Obviously designed after the Ravenholm section of HL2, I built this map for Valve's mapping competition. Even though I did recreate one of the sections of this map directly after the original Ravenholm, 80% of the map is originally designed by myself.
Posted by milkshake on
Tue Dec 13th 2005 at 7:30pm
Yeah! its fun to copy.. .
Posted by moonracer1313 on
Thu May 19th 2005 at 6:35am
A very nice looking map. I have to agree with the comment that there are too many explosives though. One of the better DM maps based on a HL2 map that I've seen so far.
Could you put it in a zip file for those of us that dont have winrar
thanks
Posted by Yak_Fighter on
Wed Mar 9th 2005 at 9:12pm
I have played this map multiple times with different player loads and skill levels and each time I have come to the same conclusion: this map is very boring to play and not fun at all. The problem lies almost entirely with its layout. The map has two and a half main areas, a recreation of the opening area of Ravenholm (from the singleplayer game, you know?), a hilly courtyard area that looks even better than some of Valve's work, and a small area that houses the RPG and its trap. Each of these sections has a grand total of TWO paths connecting them to the others, giving the map a circular layout. Wherever you spawn you only have three choices, take passageway one, take passageway two, or camp. This type of layout works only for 1v1 or 4 player LAN maps, and usually those are small maps. This map is way too big for any of that and it takes far too long to trudge around the map to find anybody before falling asleep, even in an 8 player game.
To add insult to injury the connecting passageways are very cramped, long, and have annoying narrow doorways. There's almost no way in certain spots to do any dodging and usually combat comes down to whoever can throw a buzzsaw first. In addition there are dead ends everywhere, and of course most of the good weapons and health are found in them. These dead ends are all very easily camped and it's very tempting to just sit in there and wait for people to come to you. This just causes the already slow gameplay to come to a crawl.
This is all very unfortunate, because it pulls off the Ravenholm theme perfectly and is very easy on the eyes. The lighting, texturing, and architecture come together to give this map some beautiful visuals. It has a palpable sense of realism that is rarely seen in deathmatch maps and it's really fun to just stop and take a look around every once in a while. There is good attention to detail, with breakable windows and wood supports, saws hanging on the walls or lodged in the nearby tree, a natural gas trap for the RPG, tasteful usage of overlays... I could go on. FPS performance was very high as well (I averaged in the 80s) but that leads me to wonder why exactly more buildings weren't enterable and why there weren't more passages between sections.
The author needs to take a close look at what makes deathmatch maps fun: a proper layout with good connectivity and flow.
Design
Gameplay
Verdict
Terrible connectivity ruins a beautiful map.
Pros
moody atmosphere, great attention to detail, realistic architecture, lots of sawblades
Design
A circular layout with poor connectivity and flow leads to a boring, bland game.
Posted by Yak_Fighter on
Wed Mar 9th 2005 at 9:12pm
I have played this map multiple times with different player loads and skill levels and each time I have come to the same conclusion: this map is very boring to play and not fun at all. The problem lies almost entirely with its layout. The map has two and a half main areas, a recreation of the opening area of Ravenholm (from the singleplayer game, you know?), a hilly courtyard area that looks even better than some of Valve's work, and a small area that houses the RPG and its trap. Each of these sections has a grand total of TWO paths connecting them to the others, giving the map a circular layout. Wherever you spawn you only have three choices, take passageway one, take passageway two, or camp. This type of layout works only for 1v1 or 4 player LAN maps, and usually those are small maps. This map is way too big for any of that and it takes far too long to trudge around the map to find anybody before falling asleep, even in an 8 player game.
To add insult to injury the connecting passageways are very cramped, long, and have annoying narrow doorways. There's almost no way in certain spots to do any dodging and usually combat comes down to whoever can throw a buzzsaw first. In addition there are dead ends everywhere, and of course most of the good weapons and health are found in them. These dead ends are all very easily camped and it's very tempting to just sit in there and wait for people to come to you. This just causes the already slow gameplay to come to a crawl.
This is all very unfortunate, because it pulls off the Ravenholm theme perfectly and is very easy on the eyes. The lighting, texturing, and architecture come together to give this map some beautiful visuals. It has a palpable sense of realism that is rarely seen in deathmatch maps and it's really fun to just stop and take a look around every once in a while. There is good attention to detail, with breakable windows and wood supports, saws hanging on the walls or lodged in the nearby tree, a natural gas trap for the RPG, tasteful usage of overlays... I could go on. FPS performance was very high as well (I averaged in the 80s) but that leads me to wonder why exactly more buildings weren't enterable and why there weren't more passages between sections.
The author needs to take a close look at what makes deathmatch maps fun: a proper layout with good connectivity and flow.
