Comments

BTW, you're actually making good progress, Esmajor! Keep it up!

Actually a quite common problem with rotating entities, is that their clipping doesn't always is correct with their visual appearance. Modify the stairs somewhat, make them indeed a bit less steep and well, just try out a bit. You'll be able to get it to work right with a bit of tryal and error.

A what?!? We speak english here, FRANKo...

Nope. Leaks. Wich causes HLVIS not to run, so all faces in the players view cone are rendered, instead of only those that the player can see (well, normally a little bit more, it has to do with the way HL determines what's visible and what's not).

Heh, better screenshot now indeed!

You show you learn from your mistakes. A good quality indeed.

BTW, the screenshot up here does the map no right, it looks so much better than that screenshot suggests...

Definitely your most impressive map so far! Really, really good!

Pros:
1. Great texture usage!
2. Good use of prop models (from Poke646... :)).
3. Very good atmosphere, it's really that abandoned appartment. A very strong sense of place, very well done.
4. Great architecture. I really liked the details and well, just all of it!

Cons:
1. I just can't think of one... well, the doors indeed, but further...

Ow well, right, snipers penetrate small walls. My fault.

Still, it doesn't look convincing. In real world, glass would definitely break when you tear a bullet trough it.

Then again, your next release really should look a lot better. I'm not going to be so easy next time.

Mmh, I'm in doubt about this map. Looks good and bad at the same times and gives me both a good feeling of atmosphere and the feeling some things just don't fit.

Pros:
1. Good texture usage, they really fit the theme. Especially those windows.
2. Strong sense of place, it's very obvious a castle.
3. Strong atmosphere. I like it how much attention you give those sounds, very good.

Cons:
1. Somewhat bad lighting. At some places just average, at some places really bad. Like the green light on the trim of the castle wall, where you come out of the water. The yellow light inside doesn't really seem to fit well with the textures too.
2. Kindof strange layout. Somewhat complex, some area's look very similar and some are really different. I liked the chapel and the bridge, but the rest is just... plain castle wall or corridor. It just doesn't fit together.

After all, you do show potential put it doesn't come out so strong in this map. The combination of good and bad points just made me feel strange about it. Not a map I would quickly like.

Not one of the best maps you made but still, it ain't bad either.

Pros:
1. Good atmosphere upside! Really nice sound usage.

Cons:
1. Not really stunning lighting.
2. Little bit boring texture usage.
3. No real bunker atmosphere. Looks more like a few storage rooms.
4. The fan sounds were annoying. Too loud and well, didn't really fit actually.

Well, Tomato, I see some improvements.

1. Texture usage.
2. At least this has a little feeling of place. Not that much but well, more than your previous maps...

Still, I think it's unworthy a release. Very simple brushwork. The glass in the tower isn't breakable but still you've put sniper rifle's there, very strange. The roof of the tower seems to rest on the glass solely, some pillars should make it more believable. Also, check the tower, there are some holes were the glass touches the upper floor. Ugly.

Tomato, you still need to put more work in your maps. Hey, I released my first map after 2 years of mapping and a lot of people were stunned by it. Now, 6 months later, I'm about to release my next DM map, and also a small SP map (for the compo). Maybe I'm the other opposite but still, don't be so hasty with releases. Really, you can impress people much more with a good map when it's your one of the first you made than when it's your thousand-and-some'th release.

Tick the buttons flag 'Don't move'. When you trigger the doors (that are func_trains), don't suspect them to slide open as doors would. Instead, you trigger the trains to go to their next path_corner. So, place path_corners so that the trains (doors) slide open.

I'm not gonna do it for you now, exams are quite stressing, and I have a contest entry to finish too, so for now you'll have to do it your own. And I think you'll learn the most of that, so, succes!

I don't know but it seems to happen more on TWHL.

Doors need to slide open I heard you shout? Path_corners on the side should help. Oh, and the path_corners the doors initially move to shouldn't have their 'Wait for retrigger' flag set, so the doors will automatically continue to their open position.

When you can get one elevator to work, you can get this one too. It does requires some logical entity-work wich can be very confusing at first. Draw it out, on paper. Make a schematic of what entity needs to be activated, and when, and what has to happen after that. It's very usefull.

I'd say, when you press the button, activate both doors, and let one of the path_corner's that they move to, fire a multimanager when the door is in place (e.g. closed). This multimanager should then target the doors and the elevator, so they move down all together.

I would advise you to break it up in simple chuncks. Maybe you're known to programming, it's like using functions for often used things.

Err... have you succeeded in getting a simple elevator (without all the extra stuff like moving doors and such) to get to work? I think you've taken a too difficult elevator setup to start with.

BTW, all you need is a func_train, that starts at a path_corner. Tick the 'Wait for retrigger' flag of that path_corner, of all path_corners you use as destination points, so you have to trigger the train first before it moves on.

That I started in the air was because you use info_player_deathmatch, wich is used for muliplayer maps. Info_player_start is for singleplayer maps but I'd advise one in a DM map too, just for quick testing the map from the console.

