User:Tkellaway/L4D Progress
Project Status
- Name: Hell Raised
- Type: Coop
- Chapters: 1
- Status:
- Chapter 1, City - Planning: 070% - Construction: 070% - Entities: 030% - Beautification: 025%
Project Blog
June 02, 2009
I've been shocked by the news of Left 4 Dead 2. It seems they haven't given the community a chance to produce any maps before the next game comes along and makes maps made with L4D1 content obsolete. I'm hoping this 'L4D2' is all some kind of joke, or is going to go through some major changes. For a start, the maps looked terribly bright and lost all their ambience. Back on topic though:
The news has dealt a powerful blow to my morale, so mapping has been slow this week. The summer holidays are approaching, so you can probably expect the map finished around then. A small update - I've completed the mutli-story car park, and only have to detail it now. I've also been experimenting with intro cameras and the detail found on destroyed buildings.
A small note also: I've started the planning stage of my next map, but nothing too serious to draw me off focus of finishing what I promised on this one. Something that the L4D guys at valve should realy learn I suppose.
May 28, 2009
Work on expanding the car park has started. It's going to be difficult to get this area to be interesting for players to navigate. I will probably need some interesting props in the car park, for example a crashed plane or a car pileup. It might be funny to fill the car park with car alarms - trigger one and all the rest go off.
I have decided on the basic objective for the level. The idea will be that you have to first find a radio to call for a rescue helicopter. Once you call the rescue helicopter, the 'finale' event begins - lasting about 25/30 minutes. I will try to get some people I know to do the voice acting for the radio - just so that I can have some unique speech in the map. Players have to get to the top of the tower after the helicopter arrives, by riding a window cleaner's elevator up to the top. The elevator should give players a nice view of the map, as well as all the zombies that were probably chasing them.
To stop players simply getting to the rooftop straight after the radio is used, I will make the rooftop very hard to defend. Players will choose not to camp at the top of the skyscraper, as it will be easy to get knocked off by a tank (this should look hillarious in a map of this size) and regular infected will be climbing up from every side. Stopping players from camping on the skyscraper roof, means that players will be able to explore the map, and try out various camping spots. In the 'pause' between mobs, where the tank spawns, players can move to a different spot - fighting the tank on the way.
I do not yet know how I will deal with the elevator, but I will probably have to make a ladder all the way up the building - just for those survivors that are left behind or knocked off early on.
May 27, 2009
A friend suggested using a window washer's elevator to ascend the skyscraper. I can probably make the elevator stall at random points on the way up, or break down half way, meaning that you still have to move up to the roof from within the skyscraper - to best contrast all the outside areas. This will also be a good breather for the player, before the rush for the helicopter on the roof.
A minor update on the map: I've decided to expand the car park for the skyscraper. Also, I've been working on the multi-story car park and experimenting with various details in the semi-complete portion of the map. There's going to be a subway section added - I already copied the basic entrance from the hospital_apartments map.
I'm slightly worrying about the nav mesh, as I found it very difficult to get the bots to stay on an elevator I created in a test map.
May 25, 2009
I'm still here. The exteriors were quite easy - they were demonstrated in the sandbox maps. Now, I've been focusing on the interiors.
The storage place.
The pawn shop counter.
The law office reception.
May 20, 2009
I'll be seeing if compiling works soon, once I've finished fixing up the map for a little playtest. A lot to go, but a lot done as well.
Rooftops play a large part in this map. As mentioned in the developer's commentary, players tend to head for high ground. Because players will probably head for the rooftops first, I will try to focus hiding weapons elsewhere. There will be obvious correlations between where you find the weapons and where you are in the map. For example, the pawn shop will have some weapons inside, whereas the 'burger tank' joint will not.
Something I'm hoping to have time for, is to set up a subway and/or sewer. Setting the entire game in a series of urban streets could get boring after a while. It's a lot more exciting to have a frequent change in scenery, be it the damp sewers or the dark subway. If I do add these elements, it will be great practice for any other Left 4 dead maps that I create in the future.
If you have any suggestions, just post them in the discussions page and if they're good, they'll go in. Also, I am considering reducing the planned size of the map slightly, so that I can finish it a bit sooner.
