"Flynn" said:
I remember your first few posts on this website. It's amazing in how much you have changed since then. You used to post with erratic punctuation and all hyperactively Made threads about Halo and what not. Now you post in a way which still has the same charm, but the content is far richer You put things in your posts that give the reader a real feel for what you are describing.

Ah thanks man :dodgy:

I also took a screenshot of the Macdonalds custom texture.

I remember your first few posts on this website. It's amazing in how much you have changed since then. You used to post with erratic punctuation and all hyperactively Made threads about Halo and what not. Now you post in a way which still has the same charm, but the content is far richer You put things in your posts that give the reader a real feel for what you are describing.

My first map was a 3 shaped indoor multiplayer map (3 square rooms connected to a long rectangular room). The map had light entities but no light fixtures, weapons, spawn points and it was filled with crates, I even had a secret area that you could get to to get the crossbow, the map was simply called "aaron". I thought much more of my second map though, called "aaron_bunker". It was to a multiplayer map, had height variation, switchable lights which could be controlled from two spots, close combat spaces, long ranged combat spaces and a bit of crate jumping to get satchels. I really to this day love aaron_bunker, I have so much fun playing it (I should really see if I can get some screenshots, I have the map somewhere...).

Anyway, as soon as I figured out how to compile, the possibilities where endless and I got really excited, I think I used to pretend I was a games developer (the guys from the behind the scenes making of Halo 2!) and peopled really cared about my maps, I even wrote readme files for the maps which listed a few of my current projects (some of which I made up to appear better than I really was; I had no intention to undertake these fake projects) and some where just ideas that I had which I still haven't fleshed out.

I think aaron_lazerzone2 was the first map I made a custom texture for, it was simply the MacDonalds logo but I drew it in paint with the brush tool, I'll find a screenshot of that too its pretty funny.

All this happened before I joined the Snarkpit so you can imagine how much of a n00b I was :P.

My first "map" a box with poorly aligned brushes, leaking, a soda machine, a zombie and a couple of troops. Never the less, I was ecstatic when I got it into the game! I couldn't believe the endless possibilities. Needless to say, when you realise the amount of work that needs to go in for a minimal amount of gameplay that feeling dies down somewhat.

"Flynn" said:
It's interesting you should say that, aaron_da_killa. I was kind of the other way around. Since I started mapping I was self taught, and that was before my house had internet connection so you can imagine the bewilderment at some problems that on the internet you would just tap into Google for a solution.

Yeah, I started mapping when I had no Internet connection to (I had worldcraft 2.1 from my won Half-Life cd- which I actually found). I made quite a few multiplayer maps and a singleplayer map without the internet connection that I'm quite fond of (the memories :)). It was pretty funny, alot of things/tricks I found out had sort of already been discovered and named, for example, when I had a leak or brush/entity related problem, I would make a huge brush covering most/all of the level than compile and since the brush is sealing the leak or covering the problem brush/entity, there would be no compile error, so I would keep making the brush smaller and compiling as I went to narrow down and find the error, turns out that's called the "Big Block method" and various tutorials had already been written on it, ofcourse this is Half-Life 1, in Source you just load up the pointfile and that's it. I had good memories of the Half-Life 1 mapping days. Anyway Flynn, we learnt the real hard way and now that its over, I'm glad I learnt that way!

Although Blackmesa Source is in a different, it should evoke memories to all the people who used to work with Half-Life 1, especially playing with all the old npcs (I sometimes miss the alien slave, alien grunt, houndeye and bull chicken.)

I must admit, it is quite tempting. But mapping for it doesn't mean you have to create half-life 1 levels or anything. Mapping for that mod just means you'll have a whole new slew of content to work with.

You could still build HL2 environments with BM:S content. So, I'm all for it!

But I would hate to rip content off from BM:S to put into your own mod. -Which I'm sure many people are just waiting for.

aaron_da_killa said:
Will I map for Blacknmesa Source? I don't know, maybe but I don't plan to at the moment, there is alot of things that I still want to make for the original Half-Life 2 series.

It's interesting you should say that, aaron_da_killa. I was kind of the other way around. Since I started mapping I was self taught, and that was before my house had internet connection so you can imagine the bewilderment at some problems that on the internet you would just tap into Google for a solution.

As a result, I didn't get to map all the H.L. that I wanted. I didn't want to keep mapping for da old game though, since a lot of people were moving over towards the new one. So I started Half-Life 2 mapping, even when I had not even completed a map for H.L. 1.

I don't know yet. The whole premise still feels slightly surreal.

HL1 with state of the art graphics? Despite seeing the trailers and screenshots, I'm still feeling awkward trying to imagine it. It's a bit like a Hollywood remake of a classic film, which I usually hate to see. Then again, it's a totally different project and approach.

I hope they get the atmosphere, the colors, the sound and things like the human grunts fighting style right with the new engine. Some of the things that made HL1 feel so great are direct consequences of certain technical limitations, and I don't know whether those details would work in a port.

I would definitely like to see the multiplayer part to take off. It would be refreshing to do a map with a set of classic HL1 style textures and props with the fresh and fast-paced gameplay of HL1DM in mind.

For me, I love Blackmesa, I'm pretty sure that I had more fun playing through Half-Life 1 the first time than I did Half-Life 2. When Blackmesa Source comes out, its going to be a big deal, I think that alot of people are going to map for this mod and perhaps we will see the old Half-Life 1 mappers who stopped mapping when Half-Life 2 came out enter the scene.

Will I map for Blacknmesa Source? I don't know, maybe but I don't plan to at the moment, there is alot of things that I still want to make for the original Half-Life 2 series.

"Muhnay" said:
Nope I am sold on Source. Sticking to them... I want them to bring CSS up to the Orange box edition.

Blackmesa Source is still in the Source engine, its just a mod. As for them bringing CSS up to the Orange box engine, I don't think that will happen.

Nope I am sold on Source. Sticking to them... I want them to bring CSS up to the Orange box edition.