CC1, and dm_lockdownX2 news

Woo boy,

Working hard trying to finish the campaign on time. I was planning on posting a nega-news update tomorrow, however there seems to be a lot of anger regarding CC1, and how it uses SDK content in the campaign. Since this is very important, I felt it was best to just take a second aside from mapping, and address the problem.

First and foremost, I actually greatly appreciate the tenacity, (to a degree. I will explain later), people are bringing up the SDK content. I completely understand this. I have personally had my content stolen, and released without permission numerous times. It is actually one of the reasons why I took such a long break from making new maps. I see a lot of mappers decompiling fellow mappers maps, and then sticking it in their own. It is pretty shameful, because I personally know too well how much hard work and effort goes into making custom content.

However, in the same sense of the numerous custom campaigns that have been released that use SDK content, (the daylight L4D campaigns for example), I have used valve's SDK content. If you are not versed in mapping, SDK stands for Software Development Kit. It is basically a mass of data, (props, maps, materials, etc), which valve freely distributes to developers when they download the SDK. This content's sole purpouse is to help mappers like myself, who can't possibly make an entire campaign themselves, or need some help figuring out how to make complex contraptions, (combine thumper from HL2 is a great example). SDK is completely free. Most mappers use the content at one point or another. Valve even has a few maps called "zoo maps" . These have little bits and pieces where developers can copy and paste them directly into your map, (police cars and alarm cars are another example).

Since the beginning of my development, I have always been very open about which content is SDK content, which content is donated, and which content is made by myself. However, since people on Moddb have not seen this on my site, I will post exactly which content is from what:

Overall- props,materials from HL2, EP1, EP2, various props off of garry's mod that are used with permission.

CC1- The Prison:

- DM_Lockdown, (I actually have a long story about this on my website Cc.l4dmapdb.com). This is used twice, and makes up the prison. Long story short, is CC1 was actually my first source map I ever made. Since I was still learning the ropes, I played around with DM_lockdown. Even though I had to repoly about 60% of the map, I fell in love with the design, so I kept it as map 1. DM lockdown consists of only the interior of the map. While some props were ported over, (really no need to fix, they worked fine), most of the props were placed by myself, along with retexturing).

- Various donated content in the underground treatment plant; two of the smaller buildings were donated by a good friend of mine, (helped with reco back in the day). They were from an old map of his, and he said I could do what I wanted with them.

CC2- The Overgrown Facility:

- The barn is from HL2: also SDK content
- The small farm house was DESIGNED off of a house from DOD-source. I liked the corner building, so I coped it as best I could.
- The left half of the facility is NM 4: also SDK content. I felt the overgrown facility was a tad too short, so I used the first 3 floors of NM4 to extend it

CC3- The Butchers Game:

- Start Area: The area before you pass through the facility on your right was origionally an old zombie master map from one of my good friends. He never released it, and gave me full permission to have it. Even though it origionally did come from me, I edited about 95% of it to fit better with the campaign, (and yes I am still counting it as a donation).

CC4- The Brutal Outcome

- Main-Street: The main street was mangled together from the urban-zoo SDK content. Again, SDK content
- The apartment complex is a complete rework of NM 1's apartment. Again, SDK content.
- The destroyed metro station was origionally in CC3. I ported it over to cc4 for flow reasons, (it was made by the same mapper who donated to me that section of the metro station. This area I changed the least out of his donation).
- The final train saferoom is from DT 2-3. Again, free SDK content

CC5- The Source

- Again, the safe room train from DT. Free SDK content.
- A small portion of the labs is roughly modeled off of NM 4. The stairway was directly ported over. Again free SDK content.
- the Maintainence area is VERY loosely based off of the apartment building in HL2. I made the content, however I did use the general layout as a basis for making it.

The two versus campaigns use the same maps, however re-worked to fit better with versus gameplay.

So again, unlike a lot of the mappers who decompile maps from fellow authors and place it in their own, I have only used valve's SDK content, and maps my friends have freely provided to me to help. Outside of using props from other source campaigns, All of this content accounts for less than 15% of the final campaign. The largest of this is CC1, which I will generously give half of the credit to valve, and their wonderful sdk.

Another big reason to use SDK content, is because when applying to video game companies, it is very important that you can prove you work well with a team. As you know, teams rarely work well together due to the ambiguity of the internet. People like myself, who work 50-80 hr weeks on their content simply can't find people dedicated enough to help them who aren't already employed in the industry. By showing I can utilize this free SDK content in a new and inventive way, I am showcasing my ability to work with this team. I learned this from numerous video game developers when I spoke to them in person.

Finally, I just want to stress to everyone that it is very important that you keep a mature and understanding role when posting. Even though there is a level of ambiguity over the internet and you yourself will not reap any of your actions, it makes ModDB look really bad. ModDB is a fantastic tool for non-professional game developers like myself. In the future, it is very important to keep this in mind before you post comments. Instead, be polite and rational. Even if someone is stealing content, by cursing you are actually giving them a fair bit of credence by having them be the rational person.

If you have any questions, feel free to PM me on ModDB. I am currently very busy trying to release some fantastic news updates here, so it may take me a little time to post back to you!

Ryan
mrfranswa