Half-Life 2 DM_Avalon Map

A simply stunning HL2DM map! One of the few great ones submitted to the Valve mapping contest.

Actually I had an idea for a Counter-Strike map first but I abandoned that. I figured It was perhaps a bit too early to try and make something really cool when I dont know the engine all that well. Then I discovered Valve had a contest for creating a DM map with Half-life 2 material only. I figured this was a good opportunity to learn about Source mapping before actually making my own models and textures. Mind you these screens are far from final but I hope they do show the concept well. I find it hard to make an interesting map when you have to use standard material but I tried hard to stay away from the standard Half-life-city-in-rumble-theme.

Ive replaced screenshot 1 and 5 with more finished versions and added inside screenshots and some overviews. The overviews screenshots show the map from angles you cannot get to ingame and are just there to illustrate the floating island theme better.

The map is done now and even though the theme is not exactly HL2 I decided to sent it to Valve contest anyway. The gameplay is just too interesting. Due to its multi leveled layout amost all firefights turn out both on a horizontal and on a vertical plane. Mouse speed 4 or higher is recommended!

The map turned out much bigger then I thought itd be and it should be able to support up to 20 players. I realize there are complaints about HL2DM being a bit of a 'physics demo' cause the official maps contain (too) many props so I tried to change that a bit. Inside youll find enough props to toss about but less healthkits and batterys. Ive changed some of the larger props properties so a table cannot be used as a battering ram anymore. You can blast it away but you cannot carry it. Rest assured theres plenty heavy damage props left to toss about ;) Outside is where you can boost your stamina more easily. Outside youll find less props so a more old school DM style should be more appropriate. Off course one can change this by taking more props outside ;)

The map should be incredibly fast cause you can easily get to the lower parts by jumping down (jumping down up to 4 levels will only give you 10 damage). But you can also easily get back up by jumping over the edge of the map. This will not kill you but teleport you inmediately to the light at the top of the map (Same goes for any prop thats tossed into the void) In time theyll all fall back to the map from the sky

The pics: (Images are NOT filtered, sharpened or otherwise manipulated apart from being scaled down to 800x600)