Comments

I saw the screenshot in the vault and thought, "Competitive Tetris for CS!!"

Well, it's obvious that you didn't use the ideas in those tutorials.

what the hell men, it's a good idea

i readed all of those

what he said.

Fixed, dl link updated

Wow, this is where gaming, mapping, art, and politics collide.

One of the most intriguing maps I have ever come across.

It's contemporary art at its most interesting manifestation.

FRESHED RELEASED A MAP <3

Nice.

+ Lots of high quality custom content.
+ Big area, with good gameplay layout. I can see this being lots of fun with lots of players.
+ Lots of great little details
+ Nice huge skybox model

- The huge flat, square walls around the edges are a little bit disappointing.
- The lighting could be a lot more interesting
- filefront is annoying

I'd give the map 4 stars, but the effort which has obviously gone into the excellent custom content pushes it firmly up to 5 overall.

here you go

http://img28.imagevenue.com/img.php?image=62161_texs_122_1068lo.jpg

Damn, keep trying to fix it, can you give me a screen of an area with missing textures? I think it's only one that I haven't added properly.

You still have some missing textures on the floor in some fairly big areas.

Great DM map though. Nicely done.

Nice map,i like the detail very much,but it's a little small,and i don't get the exploding glass thing,and if one breaks they both brake,any way nice arhitecture

Updated it to a new version, the dl link is the same but everything works a bit better... ladders fixed, textures I think are fixed, haven't tested though. A few other updates with props, weapon placement, lighting etc...

Dl and enjoy.

The square room above the map just holds the ambient_generic that constantly plays in the background. For global sounds, I've found that it's best to put them as far away and central to the player as possible to minimize being heard from right to left, depending on what direction the player faces.

This map is very much like rimrooks mapping and not just his textures. Other than that, its a great map. I myself dont like everything in a map to be so "symmetrical" but it looks good. I was planning a dm map with a huge structure myself but I dont know if ill ever get around to it. The ambience you chose really complimented the mood and color tones well. By the way, is that room at all like yours because if it is, "you really like to read" lol. And nice teleporting effect..done with that square room above the map maybe?

Damnit I didn't get time last night. I should be able to look tonight though!

-wadinclude the czcs_italy wad or whatnot

Some of the textures are missing (the walls on the building on the island and the floor of the upper area in the upper right of the picture for example) and it seems to be difficult to get off the ladders.

Other than that it's a beautiful map.

Shame I can't play it - looks really nice

The screenshot certainly looks pretty!

I'll take a look tonight when I get home from work!

I remember it being quite fun, though kinda cramped in places. Downloading to see if you fixed the death trap that is the water.

This map is pretty cool with TS3, but, even with the powerups well placed, the main action of it works almost on the ground, it's kinda empty on the roof part.

The theme is just a lot intersting because of the building under construnction and I'm sure it will make you angry because you falled down from the last floor!

Yay, I remenber making fun on this with you, this map just make a very cool deathmatch map.

So, You've got some problems in there like Null textures in some places where players can reach with the gauss or the "non killable" trigger_hurt

But, hell, it's a really great usage of the hl.wad textures.

Yeah, as Playbus said, the rule of the contest was to use only halflife.wad textures (and one single texture create for the contest). I would probably re-texture it, but as I said earlier, I've lost the rmf/map file =/

Thanks!
Fergo

Humm... I see what happened. This map is for The Specialists. I've used a car model (where the sound comes from) that comes with TS, and you ran the game on HLDM, so you probably don't have the car model.
The invisible brushes you see are clipbrushes that I've used to make the car models "not passable".

Fergo

Not overused by him but by everyone in general. I don't care about the competition; I was just saying that if he had used different textures the map would be better in my opinion...thow I know he had to use them///but who says he cant change them for dm use.

If you actually read the brief on the map, you'll see that the whole point of the competition (that this map was made for) was to only use the original HL textures.

So comments on the textures being overused, are stupid.

Yea those textures are way overused but this definetly is a very detailed good looking map. I am sick of maps that look like labs and stuff but this one definetly stood out. One other thing, I would have to say put some controls on those elevators. Its kind of inconvenient to sit and wate there for them when your trying to run around and kill eachother.

Yeah it does work in HLDM. Very nice.

Only a couple of things I found a bit odd-

1. There are two (that I found) invisible brushes in the middle of the road which stop players moving through them for seemingly no reason. This seemed a bit odd.

2. The music is cool but doesn't seem to actually come from anywhere.

Apart from those things, great map. Your attention to detail is great.

