Im looking forward to playing this in h5, as maps that I see come together usually play better. Its probably a subconscious thing. Ill be posting some sketches of h5 planning within the next few days, hope you don't mind!
No man. Why would I mind, that sounds awesome. I'm looking forward to seeing them. Thanks for giving a comment here and there. I'm actually surprised there isn't more traffic here. A lot of the newer forgers and just fans, I guess, are always asking how I make maps and what my process is. They must just not be too big on foruming. Haha. Update: Got a little work done over the last few days, some bigger changes and then some smaller. Glad to be figuring all of this out before hand, plus it's fun. I lied about being done here. Theres always something more. This time it was making room for initial spawns and blocking an immediate corner coming out of the top room. Felt adding a filler prop would go well here. Don't mind the shadow. Look awkward but I'm inside of the one brush. Minor changes outside here. Opened a jump through to vary engagements. I might change that up a little to make it a bit more fluid and look better in the h5 version. Made a rock face instead of a plain wall. Not much else. Opened up the 2 door ways to make one larger one. Completely opened back room and added a jump up/drop down that I believe I mentioned earlier. Prop cover pipes to reduce line of sight without dropping. angle from opposite wall. Removed extra crates to allow better lines of sight and reduce clutter. Added crate in he corner to prevent immediate engagement after performing the jump. Thinned out bridge Deferent angle. Thanks for keeping up with this thread. Leave some comments, feedback or just chitchat in here about the map or myself and I'll make sure to get back to you as always. Will be back with another update soon!
I got Reflex after seeing this. Hopefully we can get some games in on that soon. I am trying to learn how to use the level editor now. The game is just like Quake for anyone interested. I think it would be cool to see some other forgers getting in on this game too. I'm sure it's gonna take some time to get the hang of making maps, but it seems like after I get the basics down it is gonna be a breeze. I'm really glad you posted this. I have been looking forward to making maps for a PC FPS, but I have been reluctant because I heard making maps in the Steam Workshop usually takes more than one person not even including the coding which isn't necessary here it seems.
I'm new to actually planning out my maps fully. May I ask what program you used for prototype render?
Box, thanks man. Glad you are keeping up to date with it. I tried to update on the train ride home the other day but the internet was poop. Ha Chron, Agreed, I really hope to see some more forgers jump on this. I haven't been making a lot for the game itself because halo really has my heart but one of these days I'll finish something. I would be more than glad to test some of your stuff with you man but I honestly suck at the game. Haha. It's good to hear that you picked it up! Add me on steam. BlazeDillon Tackel, It's a steam game called reflex. The editor is very similar to hammer/source but an ingame editor. Added nerd spot around the corner here, when walking up it I felt like sometimes I'd really like to stand in that corner for a moment. Another nerdy spot on the inside here. As well as the nadable hole on the top where players wont be able to jump but you will be able toss nades over. With the reason Reflex update, they added/fixed some textures. If halo had these, as generic as they are, I'd be beyond happy. I probably won't be texturing this though, just taking a look at them. Sorry for the small update. I have been really busy moving and stuff and actually on a beach trip right now. Plus this is definitely winding down, not sure what else to prep on here. Suggestions?
Crown of Flies was actually by Squidhands. Had to correct you on that, because it's still among the best maps to come out of the community. I have to hold my feedback until playing it. I understand the sketch, but you're clearly still making adjustments to the layout.
So yeah, I have started some of the development for the map. Most of the work so far has been figuring out the proper sizing, as well as how to begin. The main debate was if I wanted to start by placing a flat floor down and then begin with the lowest room on the map, or if I wanted to just pick a room and get proper scaling, and go from there. I went with the second option, because the program/game that Blaze used to create the 3D design (I think its called Reflex) has a grid, so I just made a general ratio of Reflex to H5 measurement, and started with a single room. http://xboxdvr.com/gamer/SmartAlec13/screenshot/3830089 http://s819.photobucket.com/user/OMFGitsBlaze/media/Plan project/update 3 4_zps4w7rjyq3.png.html
We need SmartAlec to finish this blockout so we can get some games on it and put it into a future Sprint. Blaze feel free to continue being transparent with this project. I love that this design has been worked on for the better part of a year. Keep it up.
So I have done a bit more work on the map. For fun, I changed the color. I think I will do this each time I do changes on the block out, so that it is easier to distinguish the stages. And its fun. So with the bridge room blocked out, I began working on the small transfer-room that is in between the bridge room and the outside area. This is shown in the first image below. Then I began working on the outside area. This is shown in the second image. A friend (also a member of Creative Force) Captain Punch joined in to see what I was working on. He looked up the sketches and map plan images, and began making a basic floor plan/ blueprint of the rest of the map. He used what I currently had made (the bridge room) and based it roughly off of that. This is shown in the third image. Through this process, I have stopped going by an exact scale. That was helpful for getting a starting base in a single room, but now that I am spreading to the rest of the map, I can just work from a relative scale. It means I more frequently go into spartan mode to check size of things, but it ends up being a lot faster, a lot more flexible, and a lot less stressful. The next goal is to continue with more detailed blocking out of the first outside area, and then the central room. After that is done, then will come the back hallways, the other outside area, and then finally adding blocked out minor geometry pieces.
Alright, the map is now in a "playable" blockout stage called a "Prototype". I continued the work from the last post, focusing on just getting the most basic forms of geometry to each area. Like before, I was no longer working with exact 1:1 from the design, but instead going with approximations, and what "felt better" at the time. When it came to the cave area, I did not use cave pieces, mainly because I want this iteration to remain very flexible, and open to radical changes. One design difficulty I had to approach with this is the room design-style. As I made the map, I came to the last room, which is actually one of the two central rooms. It was about half the necessary size, so this took some difficult re-sizing of the rest of the surrounding areas. Last 3 major things I did before I finally got some sleep is I changed the colors to better match the original Reflex layout, placed some spawn points, and placed some basic weapons to test some possibilities out. Gametypes supported: 4v4 Slayer, 8 player FFA Slayer Weapons: Scattershot, Railgun, SAW File name: Surge 0.1.0 GT: SmartAlec13 I will upload the pictures later.
So since the last update it has been forgotten, remade from scratch, rescaled, tested, iterated on a ton forgotten again and went through about 3 artists... Finally, it's done and it's one of the maps currently being considered for the GitS contest thanks to @MythicFritz