A small, abandon, overgrown dam located in the heart of a northern hemisphere alpine forest.
The Dam was built on a small creek that branched off a large river and was used to serve a small town roughly 35km south west in 1963. However due to the towns growth in the recent years, the dam was not supplying a sufficient supply of water and become obsolete 35 years later.
The Dam has now been left behind and is no longer maintained, and as a result has become over grown and graffitied on.
If you would like more information on this map, please go here.
It seems you polished this one up a little since I last saw it and man, this is a pretty impressive first Source map. It's a shame the layout and brushwork has so little height-variation to it, which brings the map down as a whole.
Usually, prop-placing is a delicate matter as it is either overdone or non-existent. I hardly ever congratulate mappers on (non-custom) prop-placement since it should be a more a final step in decoration rather than a sophisticated design-decision. But somehow, you seem to have gotten it just "right" with this map. I guess you started way to early with the prop-embellishment, but it works. I see hardly a prop that wasn't put to good use. Like that tree growing in the middle of the creek... very nice. Same goes for most of the displacement work.
Ok having played it now, I'll give it 4 stars, feels just as hot as it looks in the photos. Very nice map. I guess a downside could be the frame rate count, too many polys I guess. I agree with ReNo about his ideas. Playability would be much more enjoyable if the playable area was expanded into the mountainous part of the map. Overall, a Very nice effort. I hope I'll be able to map as good as this some time soon(I gave up on mapping after I had to focus on my studies, gave up HL1 mapping for a while, so want to get back, and also into HL2 mapping).
I like the screenshots very much so, because I myself don't map with source yet, need to read all the tutorials first, but I absolutely love what you've done with lighting. You've given the map a sense of warmth, and I like that in outdoor maps. A sense of heat. Reminds me of Commandos2 a little bit. If you've played it you'll know what I mean. Very nice, I'll download it. Regarding ReNo's comments, can't you take them in and then work more on this map, and then resubmit a second version to this website? Because I like the look of this map very much.
Ah, thanks for the comments guys, it was a nice surprise to see 2 comments in one day!, after so long of nothing :).
Inregards to your comments Reno, its always a previlage to hear from somebody who is in the biz. Now, this map has quite a strange design. I wasn't really focused on making a map that was built for multiplayer, the weapon placement is borked, the spawn point placement was added with little thought and there isn't much opportunity for fun gameplay situations. I was just focused on making a small decent environment.
To be honest, with the stun stick, I didn't know combine spawned with it, I just enjoyed hitting things with it- so I added it.
As for the RPG, DAMN! you have really sharp eyes, the rpg is an easter egg in the map. You may have also noticed a static skull on the roof, there are 5 skulls on the map just for the player to find. The way to get up there is you need to build a staircase with physics objects, it isn't impossible, I've done it before many times. Anyway, I thought I textured that roof with a brick texture?
And yeah, the ammo box was a tough one for me, I knew that it would be totally irrational and confusing if the box was also used as a static prop and had weapons ontop of it, but I wanted a military looking create to symbolize weaponry nearby. I tried looking for a custom skin so I wouldn't get the two confused, but in the end, I just promised myself I wouldn't do it again.
Anyway, design wise, the map is absouloutley horrible, the frame rates are pretty bad and the design with the map, along with the placement of items just isn't for multiplayer. But I will say I am semi pleased with how the environment turned out, ofcourse it has flaws, but I really tried to give the map visual consistencies and make the environment convincing, and I think that I did an alright job at that, at least compared to earlier work. I would like to make a map set in the same environment with a completely different design, once with height variation and one that follows multiplayer design philosophies.
I think that the time between the end of this map and now, I have learn't alot about level design, I like to think that my maps rely less on prop based detail and more on brush work now than they did before, and I also like to think that I can optimize far better than with this map.
And thanks for your comments Muhnay, I'm glad you enjoyed it :D! I guess the swamp with an alpine environment dosen't go together well.
