Strange Findings part 1

this map is very cool. I like it.
The screen fades from black as I find myself in a fifties style laboratory. I admire the craftmanship of the pipes filled with wires leading from the computer consoles. The scientists around me are having an interesting conversation, and appart from the panick in their voices, all seems fine. It is then that i notice the elevator. Except its not there. I repeatedly ask the barney to push the button for me but all he does is follow me or stay behind.
I descend the ladder to find myself in a hallway where all hell seems to have broken loose. A muffled gurgle sounds. My heart races. Then i see it - a zombie hovering over a gun. I dash forward, picking up the 9mm pistol before speedily evading the beast's scragly claws. I open fire immediatly, sending the beast to the floor. One of the locker doors is open, a nice touch and something i remember fondly from Black Mesa. The hazard suit still fits like a glove. As i walk along the next corridoor, i cant help but notice how even and nice the overall architecture and lighting are. But alas, t'was a small mercy. Turn the corner and get butt-raped by nothing more than a headcrab because i had been making smiley faces on the wall with gunshot decals. quick load
nice the overall architecture and lighting are. But alas, t'was a small mercy. Turn the corner and just avoid a headcrab. BANG BANG and the headcrab flies, dead in mid-air.
Suddenly i hear a growl. Oh. My. God.
"ITCHY!" I cry with joy, "HOW I MISSED YOU!" and i jump into the pool to greet my old buddy from BM.



Only a few little points i'd like to raise.

1) you forgot to rotate a face of the big tank in the second room, so a few of the faces are nastily stretched (the tank with with the cool pipe leading to it, covered in coolant.. or water :P)

2) I dont like the texture used for the ladder. It seems to flat and cartoony.

3) the water down the elevator should be transparent there are a few little details under the water that i only cought brief glances at because the water was at 'that height' where the player is the exact same height when crouched, so the waves made visibility difficult.

A nice map and fun to play. good job.

(i presume it ended with the corridoor with no door at the end, after metting Itchy)

yes agreed

Wow, I'm glad you liked it I had so much trouble with that water it just wouldent show up in game until a few hours ago. And yes that was the end at the hallway, I was going to make some text saying that but I forgot. I'll get new textures for the ladder soon so it might look better.

Pfft, the hunter stole my story-like way of reviewing so i'll keep it short..

- The water down the elevator was a bit to low for me to see the dead body under it, also, you used 2 func_waters because I could clearly see they weren't going at the same height and time with each other.

- The zombie at the gun wasn't surprising and he didn't even attacked me! I think you should put like 2 zombies there and make the lightning real dark with a glance on the gun. That would be very cool.

- The zombie and headcrab were very easy to spot and before they wanted to attack me, I killed them..

- The itchy's were very easy to avoid. They only attacked me when I shot them.

- The overal map was very blocky and especially very very EMPTY!
I would have liked seeing broken computers and scripted sentences like a scientist getting killed, you know, the ussual stuff.

- The conversations at the start could have been smoother, I took a lot of time for them to actually say something against each other wich quite bored me..

Ooo... update! I hope you improved and fixed all the things I adviced you too!

Where did my comment go?
It had a,, oh you uploaded new!

downloads

Nice map
+/- I liked the theme you used :), but it was a bit empty. You could have put more computers or vents in the lab :> It would made the lab feeling a bit more lab-ish and the corridors in the bottom place were too empty.
- I missed some environment sounds in this map. For example you could have made computers emmit those quick beep beep beep sound that would look like they're working or something. Also you could have made a siren in the bottom part where the red light is on. That would make the atmosphere more something.
+/- Good idea with the zombie hiding near the barney, but it didn't scare me. You could have made that place a bit darker and/or with flickering lights. Maybe add 2 zombies instead of 1 :).
+ The HEV fitted fine in that locker. I liked that idea :o.
- Like said by others water needed to be transperant, and you used 3 water entities which is not a good idea. I would also suggest make the waves a bit more smaller 1-2 px max. That would look more realistic.
+/- good idea with those ichtys but it was somewhat a buggy place, they didn't attack me and one of them got stuck somewhere. And i suppose you wanted to make player jump into the water, but i was able to jump from the broken platfom on the one where a crowbar was without touching the water.
- Ending? didn't noticed one I got a crowbar, whacked some planks and got into a corridor which was empty and with a dead end.

