el Competitione Thrẽad Officiale

Lep offers a prize and Myrk's piggybank mysteriously goes missing. What a strange coincidence....

What? Theres a copy of HL2 up for grabs!

Now, just wondering ... if Thanto should win the compo ... who gets the HL2 copy ? Cassius or Alien_Sniper ? :biggrin:

uhoh, a loophole the size of a truck. I'm going to vote Thanto just so Lep has to buy two games instead of one.

As for my competition map, I'm tempted to cut about 2/3rds of it and restart or just throw it all away outright, but I'd never finish a map by tomorrow. I probably won't finish this crappy map as it is... how sad :sad:

I've all but given up on my two entries also :sad:

argh, not HL2. what use is a computer game to an old man with arthritic fingers.

:rolleyes:

Hey, whoever wins could be waiting a while for their copy depending on when the games actually released.

uhoh, a loophole the size of a truck. I'm going to vote Thanto just so Lep has to buy two games instead of one.

As for my competition map, I'm tempted to cut about 2/3rds of it and
restart or just throw it all away outright, but I'd never finish a map
by tomorrow. I probably won't finish this crappy map as it is... how
sad :sad:

Just send in what you have, then ... is it that bad ?

Err, when are maps due, by the way? Timezones make all the difference!
I think entry should be closed on Monday, noon, so I can spend all
night on my competition map and to give everyone in all the timezones a
fair chance! :smile:

Forceflow said:

uhoh, a loophole the size of a truck. I'm going to vote Thanto just so Lep has to buy two games instead of one.

As for my competition map, I'm tempted to cut about 2/3rds of it and restart or just throw it all away outright, but I'd never finish a map by tomorrow. I probably won't finish this crappy map as it is... how sad :sad:

Just send in what you have, then ... is it that bad ?

well, as usual, I made the final area of the map and it turned out that it looks better and probably plays better than all the rest of it. Bah. When's HL2 coming out so I can release substandard maps early and garner all the praise?!

Campaignjunkie said:
Err, when are maps due, by the way? Timezones make all the difference! I think entry should be closed on Monday, noon, so I can spend all night on my competition map and to give everyone in all the timezones a fair chance! :smile:

give all the timezones a fair chance? get a grip CJ, the competition date was posted more than 3 months ago. and was even extended by a week.

Well, CJ has a point, fishy. He's mapped for months and would rather not like to see that pissed away since the deadline just says Sunday... but Sunday where!? Antarctica!? Greenland!? Tibet!?

Why don't you just use 00:00 GMT?

i'm all for CJ getting his map finished. but to use timezones to try and winkle a few hours extra mapping in, especially on a comp thats been going for 3 1/2 months, deserved a bit of ridicule.

and didn't the timezone thing give west coast america an extra night at the begining, if it deprives it of one at the end?

:razz:

some of us are just slow mappers. i started around the time the contest was announced and i'm still not finished...

If we were to use 0:00 GMT, the contest would have been over 9 hours ago. :smile: AND, fishy, I'm not saying he doesn't deserve ridicule... just not so much for that. :wink:

Don't discuss it here ! Waste of time ! Back to your maps ! Just wait for the Leper !

Ther deadline is actually when I wake up on Monday morning, so about 10am GMT tomorrow- about 24 hours from this post!

how do we submit?

nm I'm a bloody moron

hey, its a good question ferret. I've got mine uploaded and a link in my profile, but do I still need to send a copy to Lep by email. i don't think my email service allows for attachments that big.

Err, just e-mail Lep the URL to it, geeze! :smile:

Wootness! Finally got my map to compile! Assuming it works, I just need
to rip-ent a few changes and hopefully it will work! 5 leaks, max
leaves, max clipnodes, and allocblock:full all in one day! I'm going to
cry. Plus, I had to delete all this cool detail to get it to compile in
the first place. Really no chance of winning now. Oh well. :sad:

I'm so f'ing screwed lol

My friend is still compiling the map and it's due to be compilete in about 6 hours from now, thats a little past the deadline :X I added huge sections of into the map that I have yet to test. So while like 90% of the map is like polished, that 10% is going to bring it down =(

Well my map sucks too! Its compiling just now but my last quick compile had w_poly of around 4000+ and looked rubbish to boot, and I don't expect this one to be much better on either front :sad:

Yea, I sent my map in last night at about 10:30, I had to do a quick compile because of some changes I did to the lights.

