Installation:
The zip file contains all of the entries in proper folder structure, just extract to <your steam dir>\half-life 2\hl2\

snark_mfb01_round1.zip (filefront)

To load them type 'map snark' in console and use your arrow keys to select one, then hit Enter.

While you play pay extra attention to: Aesthetics (How good it looks), Craftmanship (How well it's built/runs), Creativity (How awesome the idea is!), and Game Flow (This one's a bit ethereal, does it flow well from one event or area to the next?)

Once you've played them all vote for your favorite!

(NOTE: I had to set my graphics to DirectX 8.0 (from 9.0 with SM3 or dxlevel 95) for Finger's and Riven's to even load, but they worked fine on DX8. I think it's probably a problem on my end, but just in case, 'mat_dxlevel 80' sets HL2 to use DirectX 8.0)

Hmm... I compiled with HDR. Wonder if that could be an issue?

<div class="abouttext">Message submitted 56 minutes after original post:</b></div>
Just played through them and wanted to note a few things..

Stadric: I didn't see anything in the map... at least no enemies or npc's. Is something broken?

Redwood: A full and proper compile, without leaks would be a good idea =D

• I don't know if this happens to other people, but if I run a 'fullbright' map, every map after that is fullbright, until I restart halflife. So, if anyone plays Redwoods map first and then happens to get fullbright maps for the other three - restart halflife.

or you could use mat_fullbright 0

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Signature? What signature!?

that's too easy.

Okay, played them all.

My vote goes for finger, very well made, and well designed. Had me wishing It was an entire SP level set.

Redwood: Nice idea, but unfortunately, it was just that, an idea.

Riven: A very nice idea, built a tad too small though. I felt as if I was a giant.. Also, I'd get random log spikes and the console complained of too many collisions.
However, I liked the voice acting, even if it was a little too low.

Stadric: Did you even upload the right map?

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Signature? What signature!?

Yes, I uploaded the right map. I only worked on that for two days, the rest of the days for the contest were spent studying and taking tests. When I had free time, I was running out of contest time, so I did very little, as per my readme.

I have to give my vote to Finger, too.
Redwood's was riddled with errors, and boring brushwork. The NPCs weren't responsive, and that mine shaft was a recipe for getting lost. Getting from plot point to the next was a struggle, but that may have been due in part to the fullbright (I find it distracting).
Riven had a good one, but it was laggy. That's not the best way for us to start this competition. Very good for two weeks work, though, even the little touches were refreshing.
Finger had a very well-made map, put down mainly by the NPCs' interactions with each other, but that was more on a limitations of AI level than an imporoperly placed nodes level, IMO. The holding cells for the citizens seemed overly simplistic to me, some shimmering blue combine metal would've made the look. I especially liked the recurring trains, they added an extra level of opposition, but you couldn't get enough enemies to fall in front of them.

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Also change the texture of the dock. Docks are rarely tile. -Facepunch
As I Lay Dying

Are there any pics? :smile:

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What the Snarkpitters listen to!

"....Had me wishing It was an entire SP level set."

Nice complement. Thank you. I wish I had the time or focus to do something more substantial, but it's hard spending the weekend or nights in front of the pc now that I spend 8 to 12 hrs a day doing that very thing.

Riven, I really liked your entry. The voice acting was actually better than most amateur voice I've seen. Some of your sets were nice and had alot of personality. I liked the little theatre room.

There were moments in your map that sparked some interesting ideas - things that I saw alot of potential in. For example, the buggy ride down the mine shaft could have been a blast, if say, you were flying down it at full speed smashing through flaming zombies! I hit the turbo on the way down and it gave me a little rollercoaster feeling. unfortunately, the space was way too small for the buggy, and could have used more attention to playability.

The ceiling crumbing on top of the combine was also nice, though there was a moment where I hit a clip brush (preventing me from walking into the trap, I suppose). You should tweak that setup so the player can't every get close enough to hit it.

