Talk:Your First Left 4 Dead Map

Article Topic Suggestion (and a question)

First off, we need to narrow the focus of this article regarding my "first" L4D map. Right now this is more of a brain dump of all the various pages out there discussing L4D map editing.

IMHO there are three types of maps: the intro map (e.g. l4d_farm01_hilltop), one or more inner chapter maps (e.g. l4d_farm02_traintunnel), and the finale map (e.g. l4d_farm05_cornfield). For "my first map"-type of tutorial I would ignore any type of logic_choreographed_scene and env_fades entities and focus on creating just 3 rooms for the player spawn, a connecting hallway, and the checkpoint in the style of an inner chapter map.

Regardless of my suggestion, has anyone made a functioning map where the bots move along the ESCAPE_ROUTE to the CHECKPOINT?--Molaughlen 08:11, 4 Dec 2008 (PST)

Stop adding useless garbage

This article is turning into a list of console commands and entities. This article should be about adding and setting the things required in a map. Please try to keep it on track.

Do keep in mind this article is a work in progress and is nowhere near complete. I can assure you I've added no "useless garbage" to this article. All the console commands and entities I've listed here are either required or very, very useful when making a map for the game. The two I just added, 'director_stop' and 'director_start', can sometimes fix problems with infected refusing to spawn inside a map. If you going to accuse someone of screwing something up, you should have some proof to back yourself up first, don't make blind accusations based purely on assumption. --brandished 23:50, 30 Nov 2008 (PST)

I am not accusing you, I am saying to other people, don't add every console command and item. --Sbrown 23:53, 30 Nov 2008 (PST)

"Stop adding", this implies the action has already been performed, something was added and shouldn't have been. If you check out the history there has been only 2 editors for this article after it was created, there is no one else you could have been referring to. "Useless garbage" is never a definition I'd apply to anything added to a WiKi article anyways, even straight vandalism; not only is it insulting, but "such a response is usually not constructive, does not clarify a discussion, and does not persuade others". --brandished 00:44, 1 Dec 2008 (PST)

Okay, maybe i was wrong, however I am just saying what is on my mind, it is sort of truning into a list, rather than a tutorial. I know it is just in the early stages --Sbrown 17:54, 1 Dec 2008 (PST)

FAQ section

Can we try and clean up the FAQ section please? - Sbrown 22:07, 28 Nov 2008 (PST)

The VDC is a WiKi, you don't really need to ask for permission to clean-up or add content to a page unless it's locked, although it can be helpful to ask for comments before making huge changes to an article that involves removing valid content or changing the layout. --brandished 21:52, 29 Nov 2008 (PST)

I know that. I don't understand the rest of the FAQ, and i was hoping the editor could improve it. --Sbrown 11:54, 30 Nov 2008 (PST)

The original editor only created the page, I added the FAQ section. The questions I added in were for example only based off what I guessed people might ask. It won't really be possible to clean the section up until after the SDK has been released and Valve gives us more info on the map making process for L4D. The error messages I wanted to have in the article to catch google searches queries of those who don't know about the VDC. --brandished 17:57, 30 Nov 2008 (PST)

:|--Gear 15:01, 30 Nov 2008 (PST)

New titles?

This article isn't public yet (there isn't any other articles linking to it) and was put on the backburner by the creator until after Valve released the official SDK. Valve is (supposedly) working on their own mapping tutorials for Left 4 to be released along with the SDK, so the original author might not even start working on this again if Valve releases something substantial. What was the specific reason for changing the titles from what was there before? --brandished 21:52, 29 Nov 2008 (PST)

Thats what they said about TF2.--Gear 15:01, 30 Nov 2008 (PST)

You wouldn't happen to have the source for that would you? I was too busy when the Orange Box came out to mess with the mapping side of things and didn't look into it until after the SDK was released. It might be somewhat different with L4D as it's a Turtle Rock game more so then a Valve game (or at least it was until Turtle Rock was acquired by Valve). The Turtle Rock guys have been fairly helpful in the past with documentation. --brandished 17:57, 30 Nov 2008 (PST)

SDK?

Figured I'd put this somewhere... Someone supposedly found a way to get Hammer to work with Left 4 Dead by manually adjusting all settings. Anyone wanna give it a whirl and post back? [1] --CorporalAris GMT -6 4:23 Nov 30th

I personally would not recommend doing this. A because the new fgd will be different, and you will most likely have to redo your entities, and B valve said they will be releasing the sdk shortly. This will be integrated in, no pissing around. --Sbrown 11:58, 30 Nov 2008 (PST)

Yeah, I suppose. I just figured some people who couldn't wait would wanna see it. --CorporalAris GMT -6 15:08 Nov 30th

Not that it;s your fault, but people really need to learn how to Wait. Until then, I don't think we should encourage those tutorials, as we didn't even do so with TF2 when it came out, or Portal.--Gear 15:04, 30 Nov 2008 (PST)

I think it is retarded personally. I am not making any l4d maps until the final sdk is released. --Sbrown 15:54, 30 Nov 2008 (PST)

Amen to that.--Gear 07:14, 1 Dec 2008 (PST)

Meh, I'm not going to use it. I'm waiting for the SDK, in part because I am lazy. --CorporalAris GMT -6 22:45 Nov 30th