The Ebb and the Flow

unfortunately, we're definitively into "ebb" territory.

work sucks, especially when they lay people off. i'm a survivor, mostly because i'm still a grunt who actually gets work done (at times). this means, however, that i have to pick up the slack left when my boss (co-worker / friend) was let go. somehow, i can't shake the feeling that he's the lucky one.

combine that with everything else and my mapping time has been exactly nothing since my last post. the honest truth of the matter is that i'm exhausted, and trying to work up the energy to stay up that extra hour just to get some work on this done is nigh unto impossible right now. i'm hoping that my lack of real drive and inspiration is just a symptom of adjusting to family stuff. it had better be, because i don't want the Cynical Me - you know, the one who said that actually finishing a level to beta was a pipe dream - to win.

Back On Track

i am feeling much better about my progress thus far - not because i've gotten a whole lot done (which i haven't), but because i'm now pretty confidant about my overall map size. yes, i was planning something that was far too big for a CTF map - i guess i should be thankful i caught it as early as i did.



now the overall shape of the map is obvious. you may also note that i killed my first silo - it was simply way too large for the map. i've got a placeholder there now, and when i'm ready that placeholder will be transformed.

here is a shot from the farmhouse - you'll see the train station (not like Well, just a little stop) which marks the map centerline, and the BLU area in the distance. due to the nature of CTF, the building locations are identical but i hope to give the impression of totally separate areas when i detail them.

one thing i did notice when going through the official Valve maps: there are no critical structures that are angled - only incidentals, like the little shacks outside of Cap A at Gravel Pit. i was planning on angling a couple of my buildings, but seeing them all lined up with the Almighty Grid is making me rethink this. so, my question for anyone interested is this: should i bother trying to angle my buildings (build them out, detail, then angle the entire structure last), or am I just begging for a nightmare, especially when it comes to making playtest updates?

Learning Experience, Right?

quick note: i confirmed that my level is way too big for a ctf map. i'm gonna have to redo the silo and scale the terrain down a bit.

mental note from here on out.....first step, set up the land and connecting interiors only - that way i don't spend as much time on details that i'll just be ripping out later. then i can add blocks for important buildings, and then go from there.

I'm an Idiot.

and no, it's not because i haven't worked on anything. i wasn't even talking about how i check the TF2 Blog on a daily basis, despite the fact that they update almost as often as i.

i'm talking about my tunnel vision with the map. the fact of the matter is that i have done only a little bit, but keep worrying about my scale, and with good reason: i have no overall layout! i've been so focused on getting my grandiose "vision" out into Hammer that i've completely lost sight of potential playability problems. well, no more. after a quick refresher read of the TF2 Mapping Tutorial on the Steam forum, i've decided that my new favorite color will be the Hated Orange Texture.

i also must confess that the bits of spare time i could have used to map were taken up by rediscovering my love for the Heavy, as well as racking up a few achievements. i prefer to wait a bit, just so that i'm not Heavy #6 on a 6-man team. i also picked up a copy of Metroid Prime 2: Echoes. yeah, i know it's an old gamecube game, but i'm a sucker for the entire Metroid series.

in other news, i'd like to give a huge shout out to my New Best Friend (only because he commented on my last post ;-) ), Vander. looks like he's in a similar boat, only he's able to devote more time to things than i, lucky guy. thanks for the comment!

Baby Steps

It seems like an easy thing, to grab an hour or two here and there. well, let me tell you, it's very very hard. my progress so far was mostly accomplished over the past two hours tonight.

Here is the inside of the barn, around the sniper window. Not much to see when it's not in-game.

Here is a shot of the Red Complex, including the new silo! The barn will be rotated to a more aesthetically pleasing angle, and then a "secret" passageway will be made between the barn and the silo (yes, you will be able to go in the silo).

Here is the other side. in order to provide some more interesting visuals, this new building will be a garage that is not accessible - it will simply be a play boundary.

