el Competitione Thrẽad Officiale

I can't really due to my connection, BUT if someone does ZIP up all the maps into one and puts it online somewhere I can try to get this site to automatically download/upload it...

Hm, I could do that for ya lep ... do I have to just put all the small zip files into one bigger zip ?

I could transfer them to a host I have pass/login of, but it can't be up there for long ... 4 hours, maximum.

Let me know, by PM or something.

I think it would be better extracting all the zips into a dummy valve directory and then zipping that. Would mean people could just go and unzip one file to their half-life folder.

force, i've started uploading the zip that i made earlier.

i find it quicker to make one big zip if i'm installing lots of maps together.

all i do is put all the maps in a folder on the desktop. the zips that have 'valve' root folder get right clicked/extract here. then drop the others into the valve folder thats just been made, and right-click/extract here. everything ends up in the right place, other than the couple that are only a zipped bsp+txt. they're easy enough to drag and drop to their right folders.

the zips like persia and hogwarts, that want to be unzipped to their very own folder :razz: get r-c/extract here. then 2 seconds to make a new zip from the contents of the unwanted root folder, that can be extracted as above.

simple, and it means i avoid 20 episodes of guiding the winzip wizard all down my directory tree to the bowels of steam. maybe thats why it seems a lot quicker.

How are we supposed to judge these maps? Are we supposed to look soley upon the chosen theme and how well it was implimented, or are we supposed to judge them as DM maps first? Some of these maps work very well as DM maps, but have a paper thin or poorly executed theme (A_S's and mine respectively), while others are average DMs at best but with awesome themes (CJ's and ReNo's). And where should we draw the line on errors? Obviously some are inevitable (and can be overlooked), but at what point do they get excessive enough to drown out the DM/theme strengths?

I don't know, I guess everyone has to decide how they judge by themselves.

For me, I took theme into the higher regard. Of course playability was
a concern, but a unique theme/style was the whole point of the contest.
I chose to do something I normally wouldn't do, or wouldn't fit into
the world of Half-Life. Like take Thanto for example - it's a good,
polished map with great flow. But what would have stopped A_S
from making the same map outside the context of this competition? The
theme seems to be some sort of urban/tech base, which is sadly kind of
generic in terms of uniqueness (no offense, really).

I took a risk with a fairly exotic theme (and kind of failed :biggrin: ), but
that's how I'm going to judge these maps when I'm voting - how
unorthodox was the theme and style. I'm not much of an HLDM player; I
guess I don't really appreciate a map with good weapon placement or
anything, so that's probably the reason behind my logic. That's not to
say I'll ignore playability entirely, but, well, you hopefully
understand what I'm trying to say by now. [/stupid_rambling]

Playability with no theme to it hasn't paid attention to the rules; theme with no playability also ignores the "it should be a playable Half-Life Deathmatch map" rule (but perhaps to a lesser extent, but the whole purpose of this and previous competitions has been to make a DM map). So I guess, theme comes first but no playability should severely 'discredit' it...

I say this having not looked at many of the maps btw, so I'm not picking on anyone :razz:

Hi everybody. First of all, great site with great maps.

As some of you might have read on the HLCCL forums (from which I am banned :razz: ) every map from the Mapping Competition, and loads of others are available on these servers:

Pure Chaos AG6.6 #=pc= [ARENA]|15ms|131.211.231.89:27015
Pure Chaos AG6.6 #=pc= [TDM]|19ms|131.211.231.89:27020

It's Steam, HL AG. You can download AGmod here: http://www.uhl-null.de/storage/ag_66.exe

To vote a map, you have to bring down the console and type:

vote <mapname>

To vote on a vote that someone has started, simply type yes or no in console.

A few weeks ago, I've uploaded about every single map there is on the Pure Chaos AG6.6 server. Latest count of maps available is approximately 1315 :smile: . If you feel like your map needs to be on it, contact me on irc: irc.quakenet.org , channel #=pc=.

Regards,

crz aka Rush|PC

Thanks crz.

