rats maps can be fun if they are made well. How about a specific rats themed map, say dioramas.
You all remember those don't you?, the little worlds you make in a box, or an egg shell, with a hole to look into?
this way you get to make more stuff within the scale of props, but you have to use your imagination to suggest that its all part of a bigger world.
That's right, blame everyone else rather than your own bad ideas " SRC="images/smiles/heee.gif">
That's right, blame everyone else rather than your own bad ideas 
I'd argue. except it could be considered proof of your point. Shame that there is just to much truth in it for my comfort.
http://www.dynamicdioramas.org/MODEL%20SOURCE/Against%20the%20Wall/source/1.html
http://www.dynamicdioramas.org/MODEL%20SOURCE/Tribute%20to%20Rome/source/1.html
http://www.2scale.com/portfolio.html
Get creative with a custom skybox or a giant room and anything is possible.
How about this..
Use the word SNARKPIT as a basis.. What would a SNARKPIT look like? Would it be Alien in nature, or a LAB in some mountain location? Would it be located in space, or deep within the ocean? Would it be a overrun with alien goodness? or would it be clean and prestine? Would it be well lit? Or Dark and forboding? Maybe its a jungle island with ruins.
I think making a map around a simple word like Snarkpit would be the best theme to go with. Would be interresting to see what each person views the term in a map perspective to be.
That's right, blame everyone else rather than your own bad ideas
I'd argue. except it could be considered proof of your point. Shame that there is just to much truth in it for my comfort.
*whispers to Doc*
no one was upset. have you not been here long enough to "see' upset yet?
Lep was joshin, I was concurring with his assessment.
When lep and I lock horns, the website trembles, there'll be no doubt. " SRC="images/smiles/icon_wink.gif">
no one was upset. have you not been here long enough to "see' upset yet?
Lep was joshin, I was concurring with his assessment.
When lep and I lock horns, the website trembles, there'll be no doubt. 
oh, another example of how the sence of emotion is lost over the internet.
Humor is one of the most fleeting of concepts online.
Tis one of the reasons that I initiated the "lightblue" humor text.
over time, it also encompassed "sarcasm" for reasons that are still unclear, but.. most can tell sarcasm from humor so there is few instances of confusion.
Also, humor is in the eye of the beholder. Although Leps comment could have been sarcasm, I chose to view it as humor and all remains well. " SRC="images/smiles/icon_smile.gif">
Few of us here hide our emotions behind obscurity. Its usually plain that humor is humor, anger is anger and so forth. " SRC="images/smiles/icon_smile.gif">
Great now my idea is lost in another bunch of off topic Bull poopy. Way to derail yet another thread jack-asses.
I'm just wondering what everyone's major distaste to using props is? I guess it's the fact that it's too easy to be seduced by the ability to use the same model again, especially if someone else has already made one.
The thing is, the props give you a lot better performance. I'm not sure if Hammer has this ability, but if a structure is purely detail, convert it into a prop for several reasons. Props run faster because all the geometry for them can be sent at one time since it is uses fewer shaders/textures, making it so the renderer doesn't have to switch as often. It's not how much you send per frame, it's how many times you send per frame.
Also they are much cheaper to store. You only have to store the model/prop once in memory, and then just a transform matrix(4x4 matrix, 32bytes per element), and some other unique identifiers for it that are low memory for each time you use one. Also with them you usually have control of the collision bounds of them as well. That transform matrix gives you a lot of control over the model as well, you can move, scale and rotate as much as you want on any of the three axi'(sp?), allowing you to drastically alter the look of the object. Infact we had a really cool effect where we turned all our models large and flat along the Z axis, making things look like Paper Mario, or putting animated models onto a movie projector.
Yes I know it takes a bit of time to learn out to use a modeling program, but it's really worth it, especially with the tools available for making complex geometry. I think to help you need to promote modellers to come here, or make friends with those over at Polycount and create the ThePolySnarkCountPit!!!!
I have seen this to be fact in some of the CS maps that were released with the game. de_prodigy is an example. There are misaligned textures all over that map. But to be honest you could make a map that was ugly as sin, and most CS/HLDM players would not care.. they just run though a map and never really look at that texture or the thought of placing that prop just so. As long as the general theme was there they are cool with it. Uhm There is a town thats is like an old west town.. CS players love the map.. even though its quite ugly.
But Back to the theme.. what do you all think of my idea of making a map based on The SnarkPit?
