I am currently developing a night time paratrooper map, where the allies start in an aircraft.

here is a video of the map so far (still being developed)

http://www.mrsacln.huhbw.com/downloads/paratrooper.wmv

Looks wicked awesome dude...nice work!

Are you using custom sounds, the MG42 in the video sounds sweet.

very interesting
seeing those guys fall from the sky is hilarious!
maybe u should consider a darker looking skybox?
also, those clouds look somewhat out of place. i know you are trying to hide the aircraft above. but once u have a darker skybox, maybe the clouds wont be as visible (as long as you darken them as well, if you can)
the rush looks very fun, approaching the bunkers. :)

Good idea!

Only thing that bugged me was the orange skybox doesn't match the lighting of the map (choose a night time sky).

Sourcify the interior of the bunker, it looks a lil' bland.

... other than that coolio !



:)

looked good, its just strange seeing them fall from the sky. This may help a bit.
http://boards.phwonline.com/showthread.php?t=16953&highlight=parachute
Darker map would be better, add some hedgerows and buildings and fields to. I have sounds if you'd like to use them? Plane sounds with flak and all.

the map is no where near completed, i need to put in some light in the bunker, maybe a destroyable wall, some pictures, ammo boxes etc.

im dont think im going to make the area bigger, as at the moment its a really big fight to get into that bunker, if the map was bigger, i think the germans would have a hard time with it.

but ill continue the development as this is only my second map so far.

The sounds i am stil having trouble with, i use the aircraft sound from dod source, it plays once then stops, even though "do not loop" isnt ticked.
the AAA fire goes off for about 40 ish seconds after the round starts as i got bored of placing and naming explosions after about number 44 :-p

i may darken the sky as i only recently found out how to chnage the sky box (thanks to this forum), and then i will darken the cloud cover somewhat.

Originally posted by tehmadshoveler
Looks wicked awesome dude...nice work!

Are you using custom sounds, the MG42 in the video sounds sweet.
the custom sound pack my clan uses can be found at

http://www.mrsacln.huhbw.com/downloads/sounds.zip

Originally posted by Lt. Stephenson
looked good, its just strange seeing them fall from the sky. This may help a bit.
http://boards.phwonline.com/showthread.php?t=16953&highlight=parachute
Darker map would be better, add some hedgerows and buildings and fields to. I have sounds if you'd like to use them? Plane sounds with flak and all.

i may add some hedges to just below the allied spawn zone (possibly)

the paracute i would like but i dont think im skilled enough to put a trigger point that says, when player passes this point, somehow attach this model to them.

That map looks very promising - seems like it'd be very popular. Suppose my suggestions would be: have a darker skybox so that the falling allies don't contrast so heavily with the sky, and so that you don't have to use as much clouds. Possibly even have the plane moving - looks great though.

if the aircraft is moving, the spawns would have to move too, is that possible?

You could always put the player in an enclosed brush like this:

___
| o |
|/|\|
| | |
|/ \|
----
Then have the player spawn inside this invisible brush (or teleport into it) so they cant move out of it or around in it and then tie the grouped brush to a func_train along with the parachute model, you can control the speed and everything!

Its cool to see a map like this, I'm sure it would be great fun as well! I used to run a mapping group back in 2.0 and we had a really good parachute system working, although the map never got completed. We had custom sounds and we had clouds tied to a func_train that went past the plane windows to make it look like it was moving, very cool effect when done properly!

hm so i could have the user in a aircraft thats ouside the map, stood still. then teleporter zones move about under the aircraft in a loop, and teleport you to different locations ,depending on what teleporter you hit.

that way i could scatter the allies over the map, and would simulate a circling aircraft.

the teleporters put you into the cloud on the map, where you fall into a low grav area, then hit the floor (a normal grav area).


its an idea but will take ages to work it out.

i dont really understand how to make a block move about, but i guess ill extract argentan and look at it.
at the mo i mhappy with the way the level is, its simple but affective.
and will so need destroyable walls

Wow, really good job on that its looking great. The flak effect is amazing, adds a fantastic atmosphere. Looking forward to this.