But its in now, and thats all that counts :smile:

Oh yeah?! Well I don't even know what 2/3's of my map looks like when
lit and stuff! I have NO idea how the map will play either! I'm so
screwed! Screwed very much big-time!! AIEEE!! Focus all your pity on me! No pity for Ferret or ReNo! All on me! :smile:

Well I got mine mostly finished and it still gets eclipsed by the rest so therefore I'm the most pitiful. Ha! :smile:

If there's pity going around, pass some this way :/ I probably have the ugliest map of the bunch, and also had no idea the deadline was extended by a day...

yeah, well I still haven't added weapons or player_starts... and the clock is ticking!

oh wait, I only have to do an onlyents compile for that... "points and laughs at others' misfortune"

At least your map adheres to the rules - I just re-read them and realised I've broken them by having a silly polycount! Looks like I'll default to last place or something but I'll enter nonetheless :smile:

Well, I have to make my map really dark to hide all the horrible construction and texture errors. On the plus side I plan on riding the D3 wave of popularity by claiming the flashlight makes the map so much cooler to play!

fraggard said:
If there's pity going around, pass some this way :/ I probably have the ugliest map of the bunch, and also had no idea the deadline was extended by a day...

It was? Arg!!!! I would add some more to my map if I don't have to go and deliver a motherboard!

It wasn't REALLY extended by a day - they have to be in by 10am today (ie. in half an hour, which isn't going to happen for my still uncompiled map!).

Then hurry up and compile it, maybe lep will give you some sympathy and let you give it in an hour late :wink:

Wootness! I finished! FTP-ing it now! What a great feeling. Reminds me of cross-country running. :razz:

Good luck to everyone who entered! :smile:

Come on people, hurry it up :smile: You're lucky I have ~30mb of maps to download on my 56k modem this morning!

Campaignjunkie said:
Wootness! I finished! FTP-ing it now! What a great feeling. Reminds me of cross-country running. :razz:

hmm, i never thought that lying in a ditch gasping for breath, while vomiting all over myself was a particularly good feeling.

Not everyone is that out of shape... ?_?

Help reno on his map ... poor guy put up a netvis server. Help him if you don't use the CPU power for anything else.

Download this, extract it to whatever map: http://www.snarkpit.com/pits/forceflow/netvis.zip

then run helpreno.bat

just sit back and go do something else :smile:

LOL, much appreciated mate, very kind of you :smile: However this has been running for ages and its not going anywhere, so the fast VIS'd version will have to do :sad:

NO RENO NO...FULL compile.

I'll hold my vote for you my friend!

/me huggles reno

LOL :biggrin:

We just had a nice little session on mine, CJ's and Ferret's maps. My impressions are...

Ferret's "dm_fairytale" is polished as hell with a few suspect areas, for instance the caves are a bit buggy and the waterfall is still tricky to use. We had just the right amount of people for the map I reckon (5 of us) and gameplay seemed good - plenty of up close and personal shotgun and crowbar fights in the interiors with just the right amount of spam potential for the exterior. Lack of vertical play is perhaps a bit of a worry - most of the action is single tiered - and it does mean that gauss jumping is all but pointless, but it was fun nonetheless. And of course it looks ultra-sexy, meaning it will definately be in the running for the top spot.

CJ's "Persian Letters" has more potential than pretty much any other DM map I've seen, but in its current shape it leaves quite a bit to be desired. Anomalies such as func_illusionary handrails with no clip brush, or seemingly solid bits of rubble that you can fall righ through, detract quite a bit from the stunning first impressions. It runs like a dream considering the awesome grandeur and detail, and while gameplay was hampered by some questionable weapon placement (which can be attributed both to CJ's original plans for a non-DM game mode which has so far failed to materialise, and no doubt lack of time) the layout and z-axis combat mean this could be one hell of a player as well as a looker.

My map, currently just known as "flatshaded", ran better than I expected it to given the ultra high w_poly, and was quite playable even with a 200-300 ping. As it has no weapons so as to maximise performance, the modified initial equipment provided an even playing field right from the off, every time. Unfortunately it also reduced the sense of purpose in the gameplay - normally accumulating weapons gives a reason to explore, but in flatshaded that reason is stripped away and means you might as well stand still and wait for the action to come to you. Lack of scenery variation also hurts it somewhat - time dictated I HAD to use a near symmetrical layout and this doesn't make it hugely interesting to look at or play. But it does have sharks, and lets face it, that means it should take the number one spot :razz:

CJ's "Persian Letters" was a game from the console! He took the persian feel from Price of Persia and nearly perfectly duplicated it for Halflife. He did it wonderfuly! It was great to look at! Sadly though for the 6-7 players playing, it was a tad large for any good consistent gameplay. I found myself lost and searching for players most of the time. The crossbow was tad too easy to get, but I'll attribute this to the fact he didn't have time to test the placement. I did notice his lighting was bland in parts. If the gamma was up'd more color could probably ahve been recieved. It was mostly global light which was sad. Also the ladders are a must change. Relying on so many was poor in my opinion. It got pretty annoying to try to get over some ladders. Other ladders seemed to be really far away from the actual brush! Also I tried to run over books but got stuck, use a clip brush to make a ramp out of them. Congrats on such a work of art, a little work and this will be a truly memorable deathmatch map.

