A few questions...

(Please note: considering there are so many mappers on this forum, I will be very secretive about my actual plans, as I've, in my previous mapping experiences, have experienced stolen ideas before. If you would like more information, please PM me.)

"What's a good way to visualize map ideas?"

I've had a few ideas that I thought would work well, but I don't have the largest amount of time in which to execute them. To add insult to injury, I'm not exactly an "expert" at mapping in Hammer (you could even call me a noob), so I'm asking.

Concept art appears to be a good way to start, but if there's anything else beyond that, please don't hesitate to let me know!



"One of my ideas includes a complex object (what may be called a 'prop' or 'prop_dynamic'?). How would I go about creating this object?"

About this idea I had: it is somewhat detailed, is animated, and damages like trains. I looked at Hawk's guide and modeling is nothing new to me. That's not the problem. You see... I don't know how to add animations to a TF2 object. Also, this object is concave, so a collision model would not work. The only other way would be to handle it with brushes, but it's animated, so if it has deep indentations, it may seem odd to get mauled by what appeared to be a safe (somewhat), empty area that wouldn't harm you.


"One of my ideas is time-based. How would I do this?"

I searched through the tutorials and couldn't find a thing. I'm assuming you use an entity that handles time or something, but I honestly have no clue as to which, or what to enter, or limits, etc.


"Is it possible to make water rise? Is it possible to stack water on top of water?"


"Did anyone crack the secret to Sawmill's waterfall yet?"


That's it for now. I may ask more in the future, and if I do, I'll use this thread. Thanks in advance!

I had thought of it, but I'm not sure it would work for what I'm aiming for, as there would be sections that are a piece of what was the concave structure, and for me, it could possibly end in disaster. Although, as I think about it more, I don't think having a large collision around the entire model would be a bad thing, so long as I make the indentations not too drastic.

DJive said:

"Is it possible to make water rise? Is it possible to stack water on top of water?"

Its possible to make it rise however.. water has to be flat, so it might not give the exact look you are going for. Water can be stacked however it looks horrible *graphic wise*

Click to expand...

Being flat is fine; the stacking however, I might just skip.

New question (related):


"Can water rise dependent on time-based entities or triggers?"

It'd be perfect if that's possible, because one of my map ideas relies on this.

Shameless self-BUMP!

HAY U GUISE

So I've been working on a map for a while now, and originally had the idea of making it a simple arena map. After a few weeks of observing, I've noticed the recent pleas for 5cp maps and the insatiable want for them, so I decided to transform it from arena to a 5cp (and later on, I'll cut out the middle and make it arena again). The only problem with this is that it impedes on my original design, though I can compensate, I only have one problem: what should I make the bases?

The map is built around the architectural structure of a combination hydroelectric dam/flood gate (thus its name "cp_watergate" or "arena_watergate"). As we all know, dams of this nature tend to be quite large, and have turbines that generate power that can be of use of the local citizens that inhabit the area of the dam. Well, what would happen if two huge corporal conglomerates made use of the generated power for their own uses?

I've identified RED as the evil group in this game, although I'm sure that BLU can't be all good either. The story behind the map is kinda a big deal, so I want it to be decent. I was thinking along the lines of:

"Up in the Alpine regions, RED and BLU had found untapped sources of energy and were very promising. In their previous mutual agreement, they created a hydroelectric dam to generate power and harvest the resources that were there to offer, but once construction was complete, the decision of how to split the usage could not be made, so the dam was split between the two bases to stop the arguing. They would later go on to abuse this energy and both would attempt to destroy the other base using only the force of the waterfall."

I dunno. I could probably write something better if it wasn't 5AM, but anyway...
I want the bases to be significantly different, yet symmetrical in gameplay. Both teams need a use for the power, but I don't know what.

I was guessing I could use a combination solar/water energy for BLU and maybe industrial/water or wind/water energy for RED (although wind energy in the Alpines wouldn't make that much sense, now that I think about it...)

Any ideas? :<

Ash said:

Shameless self-BUMP!

Click to expand...

:huh: