A few ideas - can they be done ??
I was thinking out-of-the-Box. I had made one sucky map in Hammer that never made it to WIP status. You see, I had wild plans for my first map to make a fun-only, non-puzzle map. Sadly, those plans caused me to get hopelessly STUCK. I ended up with a sloppy - messy - unworkable map.
So I simply must ask if those ideas were ever even possible.
Can anyone experienced in map-making please let me know ? Here are 3 of the ideas.
Slicked Banked Curves - create a series of flat V-shaped surfaces that when interconnected form a banked curve. Then slick the entire surface with Orange gel and add a flat run-up. The player would then rush forward and slide around the curve at a high rate of speed. You could even cause it to ramp off at the end for a wild, fun segment in a map.
Motocross Course - an entire motocross loop that is 100% slicked with Orange gel.
The hills would be spaced just like motocross hills are where the player would fly into the air at the crest of one hill . . . only to land on the down-slope of the next hill. And so on. The reason for the banked curves was to allow the play to fly up and over several hills and jumps, then slide around a long banked curve and complete the other side of the close loop.
Rube Goldberg Ramps and Jumps - this was a future idea. Swoosh, bing, bang, boing . . . you get the idea. I am not talking about those FaithPlate things where you bounce all over the place in a predetermined way. Rather, place vertical beam supports in a football-field sized stadium with small 3-3 foot panels atop them, coated with Blue Gel. In between there could also be narrow slicked Orange ramps. The idea is that the player would be sliding, flying, and bouncing . . . sailing off the end of ramps only to fly 150 feet through the air and down another 200 feet and then catapult off several angled Blue 3x3's only to land on a tricky Orange slope . . etc, etc, etc. There would be skill involved because you could make it so that subtle adjustments to the flight have to be made in mid-air otherwise the player will miss the bounce surfaces or not land on a ramp.
Those would be fun, but I don't know how the engine handles orange gel on banked turns. I think it disables turning entirely...
...unless you put a playerclip shape there, those have no friction but deflect the player onto the right path. I would add that to the FGEMOD2 if anyone is interested.
1. V shaped runways will make sure that the player will stay in the area, but if the V is too steep they wont be able to control any movement. You can see this mechanism used in chickentest_3.
Changing direction however might make the player lose speed as they will be hitting small corners. You will probably need to test this one out.
2. You cannot paint gel on displacements therefore you will need to make the ramps out of brushes. But I can see how this would work, you just need to carefully make the ramps at the right spots.
3. I can see how a map like this would be fun, but also difficult to maneuver. You will probably need to test different combinations yourself.
OIC - I had been curious for quite a while.
Although I mastered a few programming languages and a lot of apps, Hammer takes a lot of time and patience. It is exciting though, to see an idea come to life.
If I get back into it I will just create a standard puzzle map and try to add something unique but not groundbreaking.
Portal just isn't really made for rides - LOL.
Thanks a lot for the info.