The Ropes

The Ropes

This is an average episode, but worth the download.

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Title : The Ropes (2ond compile)

Filename : kman100.zip

Author : Kevin Norton

Email Address : [email protected]

Date of release : Feb. 8, 1998

Description : Half-Life v1008 / Single Play

========================================================================================= Previous levels : None that went beyond my own HD.

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The title pretty much says it all - learning the ins and outs of mapping from the very first brush to getting these suckers uploaded somewhere... Five maps that I'm not going to claim have a coherent focus - started out as an experiment in mapping that just kept going. As such there are plenty of shortcommings - I'll try to slap a story on it. Look for a serious ass multi map unit from me in the future (once the "-game" feature is working again) - HL mapping is THE shit!

Story:

One of Gordy's alternate adventures finds him in the company of a small group of scientists and a few barneys holed up in a cement bunker deep within the bowels of Black Mesa. It is shortly after the resonance cascade and as all hell breaks loose around them, they seal off the few exits, determined to work on solving the mess they've gotten into. Knowing full well of the military's intentions they're content to wait it out down here, their only immediate concern is keeping an adequate power supply. As luck would have it an old powergrid is linked to a geothermal generator in this sector of the complex - It's up to you to find it and get it going again. All that is known about the generator itself is that two slave computers have an autolock on the main steam feed valve. Good luck, God's Speed...

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THANKS TO:

Valve

All associated with WC

Exodus at 3D Map Realm - The man's a Saint!!! Visit his site!

http://3dmr.gamedesign.net/

Autolycus and HL ERC - http://halflife.gamedesign.net/

HB, AK and all at Wavelength - http://www.planethalflife.com/wavelength/

The authors of the editing tools listed below

All the other editing sites out there devoted to HL, chances are I visited you at least once...

Id

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* Play Information *

Game : Half Life

Level Names : 1. "Introduction" kman101.bsp

kman101a.bsp

2. "Sublevel 07" kman102.bsp

3. "Assention" kman103.bsp

kman103a.bsp

New graphics : 1 Texture moded w/ Wally (k101tex.wad)

New sounds : No

Prefabs : Juice machine- Barracuda at HL prefabs, couple things lifted from mini-SDK and tutorial maps + the ones in WC

* Construction *

Base : New

Build Time : 6 weeks, ~250 hours (mostly learing how to do shit & debugging)

Editors used : WC v2.0, HLCC, PakExplorer, NotePad+, Wally v1.30, WinBSPC v0.9 & v1.0

Platform : P150, 48 megs RAM (2ond compile on same machine o/c to 166 MHz - thanx Tom Pabst!)

Known Bugs : Little annoyances here and there but nothing to effect play adversely. The ones I've noted: The ending doesn't work right but it's NOT going to get fixed - press the ele button (but don't leave the elevator itself) and enjoy the screwup... May have to "noclip" out of tight spots occasionally - one level change (going back to previous level) isn't quite on. Some of the brush ents have very strange quirks and I didn't have the time to find workarounds. Oh yeah, the Barney at the canal isn't the brightest of the bunch. After finding him, make sure he follows you across the bridge before you go to the gate. If he won't open the gate, you'll have to reload and remove ALL interuptions before touching the gate again.

3Dfx issues:

ARRGH! This set was created on a very modest comp using software rendering only, had I seen some of the bugs that only appear with my recent Voodoo II purchase enabled, I guess it would be back to the drawing board. Too late, the .bsps are about to be posted, I see some of the same problems in Valve maps so I guess it's a driver issue - here are the one's that just plain piss me off:

The conveyer belts look like they're moving when they ain't.

Same room, the pool around the busted barrel looks NOTHING like that in software.

The slime in the canal disappears when it gets to it's max depth - WTF!?!

** Notes **

1. I started out just toying with the HL engine to see what I could get away with, ended up with some ideas for HL type puzzles and tried to make them work. They might be pretty tough (hell, what do I know?) so to be safe I got hints listed at the very bottom of this doc.

2. Spots arn't as pretty as they should be, this wasn't initially intended to be a release quality set, and it was taking forever to get anything done. Even if only a few people get a charge out of it, it'll be worth the obscene amount of time that went into building it. Certian areas (the ending for example) are LAME, however I will puke if I have to look at any one of these maps again within the next six months...

3. My email is living on borrowed time - Flame now or hold your peace...

4. Tried to keep poly counts down the best I could, but like I said, I wanted to see how far I could take software mode before it broke. I learned a ton on poly/face reduction while working on these maps and tweaked them a little more as I went along, expect a much better preformance in future maps. I did use some cheap tricks to get the r_speeds under control, but if nobody notices, I guess it's good technique. Only one or two spots start to drag but if these maps run on my fossil of a comp, I'd say they'll run on anyone else's and probably a lot better.

5. "Hard" is pretty brutal - there isn't a lot of ammo or health so going gonzo isn't advised...

6. This is the 2ond compile version - differences from compile 1 (which might be floating around out there): couple minor corrections, slightly altered lighting (I lost the original rad files), and an overclocking of the compile machine.

* Loading information *

Place .bsp files in SIERRA/halflife/valve/maps folder

k101tex.wad goes in the valve folder (there should be several other .wad files there too)

.nod and .nrp files go in the "graphs" folder under the halflife/valve/maps folder

Use "-console" (no quotes) command to start up HL

Hit the "Console" button in upper left corner

At the console:

type "skill #" (no quotes with # being 1, 2, or 3; 3=hard)

type "map kman101" (no quotes)

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* Copyright / Permissions *

Does anyone read this? Like other works of this type all but the artistic concepts (if they can be called that) are the technology and trademarks of Valve, iD, and all the editing tools listed above - they're the real geniuses behind this stuff. Don't distribute this for profit or any other financial gain. Don't put this on a CDROM without my permission. This file may be freely distributed provided all files remain intact. I think that should cover it.

** Hints **

...don't go any further unless you're really stuck or don't give a damn...

Better to provide more info than necessary, I don't think the puzzles are exceptionally tricky but I hate it when some authors make maps that have you saying WTF more than once due to no fault of your own - I'm probably no exception.

Introduction:

- Note the BIG warning sign on the crane. (It's ugly as hell and a little hard to read - sorry didn't have time to Wally me a new one!) Gordo may be scrawny, but he's ~160# alone I'd say...

- Fuse? Try something to short out the coils - preferrably metal and almost player sized...

- The "AUX" switch opens the gate to the conveyer room and activates the drawbridge conveyer switch only.

- The big winch won't work until you get the fuse problem solved.

Sublevel 07:

- "Fan Unit 1" door - you walked past the only way to get the door open - it involves fire fighting equipment and a long shot. All other doors that don't open on the first try in this level won't open ever.

- Fan, try jumping from about halfway up the ladder, the blade you land on moves ~180 deg. while you're in the air. You'll probably take damage but that's why the first aid is there. DON'T RUN on the blade!

- The "slave" comps are connected to the office comp w/ the reel to reel face, they're the ones controlling the wheel gate... Both the big switch and the "turbine control" wheel must be on to fire up the generator.

- "Bob" the scientist is pretty hard to save, don't worry about it, the door can't be opened anyway.

- The exit door switch won't work unless the big generator is running.

Assention:

- Can't open the gate? - try getting across the canal first.

- The canal requires you to make your own bridge - of sorts.

- After you get across the canal the first time, make sure Barney follows you across the bridge before you get close to the gate. I had a hell of a time getting this to work at all, and Barney will not work for you (ever) if he's too far away when you touch the gate.