Empires 2013 Custom Map Pack

Many custom maps got broken in the port to source 2013 so I have put together this map pack containing a few maps that work or have been fixed for source 2013.
My plan is ultimately to test/fix most of the good quality custom maps and include them in this map pack.

Some maps have new names because the bsp file has had to modified to get it working.
Most maps with edited bsp files have _2013 suffixed to the end of it's name.*
*(I got fed up of the silly map names so this isnt always the case now.)
Please read maps_changelog.txt to see what has been changed.

Download:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/5u4vw7awlnhhnfo/Empires2013-MapPack.7z?dl=0

Credits, changes and known issues can be found inside the download.

FAQ:

• Q: Can you add change X?
  A: I will only make changes to the map to fix a bug, exploit or other problems. I wish to respect the original mappers work and leave their map mostly unchanged. If I plan on making major changes then I will try and get the mapper's permission to do so.
• Q: You Stole My Map!
  A: No I haven't, I have either fixed your map to work for Empires 2013 or just included it in the map pack and all credits have been given to the original mapper(s). I would consider it a shame for a map that someone put dozens of hours of work into to not be played just because of a few missing textures or other small problems.
• Q: Empires 2013? It's 2014 now!
  A: It's referring to the source engine version that empires is running on now.
• Q: Can you test/fix the maps faster please?
  A: No, I do this in my own free time.
• Q: This map was working fine! Why did you make a fixed version?
  A: It might have looked like it worked fine, but I fixed maps that had messed up cubemaps that were just blank black textures, this has the effect of making cubemaps do nothing at all, it means some shaders won't work correctly so a small portion of objects won't look right.
• Q: Why aren't you fixing maps with broken cubemaps anymore?
  A: Because of the amount of time fixing maps takes, I will only be fixing the cubemaps if it causes noticeable problems or if I am releasing an edited/recompiled version of the bsp file for some other reason.

 

One more FAQ, why aren't these stock maps?

I love commandergrad like a chinese father loves his newborn daughter, but if we're going to play it, it should be stock.

 

That would be up to the dev team which maps get made stock maps.
Most of these maps would need to be reworked a little to meet the quality requirements to be made official imo.

 

What are these mythical quality requirements besides... "I like this."

 

Commandergrad will not be official. I enjoy the map a lot, don't get me wrong, but it's really not good enough, both visually speaking, as well as gameplay. I don't want to turn this into a discussion regarding what maps should be official and what shouldn't, but out of those 10 maps, only Research would definitely never be official. Plunge and Forest need visual overhauls but they're sound gameplaywise, while Commandergrad just needs more work all-round.

 

Plunge has to be one of my favourite custom maps gameplay-wise.

 

Would an easy/small change make downfall viable to become an official map, or would it require a more drastic change?

 

Honestly, I just haven't played Downfall enough. I saw it properly for probably the first time last night, but I didn't stick around to see it played. It seems decent enough to me so it'll probably get bumped up at some point.

 

nice job. was hoping someone would fix the old maps

though i think ob_2013 is a little redundant...

 

It's because it's a bsp edit of that version rather than a recompile.

 

I added 10 more maps to the map pack.

 

Really appreciate the time you're putting into this Cyberkiller.

 

Yes, that's great! I'd like to play on them...

 

Well these 10 maps haven't had any new versions made for them and have just had minor .res file and a couple of particle manifest fixes so should already be on viper anyway barring the minor fixes and of course I added them to epic server.

 

If you're feeling up to the task Cyberkiller, I may be able to get emp_blackmountain off my old computer when I visit home in early november. I'm at uni right now so I can't check if it's retrievable or not, although Trickster probably has a copy kicking around somewhere.

It was pretty well received when it was tested and wasn't fundamentally broken. There are a few problems that youzy helpfully uploaded pictures of in the map thread. If it isn't too much work, I would suggest dumping the crap skybox and turning it into an island.

 

Well while we're on the subject, I wanted to know if you wanted to work with me on doing a overhaul of glycenpass.

 

If you find me the vmf for blackmountain, I might just fix the known bugs and release a new version, I seem to recall that map worked ok barring a few bugs. As for the skybox, it depends how I feel and how crap it looks.

I don't feel like overhauling any more maps, I feel pretty burnt out from doing insurrection (and that wasn't even an overhaul, most of the map remained unchanged). I only want to do quick fixes and recompiles from now on.

 

Added 12 more maps to the map pack.

 

i feel like you said a while ago that king was too much to fix? i loaded it up and it seems like the only problem i see is that the preplaced rackses across the map need to be rotated 90/180 degrees. it shouldn't be that hard (can do that in entspy, right?)