The vcd work was nice, and overall, I was impressed with what you accomplished in 2 weeks, and would love to see the map improved even more.

Redwood, I think you probably just bit off more than you could chew. Try something a little smaller. There was a whole lot of square footage to construct in your environments and very little time to do it.

Can't wait to get home and try em all! :smile:

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Hell, is an half-filled auditorium

Great work guys. I never had the time and determination to finish mine.
I like Fingers best, because it is the most finished.
Oh, Stadric. Noone in their right state of mind would drive a buggy through tunnels that tight. Also, how the hell did they get the buggy in there? It was a fun ride down though.

Here's two pics of my entries. My idea was much like Fingers. You start off with no weapons, it all goes to s**t, you get a weapon, fight your way to the control room whatever and unplug the force field. Didn't get quite that far though.

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"Azelito, stop being a f**king bitch. All I see you do is complain and insult people in your recent posts. We don't care, go find a razor you emo pansy..." -Windows98

WHen does this round of voting close? I've only just got my new machine online and am in the process of reinstalling everything at the moment, so I won't look at this until tomorrow now?

I assume I have plenty of time...

Voted for finger, best of the 4 in my opinion, can't say i have any comments to add to what's already been said :smile: Thanks everyone for joining in, and thanks Baron for making this competition work, I'm sure there'll be more entries next round ,atleast one. (mine :smile: )

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Hell, is an half-filled auditorium

I don't suppose i can play them i f i only have hl2 ep 1?

I would think Ep2 would run it, but can't say for sure. Worth a shot.

It may be alot to ask, but I would be extremely grateful if someone could record a demo while playing through my map for the first time. I'm very curious to see if the battles went down like I expected. I put some work into certain destructables in the environment that could possibly be missed if played a certain way.

If anyone could do this.... just zip up the demo and email it to duncan@duncanmoore.org.

To record a demo, just open the console and type this:

record fingerplaythrough (fingerplaythrough being whatever you want to name it)

When you're done, just type stop in the console.

demo files live in the Halflife2/hl2/ folder.

Thanks!

Oh, I forgot to say that the prisoner cage dissapearing after it dropped me was odd (if it even existed!)

I looked behind me expecting to see it, then it wasn't there

(in finger's map)

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Signature? What signature!?

Yeah, that's something I want to fix. The idea is that it either ends at the rail, or goes back into the traincar behind you. Ran out of time for that.

Finger: Perfect craftsmanship, an eye for details that matter and nice combine fighting action. My complaint would be, especially after playing Riven's map later, that the story is very ordinary. Breen in the background, escape from prison, and you're right back to your usual HL2 battles.

RedWood: I saw a lot of nice ideas, but there were too many little (and pretty big :wink: ) bugs to enjoy them. Some of the added corridors were a little maze-like and it's hard for someone who has never seen the map before to navigate. I remember your post in the editing forums, so I won't torture you with comments about the fullbright and seemingly leaky compile.

Riven: It's ideas like this I've been looking for in SP missions for so long. I love the idea of having a third faction that is mad at the combine. It sounds obvious and if you take the Xen creatures (Vortigaunts) you could say it already happened in the original HL2, but that War of the Worlds style alien foot coming through the ceiling - perfect! The voice acting is top notch. Not many SP mods are on that level. I felt the buggy ride to be fun, but, together with the sheer lenght of these random underground tunnels, a bit illogical. Anyways, you get my vote for creativity alone.

Stadric: Sorry, the others obviously had more time to work on this.

I voted for Riven.

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Why snark works.

Oh, Stadric. No one in their right state of mind would drive a buggy through tunnels that tight. Also, how the hell did they get the buggy in there? It was a fun ride down though.

Looks like someone else isn't in their right mind.

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Also change the texture of the dock. Docks are rarely tile. -Facepunch
As I Lay Dying

Thanks for the suggestions and compliments.

