Commented 17 years ago2006-10-28 21:27:20 UTC
in vault item: TwoComment #13365
Obviously this is one of your first maps, so there is no point in going too far in depth about this--not that there is so much to talk about!
Your map has no lights. When I first started mapping all my maps were fullbright too, and I thought they looked so good. Well let me tell you your map will look a 100 times better with lights.
Instead of the flat textures, you get nice degrees of shadow and light/dark areas that make your map sooo much more realistic.
Also the map is quite blocky with no fine detail work. While technically ok, this is very boring and also very unrealistic.
All this said, I like the basic layout of your map, and there are no major errors. Play more maps, read tutorials, use reference pictures, and of course keep mapping... and you'll improve quickly
Commented 17 years ago2006-10-27 23:43:54 UTC
in vault item: Just another labComment #13355
Nice Stuff!
+good scritping--random? +good use of ambients +competent but boring textures +Nice but boring, standard HL architecture +decent detail, but you could use more detail work and props imo
Nice work, but if your going to do BM, why not give it a new, or spiced up slant with some fresh architecture and textures--or use of the textures at least... you're not really covering any ground that hasn't already been covered thousands of times before
Commented 17 years ago2006-10-27 23:34:12 UTC
in vault item: fun_rushing2_2Comment #13354
Holy shit! That looks like it would be so fun on a server! It reminds me of the matrix sort of, like neo running towards an agent or something.
The round room was neatly concieved too, but I'll agree with Exos that the whole thing is still quite raw--but the idea is WAY better than one star...jeez.
Superb original idea, decent execution. I'm going 5 to average out the totally unfair 1-star rating.
A very faithful if not very blocky representation of a gym
By blocky I mean most if not all of the nice detail stuff you have--basketball hoops, drinking fountains, etc--are all WAY too thick and not streamlined--hence the blocky
Make them thinner. One way is to use wedges and spikes to give curved edges and appear slimmer. For the basketball hoop, use a transparent--{ in hammer texture browser--texture, make it a func wall, and set
Render mode: solid fx amount: 255
Do this with any transparent texture, and the "blue" part of the texture won't show. Good for fences, grass and Basketball nets among other things
Commented 17 years ago2006-10-25 21:36:49 UTC
in vault item: ApoctaComment #13334
Ok, I wrote a huge review, and lost it--fuck fuck fuck!!1--, but I'll try to quickly recap:
+Superb visuals, using sprites, lighting, and volumetric light. +Love the way you blended the map/sky with the water at the bottom +GPEs, Turrets, "pushers", holograms--all very nice doodads
The architecture is very simple/subtle, but you don't notice it because you've pulled off the theme so very nicely without any extreme brushwork.
The texturing looked fine to me, but like Rimrook said, maybe you could improve some of them--I'm sure he would be more than willing to help if you asked
Sounds? I didn't notice any, but I was listening to System of a Down while playing the map. Did you have soundfx for the Weapon depots or the pushers? If not, adding some sounds would be a sure way to improve this already pwn level.
Great work, and a great improvement from your previous map--which I also liked very much!
Commented 17 years ago2006-10-24 22:04:55 UTC
in vault item: de_disneylandComment #13327
Lots of neat stuff in this map, but I would say it's far from 'completed.'
Some neat textures, architecture, props, and some cool entity effects. It's been a long time since I've been to Disneyland, so I also don't have a point of reference to judge how things look, but you can tell this is somewhere you've been by the 'comprehensiveness' of the map, which is always cool.
Those upstairs windows, in the the building with the movie projector look really nice, and the fx from the projector gives a neat glare from the outside looking in.
The building with the dormers--roof windows--is also really cool inside and out, but you could probably eliminate those pesky brush errors by using HLFix, which comes with the latest ZHLT afaik.
Having the Magic Kingdom Castle cut in half is a bit of a big distraction, and something you might address in a future version. Maybe you could somehow blend in the existing 'facade' with a custom sky, so you can see the whole castle. You other options would be to use models for parts of the castle, or of course, try brushing it.
Scale everywhere is waaay too big and that's another big issue with this map. There are multiple other small errors and "glithes" here too, so hopefully as you become a better mapper, you'll come back and fix this up or redo it
Commented 17 years ago2006-10-22 17:42:07 UTC
in vault item: Xen Cryo - Compo 15Comment #13304
Very nice, and I'm glad I played it again since the compo!
Very neat Xen architecture at the Xen part--sleek, nice brushing and textures. If you revisit this, you might try textlights for the outside area instead of a light_enviroment to achieve nicer, not-so-flat lighting, but it still looks fine. My favourite part of the Xen area is the the big voluminous room where the transport takes place.
