The Series: 1.)The Floor | 2.)Relevance | 3.)[thread=97737]ABNEGATION[/thread] | 4.)Debacle | 5.)[thread=100866]Insipid[/thread] | 6.)[thread=103323]Centerpiece[/thread] Introduction It's been a long ass time since I posted my last map. Sadly, this one is a redone version of the last map I posted. This being the case, I addressed the issues people had problems with in v1. If you ever ventured down to look at my signature you'll see that this is the first map of a six part series. As such, I've decided to post the first three (since that's the max) as part one of the series. The other two will be posted as I see fit. Sadly, as I neglected to actually test the latest version of this map, I have no up-to-date footage of the map i.e. action shots and vids so you will have to bear with me and these basic overview shots for the time being. For anyone who would be kind enough to render a video of gameplay you would become my bestest pal for an hour or so. All jokes aside though here is: POLICY OF TRUTH POLICY OF TRUTH (VIP) THE FLOOR v2 Story: Spoiler --The following statements and claims here recorded have been deemed the rants of an individual found to have sustained severe mental distress during a biological attack from an unknown source. This is to be taken with high skepticism as the statements are more than likely figments of the victim’s paranoia.-- Day 1, entry 1: So I’ve realized that I might not make it. I’m sitting in a room with people I don’t know. People I don’t trust. People that might kill me at any given moment. Then again, there are other things out there that are most certainly trying to kill us. Almost everyone else I’ve run into out there wants me dead. They want anyone else not affected with their disease, dead. With that, I’m forced to place my life in the hands of the strangers who sit and stand in various places of the room we’ve kept in for the night. This place looks like it may have been a shop at one time, but it is now exhausted of everything but the guns we laid out. Even the shelves are gone. They were probably used to barricade windows and doors for the lucky few who caught word of the infection before it swept through, but those barricades now prevent us from entering most of the buildings thus leaving us to protect ourselves on the floor of the city. Spoiler When threatened, no one wants to be on the ground. Our immediate impulse is to move up. I don’t know why that is. It must be something embedded deep into the human psyche. It is such a strange little habit though because everyone knows that there’s the inevitable end as to how far one can go up. What do you do then? The guy who said he grew up here mentioned a highway at the other side of town of course. I don’t know what good that will do us, but at least it’ll take us somewhere other than here. A couple of the survivors are beginning to unblock the doors. We must continue our trek to find a salvation that may not even exist. Our goal is an airborne freighter we ‘heard’ about. Those words came from one of the survivors we lost almost right off the get-go. His sanity came into question several times, and we never really reached a verdict. What we did know is that he had a CB radio that he carried on him much like a back-pack. Though all we ever heard was static, he claimed at one point a broadcast spoke of evacuation choppers making regular runs between high rooftops and an airborne freighter that refugees were being kept in. It’s a long shot to think such a place even exists, but at the same time we have no other plan. It really doesn’t make a difference if it exists or not. We can sit here waiting for our salvation and rot in the meantime, or we can follow the ramblings of a crazy man and hope he’s right and hope there’s a light at the end of this dark, dark tunnel. The door’s unblocked now. Government Procedure: Biological Outbreak Hello citizen, if you are reading this then you are most likely not infected with the most recent pandemic of the age, yet. To prolong your lack of hunger for flesh and thirst for blood you may want to follow the simple rules your benevolent government has provided for you. 1.)Arm yourself. If you have uneasy nerves then a choice of a mini shotgun and a full shotgun are available to you (availability may vary); remember, the less aiming you have to do, the more time you can spend not dying. For those who like a slightly (and we mean slightly) more accurate approach, try a SMG or AR; recoil can be your best friend as well as your worst enemy. For all of you badasses who have lived through zombie apocalypses before and have nerves of steel the Magnum, Sniper, or BR may be your approach. If you find a BR, don't get used to it. All the other BR whores out there exhausted ammo supplies. There is no telling what other kind of weapons may have been left behind. There could be grenade launchers and explosives, but we encourage you not to touch them since their reliability is unknown. 2.)Keep moving. As any sentient being knows, bullets don't spontaneously generate (though stone blocks do). The only way you can hope to survive is to keep moving. The last thing you need is to be caught in a corner with no ammo. All or most of the local dwellings have been boarded up or welded shut. This makes things difficult on you, the survivor, because you are now restrained to public domains where infected individuals can come at you from all directions. Do not fret for we, your benevolent government, have mapped the most ideal and definately least dangerous route through the city to the highway which at this point may or may not have been sealed. Warning: tampering with or destroying seals could result in harsh punishment. the start The first area you will encounter is a small alley way with what appears to be a dead end. Stick around for a bit or two and there's sure to be a way out. Be wary of the holes and for god sake don't go down there. dead end The next area you encounter if you make it is the courtyard. Isn't that neat thing in middle pretty? Well the zombies think so too and tend to come from there. courtyard Make your way up the ramp and into the sewers. The sewers are the most dangerous part of your journey. With that, we, your benevolent government, have conveniently placed some guns down there for your survival pleasure. Most of the ammunition for them was used trying to get them down there but we feel you'll compensate for the loss. sewers Upon ascending from the sewers you'll come upon another district that has part of the highway overpassing it. Bet you'd like to use that turret wouldn't you? Damn shame. Fool around here for a bit and we, your benevolent government, will use a particle accelerator to spontaneously generate a stone block giving you access to the outskirts of the highway. district If the highway is sealed when you arrive here then we wish you the best of luck and hope for your understanding in that it had to be done in order to contain the infection. We left a weapon shop unboarded just for such an occasion that may be of some use to you. Also, on the other side of the highway there is a broken seal. Don't touch it. It may explode. We would certainly hope that the highway is open for your safe passage but again such gurantees cannot be made since the highway will be shut within 3 minutes of this notice being posted. highway 3.)Know where they come from. To you, the zombies may seem like they come out of nowhere. That's because they do. They've made use of a teleporter grid we, your benevolent government, placed around the city to help efforts in survaillance. The infected use this grid to quickly navigate the city to satisfy their new diet of your brains. zombie spawn The order of the teleporters coincides with their distance within the city. The first teleporter on the left takes the zombies either above the dead end or below the dead end. The second, or middle one takes them to either the courtyard centerpiece or the sewers. The third, right teleporter takes the zombies to the left or right side of the district. The hole in the wall at the zombie spawn gets them straight to the highway. In the event you take longer than 3 minutes to die the rightmost, sideways teleporter will open and we'd rather not say what that means for you... The zombies may want to take note of the fact that the 2nd, 3rd, & 4th teleporter and the hole will render them unable to backtrack to the first dead end without dying. Don't necessarily know why you should know that; perhaps for if/when you become a zombie. 4.)Know your enemy. Unfortunately for you, the zombies know where you are all the time. This means you can't hide in a barrel and expect them to just walk on by. By government standards they have 300% damage resistance with 50% damage infliction and move at 110% speed with 150% gravity. If one thing remains true, aim for the head. In an effort to help survival rate, we, your benevolent government, placed power orbs at certain junctions. However, we soon realized our mistake when we placed them in places that humans can't get to but zombies can. We apologize for this and as our apology we'd like to inform you as to what the power orb does to a zombie. Upon obtaining a yellow power orb a zombie now has 1000% resistance with 75% infliction with 90% speed as well as they can weild weapons and drive vehicles for the duration of 90 seconds. Any inconvenience you suffer we take personally. an inconvenience 5.)Know yourself. This is probably the most important part. Unless you know what you are capable of you don't stand a chance of survival. By government standards you have 300% resistance with 2x overshield (you're welcome). Due to a defect, the shields do not recharge. You move at 100% speed with 200% gravity and you are able to pick up weapons and drive vehicles at will. The only detection you have of the zombies other than your eyes are the hairs on your neck, which is displayed as a 10 meter motion tracker. Also, as a little last bit, always bear in mind your surroundings. Staying in the safe room may seem like a good idea, but in order to cure a disease we call Pussyism we, your benevolent government, cause a large wedge to spontaneously generate atop the roofs just to help flush you out. Blowing up that grav lift after passing the dead end could save you a lot of heartache, though not much. The sewers can be a nasty choke point for the zombies to come at you from all directions. Use the grate to spot out possible ambushes, and use the multiple paths down there to try and ward them off your tail. The ascending ramp from the sewers may be a good place to hold out the district but keep in mind the fact that zombies still can come from the sewers. Use those eyes in the back of the head we gave you. A trip mine