Want To Help Finish Our Unfinished Maps? Request here.

Colonel

MOVED TO CUSTOM MAPS FORUM. MESSAGE ME IF YOU'D LIKE TO WORK ON THE LISTED MAPS. YOU WILL NEED TO PASS OUR QUALIFICATION TO BE GIVEN ACCESS TO THE MAPS FILES.

There are many unfinished or near complete maps in our mapsrc folder that will probably never see the light of day as official. With a few weeks of work, or even just some final touch ups, these maps may serve us better being available to download for the community to enjoy. Many of these maps may not meet the standard of quality we see from many of our official maps, but if we were to release them as custom, there would be understanding that it doesn't fit in with our top notch maps, there are balance issues, and overall they're more fun experiments and not fully complete. Some maps need some extra architecture, and others just need some triggers fixed. We can then work on these maps overtime together. Here's where we could use some help.

This opportunity is open to any dev or tester and now community mappers. If there are any custom mappers out there, or anyone that wants to lend a hand to get some more fun, custom maps out there for the community to enjoy, this would be an opportunity for you to practice.

We shouldn't get too into testing them too much before release, as they're not top priority and can be attended to over time. If there is any maps you feel we shouldn't focus on, feel free to suggest.

So far Banjo Boy, Felis, Pache, and myself are interested in helping. If there are any others who want to help either in hammer, or with testing, please do let us know. Take your pick, which one should we focus on the most together?

Of course, this is not a plot to take credit for someone elses work, and this is all pending permission of the creators. We want to work together to give the community something new to enjoy that has been dormant for quite sometime. Credit will be given where credit is due


Maps we have permission to work on:
pvk_stranded (YeeHaa) - TAKEN, NEAR COMPLETED BY COMBINE
tw_shrine (Hawf) - TAKEN, BEING WORKED ON BY MOMO
lts_bellyhazard (Tschoppo) - TAKEN, BEING WORKED ON BY AGSMA
te_jangala vmfs (Bubbles) - TAKEN, BEING WORKED ON BY MOMO
te_palace_garden (Ubermann)
Pvk_HelmsDeep (Jahhur) - TAKEN, BEING WORKED ON BY FINLORD
lts_beach (niki)
Bt/te sacrilege (niki)
pvk_zeppelin (Crazytalk)
harbourlighthouse (Unknown)
pvk_dungeon (jRocket) - TAKEN, BEING WORKED ON BY COMBINE
te_forum (Zinux)

AGSMA

I'm still shocked how Bellyhazard has never been released despite how polished it looks, visually. Gameplay-wise is definitely not suitable for LTS mode, but still it would be great having that map as official. I think the map suits better as a Trinket Wars one, it would give a Temple-like feel to it with all the hazards and such but I like that way, as an LTS map it feels too claustrophobic and trying to escape the gastric juice in Sudden Death is too much of an adreinaline rush in comparison to the other maps.

PVK_Zeppelin also deserves it's own official release. I honestly don't remember what game mode had but I could see something like Balloon Race in TF2, where each team has it's own zeppelin-like map, which resembles Bartolomeu de Gusmão's airship.

Eldorado and Glacier also look like maps with some potential that also deserve some rework. Eldorado's current layout feels too complicated but I like the automatic ladders and the finished parts; Glacier should also be finished because the mod clarly lacks Viking-themed maps.

Colonel

I understand and appreciate your excitement for those maps, and while the possibility of them one day becoming official is a tempting goal to push towards, it is a hell of a lot of work to pull off. We are lacking the appropriate engine to make a map like zeppelin work smoothly. If a zeppelin map were to ever work as official, you'd need to capture the area moving under the prop, as moving vehicles in source are just not good enough in the multiplayer environment. OR you'd need to capture a non solid ghost ship moving around. Both demand a complete redesign of pvk_zeppelin.

