Comments

Improved version is here!

Quite nice, I liked the sniper gun thing.But didnt like the architecture at all.

Thank you

+ creative use of func_ladder

- light_environment ; i dont see the sun
- http://img409.imageshack.us/img409/7804/1cu5.jpg ; func_ladder here?
- http://img409.imageshack.us/img409/186/2vm4.jpg & http://img409.imageshack.us/img409/9195/3xv7.jpg ; bad textures align.

Overall: good idea *** stars

// sry for my english

Heh some nice stuff, but not without it's problems.

-There are missing textures
-There is a 24-piece arch erroneously in the middle of the floor
-2 invalid solids--easily clipped by clipping them each about the diagonal
-disappearing faces on some of your architecture--normal

But the biggest problem is that some piece of architecture is crashing VIS--probably the big arch. Maybe try putting all the verticies on-grid, and/or remaking it without the arch tool--the smaller scale arch in the floor was perfectly on-grid.

Your architecture in general is all on-grid and very nice, and that hazy light--HDR in source?--looks superb.

To fix the disappearing faces:

Almost anytime you have semi-sophisticated architecture, VIS doesn't seem to like it too much, and lets you know by making some of your faces of otherwise perfectly fine architecture to disappear.

Make the brush with a disappearing face a func wall. DON'T make the WHOLE object a func_wall however. Inexplicably, if you make the whole obect a func_wall, the same faces STILL disappear. Plus if you make too many brush-based entitys, your performance will suffer.

Anyway, pretty nice work

Judging from the screenshot, I'd say it could really use some better textures.

he he never did wake up from the coma!

Ah I forgot about that grenade model, I'll quickly edit my review and mention it.

There's an improved version soon.

Link fixed

His DMC map wasn't his first attempt, this was. So why he released them in the wrong order, I don't know but from this to his DMC is an obvious improvement.

Ha Ha! Excellent!

I loved the look/detailing/textures of the hallway leading up as well.

MERRY CHISTMAS!!1

This mod was made with Spirit of Half-Life so any crashes would have to be taken up with Laurie Cheers. I was also squished for time to get this up before christmas so I only had three weeks to make this mod so I will admit, if I had more time, I could have done better. Again, I apologise for the third level being slow, I usually can't run VIS on normal because it just doesn't compile, so the last three levels were compiled on the '-fast' setting. Sorry about that. There was also a new grenade model that I made myself. I am not much of a model maker but I can animate models really well. Thanks for all your comments, I appreciate the feedback

Gave it a review at my site, TAW; http://qshockwave.planetduke.gamespy.com/blog/?p=280

edit: lol I just played it again, and once again, it was crowbar only!! I missed the best part of the map!!

The tree looks spectacualar--I thought it was a model--, and the railings--reminded me of something you'd see in a japanese garden--and omg the irisish door were cool as hell!

Neat shit!

LOL I accidentally noclipped through the ceiling--key bind--whilst looking at the toast in your map, and I ran into the room with the fat-headed babies, which I never saw before! (I couldn't get throught the door, lol )

I'll try to go through the door again, lol--is is supposed to be a puzzle?

First of all - this really brought the christmas spirit to the ole' HL.
As for the review:

+ Architecture. It was quite clean and overall realistic. Almost every area from the bumpy snow at the surface to the caves and the reindeer room was realistic and quite interesting. On the other hand - the corridors in the underground area were really dull and blocky. Some sticking out trims, or even pipes would've been great. Anyways - the overall architecture was really great.

+ Texturing. I liked the custom textures and the lil' details, like chains on the locked doors, or the names of each reindeer in their liftoff room. The cave/other areas were also interesting and not very repeating.

+ Atmosphere. From the music to the christmas lights and snow - it really felt like it was white xmas. While almost all of your rooms had great ambience, the lighting was quite repeating and boring. The yellow vs. white theme is really a bit too dull. The only area, where the lighting was great was the surface. It really felt like a snowstorm.

+ Custom content. The gifts replacing ammo and other items and new weapons were great, although I didn't like having the HEV suit displayed as clips of ammo. You could have just removed the HEV startup sentences from the sentences.txt to avoid the sounds and placed the HEV suit right at the player.
The santa, elves and dwarves models were great, although I really agree with Boxtop on those anime children models. They just didn't fit.
I also loved the snowman zombies and the way they die. They really added a lot, although you could have replaced the default zombie sounds with something different.
The game crashed 3 times, while playing too. You should sort that out.

+ Enemy/ammo placement. I think you've balanced it quite well. The gameplay was decently heavy on hard, but I've managed most of the areas without quickloading more than twice.

Overall - a great christmas mod. It lacked stability, but I must say, that the experience was rather pleasing. The ending was also awesome.
Great work!

you are the example map god. thanks, man.

