Entity Challenges Created 16 years ago2008-01-23 07:47:44 UTC by Captain Terror

Tetsu0's digital watch gets my vote, awesome idea, nice looking...

I also vote for daub =).
Well executed.

Thanks for the votes.

I'll have to go for Tetsu0's.
Neat and good-looking.

Daubster: 2 votes
Tetsu0: 2 votes

More votes peoples!

Winner has first dibs on picking the next entity challenge. These challenges will be a nice little change from geometry-based stuff imo... can't wait to see what kinda ideas we come up with. = )

i already have an idea if i were the winner hehehehe.

I'm not sure if we're allowed to vote for ourselves, but it doesn't really matter 'cause mine sucks. Daubster gets my vote.

Yours did not suck! : O

I'd put it just about equal with Tetsuo's! Though his method is flashier, your version has it's advantages too. no, no my friend your entry was superb, don't forget it!

K, any more votes peoples? We'll give it another day or so, so get your votes in! votes so far:

Daubster 3 votes for his waiting room timer. Download!

Tetsu0 2 votes for his LCD beam clock. Download!

The other contestants:

-Digital Clock by TJB. Download!

-Stopwatch by Redka. Download!

-Rotating Timer by Captain Terror. Download!

Since TJB is my friend in school i feel morally obliged to vote for him and also his watch is very good

Voting ends in about 7 hours, so get yours in! Tally so far:

Daubster 3 votes for his Waiting Room timer. Download!

Tetsu0 2 votes for his LCD Laser Clock. Download!

TJB 1 vote for his Digital Clock. Download!

The Other entrants:

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-Stopwatch by Redka. Download!

-Rotating Timer by Captain Terror. Download

Daubster wins the first Entity Challenge... Congrats to you! = )

You have first dibs on choosing the next entity challenge. Time to choose...

: P

Grats daub!!

Conglatuzationer daub!

Give us the next challange dude!

Awesome, thanks for the votes, folks.
I remember Tetsu posting a Rune Goldberg machine competition that never really got anywhere. It'd be kickass to revive that, since that field has literally endless possibilities and lets you utilize pretty much anything in any way.

So, the new challenge is:
Make a Rune Goldberg Machine

For those, who don't know what a Rune Goldberg machine is, just go to Youtube and search for it. Lots of examples.

Also, to make judging easier and the competition fairer, your machine shouldn't consist of more than 50 objects (anything that triggers the following action is an object; e.g. gas canister with a fuse, teeter-totter with a ball on it, toy car with its controller and a ramp, etc.).

Kudos to Tetsu0 for a great idea. If you were thinking of reviving this yourself, do let me know and I'll change this one.

May the most resourceful mapper win!

Duab That was my exact idea! I don't care if you posted it or not because I just wanted to see what people can come up with! I'm excited for this one, and i will start once i return home! (At school right now, in my visual basic class)

And the best part about this, is the endless possibilities part!
Good call daub, and thanks for the kudos.

Nice, and should be pretty difficult from a creative standpoint... Like you guys said I can't wait to see what people do! = )

BTW Daubster remeber you're not precluded from joining this compo, like the last one we can vote for the winner... I hope you were planning on it but no pressure, lol : )

Hopefully I will have time to make an entry, cuz it is an excellent idea...

Here's my entry
http://twhl.co.za/mapvault_map.php?id=5006

damn that was fast! i'll start on mine in about.. 3 hours.. when i get home from class..

School and stargate Atlantis have been consuming my life lately, of course i have watched almost 3 full seasons of stargate in about 6 days. so that's my fault

CHRIST ONA CRACKER! = )

I tried starting last night but my friends keep making me go out! I'm starting mine now. (there are a shitload of cool examples on youtube, wow)

ill steal one

Yeah me too.

A lot of them use a single or couple balls that go through the entire thing I've noticed, but this is by no means necessary.

I looked through the some of the old original comics and you can really use literally anything to to make one part of the "machine" locomote the next. (people, animals, coil springs, steam, ropes, whatevs)

My uncle gave me a book full of these old comics, but I can't find it! : (

TJB: HAHA that wins. I played it 3 times to examine all the details... technically great and nicely presented, also a nice idea making the player the objective of the machine. It is hard to see all the nice mechanisms you made because you're locked into the pad.

