Map Name: The Xen Zone
Author: [WTF?]Mr-Gibs
Map Type: Capture the Flag
Web Site: http://www.planethalflife.com/wadfather
Download: xenzone.zip
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New Textures |
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New Skybox |
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New Models/Sprites |
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New Sounds |
Play this map at:
PoM|TheAsylum PF-LOTW [66.28.23.6:27015]
The domain of Xen has rarely been popular among Half-Life players and that feeling seems to hold over to multiplayer maps. Mr. Gibs' map breaks this rule with a venegeance. The setting is an asteriod somewhere in the Xen Dimension and everything about this map reinforces this setting. The bases are distinctly human in appearance, but transition quickly to the Xen textures and unusual land forms that remind you this isn't another canalzone.
The Xen Zone has six very different command points spread between the edge of the asteroid and the very heart of the rock. The Red and Blue bases face each other across the surface of the asteroid with Command Point One inbetween. Each base has multiple entances into the heart of the asteroid that lead to the remainder of the command points. One CP stands against a healing pool. Another is guarded by six Xen Trees. All the capture areas have unique looks that make them memorable.
What could be the most remarkable area of the map is Command Point Three. A cylindrical cavern with a shaft running through the center which holds the command point itself. Floating up and down and around the command point is a Xen Alien Ship (seen at various areas of Half-Life's sinle player missions) which offers the only means to capture the area. It presents something very unusual to the TFC player, yet entirely appropriate to the setting and pushes the coolness factor off the map to the top of the scale.
The Xen Zone offers a very different environment to play in. No other multiplayer map has so convincingly reproduced the world of Xen and maintained a high level of interest.
TF Map Complex Review
How Did They Do That?
Command Point Three's Xen Ship is actually a very simple use of the func_tracktrain entity.
Create a model of whatever it is you wish to be the train. It can be anything from a boat to a steam engine to an ariplane or starship. Build it out of brushes, but keep it as simple as possible. Complex shapes wear down the Half-Life engine very quickly and cause awful lag on a multiplayer server. Add to your object an ORIGIN brush and turn the whole kit and kaboodle into a func_tracktrain.
The path your train is going to follow is defined by a series of path_track entities. Place them along the path you wish your train to follow and number them accordingly. Bear in mind that the train will follow the path_track entities along it's Origin brush. That is to say, the Origin brush is where the train will meet the path_track.
This is just a simple overview of the func_tracktrain. For more detailed information, try one of these sites:
Half-Life Editing Resource Center
Wavelength
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