Zig's Map Development Thread

zigbomb

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City 15 is currently in hold for the time being, a new map being built in it's place which I hope to have finished in a reasonable amount of time.
I never really thought I'd be making a thread for this map on this community, but seeing as it's the largest community for Half-Life 2 Roleplay that is mainly English speaking, I thought it'd be a nice chance to get some feedback and ideas that could possibly be put into the map. This map originally had a thread on Cloud Sixteen, but that forum has sort of died and anyone that was making suggestions on there no longer browses the forum. With that turn of events, I decided one of my better courses of action was to make a thread on here for this community to see.

I saw that there was another map thread on here that's City 9. City 9 and my map are two different animals, but I think that guy's work is pretty cool, and it takes some patience for sure to do all of that custom brushwork (in my opinion, the map really needs a modeler because not all detailed brushwork that isn't general world geometry isn't that pretty with Hammer) but that's besides the point.

This has been in development for a while, but it's finally closing in on it's final days where I'll soon be releasing version one of the map (the first playable) version of the map. Anyways, let me get on with some formal stuff.

City 15 was a project originally lead and designed by Saints Sasha a few years ago, if you don't know what City 15 is yet, it's a Half-Life 2 roleplay map that set out to be more authentic, prettier, and sensible than roleplay maps that were out and are out at this time. The map is set in Ukraine, and is very Eastern-European (we know this isn't the most "original" setting for a Half-Life 2 Roleplay map, but Sasha lived in Ukraine, and this map was already being made before Eastern-Euro was "uncool").

I'm going to be posting general changelogs and updates here, as well as on Cloud Sixteen at the same times, so if you browse both of these forums I'm sorry for repetitive posts.

There's so much to City 15, at this current stage major areas are currently being reworked and polished for a final build. Here's some initial screenshots!

*Some of these areas are subject to major change, and some can look completely different upon release*

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Some of these images aren't up to date, but I just wanted to show history.
I'll be showing and going into detail about the current stage of the map soon.
[doublepost=1505161352][/doublepost]Feel free to ask ANY questions you'd like or put in any suggestions you might wanna see in the map, it's much appreciated!
 
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zigbomb

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I'll be posting some of the ideas and concepts in a bit, I do emphasize the need for feedback and suggestions ;)
[doublepost=1505166961][/doublepost]I'm just dumping videos. The first one is of the apartment building in it's semi-finish state.

THE VIDEO BELOW SHOWS AN INTERIOR IN ITS CONCEPTUAL PHASE, IT'S QUITE UGLY AND UNDER DETAILED SIMPLY BECAUSE ITS SOLE PURPOSE IS TO REMIND ME OF WHAT THE BUILDING IS SUPPOST TO BE

AF6BDAC34CC7308D84E5385FBAC446E51E5487F3
 
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Baker

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I've constantly talked about your work to other players in the community and said how fantastic the map is. Do you still plan on adding the canals part of the map as well as the original Nexus and Citadel?
 
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zigbomb

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I've constantly talked about your work to other players in the community and said how fantastic the map is. Do you still plan on adding the canals part of the map as well as the original Nexus and Citadel?
Thanks for spreading the word! I appreciate that. Wow! Someone talking about the Canals and the Nexus and Citadel. You've been watching this for a while now, haven't you? It's always funny and nice to see how many people actually looked at the map when it first went on Cloud Sixteen, we also had a thread on Facepunch but that sort of died and I don't want to be weird by bumping a five month old thread, so I'm just going to leave it in the grave. Anyways, let me answer your questions.

What's the original Canals to you? Do you mean the underground system that had a lot of open areas that included the sky, or do you mean the actual canals I showed in the screenshots? Either way, it's a yes to the both of those and I do intend on still keeping the canals system. I just have to polish and re-do it's layout. Not that it was much finished anyways. As far as the external canals go that run along the bridge, they're pretty done. I just have to actually finish up the actual bridge area, once I do that it should be a breeze.

The Nexus has stayed the same since like Alpha 3 or Beta 1. It hasn't changed, and there's been only one Nexus. I plan on re-doing some of the layout and interior for it to make it a bit nicer looking. While the original intention was for it to be a school, it doesn't really work well off paper and makes the whole building look like it's going to be for Auschwitz RP instead of HL2RP.