The only other map I played so far was Finger's, and that certainly was top notch! (won't be able to play the other's until the 11th) It was just laid out so methodically, And the flow was perfect. No glitches, (except for the prisoner carriage disappearing) made this an excellent experience. I love that feeling of walking into an unfamiliar environment knowing that whatever happens, the designer is going to take care of me, making sure I don't get hung up on something or killed unfairly. You pulled it off very nicely. I on the other hand had too many glitches. The clip brush for the leg was a last minute quick fix that should have been paid more attention to. I actually had to cut many more ideas for the scene (like large chunks of dirt falling through, a car falling down afterwards, and a cityscape above it with city sounds and people screaming) But I did spend a lot of time getting what happened there just the way I wanted it to> once again, biting off more than I could chew.

The buggy was an afterthought, I apologize, but I figured it more fun than walking the whole way. After coming to the conclusion that the buggy was going to be there, I already had the tunnel built and sewed with displacements. And anyone working with the subdivide tool knows, it's a b**ch to get right, so I spent too much time to change it all back again. So I made the beams func_illusionary's and continued. I also tweaked it so that the buggy wouldn't get caught up on the sides.

@Azelito: I imagine the buggy could fit; there's a side passage that is blocked off by a door that could easily have a buggy come in through. I spent enough time adding that little addition to explain that the tunnel didn't just lead to that base, but that it was part of a network, I hope other's noticed it. It might have been too dark, but then again> it's a mine shaft!

I definitely would play on this story more, or will find a way to tweak the other's for the following rounds. If anything, I hope I sparked some ideas, and if I get a chance, might try reworking the map to run a bit better, and fix the glitches. Time wasn't on my side. You can always expect to see at least one .vcd in my sp maps cause I would love to develop a good story for this competition. Everyone loves a good twist.

Thanks for your compliments and critiques. May the best map win!

BTW, my voice was the worker guy in the mine shaft. And Corporal Byrne and Lieutenant Sheldon were the names of the authors from some books I have read for their respect. My friend does one of the best Scotsman impressions, don't you agree?

Thanks, -Riven

---

Blog: www.playingarchitecture.net
LinkedIn: Eric Lancon
Twitter:@Riven202

Thanks Riven, glad you liked it. You should definately keep working on yours, it can be great with a little tweaking!

Btw... what part of Louisiana are you from? I was born and raised in Baton Rouge. I'd like to know if I'm competing against a fellow coonass =D

Few questions for those who played...

Did anybody fight the antlion guard in the bathroom?

Crawl into the antlion hole for the ar2?

Get a good look at the decal at the ending hallway?

Well, I was born in Lafayette, but live in Sulphur (just west of Lake Charles). Will be moving to Ruston for college though. I'm told Lake Charles has the better food :biggrin: . I don't consider myself a coonass, but I have plenty of relatives that are .

I'll try to record a demo when I get home, but it won't be of my first time; but to answer your immediate questions:

-I fought the antlion guard around the north turret post, so that it couldn't get me. Pretty much played "ring around the rosy." I realized I could operate the gun from a really far unreasonable distance from behind! So I went ahead and took advantage of that. I suppose it was cheating in a way.

-I did find the ar2, but didn't use it much though.

-Yea, the decal was weird, and <spoiler>the zombie freaked me out</spoiler>, -good one.

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Blog: www.playingarchitecture.net
LinkedIn: Eric Lancon
Twitter:@Riven202

@Finger
I did all of those.
The guard kicked my ass in the bathroom. After that I had to give myself some health vials in the console.
That reminds me, at the top of the stairs that you blocked off with a combine wall, the decal rubbish don't cross from one brush to the next on the walls.

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Also change the texture of the dock. Docks are rarely tile. -Facepunch
As I Lay Dying

finger:
yes: I hid in the vent and emptied all my ammo into it until it died
yes: Was like 'cool, ar2'
no: There was a decal?