Bellyhazard is in need of someone is energized to see the map to the end, and since tschoppo lost interest, no one has come forward. Leave it in the folder and let it never be touched again, or get it out there for some play, have people enjoy it. Bellyhazard could always be tw_ and lts_. Sudden death could be an event like a sand storm in tw_.

El Dorado and Glacier I would love to see be official. Ubermann is open to possibly working on El dorado again if he has the asset creation support to work with him on the grand vision that map holds. Much like myself and my ragnarok map.
Glacier is far away from even being a polished custom map. Too open, and too big. If anything, if we were to work on that map, we'd have to start over from scratch. We need a guy with extensive source experience to work on Glacier. Someone like a Gaz or Jimonions or even a strong, positively stubborn force in Ubermann.

niknak

hi all, regarding lts_beach and bt_sacrilage you have my approval to work on those maps

Crazytalk

anything I've got is free for others to release or work on

jRocket

I think I did the pvk_dungeon map- It's the one with all the pillars and arches right? It needs a lot of work to be an actual map, but if anyone wants to clean it up a little, feel free.

KOKORONOKAWARI

Forgot to mention, Uber is letting me play around with palace_garden as a custom map when my ideas bloom a bit more

I'd def would like to play around with Zeppelin as well probably after

AGSMA

I've been doodling around on paper how to make Zepplin stand out from other maps, mainly Cara.
In order to make the zeppelins the main focus of the map, a way to give them some usefulness, despite being very faulty if you run it on a server which ping is too high, is to have a purpose to be in the level, and in Last Team Standing fashion, how about having two zeppelins carrying bombs and destroying the enemies' bases just by reaching it's radius and doing a kamikaze move.
I imagine Zeppelin's world being based on Jules Verne's work, with a small town (like the one in the map's current state) in the top of a large and narrow rock collum, with all three teams in another, even smaller rock formations; for the players to reach the city they'd jump in something like a catapult or a trebuchet and land in something soft that doesn't deal fall damage, like a mount of hay. You'd get three separate places for players to capture, like in Sandstorm, but here's the big difference from other Territory maps: there's no team timer to run out, instead the captured areas increase the zeppelins' speed. And what about the zeppelins' targets? There are three options:
-have the switches in one of the territories, which itself could be called The Hangar,
-have the switches inside both zeppelins,
-or both.

To make both switches available in the same map, the Jules Verne theme comes in handy; either located inside the hangar or somewhere else you get teleporters for each zeppelin and the player can "hack" one by changing it's target while he's inside the vehicle; enemy players can go up there and switch back to it's previous target, and therefore the zeppelins themselves become compact battlefields. And there we have the biggest problem related to my idea for Zeppelin. How can we make moving models that are ping friendly with a game engine as unstable as Source? It might be possible, but at the same time it could be very costly both in time and resources. In fact, making the players going up and down just to change the course of the game breaks the flow of everything. We just get rid of the zeppelins' switches and possibly the teleporters and it gets less convoluted.
Anyway, to sum it up, the round ends when one of the bases survives; the survivor gets the golden cup and the the last team to get hit by one of the zeppelins gets the silver cone, just as straight forward as in LTS.

Probably these changes to Territory only to accomodate the inclusion of the zeppelins almost turns it into it's own game mode or something straight out of Objective Push, but hey, it's worth trying it out, right?

Colonel

lts_bellyhazard and te_cara are unfinished and require a dedicated mapper. I'd say cara is much more further along than bellyhazard, if anyone is up for one or the other? I'd jump on cara right away but I wouldn't do very much on it due to my time limits. Cara has been upgraded even more since its 3.0 release and would be amazing if we could finally finish off this beast of a beauty!

Belly hazard could be re-imagined in wallworm as a small fun map perhaps for hurtcules? To me there is much potential for the variety of structures to duel on and the models mysteriously inside of the belly of the beast that makes the map fun.

Any takers for wrapping up cara? Spock, assigir, schatz, pache, agsma, felis, spirrwell, koko, miggog? There are also those amazing posters to go in the Caramount theater entrance room.

