I could spend ages writing about what I just played. I think the presentation, ambience and surreal events were great, and it's interesting to see how most of it was pulled off with elements from the standard HL2 material. This mod really delivers in those little details, creepy events and OMG moments of surprise. Some of the custom materials and the way they were used were definately interesting. Although the mapping has improved over your previous work (I'm thinking "The Mansion 2"), it's still sort of irregular. While texturing and entity placement is good, I feel the lighting in some of the areas is weak. There's a lot of dark/bright contrast games you can do with Source, and I don't think you used that enough. I understand horror maps use the flashlight, but It'd be interesting if the lighting was a bit better in some places. In terms of architecture, I think it was interesting throughout all the maps, but in bigger areas some more detail was needed. The caves towards the end were kind of bad in terms of absolutely flat rock surfaces in some of the passages. Gameplay was interesting with all that was going on, but one thing I missed was some game_text telling me what I was doing. I kept picking up keys without knowing which of the locked doors it would work on. It makes sense for Gordon to not know anything, but players don't mind a hint here and there. Combat was great, and It's releaving to not fight the Combine. Good job overall.
Commented 17 years ago2007-07-10 02:12:52 UTC
in vault item: Unfinished cs_urbanbendComment #15312
May I suggest making the fence a func_illusionary and then putting a clip brush the same size over it, just so you can shoot through it. also there is an intersecting face. fix it, otherwise decent!
Commented 17 years ago2007-07-10 01:25:17 UTC
in vault item: Half-Life: EmergencyComment #15311
Oh... hey, was there supposed to be fog like in the screenshot? Because that didn't work for me, but I'm sure it would have fixed the draw distance problem.
Commented 17 years ago2007-07-09 22:39:13 UTC
in vault item: Half-Life: EmergencyComment #15309
What we?ve got here is another fairly good attempt at a Half-Life mod that in places falls just short of perfection. Now, I?m not going to say that this could have been one of the best mods out there or anything, but it certainly could have been lot better than it was, had the mapper(s) put a bit more effort into conceiving a believable plot, and polishing off the maps. And while I?m not sure of all the fine nuances in the plot, since all the text is in Russian/Latvian, the author?s brief description of it gives me a fairly good idea what I?m doing.
Starting out in what is apparently your apartment, you seem to detect that something is amiss. After getting what is in all likelihood a sinister phone call, you grab an axe that is conveniently lying in the hallway next to some dead bodies, and break your window open to crawl down to ground level. Why there wasn?t an escape ladder, I don?t know, but there?s a bunch of zombies crawling around for no apparent reason, and basic instinct tells you that you should probably hit them with that axe you conveniently picked up.
When you get outside, you immediately notice a glaring flaw with the mapping. For no apparent reason, somebody decided it would be a good idea to set the draw distance obscenely low in this huge environment. This problem persists throughout EVERY SINGLE outdoor map. What were they thinking? Not only that, but there is a definitive edge to this city map, and you can look right over into the skybox.
After nabbing a truck and escaping your whacked out neighborhood, you come to what could have been a quite stunning outdoor map. The ambience here is exceptional, and you?re surrounded on all sides by fairly well made cliffs and boulders, but yet again, the draw distance is set so you can?t see 100 feet in front of you. Damn.
Anyway, after bashing some more zombie heads in, you eventually come to the entrance of a facility built into the rocks. I?m not sure how your player knew it was there, but once inside, you?re basically going around pressing buttons and running through hallways, killing the occasional zombie or Vortigaunt. There?s almost no increase in difficulty throughout the entire mod. Almost.
This is where things get a little strange. You enter a teleporter in the facility, and appear to have been sent to Xen, but according to the author you are actually an entirely different person now. You do the standard annoying Xen jumping puzzles, and end up getting hit on the head with a stray rock (lolwut?) and captured by aliens. This is where things get REALLY strange. Apparently, you?re now inside an alien coliseum, and you?ve just finished praying in front of an alter (LOLWUT?!?) when you?re sent out to battle a bunch of aliens in an extremely difficult match. You?d better be playing on easy, or you?ll have no chance at this. After a wave of Vortigaunts attack you from all directions, a Gargantua is thrown in the ring. I never got passed this part, but your tolerance will be tested here. Not only is it seemingly impossible to kill this thing with the weapons you?re given, but the arena has a bunch of rubble that?s been poorly clipped, and you end up getting stuck on invisible walls and little brushes while trying desperately to escape.
What?s so sad is that the mapping here is actually quite good in places, but then they had to go and botch up the gameplay. My recommendation would be to avoid this, as I had little to no fun playing it.