I'm concerned about the size of this map ballooning out of control, so I have tried to compress it a bit...but I can't without ruining the farm believability. in your opinion, how large is too large? should i consider it by Hammer units or by scout run time? all comments would be appreciated.

all for now,
-J

New Arrival

hi all - last week saw the arrival of my new son! Third Born arrived with only minor complications! i would gush on and on about him, but honestly it would bore everyone (anyone?) here.





while in the hospital, with wife and baby being taken care of, i got more done. the farmhouse, version 1, is complete!


the above shot is the front of the house. the awning allows rocket/sticky jump access to the second floor, while everyone else can access it via the right-hand stairs. the porch opens to the bottom floor, which opens to two doorways to the outside behind the house.

this is a shot of the back of the house; notice one of the rear entries to the ground floor and the blocked in concrete? inside the concrete (accessible from the top floor only) is the flag room. when everything is complete, the concrete will have radar dishes and other fancy bits on it - my idea is to show a run-down, rustic farmhouse with a poorly-hidden surveillance complex on the back.

one more note: i have put all house brushes into a custom visgroup so that i can easily hide and select them, in the event i want to move or modify the house at all. i will try to do this for all structures; each one will receive its own visgroup, which should make my job easier.

this is the beginnings of the barn - the back part will be red spawn #2, with the metal grate leading to the ground floor and also an open window that can be used as a sniper post and one-way exit. this will eventually also have a rear exit that will lead straight to the house stairs and a semi-hidden tunnel entrance that will lead towards the center of the map (for an alternate route, think 2fort sewers).

all of this was done in the span of two nights, with the house being about 3-4 hours of work and the barn about 1. things are changing at the jynx household, and i'm not sure if it's for the better: Third Born is waking us up a few times at night, keeping us feeling exhausted much earlier than usual, which means putting nighttime time into this will be hard. however, First and Second Born are starting school again, which means i may have some morning time to put in on this, if Third Born lets me.

Well, This was a Disappointment

i'd love to post some screens of my work, really i would.


okay, there it is. for anyone with kids, this is no surprise....i got exactly nothing done. i suppose i would be worried about this project stalling already, if i had enough energy for it.

well, no matter. my (perhaps poorly conceived) plan is to work on this a bit tomorrow. if i do, i'll post screens, don't worry.

One Week In

I have gotten the suggestion more than once that, if at all possible, try to break out at least an hour or two at a time to get some work in. This is obvious advice, and absolutely true.



So, last week I managed to put in about 6 hours of time towards getting my ideas off of paper and into Hammer. My focus right now is on the Farmhouse, or Red's spawn / flag area.


This screenshot presents something that it seems I do that breaks from the "accepted standard", and that is I'm not using any orange textures, even from the start. I don't like the orange - I understand it shows a basic grid, but it seems to me that once i have some standard heights decided on, such as door height (determined in some cases by the door models) and room height, then I have little use for orange textures. in addition, it makes some of my structures very obviouis to me in Hammer, and keeps me from getting turned around.

So - am I wrong? Do I have a point? Am I gonna get into trouble? Please let me know!

P.S. The Plan

As I'm sure you've probably read by now, good map design follows a series of steps. I don't remember them, so I'm just going by my own guidelines I follow when coding a new web or windows app:

• Get the basic plan/design on paper
• Consider technical requirements
• Research tools/technologies/processes needed
• Get the technical design nailed down
• Code the stuff
• Testing
• Release it and watch it Burn

I've got my basic plan for the map, and I've spent some time with Hammer now (more on that maybe later). For Power Play I'm not gonna try custom textures or models - I'm going with what is available. Therefore, my only research is around how to make the basics, like the capture points, flags, and respawn rooms. I've logged over 10 active hours on Hammer over the last week (yes, during lunches and after work when I could), and managed to create an extremely test map that has the essential bits: spawnrooms, red and blue capture points, entities, displacements, and a skybox. Now that I've actually done it and poked around the Official Valve maps, I feel like I'm ready to start blocking out the control areas.

