OH MY GOSH!

[Dridmar]

This has been bothering me for a while, so I've decided to post it now. How the maps are named, is starting to make me go crazy. Here are some names of maps

Edana
Thornlands
Helena
Sfor
Calruin2
Keledrosprelude2
the_keep
ms_snow
mscave
Deralia

Now some of these maps, in my opinion, are named very well, while other maps, don't feel like they've been named good.

I will start with the map names and I will say whether they are good or bad.

Edana: This map is named after what is in the map. The village of Edana, so this map name is good.

Thornlands: This map is the Thornlands, I think it is named good.

Helena: The town of Helena, usually the target of Bandit and Orc raids. I think this map is named good.

Sfor: This is the Haunted Forrest. I have a problem with the map name. what kind of a name is Sfor??? does the S stand for Scary? This map could be named better.

Calruin2: This map name could of been good, but the number in the name makes it bad. I know there was a "Calruin" but I think this map should be renamed to Calruin. What if Edana had a second version? Would it of been called Edana2? Welcome to the village of Edana2... So in my opinion, numbers=bad.

Keledrosprelude2: What did I just say about numbers in the names?! Also, why isn't it called "The Pass" or something, because it is a pass, not just used to get to Keledros.

the_keep: Uhhhh....Well I better get started on this one too. Alright, this is the Bandit's keep. With the name, having the word "the" in the name makes me think that it is the only keep in the msc world. LittleFrodo, you could of named the Keep something and it would have a better name. For example, Kralien Keep. If someone else makes a keep map, I feel it has to be called something like the_secondkeep, or the_other_keep.

ms_snow: Alright. lets start with the "ms." Does that stand for mastersword? Because in svencoop maps, the maps usually have "sc" infront of the name, just like counter-strike has "cs" "de" or something else...And with the name snow, I feel like it should of been named better.

mscave: Pretty much like the other two above this one. I'll assume that the "ms" in the name stands for mastersword. Also, like snow, cave is too plain. I wish the cave had been named something else.

Deralia: This is just like Edana. It is named after the town which is in the map. It is a good name for the map.

If you skipped the above because you don't want to read all of that, I'll just quickly say exactly what my problem is. The names in the maps are too damn different. I think the maps should either have "ms" in the beginning of the name, like ms_snow, or just be named after what is in it, like Edana. Also, the lands should be named better too. For example "Hey guys, lets go to Albrux Cave." Does that sound better than "Hey guys, lets go to mscave." Albrux was an example name, I'm not suggesting that maps be called that...

There is my little rant on how the maps are named, and why I think they should all start being named in the same way. I've added a poll so you can vote. Yippie

 

[Shurik3n]

If map transitions worked as they intended you wouldn't know the maps real names so well... you would know them by the transition names.

 

[The Man In Black]

Way to waste space in the Chatter forum for a completely retarded thread. Who gives a crap about what the .bsp is named? Moreover, who's going to go through and force all of the map names to change through the beta pack? Who's going to update the votemap pluging? Who wants to type 'changelevel sfor [oh f*ck] backspacebackspacebackspace hauntedforest'

The names are fine, as is.

 

[Thothie]

I'd have to re-write a ton of scripts if we changed the map names, as many changes to various monsters are indeed dependant on the map names, as are the amx/x plugins.

 

[Dridmar]

Well, I wasn't saying that the current maps have to be changed, I would just like to see the maps following a name scheme in the future.

 

[PBarnum]

They are just file names, nothing life threatening.

And Thothie, would you have to redo a lot of scripts if you were to just have the votemap look for "votemap The Haunted Forest"? (granted I dont want it to change because sfor is a lot easier to say than The Haunted Forest)

 

[Shurik3n]

Its not just votemap, its things like this:

if ( game.map.name equals ww3d )
	{
		dbg switching race to undead
		race undead
	}

 

[Thothie]

Exactally. There's a lot more of those than you'd think.

I'd have to recode the votemap plugin, of course.

It's in the process of being recoded anyways... But it would be some work to add that feature.