Maybe some smart trigger cameras to follow the action would work?

Anyway, really good shit fella! = )

I've changed my entry - one BSP with cameras (badly done but it's the first time I've ever used them) and one without cameras.

HaHa much better but maybe slowing the water to activate the next sequence, and panning out to show the nice "finger-pusher machine" would be prudent. (make the room a little bigger so you can pan behind it)

The different angles are nice, but you could always refine and even get fancy with cams on trains, but I've never done that. Also, turn the piano around or turn the cam so you can see the nice piano from the front. (you could also put the piano at an angle to make it look more realistic.

Excellent stuff, but as alwasy room for more win! Keep it up! = )

Also btw, you could easily include them both in one bsp, just have a little movie camera icon and a button to toggle (no sense doing 2 seperate maps imo)

I would've done it with buttons but Hammer's screwed up for me. Buttons don't work, at all, unless you make it so that they trigger when you touch them. For all of my maps I have to work around that.
I was thinking of doing it with a panning camera, until I tried it. It would take a while to get right though. I might try it tommorow.

"Buttons don't work... unless you make it so they trigger when you touch them"

You mean they don't work using the E button? It should be easy to make the cameras togglable, I'll try it with my entry too and get back to you.

They don't work with the 'E' button, but for some reason it's only with maps that I've made. I could download a map in RMF, and compile it, and they'd work. If I make an exact duplicate with Hammer, they won't. It just happened once for no apparent reason.
Anyway, about my entry. The way I made it fill the trough, the only way to slow the water down would be to have the upper face at an angle. The problem is that the slower you have it the more noticable this would be.
I'll try different methods though, and I'll see if I can improve it.

I'm having trouble coming up with original ideas for mine, so I'm YouTubing for reference material. Here's a really creative one I found right away:

Clicky

edit: and hold your breath for this one:

Clicky 2

edit: and finally one for Garry's Mod Source:

Clicky 3

There, I think I have some ideas now! = P

TJB: Are you using the latest fgd? In some fgds the button health is set to 1 so you have to shoot the button before you can "use" it. (stabbing in the dark) Post a link to one of your maps that doesn't work, and I'll check it using my hammer if you want.

It's been a while since I've dealt with water, but can't you dictate the direction and speed it "fills"?

I'm not using the latest fdg. I'll download it when I get home.
I tried having the water fill at a low speed, but it wouldn't fill at all if the speed was too low.
I thought of a different method today, and I've got a feeling that it will look much better, so I'll update the map soon.

TJB have you tried to change the angles of a button?

I slowed down the water, and made the room a lot nicer to look at.

Has anybody else got any machines?
It's probably really unfair that I've had all of this time to refine mine.
Although I'm not complaining...

Haha very nice and you dressed up the map itself too! If you still want more suggestions, stuff I noticed:

-In camera view, you miss the point where the water makes the circuit and powers the pushing machine. Simply panning back a little farther would fix.

-the domino walls are cool but blocky and unimagniantive compared to everything else. I would make them more slight, or you could do a more advanced formation/seqence.

-The base map is nice but could be redesigned/improved further. More detail = more realistic. It doesn't matter technically since it's an entity challenge, but it improves so much the overall presentation.

let me know if you want me to give a try at making the camera togglable, and I'll give it a go.

I'll shut up for now, unless you want more! = )

I don't want to add more mechanisms, just make them nicer/easier to see because I've already submitted the map. So I made the books less blocky, and made the room more detailed. The water trough is also shorter, so it can be seen fully in camera mode. I still feel that it's kind of unfair having so much time to refine the map, so I won't modify it anymore. Captain Terror, if you want to make the cameras toggleable, I've provided (crappy) textures for the buttons.

[edit] Potasis Invalid, I just saw your post, and tried it. It worked! Hooray!

Excellent! TBH I don't think you even need the camera version as your regular version is better imo. You cans see everything, and the guy can noclip if he wants more detail.

