I'll do it tomorrow I think, i've to be up for work in 5 hours. :sad:

That would be nice, good luck, I've a feeling it will be tricky to get a good looking effect going.

Ok no problem... bitter :biggrin:

I'm trying to do the flying lava ball thing now, just to see if I can. I'll give you a look if it turns out ok. :smile:

Purrrrfect, thanks mate. Was that a serious offer btw? If so, I appreciate the offer, but I prefer to make everything in my maps myself for some reason. Thanks anyway though :smile:

I'll have a stab at making a pirate ship. Get it? Stab. Because pirates stab each other. Bah.

http://www.chaosgods.de/ps_tutorials/english/old_map.shtml

There's a link to a photoshop tutorial on how to make a treasure map effect. :smile:

Crono: Good ideas there mate - you gave me a great idea for the actual spectator mode overview of the map too - a treasure map :smile: The sharks are going to play a small part in the form of transportation (hop on for rides to otherwise inaccessible islands with weapons etc...). I don't know how I could manage an underwater area, as the deep part of the sea is actually the skybox. A mine shaft is somewhat similar to my plans for the volcano, so we'll see how that pans out.

A_S: The volcano will eventually be hollow - the top of it is kind thrown on, and there are some overlapping brushes up there with null textures on faces which are causing the invisibility. Its not HOM stuff thankfully, just a sloppy temporary ceiling.

Oh dear, I can imagine making a convincing flatshaded pirate ship is gonna be one hell of a challenge :rolleyes:

Good suggestions all round guys, thanks a bunch :smile:

A_S: The winding path idea was something I considered, but on a whole the scale of the map is so suggestive as opposed to real that the volcano doesn't feel big enough to merit it. I might give it a shot - I've got about 5 versions of this map at various stages of development so I cna easily enough branch this idea off as an experimental one. The volcano eruption is a great idea, but sounds like it could entail a lot of complex entity work. Its worth looking into, but I'm not hugely convinced the effect could be pulled off well. The other island was another idea I'd thought of - I was thinking of having a mansion on it, in fact here is a screenshot of the mansion so far! I feel it looks pretty crappy, and probably wouldn't fit the theme, but make of it what you will...



Yak: You read my mind about those little volcano's - look at the blurb for the map, "volcano jumping" was referring to the plans for those :smile: I've not thought too much about how it will work (its somewhat awkward to get on them at the moment), but it will most likely happen in some form or another.

That bug will be fixed - as I'm running RAD I'll just shove in a really bright light_environment to light up everything.

Adding more shades of colour may help add a bit more depth, but its also a damn lot of work sorting out the right shades for the light direction, so I've kind of kept it to a minimum (in actual fact its easy enough for the limited architecture in the volcano map, but its hellish for the mansion). I've currently got it so that there are 8 main directions brushwork can face, and each material / building section has 3 shades assigned to it - 2 highlighted faces, 4 normal faces, and 2 shadowed faces. I could change it to be uniquely coloured for each direction I guess, wouldn't be TOO much hassle. I'll try it out and see what I think.

The boat (and yes I'm refering to you too A_S) idea could certainly work, and the dock is also a good idea. I was hoping to bring more architecture to the level but didn't want a simple repetition of the current stuff, so I guess a dock could work out.

Gorb: Have you checked the map out in game, or is it screenshots that are throwing you off for scale? I agree that scale in this map is extremely wierd, but to be honest its half the point. The map isn't huge but takes up a fair amount of space due to being so inherently open in its layout. I'm not really sure how to answer your question - all I can suggest is check it out in game if you haven't, hopefully it will be more clear then. If you already have...well its a wierd map :biggrin:

He stole them all from my hacked internet computer! :smile:

Edit: Reno, there are a whole bunch of HOM errors around the top of the volcanoe.

It might be cool to make some sort of mini game out of the sharks (since you can 'ride' them ).

Maybe, create a little underwater area (which is just a normal area with a func illusinary for the surface) that allows you to 'activate' the volcano or something.

Getting up into those towers would be bad ass.

On the backside of the volcano you could have some func breakable ground (about five or six brushes worth) with a 'domination weapon' laying underneath, and on top have a couple palm trees making an 'X', or something like that.

maybe there should be a half-sinking pirate ship on one of the far edges of the back part of the map, with some picture of the overview of the map and a path to the domination weapon. Maybe put some sharks circling the ship. A mine shaft into the volcano would be cool too (in the back).

Anyway, those are some ideas of things i think would liven up the map. Maps are always better when there's some side stuff you can do to better your advancement in the ranks :smile:

[EDIT]
Great, I play the map without refreshing the thread and Yak has already mentioned all my ideas
[/EDIT]

Yak.

That f**king sound that plays when you install halflife just woke up the whole neighbourhood (2 100watt speakers). Last time I help either of you guys out.