Carbaseus

I forgot to mention that I set my poly budget for P3 or better with decent acceleration. Game plays fine on the Duron 750 w/ Radeon test machine, so that's what i'll recommend as the minimum requirement. My apologies to those with older boxes.

Without having played it, I'll just ask a question about what I see in the screen: Why make something so unique looking, then put in that same old ugly generic sky?

Because it looked good in my opinion. I tried several different skies out of my library but the default one fit the theme well enough that i saw no reason to tack another 800kb onto the download. Give it a whirl- you won't see anything but blue and clouds unless you're up on that one high ledge anyway. Oh, and thanks for the feedback.

Ok I checked it out. I really like the architecture and how its all layed out. The lighting and sounds are cool too. I still think that sky blows though. Also, even though you didn't make the map for older boxes, the 4100 wpoly and 8300 epoly might be unplayable for more than just junk comps.
4 stars imo

Yeah, the team handed me a budget of 4000wpoly so I went to town. Maps I tried to release with 2000wpoly got "needs more detail" comments so I threw them some overkill with this one. At least the average throughout is about 1000-2000, only in that one corner looking in does it jump past 3k.

Wow, I haven't downloaded this bt the screenshot tells me this is a map I would like to play!

beeeeutifal. just beautiful.

I wish I could get a game going with about 16 people is the only thing; I have 6 computers in my house so I can't give it the playtest i'd really like to. I'll likely hand it over to the DOD (Den of Death, not Day of Defeat) mapping team to have it converted to AHL as well if they want to do another for the community. I recommend playing it in Oz personally, it's the most fun if you have some extra means of locomotion.

Really unique setting, feels like some sort of theather. The architecture fits nicely, I like the pillars and the walkways especially. Texturing is fine but a bit boring at some places. Overall, I liked the map. Looks bright, comfortable to play in.

I played at an average of 40 fps (AMD 1800+, GeForce FX5600, 128MB, 384 MB RAM), so that's decent. Nice you've warned us before...

Looks lovely...pity I'm one of the unfortunate few for which this map isn't gonna work. It looks bloody brilliant too! sigh Any chance of a "Carbaseus lite"?

In all honesty I probably would if I hadn't designed all the architecture to be a single, flowing structure. I can't really think of anything I can do to lower speeds without drastically altering the map, simply because of the way it's laid out. We all know how HL appreciates football field sized areas. What speed machine are you running?

Great architecture! The ideas are great and well executed. The only problem I see is that this map is too big and detailed for the original Half-life engine. The recommended wpolys for a deathmatch map are somewhere around 600. It'd be great if you could make a similar map when HL2 and the Source engine are around (think of water reflections and shining metal pilars)

If the brushwork can be ported easily then I will likely touch-up and re-release several maps including this one for HL2. I'm actually pretty pleased that the map came out as well is it did considering I was gritting my teeth in uncertainty about speeds when the design was still on paper.

I'm just curious, has anyone yet playtested this map with 4 or more players? If so, how did it play?

Crashed just before load.

That's odd; gave you the error report window I suppose? I tested it on 4 different machines straight from the zip file and didn't have any problems.

What are your specs and did you get any kind of details in the error message?

the map looks awesome but too bad i dont play hl otherwise i would alreyd have the map

What actually is that? A main stage and arena? I love it! Only trouble is it lags quite alot.

big and cool. 4.5 stars but thats not possible.
great lay out too

like the level man neat i agree with the sky map theres thousands ou there but other then that man major props and since i m thinkin of it can i have your permission to play it on our server ddhlpsteamed the website we have is www.ddhlp.com if u want to post your answer here or there

oh im getting 56-65fps on radeon 9600xp 256mb gpu and comp is 2.3 celeron 768mb ram

Sorry it took so long for me to get back here to reply. You know how school and work is. Sure, i'd love to see my map hosted on your server. I haven't gotten to play it with more than 4 people.

submit the rocketcrowbar version too...

this is over a year since i posted but yeah its been in our mapcycle and it plays great man good fun

Simply amazing work!

The level of detail, fluidity, sounds, textuing, layout and of course, architecture, are simply superb! This map gets "superb" for every area of mapping I'm aware of, except the sky! You did all this work only to use the old desert sky--yuck

It doesn't really matter though, I suppose, becuase this is easily one of the best maps I've ever seen for the half-life engine. This map makes me want to learn more about architectue and art, so I can properly appreciate/classify it!

Gameplay might be sketchy 'cause of the 2000 level wpolys, but considering the level of detail in this map, that's not really that bad imo.

I loved the ramps that take you through every area of this exquisite work, as weel the beautiful water in the courtyard, pillars, and tons of other structures I can't even identify!

Superb work.

5 Stars

My rating is not just 5, its........ahhh its hard is too good to be true. seriously! Really Seriously!!!
things i really love about it:
ramps...
liquids....
flooring...
.......everything!!!
this is the best one yet!!!
i'm looking forward for your next map!!!

ooooooOOOHalf-Life_MasterOOOoooooo

.....one more coment....
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I just happened back across this map again while showing some friends, and I've got to say I'm amazed to see how much everyone seems to like it even four years later. One of these days I ought to go ahead and put the other ten or so maps (all of them much smaller...) that I've done on this site since the sites I used to have them reviewed on are all gone. Might do that sometime soon since I'm not doing anything else for the time being. Thanks for the support guys.

Incredibly artistic and well laid out map, despite (or thanks to?) it's hugeness. It really is gargantuan, which is one of the main charms of the map. The style and feel of the map is awesome, with the swirling structures, steep walkways, grated pillars... I loved it.

