Dm mapping Created 18 years ago2005-11-07 19:53:02 UTC by Elon Yariv

Sorry if I ask totally stupid quastion for I never made a DM map before. I read the tutorial and now I want to know if DM maps can have breakables in them. I've never seen in any of them. It would be really nice to know. Also I want some advices on weapon placement/spawning points placement. Any help would be really aprociated.

I think they can, but they can only be broken once. Mind you, i'm not certain.

<rowleybob dies>

Good I only want them to break once! Also is it possible to make a door that wont open if a player blocks it but continue to close or stay in place till the player moves. :

What exactly do you want with that door?

Doors in deathmatch tend to take out some of the speed of the game and often that's not a good idea. You'll notice a lack of doors in a lot of dm maps for a reason...

I cant answer your question on the doors, because I rarely use them in a deathmatch map. For one reason or another, they usually worsen the gameflow.
About things breaking once, remember that not every player joins a deathmatch game in its first moments of play, so they most likely will miss that thing/s breaking...
Spawn points should be placed more or less close to a weapon and in places where the player might have a chance of surviving. The central area of crossfire, for example, is one place where you dont want to place spawn points because the player would last 2 seconds there.
Place ammo of powerful weapons away from those weapons, so players move around and dont camp.
Think that not every weapon belongs in every map: A map with narrow halls and sharp turns would work well with shotguns, tripmines and satchel charges, but the RPG and crossbow would be pointless.
etc

My idea was quite inspired by crossfire. There is a main room in the middle with lots of floors in it quite like the blastpit. From that chamber you can accsess a few halls and rooms. In those halls there are four swiches, when all of them are pressed the main chamber will be flooded. Now where should I place the starting points and I'm not sure how to make it that the switches will rest only when all of them are pressed and the multisource that they target is activated. The doors are sepposed to close slowly when all the switches are pressed, I just don't want them to open up when they are blocked! Do I need to use a momentry_door for this? :

What do you mean by "blocked"? Blocked by a player?
About the swithes - use multipple multisources, one for each switch..
See the multisource tutorial...

I know all about multisources I have a section on them in my tutorial too! My problem is how to make all the switches reset only after the multisource is activated by all the buttons. It would be even better if they'll reset 30 seconds or more after that.

My problem with the doors is that I want them to close slowly when all the buttons are pressed but it would be really annoying if they'll open up if they are blocked by a player!

Edit:

Why are the multiple multisources needed I want them in the end to target that one multisource that will start the flooding seaquance.

Make the doors hurt the player. If you don't want him killed instantly, when he blocks the door - make the damage to something like 1. The doors that apply damage can't be blocked by the player.

What about momantry_door.

You'l need momentary_rot_buttons then..
But I s'pose that's a good idea..

Ohh...I just read the entity guide, they have no 'auto return' flag it's for the pendendlum.

How about those swithes? How do I make them reset when the multisource is activated or if it's possible 30 seconds after that.!

I know you can trigger buttons if they have a name, though I can't really remember if that resets them or just makes them trigger their own target again.
Safest solution probably is giving them all the same master, and setting that master state off once they're all pressed, and setting it on again with a 30 seconds delay. Then it doesn't matter if they reset after a second because they aren't useable then anyway.

And yeah, doors can deal damage. Play with that.

Personally, when I map DM, i think of the following

1: Is there enough ammo and weapons to go around. (never too much, really)

2: Are the spawn positions easy to camp, or tripmine, or whatever?

3: Is there enough room to run around and shoot as well as some cover?

4: Can the better items like Long-Jump and Egon be accessable by n00bs?

that's what i go by and i do just fine.

I'll try that triggering bit. :

If you are planning to make a map like that, make the main room hard to get to and ever harder to hold ones you are there.
Camping places in those maps are quite fun if it?s dangerous to camp.
Make the big guns hard to get to so no n00bs run around and kill everybody that they usualy can?t kill... and make it balaced, that very important in a DM map, and no dead ends, the map should have a nice flow, so don?t make any useless doors and such, that ruins the flow (i don?t mean the kind of doors in crossfire)

Good luck

Haven't really thought and about the bit with the n00bs... Also I haven't thought about the place I should put the longjump model. And the spawning points.

I just thought of a layout.

While you're thinking up on a layout, incorporate these things already. They're often harder to do as an afterthought.

The nice thing about creating a rough layout version of your map first is that you can much more easily change it or go with a totally different layout - there's no precious details to delete or work that took you weeks that goes down the drain. Don't be afraid to change layouts early on. I've done so for my current HL2DM map, as the first layouts I created just didn't play well. I started one from scratch and it played much better. Right now I'm detailing it, doing the looks, but I know I won't have to delete all that detail work because I know I don't have to change the layout anymore.

Well in the mean time I'm working on the main chamber. The other parts can be changed easly...

The most important thing to me, as already mentioned by others, is the gameflow. With a nice flow people will enjoy playing your map. Offcourse good looking visuals always help to that.

And offcourse, dont forget to use the info_player_deahtmatch and balance your weapon placement.

Il see and dig up some articles about gameflow if i still can find them.

Thanks all I think I'll post my layout later for I still don't know where to place the starting points. :

The area I place them in must be flooded or gased when all the switches are pressed and it mustn't be in the main chamber. :