Idea Dump - "WANTED"

[Remani]

I'm not necesarilly new to the ZP community, I've been around checking news, forum posts of mapper projects and news updates, all that good stuff; but up until recently I hadn't played much of the original ZP for HL1. I noticed a lot of maps, most custom it seemed, lacked a scary and post-dramatic atmosphere; some being overbright and lacking equal advantage for zombies.

So I came to the forums to actually make a post for once wondering what the source of the community wanted for maps in the upcoming release of ZP:S. In hopes of what seems to be a promising new version of the game, I wanted to get as involved with the community as can be in the future. I wanted to take some forum requests from the community for maps they would like to see created for the upcoming ZP:S. I was involved with quite a few mods being a mapper, leaving them publicly unmentioned as some projects had separated and some I moved on without for various reasons.

Post map suggestions here, and please use any references you can that are available, it only helps get maps created quicker if someone can see just what it is that you're thinking, or close to it as possible. Keep it to a scary or post-apocalyptic atmosphere, and just remember.. not everything has to be a century or two old.

-Remani-

P.S. For 1280x1024 Res, the forum (when posting a topic, and possibly replies) cuts off the 'Smilies' selector on the right side by quite a few faces, just a heads up to a potential forum fix.

[OkeiDo]

You mention that you have been involved with other mods as a mapper. And to me it seems like you've got some sparetime on your hands when you post this, maybe you should apply for the Zombie panic source team and make official maps for game?

[Remani]

Haha.. yeah I would to be quite honest with you, if I told you the games I worked with you'd probably imagine me as a perfect fit, but it's been a long time in between my last project and doing this post, so I've moved on to a few new PCs since then.. pretty much meaning I have no samples or pictures to be found of maps I previously made, except a new one I worked on for Source, and a little snip-it of one I made for my previous mod-team.

But yeah, I'd definitely look into it now that you mention it.

-Remani-

[Shing-Shing]

could you show some of your souurce maps??

[Remani]

i have a little over 10 pictures of W.I.P. points of my map projects, but i got 4 that have great angles.. the only bad side to these is that they are just that, the pictures I took of the map before it was even finished completely, so they lack about 50% of the detail they had when i finished them (not to mention the sheer size). So take these with a grain of salt for each one you view haha..

My MOD map I made:



A CS:S map I created (Dynamic movable hanging lights and tile bump-mapping-simple simple-):



Nothing extraordinarily special when it isn't done, but it's a start considering both of these took less than a day to make for those chunks.

-Remani-

[Shing-Shing]

looks like you have the skill to map

but what mod are you in?

[Remani]

well I certainly try my best, it gets finished or not. all i need is someone to direct me on what to make, and it gets done.. but no suggestions for what maps to make here yet haha

EDIT: to your question, i WAS part of the Goldeneye Source team for a little while, and then a long bit before that, I was part of an older HL2 mod called "In the Shadows".

[cheese]

i remember the goldeneye mod for HL. There was even a version done for Doom II.

If you're thinking that all zp maps ought to be completely pitch black, as that would be absolutely scary, then you've not played enough zp. There are some maps which have areas that are almost pitch black or have destructable lights that make it that way. In these areas the ones who have the advantage are the humans because they have a flashlight, zombies can't see anything at all and just bumble around until they find a corridor which leads them in what they hope is the right direction.

I've seen some creative maps for zp which could be classified as creepy, rhs22 and haunted are some good ones. If you have someone who is good with mapping and also has the right sense of how to create a haunting atmosphere you get a really good map.
The trouble is that most people just want to make what they think is scary and find a lot of difficulties in mapping and end up with something not so scary. Thus we have a lot of new mappers who quit halfway through.

Also the amount of detail you put into a map to make it scary/creepy can sometimes cause framerate to drop on some machines making the map unplayable as a multiplayer map which means you'll need to make some sacrifices when it comes to the final release of your map.

As far as what to make, I would tell you just try to think objectively about how you want the players to get around your map, where you would want them to meet for instance. Then build the map off of that. That way you'll have your basic routes completed and you won't be tied down to trying to work out the designs for a specific map type. When you finally decide on a map type, you can tailor your map towards that later through textures, props and brush modification. (de_aztec is only aztec because of the textures)