New map: Vent (beta 2)

I've been working on this map on and off for a bit and would like some feedback before I go any further. It's "structurally" complete, but still needs lighting and texture work, along with tweaks, minor fixes and such.

I'm mainly looking for ideas to enhance the lights and texture. Some eye candy ideas would be good too. :smile:

If you'd like to take a look you can download the map at:
http://www.ryandor.com/hl/vent-beta.zip (939k)
Or screenshots are at:
http://www.ryandor.com/hl/vent.html

If you download it, please read the readme for more info.

Thanks much.

-Ryandor

I've down loaded it, but as I'm compiling a map of my own atm it will be a while before I post my comments.

I'll take a look later today.  But it looks like you're maps are rapidly improving.

I almost forgot..
There's a inaccessable(at this point) elevator in there. I'm undecided as to whether to include it or not as of yet.
I find elevators annoying in DM maps, but then that's sort of the point, in a way. Since I already have two, a third might be too much. You can find it by using noclip.
Should I keep it or dump it?

-Ryandor

Okay here we go.



you might want to make that button move the right direction... and what does it do? don't put buttons in a map that do nothing. especialy buttons next to a missle silo... it's most dissapointing



the rotating doors are horribly irritating! even your sliding  ones either need to move allot faster, or be chucked. in addition these side hallways are way too narrow. Oh, and please seal off that closet. just make the door locked or somthing.



there's somthing wrong with your grating, it seems to glow...



that vent system is fantastic! it's great to get the gluon, and be instantly sucked into agiant fan! (this is your best lit section of the map)

This is much improved over your preveous map (outhouse?) but there are two main points you need to adress.

1. Lighting: as I say this is much improoved, but it still falls flat. lighting in a map is only secondarily there so that the player can see. lighting must have character. Yes I'm sure a real missle silo would have uniform harsh lighting, but that isn't the point. don't be afraid of shadows. use light_spot ents to make pools of bright light surrounded in moderate shadow for instance.

2. layout: this map is quite disjointed. I didn't play it with other people, but I felt that there was absolutly no flow to it. you have the oppertunity to fix this, however. you have a number of dead ends that stop at the silos. simply by makeing them lead into the silos you could vastly improve gameplay potential on this map. another gameplay related issue is those lifts. they are far too slow.

archatecture is pretty simple, but it fits the theme of the map, so no complaits there.

You are improving very rapidly!

LOL! Thank you for the review, but as I said, I was looking for ideas on how to improve the map as far as textures and lighting. As you point out (quite rightly) the lighting leaves a bit of lacking.

Yes, I know the button is going the wrong way. I've yet to fix that as I want to get more important parts of the map finished.

The button does as it says, and is an actual test fire for the rocket. If there is another player in the silo (near the bottom) they'd realize it very quickly. I need to add some kind of "feekback" system for the person in the control room however. I'm thinking a rotating light/PA annoucement thing. Again, other, more important aspects are to be worked on first.

The whole area between the staircase and the vent system needs overhaul. I'm not quite sure what to do with this whole area. Originally it was a simple hallway. Vis problems prevented that. Then it was a "storage" room. Didn't work like I expected. Then it was an elevator shaft. See previous post on that. Plus I didn't like it. (The closets are a left over the elevator shaft actually and WILL be sealed/removed). I'm very open to suggestion on that part if anyone has ideas.

As far the the flow goes, you are right and I was trying to think of a way to improve it. Your comment on connecting the rooms to it got me to thinking, and I think I may have something. Basically an "emergency hatch" from the "key rooms" (as I call them) to the silo. Hopefully they'll turn out ok.

The slow lift to hell in the silos was semi-intentional (so as to be an easy target when you're on them) but it's getting really annoying to me as well. A speed-up will be made.

I noticed the grating loks off as well but I can't figure out what's wrong with it. It's only a func_wall with rendure: texture/255 set to it. What could be the problem?

At any rate, thank you for the review. I do appreciate any and all feedback. Is there anything else in particular you could reccommend as far as how to get good lighting? I'm also not very happy with the textures. Any ideas there?
Thanks much.

