Commented 17 years ago2007-09-12 20:48:32 UTC
in vault item: Santa's Revenge (SP Mod)Comment #15638
It crashed everytime at the beginning intro, I couldn't find any solutions. I even looked into the folder too see if I could find the map names, thus skipping the part with the error. Other than that the splash background made me chuckle, and the ingame models are well suited, 4 Stars from me. Good job!
I dont know if this is the problem, go to map, and cheak for problems, cause i saw a bunch of "axis perpendicular to face" im not sure if this is the problem yet because i dont have time right now to compile a map this big, but it is quite impressive, nice ;D
Probably the first thing you notice in this mod is the ambience. Both outside and inside - it was great. Smart use of soundscapes and verall good choice of sounds really points out the horror and surrealness even more. Lighting was also pretty nice, with some contrast and variety, though it could've been better considering that this is for Source.Another thing well made was the gameplay. You emerge into the mansion filled with nothing but one helluva load of zombies and headcrabs, given only your good ol' crowbar and trusty shotgun. NPC, weapon/supply placement was quite well-made, there was some key-collecting and backtracking, though it never got boring. One thing that might dissapoint the player though is that the combat, while being pretty well-balanced was mostly linear. The structure of the mansion and usage of fast zombies could've provided some fun and interesting vertical combat areas, though none of that was utilized. Still, overall - I enjoyed it.There were also details throughout The Mansion that kind of reflected Freeman's person. The huge bedroom with his crowbar, wine cellar with supplies and of course, a stained glass with the master of the mansion himself. The style of some puzzles was also pretty Freeman-like, so the fact, that this mansion is strictly Freeman's recidence was made quite obivious and proven well. Gman making the occasional random and unusual/weird appearance helped that a lot too. :>Horror was also one of the mod's strong parts. While having the usual blood-on-walls, corpses and spooky ambience, it also had some rather unexpected freak-out or just plain WTF moments. The corridor with an Ichtyosaur which scared me and, probably, lots of other players shitless, or the courtyard where the sky begins to fall.. literally.. are both good examples of that.While the mod was pretty strong in ambience and gameplay - the visual part of it was, mostly, a letdown. The architecture mostly resembled HL1, was overall blocky and bland. Texturing was an improvement from the last parts of The Mansion series, though it still needed more variation and overall more work in most areas.Outside - the mansion itself and the main entrance was quite well made, except for the horrible block-shaped bushes. Most of that area was also pretty blocky, but, at least, made a bit more realistic with props and some other details.Other outside areas were very, very, VERY bland. Both the courtyard with the moon falling and the back yard with a huge statue - they looked very poor texture and architecture-wise. Lithging wasn't much of a wonder there either.The cliff was only better looking on the outside. On the inside - the walls were perfectly flat. That's very poor for a rock surface.As for the inside - some of the rooms were, while blocky, pretty interesting, like the endless hallway, Freeman's bedroom, room with the pianos or the dining room. Even while the architecture/texturing wasn't at it's finest - that was usually covered up with nice details, interesting brush-based props or entity setups.
Bottom line
The Mansion 3, while not having fully utilized Source's potential, was very enjoyable to play. Combining awesome atmosphere and good gameplay, even with all the flaws, it gave an interesting surreal horror twist to the original Freeman experience already seen in loads of other mods.
Commented 17 years ago2007-08-28 11:58:14 UTC
in vault item: Scoutzknivez27Comment #15617
yo do you know a guy by the name of Wes? cause he claims he made this map then when i showed him this link he said he made it with you...i dont believe it one bit lol so can you tell me if its true?
Commented 17 years ago2007-08-27 15:50:56 UTC
in vault item: de_viceComment #15616
Well, I don't have CS:S (legally that is ;)) so...but if I can get an fgd or whatever CS:S uses, it would be a good idea. It would certainly look better with displacements.
Commented 17 years ago2007-08-25 19:47:44 UTC
in vault item: dm_theunknownComment #15605
Instead of using an entity "point light," use a texture that looks like something that would let off light. The game will make the texture give off light in-game.
This comment was made on an article that has been deleted.
Commented 17 years ago2007-08-24 14:03:37 UTC
in vault item: Genetic Research FacilityComment #15599
Wow, three star review. Thanks :).
Yeah, I will implement those suggestions. The map was originally going to be underground, so I never bothered skyboxing the rappeling points. I'll also fix that clipping issue at the Gargantua's gate that was bothering me.
Also, is there any way to change autosave names? At this point, It seems to overwrite the Campaign autosave. This isn't an issue if they're saving often in separate slots like they should be, but it will inevitably overwrite someone's end-of-game save who hasn't manually saved. I'd prefer to not be at the receiving end of their wrath.
Commented 17 years ago2007-08-24 13:18:23 UTC
in vault item: DM-TheBadPlaceComment #15597
I dont play HL1DM but I still looked at the map and heres what I thought.
1.Some really good architecture in the map. 2.I liked how you had those Symbol things haveing a sort of glow. 3.Lighting was nice as areas werent to dark or light. 4.The portals were sort of cool, but you could keep walking backwards into them and you would just keeping getting transported which I guess would confuse people.
Overall this was a nice looking DM map, im not much on them but it seemed really good for probably a 6 person match. 5*'s
Commented 17 years ago2007-08-24 12:21:25 UTC
in vault item: Genetic Research FacilityComment #15596
A very good first map this is.
The map started feeling a little claustrophobic with the low ceilings, but I grabbed my gear and headed out, down some plain hallway. The marines were placed well and all of the entities worked perfectly. I actually died once on this map lol.