I've decided not to review maps which are obviously incomplete or not really worth a review- atrium and smallest_map_ever both come to mind right now. I'm not sure about flatshaded and the other 'halfway there' maps- persia, fairytale etc.- I will review them if they are finished and you won't do any more work on them, otherwise a full review can be deferred to when they're complete (if you want). Pulse and Abstract Towers both have full reviews written up for them (well, pending some playtesting anyway!)- I'm going to upload the Abstract Towers one, but the score reflects it as a map rather than a competition entry and how I've judged it for that. However, all entries will have a bit written about them for the competition page describing them quickly and talking about their theme.

Sounds reasonable to me. I'm not sure if flatshaded will get anymore
work from me, I'm kinda "mapped out" at the moment. I might take it on
as one of my first HL2 projects, I can imagine it being far more suited
to that engine.

Dont know if I'll ever have the time to ever touch fairytale again. Sadly, but Nightwatch comes first and I have a ton of work to it. So go ahead and review it, though I fear your review of the caves which were a total disaster and have let me down completely (so skip them :smile: ~)

I mean like 90% of the map was polished and playtested for this compettion with playability in mind. I threw in that last bit for gameplay reasons with Reno's bickering :smile:

And it seems my plan to sabotage the overall polish of your map has succeeded! Haha!

Go ahead and review Persian - same situation as Ferret. I imagine it
probably won't get a good score at all... whatever! But I think I
should get bonus points for making pretty much most of my textures,
getting most of my own sounds, and making the map so giganormous when I
didn't have to! I could have chopped out all the bad parts and polished it up some more, but that would be the wrong thing to do! gives Lep giant bribe :smile:

oh please CJ, I made textures just like you and had people make models in which I SKINNED. So there! Hpmh :razz: Just look at how many clip brushes I used to get it to work right :smile: ~

3d melee rocked.

so did fairytale.

parallaxion was real good too.

persion letters.

and of course pulse.

to me. though most of the maps were good or even great. they didnt fit the themed concept enoufe. some were not done. or glitchy.

3d melee got my vote and pulse. 3d melee was made after a existing thing. or game. where pulse was totally orgional.

either way some of these maps were totally awsome. im fiquring some of the best mappers around.

mrnatural said:
either way some of these maps were totally awsome. im fiquring some of the best mappers around.

He thinks that were some of the best mappers , i love you man

First off, I didn't download dm_fishy or dm_hogwarts. Something about that 10meg download...sorry! I'll comment on them later today.

--QUICK OVERVIEW--
THEME
fully realised theme: persia, dm_fairytale, flatshaded, melee3d, dm_pulse, paralaxion
theme needs some work: reclamation, zgz, superman, skull_cave, dm_abstracttowers, dm_sorrow
there's a theme?: thanto, black, atrium, omni_arena, flatkillbox

CONSTRUCTION/DESIGN
solid, polished map: reclamation, thanto, dm_sorrow, paralaxion
some problems, but still good: zgz, flatshaded, superman, melee3d, persia, dm_pulse, omni_arena, dm_fairytale
why did you bother?: skull_cave, black, atrium, dm_abstracttowers, flatkillbox

PLAYABILITY
quality dm map: reclamation, thanto, zgz, dm_sorrow, paralaxion, dm_fairytale
look at my graphics, not my gameplay: flatshaded, persia, dm_pulse
suck: superman, skull_cave, melee3d, black, atrium, dm_abstracttowers, omni_arena, flatkillbox

--COMMENTS-- (note that I haven't played these online with other people)
dm_abstracttowers
pros:
-looks like you're stuck in a hampster house, where you get to run around all those plastic pipes

cons:
-the symmetry was unnecessary, some variety would have been nice
-not enough headroom
-a little too simple

atrium
pros:
-those models are nice
-the roof access was a good idea

cons:
-it looks like it was compiled wrong
-tons of small brush errors
-too small
-not much of an obvious theme

black
pros:
-you mastered the art of using the color gray

cons:
-looks like the basement was a last second idea after seeing dm_pulse
-rubble looks like ass, or at least too angular
-connectivity pretty poor, too many small cramped areas, ladders, and dead ends
-the red arrows take you out of the grayscale theme

dm_fairytale
pros:
-crawl into oven = win
-great textures
-construction looks solid ignoring the HOM
-outdoors/open areas look great and probably play great
-theme obvious and well executed

cons:
-way too many teleporters
-too many snags
-seemed too cramped in the indoor areas
-waterfall works like 1/4 the time
-connectivity/flow problems (see the above four comments)

dm_pulse
pros:
-looks unique
-architecture works well with the texture choices
-the moving things look cool

cons:
-some walls need to be clipped
-difficult to tell where the floor ends and the wall begins in some areas
-blindingly white and bright
-perhaps the gray texture should have been used more in the hallways, on floors, and on ceilings?