I am probably at what I think is at least my second favorite part of the process: the idea is still new and fresh - I literally lay awake at night and envision what things will look like. I don't see any of the roadblocks yet, everything is still bathed in the warm glow of optimism. I see the black thundercloud of Reality rising on the horizon, but it won't reach me tonight. Tonight I see this map as a certainty, an inexorable force of nature that is humming with the anticipation of being woven together with the tangled skeins of inspiration and imagination.

Fat Man and Little Boy

If you don't have any idea about what my title means, please leave and come back when you finish your history course.

My first burst of inspiration came when I started thinking about how I'd like to see more maps that used a wider range of venues than mining or farming. My first thought went to something more up-to-date, like....an airport! Shortly afterwards, the concept of my Ideal Project leapt into my head, complete with a catchy title:

Airmail

As you can see, it's either a CP or a PL style map, and my thought was that it suited PL gameplay much better. Team BLU advances from low to high security areas through RED's airport to deliver the payload to RED's control tower - with a little bit of finesse, the story behind the mission practically writes itself. To my mind, this map seemed an excellent couterpoint to the typical dust-colored maps that have been released. Fat Man has officially been born.

A few dedicated hours with Hammer documentation forced me to rethink my plans, however. The fact of the matter is that Payload is currently the hardest "stock" gametype to code for, so this level seems to me to be more of a Magnum Opus, if you will. To pull this one off, I'm going to have to start a little easier. Thus is Little Boy born.

CTF maps are the easiest gametypes to set up, since there really is very little programming to do. The biggest issue that I have with the CTF maps that I see (okay, really only 2Fort gets played) is that the map is a literal identical mirror! No thought appears to be applied to the design, to even make a cursory nod to the different styles of RED and BLU bases, outside of some cursory textures. This bothers me, since it seems such a simple fix, and it provides me with the inspiration of my first Real Level:

Power Play

This map is a CTF-style map, but it makes a point to have the two bases be as obviously different as possible: a RED farmhouse and a BLU factory, separated by a neutral train station. The inside layouts will be similar, but the outsides will capitalize on the stylistic differences between the two teams.

By the way, these drawings were scratched together in a couple of days of consideration, and a solid couple of hours of getting it down on paper. This, I fear, will be the easiest bit, as it doesn't really cut into any time outside of those spare minutes in between doing Useful Things. Feel free to try to figure out what all of my symbols mean, I may need the help deciphering them later.

Firtht Potht!

Okay, I'm fairly sure we can mark this point as my official descent into pure insanity.

Here's the deal: my life, complicated as it is, requires yet more complication. The Internet, as always, is more than ready to jump in and assist in as many ways as possible: it provides an amazing class-based multiplayer game, an SDK, access to user-created thoughts and content, and then blithely provides me with the tools to make my own content, as well as blather about it when I really should be sleeping!

I consider myself to be somewhat normal - I have a family I love and I job I dislike. I have chores, duties, and routines. What I don't have is a truly creative outlet right now. Ever since going to the TF2 Forums, however, I have realized that even more than playing, I would love to create.

I'm not a total novice - I designed and built a few maps for Descent 3, a couple of which were actually publised in an add-on racing mod. That experience taught me about visualizations, 3D mapping basics, and some debugging. Opening up Hammer, however, shows how much I still need to learn. So, while not a total novice, I still consider myself a novice.

So - enough about my past. I have recently found myself bursting with ideas for TF2 maps. My private (whoops) fantasy is to have Valve stumble upon this blog and my maps and say, "Hey! This guy is great, let's hire him!" and then fly me off to the Magical Land and give me my Dream Job, complete with chocolate pudding. Five seconds of Right-Brain fantasy are then inevitably interrupted by the crushing logic of Left-Brain: I'm too old, I have too many other restrictions in my life, and I have no way to catch up with those snotty little geniuses that Digi-Pen keeps belching out (I'm looking at you, Narbacular Drop/Portal Team).

This blog is the frustrated compromise - I think that I could possibly make a good map. I also think that it's very possible that, ultimately, I won't. This blog is a chronicle of my attempt, as well as a way to give others like me some insight into what it takes, where problems occur, and maybe, just maybe, that it really is possible.

Wish me luck, 'cause I know I'm gonna need it.