This my first map outside of the Quake series, DM_Derelict_Twilight is set in an abandoned industrial zone among predominantly early 20th century architecture.
The map's action centres on a 3-story warehouse with a totally user controlled elevator, with a large-ish open area out front. Traffic flows along several paths, and across several vertical levels, to weapons and power-ups. There are the obvious ladders to climb and I also put in climbable pipes and gutters. Gameplay is average-to-fast on an 8-person server.
There are one or two good (but not too good) sniping spots, and a handful of surprises, too.
Discussion
Posted by Pureferret on
Fri May 27th 2005 at 12:20pm
Played the map. Really good.
Took me a while to get around everywhere (finding the snipe spots) but
it was worth it. Fist time I played I got to close to the Electrics and
flew off the building :smile: I can't seem to get out of there though....
Excellent map though!
Posted by Highlander on
Sat May 14th 2005 at 2:50am
Posted by Highlander on
Sun May 8th 2005 at 12:22pm
[Author]
Thanx keved for the suggestions, the columns idea is great and I will definately use them.
As for the doors, the ones that remain are tied to func_areaportals. I
used them to help increase frame rate issues. I wish I could have left
them open or like you said create them so players could throw them.
I know that after removing the doors on the lower level of the building
and removing the windows on the lower floor, it increased the traffic
flows and the game play speed increased dramaticaly.
It is fast becoming one of the popular maps on Moodle and anything I
can do to make it better for the final release I certainly will.
This was my first HL2DM map (I had been mapping for Quake for far too
long) and it was a learning experience. I learned that large open area
maps with this amount of useable structures and details can be a PITA.
Juim said: The doors on the inside of the buildings. Lose them. They are never popular in a dm match, as it takes away from the flow of a good firefight when you have to actuate them, or wait for them to open. Leave them there, just in the open positions, or even let them swing freely so you can blast them open with the grav gun, thats always fun.
Stay away from working physics-enabled doors in multiplayer! When the map editing tools were first released I tried this out - I had doors with hinges stuck onto door frames in the first release of my level dm_np_refinery. They worked fine offline, but online it was a totally different story; there were a real hinderance to getting through doorways and I removed them immediately.
I agree though, that the working doors should be changed. Since the level is supposed to be a derelict building perhaps instead just have the doors totally off their hinges - basically just prop_physics_multiplayer entities that players can throw around.
On a different note, add some columns in the larger rooms such as the storage room with all the crates in pic dm_derelict_twilight_pre_final0002.jpg. Visually they will help break up the space. Also add columns jutting out of walls to help break up the long plain brick walls.
Posted by Highlander on
Sat May 7th 2005 at 1:16pm
[Author]
I am bumping this so people can see the ABOVE EDIT and download the pre final release.
<DIV class=quote>
<DIV class=quotetitle>? quoting Juim</DIV>
<DIV class=quotetext>
The doors on the inside of the buildings. Lose them. They are never popular in a dm match, as it takes away from the flow of a good firefight when you have to actuate them, or wait for them to open. Leave them there, just in the open positions, or even let them swing freely so you can blast them open with the grav gun, thats always fun.
</DIV></DIV>
I LOVE this idea! The freely-swinging door idea.
P.S. - The map is running over at moodle.nuclearfallout.net:27015 so stop by and see how it plays with 8 if you like.
Looked at the map. Very nice as it is. I do think it is too dark. I had to run around with my flashlight most of the time. I really liked that the power lines zapped you and threw you off. Nice touch.
A few suggestions,
The doors on the inside of the buildings. Lose them. They are never popular in a dm match, as it takes away from the flow of a good firefight when you have to actuate them, or wait for them to open. Leave them there, just in the open positions, or even let them swing freely so you can blast them open with the grav gun, thats always fun.
The truss holding up the tanks(?) outside. They dont look right, as they only have skinned textures on the outer brush, so when you circle them the opposite sides just seem to dissappear. They also have no dimension, and look flat which is bad for a tubular design like truss.
The elevator makes no noise, which is odd, and it does'nt sit quite right with the building. Thats just some fine tuning there.
I like the upper room with the crates, just make a few of them throwable or destructable, as It does'nt seem right that you can hide from bullets and rockets behind wooden crates.
The windows upstairs. I love the fact that you can open them, I wish they opened wider though so you can crawl out of them.
The rooms. There are too many pointless rooms, where you can get in and theres nothing in them and no other way out. This makes for bad DM . Try to interconnect all of them with doorways, or ventilation shafts. They also seem kind of sparsely furnished, which IMO just looks empty.
FPS, and this is a big one. Hit the low 30's in a few spots on the ground, need to work on that a bit.
All these things are minor though, and can be easily remedied in the next beta.
Very sexy and this seems to be the best of the twilight maps...
My only suggestion is to make those windows more 3D rather than having that crappy templete sticking out like a sore thumb.
In case you don't understand I mean picture no.2 on the top right.
They were made as templates and should have proper glass and a frame.
Posted by Highlander on
Sun Apr 17th 2005 at 4:42pm