CLOISTERED[Cloistered] [the Half-Life Grand Central Terminal] [the Real-Life GCT] [Custom WAD] [Half-Life Mapping]
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CLOISTERED
Download the beta-map; ver. 58 (6/24/2003), 5.3 Mb
(comments welcome)
Launch the Cloistered Screenshot Viewer
(needs 800x600; uses Javascript in Netscape 4.0+, or I.E.4+)
GENERAL:
The look of this map was inspired by the Abbey of Montecasino. Particularly catching was a statue fo the death of St. Benedict. He lived to a late age and had to be supported by two priests to approach for communion. Upon receiving, he died. The statue shows him supported by the two, his arms stretched up to heaven. It was a strong image, one I couldn't forget. A variant of this made it into the map.
Each area works around the six cloisters. The main cloister has an HEV & MediKit and a wide ramps of stairs to the higher levels. One has access to the front gate and temple, the other the monks daily living spaces. One is a graveyard and the other a visitor's area--which provides vertical access to the top of the cloisters. The last is the benefactor's cloister. The roof is playable-although r_speeds are not for the GeForce-less or software-renderers. I've added an underground which has grown to catacombs, crypts, caves, sewers and pools. Every room has 2-3 entrances so there are no dead ends. The place is big. With all the custom textures, so is the bsp!
I'm avoiding crosses and obvious religious icons. I constructed a basic temple. Playing to the theme, statues are your HEV chargers and MediKits. If I can, I'll make it so you must kneel before the statue to receive. :-)
About 150-175 new textures were created, with over 100 used. I've reworked them repeatedly and I'm very happy with some. The cloister look of the real abbey definitely survivied in the center cloisters. The Bramante cloister has some dead-on features. Of course extra walls had to go up and open areas enclosed for the sake of the gameplay.
UPDATES:
June 24, 2003 - Distributed weapons and multiplayer starts
I've added more weapons and multiplayer starts. I placed the Egon in the Gonarch Egg chamber. None of the starts are in there or the triangular antechamber. The weapons need to be balanced and tweaked for certain. I cleaned up a few errors.
May 14, 2003 - corrected wadincludes...
I was missing a -wadinclude on the compile. A few corrections were made and some experiments. Tried to use hints to make the arched temple polys lower. Made it a little worse instead.
April 10, 2003 - then many months went by...
From time to time I tweak these unfinished maps just to relax. Strange, but it is relaxing. I trashed most of the underground because it was just disorganized and didn't do anything. I've replaced it with a full sewer system, some short tunnels connecting the basements, and a new room that leads to the "Gonarch" chamber. I might enlarge that new room-feels cramped. I also made the underground well very large with another underwater entrance. There are some underground connections to be made. The crypt needs some expansion. Otherwise I'd say that entity tweak and weapon placement is all that is left. The map more than comfortably holds 32 bots, with room to spare.
August 23, 2002 - speed problems resolved
Found that my solution to speed issues in the temple was causing added polys on one corner of the map. HINT burhses were slicing through all brushes for at least 1024 units in every direction. I deleted them and a bunch of other hint brushes. WIth just four I got most of the benefit back. I still have some work on the temple to do but I think I've figured a solution. I'm trying to finish the underground now. I'm running tight on clipnodes. Download updated to version 46.
August 11, 2002 - optimizations touch ups
After struggling in the forums to find the where's and how's to using the NULL texture I started implementing them to shave down r_speeds. I didn't find anywhere where they were a tremendous savings. I implemented some new HINTS hoping to cleave down visibility from certain points of view. I redid the viewer with newer and fewer screenshots.
July 30, 2002 - new additions
I added the underground worship site. Still have to make it hard to get to though. I put in a scrap of a model for an headcrab egg. Now that I'm learning Milkshape I try my hand at some modeling to spruce up the map. I reduced the worst areas down to 900 r_speeds. On the next run I expect them to drop further. The quarters were reworked to turn 4 floors into three and simplify them. I have a laundry list of changes to make.
July 18, 2002 - new PC, old itch
Well It a been another long derth. As usually I avoided finishing this map and my attentions strayed to two other maps. One of which looks pretty cool. Of course it became huge again. I just can't seem to make small maps! Meanwhile cloistered bogged down to a standstill.
I'm migrating everything to a new 2.4Gz machine and I justhad to compile my old maps just to see the difference. To make it tough I added the -EXTRA switch on Rad. Despite the extra work, it ran six times faster...just 52 minutes for a full blown compile. I could even up the patch level now without giving up my PC for 2 days! Looking at the old maps have given me an itch to map again. This is the map closest to finished. Needs more weapons, and don't shoot the statue, It fights back a bit excessively right now. :-) Otherwise I think I did a good job with it. I'll play around with the map this weekend. Meanwhile I put the latest compile (version 33) up.
September 22, 2001 - Maybe...someday...
Well after a leap forward early in the year my attentions wandered as they always do. From time to time I get a bug and do a little mapping. I've done some chunks recently and the map has moved forward again. I've updated some screen shots and I'm putting up a new download (vers.31). The underground has started filling out and I've opened up the barn some. I've put a VERY basic wall around the whole map since I don't have the clipnodes to build out much more. I've gone back and clipped some items to get back clipnodes but I'm closing in on the 90% threshold. I find maps that run over 90% clipnodes are moments away from ALLOCFULL errors. I've changed the clock tower some, added stain glass to be broken there and I'm trying it in the roof of the Great Room. R_speeds may make it prohibitive. I've cleaned up texturing everywhere and I'm adding entryways at dead ends. Most of my focus has been expanding vertical paths to the upper floors and the underground.
April 20, 2001 - Work, Taxes, Work
Between taxes and work I've been pretty busy. This weekend doesn't look like I'll get much time in for mapping, but I'm going to try and squeeze in at least two hours one night.
