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Speaking of HL1 maps
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 Re: Speaking of HL1 maps
Posted by Juim on Mon Mar 6th at 3:14am 2006

Based on a recent topic in the maps forums, I began to remember with fondness the many hundreds of HL1 maps I had on my hard drive. The question is this. Which one was the map that , at the time, made your jaw drop?. I can hardly remember the names any more but Mazemasters "Megalith" comes to mind. Also "Unearthed" by bedwettingtype is one I remember as a technical masterpiece.

And lets not forget dm_hamlet. That one brought a tear to my eye.

which were your faves?




Quote from Nietzsche....God is dead
Quote from God....Nietzsche is dead



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 Re: Speaking of HL1 maps
Posted by FatStrings on Mon Mar 6th at 3:23am 2006

i didn't play much multi player hl1
but on of the more fun maps i played was "turkeyburgers"
being the size of a mouse was a novel approach




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 Re: Speaking of HL1 maps
Posted by ReNo on Mon Mar 6th at 3:32am 2006

I remember coming across Peter Manson's work like Eden and Plateau and being utterly blown away to see such open and organic environments; even if some of the later maps that emulated the same style did it with more success, these were the maps that showed me the HL engine could do more than labs and warehouses, and for that they earnt my eternal resepect.

Rustmill remains one of my favourite levels from any game ever for many reasons - it felt like a place rather than a set of connected rooms, it played well, it offered lots of vertical play, it rewarded frequent players with so many potential routes and tricks without alienating or disadvantaging new players too strongly, it looked glorious compared to almost everything else around at the time, and despite using stock textures it felt really far removed from the HL world.

Very few maps I've come across offer as much potential for those epic chasing battles that span the whole map as Boot Camp, which may have looked as bland as you like, but played wonderfully for those who like playing HLDM the way it was probably never meant to be played - around the gauss jump.

CJ's "Persia" and Ferret's "Fairytale" were late maps in HL's life that proved just how far HL mapping had come from the early days. Imaginative and unique themes for the engine, carried out with such grandeur and polish (well, except a few niggles eh guys <img src=" SRC="images/smiles/icon_wink.gif">) that any mapper couldn't help but be impressed.

Gollum's GMDM2 with that boulder showed that the environment doesn't need to be a static route planner, but can be a veritable toy box to use and abuse. While far from the most jaw dropping map in terms of visuals, its level of interaction was mind bogglingly cool.

Scary_one cracked out some awesome levels that belonged in anybodies collection. Beautiful examples of that quake-esque fragitechture visual style, with plenty of emphasis on vertical play and weapon layouts that encouraged varied tactics.

Lost Village 2 had a love it or hate it visual style, but for me it just stood out from the crowd by such a margin that it got my thumbs up. Style over realism wins me over more often than not! I loved the layout too; worked great for 1 on 1s and small team games alike.



Designer @ Haiku Interactive | ReNo-vation.net



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 Re: Speaking of HL1 maps
Posted by mazemaster on Mon Mar 6th at 6:09am 2006

Sulsa's Chaocity3 is probably my favorite HL1DM map. It showed that you could make a gigantic map that plays really really well, and also that its possible to create excellent visuals and theme just with the stock textures. At a time when all the best custom maps were tightly knit fast maps with quake-like architecture, chaocity came out as a huge expansive complex with huge wide-open areas and intentionally slow gameplay.


http://maze5.net



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 Re: Speaking of HL1 maps
Posted by reaper47 on Mon Mar 6th at 12:10pm 2006

There was this map called Mountain Hamlet that got all the raving reviews (at least it was PHL's map of the week and they called it "best map ever"). I liked it a lot, too. Made you feel warm and cozy.




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 Re: Speaking of HL1 maps
Posted by Jinx on Mon Mar 6th at 12:42pm 2006

yeah, mountain hamlet was pretty amazing. in the long run, though, I'm not so sure the gameplay was the best. too many cramped areas inside houses.



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 Re: Speaking of HL1 maps
Posted by Andrei on Mon Mar 6th at 1:38pm 2006

Anyone remember redemption and drugbarons? Drugbarons was one of the very first HL1SP map packs I ever played and was one of the reasons I took-up mapping.
Also worth mentioning are Two Smoking Barrels, Half life Chronicles and The Bridge. They are now crusty antiques but my fond memories of them will sooner or later determine me to play them once more.




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 Re: Speaking of HL1 maps
Posted by Orpheus on Mon Mar 6th at 1:39pm 2006

Depends really.

If I were going on looks alone, it would have to be Fingers "Broken Palace"
If I were going on fun factor, it would be Snarkpit or Frenzy.
If I were going on personal involvement, it would be Apex.
If I were for personal achievement, it would be No Patience.
If I were going for most memorable, it would be Undertow.
If I were going on transformation through its creation, it would be Klingon DM

There are just to many reasons to narrow it to a "Best"

I have literally been a part of 1,000's of maps. All hold something dear for me. It would be quite literally impossible to pick only one.





The best things in life, aren't things.



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 Re: Speaking of HL1 maps
Posted by Jinx on Mon Mar 6th at 1:42pm 2006

Undertow was easily my favorite default HLDM map. Just so damn fun, and I loved all the fun with water bwaha.



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 Re: Speaking of HL1 maps
Posted by Andrei on Mon Mar 6th at 1:44pm 2006

? quote:

If I were going on fun factor, it would be Snarkpit or Frenzy.



