Yet Another Map Idea Post :)

Reese

I had the idea a little while ago to make a map that is based around an advanced ship which is still under construction. The idea was that since it is such a high-tech (read expensive) vessel the marines wouldn't abandon it. The ship would have a lot of room for detail in missing panels with pipes and wiring.

One of the reasons I liked this idea is it opened up the possibility to make a low-g construction area. I guess this is something that would really need to be playtested first, but I thought it would be fun to have.

Also I wanted to create one of the hives as a room called "Multiverse Research". The idea here would be that, in addition to experiments doing so, parts of the room would exist in other universes. This would be portrayed as beams or other objects being visible in some parts, but not casting shadows, and invisible in others, but actually throwing a shadow. The first, if i'm not mistaken, would be done with a combination of func_illusionary with the beam texture and func_wall with the invis texture to give skulks a place to walk on. Still working on ideas for the other two hive rooms.

This actually brings me to another question. Since I am really really new at mapping, does anyone have any advice for making rooms interesting? Specifically i'm looking for tips on building the details quickly. Also i'm wondering how long it takes on average to build the various types of rooms. I know more important rooms (read as hives and marine start) will take much longer than general hallways, but i'd like to know about how long it takes for each. Right now it takes me a lot of building, compiling, and retweaking just to get things to scale, so any hints on that would be nice too. Anyways, just throwing my idea out there to see what the consensus is.

Kuroneko

Can't change the gravity in NS =\


Otherwise, it's sounds nifty, I like the 'Multiverse' room, sound like fun <!--emo&:D--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/biggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif'><!--endemo-->

CrouchingHamster

"Right now it takes me a lot of building, compiling, and retweaking just to get things to scale, so any hints on that would be nice too."


If I remember right, an info_playerstart entity is the size of a standard marine.

There's a list of how big an item is in Hammer units floating around somewhere, might help with your scale problems.

fo_sheezy_my_neezy

look in your ns folder, and find nshulls.txt. You're gonna need it to compile anyways, but open it up and read it. it gives the sizes of the 3 models:

1) standing marine or fade
2) onos
3) gorge/skulk/lerk/crouching marine or crouching fade

Read the file in 3 parts:

first number = width
second = lenght
third = height

With that said, here it is

32 32 72 (fade/marine)
64 64 108 (Onos)
32 32 36 (skulk/gorge/crouched fade or marine)

Reese

Cool, thanks for the help guys.

BTW: can't you simulate a gravity change with a vertical push? The idea would be to have a reduced gravity field instead of just no grav. Since the concept could be contained to one area I think it would work. The fact that the push would not take effect until the player jumps is not really an issue, as there is supposed to be SOME gravity to hold you down.

Also thought it would be cool to surround the hive in the multiverse room with circular glass that was a combo of func_illusionary and another noclip texture. That way it would be glass that anything organic will not go through, but bullets/acid rocket/etc will.

NerdIII

I never used vertical pushes, but I read in another post, that pushes only take effect, if a player is already moving relative to the push. So a vertical push wont catch a player until he/she jumps or walks up/down a ramp/stairs.
And I don't know if pushes can simulate gravity correctly. Maybe you end up with all players glued to the ceiling <!--emo&:D--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/biggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif'><!--endemo-->

Shadowics

You can reduce gravity just fine using a trigger_push vertically, just keep the speed under 800 or the people would be stuck to the ceiling.

Also I think making visible things not cast shadows and vice-versa is easier than you make it sound. I haven't played another with that but alot of things in NS don't cast shadows anyway. And it's easy to make a func_illusionary that is transparent cast a shadow.