Map- "The Airship"

[Pestoolio]

I've got an idea for a new map to grace "The Ship". It would take place on a airship (or "Zeppelin"), which were very common during the 1920's. It would have multiple decks on it, with cabins, resturaunts, and a jail. All and all, it's pretty much a floating cruise ship. What would seperate this map from the others would be A) more enviromental traps, such as opening trapdoors and activating giant fans (which would both send players falling to their death), and B) a whole new setting (such as glass floors for players to enjoy the scenery below). And wouldn't it be a blast to chase your quarry though the stairs of the inner airship? While it doesn't hold true to the name of the game, it would be a refreshing break from the norm. Suggestions and comments are welcome.

Airship on Wikipedia- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Airship

[Abjure]

Oh my God! This would be AWESOME! Please OuterLight! Pick up on this guys idea! Its brilliant!

[SlaktarPizza]

Woah, that map would rock. :D
Great idea for a map. :D

[Weirdelves]

The hindenburg ;would fit the bill, as all the ships in the game have crashed, so has this magnificent airship.

[[OL]Ultra]

http://forum.theshiponline.com/showthread.php?t=449

[Pestoolio]

Ultra']http://forum.theshiponline.com/showthread.php?t=449
Whoops, my bad. Although, this thread did not start out as a suggestion for a magical flying pirate ship (or dragon) to be a map. Anyways, it just seemed like a cool idea, and would fit into the "story" very well, so it wouldn't have to be a user-made map. Assuming Mr. X has the money to build these fantastic cruise ships, he might want to build a luxury airship too. It's still a "Ship" right?

[SlaktarPizza]

Ultra"]http://forum.theshiponline.com/showthread.php?t=449
Hrm, the idea is an air ship, not some fantasy style map, read it's thread name :D

Anyways, yes Pestoolio your idea is brilliant and it fits
The Ship just perfectly.

[dak]

I like the idea. It should have lots of environmental traps and secret areas, seeing as this would probably be a large map. The only problem with this is how would you get the blimp to feel like it was moving like the other ships. You could have terrain scrolling by but that would be unrealistic and probably lame if not done perfectly. It could be in the clouds though that might be cool. I like this idea. I also would like all of you to consider visiting this page:

http://forum.theshiponline.com/showthread.php?t=2103

please add any suggestions. Thanks.

-dak

[Gutan Tag Hop-Clop]

I love the idea. I really hope the devs are planning on making an airship map. I would love hunting down my quarry in the interiors of The Hindenburg complete with environmental traps specifically for an airship.

[Pandajuice]

Ultra']http://forum.theshiponline.com/showthread.php?t=449

I like this thread better. It's an actual realistic idea...

And I agree, a zeppelin would be sweet! All sorts of hidden areas in the undercarriage, etc.

[Pestoolio]

I love the idea. I really hope the devs are planning on making an airship map. I would love hunting down my quarry in the interiors of The Hindenburg complete with environmental traps specifically for an airship.
That's the part I'd be most excited about. What if you could pull a lever and send a person on the toilet falling to their doom? That's comedy.

[SlaktarPizza]

It would be sweet if you could do a dynamic 3d skybox instead of static. :D
That would fix the "outside" atmosphere.

[Sirro]

I like this thread better. It's an actual realistic idea...

And I agree, a zeppelin would be sweet! All sorts of hidden areas in the undercarriage, etc.


If you missed it in the link to that thread, it says that an offical mapper is actually considering a zepplin later on the road, which is really cool if you ask me. My suggestion is to be able to see moving clouds flying by the windows and stuff that would be awesome.

[Stupideye]

AWESOME! Make this ship!!!! I like the pull the lever and the guy on the toilet falls.

[Pandajuice]

AWESOME! Make this ship!!!! I like the pull the lever and the guy on the toilet falls.

Not just falls through....Gets sucked in violently like an airline toilet and squirted out of the blimp hehe.

[marcquish]

rofl :D
that's a great idea for a trap.
And as for the clouds, i've noticed thats sea-textures have really been upgraded, i mean, the sea on the Doria is just beautiful...
So i'm sure the dev's will do that great as well.

[DrTran]

Zeppelin = good idea.

Looking for inspiration - watch the Last Crusade or whatever, I believe there is a zeppelin in that. Fits the theme perfectly, and could have cool enviornmental hazards. Airlocks?

