HaloMods "Classic" Read-only Archive

I've been working on this map for about 3 months now and it's nearing completion. The geometry and texturing is about 90% complete, then it's just the usual matter of placing scenery, sounds and portalling; it shouldn't take too long.

The map is about 30% larger the Blood Gulch and has two very different bases at opposite ends. The first is a large castle with ramparts and two corner turrets. Outside the entrance there is a bridge crossing over the moat which runs past the castle. The water for the moat is sourced from a waterfall that is situated nearby. The moat expands into a large flowing river after passing by the castle and disappears down a sinkhole underneath the far edge of the cliffs.

The second base is roughly the same size as the castle, but has three floors and is entirely made of metal. The ground floor houses two open sided garages and the flag room. The first floor is a long corridor that has a thin viewport which runs the length of the base. The second floor is merely the top of the base, but it has two corner turrets to match the castle.

Although the bases are completely different, neither of them holds an overall advantage over the other. The key to this map will be learning the strengths and weaknesses of both designs and exploiting them in a team co-ordinated manner.


The map also features:

- A large central ridge, preventing a clear line of sight from one base to the other

- An underground cavern complete with tunnel entrances, stalctites, stalgmites, a small underground pool and a huge crystal geode that emits light

- Cliffs, gulleys, a swamp/lake, a canyon, a huge rock arch and several 'emergency spots' where you can dive for cover

- 11 new textures with their appropriate bump maps (maybe more to come)

- Secondary fire for the turrets

- New sky

- New sounds (if I can get them working)


Here's the first batch of many screenshots I'll be posting over the next week or so. This is taken in front of the castle and shows off the nice new textures and bump maps.





Here's a pic of the huge stone skull above the castle entrance:





And one of the second base. Note that the lighting is only basic, since I've not yet done a full radiosity quality 1 render yet.





Another showing the inside of the ground floor of the base:





Here's a picture of the inside of the cave. There will be more rocks and stuff placed when I come to doing the scenery placement, so it won't look so sparse in the final version.





This is the huge crystal geode in the cave. This thing has a ridiculous amount of specular effects on it. It also pulses with light and shines on the surrounding rocks. Unfortunately you can only see that when it's moving; this pic doesn't do it justice really.





This is the stone arch which is placed at one of the corners of the map. This thing is massive, but it's not just for nice scenery, it can be used very tactically too. The hill which it's on provides a good sniping spot and because it's so long you can traverse a good portion of the map undetected if you want. It also leads almost directly into the swamp/lake, so people on foot can sneak around very easily on this side of the map.

Note that I'm still using the Timberland sky. This will change.





Also, I'm having an odd problem with the waterfall, if anyone can help out, the thread about it is here:

http://gbxforums.gearboxsoftware.com/showflat.php?Cat=&Number=339878&page=2&view=collapsed&sb=5&o=&fpart=1#339878


IMPORTANT: Beta testing will be done only by my local LAN group

HOLY SHIZA. nice job dude when will this be out??? im sorry to say but now i am anticeipating this map more than PLethora and Base [name in progress] keep it up!

Hopefully it'll be finished within a week or two, then beta testing begins. Our village is getting broadband enabled in 18 days so this will coincide nicely and I can do all testing via my LAN group (who will then become a regular broadband clan like everyone else ).

can i be betatester?

lol the n00b question of the day.... i wish i could but i dont have lan so .... but if u have lan then theres hope.

my connection speed is 7.5MB per second

MUSR HAVE MAP

WOW.

Holy poop!, that looks awesome.

That map looks great so far.

Mmmmm. Looks good. I have to complain about that one texture inside the basethingy that looks a tad out of place, but its a little hard to tell. This gonna look like crap on my video card though.

DUDE! that-is-awsome!!!

Frikkin sick map, man.

Just a small update on progress. 2 new textures have been added, one with a bump map. I believe work on the geometry and texturing will be finished tonight. The reason for the slight delay is that the river/moat has 5 (!) 90 degree corners in it and texturing that (and making it look good) is no easy feat.

cool! o and nice sig btw..

Here's a set of short videos showing off something I messed about with last night. The projectiles shot by the weapons now provide their own light sources and affect the bump maps and specular highlight of any textures they come close to. This might not sound like much, but when it's moving it's very, very nice! (If anyone has played Severance, it's like the lighting in that, but better )

I only used the flamethrower and needler in these videos, because the projectiles were slow enough to show what is happening in great detail. Unfortunately, there's no way you could actually have this happening in a real game, as the last clip shows; there's far too much slowdown when a lot of projectiles are on screen.










Siege - Cave (1.3MB)
Siege - Tunnel (2MB)
Siege - Skull Flamethrower (2.2MB)
Siege - Skull Needler (2.2MB)
Siege - Castle Needler (900k)
Siege - Castle Flamethrower (2.4MB)

Man! That IS NICE! Whoooo!! AWesome gj man!

real awesome!!!

...and here's the promised update with a lot of new pics. The end is nigh...





A view from the top left of the metal fort. To the side you can see a curved gouge cut out of cliffs. This allows sneaky access to the fort, but you had better have made it in there without being seen; there's only two ways out.





This is taken from the long thin viewport of the fort (check the first batch of pics if you don't know where that is).





A shallow cave to hide from passing vehicles or launch an ambush from. Don't worry, the grassy floor inside will change to a more appropraite dirt texture before I'm finished.





A small dell that you can dive into, created especially for avoiding hogs; they just fly over your head when chasing you. Remember to duck though.





A view of the lake. You can see the castle in the background.





A view from the top right of the castle. Errm, as you can probably tell there are turrets on the corners of the castle, right next to where I'm standing.





...and a picture from the top left of the castle.





This is the canyon in the exact centre of the map. You can also see the metal fort just ahead.





This is taken from the end of the river/moat that runs past the castle.





A view of the middle of the map taken from atop the battlements of the castle (yes, you can get up on top of them, after some practice). You can see some of the fort in distance and, yeah, you can snipe, but up here you're in plain view of just about everywhere on the map, not a good spot to be in.





A final of pic of the new sky.


Only things left to do are netgame flags, weapon placement, final touch ups and portalling. Beta testing begins real soon and a release is not far away. If you want to see any more pictures of anything in particular, just ask and I'll snap away.

Here's a pic that I took last night, but forgot to put in the post. This is the view from the tall cliffs to the side of the castle.