Hi everyone (in case anybody's still following this),
first of all, I assume I owe everybody who was or is interested in this project a huge apology for not updating anything for almost two years and disappearing without further notice. Although you have no reason to believe me, I'd like to say I'm sincerely sorry.
Recently, I have re-discovered my interest in Portal, and since I have recently picked up mapping again as well (making some progress, too), I've decided to take a look at my old maps and files, including the ones for Ratman. This has caused me to consider continuing this project, and over the next few weeks, I'll go through my files, drafts and whatnot to see whether I'll continue this and if so, to work out a concept or a roadmap of some sorts to get a little more structure into my schedule than last time.
If I do update, I'll most likely re-work most of what I've had so far, since two years ago, I had considerably less mapping experience than I do have today.
I'll keep you updated and inform you as soon as I've come to a decision. Right now, I'm quite in favour of picking up this project again, as it's been a favourite of mine amongst the various things I've been working on in the past, and I would really like to continue this. So hang on, and I'll talk to you again in a few weeks.
Best regards,
HashtagMC
Glad you're back man! Take your time and enjoy modding ;)
Thanks dude! And yeah, I surely enjoy it. Haven't done anything but a couple maps recently, now I wanna get back into mods. It's just so much better than mapping. I hexed a citizen model yesterday to turn it into a cave johnson model, that's something you can't do that easily with maps.
have you considered just remaking all the stuff, continuing or beggining all over? Like, 2 years is a ton of time, and you might have a different experience from what you initially began with.
After looking through what maps I've had so far, I've come to the conclusion that starting over is inevitable. Two years ago, I was - let's face it - a ****** mapper, and I daresay I've gotten way better in the meantime (especially regarding things like lighting - back then, I just put lights anywhere, now I've learned to use spotlights, sprites and such).
Right now, I'm writing a story draft, which I'll then divide into chapters and those into maps. I'll probably recycle some things from my maps, but only very few.
I also dug up some attempts at a custom soundtrack I did one and a half years ago, and there's a lot space for improvement, to put it lightly, so I'll probably scrap or at least re-do that as well. An example of a new track is the main theme I uploaded today (you can find it in the video section).
Last time I just started mapping, with no plan or schedule whatsoever, and I think that's what killed the mod last time. This time I'll try to avoid that by making plans before firing up hammer or anything.
wow, that's a ton of improvement! (not on the mod, but rather on yourself). I'm glad to actually hear this.
One thing though, replacing content rather than recycling might be more viable if that just means you're more produtive. Recycling might mean adapting the stuff to the new state of the mod you're currently making, but that's just guess.
A final suggestion would be to update the mod icon to reflect on the new overall thing you're going for. But really, I'm so glad to hear this comment you made. Thanks!
By "recycling" I mainly mean some parts I made for maps, like the scripted sequence where the player can see a turret shooting a test subject (seen from an observation room). Or, I've got a scripted part where there are two scientists in a lab, and as soon as the player passes by, one of them pushes a button and closes the blends.
Instead of re-building that from scratch, I'll probably copy the game logic of those scenes into new maps if I decide to keep those ideas. But those are just a couple pieces of game logic. The rest, I'm probably going to recreate from square one. The map layout was rather hilarious last time.