AGSMA

Did JimOnions ever left a vmf file of Cara updated with Caramount in it? Or did he simply gave up and lend the original files to the dev team and let us build Caramount our way? Needless to say I'm anxious to see Caramount seeing the light of the day, though not much was heard for nearly one year. Personally I need to update my posters because my previous working station was extremely crappy and it did not let me create nicely polished posters with high resolutions.

I think Bellyhazard should be either a Trinket Wars or a Deathmatch map, because the lts version is way too convoluted (quite a recurring theme of Tschoppo's maps, surprisingly enough) and the sudden death mode, while pretty amusing, it's too fast for any player who's trying hard to climb up to the top. Team Deathmatch would be an ideal game mode so that we can make use of the fleshy trampolins, as seen in the current version of Bellyhazard.

Colonel

He's done a lot since 3.0 release, but there is still the final polish or finishing touches, if you want to call it that, and skybox wrapping. I invite anyone curious to check out the new te_cara.vmf

We would need a Caramount model or texture for the signage, and models for the poster borders ideally.

Bellyhazard could have multiple game modes. The stomach acid could be slowed down.

AGSMA

I can definitely imagine a Territory version of Bellyhazard working quite nicely

The Knights have conquered the Beast's Heart.

Colonel

Stranded is in a complete state and is ready to be tested post 3.5. Thanks to Combine!

Spirrwell

No, this doesn't appear to be complete. It seems he only addressed one of the issues from when we last tested which was a misaligned clipping brush.



There's still rain indoors, and it only seems to come down when on the floor, and not when your on the stairs.



This texture here still flickers, you can kind of see it in this screenshot.



Not a huge issue, but I suggested he use an invisible brush to smooth over the bridge, as you can get caught here when walking forward.

Combine™

pvk_dungeon, i will be working on once i get some of my custom maps into the game but i have a general idea of what dungeon will be so should be no problem.

Colonel

Combine™ wrote:

pvk_dungeon, i will be working on once i get some of my custom maps into the game but i have a general idea of what dungeon will be so should be no problem.

It's yours!

AGSMA

The other day I decided to work on adapting Bellyhazard into Deathmatch. It is, in my opinion, a far more fitting game mode for its level design and it works well enough, shortcomings aside. If possible we can try the port in the dev build on this sunday's test.

lokkdokk

Wanna take lts_beach and te_forum for continue unfinished maps by niki and Zinux
My first date with te_forum was at 15 april 2012, on developer test stream. wooohohohohoooo

http://imgur.com/a/ABk9w
and please delete link with unreleased and unfinished pvk_stranded

El Negro

I'm not a mapper and I know little about it, but I know a lot about textures so any help you want regarding textures, you can try your luck on me.

I will make textures, edit textures, create shaders/vmts and the like.

AGSMA wrote:

The other day I decided to work on adapting Bellyhazard into Deathmatch. It is, in my opinion, a far more fitting game mode for its level design and it works well enough, shortcomings aside. If possible we can try the port in the dev build on this sunday's test.

I can go for that. It's a well-known fact that Deathmatch is supported in PVKII, BUT only one map has it and it's not even a unique one (Deathmatch version of tw_fort)

Colonel

lokkdokk wrote:

Wanna take lts_beach and te_forum for continue unfinished maps by niki and Zinux
My first date with te_forum was at 15 april 2012, on developer test stream. wooohohohohoooo

http://imgur.com/a/ABk9w
and please delete link with unreleased and unfinished pvk_stranded

I'd prefer you take one vmf at a time. I feel lts_beach would be best for you as its closer to completion than forum.

My suggestion for you is as lts beach is missing a sudden death you could transform it into a territory or deathmatch map by expanding the beach and turning it into an island. Could be done by copy and pasting the map then rotating 90 degrees and filling in the rest.

Message me with a concise expression of interest and why you would make a good candidate for being the lead mapper and show samples of your best work.

As this is our content handing over to you, we'd like to have our say in when the map is good enough to release as an unofficial community classic.