dm_sorrow
pros:
-very atmospheric sounds and vegetation
-you can almost taste the sorrow

cons:
-doesn't look polished as there's not enough variety
-there needs to be more vegetation, more grass covered rubble, more graves/crypts/old bones
-why are there a bunch of floodlights but no excavation team?

flatkillbox
pros:
-its correctly compiled...

cons:
-its a killbox
-too many high powered weapons in a tiny area
-could have made an arena map with the amount of effort you put into this

flatshaded
pros:
-looks awesome
-great use of flatshading + architecture
-has sharks

cons:
-r_speeds just a tad too high
-giving the players all those guns is no fun
-there is no reason why the blue water should kill upon touching it. Instead you should have allowed people to play around in the water, but only so far from shore. Perhaps 128 units out there'd be a trigger hurt that takes off 5 per sec as a warning to turn around, then 160 units out instant death.

melee3d
pros:
-architexture looks great
-awesome texturing
-very strong theme

cons:
-r_speeds seem way too high
-there are some snags plus brushes with seams sticking out
-there's no excuse for the missing textures. It's ok to reuse textures in a map...
-theme gets in the way of the gameplay. Some areas are way too tight and there's little combat space or headroom.

omni_arena
pros:
-unique, that's for sure
-works as an arena map

cons:
-i get a lower framerate here than on Flatshaded. That's a problem...
-the floaty, pointy thing is pointless detail that could have been used better elsewhere in the map
-texturing is kinda lame
-eventually it turns into a big ol' killbox, which isn't that fun.

paralaxion
pros:
-looks nifty, reminds me of that Diablo 2 level
-r_speeds are great considering that you can see the whole map
-construction/architecture is awesome

cons:
-why did you put the beegun in? Why did you put it in a corner where you can see the whole map and hit everyone? Do you like the beegun?
-that rubble should rotate as it spins, but maybe that's not realistic
-the jump pads almost never work. You get pitched into the cold void more often than not.
-weapon placement is iffy, since i could grab the gauss, the hivehand, and the egon in about 15 seconds. That's a bit excessive. I'd put the rpg up there instead of the egon.

persian
pros:
-map looks and feels epic
-great texturing
-some awesome looking rooms
-looks very promising for HLDM. Some of these areas would be classic battlegrounds (the zoo area especially), but they're let down by the connectivity and errors.

cons:
-big huge dead end in baths area
-can fall out of the map
-lighting could have used some work
-models vary from being clipped to not, make up your mind!
-func_illusionary rubble thats 4 times the size of the player?
-ladders suck in dm, these ladders suck in general. Plus the red and gray ones don't fit the theme to boot.
-some areas (especially some of the hallways) are just too large for HLDM (no cover, take ages to move through them). This is the same problem that I felt let down almost all of Peter Manson's maps.
-invisible teleporter in the rocks above the zoo? :razz:

reclamation
pros:
-not too dark
-solid construction, well tested minus the weapon placement
-rubble/destruction looks good to me

cons:
-too many 357s, too many weapons close together
-two or three snags in map is two or three too many
-theme not as well conveyed as I would have liked (no blood decals, not enough infestation, no gibs)
-no env_sounds (i wanted to use them, but there wasn't enough time)

skull_cave
pros:
-cool skull
-don't seem to be any noticeable errors

cons:
-too small and simple
-why is there a pirate ship on the beach?
-rockwork is too simplistic

superman
pros:
-Theme works in an unintended way

cons:
-DC comics suck, and so does Superman. I mean, cmon, why does everyone and his brother have kryptonite? And what about that obvious cash grab with Doomsday and the Death of Superman?