Commented 17 years ago2007-07-08 17:14:59 UTC
in vault item: mini_dust2007Comment #15307
@ Ghetto: erm... right, anyways...............
He's right though, try spending more time on a project rather than chucking out loads of these things. Do you really expect this to get anywhere near a server? It looks like you've just mapped random crap without any thought... and bad idea, especially for a MP map. Design it first - MSPaint, paper, whatever... but I can gurantee that the results will be a vast improvement.
Also, so far all your maps seem based on others. Try something new and original... its likely to get far more interest than a re-vamp.
Don't take all this critism personally... you've definately got the drive, you just need a little more focus..........
Commented 17 years ago2007-07-08 14:48:26 UTC
in vault item: de_quickshotComment #15306
I like you map very much, but have you ever heard about r_speeds?? There are point on your map that the value of epoly goes over 2500, and it is not good for those players who have old PC, the max value of epoly (by Valve as I know) 7-800. Anyway the texturing is quite nice...xD
Commented 17 years ago2007-07-08 09:33:44 UTC
in vault item: cs_frigidComment #15300
Can't add much to Hunter's review.. It really needs some structures/objects throughout the area to help the players navigate. The snowmobiles let you get around more quickly, but that's really not enough. If you added some ramps, more hills and more snowmobiles - it could be the one of the first decent-looking veichle maps.
Overall - the idea's great, though it still needs tweaking to play right.
Commented 17 years ago2007-07-07 22:36:15 UTC
in vault item: cs_frigidComment #15293
When I played this with a few other people, the other players weren't fading out with the fog. Was that happening to anyone else? I've never experienced this before and I know it has worked in the past because cs_rain_field didn't do this. It has to be some shitty Steam engine "update" or something, that's just perfect. Now the map loses half its essence.
Commented 17 years ago2007-07-07 13:25:18 UTC
in vault item: cs_frigidComment #15291
well me and daubster played a couple of rounds.. Let me gather my thoughts..
Well, there were some really good aspects:
+ Pretty original, and pulled off very well. + Seemingly endless world + trees + foggy atmosphere. like it. + r_speeds are very good for what it is + snowmobiles - well i liked them
But some downfalls as well
- since it was just the 2 of us, finding each other was nigh-impossible half-the-time. Probably be much better on an 18 man server. - a bit blocky.. but acceptable - lacking something... oomft.. I dunno.. - a little difficult to see which direction you should head in, especially with invisible walls everywhere.
Commented 17 years ago2007-07-07 04:59:37 UTC
in vault item: Unfinished cs_urbanbendComment #15281
I already told you in the map thread to fix the edges of the terrain, and even edited a screenshot to show you how. You didn't bother to do so. In your map de_barren, I told you to give more variation to the height of the walls in yours maps. You barely bothered to do so. You really need to expand the visual area beyond the gameplay area if you want any realism in a map. And you don't need 3D skyboxes. It's possible with the hl1 engine. The map is better than your previous work, but It would really help if you took our mapping advice a bit more seriously
This mod really delivers in those little details, creepy events and OMG moments of surprise. Some of the custom materials and the way they were used were definately interesting.
Although the mapping has improved over your previous work (I'm thinking "The Mansion 2"), it's still sort of irregular. While texturing and entity placement is good, I feel the lighting in some of the areas is weak. There's a lot of dark/bright contrast games you can do with Source, and I don't think you used that enough. I understand horror maps use the flashlight, but It'd be interesting if the lighting was a bit better in some places.
In terms of architecture, I think it was interesting throughout all the maps, but in bigger areas some more detail was needed. The caves towards the end were kind of bad in terms of absolutely flat rock surfaces in some of the passages.
Gameplay was interesting with all that was going on, but one thing I missed was some game_text telling me what I was doing. I kept picking up keys without knowing which of the locked doors it would work on. It makes sense for Gordon to not know anything, but players don't mind a hint here and there. Combat was great, and It's releaving to not fight the Combine.
Good job overall.
no
Will play when I get home....
Starting out in what is apparently your apartment, you seem to detect that something is amiss. After getting what is in all likelihood a sinister phone call, you grab an axe that is conveniently lying in the hallway next to some dead bodies, and break your window open to crawl down to ground level. Why there wasn?t an escape ladder, I don?t know, but there?s a bunch of zombies crawling around for no apparent reason, and basic instinct tells you that you should probably hit them with that axe you conveniently picked up.
When you get outside, you immediately notice a glaring flaw with the mapping. For no apparent reason, somebody decided it would be a good idea to set the draw distance obscenely low in this huge environment. This problem persists throughout EVERY SINGLE outdoor map. What were they thinking? Not only that, but there is a definitive edge to this city map, and you can look right over into the skybox.