Well I was thinking about this - what if the Allies spawned in the plane, out of site, THEN the plane can move in. Dunno - it's a bit better than it just sitting there, but would be cool if the plane could be destroyed too preventing the jump.

Ok the map at the moment is called dod_thunder

Set during the DDay landings.
American paratroopers spawn in the aircraft, jump out into a field, with a 2 story barn (destructable).
the axis are in a bunker complex.
The bunker now has 1 large area to fire from (partially destructable by rockets)
1 sniper nest up a ladder.
1 murder hole (destructable)
flack is going off around the aircraft, and sometimes you will be unlucky and die on the way down

There are 3 flags on this map, 1 under the allied spawn (both teams can cap this flag), 1 flag at the axis left flank (both teams can cap this flag), and 1 radio room inside the axis base (only allies can cap)

the axis can not leave the bunker unless the allies breach the walls with rockets.

the axis win if the allies cant take all flags within 10 minutes.

The map is currently being beta tested by 2 clans, if you want to have a run around on it, please download here:
http://www.mrsacln.huhbw.com/downloads/dod_thunder.bsp

Video of the new features

http://www.mrsacln.huhbw.com/downloads/dod_thunder.wmv

make map darker, and instead of walls surround the map, make hedges and and skybox.

i made it lighter for this version so you can see stuff in the video,
the final one will be darker.
once any bugs are found and sorted, ill start work on the sky box and the surrounding hedges

The next version is ready.

when spawning in the aircraft it gives the player a message saying:
destroy the bunker walls with rockets

When you near walls that are destructable, the player is shown another hint message.

Once the wall is destoyed, all players get a hint to say "bunker breached" etc.

I have placed ammo boxes in the main store area, with grenades, and ammo cans (just props)
A weapon rack with mp44's, mg42's, and ka98's (just props)

A table with german helmets on it,
A table with a useable MG42.
There is a bug with source sdk where spawning weapons only stay for a few seconds, so 1 mg42 spawns each 3 seconds until it is picked up by the player.

the aircraft roof is lower, i have added a door and a seat.

The flags are now named:
drop zone
Radio room
Murder hole

Video of the new features can be seen here (the video is dark as its running on a lan, when the level is on a server its brighter, although i dont know why :-p )

http://www.mrsacln.huhbw.com/downloads/dod_thunder_v1.wmv

lates version of this map is here if you want to test it:
http://www.mrsacln.huhbw.com/downloads/dod_thunder_v11.bsp

looks good, maybe add some posters and ther bunker and some bunkbeds.

man public players are not very intelligent.

as you spawn it tells you to use rockets, i limited all classes except rifle and rocket, when you go near walls it says, blow these up with rockets.
yet none of them worked it out.
they lost every time cause none of them could understand what to do.

doh.


how exactly do you add posters, cause in the models i have seen, there are no german posters

http://www.dayofdefeat.net/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=61651&highlight=posters

I really do love this so far, the atmosphere is great with the flak and the clouds and its all nice. My only problem is that when you jump out of the plane the journey to the ground is WAY too short. Needs to be a lot higher.

ya, it should be higher, if you were that low with a parachute you'd hit the ground before your chute opened. Maybe add your own sounds for flak instead of the grenade explosion.

I'm not so sure about the fall distance being too low. Having played the map just now, I think it would get quite old if you had to fall much longer. Maybe keep the artillery firing all the time to keep it suspenseful, but I'd say that the distance is fine.

It seemed very, very difficult for the Axis to win. Perhaps make the Allied 1st flag be claimable by the Axis?