[Weirdelves]

There is a cool zepelin map on timesplitters 3

[Isaak Johnson]

Another cool thing would be is too be able to see planes flying outside, like escort planes flying at the same speed (but bobbing around a bit) or going faster than the airship.

I think this would be awesome, great idea.

[Papicola]

There is a cool zepelin map on timesplitters 3 The problem with that zeppelin is that you are on a basically stripped zeppelin designed for no purpose in transport while the ship is about cruise liners so i think if anything you could take the map and give it a facelift with plush rooms instead of the big metal frames.... thats my idea bsides the game TS3 is 20 bucks so a dev could look at the map analize it and work from there... but a good idea nontheless

[fullmetal34]

Zeplines are also known as sissy blimps..... atleast thats what i call em' a real man would go into a warzone in an un-armored blimp made of gold... then would place a bomb in it, crash it blow it to hell and get shot to death :p

[5up3rc0w]

And it should have traps here people fall to their doom! or cause them to fall into the blades that propel the ship or make them die of hydrogen poisining when in the balloon!

[Skunk]

Seriously, this map needs to be made. No question. Think about it. Lots of traps to use on people, as well as the normal fare. Instead of a lifeboat trap, you can open the emergency exit and throw someone out. Instead of the paddle trap on Alatanta, we have The Glass Bottom, as Pestoolio pointed out. Who needs a switch? Shoot the floor out, bye bye! There's also the idea of running around in the airbag itself, as well as of course Mr. X's little secrets...

[Skunk]

http://img306.imageshack.us/img306/3808/blueprintstx2.jpg
Look, I even cooked up some blueprints for you. :)

[SlaktarPizza]

The hull seems a bit... small. But yeah, thats the way.
What kind of program did you use?
Cad?

[Skunk]

Photoshop. And I was trying to think how big would the airbag have to be to lift a 9+ story luxury ship? It's huge, as is the rest of the ship.

[Jester238]

Bravo, best map idea ive seen, I am a huge fan or airshipd and would die to see on done well in "the Ship"

[mtaylor]

I give the zepplin idea a big thumbs-up. Glass floors and distant scenery would look niiiiice. Also, there should be birds... but no jetpacks, please!

[mtaylor]

This could be the greatest map ever made, and if built after the hindenburg, would stick with the theme of ships that were destroyed.

I've found a few cutaway and interior (http://www.altfrankfurt.com/spezial/Zeppelin/Hindenburg/Innenausstattung/) images online, and a book (http://www.amazon.com/Inside-Hindenburg-Giant-Cutaway-Book/dp/0316123862/sr=8-3/qid=1158874058/ref=pd_bbs_3/103-9822516-5120630?ie=UTF8&s=books) which promises to have deck plans and decorum paintings which would make constructing a map easier.

One note: The hindenburg, unlike other zepplins, had the passenger area inside the "air bag" part of the ship! It carried around 100 people. (crew and passengers)

[James009]

You got my vote, I would love to see some different locals other then ships.

We could have many, many, more locals :)

[mtaylor]

Hindenburg mock-up floorplans

These are based on drawings by Ken Marschall and co.
69
All of the rooms are in the right place, but things are not nesiciarrily to scale.
The red dot is a dumbwaiter connecting A and B decks.
We would have to replace and move a few rooms to make space for sickbay, jail, shops, etc, but that shouldn't be too much of a challenge.

Let's make this map
If outerlight chooses not to pursue an airship map, perhaps we can make one in the community once the mapping / modding sdk is released. I'm not a mapper, but I am a decent designer and tester.

If any of you reading this thread are intersted in a possible map collaboration, please pm me.

Those intersted should know that i used inkscape (http://www.inkscape.org) to make the drawing, and it is avaliabe in high resolution and vector-graphics for collaborators.

Sorry about the crummy resolution, but the forum limits uploads to 39.1 kb.

[[OL]ReNo]

Your attachment isn't working for me I'm afraid, just gives me an error about being an invalid attachment :(

[mtaylor]

71
This should be the attachment for the above post.


Let's try this again... Can anyone tell me how to display an attachment as an inline image? I'm not farmiliar with bbcode.

[5up3rc0w]

Upload your pic to photobucket or any other image hosting service and the put the link of the pic between tags... please correct me if I'm wrong...

[mtaylor]

I split the decks apart for better resolution... again, I am limited by the 39.1 kb upload restriction. I hope these are more readable.

72
73
74

[Pestoolio]

Those are really good blueprints, mtaylor. It would be amazing to see this map come to life. I'm hoping that a huge increase in sales (due to the retail release in europe) might prompt Outerlight to add a few new (air?)ships.

