Single Player Mapping

Hey guys, I think just as something to do, and perhaps a portfolio project I'm goign to make a single player mod kind of thing like Dave J did. I'm writing a storyline as we speak well I guess not really a story line, but a decent plot. I don't want this to be compared to anythign like nightwatch because

A: Nightwatch maps = best thing since sliced bread

B: I am nothing compared to them.

But its more for my entertainment and yours, Anyways to the point I wanted to know if any of you have any reccomendations about mapping for Single Player, Liek things that you see in SP and you absolutly hate or things you saw and want more of. Leave some feed back?

Might mean more work for you but single player fps very rarely offer alternative routes. Would be very cool to be given the option every now and again :smile:

actually my friend said that to me too lol. That would be a cool idea if you had different routes to go on. Not a bad idea at all. Yes this will be black mesa styled too =( i know people hate that but its what I wanted.

Thanks adam I will definitly take that to mind.

Keep in mind, combat areas may seem simple, but they are incredibly hard to do well. Especially with HL's AI, which is near the low end of "retarded". Also try to keep it interesting throughout (also very difficult), and whatever you do, dont do another bloody teleporter puzzle like in HL...

Look at Big Scientists for an example... of what not to do :razz:

O dont worry I hated the teleporter puzzle, hell if I ever saw a teleporter id punch it in the head.

As for fight scenes yes these will take time to make because I want some really good ones. Nothing really boring because when its done I want to be able to play my own mod and think that Its great fun too. I have the first map started back at my dorm [ Im in english right now at 10 till 8 am ] It started off you accepted g-man's offer and you are being detained at a military base right outside of blackmesa, You are about to start your work for the deveious mr g, wehn you are awakened by the sound of a helicopter. You walk over to the window rubbing your eyes [ and yes I got ideason how to do this ] and you see a helipad surrounded by a large amout of grunts, and a crate lowering down into the middle of the pad, as the crate is lowered a large shake occurs and aliens start ripping in. A large fight scene at the helipad because the grunts are tryign to protect the large crate, grunts will repel down to help with the fight.

Then the room your in begins to glow green and shakes the window shatetrs and a wall crack and a Alien grunt teleports in, This makes you hull ass and get the hell out of the window, and then....... well i leave it like that so you will never know mwuahahahahahahahaha.....................

Sounds good... but keep in mind, "flat area with a bunch of grunts" doesnt exactly make a fun combat area. Make sure you put in lots of cover, dont go overboard with the grunts, and make sure you know how to use info_nodes (and for a helipad scene, monster_osprey is a ton of fun if used right).

Also keep in mind how powerful an alien grunt is, and how vulnerable an unarmed player would be against it. Your basic idea seems sound though, if you dont go overboard and have fun mapping, this could be a fun map/mod/whatever.

Yeah I see wha you mean, I wasent going to have no cover cause that would have been boring, un-realistic, and pretty stupid. The map it self is multi tiered [ if thats spelled right ] allowing for verticle combat, which is always great. I got the nodes system down, and the alien grunt in the room with gordon, thats an incentive to make you run like hell. Ill keep you guys updated on how everythign flows and want not. The concept behind some of my maps might make some interesting plot/turns in the story.

A: whats in the crate?

B: What did that crazy g-man have in mind for you?

My goal is to make an extreamly fun, but good/high quality HLSP mod. No code or models, just mappage of course.

I'm sure you will mostly be using default HL textures for this since it's one-player. There is, however, an enhanced version of the HL texture set floating around that you might want to use instead of the default wads. I think it was made for some mapping competition. Basically, it had all the textures properly sized to avoid blurring by the engine, and tweaked and sharpened slightly to boot. If noone else can find it, I might have it floating around someplace. It would make your map look much nicer without losing the 'classic HL' theme.

yeah that would be really cool if any one finds it or you have itp lease send it to me.

Oooh if somebody finds this post the link here, I'd be interested in that too :smile:

Singleplayer maps are an opportunity to try weird, radical things that
you normally don't do in multiplayer. Try to think of some weird
gimmicks / sequences to make your map-pack memorable. The sequence you
described sounds like a good start. But you will really want to attract
more attention to that crate then (make the crate possibly look Xen in
origin? I don't know) Some examples of memorable things for me:

• Upside-down, walking on the ceiling level (Case Closed)
• Garg chasing you while you're in a tram (1986)
• Grunt squad following you and, well, acting like a squad (Bootleg Squadrog)
• Earthquake sequence, chaos! (ETC2)

yeah some one please try to find that wad if at all possile, the crate its not the outside that makes it special its what i got planned inside. i gathered alot of ideas today during english and started to write the actual storyline and things im going to make things alot of fun and hopefully learn alot too.

