[Cloistered] [the Half-Life Grand Central Terminal] [the Real-Life GCT] [Custom WAD]

Welcome to my Half-Life mapping page. It is basically a place to post my maps and textures for feedback and display.

I'm big on starting maps. Not so much on finishing them. I would never join a Mod for that reason. My enthusiasm would peter out and I know I don't have any willpower to just get it done. I've done, redone, and re-re-done a Grand Central Terminal map after the New York City site. I've almost finished Cloistered, a map set in a remote Italian monastery. I put a lot of work into a model of the scare factory from the Monsters, Inc. movie. And a decent amount of work on a Galleon. The other maps were really rough-outs of ideas.

Cloistered

Grand Central Terminal This was a huge project which simply couldn't be done in the Half-Life engine without butchering the original design. It was fun to try and I may trim it to a playable map one day.

I have a few other map ideas that my mind always comes back to when I get the mapping bug.

Outpost : a outpost on another world is abandoned when war breaks out back at home. The remaining settlers divide and fight for resources. This team based TFC map would be assymetrical, but have enough symmetry in design to balance play. Flags are four types of resources which must be gotten and brought back to the base. Additional resources shore up the base and your health, armor and ammo supplies. Each class would have a map-based function that would add offensive or defensive capabilites to the base/team. The class-based task of settting it up would balance against other functions. Possibilities include spys hacking into enemy computer and causing havoc (doors staying close, opening), scouts placing cameras in enemy base for viewing back in home base, an assualt cannon being built on top of base, firing up generators for added power, setting up a force field to protect sniper battlements, welding doors shut to close off extra entrances or doing the same/opposite to enemy doors, activating first aid stations (like engineer's dispenser), spy detectors, etc.

Forgottenhood : A rundown, forgotten neighborhood. The buildings are condemned, windows boarded up, fences block streets. A highway overpass forms part of the perimeter. Part of the perimeter is a river, and runoff and sewers are present and empty out here. The area is cramped, with older style townhouses. Building roofs can be played on, leting you jump across rooftops. I'll need a few high structures in the middle which will be vis blockers, no rooftop access. A church is a good possibility. A warehouse is another. SOme condemned buildings may have lost the upper floors with just bare brick walls left on top, forming VIS blocks.

A virtual prison/playground for violent offenders: Prisoners use avatars to participate in violent competition. Try to stress an interactive environment. Roughly cylindrical, with several layers. Some limited, open or atrium-like areas. Lower level(s) can be flooded by player control.

Sewerworld: a map based in the sewer system and a secret system of old tunnels and rooms beneath the city streets. I had some ideas from Forgottenhood and Grand Central that didn't fit so I started forming a separate idea for an underworld in the sewer.

Gothic manor : Again, ideas were inspired by some architectural sites. The gimmick I'd like to use is a building that is alive and constantly changing. On the outside, it would be a small house. Inside you would gain access to a much bigger place. Using teleporters, closed elevators that move in any path and moving hallways, the layout would confuse the player. Rooms and areas would be recognizable, but connections between them would change. Purely for fun I'd like to create a room that changes (like in an old Abbott and Costello pic--bedroom becomes a casino). Doors and triggers would make the changes happen. Doors would need to be automatic for DM play, but upon closing they would fire off possible changes. I'll need triggers and masters to control the changes. I don't want a player to simply open and close a door until they get the desired result.

Lasercore : a facility built around a tall cylindral core. Just an idea I drew out on paper for an DM. Three major levels, with an outer wall of rooms. Platforms, walkways, and ladders give a lot of vertical pathways. The lowest level is the power generators. I'm playing with this level now just to have a mental change of gears from GCT.

Ladybug : Like the old Coleco game. The players can control doors that rotate and change the connectivity. Some winding hallways rise and fall so a player runs into the hallway on one floor and comes out on a random one. Moves are triggered when players are deep inside hallways so they won't see the floor change. Identical rooms teleport players around. The feel is to get a map that changes connectivity significantly.