Do people still make good old Half Life Created 10 years ago2013-10-29 09:31:38 UTC by leejdotjohn

Hello! I am new to this community and my question is pretty much as the title of this topic says.

Mapping for Half Life 1 was my first foray into level design and they were very fun days, although I never did post/publish any of the dozens of maps I made

Recently my interest for going back to the good old days of easy and fun custom level making has been rekindled and so I have dug Half Life 1 out and downloaded the Hammer Editor for a trip back into the nostalgia of Black Mesa and relaxed level design creativity. I am sure many of you here know what I am talking about, but obviously the focus now for most Half Life map makers is the Source engine and the newer Half Life games.

I never really managed to get into custom map making for Half Life 2 because the complex settings of City 17 never really struck a cord with my creativity, and mapping anything good was a complex process that eventually drained my enthusiasm.

Are Half Life 1 creations still relevant for communities like these, or has the focus shifted too far toward the newer technology? Either way, I am going to dive into making Half Life 1 custom maps yet again for Black Mesa, but this time I would like to publish a little of what I have made!

Interest into HL1 maps was and will always stay very high with me
A lot of people enjoy them here, and other places, especially counter strike maps.
Just like you i also made and am making a lot of maps i never published due to them lacking final polish and overall personal satisfaction with the final product. But i am not giving up yet
Feel free to map and discuss anything that comes to your mind.

And drop by my web site for any tool you may need: https://sites.google.com/site/gshltools/

Currently i am playing trough Half Life using my Voodoo 3 Graphics card, and i have to say its damn amazing! The game feels like its made for 3DFX.

1/3rd of this site members probably have atleast made one map. I know that Half-Life 1 is old, has bugs, but still there is something that will make you map for it. I can't say anything else, but Half-life just makes everyone happy. Even my mum.

I do make maps for counter-strike 1.6 but noy really for half-life himself, could easily do that but ye 'Gldsrc > Source'

Speaking as someone who maps for Goldsource literally every day, I can categorically tell you that if you put the time in to learn Source, mapping for it is far easier and more rewarding than Goldsource. It has far fewer restraints on your creativity and experimenting with the gloriously simple, yet powerful I/O system is one of the most satisfying endeavors in mapping.

I'm not saying don't map for Goldsource, of course, I'm just repeating myself in saying that pretending it's somehow better than Source is just denying yourself the opportunity to learn something superior.

Thank you Stojke for pointing me in the direction of your site, all of that stuff is so useful to have in one place!

You can find more good stuff on my site: http://themightyatom.nl/downloads.html

No problem

Also, i should really add Half Life updates as well. Thing is, google sites hosts a maximum of 100MB. So id fill it up very fast if i were to do that.
I am also considering on hosting 3DFX GLide drivers.
Maybe in the near future

Updated the site with some tools right now.

I still map for goldsource

Welcome to TWHL! I map for GoldSource almost everyday (HL1, CS 1.6 and mods), and I like it more than Source somehow. But consider also what Archie said, of course. He got a good and interesting point.

Listen to Archie. Even at my prime in goldsource I constantly run into issues. It's a fun tool for whipping up architecture models of my own, but entire playable levels is a nightmare.

I will be learning source soon, but am currently busy with photoshop and illustrator tutorials.

Ive never played Half Life 2, let alone made maps for it... So I dont know head from tail with Source stuff.

But I do enjoy spending time now and then working on my own Goldsource projects and playing any old HL mods I manage to dig up.

Half Life is great, it just doesnt seem to age for me so I always enjoy it.