Exodus

[Cysticcraze]

So... I returned home from a camping trip where I swam for six hours a day for the last three days =S Was fantastic. But I returned home with a question about my reconstruction of the house. It has two stories and some really cool scenarios. However my question is, can anyone think of creative ways to get the combine into the second story of the house? Maybe have them rappel from a helicopter or drop walkways into it? I want to create an environment where turrets can be used only to blocked two directions out of the possible 3-4 the combine would be attacking. Avoiding the two access points that were in the previous map (Turrets were able to cover both directions without effort on hard). Any suggestions? Ie vehicles bridges, drop ships, catapults... the list goes on.

[Major Banter]

Destroy a turret mid-way through the assault. Then the other.

[jgoodroad]

headcrab mortar... just a thought.

[Terr]

But I recommend having some form of 'safe' zone, or safer. Like in the Episode Two level where the combine trap you inside the house. You can hide in the basement, which gives you an advantage but there's still several assault points and such.

Every time I see your forum avatar I think it's an Xen manta-ray before I realize it's a kitten. Something about the silhouettes.

But to expand on the "safe zone" idea into a "melee zone" one... the player needs somewhere they can retreat to where they can find in close-quarters against the enemy, particularly if for some reason they run out of ammo or just really like the shotgun. The enemy avoids going into that room unless the player's been in there for a bit, and once the player kills the enemies he can run back out and forage more ammo before the next wave arrives. The room should have a few radiator/washing-machine toys for the gravity-gun.

[Cysticcraze]

Hey hey! I just wanted to stop in and give you a no media update and a question! I have been workign on recreating the first map, and I actually think I am succeeding in bringing the style of my work back to life! Mapping is slow and I recently got an invitation to join another modding team (More on that if I officially accept).

As for my question, I was wondering on your compatibility with the player that you guys build your maps for. Whenever I make a map I build it specifically for the "Hard" mode in a game, to ensure that you can have sucess no matter the difficulty. Any thoughts?

[Zecrah]

I just build for normal, since that's the default everyone uses it. That way, they can make it hard for a slight challenge or easy if they struggle. But that only really affects your weapon damage and enemy health, so stuff like straight up obstacles and that aren't even affected by difficulty anyway, just sheer combat.

[jgoodroad]

yeah, If it's not easy on hard...then there is a problem, If it plays hard on hard (as it should) it might be too hard on normal.

[Cysticcraze]

Old.

New.


Enough said?

[NBRXXN]

ahhh

[jgoodroad]

way more depth

[Phott]

Great job! That house looks a lot better from that view, you might want to break up the area that's just blocked off with rocks.

[Cysticcraze]

Hey, thanks for the feedback guys! The antilising mode isnt set in this screenshot, aplogies on that agenda.

Phott, Im not entirley sure what your talking about, could you clarify more? Glad someone spotted a flaw!

Great job! That house looks a lot better from that view, you might want to break up the area that's just blocked off with rocks.

I like my color scheme and the combine are very good at infiltrating, need something to break up the the open space around the house.

[Phott]

All the rocks outlining the area, it looks kinda repetitive. (See image)

[Cysticcraze]

Ahh, a quick reply! I see what your saying, but the reason for this is because of the displacments, because of the magnitude of the work I was doing I avoided selecting the back of the displacments. I needed something to cover the edges. It really doesnt look bad at all ingame, but I understand where your coming from. Thanks for the critisism, I am serious, to many times I just here "Looks great."

[Major Banter]

Much closer shots of that displacement work would be nice.

Looks extremely well done.