thanto
pros:
-I'm glad you no longer have scurvy A_S
-very nice textures
-solid construction and architecture
-great connectivity

cons:
-there's little evidence that two people made this map beyond the opening title

zgz
pros:
-cool design and layout
-low gravity areas well done
-architecture works very well
-good texturing
-reminds me of UT in some ways

cons:
-too many crates, its obvious you ran out of ideas
-doesn't look polished enough
-those models are weak
-too many texture misalignments than should be acceptable
-i managed to get stuck in the big push...thing
-this really could have used some infestation...perhaps if we merged our themes? :biggrin:

I'd say the finalists are reclamation, thanto, persia, dm_fairytale, dm_sorrow, melee3d, paralaxion, and flatshaded.

flatshaded, unfortunately, is disqualified right off the bat for not following competition guidelines.
reclamation is too rooted in traditional HL themes to deserve winning a themed contest. I'm not going to vote for my own map, but nobody else will either. It's just too bad few people seem to like it... :sad:
thanto is a great map and all the more remarkable for a first release. The problem is that there isn't a strong theme, and just like for Reclamation I couldn't vote for it to win a themed contest.
dm_sorrow is above average in many ways, but it's missing much of the necessary polish to win against these other maps. I really like the theme but it wasn't explored enough. If this had a fully developed theme it would beat many of these final maps.
melee3d looks great and has great atmosphere, ignoring all those checkerboards. However, this is not an acceptable DM map. It's frustrating enough to run around it offline. I can't imagine how hellish it would be in a real game. Sometimes the theme gets in the way of the gameplay, and this is a prime example.
persia is a map brimming with potential as a DM map, but it has some sizable issues with flow and connectivity that get in the way. All those construction errors don't help either. Great theme though.
dm_fairytale has a great theme and plays reasonably well, but the connectivity is off. Whenever there's a ton of teleporters all over the place that don't fit into the theme there's a serious problem. A few big errors such as an almost non-functional waterfall jump and a HOM the size of a truck don't help.
paralaxion is a simple map that works well as a dm and has a strong, cohesive theme throughout. The only real weakness is some uncooperative jumppads that like to kill you. I can deal with that.

If I were to vote today:
1st - paralaxion
2nd - dm_fairytale
3rd - persia
4th - reclamation (because I can)

:O dm_hogwarts is only 7 meg! not 10!

whatever. do you think it's better than any of the maps I chose as finalists? cause if you do I'll download it and comment.

EDIT: all right, ill download both of them and comment later today :razz:

I think that I did a pretty good job on it, it has some pretty nice architecture and a nice theme.

It's for you to decide whether its a good map or not.

How is flatshaded against the rules?

r_speeds my good man. they average above 1000 and can get above 4000 if you're skilled with a gauss.

dm_hogwarts r_speeds average is about 8-900, in one area I think they max at about 1000

Wow... I've never managed to top 600-700 on a full vis

Then again, its probably due to lack of extreme detail.

Atrium's theme was limited textures. Maybe you didn't notice, but the
map uses about ... 6 textures in total. It's a crappy map, but still
... it sure meets the competition's rules.

Yak_Fighter said:
-there needs to be more vegetation, more grass covered rubble, more graves/crypts/old bones
-why are there a bunch of floodlights but no excavation team?

Regarding dm_sorrow, I agree with the point about more vegetation and stuff. I left it as it was as throughout the maps development, I was trying to keep the map chugging along at a decent pace - lots of models = lower fps.

More rubble would have been nice too, that was originally planned and would be there were it not for engine limitations. I've got to the point where adding a brush to the map, causes a face to drop of another randomly somewhere in the map. I've been through the rmf countless times economising on brushes and its simply got to the point where I can't add any more.

And the excavation team? Err...they all dug up a bunch of guns and decided to run around and shoot each other...as you do :wink:

HUH.....i thought melee 3d rocked. and pulse.

lots of differant tastes i quess.

yeah pulse gave me the idea for my basement...that and renos map....

the 3d map gave me a new idea for map where its realistic and uses flat shaded textures..it might be good..haha

i dont think my maps great...at least for a first map.

I can understand the frustration with the waterfall, but it works when you know how to use it. Not much of an excuse but I'm deeply rooted into the fact its one of the most unique bounce pads ever. And dont blame me man, blame HL's clipping code. If there is any angle at all in the clip nodes, the player will bounce on it and shoot you back. So the trick is dont sit next to the clip nodes, a little infront of them. As for the HOMs I've already explained why they occur. Your comments on the connectivity seem a little confusing. When playing online with 6 people I found there were no issues with connectivity with the background areas. Maybe I was misinformed but thats how it played in my eyes. Reno? CJ?

