? quoting omegaslayer

I was worried a bit about incuring the wrath of 56k Orph. Thanks

I complain often but, I never complain needlessly. " SRC="images/smiles/icon_wink.gif">

*Orph puts on "HAT OF PATIENCE" to look over images as they slowly arrive*

I particularly like the design of this shot. Maps of supposedly real locations hardly ever achieve their goal. This shot looks like a real place. Architecturally speaking, it looks sound enough to be real at least. The grassy displacement looks to green, and to unnatural for my taste however. I would roll it a bit more gently, and find something a bit more trodden looking. Housing tends to have the very worse in the way of foliages.

I have no clue what this is. It looks nice, perhaps a teleporter but with the apartment feel of screen #1, is it going to fit the theme?

Nice hole. Poor block choice but nice hole. I'd consider scaling down the debris texture though cause somehow it doesn't fit. I might even consider losing it since its obviously not block debris.

Oh yes, I like this. A good feel to it as a basement type setting. Sometimes square rooms actually work well within a map. Turn down the light value a bit to dim it some and I think you'll have a winner here. You need some trash/clutter/dust bunnies though. Basements are hardly this clean.

I never did like the bluish quality of the lighting in HL2 mapping. I know it was theme related but I never liked it since it always seems to clash with most real world texturing. The door has me thinking. Do doors actually fall so squarely when knocked open and/or off its hinges? Again with the sterile look. Put some diapers in the corners or some other disgusting stuff at least. " SRC="images/smiles/icon_biggrin.gif">

Real world vs.Alien. You seem to have the basics down and just looking at the pictures gives the impression that you need little in the way of motivation. I however feel that originality may be suffering a bit. Thats not always a bad thing in "Quality" mapping but it can blur it to obscurity if you do not add something original. This map could fade rapidly otherwise into the nether regions of all quality but unoriginal works.

FLATLINES... I dunno what this is. Perhaps another angle would assist my limited view.

This room, the square/flat doesn't work for me. Its a nice room but it needs just tiny bits of elevational differences to be transformed from average to grand. Elevate each work station on a simple wooden platform perhaps. just a step up would work wonders. Limit the overhead grating too. A bit to grant elevational advantage is nice but a catwalk is overkill IMO. The white lights are to white. Try some other color variations and allow for dust buildup on the bulbs. In other words, some lights will be dimmer and more brownish, assuming you have brown dust. You are also depending to much on the girders to accent the ceiling. Change the flatness of it a bit.

Again, I congratulate you on the clear, and yet small file sizes of the screens.

NOTE: It took 40 minutes just to receive this map. 8 megs is asking a lot from this old man. Secondly, this map showed a funny combination of well thought out and not planned sections. It looked as if you reached a point and noticed that you were suffering in the connectivity area and decided to add a bunch of rooms/areas/passages. I noticed that the outside area was much more pleasing to the eye than any of the inside areas. Even though a few of the inside ones showed that they were planned, the outside was much more so. Thirdly, The map was very confusing to me. Landmark zones were not very evident. I am sure that they were there, but I got lost several times and if I did, others will too. Fourthly, the overall lighting was OK. Not superb, but satisfactorily IMO. It could use some tweaking to cut on the glare of those damnable glows but still there was no areas to dim to frag. Fifthly, item placement sucked. You need some playtesting to sort where, but there were way to many caches. Lastly, I felt this map lacked that certain something that sets it apart from your average Joe map and your superb one of a few kind. There was no real atmosphere. The map was clean, and well swept throughout. It had no real ambient sounds to speak of and the very air itself was polished feeling. You really need someone better than I to specify where you are falling short. I know that a lot of effort went into this. It shows everywhere, but if you do not address its shortfalls, the map will be wasted. Just my opinion, but I am hardly ever wrong. Course its your call not mine. I am sure you can find someone to praise it as it is.

Orph's score currently: 6/10
Orph's score if fixed: 9/10

You chose.

Castigate Critique.

Well, I wouldn't read to much into my suggestions until more than one person says something close to similar bud. Suggestions are meant to be listened to, not necessarily adhered to.

Good luck anywho's. I liked the feel of your map. It has lots of potential.

Dude, if you read my critique, there was a link to the program in it.

Sadly, you need a pit or something similar because you need to upload it all like an HTML web page.

Works well though because it optimizes it to suit YOUR DESIRES.

PM me if you need any assistance as its a bit strange the first time you use it.

As usual, I concentrate on what I feel needs addressed. This by no means says the map only has stuff that needs altered. The map is, or could be considered fine "as is"

As usual, I will not take offense to ideas that are vetoed, I expect my ideas to not always be used. I do however expect gratitude for ideas, even if not used but thats all I expect.

I would have hoped to see someone else do a critique considering the time it takes for this old man to do them. Notice the times between these last two posts. I was busy the entire time doing this critique.

Anyway, good luck.

Castigate_b2 critique.