The earth end looks superb too--is that predominant wall texture an original HL?! The only letdown for me in this again, nicely stylized area are the barrels, which though had an interesting construction, still looked kinda plain--maybe the texturing? The brush errors srry mentioned didn't bother me at all.
All in all really great, and a well-deserving 1st place, Good Work!
This comment was made on an article that has been deleted.
Commented 17 years ago2006-10-22 06:39:11 UTC
in vault item: aim_para_27Comment #13272
Certainly nice for an aim map, and some nice little bits of brushwork and style, but still kinda big and boring.
A lot of the nicely stylized trims/walkways you have you can't fully appreciate, unless you noclip and go way up to look at them... maybe scaling the hole map down would help with this. Add more fine detail work/different textures to make it more intersting too.
The nice trench of death in the center vaguely reminded me of an old roman cistern, sans all the decorative support structures.
Commented 17 years ago2006-10-19 01:10:05 UTC
in vault item: Zerocool_b24Comment #13198
Excellent traditional DM!
+Nice Architectural rounded edges in places +Superb octagonal archways and trim +Nice detail items like beams/fixtures/trim in most areas +Nice use of orginal textures
-overall, a nice map but kinda generic and bland. A stronger and more original central theme--with some fresh textures probably too--would make this even better; that is, if you decide to work on this more.
Commented 17 years ago2006-10-17 19:47:40 UTC
in vault item: Map Number 73Comment #13195
Nice working train elevator, and just a minor flaw with the doors when moving up.
Detailing the outer part of the elevator shaft would make the elevator ride look that much pwner, and making the little bit of architecture you have showing a little more sleek and defined--less blocky.
Your sort of askng a lot with this. Imo, the problem section is more for specific questions about errors, and no general "fix my map" sort of stuff.
My advice would be to start again, and every hour or so save a new version of you map and try to compile it. In this way, when you run into a problem, it's easier to diagnose it, and/or you can revert to a previous "working" compile if the current version gets to screwed up.
The cool thing about starting a map over from scratch, is that you almost always rebuild it 10times better/more efficiently in every way, which is nice
Commented 17 years ago2006-10-16 16:28:21 UTC
in vault item: cs_castle_nightV2Comment #13187
Neat stuff, but overall kinda boring imo.
I like the detail items like the climbable bed falling through the hole in the ceiling, the fountain, the market, and the swords!, but the rest of the map was very bleh. Among the creative details, the moon pwned too
Maybe Nicer texturing, a tighther layout, and/or nicer architecture detailing for the main castle might help.
Not a horrible map by any means, just didn't exite me very much, and I must say it's hard to get excited about new cs maps these days
Commented 17 years ago2006-10-16 16:13:57 UTC
in vault item: fun_hkkcrComment #13186
Well this map has many flaws and I don't know where to begin with a critique, although I will say I like the feel of the map. Keep mapping and you'll get better
I will say though that big wide-open maps like this are hard to pull off nicely for the half-life engine, in terms of r_speeds, and blending all that open ground to the sky well.
It's about time (I think all Compo entries should have a corresponding MV entry for comments, but hey)
I love how realistic this map looks, the detail of the train tracks, and the nice little rounded concrete bumpers--which I studied for a long time to figure how you did it back when I was more nube
No custom sky makes Jack a dull boy, but hey this still defines pwn
Commented 17 years ago2006-09-12 20:49:22 UTC
in vault item: The_ChallengeComment #12987
I'm a noobie at Sven Coop, so please instruct me if necessary
When I start the game, I'm stuck at the spawns and the buttons don't do anything for me. I tried to noclip to go past the gate, but it didn't work either.
Commented 17 years ago2006-09-10 19:46:58 UTC
in vault item: de_resident_evil_v2Comment #12979
Very ambitious, and superb work from what I saw, though I only ran through quickly--It would take a while to check everything out
A couple things you might consider:
-Ditch the teleports
I understand why you did it--to corodon off areas to keep r_speeds playable--, but there is an easier, more stable way. In my dm_Lars map, I needed to cordon off areas too to keep the map playable, but instead of teleports, I used what I call "tranceluadors".
That is, I put a 1 unit brush between doors, textured with "translucent" texture. Then, as you did, put the func_illusionary doors on each side.
The end result is the same as yours, because the trancelucent texture blocks VIS, therby effectively seperating the rooms. It's also a bit more stable than the teleports imo.
-Sounds don't work for me--wrong directory.
