FF_Flexibility (Images Updated: 25/02/06-21:44)
 

Latest screenshots and news on last page. (Updated on: 24th Nov 2006 00:43)

Why dont you post screenies when you later in development? What do you expect from us? We cant exactly give you criticism/ideas and whatnot with those pics...

dont expect any criticism/ideas yet i just done the post now so i can keep updating it as i go through, just like a journal/diary of the progress :)

Theres not exactly much to criticise at the moment anyway lol

ok fair enough :)

Never played (or even heard of) the original.

This seems a little blocky. Granted you're still early on, just don't leave it that way and you should be fine. Good wide corridors and rooms. Need to see more, pretty much.

[edit] I reread your original post again and saw that you stated that it still looked like tfc and that it's in early development, so I guess this post of kind of moot, but I'm going to leave it anyway

I'm gonna come off as the stickler here and say it before anyone else does (and trust me, I pretty much hate every douchebag that says this, so I'm being pretty hypocritical):

"it looks to much like half life [1]"

The structure isn't bad, for a half-life engine map, but for half-life 2, it seems a bit repetitive and, as the poster above said, a bit blocky. Example: the walls in the ramproom and two flagroom shots are pretty much the same throughout the entire circumference/outline of the room.

That said, for an original map (well I guess it's a remake--but you're the same author from the orginal), it looks to have a good design. Most of the community mappers that are making original maps seem to not really have a concept of integrating both offense and defense respectfully (ie, a mixture of both fairly easy defensive positions while at the same time allowing offense to be able to conc/move around). Although, I would turn the staircases into ramps.

well being only in early development the walls are only a rough outline, so all shapes of the walls ar bound to change for example more curves and as you just stated, ramps instead of stairs, these will all change through the build of the map :). thanks for the advice though, the more the better...

yeah those ramps are gonna make you slide straight into the wall

fr looks too big/open/hwg&sgrape/concorsuicide

Looks like a map. :o

What's the water in the FR do? It perhaps looks interesting...

The first map was pretty good iirc! Had one of the bests games I've had in TFC on it...

This version : FR looks far to big mate, really huge? Make it smaller. Perhaps look for some newer textures as well..

I wouldn't worry about the "TOO LIKE HL1 LOLZ" comments, the majority of main stream TFC (hl1 engine LOL) maps are amazing, they only really need sprucing up with better textures/lighting and effects.

Personally I'd make the stairs near (above) the RR ramps into ramps. Me no likey stairs, especially when they're choke points that are defended at the top by sollies.

my only complaint is that the flagroom looks so stylish but the rest doesnt. i love the dark granit circle on the celing and would love to see some of that throughout the map.

Made some changes to the ramp room area from the original, changes can be seen at:
http://flexy.tnradio.net images (2,3,4)

In reply to Wunder, the flag room was a first attempt at decorating a room, when the map is finished the whole level will have a similar style to it as shown in the Ramp room in the latest images...

Ramproom looks neat, albeit entirely different.

I notice the two holes in the ramproom with caution tape around them, what are those?

from what i remember this doesn't look like the flexibility_l map for tfc, guess it's not a conversion but looking pretty good so far.

edit: ok i read now that it will be different :)

blocky?


for those who cant see very well this a fully fledged fortress map, everything about it to me STINKS of FORTRESS'NESS.

i'm still working on the subject of blockyness
I am still keeping the basic layout of Flexibility but just rearanging the way things are placed in the map, such as the new ramp room design.

The tape markings round the floor of the Ramp room lead to a window linking to the water passage under the floor
the other is just random eye candy once its all finished lol

More images added + First post text updated

There's not enough color variation with the textures. The gray concrete is overpowering. Why not get creative with some different textures? I was having the same problem with one of my maps and I discovered the "stone" textures and it worked wonders for diversifying my maps look.

not to worried about the textures at the moment, as they will all change once the fortress-forever textures are released.

Pretty useless to comment on textures for now since the FF textures aren't out yet. Everyone should know that by now, no excuse!

I think you need a bit more roof structure. The rooms are large with flat or nearly flat ceilings (primarely talking about the ramp room here). I know you are still in the early stages of this map, but some larger variations or some kind of support truss would help break up the large span of concrete and make it appear as if there is actually something holding up the ceiling.

Your flag room and outside of flag room look good. I like the columns but they still feel a bit bare. Maybe some more contrast in your lighting with darker shadows or different color lighting? I dunno, just a suggestion. You've got alot of main structure up and Rival Likey!

My bad. I didn't realize every map under development would go through another texture pass when they released a texture pack.

thanks for all the comments, ill think of adding ceiling supports for all the rooms as i know half life has a nice choice of models which i can use to give it a more realistic look.

Currently working on water route and outside

Cant decide whether to have a cliff style outside or concrete walls.

Both. Bits of cliff with concrete support type thingies breaking it up. Been done before but looks good.




Sentance fragment.

Lighting is repetative.
FR is still a huge bitch!
General plain lookingness, kinda why you should wait till you've got atleast one room sexified before showing it off.


Uhh no? Most of the map screenies in the media page are using default textures only...

Uhh yes? Us plebs have an excuse for not having custom textures.

having troubles with my cliff formations but am still trying,

No my point is that it can look good with the default textures. Sure, not how you'll ultimately want it to look but still good looking.

hes right, i've changed a lot of the textures to the stone looking ones, makes the map look a lot tidier, currently working on the outside of the map which is going ok so far, though i've decided i might not be having a cliff face outside but alternativly have it all clean and spinky looking many curves etc, well we'll see what happens.

Ok and what's the point of wasting time on texturing when you know it's gonna have to be redone when the official textures are out?

It looks better when you post screenies of it? Not like you know what the official textures are gonna be, hell you'll probably end up using a handful of default ones.

AND

So you don't get posts like:
Anyway, good to hear flexy.

It does not HAVE to be redone. Look at epicenter from what i see those are the basic textures. If you can find good ones that fit, go for it. If not you can wait, but who wants to wait. Not i....shit make your own at that. Its actually really easy. BTW i remember someone working on Avanti...if that person is still around i have a nice stained glass texture you can use with some tranparency.

Check it out:

http://img413.imageshack.us/img413/1...lass0018ce.jpg

I even made a normal map for it:

http://img70.imageshack.us/img70/8124/normal9oq.jpg

Glad you found the stone textures useful. I felt silly at first for commenting on textures after several people mentioned they should be ignored, but I agree with Kam on this.

Additionally, textures often dictate the way geometry evolves, and so if you wait for the FF textures you're likely to have to redo the brushes on many parts of your map to get them to fit the textures. I doubt you'll be able to just do a replace search and then recompile.

When I said textures werent important for now I meant that the fact that a concrete texture is overused doesn't really cause any problem. Of course you try to put the basic textures in place but even if it's all concrete it's gonna be alright because when the FF textures come out, you're gonna want to add the details to your map with those textures so... for now, it's a waste of time imo to try make everything look good. Just lay down a basic set of textures that goes with the geometry you're building and wait for the official textures to finish the job.

I guess you're right kam. After all, I'm the one who's always bitching at people for using the dev textures.

But, this is why I'm making maps like tiger and harbor that can use the original HL2 textures. (and props)

Progress has been slow this past few days due to being away from home etc...

Expect new screenshots etc once i've done some more to the level.

Feel free to check out the changed website layout for the map at @ http://flexy.tnradio.net

can ya make the pics clickable?

o yea, and u missspelled ur map name on at the top of your page :)

ye ill sort all the webpage out when the next screenshots are out :)

You're planning on including CCTV? I think FF isn't going to expand on the "one camera per map" thing, so that may not work.