I mean I started about 4 meters above the ground and was gibbed almost instantly by the tentacles.

OK, multiplayer map. Some things to know about them:
1. They don't feature monsters. So no zombies, tentacles, grunts, scientists, whatever. You play against human opponents in DM maps.
2. The don't have a linear layout. Good DM maps have good connectivity, so for example when you have to battle area's, you shouldn't make only one connection between them. Make some more so players have a little more choice.

Oh, BTW... I started just above the ground in the tentacle room. You used info_player_deathmatch instead info_player_start?

Tomaatti, listen to my advice. This seems to be both a multiplayer and singleplayer map. Weapon placement like in MP, monsters that belong to SP. The liniear layout of the level is also typically SP, as is camera entity useage.

My question is: what do you want with this map? What's it meant to be? SP or MP?

I am impressed... most aim maps I've seen are low-effort cheap looking crap, but this one... man, it's great. Still a quite easy layout but graphically worked out pretty good. Go on and continue mapping, you show you're willing to put some effort in it. It's great to see that!

SlayerA, you're a lucky person...

(Sorry, I couldn't resist that one!)

He'd better leave vertex tool alone for now. He doesn't need it yet, I think.

Falling into that teleporter that puts you back on top is annoying. Especially when there's no other way out. Bad connectivity, bad weapon placement and bad brushwork. Nevermind the texture usage...

Yes. But actually, when I look at maps, I also often noclip around them. In that way I found out you used a skybox. Anyway, I found the gauss without noclipping.

Do NOT rate your own maps, Tomaatti. Most people don't like that. Me included.

Lava? That's green gue...

Your first map, it shows...

Well, not so bad but I'd like to adress a few points.
1. It seems like a deathmatch map concidering the weapon placement, but you've put monsters in it... very strange...
2. You should work on your textures. A lot of them don't fit the face they're on well.
3. You've put a 'skybox' around your level. Don't do that, only cover the open area's in your map that have sky visible with a skybrush (make sure it's sealed of to prevent leaks).

Well, after all, you seem to know quite a few things of entities already, I'd say, continue mapping.

Well, for a first map, not so bad at all. Not really a seriously playable map but it's probably your first steps (brushes) in level-design... Ah, how simple my first compiled map was (oh, the nostalgia...).

Some strange texture scaling BTW. You should find out how to apply textures to a single face and what properties you can give it (scale, offset, rotation, etc.). Well, what can I say more? You just should continue mapping and we'll see...

Forgive me my extensive bugtesting but when the drone is in place, you can jump off from it's lowest part and fall on the sky below. A trigger_hurt might fix this...

"This is a night map and it IS meant to be dark, so dont complain about it."

Still I will complain about it. Dark maps just aren't popular. Players dislike to be killed by someone they couldn't see. It's a given fact. But OK, go ahead if you want to make dark maps. Don't suspect them to be popular though...

Besides than, I liked:
1. The setting, a temple by night.
2. The moon (or star?) above the temple. Nice little touch.

I didn't like:
1. The extremely high r_speeds. 5000 is way too much. Do some research on r_speeds before you make another map.
2. The somewhat maze-alike layout. You need to focus more on layout IMO.
3. The look. It didn't look nice. Combination of almost total darkness on most faces, and repeating yellow light. Some more variation in lighting, texturing and architecture would be good.

After all, I feel you haven't become really better since cs_aztec. I liked that map much more.

I am considering it. Although more likely for HL2. In the meantime, I'm just sharpening my skills some more...

Thanks for the compliment bytheway.

Then you have gotten good comments. Albeit more bad points than good point. But hey, at least you have some feedback what player like and don't like.

Let me think... you damage the drone wich causes a warning on the medium ship so the control rooms door opens, right? Then, you control the drone to get into position between the medium and the large ship, then you destroy the large ships small defences. Right.
I like the idea. But... your level requires people to know that they have to damage the drone. And that's definitely NOT obvious in this level. After defeating the grunts I had no single idea how to open that door. I wouldn't think of shooting on an object nearby as it seems that can have no influence on a door in another ship. It's not logical. Besides that, the door looks more like a vent entrance than a control room door. But that's just the look and not the gameplay. I suggest making it either more obvious and clear to the player or give him tips with text messages. Although the first option would be better.
I must admit that the crack decal does give the player an identification that these guns can be destroyed. That's a good sign towards the player.

OK, I get the point the level has to continue. OK, succes with it!

Because it was loaded into Hammer at the time of compiling?

Haha! bitfreak is ook Nederlander! Hey, kom dan eens lang op mn site, www.cpcp.tk, en kijk eens op het forum... We zijn met ongeveer 10 Nederlandse mappers daar, je zult daar vast veel kunnen leren.

Sorry for the others, this was just promotion of my Dutch community...

