================================================================ Title : lambda_outpost Author : Alidoe Email Address : doherty_alison@hotmail.com Description : This medium-sized arena map is built around an abandoned spanish villa near the Black Mesa facility in New Mexico. The building has been taken over by the military and is now an outpost for special forces to stage operations into the nearby Lambda complex. Game play : This map has a three-level central courtyard with an outer ring of passages that feed in and out of it at different points. Its fairly spacious, but because all the side passages tend to funnel through a few spots, it keeps things lively even with only a few players. I designed this map around strategy. There are a lot of strategic opportunities in this map, some subtle, some less so. I'll give some examples and leave it to you to find the rest: 1. High mobility. There are multiple points (the stairwells at the long ends of the map, the water rooms, the temple, etc.) where players can go up or down a level and/or double back. This makes it possible to run from someone, and then loop around behind them and catch them by surprise. It also allows players to take less predictable routes through the map. There are also usually several different ways to get to wherever you're going. 2. Sound plays a big part in this map. I deliberately changed the texture of the floor in multiple areas, making it possible to track players by sound. For example you hear someone crunching through the sand in the lower courtyard, then the click of stone as they enter a side opening and go up the marble slope, then the clunk of metal as they pass the lip between the stone and the wood, then the clank of metal as they go up the stairs... There are some subtle tricks too, like trim along passages or stairs that make a different sound when you run on them, allowing clever players to disguise their footsteps. I also added a lot of environmental sounds to make it easier for people to get their bearings. 3. Lots of fun ambush spots. Balconies or ledges over passages, air ducts, the other side of a door, overlooking a stream as they fight the current. In playtesting I loved running from someone, doubling back around or over them and shooting them from behind by surprise or dropping a satchel onto their heads. :) 4. Retracting bridges allow players to close off the route behind them stranding pursuers or dropping them into water where they make easy prey. 5. An exploding symbol in the temple. Shoot it as a player tries to get the hornet hand and watch the gibs fly. :) 6. Grates between levels that allow you to see people passing by on the level above/below that allow you to shoot through them. 7. The nastier weapons are placed so that players need to take risks in order to get them. e.g. to get the gluon you need to take a slow moving platform across a chamber. To get the rpg you need to jump in a stream and fight the current upstream (HINT - crouch in the stream, the current is stronger near the surface). To get the gauss you need to jump down to a ledge in a waterfilled shaft then climb the vines along the back wall to get out. Etc. Additional Credits to : The marble floors, the green trim, the hanging vines, the creeping vines, and the two types of hardwood flooring were obtained from texture packs at http://www.planethalflife.com/wadfather/ To the folks at www.k9kennelclub.com and www.bubblemod.org for helping me with the playtesting and their suggestions. To numerous people at the VALVE ERC who helped me figure out problems during development of the map and providing valuable feedback. To Goggs/[K9]Bulldog for hosting the various beta versions of my map on his website so others could download it. ================================================================ * Play Information * Multiplayer : Lots of spawn points - I tried to put them near the action but out of the usual points where crossfires happen. Weapons are generally near the spawn points. I also tried to place them in lit locations so they would stand out. The power-weapons are in harder to reach and/or risky locations. I put a pillar in the middle of the courtyard with several spare crowbars around it... this is for crowbar fights. Since the mod I like to play supports throwing the crowbar, the pillar serves as partial cover - spectators can watch the cbar fights from the balconies. :) * Construction * Editors used : Hammer and Zoners Half Life Tools Custom Textures : 6 custom textures (listed in the credits). I reduced some of them in size in order to keep the bsp size down. Build time : A lot of hours spread out over several months. Tweaking and tuning probably took more time than making the core map. Known Bugs : I was unable to get the river in the temple to have a current AND behave like water (e.g. drown, can't fire weapons) when you crouched in it. Because fighting the current was integral to making the room beyond the grate hard to reach I decided to keep the current. As a result, you are able to fire weapons when crouched in the stream. A small but annoying bug that seems to be a limitation of the HL engine :/ Secrets : There are 7 secrets in this map. I'll leave it to you to find them. As a hint, there *is* a longjump module, but its kind of tough to get to. ============================================================================== * Copyright / Permissions * Authors MAY use this level as a base to build additional levels. Do what you will, but include this text file with your final vesion. It would also be appreciated if you send me a copy of your work. Thank You -Ali