SNARKPIT COLLABORATION	T.B.C.
	PX_COLONY	T.B.C
	SILVERSTAR	MARCH 2003
	TORRENT	OCTOBER 2002
	AGCTF OUTLAND	AUGUST 2002
	FORSAKEN	AUGUST 2002
	ECHO	APRIL 2002
	CM ARENA	APRIL 2002
	REBELLION	APRIL 2002
	13TH FLAW	FEBRUARY 2002
	ELIXIR	AUGUST 2001
	OBSOLETE	MARCH 2001

 

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S N A R K P I T _ C O L L A B O R A T I O N (currently unnamed) The legendary "I would like..." thread started by Orpheus over at the snarkpit asked the more experienced mappers of the HLDM mapping community to join him in creating a collaborative effort map, and thus it began. It has taken a long time already and doesn't look to be coming to a map depot near you for a wee while yet, but when it does it should be an interesting mish-mash of different level design styles. Forgive me if I have forgotten any names as I don't have a list to hand, but here is my best shot at listing the contributors / intended contributors. Grimlock, Yak_Fighter, Alien_Sniper, Orpheus, Dietz, Mazemaster, ReNo, Leperous. Other people have given input in the form of testing and suggestions, and there are quite possibly a couple of missed out names too. If you notice your name missing then just throw me an email and I'll sort it ASAP :) My section of the map is relatively small yet I am quite happy with it. I added 3 rooms - 2 outdoors and 1 indoor. They all have unique looks to them yet are obviously all built by the same person as they all have my style. Mazemaster modified my cliff faces in one area and added an extra upper level entrance which improves connectivity to the other areas of the level and makes things look a bit more interesting too :) I only have screenshots of my areas for now.

 

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P X _ C O L O N Y Fellow scottish mapper Howser asked me a long time back to join a mod he was starting. I was interested in the idea, but unfortunately it was canned not long after it started. He then joined a mod called Paroxysm, which I had not heard of before. He suggested I look into it, and so I did. This map is a co-op level for the aforementioned mod. I have run into many limits of the HL engine while producing this level, and have had to do a lot of debugging to get it working and still have more to do. I am confident I will be able to complete it, but my original plans for it have had to be cut down significantly. The map will now take place across multiple BSPs to accomodate for my original plot and layout.

 

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S I L V E R S T A R I was inspired to create a futuristic church one day - not to be playable, but just as a personal project. I never expected to release it, nor to keep r_speeds within reasonable limits. For some reason though, it changed into this Quake 3 / UT2003 esque space arena. Being a day long project, it is not exactly large. Despite its small size however, r_speeds do get up higher than any of my past levels. This is mostly due to the level of detail I put into such an open area. 1800 might sound like a hugely unacceptable count to reach, yet this map does seem to run faster than many levels with lesser w_poly's. It runs at a steady 70fps+ on my computer, which is a reasonably average gaming setup. All in all, it seems to be perfectly playable despite the huge r_speeds. That said, its probably best not to cram too many players onto this at once. Probably the max should be 4 people; the amount it was tested with online. It is ideal for the AG mod's arena mode, but works perfectly well in HLDM as well.

 

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T O R R E N T This map was my entry into the snarkpit's "contasting arena" competition in October 2002, in which it won first place. The main aim of the competition was to create a small map featuring a self-contrasting theme, which in my case is essentially fire & ice. I think I pulled off the theme pretty well, however it did come at a cost. Due to the detail and snow fall effect FPS can be hit quite bad on older computers. Most modern ones should find the level perfectly playable however. This level is not strictly speaking an arena, however it is quite small and the combat takes place mainly in the 2 open areas, so I feel it is close enough to qualify ;) If you are intent on looking at this map then I encourage you to go and get the other entries from the contest also, as there were some very nice maps entered! Being a small map, this is best suited to small crowds of 2-5 people.

 

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A G C T F _ O U T L A N D Bullit of the AG mod asked me to knock up a capture the flag map since he was adding the mode to AG6.0, and this was the result. It's the first mod map I've ever made and also the first with teamplay being the main design factor. The map itself is set on an alien planet similar to earth. There are two opposing, symmetrical bases distanced by a neutral structure. I have included various routes between the bases which essentially boils down to a lower route and an upper one. The base entrances are quite grand and open affairs which means r_speeds do peak a bit, however the majority of computers won't notice much slowdown and certainly nothing to hamper gameplay. I reckon the large scale battles that can take place here compensate for the FPS hit :) This map was designed to be large enough for clan sized matches of 5v5+. The map is included in AG 6.0.

 

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F O R S A K E N I designed this map with the intention of entering it into the gametribe mapping contest, however due to technical difficulties I decided I would never get it finished in time so scrapped it in favour of a less ambitious project. A few months later I decided to take the project on again, and after major layout changes and a bit of expansion I turned it into something playable. Unfortunately I can't help but feel this map isn't as epic as my original plans had hoped for. I shrunk it down a whole lot and had to limit a lot of the open layout in order to get r_speeds into manageable levels - but I guess thats what you get for trying to make a detailed and yet open level in an old engine. I am still happy with the project and would deem it a success though - especially considering it may never have seen the light of day. Despite my initial plans for a huge level, it turned out reasonably compact, and is best suited for groups of 4-8 players. UPDATE: A CTF version is now bundled with AG 6.1.

