Map: Skelter_glass - Complete (all in 1 day)

I have started today and just completed and posted on my clan server a new map called Skelter_glass.  It is a medium sized gun game map with 4 spawn areas (2 for each side) called Nort | South | East | West.  There are 2 teleport doors on sides of the map that swap player position with each other, there are some triggers to stop enemy players entering your spawn, and 4 huge towers made from parts of sloping cylinders that form strange circular ramps.  At the top of each tower is a teleport that takes you to the up most point - a star that rotates and you can shoot from (an eagles nest).  There is also a water bubble in the middle of the map that contains another teleport in the middle that quickly gets you to the eagles nest.  I added in 4 rotating cartoon bombs that destroy a player when they get to close which also have nice sparks, smoke and explosive effects.  See the screenshot.  **Note that it is made as a custom map for s6monkeys who use big jumps and low gravity - the water bubble teleport kills if you dont have this or a parachute.

Tested on server.  Found no lag with 8 players +good sign.  The bombs have a sound that is annoying so reduce scope of sound or remove sound from bombs.  reduce 10 degree rotation so shooting is easier on eagles nest, lower walls N,S,E,W so a jump allows landing on.  Possibly make it easier for GG_naders to make kills but how?

All in all a reasonably good reception.

Map: Messyroom1 Jan 5th 2012 Update

A bridge too far.  (

I have had the 'fixed' version (2) of messyroom run on server for testing and it is lagging.  It lags that much it looks like I need to dump the map as a playable version and use the ideas/concepts that I managed to make work on a smaller map.  I am a little annoyed at myself for letting the map get so big and bulky, on the positive side I have learned a lot and made some really nice features that I have not seen on other maps.  I plan on using some of the features in smaller maps instead.

• Lighting up dance mat - players location is easy to spot when the bit they stand on is light up.
• Player cannons - throw players across the map by firing them out a cannon/tube.
• Player conveyors - push players across the map quickly when they stand on a conveyor.
• Shootable dropping targets that trap players and explode causing player damage.
• Giant pointing arrow that lets others know when a player is hiding in certain areas.

I will use these soon - the ideas will not die out.

Map: Messyroom1 Jan 1st 2012 Update

I have made 2 version of this map now that I have tried on server.  The latest fixes a spawn issue I had.  I still have a helicopter that only works once but I am better about it now that the map is being tried on server.  I just need player comments on it and from there I will decide if I need to make many adjustments.

Map: Messyroom1 Dec 20th Update

I have decided to knock this map on the head.  It needs to be completed so I will stop adding new ideas when some of the original ideas are only 90% working.  Now I work on the 'bugs' and see about making the lighting better and the room contents better.

Map: Messyroom1 Dec 17th Update

Got the tardis working now - it is bigger on the inside.  I have just made the main room with the console in it - not much detail but at least it works.  I want to use a camera so you can see out of the tardis - waiting for other players to enter.  I would have liked to have 2 cameras but the game mechanics won't allow 2 active cameras, so I will stick with one.

The shootable targets work fine, dropping from the ceiling and trapping other players who are exploded after a few seconds.

The moving helicopter works 90% now - it moves when you enter it and travels the path I set out but I need to build a return path.

There are 4 conveyer now on the floor that shoot you along the ground fast.

There are 4 cannons that fire the player into the sky.  If there are no chutes or gravity changes to the server then they fall to the ground and die, but a server with parachutes can use the cannons easily.

I am working on a bouncing betty-type bomb.  The idea is you walk next to it - it rises quickly from the ground and blows you to fuck.  It works in a small example I have built.  Now I am making the bomb look like a cartoon like cannon ball with a face on it.  I did have a nice fire and smoke effect working on it but the minute I move the bomb the fire and smoke don't move with it.  I think that is because it is a env_fire entity that is not expected to move.  The fire would be nice but I will dump it to save some time I expect.

I know that this map has been ongoing for some time now and I honestly am getting bogged down in it.  I think I have made the room to big and therefore filling it up is taking some time.

My son x-Psycopath likes futurama and reckons I should try and make the travel-tubes from the show.  I see how to make the idea work in theory (hidden brushes that push a player along a clear tube, or even some sort of speed up player option in water?) but again that might take some time.  The map itself is looking a bit ugly and I have not had time to make any jokey elements but a few.  I have nuts magazines, duff beer cans, cancer stick fag boxes, some y-front underwear but need to add in some more once I think of them.  I want the map to be memorable - that should balance out the ugly factor.

P.S.

I got the digital photo frame to finally work so it displays different images in a sequence.  I used one brush and texture, but the texture is saved as an animated texture - which although works okay for in game sprays needed tweeked in the .vmt file to make it work properly.

I still see no way to get the current server time into the map.  If I could do that I already worked out how to make my analog clock show the time, so until that is worked out the clock just turns its hands with no relation to the actual time.

Map: Messyroom1 (Work In Progress) additional

I have been working on the messy room map again with success and failures abound.  Every 3 steps forward drops me back 1, but progress is being made.

I have a helicopter that I would like players to jump in, which should then automatically follow a tanktrain path.  This works a little but is not moving all the way along the paths.  I used a trigger_multiple to make it work.  The rotors have stopped rotating but I know that I made a mistake with tie-2-entity - that can be fixed.

I have some huge targets on the ceiling that can be shot and then drop to the floor.  After so many seconds they respawn and can be shot to drop again.  The problem with them is I would like them to damage players on the ground when the come into contact with them - they don't damage them.

P.S. Some research and I have fixed it.  I used env_explosion along with my trigger_multiple.  The new process is:

• Shoot the trigger_multiple which looks like the target -  does that mean its just breakable and not a trigger?
• That lets the target which is a physbox drop to the ground.
• 6 seconds after the shooting the env_explosion is set of.
• 8 seconds after the shooting the trigger_multiple it is respawned using the point template.
• 10 seconds after the shooting the physbox is respawned using the point_template.

Sounds a little complex because it is a bit.  Its a bit of a headfuck.

My next problem is working on my tardis.  I want it bigger on the inside?  LOL - I wonder if I will manage that.

P.P.S.

Tardis idea working so far.  I used a trigger_teleport to enter and exit the tardis, so it really is bigger on the inside.  The only problem is I need to make a camera on the door so the player gets the impression that they are seeing into the tardis from outside and also one that does the same on the inside.  That way players will be able to see if there is someone in the tardis and also when they are in - see if anyone is going to come into the tardis.  I might also have the tardis light on top activate in some way when the tardis is occupied.  I added some orange and green lighting to the inside of the tardis that didn't show up.  After a few hours of not thinking about it I realised that the tardis inside was a cube outside of my main room - therefore no skybox enclosed it, so thats why there was no light!  You need a skybox around the tardis inside as well.

Silly really. >> didn't work (.  Back to the drawing board.

Map: Nuke Town

I have acquired a CCS version of COD Black Ops map Nuketown, which I am busy converting to work in DOD Source.  Here is a work in progress.  Mainly just retexturing now coz the ones used were all CSS textures, how annoying.

There will be a GG (Gun Game) and a CTF (Capture The Flag) version soon!

Just a quick update.  The retexturing is done, the counterstrike crap have been removed and I am in the process of adding in some props that were on gamebanana (a tanker trunk, a long trailer truck which I am making out of the tanker and a helicopter).  The props were okay but again te textures were mostly gone because they were made for counterstrike course.  I have also had to fix the helicopter because the rotating blades were made incorrectly and did a jiggle more than a rotate!