Kermit

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Looks and sounds amazingly good Chimz.
 

Chimz

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ATTENTION: PROJECT HAS BEEN SHUT DOWN!


It actually pains me to say this but, unfortunately I have to shut down the project. Maybe forever or maybe for a very very long time.
For the past few months I've been going forwards and backwards on the whole idea of whether or not to shut down the project. When I put the project on hold, I was looking for 2 weeks of vacation. Well, not vacation, clear mind. I had many things to figure out and do in my life and this map was a big barricade in my head. Stopping me from having a clear and relaxed mind to face my situations. But it wouldn't mean the complete stop of my work in those 2 weeks either. I had planned to work with a mind at ease and no expectations in those 2 weeks too. I could do small work and changes to the map in this time without having anyone expect anything from me. Sadly, that did not work out. Instead I got dragged away from my map by many things. But even those alone couldn't cause such a situation.

The problem was there from the day I started. From the day I even thought about making this map for MS:C. And it was simple, I was too much of a newb to make a map such as this. In my whole time working with VHE and JACK, I've only made a total of 5 maps (excluding Water Temple). And why they were in my opinion some nice maps for a newb mapper, they weren't even close to what a pro or even normal HL mapper would make. The first structure of the Water Temple (the crappy one that started all of this) was meant for another mod which was actually very small. I had to make a series of maps for it. Instead, I thought that I would gather all that energy and make one great map in MS:C. And because of the mechanics of MS:C, that map would be played hundreds of times by different people. So, if I were to make it great, it would be an equal to making a series of small maps for a mod.
So, what was the problem? Well...if I would want to make it plain and simple, I would describe it with a simple saying: I bit off more than I could chew.

This map was beyond me. Four floors of a beautiful, futuristic temple built by elves and humans. With water everywhere you look. I'd like to think I started off with great energy and potential. But as I went on and I faced more and more problems (problems varying from multiple errors, bad design, lack of mapping knowledge and many other things) I lost that potential and energy. And I was left with a huge responsibility that I could not do even half of it. I got far, but that "far" was in my own terms. For many other mappers it was actually very close and small.

What I have built so far is far from what I expected. It is very smaller than I anticipated and it lacks the gameplay structure it deserves. The two floors are small. Specially the first floor (small in terms of content. The space is big but content like rooms and such are few. Half the second floor is gone! (deleted before and never rebuilt completely)
The third floor proved to be the biggest challenge of them all. Creating a destroyed structure that promoted good gameplay but also wouldn't screw up the map with errors of bad brushes. I made the first few steps of the third floor until I stopped moving forward. Instead, I started detailing the first and second floor, trying to make them better to make myself feel better. And I am actually proud of what I did to them. The new pillars of the main hall look better than I ever expected. Beautiful, stunning, powerful and most importantly, futuristic. But even when I was making all of this, I always had a thought in the back of my mind. To let go of the map. Through the weeks that passed, I kept going forwards and backwards with this thought. It wasn't easy to accept it. Even now that I'm writing this, it still isn't.

To let go of this map would mean another failure for me in the process of leaving a mark in the Half-life Modding Community. It would mean bailing halfway through in one of my biggest works. I can barely remember if I've bailed out on any of my works before. It would mean letting down others. Those who looked forward to this map. But even if I don't think about them, I still can't think about the fact that I'm letting Petro and Jens down. Both of them I have to have a talk with later.
I could maybe rush the map and create a much smaller and bad looking map than what I expected just so I could get this map out there, but I can't do that. I'll never be ok with the map. I'll never be proud of it and I will never like it.

The other thought was that...if I was going to bail on the map, then I would have to place it in the Abandoned Archives section in the Forums. And the thought of having someone else make what I wanted just didn't made me feel good at all.

But even so, it's time to be frank. I'm not gonna finish this map. At least not in the following months or even after that. I am proud of how far I've come but this is my limit. I still need a lot of practice and other works to be able to even TRY to finish this map. So, I'm shutting down the project. Some questions may pop into your heads about this, you can ask me about them here or in a private conversation.

NOTE: The last and final pictures of my work will be posted here later. Probably only in-game pictures.

I'm sorry for shutting this down. I don't know if anyone cares, but in any way, I'm still sorry.

I hope you had as much fun reading all this updates as I had (or at least I think I did) making this map. (To be frank, there was not one time that I worked on this map where I didn't both praise it and curse it.) I wish you all a good time in MS:C and best loots to come.


Question: Will I now upload the map into the Abandoned Archives section for others to look at or finish?
Answer: I don't know...However I will probably upload my map journal.



Extra: The Cleansing Room was one of the first things I had to fix by deleting. The cylinder shapes were causing errors for not snapping to the grids. Which is one of the few commandments of mapping in MS:C.
 
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Thothie

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Shame... PM it to me as an attachment in a ZIP or RAR file (RMF+MAP, BSP if available, and any additional media), and I'll whip up a WIP archive entry for it.
 

Regorty

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I always put my maps into limbo... May I should start pulling the plug on mine as well... Also WIP map would be fun to look at.
 

Thothie

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I keep meaning to get around to finishing the work I put into your desert temple map - which I suspended when I found out you were working on a fire temple map, after I had started to do a fire theme therin.

Rundaangh is damned near completed and actually in the alpha pack - just needs a bit of cleaning up, and the beginning made a bit more intuitive. (and a name that doesn't make me choke.)

Also I think your name is still on Verath in the WIP archive:
https://www.msremake.com/threads/abandoned-wip-archives-these-maps-need-mappers.973/
 

Regorty

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oh yea the verath WIP, think someone else said i should focus on Runedaangh before doing Verath. Funny enough is that i started making an indoor area for Verath and ended up with something like this:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/1zmdbhdx8p7zllx/2016-12-05_00001.jpg?dl=0

Decided that it didn't fit Veraths outside theme/design and so I built my own which ended up being something like this:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/l3j9kqjb4o6ecuo/2017-01-15_00001.jpg?dl=0

I am too easily distracted by pointless... everything. Except for making monster spawns, I HATE those with a passion. Can't believe its been a year since I last worked on those areas. Anyways back to the topic, I was gonna make the Verath map but told to finish Runedaangh, didn't and instead started making another strange map that most likely won't fit into the lore. Runedaangh has most of its spawns in place, needs play testing and monster toughness changed in accordance to map difficulty.

Since were on the topic of pointless random creations, here is this:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/310oq3dff40pzyz/Screenshot 2017-12-14 22.47.13.png?dl=0

Oh yea, please do finish that desert temple map. I was liking the theme of monsters that were going into it.
 

Chimz

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Water Temple is now included in the [WIP] Archives.
If you wish to continue the map or simply see what it looks like you can find it here thanks to Thothie.
 
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