[Jay Beeskow]

I must say, the Hindenburg would indeed be an interesting map.

[Weirdelves]

I just looked back at the first page and saw that the idea to make it the Hindenburg was mine :P
I'd forgotten that

[mtaylor]

I just looked back at the first page and saw that the idea to make it the Hindenburg was mine :P
I'd forgotten that

I'm not taking credit, just adding momentum. :)

I read in another thread (http://forum.theshiponline.com/showthread.php?t=2699) about a 3rd party SDK for the ship (http://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/The_Ship_SDK).

If there are any mappers reading this, I would like to collaborate on making a community map of the hindenburg.

[Weirdelves]

Oh no!
mtaylor, your map is incredible!
It wasn't even my idea to put an airship in there, I just thought the Hindenburg would be good. All I did was thought, you went and made a map! It's excellent :)

[Euphoric Bliss]

That's brilliant. An airship would still fit the storyline and it's realistic. Make it so!

[Daivy]

Its great idea !!! It must be realised !!! :D

[Weirdelves]

Although [OL] do seem to be hostile towards the Manor House idea, I'm not sure this one will fly.
Any comments, Oh Devs?

[Cece]

i think this forum needs the custom maps section

[MisterX]

A map like this would be quite amazing actually. At least I hope it would be possible to have a scaled up background like in usual Half-Life 2 maps, so it would look like the blimp is actually flying a few hundred meter above the ground :)

[mtaylor]

It seems that the general consensus is that this map should be made. However, it seems nobody here wants to / can build it.

I can help with design, and textures, but I'm no mapper!

This could be the first community built map, but only if somebody jumps on board (with mapping talent).

What do you think?

[Weirdelves]

I spose I could give it a go...not too much time on my hands...

[SlaktarPizza]

I would probably do it, if I had time for that which I dont have. :rolleyes:

[M07hM4n]

Oh the humanity! This would be a really great map :) Did someone from OL already speak about it, or are those 5 pages just people saying how good the idea is?

[Weirdelves]

We have been developing the idea.
We're waiting for someone from OL to post their thoughts.

[Cece]

It would be sweet if you could do a dynamic 3d skybox instead of static. :D
That would fix the "outside" atmosphere.

in hl1 i watched some tfc maps whit an external dynamic 3f effect ..

now i watched the map and i found it usese a func_conveyor

http://collective.valve-erc.com/index.php?ent=func_conveyor

now it's to see if whit source is possible to make a scrolling texture whit clouds in the skybox to make the fly effect

[Cece]

:D http://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/Moving_Clouds :D

[SlaktarPizza]

in hl1 i watched some tfc maps whit an external dynamic 3f effect ..

now i watched the map and i found it usese a func_conveyor

http://collective.valve-erc.com/inde...=func_conveyor
I think I wrote something more in that post.
I know that you can do all this, but can you combine it with a 3D skybox camera without getting errors and weird bugs to the 3D skybox ingame?
I've been wondering about that for some time.

I bet Source doesn't support to combine entities with the 3D skybox camera, such as func_trains.

[Daivy]

It seems that the general consensus is that this map should be made. However, it seems nobody here wants to / can build it.

I can help with design, and textures, but I'm no mapper!

This could be the first community built map, but only if somebody jumps on board (with mapping talent).

What do you think?

I am mapper and in a near futur i think i will try to make this idea...
Howeaver i don't know if it's possible to find the "FGD" file and some tutorial to learn to use The Ship's entitys

I don't still release a map for HL² (I learn to use correctly the source engine) but i can show you my HL1 work to show you my level...

http://twhl.co.za/mapvault_map.php?id=3491
http://csm2.net/view_map.php?map_id=2663&PHPSESSID=bf9ee339157b0e91d312e197234a9913
http://csm2.net/view_map.php?map_id=2662

^^

[[OL]ReNo]

I think I recognise that GM:C map - you ever post it at the Snarkpit or Mapcore? Its always nice to see somebody who puts effort into making nice looking FY maps too, as though I'm not a fan of the mode myself, there's an audience for them, so its good that somebody provides them with quality levels for it :D

Anyway, it looks like you've done nice work with the HL engine so I've no doubt you'll have no trouble with Source. Looking forward to seeing what you cook up for the Ship if you decide to give it a go. I'd recommend you start out by drawing out layouts and blocking out the basic form of the ship, and you can worry about the entities later on. That said, ts2do has posted a 3rd party SDK including an FGD file and the ability to use The Ship assets, so using that would give you a head start until the official SDK is released.