I found the connectivity to be generally OK. The only thing that fuddled it a bit was the teleporters that teleported you straight back to where you came from :razz: But I think you already mentioned that was an unintended bug.

I ran through all of the competition maps last nite.

ReNo - for god's sake LOSE THE SEAGULL SOUNDS! and don't kill someone if they step into the water!! Gah! And add some weapons...dude, afterall it's a DEATHMATCH MAP!

Loved superman!!! Awesome theme. I pick it as a winner. JMW... hat's off to ya man! Especially liked the flying section

Flatkillbox looks like alot of fun too...nice. Lower the sound of the central lasers tho...it's way too loud and gets old real fast.

All the dm maps...sorry, I won't play them ever again. No good. Where are the weapons? afterall it's a DEATHMATCH MAP!

Persian Letters...classic! very very nice. I'd take the lame pics of people off the walls tho. They take away from the map immensely. The map woulda had my vote for winner...but the pics ruined it for me.

Parralaxion. cool. Nice arena with ups and downs. Don't make people die if they fall off tho. Also the ambient sounds gets old fast.

Reclamation. Typical Yak map theme. Nothing new here. Hope there's a LJ in it lol..couldn't find it tho.

Other than that...lotta n00b stuff here with carved brushes and places to get stuck in. Plus a couple maps caused HL to crash.

I vote for Superman!!! nice theme. great playability. fun.

DocRock said:
All the dm maps...sorry, I won't play them ever again. No good. Where are the weapons? afterall it's a DEATHMATCH MAP!

Parralaxion. cool. Nice arena with ups and downs. Don't make people die if they fall off tho. Also the ambient sounds gets old fast.

OK...not everyone likes to have a shedload of weapons left, right and centre in their maps. It's sometimes fun to work for your weapons (my personal preference).

What would you propose happens should you fall off on Parralaxion? There's nothing to fall onto so the logical thing to do would be to expire.

f**king thanto is a noob map? stfu

Doc, why do you deliberately choose your words to incense people?

The best thing about it though, I suppose, is no-one reacts :razz:

shuffles off elsewhere

I don't think he realises that Orph, the only person that cared is gone.

Doc, I couldn't put in weapons for one reason - r_speeds. W_poly in my map is already insane and makes the map mostly unplayable on anything other than a high spec computer. Adding in weapons, which would be seen from most places on the island, would bump the e_poly up to unacceptable levels and make it run even worse. I had to make a judgement call, and that was to make it a little fast action arena. Besides, this was built in mostly a few days and purely on the visual front, how it played was never a huge concern to be fair, nor was making it a winning map.

Persian Letter's pictures rock :razz:

not very encouraging when the only comment i see about mine was along the lines of, "bleh, dm_fishy, nah, didn't even dl that one"

<P :frown:
:sad:

DM_FISHY by Fishy

I think that this map will come into its own when
playing with people. There are nice parts to the map but not a
consistant "wow" factor. Little details like the rotating wine vats
being powered by rats are nice but few and far between. Overall
lighting was a little dark I felt, but then I was running lower than
usual brightness and gamma as it tends to make most maps look more
atmospheric. Textures made it feel too much like a CS map or something,
which I guess isn't an inherently bad thing, but it just didn't push
the right buttons for me. Again, I think it has good potential for
playability, with, from what little I played of it, decent connectivity
and vertical layout variation, but it just lacks the oomph to make it
feel like something special.

RECLAMATION by Yak_Fighter

In my limited time running around it (20 maps to
check out, time was limited!) I found the layout to be confusing, but
had no doubts it would be great once learnt with a wealth of route
options open from any give area. Weapon placement seemed good, in
particular the gauss placement, which was in exactly the same sort of
trough location I was going to give it in Angelic. To top it off, it
looked lovely, which was especially impressive given the overall low
r_speeds and the feeling of integration that the layout suggested.