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Signature? What signature!?

finger said:
Did anybody fight the antlion guard in the bathroom?

Crawl into the antlion hole for the ar2?

Get a good look at the decal at the ending hallway?

Hid in the vent and shot it in the nuts lots (it has nuts, right? :razz: ).

Yes.

No, did jump though :smile: Edit: Even jumped the second time through even though I knew what was coming :razz:

Nice map overall.

Edit: Does the button in near the antlion hole have a purpose, and also I noticed it sounds like there are a heap of combine behind the wall in that room are there supposed to be more that come out?

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SourDough2.0 - With Strawberry Jam

It boiled down to a choice between Fingers action, and Rivens progression of story. Both maps are winners, but it was Fingers more thorough use of the actual base map that was the deciding factor for me, so he got my vote.

I'd love to see both maps combined though. Maybe a compo for the best buggy ride would be a good way to do that. (hint, hint)



Finger, I was hiding in the vents with everybody else, I got he AR, and do you mean the big YOU WIN decal?

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i eat paint

I tricked the guard into knocking over the two sentry guns and clearing out that hall with all the manhacks... basically he killed almost every single combine on the map before I gave him his eternal reward. :biggrin:

As far as the competition:

Redwood: Never ever release anything with leaks, period.

Stadric: I have no idea what you changed but thanks for inflating the filesize of the zip for those of us on dialup.

Riven: Nice try I suppose. The cave is retardedly small, throw in the buggy and well... it becomes worse. The big issue I have with this map is that its supposed to be the first section of a chain map created by many different authors, yet you have restricted future mappers by already declaring what the next maps must feature (sub pen, sub interior, greenland military base?!). That's not even mentioning these 'new aliens' and how other authors are supposed to interpret or even use them in their sections. There's too much 'story' for a series of maps that will inevitably be light on story and heavy on action (or at least should be) by the very nature of the competition.

Basically if you were making this as the start of your own single player mod then it would be a solid beginning, but as a community map with many different people's input it will not work.

Finger: Rock solid, if a little too short. Fun action, quality design, good use of various HL2 elements. Everything I would expect from a mapper of your caliber. This is the perfect foundation for the rest of the competition. It gives hints of a story without railroading future mappers down a path and it uses the basic HL2 ingredients without requiring new assets. You have my vote.

@ Yak_Fighter, you're right. Making a map like mine for this competition simply won't work because relying on story and expecting someone else to pick it up would become a bit troublesome. I don't think the interpretation of the given story would be the problem, but the change of given story to different stories developed by that mapper. Others wishing to incorporate their own story would change too many things up, and their would be no coherent story at all through the course of the compilation. I did not think about this whatsoever, excuse my lack of forethought, and selfishness for being so narrow-minded.

A competition like this needs to be pretty generalized as each map should be able to contain within itself a short adventure from beginning to end with a climax left open for anyone to pick up from any perspective. Obviously, some challenges would be for the mapper to keep the same setting, or figure a way to make a nice transition from map to map, but the level would need to be contained within itself.

This brings up several problems though:

What would the challenge be if people didn't have to worry about story? I know their following the HL2 universal story, but particular events contained from map to map would not create any new themes for single player adventure. The player wouldn't know why their traveling from place to place. Monsters would get heavier simply because it was close to the end of the level, not for any particular purpose other than gameplay, it would become very monotonous.

All I'm saying is: figuring out story and purpose should be part of the challenge for creativity!

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Blog: www.playingarchitecture.net
LinkedIn: Eric Lancon
Twitter:@Riven202

<DIV class=quote>
<DIV class=quotetitle>? quoting Riven</DIV>
<DIV class=quotetext>excuse my lack of forethought, and selfishness for being so narrow-minded. </DIV></DIV>

Now now I wasn't saying that. :\

<DIV class=quote>
<DIV class=quotetitle>? quote:</DIV>
<DIV class=quotetext>the rest</DIV></DIV>

I agree to an extent, as it should be important to have a story and to have at least a little coherency between maps. It's just that it is gonna be a very barebones story in such a collaborative work, and that's not necessarily a bad thing. For example, my favorite sp map is HL:Uplink and that had about as much story as Quake. I also liked Lost Coast and that was as storyless as Uplink.
Story is no doubt important for single player maps, but its far more important for a multiple hour, multi-chapter single player epic than it is for an action focused series that lasts for like 45 minutes.