ReNo said:
Oooh if somebody finds this post the link here, I'd be interested in that too :smile:

Me three.

Singleplayer maps are an opportunity to try weird, radical things that you normally don't do in multiplayer.

BIG SCIENTISTS!!!!!!! :biggrin:

But I think we con all remimber "They Hunger" even though the mapping wasnt fantastic the story line and the things you'd only see in horror movies mad up for it. I mean I actually felt bad for the shieiff and doc Franklen after I killed then. oh and I also remimber coming across a abandoned police car that was torn to shreads with the radio women saying "guys, you were suposed to bring me some burgers 2 hours ago..... guys?" that was great. :smile: If you can do something like that and really stick to the theme plus have desent mapping you'll have a winner.

What's, They Hunger?

Youve nevere heard of they hunger?

Its a trillogy of HL single player mods, very good too.

They Hunger (follow links on right)

half-dude said:
even though the mapping wasnt fantastic

Woah, many people would beg to differ. Neil Manke's work is considered highest standard in HL mapping.

Just noting: And the sheriff was (I beleive) inspired by the sheriff from the movie Smokey and the Bandit. That movie was good (but it's sequels were total crap).

"SONEBITCHES!"

Woah, many people would beg to differ. Neil Manke's work is considered highest standard in HL mapping.

Nugget is talking muck.

One of these statements is correct.

I'm not talking muck. Almost everyone with half-life would recognize his name.

And except for those horrid sprite trees, TH was really well mapped.

lol yes i did like they hunger alot, and poke646 was pretty cool, im working on this SP stuff but i have to learn alot of new entites that ive never used before.

I wouldn't know about other mods like they hunger, i've only been on the HL scene for about a year and a half.

single player fps very rarely offer alternative routes. Would be very cool to be given the option every now and again :smile:

Pfft, I've always been told not to do it cause it leads the player astray and possibly in circles

half-dude said:
even though the mapping wasnt fantastic

I try'd to say that as nice as i could (I could have said the mapping was'nt very good, how'd you like that :cool: ) the firnature and inside things were very good like the vise with the wood plank in it with the saw in it was very good its just the outside areas werent that good, which meny people commented on. But I do think it was good. I was probibly the texture quality, it was very HL wadish

I've seen to meny pictures of Night Watch

heres a snarkpit review of TH >>>http://www.snarkpit.com/features.php?page=reviews&id=9

Geeze, it was made nearly 4 years ago. I still think it looks rather
nice, personally. And the gameplay is still mostly unrivaled to this
day... Which is kind of depressing, actually. You would think people
would play this and learn their mistakes. shrug :smile:

Blah, They Hunger was boring and confusing to boot. USS Darkstar was cool until the areas that had r_speeds in the 1000s and like 10 transparent brushes at once (back in 1999 or whatever this was bad). I've always felt that Manke was a hack who couldn't accept any criticism and made levels that alternated from genius to awful. There were so many instances where the path the player was supposed to take was so unobvious to me that I'd get frustrated and quit in disgust. A comparison: I got stuck once in HL where you're supposed to get pushed up by the fan in Blast Pit. I would get stuck at least once in every new area in They Hunger.

eh, maybe I'm just stupid.

Yeah, sometimes it wasn't too clear and you're left wondering what to
do. I think I prefer that to being lead by the hand constantly though.
I'll never forget the first time I stepped into the mansion and was
kind of creeped out... Or the time when I listened to the guy's
recording, then turned around and there was a scientist behind me!
Almost shot him in the face. I guess I'm scared / entertained too easily. :smile:

perhaps i'm just wayyy too bitter and busy complaining to just have fun playing? :biggrin:

Campaignjunkie said:
Or the time when I listened to the guy's recording, then turned around and there was a scientist behind me! Almost shot him in the face. I guess I'm scared / entertained too easily. :smile:

yea they have good voice acting in it.