Despite these positive points, the map wasn't flawless. The theme
was a good one but under-developed, with only certain limited areas
feeling particularly over run or even touched by Xen infestation. While
this wouldn't be counted as an outstandingly negative point in normal
circumstances, given the theme of the contest it became more important.
Lighting was, in my opinion, overly dark from a playability point of
view, and even from a visual standpoint.

Despite these failings, Reclamation felt like the map most
reminiscent of the great HLDM maps, and I've no doubt that it will be
one of the under-rated gems of the contest that those whom give a
chance and actually play, will be pleasantly surprised with.

I'll be doing more of these over the next few days, and may rewrite a
few after giving them a bit of a more thorough run through.

Thats what happens when you make an island like that. You should have maybe put up some walls to divide the island into quarters. It would have helped r_speeds a bit, and not detract from the island look.

I don't think it would have helped r_speeds - the walls wouldn't be
splitting the area in vis segments, just playabilty sections. These
walls would add to the polycount overall of the map, and all of the map
is basically visible regardless of whether there are walls, meaning it
would have increased the w_poly overall. Had I been able to run the map
with full vis, then it might have helped out a little while below the
level of the wall but made matters worse when above the wall height. It
was, essentially a no-win sitation, without changing the layout of the
map entirely, which the deadline didn't allow for.

DocRock said:
Reclamation. Typical Yak map theme. Nothing new here. Hope there's a LJ in it lol..couldn't find it tho.

I didn't realize you could have a typical theme after releasing only two previous maps? And yes, there's an LJ :razz:

Fishy, I'm downloading your map right now. Sorry bout not including you and sloth in the first place.

Ferret, I'll run around it again. Perhaps I judged it too quickly.

Reno, thanks for the comments!

Persian Letter's pictures rock :razz:

Ditto! Best portraits evr~

And, um, how did you NOT find the LJ in Reclamation? I played the map
for 5 minutes, and I still remember that it's in that big central arena
thing, on the edge/corner of the platform. Or am I going insane?

Lep's portrait is obvious pandering for his vote. :razz:

And yes, the LJ is right where you describe it. I think your LJ is in the upper corner on top of a ruined wall above, maybe, the barracks? I think I fell out of the map trying to get it though.

MAN I AM SO BUMED THAT I COULDENT PARTISAPATE IN THIS CONTEST I WAS JUST SO BUSY.

Lep's portrait is obvious pandering for his vote. :razz:

Nonsense! Where do you get these silly, SILLY ideas?! :smile:

I have 2 LJ's, actually, One at the ruined wall, the other is in the
otherside of the map in the Zoo. But in the Zoo, the only way to get to
it is to open the gate and run across the top of it.

DocRock said:
All the dm maps...sorry, I won't play them ever again. No good. Where are the weapons? afterall it's a DEATHMATCH MAP!

dm_hogwarts has weapons. It has the lazer thingy in the room above the classroom [ you have to jump from a chair onto the lantern then onto the balcony and go through the door :wink: ]

Lol, are you telling me it only has one? For some reason, I didn't even think about weapons as I was running around Hogwarts. I'll do comments on it later on once I've had another look.

ReNo said:
Lol, are you telling me it only has one? For some reason, I didn't even think about weapons as I was running around Hogwarts. I'll do comments on it later on once I've had another look.

nope, it aws just an example, i think i've got at least one of each weapon in there.

what the hell do you mean dm_fairytale doesn't have weapons? They are thrown all about. Furthermore they are all marked by blue lit drawers... You obviously are a moron and did'nt run through half of these maps. The maps you slandered didn't deserve your backlash for all the hardwork put into them. For those of us who he slandered, ignore him, your maps are well worth the effort you put into them.

Ferret said:
what the hell do you mean dm_fairytale doesn't have weapons? They are thrown all about. Furthermore they are all marked by blue lit drawers... You obviously are a moron and did'nt run through half of these maps. The maps you slandered didn't deserve your backlash for all the hardwork put into them. For those of us who he slandered, ignore him, your maps are well worth the effort you put into them.

awwwwwwwwww thanks ferret :smile:

dm_fishy
pros:
-i liked many of those models, they were well made and well used
-some areas (like the outdoor areas) looked good and offered multilayered combat areas, which is a good thing
-the layout seemed rather good for how large it is

cons:
-the texturing is fine, but too simple. Also, there's not enough variation to break up the monotony. This is especially true for the cellar area.
-the architecture needed work. Everything was clean and simple, which is good, but some areas were too simple. There needed to be more supports, more ledges, more variation throughout.
-you used a prefab truck, but not my prefab truck? For shame! :razz: At least mine doesn't have any obvious errors...
-the indoor house-like area was way too cramped and sucky. The map would have been much better off if it had been given the chop or replaced.

