Comments

This is a really excellent map:

Pros:

Loved the brushwork! Bevelled corners, intricate columns ingraved into the walls, support beams, pillars, etc All done well.

Texture work and choice was perfect!

Prop work was done good as well. Pipes, fences, all awsome!

Lighting and cubemaps were all done well also. No reflection distortion, no bad lighting, all done awsome!

outside really looked like it was pulled out of real-life. Excellent!

Cons:

Too BIG! This map IS HUGE! HL2DM servers usually dont host more than 16. With 16 people on the map its still too big.

Displacement work was too wavy. It looked more like the waves on an ocean then formations in land.

Those too errors are so small they dont really matter.

GREAT JOB ON AN EXCELLENT MAP!

Hey, welcome to TWHL! Some tips for the future:

Always include a screenshot for a map

Run buildcubemaps. It takes 5 seconds. There is no need to release it without building them.

Im in class now, but I will download this later

Kigrind, this is not a 5 star map. The outside was horrible, the FPS was horrible, the optimization was horrible. The inside was the only good thing. THis is in no way a 5 star map. 5 star maps are perfect. This is FAR from it. (no offense, its still good, but not 5 star good)

Learn how to rate a map.....

If you got rid of the outside completely, and maybe doubled the size of your house it would really be cool. THe custom textures are very good inside, I personally think the map would benefit alot more by making it completely inside.

WHAT!? I run my settings on max all the time. Higher settings mean lower performance btw.

That makes no sense. Its just really poor map optimization. The windows could break, but there was shutters behind them. This SHOULD stop the vis leafs from being rendered, but the map was not optimized well, so it does not.

Never judge a map by a screenie Rowleybob....

Cons:

The outside was BLAND! Nothing in the streets, no displacement grass, and the level just cuts off into the skybox!

The texture work was poor. Textures of different scales of the same texuture were next to eachother all over inside. One scaled to .15 others to .35! Stretched textures were everywhere. THe bricks outside were stretched horizontally, but not equally vertical.

Normal maps on the floor tile and walls were ok, but most of them had too high values, causing a "net" effect when viewed from afar.

THE FRAMERATE! As soon as you looked at the house you can enter frame rate drops from 125 to 15! There were no windows to see out of, so this was just poor map optimization, and no hint brushes!

Pros:

The inside was well done. Looked exactly like a house should be. decent brushwork, custom light model, all good.
Custom texures were clear, and nice looking on the inside.

Its too bad you didnt optimize, or do your texturing correctly, or add to the outside. The buildings outside you just copied/pasted all over......

3 stars, 4 if you fix the problems

Its for CSS? Change the tag by the map to CSS, not HL.

Ill make sure to check this one out soon.

Hey, this is quite an excellent map A rare thing for DOD

Cons:

You should of made the folders in the zip file. I didnt like creating them myself. Just for that, ONE STAR!! lol, jk

Pro's;

Really well done custom textures. Snow on the crates, the arch texture, buildings, etc.

I really liked the sprite effect in the air. Makes it feel like the northern lights

Brushwork was great. Although terrain felt a bit lacking, it was still good.
The war torn house espically was excellent.

Sounds and ambience was perfect. Custom flag model also was done well.

Lighting matched the theme of the map. Very well done.

Interesting encounter spots. Seems like it would play very well.

All in all a very well done DOD map.

I just played it again, got some more comments

Last time I forgot to pick up the shottie in the closet. I figured it out this time. Very cool Probably the reason I had an ammo problem the first time around.

I did experience some weird glitches this time around:

The elevator glitch still occured. I hit the switch in the security room (1st time around, and 2nd) and hit the elevator button, but it would not come up. I hit it about 10 times, then went back, killed the monster with the rockets, then came back, hit the button and it worked!

Also, when I returned to the main room displayed in the screenie, when I talked to barney, all his responses were said 10 times faster. It was like someone fast-fowarded his speech! Scared the hell out of me when I spoke to him

Oh, and at the end where the huge monster (please forgive me, I dont know HL1 monsters names ) attacks barney, and the scientists, he did not come after me the first time I ran through the map. Second time he did come after me though.

It was even more fun the second time around! You really should show Valve this. Maybe they will post it on Steam

wait, was the elevator supposed to move at the end? I couldnt get it to come up, so I just jumped down, and the level ended. XD

Well, I did it the long way by placing each file in the approiate directory

I say: O M G !

This was pure perfection. The one of the quintessential achivements of a member here on TWHL.

I really loved how you kept to the Hl1 theme. Monsters were placed accordingly, and classic headcrap placement in vents! (you fall a small way through a vent, and theres a headcrab! )

THe brushwork was astounding. Bevelled corners, holes in the walls, Broken crates, the wrecked wall from teh monster was awsomeness (I forget its name XD)

Scripted sequences was amazing. I dont know how you got the scientists to say what you wanted, but it was awsome!