Which reminds me. I came here long after discovering the joys of playing on snarkpit, so basically this is my excuse for the following dumb question: is the map named after this site, or the site after this map (or neither?)?




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 Re: Speaking of HL1 maps
Posted by Orpheus on Mon Mar 6th at 1:51pm 2006

Since the map came out first, I am nearly positive in which order they were named.

I have a truly hard time believing Valve naming a map after an ugly white and blue review site. If I remember my Snarkpit lore, Snarkpit began as a strictly map review site and broadened to editing.





The best things in life, aren't things.



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 Re: Speaking of HL1 maps
Posted by Andrei on Mon Mar 6th at 3:34pm 2006

Don't know why but I was convinced it was a custom map, especially since it doesn't seem to ship with certain versions of HL.

My favorite HLDM map is crossfire, though, mainly because of the intense battles fought in that inner-yard.




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 Re: Speaking of HL1 maps
Posted by Orpheus on Mon Mar 6th at 3:40pm 2006

? quoting Andrei
Don't know why but I was convinced it was a custom map, especially since it doesn't seem to ship with certain versions of HL.

Really? Thats interesting. Perhaps it was included in one of their mapping promotions. There ended up several maps that way.

Snarkpit the map is so old I really cannot remember when I played it the first time. I do know that its full of bugs. No, not the ones that eat you. Compile bugs.





The best things in life, aren't things.



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 Re: Speaking of HL1 maps
Posted by Gwil on Mon Mar 6th at 3:42pm 2006

I can't believe no-ones mentioned gasworks? Fast, open, vertical - most importantly, it never got boring (to me at least). I used to be a regular face on gasworks 24/7 server Aside from that, i'd nod toward boot_camp, too - always made for great games.

Undertow was cool, too.





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 Re: Speaking of HL1 maps
Posted by Orpheus on Mon Mar 6th at 3:46pm 2006

I was on 56k the majority of my fragging days for HL1 and I grew to hate gasworks. It was a decidedly low ping map. Anyone on 56k couldn't play it well. Well, I couldn't.





The best things in life, aren't things.



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 Re: Speaking of HL1 maps
Posted by Gwil on Mon Mar 6th at 3:54pm 2006

So was I, only got broadband after I finished 4/5 years of solid TFC clan play <img src=" SRC="images/smiles/sad.gif"> True though, it does favour the LPB's. At least it didn't have trains and stacks of hornetguns...






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 Re: Speaking of HL1 maps
Posted by Cassius on Mon Mar 6th at 5:17pm 2006

They Hunger.





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 Re: Speaking of HL1 maps
Posted by Addicted to Morphine on Mon Mar 6th at 5:44pm 2006

Yes, that opening car ride was most memorable

I never played much HLDM, and instead played years of TFC and CounterStrike.

When I first started mapping it was for CS and I spent a lot of time at the Counter-Map forums. They had some really good custom maps running on the server, and one of the most memorable maps we played was fy_rambohulk by PIT and RD.

It had a solid idea combined with great entity work and a good looking location.

Basically, it was set up like a typical fy map (ie. weapons on the ground) and the CTs and Ts would have to rush to the middle where there was a stone that would transform you into rambohulk after 10 seconds. During those 10 seconds you were vulnerable, so your teammates had to cover you. Obviously, it wasn't very often that someone survived long enough to become the rambohulk, but when he did he had health in the thousands but could only use his knife. It was amazing fun to knife entire teams, and it was amazing fun to have your team work together to finally bring down the rambohulk.

If you've never played it check out this promotional movie (17mb): http://www.radioactivelego.com/downloads/vids/rambohulk_trailer_divx.zip




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 Re: Speaking of HL1 maps
Posted by Finger on Mon Mar 6th at 8:41pm 2006

That sounds cool Morphine. I think there's alot to be learned from all of these 'alternate gameplay' maps you find out there. The other day, I played some map for HL2DM that was basically football. There was a glowing green purse model, that you had to grab and run into the other team 'inzone' to score. It was super fun.... made me want to come up with something crazy. I'm tired of normal DM mapping at the moment - I guess I've hit a point where I want more challenge. (not saying there's no challenge in DM mapping... I just want different puzzles to solve). This is why I've been playing with singleplayer mapping. I'm having a ball with that.

Ok, favorite HL1 maps.

Well, I'm going to include OP4 in this as well. OP4_Park, was my alltime favorite large map. This map had great visual appeal, great layout, lots of gameplay depth, and a cool gimick with the train. Truly Awesome.

I have to vote for Gasworks, aslo. I played that map almost exclusively for a year.

The map that inspired me to really start mapping, was Powercore. God, I remember that map having so much personality and was so intricately crafted. That was the first map I decompiled and inspected. I was blown away by how precise and cleanly built everything was.

Anyway.... can't really pick a king. So many good maps out there.





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 Re: Speaking of HL1 maps
Posted by Addicted to Morphine on Tue Mar 7th at 2:19am 2006

Yeah Finger -- gameplay variety and entity innovation deserves large amounts of credit in my book.

The map that inspired me to really start maping was de_arboretum_v4 by [DNv]Cross (http://www.snarkpit.net/users.php?name=[DNv]Cross]).

It wasn't something truly outstanding as far as custom maps go, but I remember randomly joining the server and playing round after round with Cross. He made me realize it was possible to create something that other people would play. He set me up with where to get zoner's tools and VHE... to this day I feel indebted to him for that, it surely has changed my life in subtle ways.






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