SF_Vandell

[Warlord3IIII]

http://img84.echo.cx/img84/932/bluebase13fx.th.jpg (http://img84.echo.cx/my.php?image=bluebase13fx.jpg)
http://img102.echo.cx/img102/1815/building2td.th.jpg (http://img102.echo.cx/my.php?image=building2td.jpg)
http://img102.echo.cx/img102/9199/gap14bu.th.jpg (http://img102.echo.cx/my.php?image=gap14bu.jpg)
http://img102.echo.cx/img102/4421/openpit8ro.th.jpg (http://img102.echo.cx/my.php?image=openpit8ro.jpg)
http://img102.echo.cx/img102/7108/redbase16iu.th.jpg (http://img102.echo.cx/my.php?image=redbase16iu.jpg)

These are some pics of a map I have worked on for about a Week. I wonder what you guys think of it.
BTW this is my first time posting pictures on a forum so I hope they work.
The basic plan of this map is large field with a deep trench in the middle that (I hope) will add an interrestin aspect to the game play
Yeah I know blind grenade spammers can still do there thing and I was not ready to address this problem with this map..
I have a great Idea for another map, but you will just have to wait untill I start work on it and have some pictures to show

Only problem I can see so far is that the doors have trouble opening when the map first loads cause the building materials are adjusting but once the lag wears off it seems to run pretty well.

If anyone knows how to fix this then please tell me cause it bothers me alot. I want it to be perfict but I was unable to figure out how to make the building materials stay put until moved by the player.

[SwiftSpear]

Looks increadibly difficult to get boxes out of the storage area. The door is really small and you will have ALOT of bouncing on exit.

[H.A.S.E.]

it looks like its just the connection between the 2 storage areas ;)
there is another way which has much more space if you look carefull.

i like how the map looks...and the gameplay seems to be interesting

[Warlord3IIII]

Yeah, I forgot to mention it but that is a small hallway connecting the two storage that each fort has.
The way to get the supplies is through some elevaters. The materials are stored below the playing field. you can see it best in the fourth picture.

[entRo]

Looks absolutely awesome.

[Mog]

I need download link. Now!

[Warlord3IIII]

I am still working some bugs out of the map, but I will hopefully have it all done before days end.

[Warlord3IIII]

Looks like I am ready to release the file. Sadly though I am not sure how well it will work on Linux servers, so please tell me if it does not work, and I was also unable tio get the Cubemaps working propperly

well anyways here is the link, I hope it works for you all

[edit]I dropped the link until I fix those bugs that have been posted[edit]

[jlf]

SourceForts doesn't work on Linux servers, so you don't need to worry about that :)

[Dredge]

Both blue elevator buttons control the right elevator. You cant use the left elevator at all.

Also make sure that your 3d skybox has a floor that blocks light (displacemented surface doesnt), cause you can see some weird stuff if you noclip high and look at the skybox floor.

Oh and I cant get the red flag. Oh and the thing around the red flag says "Reflectivity 10%" on the side.

Oh and I get really low fps in this map.

And red ammo crates are facing the wrong way.

And the blocks are not really "adjusting" they are "getting stuck" in the start of the map. They are too close to each other.

And if the buttons on the elevators are supposed to be in the center, they are not.

This is what came up when I tested the map for 5 minutes.

[Warlord3IIII]

I have heard that the person making the maps should not be the one testing. I thank you for all the helpfull tips. I have metaly noted many of those but I had forgoten to fix them, My appologies. I will take down the link and rework those problems.

I forgot that people might actually get that high in the map so I will fix that too

I knew about the blue elevators but forgot to fix them
As well as the red crates facing wrong way
but the red flag thing I was unaware of and I must have forgotten to change that texture for the box around the flag.

[Warlord3IIII]

I have posted the link in my first post for this thread. so check it out. tell me if you find anymore bugs and I will concider fixing them.

[Warlord3IIII]

ok I have had a first onlin eplaytest and it looks like the elevators have trouble when you put materials slopply on the elevators

I will release a version with ramps up instead of elevators very soon, but till then I am just going to warn you to not crash the elevators

[Dredge]

I have posted the link in my first post for this thread. so check it out. tell me if you find anymore bugs and I will concider fixing them.Ahem. The right red ammo box is inside the wall :?. Also check the grates in the sewer thingy, you will find that there are holes in the sides of the grates. Also add light props in the spawn rooms cause light coming out of nowhere looks a little dumb.

Oh and a lot of useless faces are being drawn, replace all the textures that cant be seen from the surface in here with nodraw.
http://koti.mbnet.fi/dredge/kuvat/temp/hl2%202005-04-19%2003-57-46-73_small.jpg

[Dredge]

ok I have had a first onlin eplaytest and it looks like the elevators have trouble when you put materials slopply on the elevators

I will release a version with ramps up instead of elevators very soon, but till then I am just going to warn you to not crash the elevatorsYeah I thought that might happen, I only tested with 5 blocks but yeah the elevators will propably get stuck if you pile more.

