- The reason the tower should not stick through the map is that it create a "leak". The source system works with "blocks" and "entities". The blocks is what you create the world with, meaning the squares you make and create the box your map is inside and many of the objects inside the box.
The first picture is the box that the map
zm_canals_classic_eh_v1, i dont know if you know it. The 2nd picture is the map inside the box. And for the map to work at all, this "box" needs to be air-tight! there cannot be the slightest opening or you will have a "leak" into what is called "the black void". Think of it like a spaceship in space, and you dont want there to be any leaks into the ship. And as i said the "box" is created by "the Block Tool"
Here you see 4 things highlighted. The chair, the lightbulb, part of the back wall and a crate. The light and the chair are entities. Entities are "pre-made stuff" that have a function to manipulate the map/environment(like the light makes more light) or they are objects/props with different properties for the players to interact with. The crate is a bit special, its originally a block with the textures of a crate, but with hammer you can make any block into an entity. Ctrl+T will make a block into an entity and if you want you can make that entity into many different things(like elevators, buttons, movable water and triggers)
But if any of these entities, made or pre-made, come in contact with "the black void" you have a leak. why? im not sure. i think it messes up the water reflections and alot of other stuff, but the result is that water becomes invisible and your fps goes crazy.
(To easier understand this next bit, you should look at the "
quick about optimization" video to get more about what im talking about)
- The reason you should not create blocks ontop and into eachother is because when you compile the map(the thing you do before you play it) is because Hammer uses the blocks to create "visleafs".
(you can see the visleafs by first typing sv_cheats 1, then mat_leafvis 1 to see the current "block/leaf" you stand in. or you can type mat_leafvis 3 to see all the "blocks/leafs" the block you are in atm, can see(i will explain this).
The Leafs/blocks you see are what hammer uses to optimize the maps with. basically what the leaf see, your computer/graphics card will render = fps/input. so if you have one big open map and you stand ontop of it. your computer will have to render everything that is happening all at once= alot of work= lower fps. A map like cbble is make in a smart way, as you can see the leafs dont go around the whole map, and that is because cbble is basically 3 big rooms connected with passages. so most of the time the leafs can only see what is inside 1 room at the time= less work. You can find some spots like the crates in the middle where you might have to render some of the other big rooms too because you can see the rooms through the passage.
So, what happens when you overlap blocks? well, it looks bad and it create more leafs and confused leafs. more leafs= bigger map in MB size. Blocks is the thing that create leafs and hammer uses the blocks to calculate what to pre-render when compiling. On the last picture on the low left side you can see the stairs and alot of red leafs/blocks and that is unnecessary. When hammer compiles a map, it look at every leaf/block on the whole map and registrers what that leaf "can see" and that means hammer stores information about every leaf and all the leafs it can see, on every leaf on the map. (when you play and an entity comes into a leaf that your leaf can see, the computer will have to render that real time, but when hammer compiles it pre-renders the light and textures and stuff beforehand). So you want your map not too have too many leafs and not tall leafs(because they can see far and will store more info you dont need) and if you overlap the blocks the compile-prosess also get confused and take more time and can in some cases stop. That is why every block you make(that isnt part of the box) you should make an entity(func_detail by default) that means it will be ignored when compiling and that block will not create a leaf.
- People dont like that other ppl know secrets and if only 1 know a secret the others cant do anything(if they are zm) to get that person.
- Players do usually dont like dying if its not their fault, and falling down is one of them, because teleporting isnt that stable. it depends on the speed and angle you touch the tele-trigger.
- also, secrets shouldnt be that hard to get too. it should be about knowing how to get there. most players lack much skills as zombies, and that makes secrets easy to exploit by better players.
- The tree issue is basically that climbing trees in CSS is hard and many have a hard time doing it, but ofcourse some are skilled. so it can make it really hard to get a skilled climber of trees. its a reason the trees on cbble is blocked off.
- the teleport on the watertower is high above the tower and teleports are all about the angle and speed you enter the teleport it self. the wrong way and you fall down. Btw, the ladder should be there, maybe make it smaller?
- Agent smith and are indeed on the EH servers(not all i think) but EH have a habit of changing skins from time to time, so when they do, he will just become one big ERROR sign. the zombie is usually on every Riot server and some other servers too. you can get it anywere. but i dont think its on the EH servers. im not sure. Anyway its a chance you take if you dont add them to the mapfile.
Alot of typing and i hope i was clear about things. Most of this stuff can be found on youtube. The map looks interesting, needs some work, but in the end it would be fun to try
Here are some videos you should watch:
(quick about optimization)
(Long about optimization and leafs)
