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[Wake[of]theBunT]

and put the elevator music in slo motion for the lulz effect.

I would love to playtest this map when its almost ready I'm sure JcFerggy would also do a community spotlight and put it on the wiki in 3rd party. So thats something to also inspire you to kick more ass!

[Mangley]

I'll add that just for you 

Well, there comes a time in every map's development cycle where something goes horridly wrong and with no reasonable explanation. In the last few days I've run into two obstacles that have halted the development of the map.

The first I've already rectified which was that Hammer was splitting visleafs in completely nonsensical ways for no real reason. That stumped me for a day but repossitioning the entire map down by 512 units on the grid fixed that.

The second is a biggie which I can't for the life of me figure out... Basically Source is crashing whilst trying to load the map. There's nothing in the compile log that screams 'trouble' at me, my budget is fine and there's no errors/leaks or problem entities, although I'm curious about this particular part of the log:

Code: [Select]

BuildVisLeafs:       0...1...2...3...4...5...6...7...8...9...10 (21)
transfers 6822376, max 597
transfer lists:  52.1 megs

I'm not familiar with what this part of the compile log refers to, and if it's a problem. Any suggestions from you professionals?

[Jonathon [SSL]]

No idea, usually when I encounter a problem like that I start a new file and copy the entire map into it, making sure to center it on the grid. Fourtecks might have a better answer though.

[major]

I had a very similar problem with Dam... which for now has completely halted development. So curious to see what you can turn up.

I fixed it one time by going back to the latest things I made and deleted them... which slowed mapping to a crawl.

[Mangley]

Sadly I've tried copying everything to a new map file, even deleting all the entities and details, then recompiling a world-only map and it still crashed on the map load. Really it defies logical explanation..

I'll have to back-track until I can get it working.

[killermonkey]

Really it defies logical explanation..

This sums up development with the Source engine...

[Mangley]

Too bloody right.

Good news, deleted the barebones of what I had worked on of the outdoor area and the map playable again. I have no idea what the problem was, it just must have been one of the brushes. Let's hope it doesn't happen again.

[Mangley]

Well, I'm pleased to announce that progress is back to its previous state of storming along like an out-of-control freight train. I'm still not totally sure what caused the problem, all I know it was a brush that for some reason didn't make sense to the game.

Since clearing up the issue I've started and virtually completed the last main indoor area. The infamous pipe room.



By the way, props to whoever made that awesome electrical box model. (spot the pun!)

Other misc shots:



If you're still suffering from that problem Major, you could try cordoning off sections of your Dam map and compile them to try and narrow down where the problem is... other than that I don't know what else to suggest.

[Jonathon [SSL]]

The map is still looking pretty bare. Throwing in a few crate props and putting "stain" and "bill" decals on the walls can work wonders as far as adding detail.

[Mangley]

Things are going well, the map is now around 75% complete with still a fair amount of work to be done. I'm currently tackling the outdoor area and skybox at the moment. Here's a quick little look at the presentable part... you can see the rocket silo in the ground with its doors partially open which acts as either a deadly pitfall or a quick access point to the underground area, depending on how careful you are.



I'm still fiddling about with the smokestack entities in the skybox to get the right look, I want them to look like they're bellowing out condensation in the cold air.

And here's just a little look at how the cooling towers in the skybox are lining up with the inside of the cooling towers in the level.



Contrary to how the image looks they are perfectly aligned (it's not difficult at all really) it's just that the two screenshots I layered on eachother are taken at slightly different positions: in and out of the world.

[Jeron [SharpSh00tah]]

The map is better than the others the community has made thus far. In this pic

Add some detail. For example, use some stain decals, add some trims, use two different textures for the walls and floors. Change the color of the lighting, your map has a pretty standard orange/yellow hue to the colors, switch them up! Try out some greens and blues, yellows and oranges.

[Mangley]

Thanks, and yes you guys are right I need to work on detailing a lot of these areas more, all this feedback is very useful.

It's funny, I did go over this area again a couple of days ago but didn't think to show it.. just a few decals but it really gives a much better look to it:


I'll experiment with some different lighting in areas.. of course any criticisms are welcome if you see anything that's rubbish just point and shout. 

[Jeron [SharpSh00tah]]

Remember to add trims! They really add detail (cheaply)

[Mangley]

Overall the map is about 85% complete, in the last couple of days I've been working on going over certain areas detailing them progressively in stages. They still need populating with a few more props, but here's a little peep:




We also had a little playtest today (once we had stopped having much lulz with spawning npc's and jeeps); me, jimbo, kraid and kobayashi. Which very much helped me see what areas were scarce of weapons and ammunition, as well as areas with it that were a lot of the time ignored (the ammo and weapon under the staircase got overlooked by most people, so I'll be moving that to a nearby open area where a weapon is needed).

I can safely say that this map is geared towards the higher player counts.. much in the same way that Runway is, by my estimate you want a minimum of 8 players, or 10 for a team game for this map not to feel too gigantic, it can easily handle twice that.

Anyway thanks to everyone that's given feedback so far, criticisms are always welcome and are helping to shape this map to its full potential.

Please ignore the floating crate in the 2nd image.

[Jonathon [SSL]]

You could add some lighting contrast by turning off one or two lights in the hallways, as well as maybe have one flickering or one which has a yellow hue to it. All I see are the same light colors repeated everywhere.

The rest of the detail is turning out great, maybe you could add some more pipes exposed in grates in the floors of the hallways or in the ceilings, as well as throwing in some shelving units with some small cardboard boxes on them.