Beginnings Created 17 years ago2006-07-28 18:42:56 UTC by Playbus

Here's a pic of my latest, as yet untitled, singleplayer HL2 work.

Approx 10% complete.

It may end up being part of Day 15, it may not.....only time will tell.

Just fancied showing y'all.

Pretty nice. Get rid of that displacement texture in the 3d skybox. The small grass shrubs dont look good blown up X16.

Thanks! I have big plans for the skybox .... that one is decidedly beta-version

Any hints on what the map will be about? The brushwork is nice and polished, but not as original or inspiring as Day 14.
I'm guessing the area featured in the screenshot will involve combat and maybe some striders?

I don't really know what the map is about yet. As with Day 14 -- I am just building a place, and I will see what comes out of it. I know from experience that this is not the way that many mappers work, and many would say that it is not "best practise" to do it this way. But it is the only way I can do it. I do not think of a story and map around it --- I make a map and write a story about it.

Thanks, Kasperg, for your comment. I have been trying as hard as I can with the brushwork, and I plan much, much more detail. As I said, I think the map is only 10% complete. But I have to be careful with the optimization. Right now, after moderate optimization, the compile time is 20 minutes --- with only the single environmental light. I have not lit inside any of the buildings yet (all the buildings are completely accessable) and so I am trying to learn more about hardcore optimization before I continue. This is the biggest map I have ever done, by far.

I'm looking at a "Silent Hill" kind of arrangement for this one. But there will NO headcrabs. I do plan on using "zombies", but not any of the HL2 zombies. I plan on using human models, with a lot of custom sounds, and they will be more like the enemy in Resident Evil 4 (I've played that a lot recently) rather than traditional 'zombies'.

I plan on making the area into one big, long, multi-part puzzle. I don't plan for much combat -- but there may be some. Who knows? I want to create a truly spooky atmosphere....I'm going to work long and hard on making the player feel very nervous.

I will probably change the lighting a lot (the pic is from the very first build I did of the map) and I have a lot of plans for scenes -- I have voice actors standing by, and I want to get a lot of complex, subtle happenings in the map to make the player feel scared.

My main aim with this map, the only aim I can identify now, is to make a genuinely scary game, which will suck the player in. Level beauty is kinda secondary.

And nothing is set in stone yet.

If anyone wants to co-map this with me......I'm open to that. (but you have to be competant!)

Also, if anyone has any really advanced tips for optimizing large outdoor maps, then please get in touch with me!!!!

I think fog would be useful for this sort of map.
How exactly are you going to make your new type of monsters?
I had this idea once but I've never tried it: An NPC (the gman, for example) has a trigger hurt parented to him, like a force field that always surrounds him. As he slowly walks through the map, the humans around him fall to the ground dead.

Ironic cause me and Hunter are co-op mapping a horror map ourselves.
Use Gmod to get the right fog you want, I prefer it to manually typing it in console.

My question is how are you going to get your zombies to be like the ones from RE4...You'd have to change the AI I think unless you are just going to remove the headcrab and replace the sounds with RE4 ones...

Looking good.

How is that irony?

Habboi wishes he understood irony..

The word you were looking for, Habboi, was 'coicidental'

Thanks for replying Hunter, couldn't really double post but yeah I meant coi'n'cidental...Not coicidental.

It's fricken 12:00 in the morning and you expect me to be awake?

Yep. English never sleeps.

Woo, extra replies Thanks.

I don't 100% know how I'm going to do my zombies. They're not going to end up just like the RE4 ones - I know that - because that would require a lot more skill than I actually have. The RE4 zombies are just an idea, a reference point. I'm not going to achieve it, but I maybe can steer things in that direction a bit.

With a lot of custom sounds (I am going to make them all myself), and some creative trigger work, I think I can create something spooky. Spooky is the main aim here.

Kasperg -- that idea you mentioned sounds really cool. Mind if I give it a try?

I have played with fog a little but find it hard to get right. Habboi -- I have Gmod but have never really used it to help me map. Can you explain what you mean a bit more please?

Here's a demo video. Unfortunately, the AI makes the citizens run away from the Gman when the first one dies...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aol1xctznoM

I wonder if you can fix that by re-applying an ai_relationship when each one dies?

Hmm.

Haha, that's cool, it's as though G-Man was death himself.

Just need to find a way to arm him with a scythe instead of a briefcase!

Maybe the scythe is in his briefcase.
Anyway, I corrected the citizen AI simply by selecting the "Wait for script" flag. I think it would also be cool if you could make him move his hand as he passes by the other NPCs. That minor detail would make Gman a true Sith lord

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oddw16r-P0w

In Gmod, when you open the menu...You get the option to turn fog on. Below the on button is a small figure type thing that you can manually change in-game without having to type fogcolour 00100110 in console a hundred times.

Mess around with it till you get the right start, end and colour.

I was planning on parenting a trigger_hurt to a ragdoll that squirms around and tries to follow you. Thanks for the video cause it shows it works well.

Thanks Habboi

I think you could make the Gman make a gesture each time he killed someone. I think you'd need to set up the gesture using faceposer and trigger it whenever npc's died.

Sounds logical, but I can't try it right now, I'll have a go later

Hmm...So you're using Gman because he relates to the Gman in Day13-14.
Add some really nice evil sound effects in the background as he slowly walks towards you.

I picture the scene as being: A group of men and women lean against a wall and then you see the Gman walking towards you but on the way he walks in-between this group. As you see him a trigger plays a really gloomy / evil pitch noise and each of these people die and some could run but not escape.

Sounds simple for most of it except the running away cause they'll run too fast heh.

Good luck.

Heheh, yeah it definately needs that sound!

But Habboi - I'm not using Gman, I might do, but the whole Gman concept in this thread was invented by Kasperg I haven't done anything yet, haven't had much time this week.

Alright...Also noticed:

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