I think it could be a different competition, maybe a next chain map, that we, in round 1, all try to make up a good story line or base for a story line on which other mappers can build and add to.

But for now i agree to Yak fighter for the most of it, if a story is not writen before the map starts to take shape, i think it should be mostly 'left out' perhaps and we'll have to stick to the talent of the individual mappers to make each map creative, interesting and action packed in a different way to stop it becomming monotone.

Ofcourse it will just be walking down a chain of maps killing stuff, but that's what an FPS is, story or no story you'll still be running down hallways killing people, if people can enjoy games such as Doom or Serious Sam, then we can sure as hell put our hands together to make a thrilling half life 2 map series that will entertain people :smile:

A story line is great, but it needs alot of thought before the actual mapping starts to really work.
It'll just be a shoot em up with a story tied around it loosely if we add a specific theme / story line now I think, since everyone will add in their own way, to the story.

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Hell, is an half-filled auditorium

Actually, part of the contest is blending in with the previous maps

Story is part of that.

Riven's story is an assault on a combine military base while an unknown comes out from the sea to beat on the combine

Finger's story is an escape from a train station turned combine execution facility

The next parts of this contest will have to incorporate this... whoever wins

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Signature? What signature!?

Well, what can i say about my map that hasn't all ready been said. I agree with all of it. Despite knowing the criteria for judging i decided to simply try to pass off an idea. And believe it or not, it only turned out a little bit worse than i expected. One thing though, I didn't compile under full bright. I fell asleep, woke up late for class, got back from class and found that BVS needed my entry right away. So i didn't have time to check it before i sent it. I don't know what happened. I was pissed when i found out.

Further more, i couldn't get get Finger's or Riven's map to run. setting it to DX8 didn't help. I ended up decompiling it and recompiling it. Which lead to errors.

Finger: Well done but, i don't think it's a good start to a series. Your thrown in way to fast. Your given 5 weapons in about 3 minutes and the antlion guard makes it fell like started off facing a boss. I think this level would be beautiful set later in game. It could be used as a excellent transition between two vary different settings. I voted for yours.

Riven: I don't really have anything new to say. It could have been because of the recompile but it was a little dry. I was really impressed with the under ground base. The stairs were off scale but it looked believable.

Stadric: Looks like it was a good start.

I'm impressed that both of you got all that done in to weeks. I was expecting to lose but i feel like i just lost the special Olympics. :sad: I think ill take a different aproch next time.

Let my entry be a message to everyone that your entry doesn't have to be as good as Fingers or Riven to compete. Don't be embarrassed, because your entry couldn't possibly worse than mine. :biggrin:

You know what RedWood, I personally don't see the problem of your map having some issues, as it does give us the idea of what you wanted to do, other mappers could have expanded on it / fixed it's errors.
I just like Finger's map more in terms of playability, but you're right on the fact that it's not neccesarily a good start of a game as it does start of kind of hard and fast.

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Hell, is an half-filled auditorium

gets to where the white combine soldier says "Move it!" (pretty much after i get put in prison).

combine_executioner1: unknown scripted sequence "walk"

then it goes no further, so im guessing it doesn't work with ep1

ep1 isn't the same egnine i guess, they modded it a bunch and i wouldn't be suprised if hl2 stock stuff didn't work in it.

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Hell, is an half-filled auditorium

Sorry it doesn't work with Ep1 :sad: You should buy hl2 though - it's a great game.

