Communication Center - my singleplayer map

[deex]

Hi guys!

I made my first Q2 singleplayer map and I want to present it here.

"my first map" you could think it's ugly bunch of boxes because I only started to map at all.
But it's not, I'm in mapping about 15 years, mostly for HL 1-2. I just never released something finished. Accidentally it became map for Q2 and not for Half-life.

Here it is - moddb.com/mods/communication-center/

There is 3 options to download:

- map only (with source file)

- yamagi Quake 2 + my map for Linux

- yamagi Quake 2 + my map for Windows

So you no need to have Quake 2 installation to play my map.

Also don't forget to get and unpack Update v1.2 into Q2/baseq2/maps/ directory.

It makes map little more difficult, well organized and fixes some small bugs.

[MaRiNe [Q2C]]

Great stuff, it's nice to know that someone is still making Q2SP maps.

I quite enjoyed this one. It's interesting that there are two different methods of level interconnectivity here, one of which being the vents you can crawl through to avoid enemies. This makes the action less straightforward. A great deal of the environment can be damaged too even if it's not related to the mission objective, which I also liked.

I hope you do more Q2SP in the future. As a suggestion, a level like this could have used some vertical expansion.

[gm94385]

Today I just had time for a short test of your map.

Some criticism about the balance of the map. Body armor as the secret that is at the very beginning, in my opinion it's too big facilitation and even at the highest difficulty level, the level is easy to complete. I saw that you shared i.a. a .map file so that you could analyze what else could be improved. I think instead of Body armor (of course the secret at the beginning) you can put Combat Armor. Quad Damage, which is just before security pass, also is too powerful weapon, unless someone likes the challenges without it, played on this map.

Some of the discoveries are so easy to find that you should not use "target_secret" everywhere. For example, for sure, this marker should disappear, which is connected to a grenade pack (the one whose access to it requires crouching). As I played, it almost can't be overlooked.

Level designs are pretty good. "Communication Center" also gives the player something to think about, I suddenly thought for a few minutes to turn off the laser wall. I had also the fun of collecting items and defeating opponents. As for the first map, it's good overall, if you have the willingness, create the next levels.

[knightmare]

Just finished it. Pretty good for a first Q2 release from someone with prior HL experience.

The use of the vents as a means of infiltration is good, particularly as the map opens up once you've shut down the force fields. I was also able to use them at the end to flank that pesky gladiator that was so effectively placed guarding the exit corridor.

One thing I noticed is that the texturing could be handled better, particularly on the crates. Crates should have 4 sides with the side texture and the top/bottom texture on the top and bottom, with the exception of crates that are placed on their side or upside down. There were a bunch of crates with the bottom/top texture on all faces, as well as some with the side texture on all faces. The texture used on the inside of the vents could have been scaled to fit, or a different texture used. A little attention here and there to texturing when polishing off your map would be nice.

The vents ended abruptly behind the indestructible grates you placed, with a solid black texture. Solid black textures should never be used that close to the player, preferably a few hundred units away in the dark. You could also bend the grates away around a corner, so the player can't see the end; or just use a texture that looks like a different kind of vent (e1u1/grnx2_5 is good for this), signifying something that can't be destroyed.

Most of the secrets were in plain view and too obvious, except for the body armor at the start. Quake 2 secrets are typically hidden behind destructible walls with telltale cracks, or hidden doors activated by sneakily placed shootable buttons.

The quad by the security pass near the end was too easy, quad damages should generally be placed in hard to reach spots or hidden away in secret chambers.

I also noticed some HOM (disappearing faces) in the curved hallway by the security pass, making the curved parts detail or playing around with hint brushes could likely fix this.

I also agree with MaRiNe that adding some verticality to the map would be beneficial as well.

Perhaps this map could even be expanded into a unit, with prior and sucessor maps. You could even include items/weapons/monsters and textures from either of the official mission packs.

[macanah]

awesome