at the entrance of a narrow hall is god's gift to zombie killing... not that there's a trip mine or anything, let alone a brute shot. Height is always a nice advantage to have, but when the rain starts pouring you'll probably get wet. This is totally not a metaphor. If you manage to find a way or a crack outside the city (which we highly doubt there are any) why would you even take it? You'd miss out on all the zombie killing fun (or brain eating fun). With this guide now fresh in your mind, go, run to salvation wherever it may be. Download the apocalypse now via the link below or the one at the top and get started on your quest to not be food. POLICY OF TRUTH POLICY OF TRUTH (VIP) THE FLOORv2 sincerely, your benevolent government p.s.: The VIP variant is for those who want a defined ending to the level. Damage resistance, health, infliction and such are adjusted to suit equal teams. p.s.s.: Policy of Truth (Infection and VIP) are compatible with all 6 maps. Spoiler Day 1, entry 2: I have to be honest; I didn’t think I’d be writing a second entry. I almost accepted the first as a death note, but thankfully I’ll live another day. We’ve held up in some sort of circuit room. Somebody else was here at one point. We found a home-made bomb and grenade launcher that made for good use. A few people died, but more survivors were found; more people I have to ‘trust’. You know, I say they died; I wish they would have died. They were reanimated into monsters that tried to kill us like the rest of them. I had to kill one of them myself. Ironically, he was the one I’d ever gotten somewhat close to; actually showed interest in me as a person. The only person in our group I could call a friend. He was the only person who asked about my life before all of this. I used to be a professor at a local community college. I lead a rather boring life confined to the substantial routines of most peoples’ everyday lives. I wasn’t ready for something like this. Hell, I’d only ever shot a gun once, maybe twice and all of a sudden I had to kill people I used to talk to at some point. What really hardened me though was the first day the infection came through our neck of the woods. I wasn’t entirely sure what was going on, but I knew me and my wife didn’t need to be around when it got bad. I got to my apartment and saw her car was there. I was relieved to see she’d made it. I burst through the door yelling to her that we needed to leave. There was no response. I ran to our room and found her sitting on the bed; hunkered over to where I couldn’t see her face. My immediate reaction was that she was crying, but as I approached her I noticed she wasn’t crying at all. She sat there, breathing hard, as if she had a 70 year old smoker’s lungs. She almost seemed unaware of me until I touched her. I placed my arm on her shoulder and she slowly sat up. I looked in her eyes. There was nothing. Her eyes possessed no emotion whatsoever. I backed off as she gazed at me so blankly, and then, as if out of impulse, she attacked me. I killed my wife that day. The one woman I would have given my life for, I had to kill. I pushed her off me and ran to the kitchen. I grabbed the largest knife I had and waved it as she entered the room. It didn’t phase her one bit. She didn’t show any hesitation. As soon as she saw me she ran with full force and hatred towards me and I sent the knife through her skull. At that moment, I became a different man. I became unidentifiable from the rest of the people I fight with. I was a hardened soldier at the bottom of the food chain with nothing more to live for but the hope of something better out there. That is something we all share. Maybe we are all friends. It’s probably a good thing we ended up in this room. The passage to the highway has been sealed off. I’m sure it was to try and prevent further infection. One of us can mess around and open the gate somehow. This room seems pretty safe. I might actually try to get some sleep tonight. Conclude: So I hope you like this. I tried the writing style to make reading all of this a bit more feasible and I would hope it worked. I wouldn't expect it in future posts but it was rather fun talking like that. As always, constructuve criticism of the map itself and the gameplay is welcome. I'll try to get actions shots and vids up asap. MAJOR UPDATE: Due to some recent games with some complete morons I realized a moronic move on my own part in the gametype: -Suicide penalty has gone from 60 seconds to 5 seconds (dunno what happened there.) -Zombies can no longer pick up weapons for 3 seconds after spawning (this happened when the gametype was still L4D oriented.) -Tank has gone from 2000% resistance to 1000% (I had already fixed this but some people had the old old version.) -Friendly fire has been turned off (surely you would know why this happened.) Things that may be implemented onto the map itself: -Blocking the last 2 teleporters until the humans can pass the dead end (much like it was done in Relevance). -Revising/Redoing the dead end entirely (though I'm pretty proud of the from the floor approach, there were camping complaints). I will reiterate this when I post Abnegation, but in the meantime be sure you download the gametype again so you don't get the problems I've noticed. Please leave feedback and I will get the other 5 parts posted as time allows. until then, Peace out FH.
