My goals for my first NS map are so high I'm thinking now: "What the hell have I gotten myself into"

Maines start out in an auxiliary landing bay and there are two dropships one stays and the other takes off. (I'd like it to be triggered to move to the new path corners when the game start but a.t.m. I just have it triggered by a trigger_once)

They are idential, the one that stay has the comm chair. The marines then take one of three elevator/trams into the main complex. (The whole level is setup to use 4 levels and demonstrate applications of the func_seethrough)


I need something identical in function to the Halo dropships but is preferably original, not a baltant rip-off.

I encourage the use of a new .wad file (new textures) and need it in the form of a .rmf or .map. New sprites would be cool too.


I'll host all of the good designs (be sure to put in a .zip with a readme giving yourself credits tho if you want me to host it for download) I'll try to find some clever way to give you credits in the ready room for the winning design.


Besides I always find maps are better when multiple people work different things on them.

better ask in the customisation forum.
this is the mapping forum, you know?

and I myself asked for a skin for my dropshipmodel but no reply yet

Arg! I don't want a model. I want a map file.

~edit~

I'm mapping circles what I'm asking for is called a prefab.

I've seen ships on these boards. There's one in particular I remember based on a ship from Homeworld or something. Good stuff.

Or you can try to make your own . It probably won't be the hardest thing to make in a map as ambitious as the own you describe....

i'm pretty sure the one from homeworld isn't a dropship.

If I get bored tomorrow i might make one, but i'll make it totaly in the null texture and texture it another day.

I hope this is a joke.

Rather I hope you are a joke. Oh wait that's right you are! haha


Anyways back to being serious, I wouldn't mind collaborating on my first major NS map especially considering the plot which I have set forth and the high goals. I'm I big fan of teamwork. I was pondering that maybe 3-4 new texture would be in order. Not really sure. What could be really cool is to have the grounded one of the two have a door that pops open like the imperial shuttle in Star Wars VI, complete with smoke effects. (I'm good at making realistic looking gaseous effects in HL)

somewhat offtopic:
The part I'm most worried about is doing the ruins. I'm a master at ventilation system designs but really cool looking metalic architcture is a challenge. I took several screenshots from Halo since some of the interior architcure is simple yet stunning. Obviously this map with the constraints of the HL1 engine will have limitations to how much outdoors I can have. I'm thinking now that for the moist part this map will be entirely underground. (except for aux. landing bay entrance, which is MS) I'm also wanting to break the mold by making a MS unfriendly design, in otherwords the marines have to take one of 2-3 trams into the complex. I'm also thinking of making there be no marine/alien team choices in the ready room, only random or spectate. I just finished some new ambience mp3's which should set a subtle, yet scary mood. I'm having a little bit of a flow design issue because I want the aux. landing bay to be kinda on the edge or corner of the map but also have the 2 four-floor elevators I specifically designed for the occasion and the residential, commercial and industrial complexes. I'm getting confused on how is best to place these groupings with all these engine restraints and goals like high entropy and good flow design in my head. The more i'm think about this map I keep thinking I want to make a sequel to the story that is more jungle and outdoors like.

In a model you can put much more detail, sure a prefab could work and look good even. But you have to keep in mind that it has a low maximum amount of detail that can be used for it or else the engine would choke.

The problem in the customisation forum is that there a lots of modelers but very few skinners or at least from what ive read and heard. So even if you manage to get a nice model you're better of trying to get is skinned by some other community :\

Very long ago there was a dropship prefab being made but it was abadonned. you can do a search on the mapping forum to get some ideas, it looked very good if I recall correctly.

Maybe you even get me to try and make one for you if I feel like it or have the time to do so.

i just wanted to mention that even if you build no join marine or join alien entrance in the rr, you can still go marine by pressing F1

prefabs -> out since ns had been released (in cas you didnt know that )

in my eyes there are some good and some bad aspects on having "prefabs" in maps.
good:
- its easy to create
- you can easily change it

bad:
- without custom textures its just... senseless
- the ship will look like its part of the map. a separated model is more eyecatching so it will has its own look. you can easily tell whats ship and wats map
- counts to general r_speeds (and the r_speed dropdown is worse than having a detailed polygon-model)
- mapmodels look pretty undetailed, with the same amoung of polies a model allways looks better (smoothing for example)

but a custommodel is a lot of work. anybody should think about what he wants to achieve with it and if its worth spending hours into creating a model.

**PHASED*** - By request. - Fam

Anyone interested in helping with this?

Perhaps I'll make some sketches first...

You want a 3D model, or a prefab made in map editor?

If he wants anything remotely sexy he'll opt for a model, but I'll let the man answer for himself...