I loved the G-man in the window, and he runs when the monster attacks. Awsomeness.

Great battles, great Hl1 theme, There are so many more pros I cant remember them all! If I remember some more Ill post them !

Problems: The monster (I think stated above) that screeches and resembles a dog a bit (sorry I really dont remember the Hl1 enemies names) was invincible.

In the beginning I felt I was running out of ammo too quickly. Not really a bad thing, but thought I should mention it.

The rail on the stairs in the warehouse in the beginning with the conveyer lift was a func_brush with collision off or something because I clipped through it.

When you activate the relay to the UNSC or whatever, when the grunts cut through the door they remain idle for quite some time before attacking.

Thats about all the problems

Some other comments:

Loved the scene when the monster walks, the rooms shaking, and the vent falls. Also liked how you planned entering the vent.

The rocket grunt challenge was fun too. Really awsome!

Good lord this was amazing! Im going to spread this all over the internets!!!1111

All in all 6-8 stars, but alas I can only give 5 so

Oh and BTW, A W S O M E !

Hmm, It will work, I just need to place all your files/dll files/ etc in the correct directories in the Steam/steamapps/xyos212/half-life folder.

All these SP mods change Hl1 in Steam to the actual mod. While they are installed you cant play HL1 until they are removed. Ill place them in now.

I guess I cant play it since I have the Steam version. Mega sad face I really wish I could play it, it sounds like an excellent map, espically the custom coding

Review:

Pros:
The mortar blasts in random spots was a cool effect.

Good use of displacements

the bunkers and trenches were textured well
bevelled edges on the buildings were nice

Cons:

The map is surrounded by a box! WHat the hell is that about? Use displacements for mountains, buildings, etc. Get creative!

It has no realistic feel. It feels like a sandbox inside of a box. Feels like a "stage" and not in real life.

most of the architecture was boring. Cube towers with no detail, and bunkers with 2 props in them.

And putting your name in the middle of the map where everyone can see it is just wrong. It looks really tacky. Put it in a secret room where nobody can see it.

Alot of the props seemed to be placed there randomly for no reason.

NO HDR? Every DOD map needs HDR!!!

There was brushwork overlapping and displacement overlapping when it should of been sewed together. Creates nasty seams.

If you didnt BOX this map in I would of gave it a 3, but it really takes away from the realistic feel of the map.

Agent X, what does "The map is well made and detailed" have anything to do with this map? You dont know how to rate source maps... At least give some reasons....Your making him think its a great source map. You need to give honest reviews and helpful feedback so people improve....

Here is the review:

The map is ok, and textured badly. It does not match the DOD theme, and its just brushwork.

Your brushwork looks like HL1. You have a huge hollowed cylinder surrounding the map. You should of used displacements in a 3d skybox for mountains.

There about 3 textures in the map. THe blue wall, the concrete white, and the metal/grating. All objects (wall, floor, ceiling) are the same texture. Ceilings/floors are different from walls.

In the towers (which you obviously made 1, then copied) THey are completely empty. NOTHING in them. No architecture inside at all.

Move ropes would of made a great difference criss crossing from spire to spire.

Props are essential in source mapping. Brushwork alone does not cut it. THey add a more detailed realistic feel.

No prop physics either to get blown around...

NO cubemaps either

This looks and feels like a HL1 map. THe only thing that makes it source is Valves lighting and texture detail.

I seriously recommend going back and fixing all that I mentioned.

Also, not many people have DODS on this site, so dont expect alot of downloads

So you copied and pasted Valves work, prefabs, and fast compiled? Sounds like nothing original, and stealing others work.........

Exos works on maps day and night!

As for the map, Its excellent. (bias, but who cares peeps, its still a good map)

I love all the details you put into the map. The flying watchers above were very nice, and the train too. (But whos idea was it to make the train full-proof from glitching or getting stopped by anything? Mine! WHAT WHAT! lol, jk)

The warehouse was nice too. Nice details going on.

I think the room with the overlook to sea was a little plain, though.

The gameplay is amazing. I played it in your server, and it was so much fun 5 people worked great.

4.44444444 stars, rounded to 4.5 rounded to a 5 star.

I didnt want to specify since this can be used with any source mod, and would be a little misleading

Well, time for me to rate me bro-tha's map!

It matches the theme of Ravenholm well, from the saws, housing style, sky, lighting, and the ominous zombie legs hanging from the tree.

The mapping was excellent. Brushwork inside and out was well done.
The house hit by the headcrab missle looked amazing!
Cool ambient sounds matched the theme and tone of the map.
Displacement use was smooth, and not spikey
Ive played the map on your server with 6 others and I say the gameplay was great.
I like the route to the rockets. Cool

There is really nothing wrong with the map. It really feels like Ravenholm.