dl'ed, looks really good, i like the diary and the writing style, this map remind me of the map i think got feautured and 1 of the mods made it, its like l4d, like yours. really enjoyed reading and cant wait to play, when i next sign on hopefully i have played it and if the is still on the first page on casual, ill post again with a proper review i wanna see the next one, d4rk.
Thank you. And yes this series is very L4D inspired The next one (Relevance) is actually gonna have a vid so it's taking a bit longer. Also I'm trying to fix a couple of problems that were recently pointed out to me =P Also the storyline spans the whole series. Think I forgot to mention that. Just an odd spin on things if you're interested in that kind of stuff.
I would just like to say A Job Well Done bud. This is by far the best linear infect map i have played in a long time (Im not bluffing). Story:5/5. Reminds me of the begging of Dawn of the Dead. However the room you spawn in, noobs will camp the **** out of that thing. Maybe you should make killballs spawn in the room (like a house burning down). Maybe for the next map some action shots. Overall this map is exellent and diserves a pat on the back. PS: for the video for the next map please include me. Many thanks bro!
Hah, I'm quite amused by your benevolent government, though they need to be smarter with their powerup placement. Looks like a wonderful map, I'm going to DL tonight 'cause I'll be home alone all evening. If anyone wants to play that'd be lovely because I'm not the best at finding custom game partners, I don't know why. Alas, I digress, no matter. This map is, without a doubt, the most amazing linear map I've seen. Gameplay looks great and I am a big fan of self selected spawning (Your Teleporter Grid) in infection so this is quite a thrill for me. The only thing I worry about is BR whores, but you made it clear that ammo is limited. Justathought: Since this is linear, and looks like it could be played with a large group, you could make a VIP gametype with some minor honor rules and make it a success IMO. Do one sided objective VIP with one objective winning the game, let's say it's 5 points. On the other team, make the VIP exactly the same as other players, and have the players on that team be 5. Then you can have a maximum of 11 players on the 'zombie' team and have objective infection. The Human team would have no respawning, and killing a human would be one point, so Zombies can get up to 5 points and win if they kill everyone. The only problem I can see is having to corral 5 people and no more into the human team when they spawn, and then having people switch back when the teams change, but you can fix that by having it be one round. The other is people always going after the VIP, even though they are no more special in this game. I think since everyone has markers it won't be too bad, but it will be something akin to boomer bile atop your head. So yea, that's my idea. Only criticism (Isn't there always one?): It looks a little bland... I know you can't exactly choose your pallet of tannish sand, darkish sand, and yellowish sand, and you can't be bothering your budget with complicated aesthetics, but just add some merged lights up high or below to show some depth. One example of depth that IMO really enhanced the look of the city was the first highway shot with the taunting turret. I can't put my finger on what it is, but just make it look more like that. Anyway, kudos +5, and I feel bad now critiquing a map that's way above my patience and skill in map creation, so I'll let you know again this is awesome stuff. Adios, farewell, bye.
Pussyism, lol. Great write up- it's what convinced me to download. The map has good length and gameplay. I love the sewers too, you really get some exciting action down there. Well done.
Oh yea... I guess I should have mentioned there is a VIP variant of the game. Just editted the link to it into the post. Damage resistance and shield power is adjusted to suit that there will/should be an equal amount of people on each team. IMO, this mode more simulates L4D's versus mode since when a human dies in L4D they don't become a zombie. At the same time though, in L4D they don't respawn which is a problem I encountered in the VIP variant cos you can't adjust individual team lives. My solution to this (and it still may be implemented) is to create a penalty (fun) box. That way, if you commit suicide in the infection version you are confined to the penalty box where the zombies could easily assassinate you. In the VIP variant it would represent the human dying. The only downside to this is the risk of having the person stuck in the penalty box leave the game which is definately something I don't want cos then you get the "This game SUCKS!" comment. Anyway, thanks for the feedback so far. More is always welcome.