[WIP] City 36

should i let the darkness consume me

im torn between making it night now or keeping it day

EDIT: im standing my ground and sticking to day! i WILL NOT CONFORM to the hl2rp map meta

 

Nice work.

 

haven't really shown an update in a while, parking garage is finished, exterior of hospital is finished, a tiny part of hospital interior is planned out, i removed that skylight thingy on the one building and replaced it with lights, also showing the inside of that one living building, i have to fix the front doors on the hospital idk why they're doing that but SOURCE, lighting isn't final either by any means

 

I like the texture you are using here for the wall


Very modern/HL2RPish, gives me a science fictioney feel aswell.
Could you please share the resources for that texture? It's really good.

 

This looks like a map better fit for Cider Two.

 

i was thinking that actually that people might use it for darkrp or sumthin but i think it will work for hl2rp

i'm going to try to make both day and night versions

edit: the thing with most hl2rp maps it seems is theres all these buildings and you can't actually enter fuck-all and i hate that, like map-biolocked doors, why can't units open them?? i'm trying to make every single building enterable and have a purpose

i have a warehouse and a theatre on my list to add, i might try to get a beach in there somewhere too, i'm not sure how much Source will let me pillage it

 

When you’re a normal player, all you can do is go places the level lets you. So what happens when we restrict the players to certain paths to scale the level into a larger area? You might say this is just making the map /more/ restrictive than it already is, but believe it or not it’s a solid way to expand and scale your levels properly. For example, you can take the small and cramped vents in City 17, or dark areas with little visibility and large distances to simulate scale and distance. Think of a sewer pipe in those movies that always wash down into a pond or something. You slide down it and it's all dark around you, but then you suddenly pop out a moment later into a new village. See how that works?

A lot of the times, I find myself actually focusing on the areas outside of the playable areas more. I think they’re important because they’re what’s giving the player immersion of the environment around them. It’s sorta like this; say you’re in a glass cube surrounded by white walls. Based on just imagery, you don’t know the depth of your area, just that it’s white. Put yourself in a cube and draw ultra realistic painting around it, you’ll think you’re in a super scale city filled with environment if you didn't know it was a painting.

Making detail enriched environments is key to making roleplay maps, and a lot of mappers who have made bio-locks on doors have done so to let you think you're in a bigger area than you actually are. A great map can be defined by walking around it completely then zooming out and realizing it's only ever so big, and that the exterior and greater detail tricked you. If you really look at it, maps in HL2 and any map trying to look like it's in a city is fairly linear, using environmental details, locked doors, closed buildings, and 3d skybox tricks to make the map look much bigger. Take a good look at the first few HL2 levels, or the ones where you're fighting in the city again. You could also look at Left 4 Dead's No Mercy and just see how linear some of those maps were. Source has it's limits, and to be fair as minimal as it may be, it's very effective.

So, next time you consider just leaving a wall blank because you can't fit an enterable room in there, consider putting a doorway and pure exterior detail there instead, it really helps draw the player in and make your city feel more alive but good on framerate too. Curved walls are always better than square ones if you catch my drift.

Also, from your video I grabbed you're quick to skip over advanced detail, which is fine for a development stage. As long as the root concepts are there, and the shells are properly made the rest can be erased and re-drawn. Just be sure you polish and your brush work gets better! You're going to want to make sure all the space in your buildings are being properly used. Try splitting rooms and areas to compensate for space that's too open in interiors. Making more walls will also help with optimization. Speaking of which, make sure you keep that nodraw texture handy. A lot of mappers will always challenge the effectiveness of the nodraw texture, but it does wonders don't listen to em'. Keep it light on the area portals too, too many is bad and too little is bad, so you'll figure that out on your own.

Goodluck on your map, Tyrex. It was very hard for me and Sasha to make these concepts and ideas work together, and I'm still working on releasing City 15 as much as everyone thinks it's dead because I wanted to make toxic jokes. I wish you the best of luck, and the best of future in your level designing career/hobby.

P.S
If you already knew all of this, which I wasn't really sure because it looks like you're semi-new to mapping (don't let that convince you this is some prestigious elitist comment, because I never said I was a god at mapping either). Roleplay maps are really hard, but to be honest don't ever let yourself be discouraged from making them because people suggest you do something easier. Always challenge yourself, push yourself, and contribute to your skills more each day. Before you know it, you'll be a great level designer and know what works and what doesn't and you can make that parking garage in twenty minutes. Never think too much when you're mapping either, let it all flow to you and eventually you'll have that perfect balance. Fix as you go is what I say. Playtesting also helps a bunch! Be sure to let other users try and test out your maps. It can heavily help iron out issues with your map. It certainly helped for City 15.

 

Thank you man, I appreciate the advice, I also wish you the best on your City 15 endeavors.
I mapped back in the CS:S days but I was like 10 and doing it on a really shit laptop and had no idea what I was doing honestly. I didn't know how to fix a leak so I would just recreate the map. The patience we have as kids is insurmountable.
I totally understand what you mean by the false vastness of a map and how important it is, especially in a city setting. It's just a personal issue I have that I'm sure most people don't really care about. I'm trying to get the best of both worlds and have it large AND extremely detailed, but that of course takes a lot of time and dedication, I'm probably in way over my head. The most I can try is to do my best at least.
Along with the fact that you actually don't want the map to be too large/divided or else it will split the playerbase up depending on the count, it's a tough call. An idea even came into my head at one point of having an admin room that you push a button for the amount of players and it expands or contracts the map by limiting access to the further areas through blocking combine barricades.
I'm just going along with the map as I do it, I haven't drawn out any plans or anything of the like so I can wrap it up at any time once I hit a point of where I feel I have the essentials if I really don't feel like working on it anymore.
The hardest part I've had to overcome and still hate doing is decorating interiors/applying decals and overlays to stuff to make the map not look just like a bunch of textured blocks. It's tough though.

 

spawn

 

reminds me of a vortigaunt den
only if vortigaunt sitting animations existed in clockwork lol

 

hurricane irma set me back a bit but ya boys back at it

 

i just made the ration opening and closing announcements
https://clyp.it/tkdjepfi?token=2c19331715246881d8c70dfe732b79c4

Spoiler: jk heres the real ones

https://clyp.it/cnzedvea?token=d7561a9294588f2a791f467cc1ddb356
https://clyp.it/zwl4imd2?token=f45cf8f60114eb8f4dc159b2f777918c

 

you actually tricked me

 

pointless video but w/e

 

i actually had a great idea

i hope units can't close locked doors now that i think about it

 

started work on the nexus