Daddy's Basement (WIP - First time mapping)

[Zurby]

(note: This is the very first time I'm using hammer, all I know I learned from people in the community, there's a lot I don't know yet, so you will probably see things that are done wrong or are weird.)

Hi, I am making a map, before you go and type

"you should start with the block out of your map before going into the detailing phase, it will save you effort in the long run if you have to drastically change things after playtesting."

I am just making this scene/map to learn how to work with Hammer, I'm having a tough enough time trying to make something look decent enough and learning how this stone age tool works. Let alone make something playable.

I would love some feedback on how my scene looks like, what can be improved and on what I may or may not have done wrong.

 

[Tumby]

You seem to have some experience from other engines/games, so you probably wanna know about some advanced things like Lightmap Scale and Lighting Compile Options. Something you will definatly need for when you make an actual map is Optimization.
Make sure to check out UEAKCrash's Tutorial Series and download A Boojom Snark's Ultimate Resource Pack.

Once you have created a working map, be sure to submit it for a playtest. There are two types of playtests we do: Gamedays and Imps, short for "impromptu game test". Gamedays happen at least once a week and are announced on the steam group together with a forum thread. Submit your map in the thread and it will be played on the corresponding day. For Imps, you have to message our steam bot called "V2Bot". To do that, join the steam group chat and type "!add [full filename of the map, without .bsp] [download link to the map]". You can also click the little arrow next to the bots name and use "Send Message..." and do the same thing. Most commonly used websites to host the mapfile are either TF2maps.net (great place) or Dropbox.

Oh and a few words about map file names:
You can only change the name of the .vmf! If you change the .bsp name things might get glitchy or even crash.
People can download a specific file name only once. This means if they downloaded cp_xyz.bsp and you update it without changing the name, people who have downloaded it before will be kicked out of the server with an error saying that the map file is different from the server's. So always version your maps!
The common format is [gamemode]_[name]_[letter][number]. "Letter" referes to "a" for alpha, "b" for beta, "rc" for release candidate and "final" for the final version of the map. "Number" should be pretty self explanatory.

Why did I write down so much stuff? I don't know, I gues I was just feeling like it.

 

[Zurby]

Thanks a lot @Tumbolisu , that's some very useful information! I'll be sure to follow up on it!

I am in the process of learning unreal, but I've never done level design before.. (unless you count making minecraft adventure maps as level design). I do watch a lot of tf2 mapping twitch streams but I mostly went by what felt best when making this scene.

 

[LeSwordfish]

You seem to have some experience from other engines/games, so you probably wanna know about some advanced things like Lightmap Scale and Lighting Compile Options. Something you will definatly need for when you make an actual map is Optimization.
Make sure to check out UEAKCrash's Tutorial Series and download A Boojom Snark's Ultimate Resource Pack.

Once you have created a working map, be sure to submit it for a playtest. There are two types of playtests we do: Gamedays and Imps, short for "impromptu game test". Gamedays happen at least once a week and are announced on the steam group together with a forum thread. Submit your map in the thread and it will be played on the corresponding day. For Imps, you have to message our steam bot called "V2Bot". To do that, join the steam group chat and type "!add [full filename of the map, without .bsp] [download link to the map]". You can also click the little arrow next to the bots name and use "Send Message..." and do the same thing. Most commonly used websites to host the mapfile are either TF2maps.net (great place) or Dropbox.

Oh and a few words about map file names:
You can only change the name of the .vmf! If you change the .bsp name things might get glitchy or even crash.
People can download a specific file name only once. This means if they downloaded cp_xyz.bsp and you update it without changing the name, people who have downloaded it before will be kicked out of the server with an error saying that the map file is different from the server's. So always version your maps!
The common format is [gamemode]_[name]_[letter][number]. "Letter" referes to "a" for alpha, "b" for beta, "rc" for release candidate and "final" for the final version of the map. "Number" should be pretty self explanatory.

Why did I write down so much stuff? I don't know, I gues I was just feeling like it.

This is a great post, and the sort of thing we'd like to see far more of. I'm planning on writing up a "so you've posted your first map" guide - do you mind if I use some of this?

 

[Tumby]

This is a great post, and the sort of thing we'd like to see far more of. I'm planning on writing up a "so you've posted your first map" guide - do you mind if I use some of this?

Go ahead.

 

[Zurby]

Update: Basically finished how I want the spawn room to look. With that I also got enough time to find a theme and gamemode ( 3 capture point map) for my map, guess I'll go to blocking out the actual map soon..

QUESTION:

On the second picture you see I closed the door to the basement (basement has a tunnel which will make the route to the first cap point a lot shorter if not instant). If possible I want this door to open after the first point has been captured.

I watched crash's videos some time ago, but I don't really know how to make custom things with the gamemodes themselves.
If anyone knows a video that goes more in depth about the that kinda stuff, hit me up.

(I'll go looking through the forum now to maybe find answers, just posting it here so I don't end up wasting time in case I cant find it.)




TL;DR
Want door to open when first capture point is taken. Don't know how.

 

[Tumby]

Go to the control point entity (or it's trigger area)
Then add the following output (as close as i can remember the actual names)
OnCap nameoffunc_door open

 

[Zurby]

Go to the control point entity (or it's trigger area)
Then add the following output (as close as i can remember the actual names)
OnCap nameoffunc_door open

ohh, I see how this works, damn, this is actually not that hard! haha, Thanks! I didnt think it would have been that simple. Sorry