I remember this.
It's pretty awesome, though the shadows being that pitch dark tell me you haven't run -bounce in RAD when compiling it.

It'll take me some time to think about it.I'll notice you.I'm very entusiast(or how it is written in english)

Thanks for the comments!
About the clipbrushes, yeah, I didn't noticed that the players could get stucked on the details. Unfortunately I lost the .map file and can't fix this anymore

About thee texture alignment, I finished the map a few minutes from the deadline and didn't had so much time to notice this details =/

Regards,
Fergo

Thanks!
I whink you can use HLDM to see the map, as the spawn points are basically info_player_deathmatch.

Fergo

You're right about just-players sometimes not noticing things because they don't know how the engine works. But on a site full of other mappers, almost everyone will notice.

In the end it's good -- even someone who understands the illusion will be impressed by it if it is good enough - so if you impress us mappers with a reflective floor in GoldSrc, then the average player is going to shit themselves in delight when they see it. This is something I recommend you aim for, if you want to progress to making truly great maps. Exceed expectations. Surprise people.

If you made the floor a bit less transparent, and lined up the lights on the ceiling, it would be a very good reflection. It's just at the minute, the floor actually does look non-solid.

In reality, a floor would have to be VERY shiny, almost like a mirror, to have a reflection as clear as the one in this map. And the texture you have on the floor does not lend itself to appearing THAT reflective. Make it more subtle. Make it so the reflection is still there --- but you can't quite see it clearly. Make the floor look pretty solid, even though it's not. It will look much more realistic.

Expanding the map could be good. But if it was me, I'd start again. Come up with a plan before you start, and try to stick to it.

Outdoor areas are nice, and you should definately think about making some in the future for your maps. Be warned however, that outdoor areas are much more difficult to make look realistic and pretty.

Thanks Playbus.You really encouraged me! Well I'll try to make another version of this map,more impressive.And bigger .I was inspired to make such a small map by a map called "aim_famas".

But that.....with the reflection...I've played with a couple of guys cstrike and then asked them: Do you like the reflection? They "yes" After 10 minutes I told them that ,in fact there isn't any reflection,the floor is a kind of glass and the reflection is just the room turned up side down.The day to day normal players won't even notice something.As for us,we know the floor isn't a reflection and that's why you saw so many things playbus.

I'll make the rooms bigger somehow and put some working vending machines(not just some cubes with vending texture).A stupid thing that affects the map quality is when a person is shot,after a few seconds it's corpse falls through the floor !!! :)) well nobody told me something but ,oh well......

Should I put some outdoors?? For example: Tero starts in office and counters are on an alley.And they enter a block of flats bla bla bla.What do you think?

I agree with Playbus.

I'm not a fan of the HL textures for this type of map, but you made them look decent.

The architecture is slightly better than I had expected. It's mostly blocky, but at least you've tried to round off some corners.

The reflective floor is a nice try, and 'makes' the map because without it things would look very boring. It shows that you have at least put some thought into how to make the map look better and more unique.

However, I think the floor is a bit too transparent, and it actually looks like what it is - a room underneath. Also - the blue lights on the ceiling don't match up with the ones down below -- in fact I'm sure there is one extra light in the 'reflection'....

Also, when you break the windows, they don't break in the 'reflection'. I can't remember if you can actually fix this in GoldSrc, but if you can, you should.

The scale is a bit wrong in places. Such as the sofa and the filing cabinets in the middle of the walls of each side -- they're far too big when compared to the other desks and bookcases, so they look strange.

I've seen worse lighting --- but the lighting here could still be better too. I realise that lighting a small FY map like this requires some attention (so you don't unbalance the teams chances) but if you want a map which looks really good, then you must get some contrast and variety in the lighting.

There are a couple of badly aligned textures, and some which look horribly stretched too.

It's very small - even for an FY map. It's basically one room. (Well two, if you count the reflection) I can't see 10 people staying on this map for hours.....

It's only worth two stars I'm afraid.

But two stars is an entire world better than one star

Keep practising. You've got some potential.

Wow. This is stunning.

Looks beautiful - great architecture, great lighting, great layout, and wonderful attention to detail all around.

The only thing I could find which didn't look perfect was that several of the inner doorframe trims have one texture which doesn't line up exactly, but then only on one side of the door. A minor thing - and I had to be picky to even notice it. I couldn't find anything else wrong at all.

5 stars for you, Sir.

Looks very good!

Do you actually need The Specialists installed to look at it?

BY THE WAY......you can modify it....I would love to see some modified versions.And post it plz.