Really nice base map improvements too, it has a much nicer feel to it now! = )

Mine started really slow, but things are getting better... it's much harder to come up with ideas then I thought it would be. If I had to do this over again, I would make a nice base map and shape the mechanisms around the maps construction, because I think it would be easier... like a grocery store ; )

Pretty nice and sweet, but one rotating stuff is rotating in the opposite direction, this is where one cylinder pushes the other one by that rotating thing (the nearest thing in your screenshot).

I had one those damn SV startvolume errors.. that held me back a week cuz i didnt feel like dealing with it. And i'm taking a really long time to progress thru this. my entity setups are extremely complicated so far.. hard to get the timing exact.

but one rotating stuff is rotating in the opposite direction

Hmmm... That doesn't happen on my one. Maybe it's drunk?
Probably not, but that's the best explaination I can come up with.

I'd build a machine but GoldSource doesn't have the engine for it and Source mapping doesn't work on my crappy computer. A shame, because I like doing this sort of thing.

I triple check and your thing is rotating counter-clockwise, and its need to be rotating clockwise, because the rolling cylinder hits the stuff at the left side of it (from its origin). I dont have time to create mine, but Yous so cool...

Yeah I couldn't tell, looks ok to me but who knows!

Tetsu0: Regarding "SV startvolume errors": is that caused by the by the sound of your train being too loud (I got a similar/same error with a train).

My entry is taking a long time too, and my setups are not even very complicated... At the beginning I couldn't think of what to do, and now it just seems to take forever to complete even one segment of the "machine".

Almost done though, I only have 2 segments to go and I'm calling it finished! = ) (hopefully tomorrow)

Kinrah:

"GoldSource doesn't have the engine for it"

True it's time consuming and you have to keep some of the limitations in mind when trying certain things, but there's a TON you can do with goldsource!

YOU SHOULD MAKE ONE = )

ill give u guys a hint, i have a trebuchet

In hl1 ? Then the Rube Goldberg Goldberg contraptions can only be done with lots of triggers

Yeah physics would maek it rediculously easy! = )

Hmmm.....if I wasn't a mapper , the contraptions build in goldsource would be fun . But I am a mapper and I know the contraptions are based on timing and triggers , not physics. And that reduces a bit the pleasure of seeing this contraptions.

I'm beginning to see what you mean (c)Striker... the quirkiness of trains and some other stuff is beginning to get annoying, but it IS a challenge ; )

On that note, I'm having a problem with my tracktrain, maybe someone could look... The problem lies with changing the speed of the train after it's triggered, to make it appear like it's accelerating down or freeballing.

More precisely, I can't figure out the INITIAL SPEED and SPEED fields.

I want the train to not move before it's triggered. If I set the INITIAL SPEED to zero and some other value for the SPEED field, the train travels only at the rate specified under SPEED, and ignores all the PATH_TRACK velocity changes.

If I set a slow INITIAL SPEED, the train will accept the speed changes, but then the train starts moving automatically with no trigger when the map starts.

I've seen this done in maps, so I know it can be done... I just can't figure it out.

Here's the map if you want to look:Download.

What's supposed to happen is you shoot the target (button), it triggers the downward door mechanism, and the ball freeballs down a rail. ( i didn't build the rail yet)

Thanks in advance for any help! = )

Started creating mine...pic, still in the egg...

HAHA awsome Redka! = )

I'd say just wing it.
just do the 10meters/second squared thing. estimate it, maybe do some basic calculations, or.. do it by eye.

Yeah, the big problem was though It wasn't acceptin the speed changes from the path tracks, so, no acceleration. : )

btw you edit blocked me I was just editing my last post saying I got it to work, well, I didn't get the tracktrain to work, but I just made it a func_train, and now it accepts the speed changes from the paths.

And on that note btw I found changing a tracktrain to a train gives you that pesky "SV_StartSound" error automatically. Some value from the tracktrain makes your train VOLUME value 10, which it can't be greater than 1.0, or you know what happens! = )

My entry done this morning. (i hope) I went a little crazy detailing the map around the mechanisms, so watch out!

If we ever do this challenge again, I have 100 new ideas... all spawned from doing this one. We should have a Rube Goldberg 2 someday!

i only have 3 contraptions working :(, flawlessly, yes, but still only 3 i hate school. Eats all my time.