[CSS] mg_frightnight_final_part_2

[Starving Hobo]

So this is a newer much improved version of the original frightnight map I made. Here it is:
http://www.gamebanana.com/css/maps/164425







It's meant to be like a horror movie, so there are lots of references in the map for horror fans to enjoy, and also getting chased by a maniac when the horror music is playing has an "Amesia: The Dark Descent"/"Penumbra" like feel about it...

There's a few things in the map to make you shit bricks, in other words, ghost sightings (of the caretaker who commited suicide) in the attic and tool shed basement.

[Fulcrum]

The first picture has a problem with the light on the roof, the fog in the distance and mausoleum(?) to the left seems a little blocky. You could use ivy to hide the blockyness. The ceiling in the 2nd pic seems too flat, its hard to make it up flat but you might add beams (Either plaster covered or timber) and make it a little higher. Third pic has acoustic damping tiles in a bed room, I've never seen this occur in real life so you might swap it out for something more bed roomy. The fourth pic's geometry seems too simple and flat it looks like it is just a box with props maybe look into supports, spider webs and a way to change the floor. I like the shed in the last pic it has a nice looking roof.

I'm not really one who can give out criticism but these, if changed, would really augment the map.

[mookie]

This map disables clients' radar by setting cl_radaralpha to 0. Knowing this, I would absolutely never put it on a server.

[Starving Hobo]

This map disables clients' radar by setting cl_radaralpha to 0. Knowing this, I would absolutely never put it on a server.

Can you suggest a better way of doing it? Having radar on spoils the map so I have to do it in SOME way and that's the only way I know... I am doing an improvement release, this was more of a beta.

[Starving Hobo]

The first picture has a problem with the light on the roof, the fog in the distance and mausoleum(?) to the left seems a little blocky. You could use ivy to hide the blockyness. The ceiling in the 2nd pic seems too flat, its hard to make it up flat but you might add beams (Either plaster covered or timber) and make it a little higher. Third pic has acoustic damping tiles in a bed room, I've never seen this occur in real life so you might swap it out for something more bed roomy. The fourth pic's geometry seems too simple and flat it looks like it is just a box with props maybe look into supports, spider webs and a way to change the floor. I like the shed in the last pic it has a nice looking roof.

I'm not really one who can give out criticism but these, if changed, would really augment the map.

The kitchen ceiling is gonna be as it is I'm afraid due to the floor above, and I don't know what I can do about the fog... Maybe I can add some pipes in the kitchen or something like that? But in most cases there's not much I can do with the ceilings... And the "way to change the floor" I am not totally clear on, maybe some dust on there

I am adding cobwebs as we speak (not spamming them everywhere lol, just in the cellar)... Can't really add beams because the players would be getting stuck on them as they run through or not have enough headroom to jump... I would definitely like to detail it all more though.

Anyway thanks for the criticism it means I can improve the map

[nub]

Fixing the fog simply requires getting the fog color to blend well with the skybox you're using. It literally looks like it's on the default settings; that hideous light-gray color.

[mookie]

This map disables clients' radar by setting cl_radaralpha to 0. Knowing this, I would absolutely never put it on a server.

Can you suggest a better way of doing it? Having radar on spoils the map so I have to do it in SOME way and that's the only way I know... I am doing an improvement release, this was more of a beta.

Unfortunately I don't know of any way to disable radar from the server. Depending on what you're trying to achieve, you may be able to get somewhere by embedding materials to replace the radar objects. I put a transparent 32px texture named null32.vtf in /materials/sprites and was able to remove players from the radar using the material below. It would need take some investigation as to what will happen when a new map loads (i.e. will the game reload the normal radar materials?) but this method would be at least non-destructive (assuming the files are embedded in the BSP and not downloaded with a resource list). The interesting materials (all VMT in /materials/sprites) are mainly bomb_carried (bomb icon), bomb_carried_ring (yellow halo), bomb_carried_ring_offscreen (yellow triangle halo), player_blue_dead (X), player_blue_dead_offscreen (X), player_blue_offscreen (triangle), player_blue_small (circle), player_radio_ring (green halo), player_radio_ring_offscreen (green triangle halo), player_red_dead, player_red_dead_offscreen, player_red_offscreen, player_red_small, player_tick (white triangle indicating direction faced).

Code: Select all

"UnlitGeneric"
{
   "$basetexture" "sprites/null32"
   "$vertexcolor" "1"
   "$translucent" "1"
   "$vertexalpha" "1"
   "$ignorez"     "1"
   "$no_fullbright" "1"
}

[mookie]

Just tested that method and the result was mixed.

If sv_pure is 0, the material will stick, so the players' radars will probably be defective/useless until they restart their game. This is somewhat better than setting cl_radaralpha to 0, which (if their config is not set to read-only) renders their radar useless until they find out how to fix it (for noobs, possibly until they quit CSS for life thanks to the ability of Steam to save your config across uninstalls).

If sv_pure is 1 or 2, the materials will be reloaded from GCFs when the next game starts (i.e. perfect behaviour).

PM me if you want to do this and can't get it working for some reason.