With a bit more improvement it could be a five star map easy

- nothing made me jump
- no cool scripting
- did it 1st time without takeing ANY damage cause most of the aliens didn`t even attack me (i think it is due to a major lack of info_nodes)
-cheap wooden crates wouldn`t
-is there no end or did i miss a door or something?
+lab stuff on upper level.
+HEV in the locker
3*

-cheap wooden crates wouldn`t stop water flodding the rest of the lower level. they would just float away with the water

but if the crates are full of lead?

The creats would have been filled with hard stuff that could block the water but ill replace them and try make it better soon

mayby have a little water leak past the crates and flow into a drain?

7th: add an EDIT button here pls.
metal crates would be better than wood ones

The map was fun to play and I do think some of the brushwork is amazing. Here is my brief review.

Having loaded the level I look around the room. A mug is set on the table and the books have fallen in a well built domino position. The computers are nicely detailed and the pipes are nothing to complain about either. The inside of the tank is gorgeous with the plantlights swaying in the water and the xen "muck" spreading across the drains.

Then comes the next room. Again beautifully built and the submerged pipe in the floor leading out of the room gives the impression that this machine is doing somthing elsewhere in the facility. Where it goes however I may never find out.

Then I look at my colleages. Considering the lift is missing and I can hear sparks and other unearthly noises from the level below they are just frozen. They stare at the walls. The lack of action is rather dull. Every now and again they will babble to one another about the dimensional breach transmitting organic matter but they still just stand, staring at their consoles. Maybe they are in shock. I also get no explanation of the situation at hand and barney looks on silently as i lower myself down into the watery lower level. I look around and see more of that incredible brushwork but unfortunatly I notice a seam in the edge of the 2 func_water entities. A shame. I hop over the crates into a T junction and suddenly the levels savior (the great detail) vanishes. I find myself wondering through a few empty hallways. The lights go from white to red and an explosion catches me off guard. I jump. Suddenly its gotten interesting again.

I kill the zombie and the headcrab blistfully unaware that I missed the HEV in the locker. I carry on with no idea as to my health or my ammo counts. Then I get to the pool. I look at all the possible ways of getting across. The stumps on one side, the remainder of the walkway to the other and the ladder straight ahead. I know ichy well and he only attacks if. A) You attack him first or B) You swim around in his territory for too long. I dive in and paddle across to the ladder, duck under the wooden beams and continue to the end of the hallway.

In a nutshell:
+some nice and detailed brushwork
+very good ideas

-Missed the HEV 1st time because it isn't compulsory to continue the level.
-After the flooded part it got very plain.
-Ichy part isn't challenging enough
-No scripting (sequences and sentances?)

WEll There will be no more improving this map anymore I can't due to my old hard drive problems

Very nice Mater Ansith!

+nice detail work
+decent architecture--a tad blocky in some areas
+nice scripting
+love the broken bits of the ladder
+great lighting!

-doors are scaled way too small
-no ambients, -80,000,000 pts

Nice, but rather incomplete to be in the "completed" section imo.

All things considered, very decent work!

3 Stars

Excuse me but ... what am I supposed to do with the .bsp file to play the mission ? =/ ...

put it in valve/maps and then in the console type map strange_findings1

oh ok, thanks

Well, I tested it, and didn't get what to do in the room with the two huge piranas =/ ...

A Rip off by Ansith.
Strange it most likely looks like aqua labs.

Strider wanted me to use his stuff to kind of finish off Aqua labs in a way. So STFU. I'm sure if you ask strider he will tell you the same.

Heck, may as well try even if I play HL2 now.

I can tell you like putting work into mostly anything, noticed that when I looked at the ladders, edges of lights, HEV charger, & health charger. I think you should continue with this map as its looking great so far, make the map the way you want it done, cause from how it looks sofar, everything seemed fine to me.