As far as the Citadel goes, that part of the map took up thirty percent of our brush limit. We had to cut it. If there's room for it when I'm done the map, it's slightly plausible that it will return. The Nexus train Badham built for it was awesome, and it was really fun to use.

Thanks for the question, feel free to ask anything else.
 
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Baker

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As far as the Citadel goes, that part of the map took up thirty percent of our brush limit. We had to cut it. If there's room for it when I'm done the map, it's slightly plausible that it will return. The Nexus train Badham built for it was awesome, and it was really fun to use.
That's a real damn shame. What I would say is limit yourself on what you guys did for the Citadel, take inspiration from the likes of @Atle who made some really nice CAB areas that didn't fuck over the brush limits, the train was a really interesting feature of the map and in my opinion really set it apart from every other map out there.
 

zigbomb

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That's a real damn shame. What I would say is limit yourself on what you guys did for the Citadel, take inspiration from the likes of @Atle who made some really nice CAB areas that didn't fuck over the brush limits, the train was a really interesting feature of the map and in my opinion really set it apart from every other map out there.
With us it's always been a challenge to fit detail and balance. In our map, we've tried to make sure that literally everything in the map has absolute relevance and is realistic as possible (excusing the layout, simply because Source couldn't allow us to build a metropolis). The citadel's train was setting itself apart for a reason, because there was more train than there was map at that point. But still, I'll try and do something interesting and hopefully bring it back in the future.
 
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Baker

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With us it's always been a challenge to fit detail and balance. In our map, we've tried to make sure that literally everything in the map has absolute relevance and is realistic as possible (excusing the layout, simply because Source couldn't allow us to build a metropolis). The citadel's train was setting itself apart for a reason, because there was more train than there was map at that point. But still, I'll try and do something interesting and hopefully bring it back in the future.
That would be fantastic mate. Hell I've always liked the idea of having a functional train system in a HL2 map, it's like cheese and chips. Since the Citadel is currently removed do you have any plans for CAB like factions?
 

zigbomb

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That would be fantastic mate. Hell I've always liked the idea of having a functional train system in a HL2 map, it's like cheese and chips. Since the Citadel is currently removed do you have any plans for CAB like factions?
For balancing reasons, I planned on making Civil Protection outposts and several "Hot Spots" that use Combine Generators in say a street corner, or around a group of buildings. I plan on doing this to balance out the map a little more, simply because there's currently a lot citizen ground to cover and I want to make sure the map has a balance point for all factions. There's factories, APC garages, etc etc. The list goes on. I still need to make the actual City Administrator's office, though. We had it in another VMF somewhere, but I can't find it anymore so I'll just remake it.
[doublepost=1505212372][/doublepost]http://half-life.wikia.com/wiki/Combine_Power_Generator
So you don't have to google what I mean by Generators.

Overall, there's not much for CAB related stuff, I'm sure at one point up in the Nexus the map will get really /metal/ with all City Administrator stuff but we'll see, that stuff is up for debate.
 
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Baker

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For balancing reasons, I planned on making Civil Protection outposts and several "Hot Spots" that use Combine Generators in say a street corner, or around a group of buildings. I plan on doing this to balance out the map a little more, simply because there's currently a lot citizen ground to cover and I want to make sure the map has a balance point for all factions. There's factories, APC garages, etc etc. The list goes on. I still need to make the actual City Administrator's office, though. We had it in another VMF somewhere, but I can't find it anymore so I'll just remake it.
[doublepost=1505212372][/doublepost]http://half-life.wikia.com/wiki/Combine_Power_Generator
So you don't have to google what I mean by Generators.

Overall, there's not much for CAB related stuff, I'm sure at one point up in the Nexus the map will get really /metal/ with all City Administrator stuff but we'll see, that stuff is up for debate.
Sounds fantastic, you still got the abandoned metro station or has something else been planned?
 

zigbomb

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I also wanted to add that this map has been designed in mind for APCs and what not to be able to roll around with ease. I really want to see a server use those vehicles with proper use. There's also vehicle/citizen gates at every district change.
[doublepost=1505212533][/doublepost]
Sounds fantastic, you still got the abandoned metro station or has something else been planned?
Yes. I still have the abandoned metro station and I do yet again, need to polish it and finish it, then merge it into the sewers in some creative way.
 