[Daivy]

ReNo']I think I recognise that GM:C map - you ever post it at the Snarkpit or Mapcore? It's true, i post my GC map at Mapcore there is a long time... :D

ReNo'] Its always nice to see somebody who puts effort into making nice looking FY maps too, as though I'm not a fan of the mode myself, there's an audience for them, so its good that somebody provides them with quality levels for it :D

Anyway, it looks like you've done nice work with the HL engine so I've no doubt you'll have no trouble with Source. Looking forward to seeing what you cook up for the Ship if you decide to give it a go.Thank you very much. It's really pleasant what a professional mapper think this of my work !!!
But i know you too and i am always waiting your map HL² map "DM_cavern" !!! :p


ReNo'] I'd recommend you start out by drawing out layouts and blocking out the basic form of the ship, and you can worry about the entities later on. That said, ts2do has posted a 3rd party SDK including an FGD file and the ability to use The Ship assets, so using that would give you a head start until the official SDK is released. Understood !!! I will see i can do... I shall inform you if there is some news !!! :)

[AntiRush]

I think I wrote something more in that post.
I know that you can do all this, but can you combine it with a 3D skybox camera without getting errors and weird bugs to the 3D skybox ingame?
I've been wondering about that for some time.

I bet Source doesn't support to combine entities with the 3D skybox camera, such as func_trains.

Actually you can have entities in your skybox - I've got a train running the scenery on my train map for movement.

The only trouble I've run into is keeping things sync'ed they always get a tiny bit out of line and overlap/introduce tiny gaps. To work around this I've just moved pieces of the scenery (trees, rocks, hills, towns) and kept the actual ground static. It works pretty well, all in all.

[SlaktarPizza]

Nice to see that it actually works. :D
Yeah I thought that the synch party would be pretty hard to make it look good when repeating itself. But still, very nice to hear that it really works.

[Baqar]

it should look like the zeppelin from "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade" Where Indy throws the Nazi Officer out the window and he falls into the luggage pile.

All the passengers ghasp and look at him, and he goes, "NO TICKET... *Points out window*

HAHAH that would be hilarious. Just imagine what would happen with a flaregun in the blimp section. Of course the map would be fairly small.

[Daivy]

it should look like the zeppelin from "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade" Where Indy throws the Nazi Officer out the window and he falls into the luggage pile. I had the same idea !!! :(
But i dont begin, i have another HL²dm map to finih first...

[Beery]

This is a great idea. Someone just HAS to do this.

[Mummbles]

Please OL, please, I can tell you it's a better Christmas present than a revamped Batavier (though the revamp is fun).

[Romes]

omg if this map make please have a botton to press it gonna make the people fall out the bottom and fall in the sky :D

[Romes]

I think I wrote something more in that post.
I know that you can do all this, but can you combine it with a 3D skybox camera without getting errors and weird bugs to the 3D skybox ingame?
I've been wondering about that for some time.

I bet Source doesn't support to combine entities with the 3D skybox camera, such as func_trains.

The sky_camera does not tell the engine where the skybox is to be drawn from during runtime. When map loads the sky_camera tells it where to render and then from then on the sky_camera is useless.

You can put what you want in the skybox otherwise. Therefore you gonna use a fog on the skybox then you gonna have different items on trains like a clouds and then the grounds can have some objects on its on trains. These gonna start and end in the fog distance so the teleporting is not seen. Then you gonna have the path go down the length of the airship and then go into the fog. Then the path going to point back to the start node and you gonna tell it to teleport instead of move to that node. Then it going to have the objects flying by. Is good for a clouds, but for a ground some other thing you gonna need. Like have a bunch of models tied to a single model and use a bodygroups and also a skins. Then you gonna have a random pick of bodygroup and skin so you have different thing going on each track on the ground so you not gonna see the same thing going same path over and over.

Then you can even use a timers to set delays on each track so they not constantly moving. Then you gonna have a scrolling texture for the ground or even a set of 3 or 4 models that line up together sort of how old scrolling games were done. Then you gonna have them going just like other trains but always they gonna go. Voila you can then have a mountains and other stuff on the ground models and even have like a small city on it that you can switch on and off with body groups allowing it to show the city every once and a while.

