de_snowblind (it might change)

Hello everyone. im new to the forums. and after seeing some of the
screenshots everyone has posted of their maps it seems like a sketchy
idea for me to post screenshots of my new map im working on. its the
first one im really trying to make good. ive made some smaller fy maps
and a de map fopr counterstrike source and the chances of you having
played on them or even heard of them are slim to none :sob: but theyre
called glass_by_hash, de_rainman, and fy_pyramid_fun. anyways since
youve just wasted your time reading about maps youve never played on
:grin: here are some screenshots of my new map im working on. its a
snow map but its got stairwells and a house and all that jazz. i might
call it de_snowblind but im confident that someone has used that name
before and i intend to post this map on fpsbanana.com to further its
publicity/popularity so i wouldnt want any confusion to whos map is
whos. so any name suggestions are welcome.. so here ya go, screenshots
from a relatively noobish mappers work in progress map.

http://s15.photobucket.com/albums/a386/hashbrown_/?action=view&current=de_frosty_v60000.jpg

http://s15.photobucket.com/albums/a386/hashbrown_/?action=view&current=de_frosty_v60002.jpg

http://s15.photobucket.com/albums/a386/hashbrown_/?action=view&current=de_frosty_v60003.jpg

http://s15.photobucket.com/albums/a386/hashbrown_/?action=view&current=de_frosty_v60004.jpg

http://s15.photobucket.com/albums/a386/hashbrown_/?action=view&current=de_frosty_v60005.jpg

http://s15.photobucket.com/albums/a386/hashbrown_/?action=view&current=de_frosty_v60006.jpg

its not much but try to hold in the negative comments suck as, "That
f*cking sucks noob!" or, "Lern 2 map noob!" Cause in all truth i havnt
been mapping very long. only 9 months or so, and i only started making
this map seriously about 2 weeks ago or so. the other maps iove made
have taken 2, maybe 3 hours to make. so all in all im a noob when it
comes to mapping, just please dont try to advertise that fact. Support,
suggestions, even constructive criticism would be very very helpfull.
thanks for reading all of this and i hope to hear positive feedback and
not just e-raging d*uche bags. Please leave me a private message, AIM
me (ddr drummer), or email me if you would like me to send you the .bsp
for any of my previous maps. or pm/AIM/email me for my CSS clan server
ip and i can put them on and you can download them from there. thanks
again for reading and ill keep up to date with the progress on this new
map.

siden,
Hashbrown

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yeah.. I said it. I snort pixie stix, and its exactly what it looks like, no matter what the situation or the excuse, its always what it looks like..

Lights. It needs some lights in it. Lights so it wouldn't be
fullbright. Fullbright is bad m'kay. There's a need for shadows so
people can make out the shapes better from those images. There's not
that much to comment on, but you need to add some more detail indoors
and the outside area is very boxy, try breaking that up with
displacements.

Also your links seem to be dead, but the uploaded images work.

I'll take a look again sometime and give more commentary. :smile: Welcome to the pit.

Oh and if you have somekind of a layout plan it might be good to post it here.

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''Everyone wades in s**t until they're competent enough to walk on it. Jesus style.''
Dystopia - Empires

I can't really understand what's happening in these 3 screenshots you've uploaded.

I don't know why this map is fullbright either.

What I would do if I were you is go through a bunch of different tutorials, as many as you can find, starting from beginning techniques and working your way up to advanced, and just learn different skills like displacements and entity work, and 3D skyboxes, and the theory behind brushes, and compiling maps, and how VIS and RAD work etc etc.

I'd try to learn all the little details before you take on a proper map. Make a bunch of little test maps, experimenting with lighting and architecture etc.

The links don't work, as the files seem to have been removed?

Anyway, from the 3 screenshots I can see, there's a few things I want to comment on.

First, it's looking pretty inconsistent right now. The water tower looks totally out of place with all the snow and ice. The concrete-ish structures don't look like something I can recognize - adding light to define the shapes better would surely help.
Second, as mentioned already, it lacks lighting. Light works to define shapes better, and can really create a strong athmosphere, using bright and dark area's. You can draw a players attention using bright spots, providing trap locations using dark area's, and so on.
Third, you seem to go with over-sized area's. The last shot especially shows a long, boring room. Yes, it lacks details, and you could fill it up with some (carefully chosen and distributed) props, but that's not the only thing 'wrong' here. The basic architecture is flat, as it's basically just a box. How about an L-shaped room or such, and how about adding a /\-shaped ceiling with wooden support beams? Combined with good lighting, it can really spice up that area. Oh, and of course, the room's too big for such houses.

All in all, it looks like a typical CS/CSS map, void of lighting and so on, so I think it's more a matter of having seen bad examples than lack of skill. I'm interested to see how you're going to improve this map. Good luck. :smile:

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Create-ivity - a game development blog

Its not nearly donw. i just made the basic layout for each area. im
going to put alot more stuf in there. and i always add lighting and all
that after i get the map looking how i like it. textures and shapes and
entities and all that. there will be lighting i just have to finish
making everything else. meh we shall see how this map goes.. i
might just trash it cause it seems that its not going anywhere at all.
meh

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yeah.. I said it. I snort pixie stix, and its exactly what it looks like, no matter what the situation or the excuse, its always what it looks like..

It'll go somewhere if you want it to, you just need to get used to getting some honest feedback and appreciate it. :smile: It'll really improve your map by the end if you consider all the suggestions you're given, they can really help. It's certainly helping me.