For a small map, it was pretty cool. The lighting is hard on my eyes and starts to hurt after a few minutes, which may also affect replay value.

i like the idea. I rofled a bit in the beginning where the guy gets blasted from the door.

anyways, if your planning on using any ambience sounds that you displayed in the video, be sure to give credit where it's due :)

so far all sounds are from source sdk, i tried having the trip down further but the testers were not a big fan of it.

when we played, the axis tended to hold out ok, but it was hard for them once the allies broke those walls. but the public players on allied tended not to work that out, so axis won most of the rounds.

i could add in a minefield to delay the allies a bit.

the darkness helps the allies move up, but i could brighten it up a little if players really dont like it so much.

Hey Cab its Beo from [SDUK]

Personally i dont think that you should make it so all the action is at the murder hole so then its near the objective and people dont get pissy when they die, the close the action the more intense the game is, so i think you need to deter the allies from hanging around at the dropzone but not with mine fields, maybe a tall tower for Axis where they can pick people off but not utterly prawn everyone.

Cheers.

i have given up on a sky box, it was playing hell with the cloud effect (no idea why).

I have added more guns into the weapon rack, made it easier to blow the walls, added a second aircraft, to bring allied spawns up to 16, and increased axis spawns to 16 as well.
removed wall around the level and added a fence and surrounding ground, with trees, a house, hedgerows, burning barn, crashed aircraft.

The axis cant exit via the sand bagged right flank (axis right flank), but the allies can enter more easily.

on the left flank axis spawn, i added 2 holes that they can shoot from.

put up several walls to stop players getting on the roof tops.

hammer is going mad on my pc (got to love these steam applications) so i think this is going to be the final version of my map.

However i need a name for it.
now i was going with thunder, but some pointed out that there was an old map called thunder, so any suggestions?

http://www.mrsacln.huhbw.com/downloads/thunder_new.wmv

hedgerows, and night time I'd like to see it, with crickets and maybe a small stream.

I've suggested this for a few other maps this could have worked on, but none seemed to go with it.

Thats make it a bit darker...but add player controlled flares for the axis. Every few minutes they can launch flares over the field. I think it would be a really cool effect. A map back in 3.1 did this called Feldfeur..it was a dark night map. The flares on that were timed, not player controlled, but either would work well..IMO.

Just a thought for some atmosphere. If the germans know allies are landing, you'd think they'd be launching flares to spot them.

If you want to check it out for yourself, dod_feldfeuer works in 1.3, too. It's a great example of a map that maximizes immersion and ambience in DoD.

Also, I think it was dod_dirtydozen that had paratrooping spawns, though I can't fully recall.

Originally posted by Bocasean
If you want to check it out for yourself, dod_feldfeuer works in 1.3, too. It's a great example of a map that maximizes immersion and ambience in DoD.

IMO, one of the best immersion maps ever for DoD.

I agree. Who was Feldfeuer's mapper? Frickin' genius.

a moving light effect illl look at, ill likely do it timed, to fire 1 every 2 or 3 minutes.
i guess you can move a "light" entity in the same way as they move the aircraft in argentan?
any one point me in the way of a movement tutorial?
the map will be darker, i lightened it up for the video so you could see it all

yes you can
you need to parent it to a func_train
then setup a track

have a look at my firing 88 sample map
http://www.dayofdefeat.net/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=62307
it has a env_explosion on a track, that should give you the idea.

sweet ill check it out tonight

ok i managed to attach a spot light to a train and get it to move about, but it doesnt light up the area.
normal light entities dont seem to have an option to set a parent so i can move it about.

any one got an idea of how i can make a light/flare that can be attached to a train

that video look HOT!!. thaz so cool to make a airbone map. how many flag is there to cap. i saw on two on the video. why dont u extend the map a lil longer to a 4 flag cap. just made the field longer and just leave the bunker to the end, to cap the radio.