[V2WS]

This would be AWESOME, and it wouldn't tint the name "The ship" Due to the face it would still be an air"ship" :D

[DaveRune]

it wouldn't tint the name "The ship" Due to the face it would still be an air"ship" :D

I seem to be on my own here but I dont care. I think the game should stick to sea ships!

Your abusing the word 'ship'

It begun that was and it should stay that way.
Im goin out now dissagree later...

[Gutan Tag Hop-Clop]

The devs need to make this idea come to life. It would be very fun and original (although it will be hard to top the new Japanese map on the catagory of original).

[Kev_Boy]

Dave,

I have to diagree with you here. We have now, what is it, eight ship maps?
Cruise ships, paddlers, etc...

I think they've done a fantastic job on them but not much more can be done?
Exception being an rpg or mmo, but surely that would be a new title.

So for The Ship itself...
I think new environments are totally the way to go, especially for custom developers.

EDIT: In retrospect...there can always be exceptions. There are, afterall, lots of ships! :D

[SlaktarPizza]

Has anyone started making this Airship map or the submarine, custom mappers, not official.
Just curious. :rolleyes:

[Kev_Boy]

If nobody is working on this map yet, official and unofficial, I'd love to start development on it :)

[DaveRune]

I don't know if any of you have seen an airship but they tend to consist of a balloon, and a one room cabin with a partition for the pilot, unless its done in the style of the pre-war airships such as the Hindenberg, but even they consisted of three rooms, a lounge, kitchen and a cockpit.

So Perhaps you'll agree that such a small map would be chaotic (especially if you happened to be using a flare gun, yum)

Or perhaps you like the idea of a map where it takes 12 seconds to find your quarry, guess you gotta decide.

And think of the witness problem!!

[Weirdelves]

I have said several times in this thread that it should be the Hindenburg, and it's not as if any of the ships in the game are accurate to real life anyway, Daverune, it's called artistic license.

[Kev_Boy]

I was planning to do The Hinderburg. I've seen the documentary on Discovery Channel and I remember it being plenty big. Even if you haven't seen the interior, the exterior alone will make you realise that, even if a lot of space is gas there's still plenty to go around.

I thought there were like 15 passengers on it's last flight. I could be wrong though.

And if there isn't enough room afterall, as said above me, it need not be one hundred percent authentic if it hampers gameplay :)

Eitherway, is anybody working on it yet?
Custom developers...Outerlight???

[Kev_Boy]

I just found this: http://www.vidicom-tv.com/hindenburg/images/8.jpg

Now I know there's a lot of room the gas takes up... but I'd be really surprised if it's enough to make for an environment that's to small!
I'll keep on searching, I feel like this idea is currently not being worked on, so I would certainly like to pick it up :)

[Gutan Tag Hop-Clop]

If nobody is working on this map yet, official and unofficial, I'd love to start development on it :)

I don't think anyone here would want to stop you!! Go for it!

[Lexx2]

It dont sound like a good idea to me to shoot a flare gun in a ballon full of gas. If it was a deathmatch map the first 1 to find the flare gun wins. Then die's:D

[Kev_Boy]

I think I'll have the gas cells exposed in only certain areas, and act as a trap, you'd... uhm... win! ...But if it wouldn't work out, it's easy to not have any gas sections exposed, it's no big deal.

I've also researched a bit and found out there were 100 passengers (excluding crew) on board on some flights, so the size issue should be a null issue :)

[Jamin2]

The enginge has trouble with cyclops, a big map is really not a good idea in my opinion. Bigger is not always better. It's not like you normally get many servers with loads of people on, so why bother?

[SlaktarPizza]

I've never encountered or felt any negative effects of Cyclops just because it's big. If you optimize a map well, then the size of the map won't have too much of an affect on the overall fps for you.

Anyways, are you planning on making it a small map? A 8-10 player map?

[Kev_Boy]

Kind of. I'll see, I need to research it more to get a good idea of the size. But I think it will be comparable with atalanta.

[[OL]ReNo]

Its worth keeping in mind that Cyclops ran into many problems with entity limits due to its size - making something larger than Cyclops would require it to be pretty empty in terms of models, interactions, etc... in order to remain within the limits.

[Weirdelves]

I would think it would only be Rubicon size-ish

[Skunk]

Is this comming soon? I'm still eagerly awaiting it!

[Kev_Boy]

:D

A little earlier than I hoped to show something off, but I shall, I've created a new thread called The Hindenburg. Because this one was just about the concept and starting to get tedious at 9 pages and up.