I played it and I must say, it's not a map I should concider ready for release. I've seen some nice things in this map but also some ugly things. It's quite obvious your first map, for example, the fade texture on that light is bad positioned. The glass isn't transparant. At the other side I see you use some tricks (jump pad, the fact that you made a light fade effect) I wouldn't suspect in a first map that has such beginner 'faults'.

I'd advise you to map some more, I think you're able to create much better maps when you put some more effort in it. Keep it up!

Oh, and you didn't rate your own map, did you? It's a bad habit...

Use the trigger_gravity in your map, so we automatically have lower gravity.

Ah, I see... the cannons go kaboom... well, at least that's funny. Strange though that I can't destroy them myself, except for the last one.

Look, funny idea, but who knows they're destructible? It's not obvious. At least give us a hint. In HL, you always knew what you had to do. Here, I don't had a single clue...

Oh, and I still didn't find that little button... very annoying. Being stuck in an area really hinders the gameplay.

No good comments? What do you consider a good comment then?

Well, I didn't really like it. Visually of low quality, and there wasn't really a clue in it altogether. When you pressed that button, a spaceship came near so you could jump on the heavy spaceship, right? And then? Is that the end? Pretty lame. Let us at least know when it ends. Even better, give it a satisfying end, like you actually acomplished something. For example, make the player escape on the small spaceship.

BTW, how did that little door to the 'control room' open? I had to noclip trough it...

Have you -wadincluded the textures yet? I'm lazy nowadays... Oh, no, wait, it's just my exams next monday...

Remember, if you want to 'sell' your maps, make it easy for the public. Don't suspect them to do more than unzip the .zip file into the appropriate folder. Some will, most won't.

Ah, the Hall Of Mirrors effect!

Check if all the vertexes of these blocks are on the grid. I'd also advise you to make entities of these yellow-black things, so they don't split up the ground faces and cause that HOM-effect there.

Too bad I didn't look at this map before. It's a real sweet-looking map man! Quite small but it shows the effort and time you've put in it. Visually very appealing, it's a shame it's so small! I did miss some ambience sound, though. But that doesn't break the map, it's just awesome!

Invalid zip file.

What I meant, was, give us the wad files we don't have, or retexture the map with textures we do have (just so we can check the map for problems).

The texture itself isn't so bad-looking. More the fact that you used only one texture for all the spaceships. A little bit of variation would be welcome.

It's Xen? As I said before, it doesn't convince me. It has a very weak atmosphere. If a player can't see it's Xen after 10 minutes, the level has a bad sense of place.

Oh, and the wind sound was very, very annoying...

A terrain generator might do a better job, but it will be still very complex. I think this canyon is still out of reach with your level of technical knowledge. It's possible but requires a high level of experience to do it right. Half-Life isn't very good in outdoor area's so you have to know what you can and what you can't do.

Creating blocky rocks might be easier to start with. So, just like walls, instead of very steep triangles. Still, I recommend you to find out how VIS works. When you know what specifications and limitations the compile programs have, it's easier to adjust your maps and avoid errors.

My opinion:

Bad designed spaceships. Bad texture usage. R_speeds are way too high for such an undetailed environment, so I'd say it's overall bad designed. No challenge in the fights too (Gauss versus grunts...).

The whole map didn't convince me. The only way I saw it was in space was the sky, and somewhat the shape of the spaceships. It's a nice idea IMO, but worked out very meagre.

You want us to help you so it's up to you to make it easy for us. Either make another version of the map with textures we all have (just for the sake of this problem map of-course) or wadinclude the used textures in your map.

I STRONGLY advise you to stop any work on this map and totally redesign it.

HLVIS has a really bad time on your map. Learn how VIS works before attempting such outdoor or natural area's. The way you made your terrain is really troublesome for HLVIS. It can be done in this way but with caution and a full understanding of what you're actually doing.

Besides, you use the skybox method. Bad. Never do that. Don't put a skybox around your level, only put a skybush there where you want the sky to be visible. So, only leave the top brush of your skybox, delete the other sides of the skybox. It causes major area's around your map to also be compiled. A waste of resources (compile time here).

You also used vertex manipulation, right? Although all vertexes seem to be on grid points, it complicates the map even more. Making it even harder for HLVIS.

R_speeds. There are about 5000 faces in the map, and seen from the top-view, there's very little VIS-blocking. The map will probably have skyhigh wpoly-amounts. The level is bad designed.

Leaks? Very, very hard to find in such a complex environment. You'd better redesign the map and start from scratch again. Search for tutorials on making rocks, and find out how VIS works (it divides the space in your map into 'leafs', triangular blocks. The player always is in such a leaf. HL then determines wich other leafs can be seen by that leaf. The faces in those visible leafs are then drawn. This method causes more faces to be rendered than the player can actually see, faces just around corners for example are often rendered while the player can't see them. But it's still quite a good method. Anyway, complex maps like yours, featuring a lot of angled faces, make HLVIS work very hard, resulting in a lot of leafs, and sometimes also problems like 'leaf saw into leaf.)

And the lighting too, seeing from the screenshot...