This map is average, but it shows potential. You had some well designed areas that probably play really well. However, you need to focus on your architecture and texturing, as that's what let this map down. With a little more work and experience you could be making some great maps. Probably wouldn't hurt to reign yourself in a little bit and make a smaller map next time, as you can spend more time perfecting the smaller sections.

dm_hogwarts
pros:
-I know little of Harry Potter, being neither 10 nor British (or both), but it seemed obvious that you had a different theme working here somewhat cohesively.
-the entity-based sections and things you have work and work well (stairs, pendulum), which can be difficult for newer mappers to figure out
-simple yet workable architecture in some areas, texturing was good enough for a beginner
-many of the details were well made (books, chairs, paintings, etc)

cons:
-the map has no connectivity whatsoever from what I could tell. It's basically one big line of rooms with only two entrances per area. That's bad for DM. Each section needs at least three ways in and out and there should be no unjustified dead ends.
-there are a lot of inexplicable things going on, like the bulletproof invisible wall in the tunnels and the clip brush blocking off the back of the house in the outdoors. It's cool that you're trying to add inaccessible detail, but it helps to not make it look like its part of the playing area :razz:
-I don't know how you managed to have so many HOM's in the outdoor area. You need to be careful with that vertex editing
-clip those couches! you can't run through your couch in real life, can you?

It's obvious that you don't have a firm grasp on what makes a good DM level. That's ok, it comes with experience. You should look at other maps, like stalkyard, boot_camp, or datacore, and learn what makes a good layout. You can convey a theme, which is something I couldn't do for my first two years of mapping, so that's a good start in that regard. You are already a more asthetically talented mapper than I was after two years of work. Now you just have to work on gameplay.

dm_fairytale revisitied.
I learned how to map in 1998 from people like HellBringer at Wavelength and Radium, so I have a lot of notions about DM mapping that are probably outdated in this day and age. Things like requiring hallways to be at least 128 units wide, using no crawling or airduct areas, keeping doorways big and wide (keep the correctly proportioned doors in SP where they belong!), no snags, no detail to get in the way of the gameplay, gameplay over theme, etc. I realize many people don't think this, so I usually just keep it to myself when commenting unless it's so bad that it can't be ignored (melee3d for example). So my complaints about your map (getting snagged by detail in the Hobbit area, doorways too small, stairways too steep, crawling areas, etc) aren't the only factors. My problem with your connectivity/flow are those little things plus some big things that add up. First off, the waterfall simply does not work in gameplay situations. I spent five minutes jumping up it and made it out once. If I can't do it while dicking around on a LAN, how's someone supposed to use it as an escape mid-firefight? If it's not reliable it's not worth using, and that hurts the connectivity between those two big areas. Another problem is the super-long hallway that starts at the hobbit hole opposite the waterwheel, goes through the HOM cave, and doesn't stop until you get to the alice underground area. That's a huge hallway that really hurts connectivity. There needed to be at least two or three branches at some point to free you from that one path. The final problem that's basically everything combined together is that while running through your map it felt like I was walking on eggshells. Off the flat beaten path were tons of snags and angles that you can get caught on that hamper maneuverability. All those little detail bits like rounded door trims and lips just serve to interfere with you running around. When playing you want to feel confident that you and your ability will decide who wins and who loses any given battle, not the map construction (will I get caught on the pointy grass? Oh, Player11 got stuck running backwards, time to strike!).

My personal rule of thumb for my maps is that if I can't run backwards reasonably well throughout the map or if I can't hop anywhere and everywhere, then the map is getting in the way of gameplay, and I'm not going to let that happen.

Anyways, as evidenced by that last line, I'm a moron who shouldn't be allowed near a map review site. I'm just one vote, I'm sure I won't cast the deciding one. :razz: