"Diner" map

Screenshots: http://www.ryandor.com/diner.html
Download: http://www.ryandor.com/hl/diner.zip (311 kb)

This is my second map that I've released.
Originally just thrown together for me and a friend, I decided to touch it up and release it. Since this was just a quick map, there's not a lot of optimization. R_speeds get to ~1000 in a couple places, but a decent spec machine can handle it fine.

Map details:
Basic small diner, with most weapons. Designed as a "king of the hill" where one person/team controls the diner and the other person/team tries to take it over. Ideal for 2 to 4 players. I may make this into a CS or TFC map eventually (especially if someone requests it), when I get a bit better at making maps.

E-mail me/reply with any comments on the map, praise or criticism. Any feedback is much appreciated: ryandor@ryandor.com
I'm particularily looking for "flow" feedback. Does the gameplay flow ok? For others?
Thanks.

-Ryandor

This is a great second map, I like this. It's original, but I'd make it bigger. Maybe like a city type area, include a parkin garage and maybe some other buildings. Just a thought. :rolleyes:

Good detail to everything; the only thing I can suggest is more outside objects. Like Wiggum said; even a parking lot; not even a garage just a lot with maybe a section of a street with a bus stop and some street lights. The Actual dinner looks good for a 2nd map.

Thanks for the positive feedback!

I did consider making it bigger, but like I said, it was originally just a throw-together map. However, I am considering putting this into a bigger overall map, like a city map. The bus stop/street is a good idea as well.
thinks

Thanks again.

-Ryandor

Ok, I hope this helps a bit

This looks terribly ugly :sad:  I recommend using a different env. or put up some walls.

The textures on the cabinets are stretched to the point when they look ugly.

Once again this door texture is stretched too much. I assume you pressed shift+a and hit 'fit' is many cases. This tool is sometimes handy but doesn't work all the time.

This screen basically shows the whole map. Its by far too small.

Overall this is an ok map for your second. I recommend putting a bit more time into your maps to increase your skills as a mapper. Your map has a lot of good points yet there are some aspects that let it down. Work on the weak spots and you will be making spiffy looking maps in no time :smile:

You should make maps for The Specialists Roleplay. That looks just like Westminster.

OK I feel somewhat obligated to reply here :razz:

Nice work as it stands, just like everybody else says needs more. Much more. Also, don't be afraid to look into more exciting textures other than the standard Half Life packs.  You obviously have an eye for details so keep going with it. I feel the sky map is to urban for the map also. I see this diner as maybe part of a highway oasis with maybe like a gas station, small-ish, and a highway going by. You could maybe put in mountains in the back and or some such thing. Just my opinion though. Have a look at some other diner type maps at my site:

http://www.hotdeathdiner.com?SHOWMAPID=490

 

First let me say, Juim, that is an incredible map! Quite a bit further up the chain than I am, but hopefully I'll get there eventually.

Other points made. Yes, I'm rather unhappy with the sky, but it was the closest thing out of the standard skys that fit an urban feel. The "desert highway" idea is a better one. Why didn't I think of that? :P

One of the issues I have is including anything that can't be inbedded into the wad. Textures are no problem, but skys, sounds, etc must be seperate. I tend to want to fall on the "easy" side for others to play the map. The "just drop the bsp into /valve/map and play", but obviously the quality suffers for it. Is there a way to make it an optional thing, short of making two versions (one with custom sky, etc and one with standard stuff)?

Textures: God I suck at textures. Period. I really don't have an eye for textures. I actually had a friend sitting here giving suggestions so credit goes to her. Part of the problem is the "game scale." I've got it down for the most part, but things like doors can be a problem. (also, take a look at the file cabinet in game. It's too big.) The scale then throws off my textures. Sure it lines up decent, but if the door, whatever is too big, then the texture is too big as well. I think that's my biggest downfall at this point. That, and detial.

Detail: Yes, it's too small, and too open. I fell into the trap early in this map with the windows. This is why the map isn't as big as it could be, and why there's basically nothing outside the diner proper. I thought (when I started) that the map was small enough to handle it, but I was dead wrong. The diner originally had a whole other row of booths, but I was dropping 400+ polys in software mode.

Granted, even though this was a throw-together map for a friend, and for such, it's fine, but I really should have remade it from scratch for general release.

Thanks agian for the comments. Keep them coming if you feel the need.

-Ryandor

Thats a nice map for your 2nd. a bit more detail on the textures and it`ll be a nice DM level!

You don't need to include the e-poly value, unless you have no weapons out. E polys are model polys, so it changed when you have a weapon drawn out. I.e. holding a tau cannon will give a higher e poly value than if you hold out a crowbar...

I hope this really is just a beta, because it feels like a good start, but very unfinished.  Like most have said already, the outside's rather bland and there's numerous questionable texture alignment issues.  On the brightside, you did put standard HL textures to good use in the diner, you could go for custom, but what you have right now works.  The skybox has definitely gotta be switched out, it really doesn't go well with the map. 

Expanding the outside is gonna bring up quite a bit of r_speed issues with stuff around the diner.  My suggestion is to sort of tuck the place in some sort of alley setting, give it a good and logical separation from whatever you do to expand the outside, so both areas can coexist without bringing up performance issues.  Also for the outside, you may want to look for some custom textures, since it can be tricky to make standard HL textures look urban. 

Mind, this is just what I've seen on the screenshots provided by both you and Diablo.  I'll dl the map and see what can be done to optimize because you did say the r_speeds are peaking already.

Okay, I've gone through the map and seen a bit of what could possibly be optimized. 

Here you'll what to convert this into a func_wall to prevent those breakups. 

 

You may or may not want to convert this dumpster into a func_wall, as it might loose the shadow it casts from the door light.



 

This is the real killer of your r_speeds, there's these small brush breakups all over the place, this was the worst I could find, but I've noticed quite a few small breakups running from one end to the other of the diner.

 

I hope that helps in spotting some of the problems in the diner area.