I am curious what you guys are expecting from the maps in NS2. We all loved ns1 maps, great lighting and so on. What are you wanting to see in the source engine? Thanks.

I want to see nothing.

ekekeke

Had to think about that pun for a second...


I expect to see more options available to the mapper so we'll see more variety of game modes (not necessarily 'funmap' game modes) like in games like Team Fortress.

It also looks like we'll be getting re-weldable doors, which already makes for some interesting game styles.

What crispy said, as I already tried to get more control over things with weldable and lockable resnodes. But I also want reweldable weldables and control over dynamic infestation, which we will get last I heard (annoying the current weldables can't be reset in ns1 during a round )

And yes I had to think about that pun for a second as well

not sure about the pun, unless he is saying he wants the map ns_nothing, past that im lost on it.

yes the weldable stuff is going to be cool. i am more curious about what the community thinks the maps will look like. Yes they will look simular to ns1, but what is going to make them stand out as source maps, no old hl engine maps. I really wish hammer would let you create rounded corners really easy, with displacement surfaces this is more possible in some situations, but still will not work with some textures because they will look weird. I am going to try and implented alot of smoother surfaces and no so many just chamfered corners in our maps. The hives will be very impressive now with displacements and the water in source (which is awesome). Bump textures will look really nice to on walls and floors. Anyway, these are things im looking for, looks and so on. As a mapper with a studio working on these maps, i really want the community to love our work, so your feedback is very important to me, thanks.

ive been working on a test room for like an hour, just messing with textures and stuff from ns1, so pay no attention to lack of bump detail and all. i am wondering tho if this type of lighting u expect to see (with better light textures of course) also this shows how displacement surfaces and water go hand and hand. cant wait to get a hold of ns2 textures so i can start working with them. we are also going to begin working on some custom props and so on soon.

I'm also interested in the water entity's performance in multiplayer. And yeah rounded edges and stuff would be very nice, but people who have loads of experience with vertex manipulation will not have much trouble creating this. I'm not sure what is best, performance wise for rounded corners (displacement or vertex manipulation). I think the prop system will also take care of the details on walls and such... Still brush detail is a must imho

The colors are a bit to much in those screenshots if ya ask me, could be a personal thing as I don't particular like greenish lights in combination with orangy-red ambient lights

yeah this is just a test room and i have both in there where you would typically have blue in the marine areas and orange in the alien areas

Just a note: in one of the podcasts one of the team said something about how water probably won't be supported for technical reasons (I'm guessing to do with dynamic infestation).

what a bummer, the water is so nice in the game, would be sweet. we should know soon when they send out the guidelines

Good one.

I think one of the biggest things I'm looking forward to in NS2 maps is more 3D detail. We all love the HL engine, but realistically it's only capable of 2D detail which can only go so far.

MORE FUNCTIONS TO MANIPULATE THREE DIMENSIONAL STRUCTURES WHILE PLAYERS ARE STILL INSIDE THEM

And more water...

(I didn't think of using DoD:S to test source maps... good idea)

Use portal insted, allows for some seriusly quick movement

yeah i was using dod at that time, we are using hl2 death match now for testing, tons better. i will show some images soon if allowed by unknown, using real textures, they might not allow that, we will see, thanks.

Does that work?