We tried it tonight with a nigh-full TWHLDM server (we were 7), and it was a lot of fun. Admittedly, you have to be quite a few to enjoy it... when the server was just me and Urby, we ran around for minutes without seeing each other.

Great job.

What ZL said, had a rather kickass game tonight.
Amazing work, both gameplay and architecture-wise.

Amazing.

I really don't like it, sorry. It's oversized, ugly (bad texturing, lighting), no ambience, no life and... well that's it.

Are you kidding? Considering what he has acheived, this map proves just what you can squeeze from the engine. You do make valid points though, potatis, but I believe the effort he put into the design is well worth 5 stars alone.

Anyone have a copy then can send us?
Urby recommended this map for our office LAN games, but the link is 404ing.

Never too late to rate. This is amongst my favorite maps for the half life engine to date. Great gameplay with any number of players. The vast time spent looking for others is made up for by the amazing atmosphere this map creates. I joke with others saying "Jesus came to earth and made this map when he was bored." Its really good dude, late congrats! You should be an architect or game designer.

I cannot download it.

I'm being redirected to http://www.thewexionweb.com/host/carbaseus.zip

link dead :<

psh it is seven years old. Try finding it online in hl.

I found it at:

http://mserv.td.org.uit.no/cs_server/my_cstrike/maps/

Thx!

Exclusive Video Review:

"Back in 2004...holy shit! At that time, unique themes like this just didn't exist."

Bottom Line:

This is creativity unrestrained. Somehow achieved in one of the most restraining 3D engines in existence.

Carbaseus Review

Because the TWHL community ultimately failed at voting for July’s map of the month, the reviewing team decided that we just wouldn’t bother reviewing anything for the ungrateful fuckers. Then we had the idea of reviewing a classic map instead, if not just to stop idiots asking where July’s review was.Carbaseus was first uploaded to TWHL’s map vault in 2004 by a mysterious user known as K7. The description of the map states that although it was intended for the mod Rocket Crowbar, it’s pretty good fun in HLDM. K7 claims this to be his best work and a fitting end to mapping for GoldSource. Whether or not he did stay true to his word is unknown, since this is the only map he ever uploaded to TWHL and hasn’t been seen since.Well, I for one would like to say that that is a real damn shame, because this is probably the most entertaining map to play in HLDM ever. This map was featured on the once popular TWHL HLDM server and with 8 or more people was an absolute blast to play. When we sat down to review it, there were only 3 of us, and I still reckon that despite often not seeing another player for a good few minutes at a time, this map still manages to be an absolute joy to explore.Carbaseus appears to be latin for the work linen, despite the fact that there is a large amount of canvas in the map. Combined with the visible support brackets, pine panels and glass surfaces, this looks like the kind of thing you could buy flatpacked from Ikea, possible assembled by a drunk orangutan with tools made of ketchup. While on the surface the architecture seems fairly basic, when you take a second to really look at it you notice that everything looks structurally sound. The map is littered with support beams and railings and the canvas covers are held in place with little brackets. It’s a strange feeling looking at this bizarre mish-mash of materials, which at the same time feels very real.Texturing again, is something which appears to be very basic and even a little uncoordinated at a glance. Most of it looks as though it was just slapped on to the maps faces because it most likely was. However this strange slap-dash texture work does even more to complement the crazy brushwork seen throughout the map.The lighting is a little bit of a let down. There are some nice variations in areas such as the teleport room and the lower hallways, but overall the map sticks to sky lighting. While there are some interested darker areas because of this, a lot of the maps light just feels very standard. I can only imagine how much potential this map has for a night time version.Ambience is another element which is pulled off beautifully. You can hear the wind sweeping through the alcoves and over ledges in the main arena, while around the edges you can hear it slapping against the canvas outer walls. It’s a really nice effect and it’s something that more mappers should put more effort into.The gameplay is where Carbaseus really stands out, or at least, where it once did. This map has so much to offer in terms of gameplay. Not only is the main arena huge, encouraging simply massive battles with large groups of free for all players, its also perfect for sniping, quite unlike last month’s winning AWP based CSS map. However, the more players you pile into the game, the less likely a single crossbow user will dominate the battlefield, simply because there are so many angles of exposure from which they could get countersniped. Also, the players have access to many tunnels and passages which run below the main arena, meaning close quarter engagements and explosive traps are both likely occurrences. With fewer players however, the map can easily be controlled by the sniper, and considering the scarcity of HLDM servers with more than three or four players these days, Carbaseus, much like it’s creator, runs the risk of getting lost in the past.

Exclusive Video Review:

"It's kinda like an outdoor modern art gallery, more so after the walls are covered with guts."

Bottom Line:

In the end, I can see two dozens of people having awesome fun running around in Carbaseus.

I've fixed the download link for this map.

Well deserved Map of the Month, albeit eight years late.

Wow, guys. I didn't even know people still remembered my old maps. Thanks for all the awesome compliments.

It makes me a little sad too to think that it's difficult now to find 32 person matches, because believe it or not I never got the chance to play this map myself after beta testing in a few 4-6 player servers.

By the way, I actually made 15 other finished maps and 5 playable betas, and I don't think I ever released any of them here. If you guys are interested, I can upload them to a temporary fileshare service if you guys can handle finding a more permanent place for them. 8 of them are included in the last release of the mod Rocket Crowbar 2 if you can find it, but the others have never seen a release at all. We've played them for years at LAN parties and they're pretty fun.

Do want.

Uploaded the copy I had directly to TWHL so that this gem doesn't disappear again.

Noice