Sorry to all for any bugs but I'll answer a few of your questions here. I know it's slow but I have a problem with VIS. Most of the time I have to run VIS on '-fast' cause it will sit there for hours and hours and hours getting nowhere. Something happened to the assassin model elf, it is just a copy of the grunt model but something went wrong, I don't know what. I am new to using Spirit, so it could have been better I admit but for now I am learning to use it. I needed kid models and that was all I could get within my time frame and they're DWARVES not vikings.

I liked the door sequence and especially the ending

compared to your DMC map, which was very good for a first attempt, i am rather dissappointed at this..

Keep mapping, get better.

After replaying this, I have to say this door has one of the more unique mechanisms to it and is very well done.

The aforomentioned small occlusions which wouldn't have been really difficult to fix really dropped my rating of this map. Still, it's excellent work.

A great entry, good work!
*****

LOL very nice!

Like Daubster's you had some excellent sprite/env_beam and sound effects, timed perfectly with there execution. You actually used a func_door_rotating, which I though more of the entrants would have taken advantage of.

The displacement-like terrain was also very nice outside the door.
(lol btw I never saw anyone texture the outside of their level with {blue before!--quite unique

The door(s) itself were also pretty good, and good use of the aformentioned rotating entity. The last stage of the door would have looked nicer with some different texturing, but whateva.

The ending had a nice twist, also like Daub's... I lol'd

Great work, and another--and final--perfect entry for the compo.
*****

And it is the last map ever...That'll you make like this!

I hope so at least...Just a question but are you considering making a really detailed and impressive level in the future?

This map is a good lesson but a lot of people love to see really nice and detailed levels with lighting etc...

People always suggest that you never release your first map unless it is good.

Keep practicing and good luck

W00t! Very neat.

Yay, an xmas mod! ^^
Downloading.

Heheh.. After seeing the whole test lab theme, I thought, that it's gonna be some monsters spawning, etc.

Well - the map proved me wrong.
Merry Xmas to ya too, Muzz. ^^

Hahahahah!

The ending was awesome..

The door wasn't that bad either. I liked the lasers turning off one-by-one. The rotating locks were a bit too slow, though.

It also lacked more detailed stuff.

Still -geat stuff. Add a sky outside and you've got yourself a great map.

What about Xmas decoration in the whole map. ;D

This door is my fav. one out of the 4.

To keep it short, I agree with Rowley.

*you shouldn't

DMC!!

I think it's a bit strange the towers are just standing in the void.
Maybe you should surround it with lava or water.
Or make the walls very long with a black floor.
Put a trigger_hurt in the middle of the lenght of the walls.

The map isn't really a beauty, but it looks nice.

3 stars for you.

Btw, I shouldn't make a hldm or hl2dm version.
Be original and work on new maps.

Screw the plainness of the test chamber.

The message is what counts. Happy Xmas to you aswell Muzz.

(If you're going to work on this, this map needs Xmas music.. seriously)

Yeah, what a big ass mistake. I got some idea's, like a projector beam projecting the letters as if they'r being written. You know. But its gonna take a horrible amount of entities:

• env_beams
• func_trains
• info_targets

I may not get this finished before Christmas, but oh well. Im sure it'll make you go :O!

Interesting concept...but I did have some problems with it.

First, I don't think you gave the player enough ammo to start with. Of course, it could just be the fact that I suck.

Second, the models. They were kind of blocky, and plus, what was up with the vikings and the anime characters? They didn't quite fit with the Christmas-gone-horribly-wrong theme, and neither did Freeman and his orange hazard suit. The evil snowmen were a nice touch, but it takes forever to kill them, and it would've been better if they bled white blood instead of alien yellow.

Third, it may just be my crappy computer, but you were averaging 9000 epolys in some places, which led to a considerable slowdown.

Yeah, so good concept, but still some problems.

WAH!

Of course not. Half-Life: Source uses the Source engine...

would this work with half-life:source ??

You scared me into thinking you were going to have the player be Santa for a second there. Downloading right now.

Really nice and like everyone said, the chamber needed more work on it.

"The compressed (zipped) folder is invalid or corrupt"

I tried opening it with WinRAR too, but with no luck... Just thought I'd let you know.

Total crapola, the test chamber eh?

Ill make it more juicy later.

:S

well, first of all:
The map leading up to the message was great. Lovely architecture and lighting..

..

but to be honest, i was a little let-down at the end.. The chamber seemed very bland, and perhaps some more flashy things could have been used

Heh, not important. It's a lovely message and we all wish you a merry xmas too, muzz ^_^

Just from looking at the screenshot, I can tell it's fullbright, and those rocks will need a lot of work before they'll look good.

True, ill add some more later.