Your custom sounds should be someplace in the cstrikesound directory. Also, include the proper directory structure for your custom content to make it easier on your "guests"
Commented 17 years ago2006-09-07 16:50:31 UTC
in vault item: fun_hkmtrComment #12961
This map leaves a very good overall impression on me. The lighting is neat, some fresh textures, and an orginal theme and layout.
That said this map is full of errors that distract from all the good stuff, among them:
--HOM(hall of mirrors) effect where the player can see outside world --1-unit spaces between brushes that should be flush toghether --Textrues strangely alingned in places --Spawn areas very nondescript(boring, bland) --no sounds at all
Commented 17 years ago2006-09-04 07:09:34 UTC
in vault item: fun_jumping2_2Comment #12948
It's an interesting idea, and there's some potential here for a "fun" map imo. I've not played it on a server, so I have no way to know this for sure.
Besides that the idea is neat, and it's fun to "look up" as your falling down, down, down to your death, the mapping is pretty below average and boring.
It's blocky--literally made out of blocks--, and the textures are dullsville. Making the map prettier would definitley make it more "fun"
Commented 17 years ago2006-09-03 20:12:50 UTC
in vault item: sc_chooseComment #12945
I've never played SC before, but this was pretty fun!
the mapping was the greatest, but it was adequete, and the enity work seemed pretty clean afaik. I spent like 45 minutes trying to kill the spawning grunts--they were hard to kill!.
I liked that you could toggle monsters on and off, and that you could hit the armory whenever you wanted for more ammo. BTW, what number toggles the sniper rifle? I love that weapon for this, but it doesn't seem powerful enough.
K, first of all this map is pretty big, and might be better off being cut up into 2 or maps. You have no Visgroups here at
all, which would make navigating this thing much easier. Use Visgroups!...I can't strees enough how useful they are!
Things I changed/noticed were bad: -2 env sparks and an info_target were 1 unit away from being outside world, so I moved them in. -Compile log says there's a leak at by one of the monster_male_assasins.
I just noticed this is for sven coop, and it's quite big, so I'm not going to debug it further.
Also, it would be cool to have something "bad" happen to the player if he doesn't press the crosswalk button. In my "thepink" map, If you don't stay within the crosswalk cordon, a semi truck runs you over! Even though it's for CS, the rmf--which is included--may be helpful to you:
Commented 17 years ago2006-08-14 20:38:34 UTC
in vault item: Invasion 105 2.0Comment #12843
Ag3nt-X: It's not the biggest deal, but it is a breach in basic ettiquete in the Map Vault afaik. Updates or no, reposting/Bumping your map is just sorta uncool.
Because this map is so good, I can't really get upset over it--and nor do I think anyone else will. It's when people keep bumping their first map over and over and over again that it becomes intolerable
Commented 17 years ago2006-08-13 19:29:12 UTC
in vault item: Elevator EntryComment #12830
K. figured the problem.
The seperate func_door for the elevator doors was working every time...the problem was that the elevator shaft doors were too thick, and you simply couldn't see it!!!!
Your map has no lights. When I first started mapping all my maps were fullbright too, and I thought they looked so good. Well let me tell you your map will look a 100 times better with lights.
Instead of the flat textures, you get nice degrees of shadow and light/dark areas that make your map sooo much more realistic.
Also the map is quite blocky with no fine detail work. While technically ok, this is very boring and also very unrealistic.
All this said, I like the basic layout of your map, and there are no major errors. Play more maps, read tutorials, use reference pictures, and of course keep mapping... and you'll improve quickly
+good scritping--random?
+good use of ambients
+competent but boring textures
+Nice but boring, standard HL architecture
+decent detail, but you could use more detail work and props imo
Nice work, but if your going to do BM, why not give it a new, or spiced up slant with some fresh architecture and textures--or use of the textures at least... you're not really covering any ground that hasn't already been covered thousands of times before
The round room was neatly concieved too, but I'll agree with Exos that the whole thing is still quite raw--but the idea is WAY better than one star...jeez.
Superb original idea, decent execution. I'm going 5 to average out the totally unfair 1-star rating.
By blocky I mean most if not all of the nice detail stuff you have--basketball hoops, drinking fountains, etc--are all WAY too thick and not streamlined--hence the blocky
Make them thinner. One way is to use wedges and spikes to give curved edges and appear slimmer. For the basketball hoop, use a transparent--{ in hammer texture browser--texture, make it a func wall, and set
Render mode: solid
fx amount: 255
Do this with any transparent texture, and the "blue" part of the texture won't show. Good for fences, grass and Basketball nets among other things
The method you used of entering builings was quite "unique"
Simple Architecture, Simple texturing, not so much detail, but a fun-looking little DM just the same.
