Since a lot of people on here were so kind in helping me with some questions I've had, I thought I'd post a few pics of what I have so far. With this being my first map evar, I'm learning a ton. And this map making business is dangerously addicting, in other words - I'm lovin' it. I'd say I'm half done in what I want to do, but this is what I have now.

As you can see, it's an outdoors map, I thought it was strange that none of the default DoD maps contained a landscapey map, so I thought I'd make them. I also wanted to control a bit of the speed of the game. By that I mean I wanted less arcadey/shoot 'em up/how many frags can I get? - kind of level. Instead I want more sneaking up, tactical and a bit more slow. You could say well go play a different game...well, I don't want to. :D I thought by adding elements like fog, a bit of darkness and movement would help in the challenge.

Anyway, this is what I have so far. I'm having some issues now like getting the flags to work and I'm trying to figure out how to tell the terrain not to draw the "argentan_skygrassTrees" texture in places like the house. LOL. As a result, I've got trees growing out of the floors and such. I've tried selecting my displaced terrain in some parts and saying "noDraw", but I can't seem to select the faces...anyway I'll figure it out.

Let me know what you think as I will take suggestions into consideration.

cheers

http://aeropause.com/dod/maghill7_noland0000.jpg
http://aeropause.com/dod/maghill7_noland0002.jpg
http://aeropause.com/dod/maghill7_noland0003.jpg

Looks more cinematic then some other things I've been hearing about ;)


Seriously, it looks like your paying attention to details and nuances and I like what I'm seeing!! Keep us posted!!


--Ozz

Very nice start, I agree, very cinematic.

And if you're having troubles getting flags working, download this .vmf I through together a few hours ago, was going to let people use it who had flag troubles.

Study the flag's carefully and you should have no problem. :)
The tank is a 1 man cap area with a 5 second cap time, the flag next to it is just a standard flag you walk through.

If you copy/paste, make sure you make the right edits edit the printnames to print what you want, and also, point_index is a good thing to remember, this is what point you want your flag to appear on the hud, #1-whatever number.

you can also compile it if you want, just to have a test around with the flags.

Awesome, thanks a lot. I'll check out that file.

What would be your advice for that particular texture I'm using which generates foilage? As I mentioned, it of course shows bushes through my house and other unwanted areas. Is there a way around telling the landscape not to draw that texture in certain places? I'm guessing painting a different texture there?

does it draw through the house, or through the floor?
Or both, if it's just the floor you can raise it up a bit and build steps to go up through the door.

if its both, you could try something like ending the displacements at the edge of the house, and put the house on nothing at all, and make sure you have no leaks.

also, a displacement with a power of 1, insead of 2 or 3 will make it so those little weeds aren't rendered in the engine.
but try the above methods if you want to keep them.

Yep both house and floor...through the floor. The house needs de-weeding, bad. Raising it is an excellent idea, that'll keep it away from not only the weeds, but the rats as well...cheers!

It is looking nice, especially for your first attempt but the lighting seems really bad

Outside it is way too dark and inside its way to bright from what i see in the pics

The outdoors lighting looks fine to me... as you said, it's supposed to be like a "tactical" map... involving some strategy and whatnot.

But I agree with Wicked, the interior lighting looks a bit odd.

Looks pretty interesting so far, though! :)

Thanks, I'm still learning about the lights. I don't want a day map, that's for sure. I want a dusk or dawn map, not too light or dark. I'd like to know what the pros and cons are of using an environment light over just a standard light is. Also which one is better, if any. I'll play with it more tomorrow.