Hey there, I'm brand new at mapping and I've created 3 half-baked maps so far. Right now I'm in the middle of my fourth map which I'm trying to create more professional, but I've encountered some problems.
First of all, I want to have combine run pas some glass that the player can see through. I would love to have more than 1 combine running past, but I haven't been able to do that. What I do is that I create an npc_maker attached to a trigger_once to activate the spawn point. Then I make the sequence begin with an output whenever the combine spawn. I have the scripted sequence targeting combine with the same name as those created by the npc_maker. This works for one combine, but I have problems when I have more than 1. The combine are supposed to go through 4 scripted sequences, which all have the repeatable flag. However, the first combine stops at the third sequence and runs in place. Consequently, the other combine all gather around trying to reach the scripted sequence but are blocked by this one combine. The place gets jammed, and I end up with 10+ NPC's taking up resources as they never reach the last sequence which kills them. Don't know what is going on, but I needs some help.
Secondly, I've got some nice lighting going on in my map, but I have some issues. First, I have a light which creates a straight edged shadow despite the fact that the show is created by an irregularly edged surface. Secondly, it seems like there's a permanent hard-edged shadow on a certain spot on my map, and I don't see why this is despite the fact that similar geometry around it does not cast this shadow. Lastly, I have a light_spot pointed somewhere, yet it illuminates a different area. Strangely enough, it illuminates an area behind a hole in the wall, yet leaving the place at which it is pointing at dark. I have no idea what is going on there.
Lastly, I have disappearing props. I've checked what types the models support and it would see that they wouldn't disappear. However, they still do. I have a table (models/props_wasteland/controlroom_desk001a.mdl) that disappears whether I set it as static or physical. I've tried overriding it with prop_physics_override or whatever it's called. I just disappears. I lifted it away from anything that it could intersect with it in order to see if that was the problem. It still disappears.
I don't know if you guys want that I upload the VMF so that you can see the problems first hand; It's my first post here.
Hopefully someone can help me with these problems, because my map would be so much better if I could just eradicate these details.
Edit: Whoa, I wrote a lot.