I have been gone for.. way too long. Most of you probably won't even know who the heck I am, which is ok, I was never here for fame or glory.
Now.. I am back... sorta. It has taken 6+months to get back into the swing of things, and I find myself starting over at square 1 on map/mod making.
I will soon have an updated PC, something that won't.. well you know..cr@p out on me every time I try to test a map, or explode when I am not looking. Took a while to recover from some life stuff as well... you know.. loss of a love one... being dumped, losing your job.... losing your vehicle... yeah.. it's been pretty cruddy all around.
But things are looking up. I finally got myself a new computer (all but graphics card and case) and I really, REALLY need to get back into crafting.
But there's a problem.. which is why I come to you oh Forums, I am.. too rusty at this point to even classify as rusty. I need to start fresh with my "learning" of everything again. I never got far into modding- so lets start with mapping.
Game to map for:
HL2:DM
I have fallen out of the whole FPS craze..they no longer give me happiness like they used to, however, a mod (made by some "PinkFairie") allows a Role Play aspect, earning money, buying food and chairs and things to actually build with - but every map I play on I find.. incredibly horribly made. Missing textures, alignment problems, world rendering problems, reflections are totally wrong, and usually the whole thing is incredibly laggy.
So I figure.. this would be a good start, let's make a map that doesn't suck , has good "housing" with lighting properly done and actually able to interact with the map instead of rely on Admins all the time to spawn things.
Included:
Besides the things needed to Roleplay by PinkFairie's mod (NPC shops and such) I want to include "non admin events" basically a series of secret codes you can press buttons too, to open a door, in which are buttons for scripted type events, like an zombie invasion. This will be a challange, but first I need to get the basics of mapping down, especially since HL2 maps are a little more complicated then 1.6 with the whole physics and reflection issues.
So, while I browse the tutorials and try to get WorldCraft aka Hammer aka what-ever-they-call-it-now up and running properly, read over this and give it some thought, maybe you can come up with some tips to help me out. I have a lot of work to do, and fairly short amount of time to do it.
Edit 1
So hammer isn't displaying properly- the 3D view won't show any objects, makes texturing properly a little difficult.
Edit 2
So a few things I am unclear about
When adding water (say a pond) is it better to just add a block of water - clipping through the ground's "low spots" or to shape the water to fit the basin?
Remember that this map I plan will be played in multiplayer with very few if any Restarts to the server, it will need to be designed to keep running- at all times, so it will have limited breakable objects (Or, if possible, items that Respawn after a time period.)
I hope to make it have Respawn Items - set in Real Time "Every 5 minutes a crowbar spawns in the junk yard - if there isn't one there"