I agree with Morphine here - you should probably try a few more smaller experiments to learn a few things about Hammer. I also think you should at least have rudimentary lighting here as you go along. I personally like to do the lighting as I work on new areas so I can tweak the mood and feel of areas/the entire map as I go along; lighting is important! Even if you only set up a light_environment so you can get some sunlight and maybe a few lights around the interior, at least it'll be much easier to look at and discern. Fullbright makes it hard to look at and hard to see what's what exactly.

Keep at it, even if you're having trouble with anything.. you'll learn a lot about Hammer and gameplay. :smile: Welcome to the Snarkpit!

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-- midkay

ya, its something ive been wanting to do for some time now, and now
that im doing it i dont think that its going to be a good map. well its
not that i think its going to suck its just that im not confident in my
ability to make a relatively visually pleasing map. ive made fy maps
and all that and theyre really fun (for me atleast) but this one just
seems like it might be more trouble than its worth. i think that i just
doubt my ability too much, but then again i tried to make a door and i
couldnt find the origin (there was no circle, there was a line that
came out of the middle of it, but no circle that i can move to the
edge) so i had a door that rotated in the middle of a doorway.. very
usefull.. ugh, this blows.

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yeah.. I said it. I snort pixie stix, and its exactly what it looks like, no matter what the situation or the excuse, its always what it looks like..

Doors are weirdish, you have to use a few certain doors or they won't work right. I think like Door01_animated.mdl or something like that. Have a look.

If you're not confident about your abilities you probably won't get very far. You should experiment with whatever you don't feel you know enough about in a separate map so you can experiement around and learn the technique, and then apply it to your map. :smile:

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-- midkay

well its not really that im not confident, its just that i get
discouraged easily when it comes to mapping. so ill work on my map for
a while, get on my css clan server and play a few custom maps, and then
feel s**tty about how good their maps are lol. meh im sure it will pass
but i just need to practice more stuff..

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yeah.. I said it. I snort pixie stix, and its exactly what it looks like, no matter what the situation or the excuse, its always what it looks like..

Good advice Cap and Midk.

Just get an idea for a small area you want to build, and see if you can. Take it as far as it will go. Don't try and tackle a full map until you're ready to really dedicate yourself to it. I honestly think coming up with many small projects (and finishing most of them) will be more rewarding than starting a few big ones and never getting anywhere near done.

well i think that it might also be that the only time i work on this
particular map is between midnight and 6am.. so the fact that i cant
seem to make it as sharp or anything like that is because i get only
3-5 hours of sleep most nights and i only work on it when im about to
pass out. im not sure but im going to dedicate a week all to making
this map.. not just a week with a few hours here or there. a week of
mapping, sketching out on paper, all that jazz.. and if i dont finish
this map as soon as i would like.. then ill just postpone it for when
im not so sleep deprived all the time. plus ive been in a s**tty mood
for the past week because i blew my amp out :sad: cheap amp but i dont
have any money ever.. still paying off my computer. But im sure that
once i get ina better overall mood and get more energy ill feel
more enthusiastic about making this map. thanks for giving the tips and
all that s**t. im actually surprised that for only reistering on
snarkpit last night ive gotten this many replies and suggestions n all
that s**t.

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yeah.. I said it. I snort pixie stix, and its exactly what it looks like, no matter what the situation or the excuse, its always what it looks like..

Well, i got inspired as s**t last night and started mapping. added a
bunch ot the map. lights, props, all of that. but theres still plenty
to do. ill try and post some screenshots when i get it to looking
better. its in that stage where it looks wierd cause there are parts
done in a area and then parts that are half done in the same area.
anyways its coming along very nicely.

peace

hashbrown

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yeah.. I said it. I snort pixie stix, and its exactly what it looks like, no matter what the situation or the excuse, its always what it looks like..

To be honest, if you want to do this map well, I'll bet it will take more than a week (or maybe not, if you work very fast..). I've already been working on my current map, dm_residential, for a month and a week and I'd say it's maybe 70% done; I have plenty more to do (though I'm a rather slow, careful, perfectionist-ish guy).

Oh, and you'll get suggestions and critique as long as there's something to respond to. :smile: Keep us posted with screenshots and you'll probably have a steady stream of responses and suggestions.

Keep at it.. :smile:

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-- midkay

Oh, you started a new chapter.. weird how it divides up like this. Hm. I'd personally stick with just Intro so you can pool ideas in one place instead of splitting it up into two "chapters" although it's the same map.. but that's just me. shrugs

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-- midkay

well the first chapter was more of me feeling sorry for myself ahhaha.
and ive already gotten very very fast response with all my questions n
all that s**t. snarkpit is f**king great, makes it alot easier than
just looking and looking in the endless pages on google. thanks again
and ill keep ya posted on the progress!

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yeah.. I said it. I snort pixie stix, and its exactly what it looks like, no matter what the situation or the excuse, its always what it looks like..

I think chapters are intended for single player maps, like how HL2 had fourteen or fifteen "chapters" - but I could very well be wrong.

Just seems nice to me to have all your suggestions from inception to final product in one long thread instead of splitting it up into different threads of varying length and content. shrugs

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-- midkay

meh, if you just click on the actual topic name then you see everything. ooh well it was my first map post lol gimme a break :smile:

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yeah.. I said it. I snort pixie stix, and its exactly what it looks like, no matter what the situation or the excuse, its always what it looks like..

Yeah chapters are for any map type, and I think the original idea was to have new chapters for different stages of development (alpha, beta etc?) but in general it is better to just stick to one chapter, as it's less confusing. People don't often know where to click to read the most recent updates, and oftentimes people will post in the intro chapter instead of the most recent one, like I'm doing now :smile: