You've lost me, what coding ? Latest source file: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/234836/mapping/emp_echelon/echelon/emp_echelon.rar
To be a bit more specific though, there's support for glow effects, penetrating weapons, dynamic entity scaling, sound in background, bug fixes, exploit fixes, some optimizations, some minor network changes, lag compensation, wearables, voting stuff, visibility stuff, autobalancing changes. All in all though, the only thing that people might really notice is the entity scaling. But like I said, most people shouldn't notice any difference. Well, except for the part where the game can be launched. Hopefully they'll notice that.
Decided to continue with echelon today Started up hammer a minute ago ... ... and it keeps crashing Hammer is broken, and if valve thinks i'll once again clean up their mess, they're really really stupid
Posting it here if someone else is wondering how to start hammer: "Don't launch Hammer through the SDK, that doesn't work anymore as valve shipped everything to steampipe. Instead go to steamapps/common/half-life2/bin and start hammer from there."
Ok so, thanks to LordDz both Hammer and Empires are working (untill valve breaks it), so I'm back in business. Like said before I'm insisting on doing the outside displacements and layout myself. As for brushwork across the entire map, entities and the entire base at top, I accept all help. I'll post screenshots with some changes I want to make now that I have a much clearer perspective. Note that EVERYTHING is a placeholder, this includes bunkers, models, displacements and some of the textures. It's just so I can visualize how the battle could/should play out, distances, size, etc ... 1) Beach part needs more smaller objectives: - Added 3 bunkers (placeholders) - Added 2 rows of anti tank defenses (all unbuildable, but it takes a long time) - Will be adding a ditch right in between the 2 anti tanks rows with a new capture point. At start the defenders control this one so they can spawn right behind the 3 bunkers; after captured by the attackers the attackers spawn in the ditch itself and the defenders have to spawn behind the massive bunkers at the wall. Defenders still alive when the point gets captured can flee to the walls and climb behind cover. These ropes can be removed (somehow, have to find a way to do this). 2) Area between the beach and the cliff: - I'm throwing away my previous plans for this section. I want it to be noticeably different from the rest of the map, but I don't know how yet. Suggestions are very welcome! Note that it shouldn't be too demanding when it comes to performance, as this area and the cliff are both visible at the same time and can't have too much details on them. At least the beach can be blocked off from area 2 by the walls, and is so far from the cliffs that models can be set to disappear before that distance. Area 4 (the base) is behind a wall and also isn't troubled by this. Area 2 and Area 3 however need carefull optimization. 3) The cliffside - Will be adding more attack routes - Will look for ways to make it easier to attack uphill - Will look for even more things to make this area more interesting, as it's a very, very long road that's basically just one immensly long bottleneck. Note that I want to keep the size of the cliff cause it's just awesome to battle in such an area. Idea I had just now: Make the winding road destroyed halfway (erosion/collapse) and have the fight move into the mountainside before returning to the outside clifface for the last part. 4) The base Not mine to make. Someone else do it Beach part: From above: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/234836/mapping/emp_echelon/11.jpg Attackers view: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/234836/mapping/emp_echelon/12.jpg Defenders view: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/234836/mapping/emp_echelon/13.jpg New plan: Note: the red area is where the cliff has collapsed, and the road goes underground - very early wip
I could maybe plan a layout of the base but I'm scared of making something horrible and spoiling the map.
Well should that happen ... redo it There's not a single map out there of mine which has gone through less than 6 different versions, with the possible exception of downfall. And in the case of this map, and knowing how difficult it is to balance maps like escort, it's a certainty the first version will be requiring lots of changes afterwards. Also what do you think about this for the cliff area? Blue is underground, white are ladders. I feel like this gives the attackers plenty of routes to go by. It will, again, require help from someone to make the underground road an interesting combat place. It shouldn't just be a tunnel.
I think that if you can, you should try to reduce the amount of ladders, replace them with concrete stairs or something instead. Creates more fluid combat than ladders, and it looks a bit better as we don't have any climbing animations.
Well if you toss out a copy of the map in its current state... we can cruse the map and offer up suggestions. Pictures are worth a thousand words but, being there is is priceless.
hmm if im done moving (were in the middle of painting), dz's fix is working and you are ok with it im going to contribute the one or the other brush.
