Suggestions for my ocean warefare map

[swiss_cheese9797]

Hi, I am working on a team based multiplayer map that will give each team a harbor to start from and a Galleon to sail the ocean with. I've been able to create a water brush that works across the entire map. So far I have successfully created one harbor that includes a fort with one cannon (physics based, phr) and a Galleon with 4 working cannons in the lower level (cannons aboard ship can be tipped up) working anchor (non-phys based), a working lifeboat, and 2 retractable planks.

The ship itself is extremely stable and is shallow on the draft. The only issue I'm reall having is that the ladder I created to take a person from the Weather deck to the Crow's nest only works when it wants to.

I'm making this post to ask for suggestions on what I could include in the final version of this map (think "cool pirate movie shit". I already tried making a grappling hook to force the other ship into proper boarding distance, but the engine doesnt support a slow pull back on a phys_lengthconstraint, it would simply yank the 2 ships together and cause one big digital mess. I also have not come to any conclusion about how I can deploy the drivable lifeboats. Ill probably make em spawnable and breakable, but any suggestions would be welcome.

I'm also lookin for a totorial on how to make a UI like in the crane used in that one coastal hl2 map. Id like to make the fort cannons easier to use considering they will only have one. The ship cannons will rely on the angle of the boat and the pitch of each barrel. Thanks.

here are some screens. Unlit of course, I'm only doing that at the end.

 

[Reginald]

It looks nice. Have you finished texturing? Because the boat and the fort in particular look a bit blank.

 

[swiss_cheese9797]

No I havnt even started texturing. Ill be making custom textures for most everything on the ships, even custom sail textures (can anyone say nocull?). Thanks

 

[Naudian]

Caves.

 

[Shinobi]

all I can think of off the top of my head is the terrain texture repeats too much in the back (but like you said you havent textured yet, so I guess taht's moot


only other thing I can think of is to maybe puill the terrain out in the bottom a little, it conforms a little too much to it's orginial box shape..

 

[swiss_cheese9797]

Caves is a good idea, I may make a couple extremely small islands too. I will see aobut smoothing and warping the displacements more, there is a problem however, because the ships are huge and the map has a limited area, I cant make em too realistic or the ships will have less space to move around in. The fact that I added invisible brushes udnerwater to keep teh ships stable and shallow on the draft add to that problem.

 

[Shinobi]

Caves is a good idea, I may make a couple extremely small islands too. I will see aobut smoothing and warping the displacements more, there is a problem however, because the ships are huge and the map has a limited area, I cant make em too realistic or the ships will have less space to move around in. The fact that I added invisible brushes udnerwater to keep teh ships stable and shallow on the draft add to that problem.

maybe you could pull in the displacements a little? I dunno

 

[silentbob]

there are many rock formations already in HL2 as models, just add them to the side of cliffs and stuff to make it look realistic. just be sure not to have any part of that model in the water.