-Ryandor

Looks good :biggrin:

Just curious though, why is the last screen in Tracers review on its side? I'm assuming Tracer Bullet - with his l337 skills - was practicing some fan dodging.....

Yup, it would appear that he's.. how should I put it...
DEAD

:P

Actualy, for the theme of your map, the standard HL textures are pretty good. However you might want to check out the wadfather http://www.planethalflife.com/wadfather/index-new.htm

Specific things I might try in terms of lighting:

 in the silo you might try putting bright spot lights on the missle and alowing most of the area to be lit with the reflected radience. you'll still need to use some normal lighting though. the lights you laready have in there are fine, but they either need to be further apart or dimmer...

As to that grating, the correct render mode is "solid" not "texture". that should take care of the glow.

 

Ryandor said:
Yup, it would appear that he's.. how should I put it...
DEAD

:P

Turned to hamburger

Oh duh.. that would be why the grate glows..

As for the wadfather, while they have lots of cool textures, I've found that it's not organized very well at all. Not to mention the site itself is slow as dirt (me being on a dialup, it's expected though)

I'm thinking of going to a friend's who has cable and leeching the entire site one of these days :biggrin:

As I type this I'm playing around with making a different lighting fixture in the staircase. Instead of "standard flourecent fixture" I'm trying to make one of those round type hanging lights. Round is such a pain...

Good idea on the spot lights in the silo, TB. That should turn out better than it is now.

-Ryandor

Update: I fixed the test fire button! :razz: (among other things).

And changed the lights in the staircase. Tell me how this looks:



Next I'm going to work on the lighting in the silo.

-Ryandor

Much improved :biggrin:  

those drop down lights create a very nice shadowing effect.

(not lighting) you might try putting some sort of head cap on those vertical supports. They are a bit boring, especialy when compared to that excelent detailed piping.

(also not lighting) the stairs are also pretty bland. try useing a trim texture for the rise. (the vertical face)

Your first screenshot on your page looks pretty boring.  Like, just some computers and oddly textured pillar things.  Maybe add some crap on the floor or something, I dunno.  You might consider prefab crates :biggrin:

 

EDIT:  Maybe there's an opportunity to cut a hole/trough/channel in the ceiling, put some pipes in it and cover that with a transparent grate.  Or you could do that on the floor - a tried and true method!

hornpipe2 said:
 consider prefab crates :biggrin:

I hope that's a joke.

crates = Evil

nuff said.

Floor grate/pipes are a good idea though.

-Ryandor

I've updated the map and I'd like feedback, if possible again.

Most everything is complete however there's still a few tweaks I'd like to add yet. So far I've got the structure down, and all major "events". I'd like comments and suggestions regarding anything I can add or enhance. Lighting is much improved but I'm still open to suggestions. Also, any "eye candy" ideas would be appreciated. R-speeds are good with only a couple areas around 1000.

Map details:
All weapons are in the map. I think I got placement decent but comments are welcome (Need to fix crossbow placement though). There's 12 player_deathmatch spawns, and a player_start. Feedback added to the "testfire" trap, and buttons are fixed. The placement of many weapons is intentional. The guass gun can play a big factor in this map. The jumppack has been left out intentionally. I played this with up to 12 bots and it gets a bit hectic. Flow still needs a bit of work. I'm thinking of speeding up the doors and elevators a little more. Please let me know what you think.

Thanks in advance.

http://www.ryandor.com/hl/vent_beta.zip (989K)

[edit]
I can't believe I did that. In the course of playing around with some different things, I ended up putting a custom skybox on this map. Apologies if you downloaded it and couldn't run it. The skybox that is used is moor*.tga originally part of "betrayed" by Matthew Armstrong (HellFace).
If you do not have this map you can get the skybox here:

http://www.ryandor.com/hl/skybox.zip (755K)

Again, sorry about that. The final version will not have a custom skybox.

[/edit]

-Ryandor

Tracer Bullet said:

hornpipe2 said:
 consider prefab crates :biggrin:

I hope that's a joke.

And how!