Re: L4D SDK RELEASED!!!
Posted by Natus on Sat May 16th at 11:06pm 2009
Because valve likes delays.
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Re: L4D SDK RELEASED!!!
Posted by RedWood on Sun May 17th at 3:11am 2009
I look forward to giving it a shot but, it will be imposable for one person to make a full map for L4D. Im sure all you who have played the game have noticed how massive the maps are. Its to much for one person to finish in a worth while amount of time.
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Re: L4D SDK RELEASED!!!
Posted by Riven on Sun May 17th at 10:32pm 2009
I don't think It's impossible to build a small campaign on your own either. Sure yea, some of those sections for the campaigns were pretty long (and detailed!!), but I don't think that should discourage anyone.
The levels are supposed to suspend your disbelief in the event of a zombie apocalypse. -I think they did a magnificent job. The task for mappers is not so much to replicate their work (although doing so wouldn't make theirs look or play bad) but to take what Valve has made and expand upon it. There are enough art assets plugged into that game that could give anyone a rush of ideas to create multiple scenarios.
I'm sure we'll see a lot of copy/paste now that those zoo maps are available. (paraphrasing from Finger's observations) but, let's see where that takes us. I don't think it could be a bad thing (to begin with). The community is hungry for custom levels (as am I!) And the really good ones will take some time. But the amount of work involved should not discourage you, it should invigorate you to plan more so before delving into such a project.
@aaron, they had delays after the orange box was released before anyone could officially map for it as well. -What's your point?
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Re: L4D SDK RELEASED!!!
Posted by Niborius on Mon May 18th at 5:05am 2009
Agreed. But what are zoo maps exactly?
And Riven, have you found any bugs already in the SDK?
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Re: L4D SDK RELEASED!!!
Posted by fishy on Tue May 19th at 4:29pm 2009
Small(ish) arena type areas are always popular with mappers in a hurry, so survival mode almost looks designed to get as much out of the community as valve can coax. Good for them, I say.
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Re: L4D SDK RELEASED!!!
Posted by Riven on Tue May 19th at 6:08pm 2009
I agree to an extent. But I would rather see a whole lot more campaign-style maps for versus and co-op over anything, even though, I know those will be few and far between (the good ones anyway). Survival is fun, but it just leaves me asking for more everything. More story, more scenery, more interaction and therefore more strategy. -Yes a good survival map could include all of these things, but I would rather play an awesome custom mini-campaign instead any day.
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Re: L4D SDK RELEASED!!!
Posted by RedWood on Tue May 19th at 11:36pm 2009
Quoting fishy
Small(ish) arena type areas are always popular with mappers in a hurry, so survival mode almost looks designed to get as much out of the community as valve can coax. Good for them, I say.
I'll be falling into that category for my first attempt. I'll be porting my latest C:SS endeavor to L4D when its done. (they didn't port the cargo containers!! Ah)
I have a idea for a short 2 chapter campaign but i don't know if I'll ever get around to it.
EDIT:
L4D doesn't seem set for for custom content ether. i wish it was as easy as it is in counter strike. u compile and then u pick your map and start it. I wish it did it automatically for L4D.
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Re: L4D SDK RELEASED!!!
Posted by fishy on Wed May 20th at 4:17pm 2009
I don't think that I've used the list to browse for any map in at least 8 years. I've used a desktop shortcut, which can have it's target value changed to suit whatever way I want the map to load, whether it's in dev mode, tools mode, making the pointfile line longer in-game (worldcraft era) etc.
The target in my shortcut for L4D at the moment looks like this;
"G:Program FilesValveSteamSteam.exe" -applaunch 500 -dev +map your_mapname_here
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Re: L4D SDK RELEASED!!!
Posted by Finger on Fri May 22nd at 6:44am 2009
I'm looking forward to creating something for L4D. I've been working on a campaign, but the reality is setting in and I realize that I probably won't have the time to create a full 4 or 5 map camp. So, what I've decided to do is experiment with a smaller campaign, and a slightly different progression structure. I'll try to stretch the maps out a little more (more panic events, more sticky situations - some environment reuse). In the end, I think I can get away with a camp that is 2.5 maps, with a turn-around that reuses a map but changes the environment and gameplay slightly. After playing a ton of l4d, I honestly think there is a need for smaller campaigns (3 maps seems good), and opportunities to create more varied gameplay than valve offered. I also think Survival mode is fairly boring - maybe I'll want more of it later, but right now I find verses and expert coop to be the most fun modes. I'm looking forward to seeing if the community offers us some good stuff - I have a feeling we'll see a few quality camps.
Cheers
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like a day. But yeah, when I get L4D, I'll definitely make some maps.
I like seeing a list of all my downloaded maps too. 