There are 3 flags, 1 at the drop zone (dark so hard to find it)
1 at the destructable axis wall.
1 in the radio room.

at the moment its a long drawn out battle, so i think 3 flags will do it for now.
in future releases i may make the map larger and more complex.
maybe add another section of bunker, or a fall back point for the axis to defend, with a 4th flag

Hey Caboose,

I'm sorry I couldnt give you more insight on how to get this done. If you could just see Feldfeur, i'm sure it would help. I don't know anything about coding..but if you can give the atmoshphere of that map, you'll be the man. Anyone that's still alive and has played it will tell you so. The train thing..alright..but man..you have the perfect map to make this happen. Download 1.3 if you have to just to see Feld..I guarantee you its worth it..if not..I'll pay you a dollar.

question: Does the plane have an invisible door that prevents you from jumping when the light isn't green? it would make sense to me if it did cuz other wise youd "miss" the dropzone.

the aircraft is static, when the 1st player spawns, they hit a trigger that says turn on green light after 4 seconds.
when the 1st allied spawns they have to wait around a moment for the round to start, and thats enough time for the light to go green.

the links below are broken, is there any other hosting?

DoD_dropzone_final

released by [MRSA]Caboose

The first DOD SOURCE paratrooper and objective map.

Allies parachute out of 2 aircraft, fall through thick cloud cover, and land in a open field.
the field is enclosed by several fences, barbed wire (hurts), some raised ground and a destructable farm house (a direct rocket strike on the front of the barn will destroy it).

their is a flag right under the DZ that the allies and axis can cap.
as the allies advance their is a bunker complex.

The axis start in the bunker and can not leave it.

The allies must use rockets to blow holes in the main bunker, murder hole and right flank wall (however if you hug the wall and suicide with ur nade you can also blow them up)

once the allies enter the bunker they must take a single man 4 second cap flag, and a 2 man cap flag in a radio room.

Once the radio room falls to the allies, the axis cant get it back.

the allies can also enter the bunker by hopping over sandbags on the left flank.

As i said before the axis cant get out of the bunker, unless the allies blow up their own walls, or are sneaky and find the 1 way out.

The axis have 1 main bunker window, a murderhole, a ladder leading to a sandbagged sniper spot, 2 murder holes in the axis spawn, AAA fire around the aircraft in the first minutes of the battle, and barbed wire that causes pain.

The axis win after 10 mins of play, if the allies dont hold all the flags.

night time map

There are hud hints to tell players to use rockets to destroy areas in the map.
When you move close to destructable walls it gives you a hint message, when the bunker is breached, all players are warned.

32 man map

Link to the map file:
http://www.mrsacln.huhbw.com/downloads/dod_dropzone_final.bsp

video of the map whilst it was still in beta
http://www.mrsacln.huhbw.com/downloads/dropzone.wmv

Allies have one hell of a fight and with 20 plus players its such a hard battle.

barb wire still kills. Map is not dark. Are you basing it off D-day cause in D-day it was dark, with a full moon. Paratroopers were sperated and couldn't see very well in the dark.

i made it dark and every1 complained about not being able to see even though i was ok picking out targets, so made it lighter to please the pub players.
barbed wire wont kill if you hop over it, may take 10 ish points of damage.
if you run full into it for about 2 seconds you will die but thats your mistake lol..

its not based on anything really. just wanted to make a map like no one else had thought of before.
it was either this or a underwater map, so i chose paratroopers at night

Will maybe your next map can be a large huge map, with paratroopers spawning all over the map.
Make roads with hedgerows on each side and large open fields and buildings.

i tried making the map larger and it began to lag with 32 players, so i had to tone down the size to how it was when i first released it.
i wont be mapping for a while as i have not played dod source in 2 months cause i have been too busy putting out maps.

going back to playing so for now, this is final and ill start from scratch next time i make one.

it will be a daytime drop likely.
market garden.
lots of hedgerows, spawn all over the place.

Good luck with that Caboose! It is a great start. Have fun with your new found leisure time with DOD:S ;)

Chris