[FuzionMonkey]

where did you get that blue texture?!? I want that soo bad for my map.

[Dredge]

where did you get that blue texture?!? I want that soo bad for my map.Try the sf directory in texture browser.

[Warlord3IIII]

I am really glad I posted it here now, I am, learning alot about mapping. I only wish I had the guts to do this earler.
Anyways After the Online test I took out the elevators and replaced them with ramps. I am going to take a loot at those sewer things too.
I will also get rid of those extra faces being drawn under the durt.

If I dont get that done today I wont be able to work on it again until later this week, So I will try to get those fixed ASAP

[Dredge]

We liked this map.

I think you shouldnt scrap the elevator so fast, try making it work and not get stuck cause they are _cool_ ;)

I visualized my ideas with photoshop:
1. Make the elevator bottom solid, so its like a pillar rising from the floor. That way nothing can get under it.
2. Make the elevator a little smaller. (Maybe just leave a bigger gap to the center side [see green area])
3. I think the bunkers look cooler with a gray floor ;)

Oh and if you decide to leave the lifts in the map (which you should!) maybe add small ladders to the sides of the elevators shafts so people could get up from there if the lifts are up.

http://koti.mbnet.fi/dredge/kuvat/temp/vandell_idea.jpg

[jlf]

There could well be a place for this in v2 - it's got a lot of potential. Contact me using any of the method in my profile.

[Mog]

Link broked.

[Warlord3IIII]

Link is broken because I took it off for the moment, I will put it back up once it is fixed.

I am not sure about the Elevaters working cause they cause people to just thow tons of crap on them, The mess that ensues causes huge lag and in effect "breaks" the elevators. It seems to not be when the elevator is moving but that it cannot move because of the same reason that the materials dont move cause the engine cant calculate all the phys, so the blocks get locked in place.

I will try putting the elevators iback in if you guys want, but I am not sure if the engine is stable enough for all those peices in such a small area.

I have been working on new system on getting things to the surface and although I dont think that it is as cool as the elevators idea. It would solve some problems.

[FuzionMonkey]

for the most part, i think moving parts on maps is a bad idea. especially on sourceforts (you know how laggy it gets, and moving parts wont help). well, maybe parts that are go up and down. maybe a conveyor belt wouldnt lag. hmm. i like that. a conveyoer belt.

[Warlord3IIII]

You know what I should do (although I have no idea how... yet) make a phys cannon that you place the materials on an hit a button and the building block gets shot out it, up to the playing field. However I dont know were I would put it or how to get it to look good and not just have people sit at the bottom shooting crap and lagging the game.

[Warlord3IIII]

http://img247.echo.cx/img247/8767/sfvandell00030kj.th.jpg (http://img247.echo.cx/my.php?image=sfvandell00030kj.jpg)
I made a new elevator that was more like a pillar coming out of the ground and then I tested it.
It works fine if used you dont use to many blocks
however (as the image shows), if to much is on the elevator it will not work.
The in the half hour that I saw this map being tested online I saw three people "stock up" the elevators in this manner. It was disappointing to see it used this way, and even more dissappointing to think that the elevators might not work out.

Now I also worked on a ramp system that should work out nicely, only draw backs that I can see are that the players might get impatient with running up and down the ramps. But I think they will just shoot crap up the ramps and pick it up once they walk up there.

http://img245.echo.cx/img245/8136/sfvandell00041if.th.jpg (http://img245.echo.cx/my.php?image=sfvandell00041if.jpg)

This pic is of the ramp from the bottom
(Fullbright is on cause I did not bother doing a full compile to check if the elevators worked out)

So... I am going to have to scrap the elevator idea for now, :( , But for the better of the map I will be using the ramp system.

[Warlord3IIII]

All right. So I have fixed more bug than I ever thought were possable in this map. I was glad to find a leak that I did not know existed, but to my dismay, that makes compiling take forever.
I am pretty sure I made all the appropriate changes to the map so that is is more playable. Anyways the link should now be active so you can start downloading it... again. Sorry to keep updating over and over again but I guess that was the way it had to be.

I hope this will be the final build cause I am getting tired of working on this map.

My mind is already swimming in new ideas for my next two maps. I think they will have similar themes but the gamplay should change considerably, but remain true to the core of building forts. :)

[Dredge]

I hope this will be the final build cause I am getting tired of working on this map.Relax. It won't be the last build because you have to make it work with 2.0 in a few weeks ;).
Or if you don't want to do that yourself you can hand over the vmf.