Questions about DM Mapping

Hi All

I'm new to this site but have been mapping for HL and HL2 for years.
I am looking at creating some Team DM based maps but have a few questions before I begin in Hammer just so I don't waste my time.

I find DM and team DM to be a little repetitive. Is there a player base that perfer objective based maps as opposed to plain DM?
By objective maps I mean a button or trigger that gives one side a significant advantage (i.e. gives them access to rocket launcher) or wins the round. Maps that promote team work rather than random chaos killing...

Could someone recommend some Steam groups that play these regularly that I could approach for play testing purposes?

Where can I find information about what entities are valid in a DM map and which valid entities would produce significant slow down to a DM map?

So for example if I chose to include a Train passing through a map at regular intervals or a lift that drops down a shaft etc... is this possible in multiplayer and what is best to be avoided...

Thanks for any help you can offer...

Ash

hi ash. there was a signifigant player base for compitition style maps, but it has fallen apart. mostly because of the switch the OB engine, and ofcourse lack of interest in the game and playing the same players over and over in league play. the biggest group of players left are pub players, meaning bigger maps for DM play. a lot are made for low grav too. my play time has dropped almost off the radar as i have switched to other games, but when i do try to jump in a game every now and then i see a lot of "role play" servers. no clue wtf they do in there. the biggest active group of DM players are a clan called the Freedom Fighters. they have a ton of members and play DM on their servers. they are very friendly and would be willing to give you advise and feedback on maps. they rotate their maps on a monthly basis, so you could get your maps in there. their web address is http://www.ffclan.info/forum/sitenews.asp

Thanks for the info...

The concept of a RP server sounds particularly dodgy to me (adult RP? god I hope not!!!!).



Thanks for the link. May drop by the FF site and see what they're interested in.

Played a few killbox maps last night. Dear god I wanted to weep at the lack of mapping effort made on those. People could at least try and make it feel like a realistic environment. I swear I could have built a killbox map in about 2 mins using 20 brushes.

Figured that people might like a reasonable well made map with some dynamic gameplay.... however I may be very very wrong!

....or probably very very late.

Late?

So those aren't hundreds of servers busy with DM players I see when I log in then?

Weird...

Dynamic gameplay, you mean like dm_runoff?
Can be fun but it gets old fast.

Hi Ashfall!

As Chem states, there are some of us who still appreciate a well made deathmatch map for public enjoyment! We are still running two HLDM servers and have over 190 members, many of which still are active.

Feel free to drop a line in our website at www.ffclan.info and we can give you some feedback. We still playtest maps and, in fact, are conducting a map play test tomorrow with about 12 maps that we do not have on our servers (we have over 800 maps on our servers).

We appreciate anyone who takes the time to put their personal time into building maps for the community so helping a mapper like you is the least we can do!

Ashfall wrote:Late?

So those aren't hundreds of servers busy with DM players I see when I log in then?

Weird...

what Valar is referring to is what i was talking about. the core members of this game have drifted apart. yes there are hundreds of servers but 2 years ago, even a year ago, there were thousands. he is also referring to the fact that getting feedback from members here will be tough due to that fact that hardly anybody plays anymore. Valar is also the best mapper in the HL2dm community. he alone has made hundreds of maps, and not just any maps, maps that would take your breath away.