Ivy

Damaged zip file.

oh noes!

Mod_NumForName: sprites/wall_puff4.spr not found.

what the hell?!

what kind of maps is SP_ maps?

single player, and i updated it.. again!
i dont see why the sprite wasnt working for you guys.. it was defaulted in my sprites folder :-/

+ Action. I like Action. Wasn't boring to look at.
+ Beginning. I like that crate that opened up.
+ Extra points for natural setting.
+ Awsome organic brushwork. Tweak your compile settings, mostly rad, to smooth out the lighting and make the rocks look round.
+ Don't let the bad stuff fool you, this map has a lot of interesting layout uses and brushwork to go with it, as well as necessarily detailed without being too over the top.

= Little confused about where I was supposed to go after a short while.
= Ending... 'tis funny.

- Texturing. Hunt out some good ones on the internet and learn to edit them to your liking. Might help with blending the features of the map together.

Okay, I was finally able to play it.

The beginning was kinda weird. The way, how barney's message appeared was a bit awkward. I think it would have been better to have all black background for the message, and you could have avoided that nasty camera movement with a simple trick: make a short fade out and fade in, in that few seconds, the camera can adjust to the target, and that had even added a lot to the mood.

I also had problems figuring out, that you were supposed to open the metal box, to gain acces to your crowbar - you don't usually see that in HL - but I guess it was ok, it was only my lameness.

After that, I got down the waterfalls, and got to the actual shooting scenes. The mapping was great overall, with nice brushwork all around the map - the texturing however was not that great. There were only a few textures in the entire map, and pretty much of them were applied to weird places. It was a little out of the place, that a wall had a roof texture applied to it.

There was another thing, what really bothered me: the enemies. Those damn black ops are a bitch to kill, especially if you don't have the right guns against them. It was ok inside that house and in the caves, but those two whores on the roofs really pissed me off. I mean, taking them out, was next to impossible. The first one was just impossible to kill, without having the other one shooting your ass. And this other one - which was next to the radio tower - was constantly hiding behind that damn thing, and you had no cover (In HL, you always had boxes for cover, when fighting black ops). If you give the player a magnum, it would be no problem, but with the shotgun and mp5, which all lack accuracy, and pistol, which lacks power, it was just out of the question. I was only able to kill them, after the whole map ended.

It's also possible to avoid them, by just simply running away from them, but that makes this map really short. So, maybe some grunts would have been a better choice, with black ops maybe only in the cave.

Overall, this map could have been much better, with the little tweaks mentioned above, IMO. But I guess you didn't have that much time for it, you mentioned that in the forums.

In it's current state, I give it 3,5 stars, rounded to 4.

wow i didn't expect you guys to give such good reviews.
There is a hidden crossbow in the map. (take the bridge to the roof) Makes things a bit easier.
I wish i can expand on this some more but i really have no clue what i want to do with it.
The storyline was formulated for the map.
Not the other way around, like usual.
Thanks for the input i really appreciate it!

Invest some time into working on cliffs and rocks. Not actual mapping but try some experiments. There's something about your last two maps, Ivy and DM_Cliff, that have something about the organic tone to them.

If you need help with the compiler to output smoother lighting, let me know.