 

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E C H O Due to "Forsaken" (see above) taking too long, I decided to scrap it and take on a new project for entry into the gametribe mapping contest. With only a few days left before the deadline, I was limited in what style of map I could build in time. Because of this, I for once built a fully indoors level! My past attempts at these had always ended in tears - with boring architecture and layout being my main downfalls. Here I managed to break both of these unfortunate traditions and made something I am very proud of - I still would be if it had taken months instead of the few days I was restricted to! Hell, I even kept the r_speeds pretty low which is another rarity for me ;) The layout is a 2 floor setup - the figure of 8 upper floor, and the long tunnel shaped underground sewer. Weapon placement was given a lot of though based on the layout, with the majority of ammo being upstairs while the powerful weapons are found in the sewer. This is planned to give benefits to those who move around the map a lot, but can also provide a bit of tactical action in small team games. The size of this map accomodates 2-6 people, perhaps a little more if you want fast action. UPDATE: An CTF version is now bundled with AG 6.1.

 

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C M _ A R E N A Towards the end of my HLDM clan Colonial Marines' days I decided to build a map in homage to my team mates. It started out as a small indoors arena level, but scary_jeff suggested (by means of his úber l337 MS paint skillz) that I expand the level with various outdoors sections. I went a bit overboard on this and ended up increasing the size of the level quite substantially...and then I went back and changed the original indoors room completely also. And so essentially this map is 100% different to how it began - but trust me when I say thats a good thing! Watch out for the healing light in the central room which a lot of people seem to miss, and also keep your eyes peeled for all the easter eggs made for each of my clan mates. Despite my initial plans for an arena level, this map is now big enough for 5-10 people :)

 

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R E B E L L I O N Tiny. To be honest, little more needs to be said about this map. I was bored one evening and decided to see if I could knock up a level in a few hours. Considering the short time frame I think I did pretty well! I am normally quite slow and deliberate when mapping, but this time I chucked down brushes and hope it turned out nice. I think the greatest triumph here is the design of the small weapon houses areound the edge. I am also quite pleased with how the texturing turned out, considering I gave it little thought at the time. Don't expect varied gameplay on this map, its frantic action the whole way! Please don't try and play this map with more than 4 people...seriously. It is really best suited to the AG mod's

 

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1 3 T H _ F L A W THIS IS NOT MY MAP! It is actually a level created by Violation, but he asked me for help on the project and so I played a significant part in its creation. Its for this reason I feel it deserves a place on my projects page. Violation decided that Valve's map "Frenzy" needed some weapon layout changes in order to improve gameplay, and so set about rebuilding the map from scratch. About 80% into the map he lost interest and semi-gave up on the project, and so asked me to help him out with a couple of problems before he released it. I took a look at the map and saw that he had improved the map greatly and so set about giving the map a few little details to improve visuals and did a few things to reduce r_speeds. Perhaps my biggest input was to remove the dreadfully simplistic room that Vio carried across from Valve's version, and in my opinion this improved the look of the map no end! All in all I think Vio did a great job of reinventing Frenzy, which lets face it, wasn't overly great in most people's opinions. This map is best suited for 4-8 players.

 

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E L I X I R When I got far into the development of this level I became a bit of an arrogant mapper. For some reason I couldn't picture there being anything better in terms of HLDM maps than it. Thankfully I now see it as being an incredibly flawed masterpiece. In many ways its the best project I've made, and yet in others it is the worst. I paid no heed to the warnings of fellow mappers (whos advice I only really looked for right before release) that the r_speeds were terrible and let it loose anyway. This is not to say it is a worthless or even bad map, as I feel it is a good level - just not as good as it COULD have been. Elixir really marked the changeover from me being a newbie mapper to becoming a more accomplished one. It was with this project that I learnt the most about mapping in worldcraft and in general, and it also gave me confidence that I could get better and better. The reviews of the map only went to reinforce this as they all seemed to feel how I feel now - it is quite good, but had potential to be better. Anyhow, I shouldn't really put the map down so much as to be honest I'm still quite proud of it. It is a good size for 4-10 people.

 

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O B S O L E T E This was my first map so please don't hold it against me! Fairly blocky construction, and an overuse of the arch tool in places it really wasn't needed let you know its a newbie effort :) Lighting however is something I feel sets it apart from most first releases. I used texture lighting rather than entity lighting with no sources that plagues most people's initial mapping efforts. There is also a fair bit of thought put into the item placement around the level and texturing isn't TOO unbelievable or repetitive! Take a look if you wanna see how my mapping has progressed since early 2001. The map is pretty small and is really best for 1 on 1 matches or upto 5 deathmatch.

(COME HERE FROM A SEARCH ENGINE? RELOAD THE FRAMES!)