May 19, 2009
I'm glad to see the Authoring Tools released at beta, just on time for me. My inactivity has been due to a heavy amount of college coursework - I should be able to get back to mapping now. I've also chewed through a few level design books, so I might be able to improve on my technique.
April 27, 2009
All radio locations (there are going to be more than one) will be scattered around the map. Seeing as the finale event will be triggered whenever you activate any one of them, players will have to choose the one they use wisely.
To help players find the radios, all ham radios will be placed by a radio dish/tower. The one shown in this screenshot (to the right) is set up at a military roadblock, where the military have taken over a news van, in order to use it's radio dish. The previously shown one is set up by a small radio tower that was quickly set up by the guy who is writing the signs.
I'll have to remove any other radio dishes in the map that are not placed by a radio, so that players can be sure that seeking out a radio dish will ensure they can find a ham radio at that location.
April 26, 2009
The exterior for the law office is done, using the hotel window models from the dead air campaign. The other side of the window is not modelled, so I decided to board up the windows, and create the other side out of brushes. The small parking area was a replacement for a 'city tree' model, that looked very out of place. Behind the law office entrance building, there is a large office tower. This will probably not be accessable.
I will focus on the interiors of these buildings later, but for now I will concentrate on creating the exteriors for all other buildings. Other areas that will probably be added later are the sewers and probably a few secret rooms that can only be opened up by the infected.
I was thinking of making the map smaller and changing the gamemode to survival, but decided against it. I can always do this once the larger map is complete.
Another story element in this map is that there is a guy who stayed on a rooftop spraying signs on plywood to hang on the side of the building. In the screenshot, you can see how the guy died clinging onto a spraycan, whilst in the middle of spraying a sign. Also, this is one of the radio locations in the map. Players should be able to spot the small radio tower from around the level.
April 25, 2009
Here is an image showing the apartments/shop. This area was created first, and has set the standard of detail that I am trying to match throughout the map. The interiors of the buildings shown are not created yet. Although the buildings are hollow, the walls are still using dev textures and window places are not carved out yet.
Seeing as the map will revolve around a large skyscraper, I decided it would look wrong if there were no other relatively modern looking skyscrapers around. you can see one to the left of the screenshot.
I am looking forward to the SDK release, but fearing that models and textures will need replacing in order to carry any maps over from the fake SDK.
Currently I am working on adding a law office to the map.
April 20, 2009
I've given up on pier pressure. I can always return to it, but I want to work on a map that's original and never seen before. Hell Raised is based in a city, where the players must stick together to survive. I'm unclear on what the objectives are at the moment, but I'm hoping to make the map non-linear and open for players to explore. This makes the map similar to an rp map in design. I chose this type of map, based on something I heard in the developer's commentary about how l4d was originaly going to have larger, more open maps for players to explore. They changed their minds to make more linear maps, so that they could focus on adding detail. I have a bit more time on my hands than them.
All that I'm certain of at the moment is that I want the players to have to get to the top of a large skyscraper in the centre of the map to escape by helicopter. If possible, I will make more than one tower with more than one helicopter. This will stop players from just going up the skyscraper at the start and waiting up there for the whole game.
Goodies will be hidden all over the map, so that player have to explore. I will also add optional objectives that benefit you in some way. For example, you may find a radio that speeds up the helicopter. Some objectives will cause more zombies to spawn, whilst giving the players better weapons. For example, breaking into a gun store will set off an alarm, but allow access to all weapons.
The way that zombies will spawn is that players will have two minutes to explore the map, followed by about five minutes of panic event. After the panic event is over, players will have more time to explore and the process will repeat. This means that players will be camping when a panic event is triggered, but moving when they have time to explore - making it more likely that they trigger a panic event (e.g. by breaking into the gun store) when there isn't already one happening. I will make sure that camping spots become useless over time, by walls being destroyed.
Another way to keep the map interesting would be to enable more and more special infected as the game goes on. Not only will this keep the game interesting by adding milestones to the gameplay - it will ensure that no players die at the start of the game, before anything has happened.
If you have any suggestions, post them on the discussion page.
Category:Left 4 Dead Projects