April 8, 2001 - Slow day - updated download
Well I only got a few things accomplished today but i did upload my latest full compile. I didn't compile as aggressively on light as I will in the end. Spotted some new errors, have to add them to the cleanup list. Just improved lighting in a few areas. Tired of running around in the dark. I've got two floors in the quarters area that I don't know what to do with, a space above the temple, and the kitchen doesn't look like a kitchen. I want a firepit in the stable for ironworking. I'd like some detail in the visitors area. I need to connect the little sewer to all the cloisters and create a runoff-exit. Then I need to finish the underground.
Did a run with 8-24 bots. Actually played pretty well with 16. By 24 my machine way hiccuping a lot and sounds stuttered over 14. At 8 it was to quiet and turned into a stalking ground. I noticed the Jumbot 2.2s tend to camp a bit in an area before moving to a different space. SOMe intelligently, almost patroling a perimeter, others just spinning in one spot. Of course that is with no waypoints for them to use.
April 7, 2001 - Kewl - !!Updated images!!
With Alloc block full behind me, I've reduced clipnodes by 10% and I haven't touched the underground. My clipnodes are now 80.6%! I now have some room to make the catacombs. I scraped the spiral staircase at the entrance-was never thrilled with it, and replaced it with another room I am REALLY happy with. Still an entrance but has a great feel and look. I redid the roofs and upper floors. Although I still have to finish the library ceiling. I filled in the basement/storage some and put some lights--needs a little more, but it heading the right way. Used a few more textures from EvilDicke's collections to good effect. Soon I will need to spend a session just on my laundry list of needed fixes, then focus just on lighting, then entities. This map will actually get finished!
April 5, 2001 - bump, crash
Well I hit ye ole ALLOC BLOCK FULL error. Basically my clipnodes, vis and/or light data were getting too high. I had added a more complex sewer and underground area, I've now backed out of those changes. I will use a simple sewer and the catacombs I will structure carefully. I just finished cleaning up all the roofing and fixing the top story rooms but I',apost,'ll copy paste some of that work out of the bad one. Meanwhile I will refocus on reducing clipnodes for the next session.
April 1, 2001 - Chug, chug
The map is coming along with new areas finished. I touched up textures and make a texture for my arched column and temple that I think are excellent. I've solved speed problems all over the place. Temple now peaks at 900 not 1300. Northern clositers now stay under 800. I've added some extra connectivity that I meant to before.
March 19, 2001 - Getting closer
I reworked corner into a bell tower and stables plus the quarters. I'm pretty happy. There are some bits that feel leftover though. I hope to fix them up a bit. I got the tower bells to ring, you can hear them across half the map. I may make them play everywhere. They sound veyr good. You can even ring them repeatedly. In case you WANTED everyone to know you were there! I've got some cleanup on the main staircase -reoriented it and it no longer touches the walls. I think I will rework it more significantly to use some excess space better.
The map is approaching a more finished look with each revision. I've done the little cleanup runs, aligning textures, doodads needing fixing, even clipped the nastier areas. One day I might get it playtested and released. Of course its size would preclude all but LAN play because the download would be large (4MB zipped). I've invested more time in entity development. Even some thought about weapon placement. Not enough ammo though. Some bots played that out.
One thing for sure, the map would need a lot of players.
March 6, 2001 - Thank God for fast video cards
I stopped mapping completely back in August, 2000. Just didn't have enough interest to push ahead. Now, I've finally got a new video card (ATI Radeon 32MB). What a difference. Previously (ATI Expert@play 8MB, pre-98) I could only run at 640x480 and many maps gave me one frame per second when things got busy. The 3D view in Wordcraft was painful to use. Often taking 1-5 seconds or more to update. Now it flies!
Given the extra power and a snow day I sat down and did some work on the map. Maybe eventually it will be released. I'm reworking one corner. I didn't like the tower and area near the quarters-not enough purpose. The tower will become a bell tower, and the area a stable and probably entryway for carts & trucks. Made some changes in connectivity, which were needed. The underground catacombs are undone and may be deleted since I'm running low on clipnodes. Right now there is almost no lighting down there. The map is too huge anyway. With me and 16 bots rooms in the map were quiet. No matter what, this map will play best with big groups. Definitely not enough ammo placed yet. Crossbow is in a hiding space. I had a space planed for the egon but I can't remember if I got the entities right yet. I have one place for an RPG, but I need another.
With the new video card I had no problem taking screenshots, even in troublesome areas. I updated the screenshot viewer with pix of the many new areas.
August 9, 2000 - New compile, and duh!
After struggling to figure out why my transparency wasn't working I remembered they had to be named with a beginning {. DUh! I Just did a full VIS and the r_speeds are good. The two bad spots can both be fixed! (hurray) I've uploaded the updated zip.
August 7, 2000 - Two days of work.
After two days of work the map is coming along nicely. I spent some time on textures now--not too many successes there. Some good, some just okay. I need to take another shot at it later. I've got two cloisters without a purpose-- other than connectivity. I may leave them very simple, a statue, benches, a fountain. I'll try to add something of interest to each one. I've got one building without a purpose but I should be able to fill it with just generic rooms.
I'm happy with the connectivity. I've got to open some more entrances and add at least three more staircases. It has that weave around to get to where you want feel, but not too ridiculously so. R_speeds are good except for two points that see eachother. I'll work on that more. I've built one brush-based statue and two more whcih are texture based. Housed between columns the texture-ones look surprisingly GOOD! ALthough I'm having trouble getting the blue to go transparent. I don't know what I've done wrong. I think it has to do with the palette position of the blue color.
I've done some screen captures and put up the results.