ZPO_BlackIce, new!

[Holobalobalo1]

Hello, all! This is my first attempt at creating a level in the Hammer editor, and I'm actually quite proud with how it turned out. Give it a shot and if you enjoy it please host it on your server, as my own servers never appear on the Internet list and it would make my day to see my levels being played by other people online

~Download contains map, screenshots and readme, hosted on filefront.

*******NEW, FIXED VERSION!*******
Filefront
http://files.filefront.com/zpo+Black.../fileinfo.html

RapidShare (Temporary, 10 download limit. Use it if the above link is down.)
http://rapidshare.com/files/22343690...ce_V2.zip.html

*******HUMAN STRATEGIES/SECRETS*******
http://www.zombiepanic.org/forums/sh...467#post157467

*******ZOMBIE STRATEGIES/SECRETS*******
http://www.zombiepanic.org/forums/sh...445#post157445

IT'S HERE!


Fixed in update...

*The shack trap door back entrance works now (underground tunnel from graveyard)
*The shack's front door (No initial barricade now)
*Line of sight across the level (added fences and such to break up a player's view across the level a bit and moved buildings closer together.)
*Zombie messages appearing on human screens and vice-versa. (hopefully)
*FPS is fixed completely. Thank you Waz and Rukus
*Less shotgun ammo in the small shack.
*A hole into the void at one end of the level has been fixed (yikes!)
*Fences by human spawn now appear again.
*added barricades at the rear of the human spawn.

Known Bugs in update...

*When defending your position on the Black Ice, the message says 3 minutes when you actually must defend for 5 minutes.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~


"This is my first attempt at creating a level in the Hammer editor, and it started out as a learning experience. As tends to happen with me however, I got carried away in my creativity.
This map was not designed to be especially pretty, but rather to present the Zombie Panic: Source community with something new, something more than just defending wooden cabins (though I threw in a little bit of that as well! )

~The Story~

As the appropriately dubbed 'Zombie Plague' sweeps over the last major centers of human population, turning father against son and brother against brother, mankind, in the face of it's darkest hour, makes it's greatest leaps. Just as in times of war one develops greater means of combat, in this time of impending doom the few living who remain develop greater means of escape; and so project Black Ice was born.
Converted from an orbital space station into the human race's stairway to the stars, the USS Black Ice now drifts above the ravaged wastelands of Post-Earth, making one final pass over those which were the pinnacle of human achievement, and which are now the final remaining 'rescue points' on the planet; the Orbital Elevators. These elevators essentially transport matter instantaneously from point A to point B through means of light conversion, a process in which matter is converted into light, allowing it to travel at light speed to a specific destination before being reverted back to its original state. The Black Ice is equipped with the technology required to make such transactions with the Orbital Elevators.
This is simply the tale of a single motley, insignificant group of refugees, whose eyes shone with the hope of a new life among the stars, and whose fate rests in your hands.

~The Objectives~

1) Find a defensible position and hole up for 5 minutes until the USS Black Ice arrives.

2) The USS Black Ice has arrived! Locate the key card to gain entry to the Orbital Elevator.

3) The key card has been found. Enter the Orbital Elevator complex and use it to board the Black Ice.

4) Your sector has been quarantined until takeoff procedures are complete. Hold your position for 5 minutes.

5) The quarantine is lifted! Move beyond the quarantine zone before the zombies, the infection must not spread!

In objective #5, if humans make it to the end of the level, they escape and win. If zombies make it there first, they infect the rest of the Black Ice and win.


Now with screenshots thanks to Waz!






[/quote]

[Rukus]

You might want to post screenshots or a download link, unless you want this locked.

[Holobalobalo1]

No prob, they're coming up. I'm sorting out the file now.\


~FRAME RATES FIXED~

EDIT: Alright, it's up. For some reason I get real crappy frame rates (FIXED NOW) while inside Black Ice and I can't figure out why, but I'm just about out of memory so maybe other people won't experience that.

[zerotonothing]

Those fps issues are the outcome of releasing your first map, congratulations.

[_RC]

i will not download anything unti i have seen screenshots.

[Wazanator]

I'll download it and check it out and see if I can find your problem
Don't worry everyone makes a pretty bad first map it just takes practice

Edit: Removed pics since they are now in original post

[Holobalobalo1]

Thanks Waz, I would appreciate that. And thanks for posting the screenshots too, I couldn't figure out how to do that. Sometimes it's hard to come by people who actually decide to help in forums

EDIT: Those screenshots have been added to the first post, thanks again

[Wazanator]

To test your level type sv_testmode 1 in console

Now about your level It was pretty good for a first time but it had serious frame rate issues due to it probably being so open. Try to make everything closer.

I noticed some houses have lots of ammo while others didn't try to spread it out more evenly (like the little shack at the back with the winchester had way to much shot gun ammo in it)

Instead of having a black box around the map use a skybox it will make it look alot better

Your lobby looked good just needs a skybox around it

The starting area for the survivors could use some thing at the end of that path instead of just a cut off add a roadblock or something

It was way to open for zombies to have a chance. zombie panic maps should focus on making the survivors get close and personal with the zombies no one likes it when a survivor kills them from really far away

I liked how you made the survivors come out of the places they barricaded in order to win

Try implementing these things then release a version 2 if you want it to be playable

[Holobalobalo1]

Fixing problems now. Except the skybox one. I looked through the skyboxes and found that the black actually gives the level that ominous atmosphere more effectively than anything else, so I went with that.

Alright, it worked! Framerate is fixed! Turns out the level was too high and the game didn't react well to seeing the large amount of effects in that orbital elevator. I trimmed it down to about half the size and all lag issues have been resolved.

All in all I fixed...

*The shack trap door back entrance (underground tunnel from graveyard)
*The shack's front door (No initial barricade now)
*Line of sight across the level (added fences and such to break up a player's view across the level a bit and moved buildings closer together.)
*Zombie messages appearing on human screens and vice-versa. (hopefully)
*Ground are lag is now nonexistent unless you look DIRECTLY up at the sky.
*Space station lag is fixed unless you look DIRECTLY down at the floor.
*Less shotgun ammo in the small shack.

I am replacing the link to the old level with this new one shortly. (V2)

That sv_testmode 1 command really comes in handy

[Rukus]

Add a lod.fog.control entity to keep the draw distance down. Mess around with the "fog start" keyvalue and you should have significantly better FPS.

Don't use the combine metal texture, make your own texture.
Does this map even have a skybox? It doesnt look like it.

How long did you work on this? Im only %50 done with a map called zps_sanford. Which Ive been sort of working with side by side with (SECRET!) for a month.