Initially, I was going for one of those outdoor malls like you see all over the downtown areas. The three main arches (not depicted too well in the screenshots) are the entrance/exit to a subway station. The area outside of the tall metal arches is the exit to the street and an industrial area. Behind that will be a pier, (I hope) , and that should be it. It started out as an experiment to see if i could create a box map, but one with some play value and eye candy. Since I missed the contest deadline, I figured I would go ahead with the other main areas.

Note: I am thinking of putting a sign outside of the park area

Jamestown Unified Industrial Museum.

hehehe.

Well, I am still working on this, albeit in little chunks on weekends. Today I changed the lighting, trying to creat a more early morning feel to the map. Heres todays work.

http://gamersdiner.com/images/nextmap14.jpg

http://gamersdiner.com/images/nextmap15.jpg

http://gamersdiner.com/images/nextmap16.jpg

The lighting is very rough, but the new awning thingy has a nice feel to it. I was inspired by a resturaunt I drove by on the way to work the other day. I will keep posting weekly, but forgive me for the slow progress. I intend to also add some kiosks and a few other ground based items to provide cover from the higher levels.

Heres an overview so far. I am going to try and get started on the basics of the subway station beneath the map this weekend.(although I am working saturday, so sunday is my only hope).

Well as you can see I am resurrecting this thread to let you know I have'nt stopped working on this map. I feel like running this map through the snarkpit ringer as much as necessary to have a better mapping experience than my first release for HL2. Hopefully this one will actually get some play as I feel it's a much better map than waterwerx. If you check the maps profile I noted that among the things left to do aside from the basics, is opening up the subway on either side and have trains run in each direction randomly. I am also considering having one or more of the elevators actually function, although I am hesitant for some reason.

Keep in mind that this is an alpha, no weaponry, and basically lit. The screenshots are updated, and there is a download now. Your input is greatly appreciated.

Thank you for your reply Reaper.

1.) The underground part will be better connected bh opening up the elevator shafts to ladder climbs, I will even put an exit on the uppermost level of the outside area.

2.)Actually, most of the stairs are already func_details, except for some of the lower stairways, where there are no outer brushes protecting them from the void. I will fix this.

3.)Those darn textures. I noticed this on a recent re-load of steam. It says in the browser that the texture is nature-something-er-other, so I assumed it was a standard HL2 texture. I will packrat it or change it before the final build.

4.)cubemaps will be fixed also.(thanks, I don't know how you can tell if they have been built in the map, maybe you could let me know the visual clue for this).

5.) The outside sculptures will be made into props_physics, great idea.

Also outside the park there is an undeveloped area looking out over the ocean. I have hopes of putting another shop front there or a theater marquis or something like that. I will also be adding a 3D skybox to the outside and I will look into another skymap.

Thanks again for the great input.

nice concept and architecture. imo some of the lighting could benefit from more harshness.

lately? i've been having this problem since june last year. i need to go out of steam or load up another map before i see the effect of buildcubemaps. so sv_cheats 1 is not required imo, but this seems to be a faster solution, so thx, i'll try it