5 stars sir. (4.6, but I round to 5)

Yes, he is my brother, but Im still reviewing!

Pros:

Nice entity work
Good trigger work
Some areas were very well done (mapping wise) as for others, (such as the looong hall) were not.

Some cool combine battles. (1st level, 2nd, and 3rd)

Good ambient sound placement.

Very good puzzles.

Some good challenges.

Cons:

The transition from 2nd to 3rd level made no sense. (kinda)

Personally I dont like strider battles. I wont really count it, because HL2 had some stationary strider battles.

Low detail in some areas.

I think you know what else

All in all I think it deserves a 4. Its alot better than some of the crap SP maps here (go through map, fight 4 or 6 zombies, and thats it....)

The good brushwork outshines the bad, the puzzles are a plus, and the entity/trigger work. The battles too raise the score. Also because its 3 maps and actually takes time to complete it gets 4 stars. I hate playing these 5 minute SP maps!

Textures still missing

When using Pakrat, make sure to load the BSP, scan, add the found files, go to File, save BSP, overwrite the old one. Then delete the mapname.BAK file. Save the BSP. THats it.

Also I should also mention cut back on skybox fog and intensity. CHange fade in distance by 1/3 maybe. I cant even see the mountains. Also lighten up the purple a bit.

Also, maybe set up a bunch of area portals and occulders outside to stop too much geometry thats not visible from being drawn to cutback on the FPS outside.

PM me when you update the map again. I would like to see the custom materials

OK, just played it, here is my review.

It was alright. The mapping was not that great, as well as the texture choices. The custom materials were not included, so there was ALOT of pink and black checkers all around. (USE PAKRAT TO ZIP MATERIALS INTO A BSP)

I think the piano was a custom model, it was ok. Looked like someone used materials from HL2 and then applied them to the model for its skin....

The transition in the beginning from water to skybox was horrible. The 3D skybox to world transition was VERY noticable.

Rooms were too plain, and too bland. Materials were misaligned, and inappropriate. There was a pipe metal material used for stairs.....

As for the single player experience:

There was about 8 or 9 enemies. Fighting them was not fun at all. headcrabs, and 3 fast zombies.....

Plus the Gman sitting outside would be attacked by a fast zombie. Hes invincible, so he wont die........

There was no puzzles, nothing clever, and the hatch that was supposed to break to the basement glitched.......

The lightning and sounds were good, as well as music. I liked the end too, but you can still fire as you watch Gman....

Also, the outside was wayy to low FPS for what was being rendered. And its not my computer (GeForce 6800 256 DDR, 2 Gig RAM, CPU 2.93 GHz)

I give it a 2.6, but Ill make it a three for the rating.

Pakrat FTW!

http://www.geocities.com/cofrdrbob/pakrat.html

Its got a 1 min video tutorial too to use it. (Even though its sooo easy to use anyway. It scans the BSP for custom content and adds all to the BSP so it can be played in any mod! XD)

You should of used pakrat to zip the materials with the bsp. it only takes 5 seconds.

Anyway, I dont know if I will rate it since you thought it was supposed to be a exact recreation.

It really needed displacements.

The env_sun was too big.

everything was too blocky.

It was a good recreation of the map to the EXACT brushwork.

The curve for the train stop area on the roof was nice.

Thats really all I can say. It was really missing the "source" feeling too I guess. Felt like HL1.

I do understand it is an exact recreation, so thats why I will not rate.

If you made the rocks displacements that would really make a BIG difference.

A little trick I do for displacements, is I transform the brushwork down with the map (a copy of course) and create the displacement while its small. it prevents spiky terrain, and lumps. Resize it, and place

If it was a Hl1 map I would give it a 5.

A source map, it gets a 3.

Great map! I liked the red lights on the rail, and the brushwork for the waiting area at the train stop. building detail very nice, as well as displacements. The curves for the track was well done also.

Only gripes are it was CSS, and no sounds, but None of those merit points being taken away.

Im wondering why nobody made a train on a trac_train that would ride along by........

Excellent map!

Pros:

Superb building structure and design.
Excellent use and coordination of textures.
Very unique feel, but still feels very much like a classic HL2 level (in a good way )
Cool use of soundscapes, ambients, and 3d skyboxing.
Very realistic look. Actually looks as it should in RL.
Good lighting.
Good weapon placements.
Excellent prop locations.

Cons: Too small

All in all its a 5 out of 5! Quite an excellent map good sir XD

Why rate it when you have not played it? Map Vault moderators need to take care of this kind of stuff..........

Ill comment, but wont rate since I have a bias because Exos is my brother.

