It's a pleasure to finally share this map with you guys. I didnt finish it all way I wanted it, cause matters of time... hope you enjoy it =)
I recommend 2 to 5 players for perfect experience, cheers.
Direct Download from Files.fm
Download from SvenCoop Map DataBase
Last edited by butcher2236; 10-10-2018 at 07:07 PM. Reason: updated version
@butcher2236,
Hi GJ on getting your map out !
Just so you know:
Error: 'models/firstbeta/misc2/apartment_mailmess_sparse.mdl' not found, swapping it for 'models/error.mdl'.
(I guess you are taking this from another map's model directory?, if so there is "as of yet" no real consensus on how to handle that type of situation, obviously you should avoid "duplicates of official content" but custom stuff well maybe you should not be allowed to overwrite other people's stuff in case of updates/fixes/whatever?.)
Also running on Linux Mate OS my side, and at "first" (because my mouse is "super jumpy/sensitive", (until it decides which OS mouse.cfg, speed and settings to use, I have multiple ones), I lost orientation and ended up staring at a white ceiling on start".
Hence it took me a while to realize there was a button in the room and why "player appeared stuck"/not moving.
Going to have a semi-proper look/play now.
Regards
Wolf-3D
Fixed!Originally Posted by wolf-3d
Thank-you-thank-you-thank-you for adding the long jump and exit signs. I'm not a fan of mazes but those changes make it way more bearable. The map looks really polished and detailed - good job!
Love,
w00tguy
Had the chance to play it and I must say it's quite a cool map! At first glance it's just another hedgerow maze map, but there is much more to discover once you go deeper, but I won't try to spoil too much for people who have yet to try it.
I've tested it by myself so sometimes I cheated a bit with godmode (or else it would take forever and a hunderd deaths), but I think the map is quite well balanced with 4 to 8 players. There is enough room to have up to 16 players run around and still not feel too crowded. What I liked about the gameplay was the helplessness you experience at the start. No weapons and you have monsters chasing you around the maze, which makes it quite thrilling to venture in there. The maze on the right features gonomes which are really hard to outrun even with the longjump, so that sometimes felt a bit unfair. Then again, it's best to try and sneak past as many monsters as possible. And once you die you can instantly go back into the maze, so a few deaths seems acceptable.
The boss battles might benefit from some rebalancing. I've made a prefab for that you could use very well here. And you can probably use this to balance the amount of monsters in the maze with the amount of players.
Even though most of the brushwork is quite square and simple, the models you've used make the map looks quite appealing and I like the lighting in most places. So, visually, this is quite well done.
Imho, there are 2 major issues though. First off: the performance. The wpoly and epoly goes through the roof at certain points and really drain my fps. If it were just at the tower then that would be fine but it also happens inside the maze sometimes and even worse, while in combat. I've helped you during developement with this and you've already shaven off a great deal of wpoly, but I feel there is much more to be gained if you try to sort out the VIS on this map. Some well placed HINT/SKIP brushes could really do some magic here. That could stop the entire map from rendering from certain point like here. 4200 wpoly and over 340,000 epoly is overkill on all levels!
Also, ask yourself if you really need all those details, like the train tracks. They are all brushes, where just a train track texture would do the job just fine. It might look a little less nice, but you'll save a 1000 wpoly with it for sure. Also, keep a good look on the way the faces are divided on your brushes. You could save a lot on the hedgerow textures by simply aligning them all at once. You've also created somewhat of a 3d skybox with blocks and trees: also think if you really need that much detail there. A few trees sticking out is cool, but all the other stuff can go.. let the 2D skybox handle the details. Find a nice 1024x1024 skybox texture to do this (now possible with 5.17!).
Last major issue would be the replay value. Once you've discovered the routes and the secrets I'm not sure how fun it would be to play the map a few times more. This is the curse maze-levels have, unless you find some way to make the map more random on each playthrough. Your current gameplay has the vital items placed in a very specific locations, so I'm not sure how easy it would be to add randomness to map as it is now. What you could try are challenge modes: a time limit, a death limit or even full-on survival mode! This might give players more incentive to play the map again. But you'd probably have to add those balance systems I mentioned above and playtest it a lot more to get the challenges right.
Some minor stuff:
As for the maze visuals, you could make it look a lot nicer if the hedgerow textures were more detailed. So you could see the trunks of the bushes at the bottom. This would make it feel more like actual bushes than just green blocks. Make a few variants in that texture to keep it interesting.
Try turning the keys into inventory objects, so only the player who picked up the key actually has it. Other players now should protect this player and help him get to the right places.
With all the custom content you've already used, some of the regular HL monsters seemed out of place. It would be cool to turn them into something fitting of the maze.
Overall:
Very fun map to play and lots of interesting things to discover, but not sure if it still would be as interesting on the 2nd playthrough when you already know everything, but this is something you could fix with gamemodes. Visually it's quite nice, especially because of the custom prop models, but performance is extremely poor at certain points and that should really be adressed.
Oh, and I really like the way you did the ending creditsIf you need some more help with fixing some of these issues, let me know!
Last edited by Hezus; 28-09-2018 at 07:35 AM.
You should upload this to http://scmapdb.com/
Be careful, new users may get lost like your maze in there, specially when trying to upload something (nothing tells you that you have to scroll down to the bottom once you click upload to actually see the uploading buttons)
Thanks for your comment man, I hope you can solve your mouse issues
You're welcome bro, I put it just for ya =)
Thank you Hezus for your detail feedback XD, I really need to put myself into VIS business, lovely tips about the track texture and skybox for trees. I'll take in countHad the chance to play it and I must say it's quite a cool map! At first glance it's just another hedgerow maze map, but there is much more to discover once you go deeper, but I won't try to spoil too much for people who have yet to try it.
[...]
Overall:
Very fun map to play and lots of interesting things to discover, but not sure if it still would be as interesting on the 2nd playthrough when you already know everything, but this is something you could fix with gamemodes. Visually it's quite nice, especially because of the custom prop models, but performance is extremely poor at certain points and that should really be adressed.
Oh, and I really like the way you did the ending credits
Hi man, thanks for your comment. I will upload it soon
Posting Permissions
Reply With Quote