+Superb visuals, using sprites, lighting, and volumetric light.
+Love the way you blended the map/sky with the water at the bottom
+GPEs, Turrets, "pushers", holograms--all very nice doodads
The architecture is very simple/subtle, but you don't notice it because you've pulled off the theme so very nicely without any extreme brushwork.
The texturing looked fine to me, but like Rimrook said, maybe you could improve some of them--I'm sure he would be more than willing to help if you asked
Sounds? I didn't notice any, but I was listening to System of a Down while playing the map. Did you have soundfx for the Weapon depots or the pushers? If not, adding some sounds would be a sure way to improve this already pwn level.
Great work, and a great improvement from your previous map--which I also liked very much!
5 Stars
I'm sure it would be more fun with more/real people
I was way more impressed by how nice the surroundings looked, and very funny touch getting slapped if you try to walk down the corridor...
"You don't need to go there"
Some neat textures, architecture, props, and some cool entity effects. It's been a long time since I've been to Disneyland, so I also don't have a point of reference to judge how things look, but you can tell this is somewhere you've been by the 'comprehensiveness' of the map, which is always cool.
Those upstairs windows, in the the building with the movie projector look really nice, and the fx from the projector gives a neat glare from the outside looking in.
The building with the dormers--roof windows--is also really cool inside and out, but you could probably eliminate those pesky brush errors by using HLFix, which comes with the latest ZHLT afaik.
Having the Magic Kingdom Castle cut in half is a bit of a big distraction, and something you might address in a future version. Maybe you could somehow blend in the existing 'facade' with a custom sky, so you can see the whole castle. You other options would be to use models for parts of the castle, or of course, try brushing it.
Scale everywhere is waaay too big and that's another big issue with this map. There are multiple other small errors and "glithes" here too, so hopefully as you become a better mapper, you'll come back and fix this up or redo it
All in all, still very neat work
Very neat Xen architecture at the Xen part--sleek, nice brushing and textures. If you revisit this, you might try textlights for the outside area instead of a light_enviroment to achieve nicer, not-so-flat lighting, but it still looks fine. My favourite part of the Xen area is the the big voluminous room where the transport takes place.
The earth end looks superb too--is that predominant wall texture an original HL?! The only letdown for me in this again, nicely stylized area are the barrels, which though had an interesting construction, still looked kinda plain--maybe the texturing? The brush errors srry mentioned didn't bother me at all.
All in all really great, and a well-deserving 1st place, Good Work!
The requested URL /mapvault/4194.zip was not found on this server.
A lot of the nicely stylized trims/walkways you have you can't fully appreciate, unless you noclip and go way up to look at them... maybe scaling the hole map down would help with this. Add more fine detail work/different textures to make it more intersting too.
The nice trench of death in the center vaguely reminded me of an old roman cistern, sans all the decorative support structures.
Try to add lights to the next one tho (my first couple maps were fullbright too)!!...I'd recommend the textlights tutorial, here:
https://twhl.info/wiki/page/Tutorial%3A_Texture_Lighting
Atom's tutorial on lighting is also pretty good:
Tutorial: Light
+Nice Architectural rounded edges in places
+Superb octagonal archways and trim
+Nice detail items like beams/fixtures/trim in most areas
+Nice use of orginal textures
-overall, a nice map but kinda generic and bland. A stronger and more original central theme--with some fresh textures probably too--would make this even better; that is, if you decide to work on this more.
Great map, good work!
Detailing the outer part of the elevator shaft would make the elevator ride look that much pwner, and making the little bit of architecture you have showing a little more sleek and defined--less blocky.
Good work, keep it up
My advice would be to start again, and every hour or so save a new version of you map and try to compile it. In this way, when you run into a problem, it's easier to diagnose it, and/or you can revert to a previous "working" compile if the current version gets to screwed up.
The cool thing about starting a map over from scratch, is that you almost always rebuild it 10times better/more efficiently in every way, which is nice
[/2 cents]
I like the detail items like the climbable bed falling through the hole in the ceiling, the fountain, the market, and the swords!, but the rest of the map was very bleh. Among the creative details, the moon pwned too
Maybe Nicer texturing, a tighther layout, and/or nicer architecture detailing for the main castle might help.
Not a horrible map by any means, just didn't exite me very much, and I must say it's hard to get excited about new cs maps these days
I will say though that big wide-open maps like this are hard to pull off nicely for the half-life engine, in terms of r_speeds, and blending all that open ground to the sky well.
My only complaint without seeing a fully-compiled version would be the rampant--sole?--use of entity--point--lighting.