Reno's "Flatshaded" was enjoyable. I found that the fact you spawned with weapons a tad disapointing though. Players simply gaussed everywhere and the action got a little tedious. Though the map was an amazing visual masterpiece. Few maps have suceeded so well in looking so god damn wonderful! The skull is an image that will stick in my mind for a long time. I gaussed up into the towers and sat there for a while enjoying the scenery. Though the one thing that stands out above all, is the sharks. That was a beautiful touch to say the least. Congrats on such a masterpiece.

My "Fairytale" was ok. I found that most of the map was polished, the last section Irushed to add simpmly did not cut it as much as I hoped. A tilted window near the awkward stairs did not go additive like the entity clearly tells it too. HOMs plagued the new caves. Clipping was ok in places, but others the hull totaly disregarded clip brushes placed to fix the errors I knew it would create. My map was incredibaly taxing on VIS taking over 11 hours on a 64bit FX-53 with a gig of ram. Reno's assessment that the vertical combat was lacking is totaly correct. My only defense was that it wasn't planned for sadly due to time constraints and other pressing mod work. Little errors that I noticed also popped up, but again I defend myself by saying "Hey cmon, I only had one compile to get the whole back area right before the map was due." One of my greatest pleasures in the map though is Alice in wonderland. From the get go I wanted it to be day outside and night inside and I wanted very much for the skies to be different for a bit of a yin yang effect. I found that if you take a dark texture and put it in the lights.rad it will be full bright, but still dark. It will also most importantly not get any shadows applied to it, making it look like its another sky brush. Though its not perfect, it did its job and I was quite pleased with it. Overall it was a wonderful little map and I urge everyone to open up the RMF in the download and take a look at it for ideas on how you can do things in the future. And remember, clip nodes are your friends.

Also I tried to run over books but got stuck, use a clip brush to make a ramp out of them.

(err, Ferret, the books are func_breakables...)

Persian Letters

• Giganormous, lots of height variation for gauss jumping/ambush
• Looks "good" apparently, according to others
  </li>
• Messed up ladders, clipping issues.
• Too open in some parts, leaving the crossbow to be too dominant.
• Water doesn't prevent fall damage (wtf?!)
• Too dark in some areas. Whoops. A bunch of areas not that polished lighting-wise and architecture-wise.
  </li>
• Need to implement dynamic King of the Hill gameplay so that
  a small amount of players can generally have a good time. In current
  state, would probably need at least 10 to provide a good pace in-game.
  
  </li>
• Not enough weapons (?)
  </li>

Fairytales

• Polished good stuff. Upside down rooms/frosting river and stuff = win
• Not nearly enough Z-Axis fighting. There's a bit in the enchanted
  house, but that's pretty much it. Due to the "single level" nature,
  shotgun is very dominant.</li>
• Some of the clip brushes aren't accurate or clip too much - the
  map looks open and should accordingly play openly. This pretty much
  prevents gauss jumping from being very effective, like ReNo said.</li>
• Too many teleports, I think. Makes the map feel like it was
  completed, so the ends were chopped off and connected with teleports.
  Though that surely isn't the case, it certainly feels like that with
  some of the teleport locations.</li>
• Not enough health or batteries.
• Giant gaping HOM in the caves, large enough to disrupt gameplay in some cases.

Flatshaded

• Cartoony. Looks great. The layout/skybox really makes the whole
  map seem incredibly vast and huge (probably because it actually is)</li>
• Giganormous r_speeds!
• Shark jumping is too hard! :smile:
  </li>
• Default weapons reduce a lot of strategy involved in DM.
  Basically all you do is jump around with gauss and stuff. There's no
  worrying about ammo, health, or armor really since you start with 100
  each.
  
  </li>
• Don't really want to say this, but the map is basically one
  giant, glorified, flatshaded killbox. But hey, at least the layout is
  easy to learn. No offense to ReNo, of course.</li>
• Crossbow way too dominant, very little in the way of cover, only solution is to keep running and moving.
  </li>

So has the deadline passed now then? When will all the maps be available to d/l? I'm waiting on them all being available so I can look at them all in one sitting :smile:

Can someone with a fast internet connection please do me a favour, and check that this map download works and isn't corrupt: http://www.snarkpit.com/maps.php?download=828 (CJ's Persia map). Getting the website to automatically download maps onto itself and need to check it's ok! Thanks.

Works for me mate. At least I can open the zip, though I haven't tried extracting everything and testing it, but I'm sure if the zip opens its fine.

and RENO WINS! :razz:

www.mapcore.net is having a glorious time with Campaign and my Maps, you guys should post yours there too and blow them away lol

Not a chance :razz:

I pimped the competition over at the HLCCL (Half-Life Clan Collision League), so that should see downloads boosted up a bit :smile:

hlgaming.com has an article up as well.

Lep, you think you can package all of them up into one mappack or something? (ignore this if you've already done/are doing this)