Possible improvements:
Add support beams to the platform in the screenshot
Spice up the hallways into something believable
Add some dead bodies to explain the weapon/ armor/ health cache?
Commented 17 years ago2007-08-24 02:35:51 UTC
in vault item: Genetic Research FacilityComment #15592
Hey-hey! You did all the right things for a first map! You admitted to making various small mistakes in the good sized description, and your English is ACTUALLY COMPREHENDABLE!
I'm going to check this out later if I get the time. Looks good for a first map.
Next time - when you're adding something about the map - edit the description, rather than posting a comment.
Texturing — 6
Ambience — 9
Lighting — 7
Gameplay — 8
Review
Probably the first thing you notice in this mod is the ambience. Both outside and inside - it was great. Smart use of soundscapes and verall good choice of sounds really points out the horror and surrealness even more. Lighting was also pretty nice, with some contrast and variety, though it could've been better considering that this is for Source.Another thing well made was the gameplay. You emerge into the mansion filled with nothing but one helluva load of zombies and headcrabs, given only your good ol' crowbar and trusty shotgun. NPC, weapon/supply placement was quite well-made, there was some key-collecting and backtracking, though it never got boring. One thing that might dissapoint the player though is that the combat, while being pretty well-balanced was mostly linear. The structure of the mansion and usage of fast zombies could've provided some fun and interesting vertical combat areas, though none of that was utilized. Still, overall - I enjoyed it.There were also details throughout The Mansion that kind of reflected Freeman's person. The huge bedroom with his crowbar, wine cellar with supplies and of course, a stained glass with the master of the mansion himself. The style of some puzzles was also pretty Freeman-like, so the fact, that this mansion is strictly Freeman's recidence was made quite obivious and proven well. Gman making the occasional random and unusual/weird appearance helped that a lot too. :>Horror was also one of the mod's strong parts. While having the usual blood-on-walls, corpses and spooky ambience, it also had some rather unexpected freak-out or just plain WTF moments. The corridor with an Ichtyosaur which scared me and, probably, lots of other players shitless, or the courtyard where the sky begins to fall.. literally.. are both good examples of that.While the mod was pretty strong in ambience and gameplay - the visual part of it was, mostly, a letdown. The architecture mostly resembled HL1, was overall blocky and bland. Texturing was an improvement from the last parts of The Mansion series, though it still needed more variation and overall more work in most areas.Outside - the mansion itself and the main entrance was quite well made, except for the horrible block-shaped bushes. Most of that area was also pretty blocky, but, at least, made a bit more realistic with props and some other details.Other outside areas were very, very, VERY bland. Both the courtyard with the moon falling and the back yard with a huge statue - they looked very poor texture and architecture-wise. Lithging wasn't much of a wonder there either.The cliff was only better looking on the outside. On the inside - the walls were perfectly flat. That's very poor for a rock surface.As for the inside - some of the rooms were, while blocky, pretty interesting, like the endless hallway, Freeman's bedroom, room with the pianos or the dining room. Even while the architecture/texturing wasn't at it's finest - that was usually covered up with nice details, interesting brush-based props or entity setups.Bottom line
The Mansion 3, while not having fully utilized Source's potential, was very enjoyable to play. Combining awesome atmosphere and good gameplay, even with all the flaws, it gave an interesting surreal horror twist to the original Freeman experience already seen in loads of other mods.+ Good architecture
+ Good lighting
+ Good textures
+ GREAT details
+ Excellent ambient sound
+ Good layout for fights
Someone needs to host this on a server. I've not played HL1DM for years, but I'd come out of retirement for a game on this!
Open up valve.rad in notepad or something like that, and you'll see stuff this:
TEXTURENAME 255 128 128 8000
Where TEXTURENAME is the name of the texture.
255 128 128 is the color, in RGB (Red Green Blue) format.
The fifth part, 8000, is the brightness.
So you if your map is too dark, find the texturenames in the valve.rad file and enter a higher brightness value.
and thanks!
Some points of improvement:
- Use texture lights
- Turn detail geometry into func_walls, this will decrease compile time and fix ugly shadows.
- Never have dead ends in your map, always make sure there are two or more exits from a room or hallway.
- Don't stretch texture to much, this will look ugly. If you're gonna stretch, then stretch both the X and Y axis.
Think thats all.Yeah, I will implement those suggestions. The map was originally going to be underground, so I never bothered skyboxing the rappeling points. I'll also fix that clipping issue at the Gargantua's gate that was bothering me.
Also, is there any way to change autosave names? At this point, It seems to overwrite the Campaign autosave. This isn't an issue if they're saving often in separate slots like they should be, but it will inevitably overwrite someone's end-of-game save who hasn't manually saved. I'd prefer to not be at the receiving end of their wrath.
Uh, i have too many projects going on.
1.Some really good architecture in the map.
2.I liked how you had those Symbol things haveing a sort of glow.
3.Lighting was nice as areas werent to dark or light.
4.The portals were sort of cool, but you could keep walking backwards into them and you would just keeping getting transported which I guess would confuse people.
Overall this was a nice looking DM map, im not much on them but it seemed really good for probably a 6 person match. 5*'s
The map started feeling a little claustrophobic with the low ceilings, but I grabbed my gear and headed out, down some plain hallway. The marines were placed well and all of the entities worked perfectly. I actually died once on this map lol.
Possible improvements:
I'm going to check this out later if I get the time. Looks good for a first map.