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zigbomb

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looks fucking nice
Thanks
[doublepost=1505247015][/doublepost]Quick DP, gonna post some more videos and things that I should have probably recorded a long time ago, I'll be sure to also actually go into detail soon just hold on
 
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Hobo Horse

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I'm not Sasha, I'm Zig and I've lead this project for a while now but ill tell him you said hi
Huh, I thought he was you since he moved. Oh yeah my memories are now returning, howdy Zig!
 

zigbomb

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Hi, so I know I promised I'd go into detail about what's going on- so I guess I will.
Currently I'm re-doing one of the districts in it's entirety, as well as doing position work on the nexus and working on it's external detail further, as well as recreating it entirely. This takes a lot of time, and I didn't get a chance to type because I began work rather quickly after I wrote that post. I was able to get some of the external detailing done for the sides, and I plan to move a building next to the nexus on the right side in the plaza, but I'm not sure what to do yet (suggestions for this would be nice). I got an alright amount done, but I'm dead tired. I'll post some screenshots tomorrow, I didn't get any today because Hammer crashed on me and I was a little angry because it was right after I got some precise positioning done.

Work continues, and hopefully it's all for the better.
 
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zigbomb

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Hi, today I will begin the full reconstruction and exterior design of the Nexus. You can say it will be based on a government building such as this:

Ekaterinoslav.jpg

Central_post_office_of_Dnipropetrovsk.jpg
Since there's going to be multiple outposts, I thought it'd make a /huge/ Nexus a bit redundant and overpowering. Do not take that statement as the Nexus not having a lot of the needing things such as an Armory, or a detainment block, because it will have those things. I'll post more updates about this soon, I just need to begin work on creating the building.
 
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zigbomb

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Here's a clip from an old alleyway (one of the several I was working on at the time) this is in it's conceptual phase, and has been since polished, but I thought I should share it with you guys.


I also wanted to share with you guys a video showcasing the progress that is currently of Beta 2 (a past version) and shows our progress towards the first version of the map.

I thought this video would do more justice than me posting a million screenshots. Just like in my initial posts, many of these areas have been reworked, removed, and changed since this recording.
 
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zigbomb

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Hi. I'm back from a little admin forced hiatus, so I thought I'd share some progress and things I've been doing while I was gone. I got a good amount done, and I'm quite happy with the current progress of things so I'll gladly share it. I'll start by sharing two videos that present the (semi-current) state of the plaza, and a few other things.


I was very happy with the mood of the plaza, and I still am. It's feeling a lot more surreal and moody. It needs a little bit more tweaks, and some minor things done to it to make it perhaps a /little/ darker, but other than that the sun-angle pitching and things did a lot of the level. Overall- I was very happy with the way things were looking even though they weren't as bright as they were before. I thought about perhaps putting some more lights around, maybe I can get away with some of the streetlights being on, I'm not sure yet.

I keep saying overall, but overall I've been doing general work on the plaza before expanding and finishing the other districts. There's some things these videos don't cover, and there's some further progress on things but nothing major. I want to make sure the entire plaza feels pretty whole and used up.


This video presents the current progress of the small apartment complex/building/hotel/thing that's in the main plaza. It took me a while to get the actual encouragement to finally put lights in the place, but I finally did and they look alright. There's some pitches and tweaks I need to make to the thing- but for the most part it's fine.

I also showed the entrance to the Nexus that leads to a basically non-existent interior. Sorry about that- but I just wanted to show off the shell and things.

When this is all done, I'll begin proper work on P15- and I possibly might bring an older district that was cut a long time ago, P6. P6 was a very interesting and controversial district because it was almost very ravenholm in appearance and a little smaller in general. We'll see as time goes on.

Here's just some general screenshots I took over the few days I was gone.
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Obviously they're a little outdated, but they have some better angles than what I showed in the video. I'll be sure to take more and share them with you guys. That's all I have to say majorly- I'll answer any questions you guys have.
 
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