Compile this, bitch!!1
Looks like we need a dod:s tag as well.
Textures look stretched horribly in the background, and as you can see that "grass" texture on your island doesn't tile so well--looks like poop.
Anyway, keep working, read tutorials, and play other people's maps would be my advice
I'm not downloading this either (sorry).
I love how realistic this map looks, the detail of the train tracks, and the nice little rounded concrete bumpers--which I studied for a long time to figure how you did it back when I was more nube
No custom sky makes Jack a dull boy, but hey this still defines pwn
Textures are well aligned around corners and angles and such, but scaled huge, and the textrues themselves are b o r i n g....
This sort of layout lends itself to more of a fy or aim map, not hostage rescue too
Really liked the elevator anyway
When I start the game, I'm stuck at the spawns and the buttons don't do anything for me. I tried to noclip to go past the gate, but it didn't work either.
What do I have to do to play?!
I see one of the telports doesn't line up with another room, so I guess you have to keep that one
Again, very neat map!
A couple things you might consider:
-Ditch the teleports
I understand why you did it--to corodon off areas to keep r_speeds playable--, but there is an easier, more stable way. In my dm_Lars map, I needed to cordon off areas too to keep the map playable, but instead of teleports, I used what I call "tranceluadors".
That is, I put a 1 unit brush between doors, textured with "translucent" texture. Then, as you did, put the func_illusionary doors on each side.
The end result is the same as yours, because the trancelucent texture blocks VIS, therby effectively seperating the rooms. It's also a bit more stable than the teleports imo.
-Sounds don't work for me--wrong directory.
Your custom sounds should be someplace in the cstrikesound directory. Also, include the proper directory structure for your custom content to make it easier on your "guests"
I really liked the use of sound, npcs--bathroom lol--, and lighting was nice.
Architecture and detail was very good in general. I really liked the layout and the original HEV and Medkits!
Finally, very nice use of the original textures
No errors or big ideas for improvement strike me... looking forward to seeing more of your maps!
That said this map is full of errors that distract from all the good stuff, among them:
--HOM(hall of mirrors) effect where the player can see outside world
--1-unit spaces between brushes that should be flush toghether
--Textrues strangely alingned in places
--Spawn areas very nondescript(boring, bland)
--no sounds at all
Neat map anyway, hope you finish it someday
You should know better Mr. HeAdCrAb....
Also, I noticed some "fun" stuff like the "no cheating" thingie when I was noclipping. I didn't explore that stuff too much, but it looked neat!
Besides that the idea is neat, and it's fun to "look up" as your falling down, down, down to your death, the mapping is pretty below average and boring.
It's blocky--literally made out of blocks--, and the textures are dullsville. Making the map prettier would definitley make it more "fun"
the mapping was the greatest, but it was adequete, and the enity work seemed pretty clean afaik. I spent like 45 minutes trying to kill the spawning grunts--they were hard to kill!.
I liked that you could toggle monsters on and off, and that you could hit the armory whenever you wanted for more ammo. BTW, what number toggles the sniper rifle? I love that weapon for this, but it doesn't seem powerful enough.
Anyway, neat map!
all, which would make navigating this thing much easier. Use Visgroups!...I can't strees enough how useful they are!
Things I changed/noticed were bad:
-2 env sparks and an info_target were 1 unit away from being outside world, so I moved them in.
-Compile log says there's a leak at by one of the monster_male_assasins.
I just noticed this is for sven coop, and it's quite big, so I'm not going to debug it further.
Sorry I wasn't more of a help!
Though, you could definitely use some reference pics to get the 'look' of them better...try here:
https://images.google.com/images?q=crosswalk&hl=en&btnG=Search+Images
Also, it would be cool to have something "bad" happen to the player if he doesn't press the crosswalk button. In my "thepink" map, If you don't stay within the crosswalk cordon, a semi truck runs you over! Even though it's for CS, the rmf--which is included--may be helpful to you:
https://twhl.info/vault/view/2821
In that one, I just put trigger multiple outside the crosswalk boundaries, that targeted the semi--which was a func_door at high speed :0
If you'd like help adding something simliar to your map, throw me a pm.
Because this map is so good, I can't really get upset over it--and nor do I think anyone else will. It's when people keep bumping their first map over and over and over again that it becomes intolerable
Ok, I'll shut up now
Is it different than the previous map you posted?
The seperate func_door for the elevator doors was working every time...the problem was that the elevator shaft doors were too thick, and you simply couldn't see it!!!!
Thanks for your help anyway guys
Aren't fy maps supposed to have the weapons strewn about at the beginning?