Tournament

Jun 19, 2009
812
814
arena_Tournament

This is the first map I have made so far. Quite simple. The map editor is not much different from WarCraft III's except in 3D! Thanks for your help guys. Now I'm gonna make some real maps.

:p

Anyway, the map consists of 4 towers and a central one, various rocks and terrain, and misc items. It's pretty cool for a first map.

Question: Do I have to do anything special to the map to allow it to run on a server?

Thanks guys!

I think it's the final version...
 
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Hanz

Ravin' Rabbid
aa
Jan 18, 2009
844
479
Grats with releasing your first map! :p But, could you please take a screenshot from in tf2? You can't see a lot on the screen with the yellow boxes and other stuff. (I think you now but, to compile and test your map in tf2, press F9 and then 'OK' :p)
 

grazr

Old Man Mutant Ninja Turtle
aa
Mar 4, 2008
5,441
3,814
There doesn't seem to be much in the way of level design.

There seems to be little thought to spawn locations (are there even legitimate spawns?), combat hot spots (i see no choke or vantage points), related vertical combat (key TF2 gameplay component), basic aesthetics and related map theme.

A stereotypical first map "i don't know what i'm really doing, but here's something anyway" job.

I don't mean to sound like an arsehole but there are a few things you will need to learn before releasing a map publicly.

First and for-most learn how to create a properly functioning spawn room, each map other than perhaps arena will require the whole spawn entity setup package; including respawn visualisers, resupply lockers, team filtered doors and class swap out trigger brush.

Later, learn how spawn location effects game speed, balance, and general playability. This will ensure an enjoyable map will be your final product. This is more a gameplay theory aspect when it comes to research (and experience) rather than a physical thing you can swap out or debug.

Learn your displacements and alpha blending function. A fundimental aspect of any Source based game, and even on other game engines. Learn to create natural looking terrain using the displacement feature and it will make the world of difference in your virtual environment. Even bad displacements can make your map look 10x better.

You might want to read this discussion on improving the quality of your camera view: http://forums.tf2maps.net/showthread.php?t=6358&highlight=detail+hammer
It looks like you seriously need to increase the model draw distance, atleast.

Provide cover.

One of the things that makes a box map like this fundamentally "fail" is how basic and horrible the gameplay will function (and remains completely identical to any other map of this form). People spawn, spam in each others general direction, and die or live, 80% down to chance. Cover will normally come in the form of detail. But you'll still want to simulate basic cover in your early beta's to get a better response from player feedback. Otherwise responses can be vague, generic and varying from one perspective to another, in the terms of what should be implemented and how. In which case, you can never really lay claim original authorship after spitting out everyone elses idea's on such a rudimentary level.

It is hard when developing an arena map, particularly at such an early stage in experience, to avoid your box map situation. For all intents and purposes lumberyard is little more than a box map. But the variations in height, player paths and environmental hazards and map theme detracts from it's basic layout.
 
Jun 19, 2009
812
814
Well, I know how to make a spawn room, but I didn't think it was necessary for arena mode. Thanks for your feed back!

Question: what is a good way to make "Walls" around the map without having just walls. Like for example, I dont want my map to just look like a box... Also, is there a way to add noise to the ground? Like instead of just a big flat ground... have some indentations and hills, etc. Thanks!

One last thing...
Learn your displacements and alpha blending function. A fundimental aspect of any Source based game, and even on other game engines. Learn to create natural looking terrain using the displacement feature and it will make the world of difference in your virtual environment. Even bad displacements can make your map look 10x better.
Can you give me a link or tell me where I can access the displacement tool? Thanks!
 
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MrAlBobo

L13: Stunning Member
Feb 20, 2008
1,059
219
http://forums.tf2maps.net/showthread.php?t=807
displacements are in there, with several links to differing segments of doing displacements, this one seems to be the most relevant to you http://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/Displacement

to have borders around your map there are a variety of things you can do that don't look too strange, 1st you can have displacement cliffs, after a certain height they can look odd if you don't add some extra details to them though, on a few occasions you can use a fence, though this is something you should use sparingly, as a wall of fences looks even worse then just walls. You can also work detail buildings as your border, basically just the front of a building as who will ever see the back. Of course with all this I am assuming an outdoor settings.
 

Smashman

L3: Member
Mar 14, 2009
118
64
Question: what is a good way to make "Walls" around the map without having just walls. Like for example, I dont want my map to just look like a box... Also, is there a way to add noise to the ground? Like instead of just a big flat ground... have some indentations and hills, etc. Thanks!

You could use the tools/toolssky texture on a brush to create the feeling of a sky around the playing field.
 

DaFatCat

L3: Member
Apr 19, 2009
129
11
It needs to be easier to get up to that castle-ish thing.
 

grazr

Old Man Mutant Ninja Turtle
aa
Mar 4, 2008
5,441
3,814
Also, is that a portal texture?

Try to stick with TF2 materials. You can make sure you do this by typing "tf" into "keywords" in your texture browser. There are one or two that don't show up. I think a database was created listing these (though i know not where off the top of my head), but mostly they are signs and not texture's you'll particularly miss at first glance.

Crossing textures from other mods is also a particular issue as it's believed that these textures will not show ingame for those without that mod. I don't know how it is with Portal, or remember if this is true. But it is best to stick with TF2 materials and only HL textures if it's really necassery and unnoticable.