Pros: The effect of storm clouds in the air is really cool.
The heavy rain is also very cool along with the soundscapes.
The puddles look cool, but some look a bit blocky.
Its a pretty good representation of an accurate looking city.
Very good use of 3D skybox
Good lighting.
Cons: Some plain buildings
Open space in the roads, and in the T spawn halls.
Halls were too open and plain (and too long)

Other thoughts: The FPS is pretty good considering you used multiple func_prec... brushes, and have wide open spaces.
It has a cool theme, and has some cool encounter points.
All in all its a good map XD

The map had some very good brushwork. I liked the custom materials, and custom props. Although the custom props collision models must of been done by studiomdl because some parts could be walked through. The arch in the CT spawn had a NODRAW on the back of it. One can jump and see over the skybox in the CT spawn also.

Some halls were too plain, but how interesting can halls get? I liked the doors in some of the halls that were "nooked" away. Very unique. The courtyard had some very nice brushwork too.

Some stair rails looked bad though. Rails dont slope on the same incline as the stairs. They are vertical and follow with the stairs.

Even though it has its problems, I can still see the work that went into it. The problems it has are so small they were barely worth mentioning.

Its nice to see custom content and props in a map. (BTW I believe those were custom props right? (CHairs) or am I crazy?)

I give it a 5 out of 5. It gets what it deserves.

I dont think the map deserves 2 stars. It is bland, but quite good in other areas. (One I didnt mention was the elevator room)

The music was timed perefectly and transitioned well too. triggers were placed in correct spots.

If a map is ok, but had alot of work go into it it deserves a 4 hands down.

5 stars if it has alot of work and every bit is exceptional.

Ok I just played it. Heres the lowdown dawg:

Pros:

Music was very cool and perfectly matched the mood.
Some cool moments and corridors (Espically the blue water fall hall )
The ending part with the G-man was pretty cool

Cons: Most areas were too bland, and textures too repetitive. Some texture usage was horrible.
Areas and rooms too open and bland.
Average brushwork.

No unique fights with enemies using enviornments. Kind of just gunning.

Other thoughts: I liked the study room, and monster placements. Some rooms were great, but some were bland

4 stars overall. It has too much work in it to gather less. I would suggest mainly variation on walls with textures, and more props and designs in the mansion for detail.

Cool map

Argh, photoshop that screenie's brightness!

OK here is the lowdown.

Pros: Feels like a scoutsknivz map.

One custom texture with wadinclude

The spiral staircase was alright.

Cons: Textures are all stretched to fit.

Everything is out of proportion (espically the stairs)

Default skybox

Some areas had no walls. Just a skybox texture closing the map.

Too plain.

2 Stars

Oh my goodness a scoutsknivez (with a z at the end) map. Sigh...............................

You do it ingame with the console. Consult the valve wiki.....

Rednik, why would you rate it if you didnt try it yet?

Very cool. I really like the lighting effects.
I would fix the wooden board you can "climb". It makes a ladder sound when walking up.

Pwndizzle! XD

BTW, does that switch do anything? If so, it didnt work for me

Well Exos is my brother. No need to dl a map already on my computer.

Also, I would change the name of the map. Kind of generic......

Pros: Good architexture on some buildings, average on others.
The church lighting inside was very well done, and looked great.
The planes and 3d skybox was very well done.
The HDR lighting was great too.
Very big, and open for good battles.
I liked the fade in outs in doorways and windows hiding the area
portals for increased FPS.
Very good use of displacements.

Cons: Some buildings were too plain. Some areas were too open.
Texture detail in areas was too plain.


Other: Its a very big map. I can see the work that went into it. I really liked the planes, and the bird flying around.

Good FPS for such a big open map.

Well done.

One thing to change: At the top of the level you can jump and see over. I dont mean into the level, you can see the NULL texture used on top of the brushes. It makes them look like paper walls. I would just texture the tops with the wall so it looks like it has depth.

I think this a very well put together map. I loved the architexture structure. I only saw one stretched door texture, it didnt look too bad. The lava was a cool idea too.

I really like the texture choice too. Very innovative. Reminds me of a map from Turok: Rage Wars from Nintendo 64

Was it really that small? I cant remember....

Well on to the map.

Pro's: Good recreation. Matches the map.
Clean texturing, no mismatches, or stretches too obvious

Cons:Blocky, and dull. You could of added more architexture designs to the walls. ITs all too plain.

I give it a 2.5 stars

Really cool map design. Really feels like a HLDM map! I loved how you had each keyboard take you to a cool link~! I really liked how you get the rockets and the gauss cannon! The smooth corners are a nice touch, and the texture choice and placement was perfect. Five Stars Sir!

Aww I remember that level! Awsomeness! Downloading now....

superb texturing! Resembles the clarity of FEAR's textures!

That is bad for you Rednik. Should of said it was your first. You lose, good day sir!!!!!

Its good for a first map and doesnt deserve the sarcastic remarks. Give it an honest rating with supportive feedback.

A huh.... Maps that dont deserve 5 dont get it. Stupid way to make a joke...