I played this map few hours ago. It's cool. I like the bridge and everything. Nice stuff man :) The blueish ground didnt get to my plus list though. But anyway the whole map was just great. 8)

Donny,
The blueish ground is due to a weird bug with mat_fastspecular. You have to set mat_fastspecular 0 (or 1... whichever it's not right now) and the texture will be normal again.

Found out that my HD is fine, and a new power supply and motherboard are on the way. The mechanics screwed me, but it'll be a blessing to be able to finish this damn map up after 2 weeks+ of downtime. I think it's quality and I want to make it damn good before I move on to some of my more creative ideas.

Again, if any of you have any ideas for 2morforever, let me know. Should I put boxes or other things behind the bars in the great room? Does the skybox seem empty or cut short? Anything else?

a different idea
 

Maybe the setting for this map (visable vis 3d skybox from interior and exterior of course) could be mountains and hillsides with lakes in the valleys (on a slant so its all visable) with trees and foliage in the forground. Maybe adding some more brocken objects to the map like some brocken walls with cracks and debris on the floor. Maybe some displacement materioals scattered throughout and varying on the two bases with a material like mud or grass or even gravel having some more interesting details in the middle would be good too, like haing the walls on either side of the water angled like this: http://www.ashu39.dsl.pipex.com/idea.png

That was quite tricky to do because of the text changing the gaps that the spaces make but thats the basic idea

Well, my computer threw me another curve ball. The lightning fried my motherboard and power supply.. got those replaced, but now the thing does a wonderful little ditty where I enter commands, it basically freezes for 10 minutes, then executes the commands. It's atrocious and prevents me from doing everything from checking my email to making maps to punching the clown. What a pain in the ass. I'm going to use my computerific knowhow to wipe the HD and try reinstalling windows and see if that works. If I need to replace the processor or HD, I'm going to flip my shit - between this and my car I'll never have enough green to travel around Africa next summer.

If it makes the interested parties feel any better, I am about .0003 inches away from finishing this map. Seriously. I'd say a good day of work and it'll be done done done, and I'll release a copy for HL2DM so people can screw around, as well as a copy for HL2CTF if y'all are good between now and then. So keep it real. Suggestions still welcome.

Burn it to CD and find someone close. :D

whatever you do, get the source files for your maps backed up NOW if you are having pc problems. if you lose 2morforts I will cry!

No worries, Nezumi - I'm backing them up like 3 times. If I have to steal someone's computer and install steam and everything, I'll finish this damn map. I'm transferring via. my 256mb flash drive, so it's slow, but hopefully by tomorrow morning I'll have everything shiny and new. Sorry to hijack my own thread. I'll come along with a post of the final beta (or whatever it is) once I get to touch the thing up.

And remember: If I can't dance, I don't want to be part of your revolution

Update: I redid teamcolors and flipped the bases, and dropped in a new sky. I'm going to toss the old skybox and make something more delightful - but it's freaking beautiful. Most times artists (I think all mappers are artists) hate their finished product - because they've been working on it so long, because you never get things just right, or whatever. But damn I like how this thing ended up looking. Don't believe me? Take a gander:

http://img296.imageshack.us/img296/7...eta04sp.th.jpg http://img296.imageshack.us/img296/7...eta12ub.th.jpg http://img296.imageshack.us/img296/3...eta20ja.th.jpg

Mmmmmmm... perdy.

Another reason I don't want to be a mapper: it seems a signficantly large percentage of mappers have massive computer problems...

Nice res o_O

Jiggles, I don't understand it tbh. I like never get hammer crashes or anything close to hdd failure but then there's stories like this that just make me go wtf are you doing with your pc D:?

Does seem alittle HL1y if you ask me.

It's not if you look at it more closely, it's just that the lighting is really dull (too damn dull!).

or if you squint your eyes reallllll hard

how can it be?
 

How can your map's bare wall structes with no func_detail be so many brush faces? in all of the walls just create one brush with a facia of func_details maybe. and have one floor brush instead of many making the ones you have currently into displacements

Well, after testing and testing and testing the crap out of this thing I am going to release it... with 2 errors. Once I figure out this damn bspzip crap. Every tutorial I find is full of gaps, and I don't have much time right now, so arg.

Anyone know a tutorial or something that will hold my hand through every baby step? Like 'to include texture blablabla.vmt you have to include these files, and heres how you include them, and heres how you find where to include them from' etc.?

Any chance of some decent sized screenies? Had to get my binoculars out to see that last ones.

Sure. Here are the latest screenshots. Click on the thumbnails to see the full sized ones:
http://img475.imageshack.us/img475/5...eta09wo.th.jpg http://img475.imageshack.us/img475/1...eta12ed.th.jpg http://img475.imageshack.us/img475/5...eta22ez.th.jpg http://img475.imageshack.us/img475/2...eta36tg.th.jpg http://img475.imageshack.us/img475/5...eta49rb.th.jpg

Still have to figure out that BSPzip crap. /grumble

Those are better. Is that the resolution you play the game at, though? We like biiiiiig screenshots! Heh.

I play the game at 1024, but I shrink the shots so they don't make the internet asplode when I post them. I like you guys, but suck it up for a few days till you can download the map itself :P

Circ was kind enough to host the file, but I took it down since I didn't bspzip it right. I'd kill for a decent tutorial.