After nabbing a truck and escaping your whacked out neighborhood, you come to what could have been a quite stunning outdoor map. The ambience here is exceptional, and you?re surrounded on all sides by fairly well made cliffs and boulders, but yet again, the draw distance is set so you can?t see 100 feet in front of you. Damn.
Anyway, after bashing some more zombie heads in, you eventually come to the entrance of a facility built into the rocks. I?m not sure how your player knew it was there, but once inside, you?re basically going around pressing buttons and running through hallways, killing the occasional zombie or Vortigaunt. There?s almost no increase in difficulty throughout the entire mod. Almost.
This is where things get a little strange. You enter a teleporter in the facility, and appear to have been sent to Xen, but according to the author you are actually an entirely different person now. You do the standard annoying Xen jumping puzzles, and end up getting hit on the head with a stray rock (lolwut?) and captured by aliens. This is where things get REALLY strange. Apparently, you?re now inside an alien coliseum, and you?ve just finished praying in front of an alter (LOLWUT?!?) when you?re sent out to battle a bunch of aliens in an extremely difficult match. You?d better be playing on easy, or you?ll have no chance at this. After a wave of Vortigaunts attack you from all directions, a Gargantua is thrown in the ring. I never got passed this part, but your tolerance will be tested here. Not only is it seemingly impossible to kill this thing with the weapons you?re given, but the arena has a bunch of rubble that?s been poorly clipped, and you end up getting stuck on invisible walls and little brushes while trying desperately to escape.
What?s so sad is that the mapping here is actually quite good in places, but then they had to go and botch up the gameplay. My recommendation would be to avoid this, as I had little to no fun playing it.
He's right though, try spending more time on a project rather than chucking out loads of these things. Do you really expect this to get anywhere near a server? It looks like you've just mapped random crap without any thought... and bad idea, especially for a MP map. Design it first - MSPaint, paper, whatever... but I can gurantee that the results will be a vast improvement.
Also, so far all your maps seem based on others. Try something new and original... its likely to get far more interest than a re-vamp.
Don't take all this critism personally... you've definately got the drive, you just need a little more focus..........
but:
- for standard desert sky
- for blocky cliff faces
19 May 07 13:58
By: Ghetto
12 Jun 07 18:59
By: Ghetto
16 Jun 07 14:01
By: Ghetto
26 Jun 07 17:51
By: Ghetto
06 Jul 07 17:06
You big fat fr00b's!
Now onto the map:
- Small, combat cramped
- The cracked floor seems a bit wierd to me.
- Fire doors backwards
But for a first release its pretty good
It really needs some structures/objects throughout the area to help the players navigate. The snowmobiles let you get around more quickly, but that's really not enough.
If you added some ramps, more hills and more snowmobiles - it could be the one of the first decent-looking veichle maps.
Overall - the idea's great, though it still needs tweaking to play right.
It has to be some shitty Steam engine "update" or something, that's just perfect. Now the map loses half its essence.
Well, i'm going to say it's better than the last one you uploaded, but only very marginally.
you STILL used the water instead of ladders. Please stop doing that. It looks completely daft.
The lighting is boring and point straight down. Change the pitch of your light_environment to -45 instead of straight down.
The texturing is really bad. It looks to me like you didn't press shift + a ONCE during the entire build time of this map.
Load the .rmf for this map in hammer, press shift + a, then see what happens.
Well, there were some really good aspects:
+ Pretty original, and pulled off very well.
+ Seemingly endless world
+ trees
+ foggy atmosphere. like it.
+ r_speeds are very good for what it is
+ snowmobiles - well i liked them
But some downfalls as well
- since it was just the 2 of us, finding each other was nigh-impossible half-the-time. Probably be much better on an 18 man server.
- a bit blocky.. but acceptable
- lacking something... oomft.. I dunno..
- a little difficult to see which direction you should head in, especially with invisible walls everywhere.
I personally like it. 4 stars
Extract to your cstrike folder, people. not /maps.
For those who don't know, frigid =
-very cold in temperature
-unemotional or unimaginative; lacking passion, sympathy, or sensitivity
*downloads
Nice example! I will use it sometime.
In your map de_barren, I told you to give more variation to the height of the walls in yours maps. You barely bothered to do so. You really need to expand the visual area beyond the gameplay area if you want any realism in a map. And you don't need 3D skyboxes. It's possible with the hl1 engine.
The map is better than your previous work, but It would really help if you took our mapping advice a bit more seriously
i loved it great job
im not lookin at this
It's a bit tricky retriggering an assault every time they are spawned.
Nice example!