Hummingbird has been translating our AMX to AMXmodX, and I've been more or less relying on him to recode, but thus far, he's opted for redicted functions, rather than actual recodes - meaning AMXmodX map vote has all the silly issues AMX map vote does + more CPU usage. Seems to be working out, more or less, just need a few more functions.

 

[DocMombo]

This idea is made of stupid and fail.

 

[Humming Bird]

Exactally. There's a lot more of those than you'd think.

I'd have to recode the votemap plugin, of course.

It's in the process of being recoded anyways... But it would be some work to add that feature.

Hummingbird has been translating our AMX to AMXmodX, and I've been more or less relying on him to recode, but thus far, he's opted for redicted functions, rather than actual recodes - meaning AMXmodX map vote has all the silly issues AMX map vote does + more CPU usage. Seems to be working out, more or less, just need a few more functions.

I'll opt to start recoding this weekend Or then I'll probably finish it the week after finals.

 

[Thothie]

This idea is made of stupid and fail.

It's not THAT bad... It's just the forum topic title kinda over-sells it.

Ya know, what might be possible is to give each map a string of keywords in the AMX vote, and then if you hit one of the key words associated with said map, AMX would ask you "Did you mean to start a vote for XXX? 1-Yes 2-No"

So for instance, if you typed:
votemap dark forest
AMX would ask, "Did you mean to start a vote for Sfor?"
Sfor could have the key words "dark forest haunted" ... and whatever that elven name was..

Granted, lots of keywords would go to more than one map, so it'd be dicey, at best. Mscaves would likely get hit by "dark" and it connects to the same map. :/

In anycase, more work for Hummingbird, I'm concentrating on scripts just now...

...eight hours, trying to figure out the Olympix big... I shit ye not... Eight, straight, hours. >< *THINK* I got it.

 

[Evaan]

You be glad they didn't stick to their original plan (way back) with names like a1, a2, b2 etc...

The map names should really just function in the background without the players noticing, but it can't really work like that in Half-Life (though I'm sure there's a way...).

I think the problem is that the character is stuck on the map he last played (or has that been removed?), and he has to play on that map in order to be able to move again. This would work if the server didn't depend on the map file as it does.

Anyways, until then, I agree the names should be taken better care of, so that players can easily recognize the area, or get a general idea at first glance.

By the way - does HL support spaces in names now? I feel it's pretty ancient to use underscores in file names nowadays.

 

[J-M v2.5.5]

It's Evaan
Hi, what's up

 

[Thothie]

I think the problem is that the character is stuck on the map he last played (or has that been removed?), and he has to play on that map in order to be able to move again. This would work if the server didn't depend on the map file as it does.

Yeah, we did away with that crap a looong time ago, hampered player count like nothing else. As it is now, any player can join on any server that has players on it, regardless of map. There are a few "restricted" gauntlet maps, that require you travel from one map to another, but even with those, any player can join any server at any time, tis just the server can't be launched on those maps. (Or rather, no one can spawn proper on those maps, until someone who touched the proper transition joins.)

And no, can't put spaces in HL1 map names, it makes things explode. Too many bits of the code use spaces for parsers it seems.

 

[Dridmar]

I think the problem is that the character is stuck on the map he last played (or has that been removed?), and he has to play on that map in order to be able to move again. This would work if the server didn't depend on the map file as it does.

Yeah, we did away with that crap a looong time ago, hampered player count like nothing else. As it is now, any player can join on any server that has players on it, regardless of map. There are a few "restricted" gauntlet maps, that require you travel from one map to another, but even with those, any player can join any server at any time, tis just the server can't be launched on those maps. (Or rather, no one can spawn proper on those maps, until someone who touched the proper transition joins.)

Yeah, thank god for those spawn anywhere maps.

 

[Evaan]

Yes, that *can* be a nuisance, and in every RPG game I play, I'd lov to be able to just teleport there.

Should be exceptions, though, for the more hidden places, having to find them first. But hat would irritate most too, probably, again, the server is dependant on the map it plays.

Some sort of cluster with a server for each map (or a few maps - most computers today should be able to run multiple HL servers).

That was also the plan way way back, wasn't it? During the very first releases?

That would become expensive, though, with all the new maps popping up.