Thanks for all the feedback on the map - nice to know how people played it. A couple of people stated that it might not be a good start for the series, because it jumps right into some pretty intense combat, and gives you a few major weapons right off the bat. I'll give you my thoughts on that.

• I think it's better to start something like this off with a bang. People have played enough hl2 to understand the world, weapons, etc, therefore we don't really have to train people as much, and can start out with a little more action and challenge.

• The intensity doesn't have to remain this high. Movies do this all the time; starting out with an action sequence to hook people, then slowing down a bit to introduce the story. This tale could do the same. Who knows where you travel after the train station? Maybe you wander into a creepy zombie infested town like Ravenholm, or find some hidden combine portal that takes you back to Xen from HL1. Anything could happen.

• Weapons? You can control the ammo to sculpt the combat. We've all played HL2 and I'm not really interested in starting out with a pea-shooter once more. Let's give people some real combat tools and throw a real challenge at them. Also, I REALLY wanted to give the gravity gun, because it IS HL2 combat, and almost all singleplayer mods I've played leave it out. It's a great puzzle tool and just damn fun.

• As as general point, I think we will be way more successful if we keep things as much in the HL universe as possible, working with the assetts available. Riven did a great job with his vcd's, but that's probably as far as someone can take it without biting off more than they can handle in a 2 week challenge cycle. It's hard enough to simply script and tune a small singleplayer level in 2 weeks (well, if you work full time like I do). Also, there's still a lot of potential for creativity even within this limited palette.

Pretty good explenations for having such a start and I think you have one major advantage at your side on this at the moment and that is the fact that we have no story line, we need to keep things interesting in different ways, and i think this is a great way to do it looking at it from your perspective.

You've changed my mind on the fact that it would maybe be a strange started map.

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Hell, is an half-filled auditorium

Thats a good argument. You've changed my mind. mostly. It's a nice find but i think the AR2 could be left until a little later. Given the good cover and relatively short range of the combat i think the seen should be left to rely on the shotgun mostly. Leave the smg in but don't leave any (or vary little) ammo lying around. Leave the pistol in. it doesn't matter. The grenades are good. These are all just suggestions of course.

From what I could see, some of the combine spawns were caused by triggers on one side of the tracks. You have to be in the area when the combine come to town, so you better have the right weapon. I especially needed that ar2 alternate fire round.

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Also change the texture of the dock. Docks are rarely tile. -Facepunch
As I Lay Dying

Yeah, the ar2 sec and the impact grenade came in very handy

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Signature? What signature!?

I didn't use ether of them (odd). Actually, i forgot i had the impact grenade. Probably a side effect of picking so much up at once. Well, if you pulled out the AR2 you would have to make some changes.

How lone are we go to wait before we start the next round?

BvSnickers should be announcing a winner and starting the next round any time now

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Signature? What signature!?

I PM'd Finger for the VMF, the next round will start ASAP.

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o

This went great.

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Why snark works.

I'm already focusing on my next entry! I'll admit I'm moving away from story now, but will be focusing on interesting gameplay instead.

If everyone's like me, the only reasons that keep me playing a generic HL2 sp mod is its gameplay (and story) because beyond that, I get bored fighting Combine and zombies again. So be expecting some fun interesting gameplay setups for my next entry! I've never had so much fun mapping before; this is great! Finger has set the stage for what quality maps in this competition should contain, and I see now what I need to focus on.

Good luck everyone!

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Blog: www.playingarchitecture.net
LinkedIn: Eric Lancon
Twitter:@Riven202

Hey, I'm flattered!

I sent my vmf to Baron, and did some work to preface all my visgroups with 'fing'. I suggest we all try to stay as organized as possible now that we are really dealing with a web of delicate scripting. moving one info_node can wreck a setup.

I have a feeling the next batch of entries will be even more interesting. I plan to participate, but I think I will have to keep it short and sweet...this round will require more construction.

Good luck everybody!