Don't be so arrogant .I said i made the map long time ago.I put names on every parts I built.(samurai_jack_mini_map_2 ....3,...4,.....and so :)) and this was the finished map.But at that time i didn't know all you have to say was that the map is a beta map.Sorry.Why don't you review the other map?

what version of RMF is this? is it 3.4 or lower? ^^

This map is eyecandy! Only one "contra": next time use clipbrushes for more suitable movement.

Review

I don't even know where to begin.. Huge open areas you've never seen before in a CS map? Awesome looks and amazing care for detail? Refreshingly fun gameplay? Well, let me assure you - this map has it all, and much more.De_mon is set in an island, which unlike other CS/HL maps is completely re-created, giving you access to almost every single corner of it, creating one large, seamless arena with some very interesting and fun gameplay. Now, don't get me wrong, it's not just another killbox. There are plenty of routes and chokepoints and the ability to roam freely almost everywhere, while keeping the layout intact and playable, plus the huge scale of most paths/chokepoints really make dust look like a rat maze with cheese in its bomb targets when compared to this (no offence, DaveJ ;> ). All these aspects of the layout provide excellent conditions for the open-minded cs player to go loose planning his approach. And don't think the only weapon you'll ever need is an AWP. Even though it's a great idea to have a sniper or two on your team to cover you when rushing the targets in a map this big, there's still enough cover and "safe paths" for anyone with an AK-47 or M4A1 to kick some serious ass. Another good idea was including player-controlled vehicles; a boat and an elevator (even if a ski-resort-like elevator looks a tad odd in a place like this). They both add a bit of fun and variety. One thing I found really crazy, though, was placing AWPs in areas, where the player has a full view of the map! Go ahead, make it to the guard tower or lighthouse and slaughter the opposing team, while they're helplessly trying to hit you with their Desert Eagles in the pistol round. Now that's screwing things up!Obviously - it's not just the gameplay that makes this map so much different. Even if the detail's not that great at close range, the panoramic views are absolutely amazing, especially when your average wpoly count stays at about 700-800 and goes a bit over 1300 in the most open areas. That's why you can forgive the occasional chunky cliff or cheap-looking forest imitation, ignore some objects just begging to be detailed, or any textures, that could be less stretchy. The overall result makes up for that anyway. Another thing adding to the amazing panoramic views is the absolutely seamless transition between the map and skybox. At any distance - it's flawless. Yet again, though - there were some obvious problems too. The biggest one was some solids not being rendered underwater, uncovering some areas that shouldn't be seen from that point. You'll mostly use that to your advantage, so that makes both visuals and gameplay less appealing. Another thing I found weird was prop placement and model choices. russian police cars and pine or elk trees don't belong in a tropical environment. Actually, last time I checked - cars don't belong in a small island, that hasn't got a single road at all! Placing vehicles ontop of cliffs and making the player doubt that laws of physics ever existed in this island is not the way to go.Then texturing came to the rescue, saving or at least covering up some architecture quirks created due to extreme optimization. Thanks to some lovely blending textures hiding the chunkiness of the terrain. The buildings also used some nice oldskool textures from old de_inferno, the CS 1.5 version; they fit the theme pretty well. However, there were some obvious problems, like the horribly stretched scenery tree textures in some areas, making the forests there look like broccoli soup gone really bad.There is one aspect of this map, though, which is almost flawless. Atmosphere. Lighting is set up just the way it's supposed to be in a tropical island; very bright and warm, and to top that off - there's some sprites to simulate the extremely bright sun glow, creating a HDR-like bloom you've never seen before in other GoldSource maps. Ambience was also very well-made, with some randomly triggered sounds, giving it some nice variety. Probably the only thing I missed was the use of env_sound, that, if used smartly, would have been a very nice addition.

Bottom Line

Vehicles, water playing a large role, the scale and some other details really made this map feel a bit like one the old official cut-out CS maps back from the betas. (something between cs_docks and de_railroad), which is, to me, an incredibly refreshing feeling. So, even with it's flaws, de_mon is a fantastic map to explore and play. Amazing looks, considering the great performance, possibilities in gameplay, stunning ambience and one of the coolest easter egg sequences I've seen yet make this map a must-try for any CS player at least remotely interested in something new.

Exclusive Video Review

Bottom Line

About as good looking as the Goldsource engine can look in a map which still takes r_speeds into consideration. Top notch effort with only a few minor set-backs.You have no excuse. Download it. Play it. Bask in it.

I fail to see how the use of the word "Ultimate" is justified here.

So you felt compelled to lengthen the name of your map by 13 characters with it?

I told you, it's an old map,and samurai jack is my nick in cstrike