kind of feelings, but, as I did say, relax!, everything comes out better when you take a little time ("A little time" Helloween. The Keeper of the Seven Keys vol.1 XD ) and think slowly on how to do things.

Let me give you an example:

For my mod I needed:

-4 teams
-4 type of weapons that don´t use clips or magazines
-Players in the shape of a robot.
-Turrets that behave as friendly machinery
-Flying monster that surrounds me and after a time attacks me.
-Flying monster that act suicidical and try to kill me exploding itself.
-Some way to call another npc to give me ammo
-A special weapon that kills any monster in a certain radius

Well, in my first attempts, I did only managed to make the 4 teams part and the weapons. I did study the SDK and luckily found the right tutorial for the Team system, with little modifications I reached my objective..

I was playing with HL just to see what could be the flying-suicidal monster, no one seemed to be useable: the leech did not fly, the zombie either, the snarks just jump and run, and were too stupid for me because they "hit" you and then return to run and jump and attack until they explode... and the ones that fly were the aflock (an ornamental monster) and the controller, but this last did not suicide, thy try to "suicide" you!. But, playing on and on, one day I was surrounded by Alien Grunts, and realized (stupid me for not seeing it before) that the little hornets only needed to have a proper model to be the monster I wanted, also a little modifications to show a white trail behind them instead of a red one and it was done!!. I´m sure you guessed what is it: the TOW Bombs (I am almost sure that this name is (c) me ).

The turret friendly monster was easy as cake. I will not enter here too much...

The "surrounder" monster was also a headache, three weeks of useless work and trial-error before I find the solution. I find that solution after trying to make the leech monster fly. I was able to do it, but this little sucker just felt to the ground and start spinning like a drill, nothing menacing or useful. Tired of that I continued playing searching for candidates. One afternoon, in the dam, I felt to the water were I have had to fight against the Ichtyosaur (I usually did kill it with a satchel or a bunch of grenades from the top of the dam), and saw that its behaviour was EXACTLY what I wanted!! (again, stupid me). After goofing with the code I managed to make it fly and discover that the monster worked exactly as the sentinels of the movie!!. Another success, as I did say, coding is good when things go right... but then started the troubles...

The FEMP countermeasure was a pain in the ass. Yes, I did code the function that hurts and kill the surrounding enemies, also, I did make the secondary fire that heals you. But the blast shockwave was a true nightmare. Of course you guessed that the Houndeye blast shockwave was the code to use, but, no matter how I tried to implement it in the code, I make the game crash on and on. I decided, jest before releasing the v1.0 of the mod, to left this undone. A pity. It was 8 years after thet I discover how to make it work, just in an hour one afternoon that I was goofing again with the code. Believe me, I was not kidding with the "take a deep breath, relax, take a little time, and you´ll see that things will go better."

The reload call was like writing in chinese for me. I did have a slight ide of how it should work, but my concept was so wrong that I did not write a single line of code for it since the year 2007. In 2015, I started again to make little things for the mod, basically trying to start in the point at where I did stop. And think about something that activates other thing from the distance, you are thinking in the same as me, right?, the satchel charge. Well, I think to make a new weapon that when fired calls (Activate) the reloaders, in this case the monstemakers that "create" the npc. But it was not that easy. I wanted the reload could be used anytime, not choosing another weapon, which is slow and will cause problems. I asked for help and made a first attempt using again the RELOAD capability of every weapon, but with no success, then I needed more help, with no luck in making it work, and finally, after full desperation, a kind person spoonfeeded me with the working code. I only have had to add a little part of code to make it work 100% right (the piece of code that I found playing again with the game and looking how semi-automatic weapons work). The result?. After 12 years the mod is done in what coding means (well, I want to add two little things).

Well, tomorrow I will tell you what happened with the maps and the cinematics, that is another history.

I hope you did pass that exam with a "cum laude" !
Time to relax and make some mods, then.
Good luck and keep us informed.

spinning like a drill

lol

a kind person spoonfeeded me

what kind of a kind person is it? and where did you find it?

After 12 years the mod is done in what coding means

you completed coding in 12years? wow. when did you started and how old were you back then? now i get it i thought you worked 6 years straight. but you did 12 years with 6years active right?

tomorrow I will tell you what happened with the maps and the cinematics

im waiting for it, tomorrow or whenever you do manage time to continue telling.

I hope you did pass that exam with a "cum laude"

it was easiest lessons exam, hardest ones starting after 2 weeks later and spans to following two weeks.

i have some similar experiences in modding like your entity candidate thing. but i cant managed and as you did, and felt desperate and crushed. ill tell what i encountered to become desperate. but today i dont have time to tell now ill tell later

what kind of a kind person is it? and where did you find it?

Hehe, that is a little secret I must keep for now, enough to say that It is a very kind person, well a pair of very kind persons indeed.

you completed coding in 12years? wow. when did you started and how old were you back then? now i get it i thought you worked 6 years straight. but you did 12 years with 6years active right?

Well, it took about 5 years to make the v1.0, I was younger then. Don't think you are younger or older, this is a hobby!!, there are 50 year old people that are still making games

From 2003 to 2008 i did coding (sort of), modelling (the most) and mapping (also the most). Then I have stopped until the year 2014; that is when I started to write little notes about new concepts for the things I was unable to do in the v 1.0. In 20015, I have restarted ALL models and the zion map from scratch, all models except some little parts of the bridges and the zion dock's platforms, and the apu mech. Zion map was fully re done.It was not until this year that I focused my efforts on coding.

Well, I am ripping a lot of secrets about the development of my mod!!, hehe.

The basic cinematics were done using trigger_auto entities and very basic effects. There's a very basic thing that I must have done... read the TWHL HL's entity list.

http://twhl.info/wiki.php?sub=1

And the tutorial list! read the six parts of the "In the beggining" tuts. That is what i did use to make the actual cinematics of the zion map.

One thing I did was opening the maps on which I found the basic cinematics I wanted with the map editor, that is, I have opened the bsp files with Quark and make a kind of manual of entities involved in, let's say, a button that activates a door, the chicken of cs_italy, etc. I did make a ten pages manual of those little effects. It was very useful, now I use ten times less entities for the effects thanks to the experience. Keep this in mind

Well, enough for today!.

yesterday i decided to start to my first serious modding attemp. and realized somethings i never know making a scripted sequence

and possibly lack of knowledge in many things. now i dont consider myself as a hl modder until i complete that serious mod.

and about the my entity candidate thing, i tried to remember but i dint remember at all i guess it was something like yours or it was something like overcome GS's limitations

overcoming goldsource's limitations is evil, especially for a standart modder

i felt desperate for that because it is like becoming obsesive or something like that. obsessive because never readed too much tuts about limitation of GS but thinked too much to overcome limits. this is drained my enthusiasm.

i dont tried to make the AA title mods. but i wasted some limits of GS with making poor designed maps etc. so i thought engine couldnt handle me, but it was me couldnt handle the engine.

be happy with your engine, or read so many tuts to go better engine. but if you dont read that much and then complain with your engine this makes you desperate

im wiser and ill work harder, i wont work dumber

but not gonna switch my engine, im happy with my engine now and when i dont under stress of graphics i loved old GS again

fun is the key, not the graphics and realized this, hl's original graphics always will be raising the imagine power up.

now gonna read lots of GS tuts maybe unreal tuts after becom ecpert GS modder.

dont think much in your opinions. read more stuff, then see you are almost oppositely wrong about truths

Just do a mod, just this, a simple room, a monster, a weapon, you (the player) and start from that point. Then you can add things. Give us a looksy to what you´ve already done