Automated enemies never get tired, never get scared and never doubt themselves.
You face three different scenarios where your only adversaries are automated enemies.
They require a different approach to live enemies; patience and thoughtfulness. Running and Gunning most likely won’t work.
Good Luck, you’re gonna need it.
For this challenge, I want you to create a map that ONLY* includes automated enemies.
The key is to create a map where the player feels that they are being drawn into an area, perhaps seemingly deserted, that constantly challenges their skill and planning.
I am NOT looking for Portal-style rooms where the play must simply escape.
It is important to create a map where the automated weapons feel naturally located and used.
I fully understand that some would seem to require Combine architecture or setting, but I also feel that with a little imagination they could be included in almost any setting. Even something like a forest setting could use floor turrets to guard a secret lab or base.
The Overwatch Nexus is a good example of the type of map I would love to play.
* You can use other enemies in the map BUT the player MUST NOT be able to interact with them directly. For example, you could see headcrabs or zombies in an area where they can’t attack you, same for Combine soldiers. They could be seen running through a building, but again, they must not be able to attack you.
I actually feel that the real challenge of this theme will be to create an interesting and active finale.
- Manhack
- Suppression Device
- Autogun
- Combine Ceiling Turret
- Combine Ground Turret
- Combine Sentry Gun
- Headcrab Shell (NO HEADCRABS ALLOWED THOUGH!)
- Rollermine
- City Scanner (Probably for distraction)
- Hopper Mine
- Combine Laser Tripmine
The entries within are listed as they are in the mod:
Work In Progress by Devin Tromblee (Screenshots 1-5)
Undefined Index by Neo Kabuto (Screenshots 6-15)
Encryption by Nitro Ham (Screenshots 16-25)
Houston by Christiaan Bakker AKA Anicator.
The PlanetPhillip.Com intro video was made by Spartan301
- Title: AutoVille
- File Name: hl2-ep2-sp-mc-autoville.7z
- Size : 13.3MB
- Author: Devin Tromblee, Neo Kabuto and Nitro Ham
- Date Released: 25 September 2014
Download directly into MapTap [13.3MB]
You MUST have MapTap installed before using this link.
You can still use it with MapTap once you have downloaded it.
- Copy the AutoVille folder into your SourceMods folder.
- Restart or start Steam.
- Silent Escape should now be listed in your Library tab.
If you require more help, please visit the Technical Help page.
Click on the tabs below to select the size of screenshot you would like.
All sizes are the same screenshots, just in different resolutions.
WARNING: The screenshots contain spoilers.
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2,461Overall
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1Last 7 days
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116365 days
Using Gauge: Users
Manually: 8 Users
Time Taken:
Average: 0 Hours, 51 Mins
Shortest: 0 Hours, 15 Mins by Daken50
Longest: 3 Hours by Hec
Total Time Played: 9 Hours, 17 Mins
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I almost gave this release a MAYBE recommendation, but felt that out of the three releases one was Avoid It, one Maybe and the other Play It, therefore I wouldn’t want player to miss the last map.
As the intro says this is definitely the work of a newbie mapper, but more important the work of somebody who really needs to think more carefully about the design choices they make.
If you get stuck, you will need to destroy the rollermine in the fire near the beginning.
The rest is a collection of unconnected ideas and ANY map that contains a huge image of a cat with snipers firing from it, is struggling to be creative.
Looking past the dev textures, this was perhaps the most creative of all the entries and perhaps with a little more time the results would have been even better.
I found it challenging but fun.
This was definitely the most polished map but it still contained some strange elements, doors moving vertically is one example.
That said, I had the most fun from the three until the last part which was crazy hard. The key here is to get a moving strategy right and know that you CAN NOT destroy all the manhacks.
One piece of bad luck was that I pressed the last button but moved out of the lift area (I didn’t know what it was and had to keep moving) and got stuck at the bottom.
Manually
Medium
50 Minutes
This competition was as I feared.
At first, I thought the challenge idea was more welcome to new players, and I found that great for the modding community. But as a mod player, I think that it might be TOO welcome.
I know I shouldn’t criticize beginner maps that much because they’re new to mapping and all, but also that’s not an excuse to not make a great map.
Also, the biggest problem of the whole competition was that it was really silent and SHORT. I mean, VERY short. You can beat it in under 30 minutes if you don’t have that much difficulty with turrets.
Also, weren’t there any experienced mappers to participate? I’m bored of dev textures…
Overall, this competition could have been a LOT better.
Speaking for myself, I literally couldn’t think of anything fun to do with this comp idea. We’re a couple weeks on from the announcement and I still have no clue what I would have done for it.
As it turns out, I don’t think the entrants succeeded either.
It was kinda disapointed seing only 3 maps (one of them being my own).
The score is based on the first 2 maps. i wont take my own into account.
Work in Progress
the name confused me i thought it actualy had something to do with the concept behind it. the whole map was confusing. but there where some ‘interesting ideas’ that could have been (more) enjoyable if more thought and polish was put behind them.
Undefined Index
this map was actually quite enjoyable and just needed a bit polish. i didnt find myself enjoying it less just because it had dev textures.
Encryption
Im wont comment on my unfinished rushed map. Thoe maybe the ending was to hard and i didnt realy tell the player how he could get past the first ceiling turret whitout any damage.
You should atleast try the maps they are not the best and they are ALL pretty short and unpolished but i had fun playing them.
Using Gauge
Medium
25 Minutes
This was a poor competition. The only reason I gave it a Think Twice instead of an Avoid It is because of the two mappers who really seemed like they were trying to make something out of this difficult theme. I sure couldn’t. You take the most obnoxious enemies in the game – nearly all of which are meant to be used in support roles – and ask mappers to make something fun out of them and only them? It’s no wonder this is the end result.
I also really dislike how dev textures appeared in all the maps. I can’t blame the mappers, because graphics were not a requirement in the rules, but I really hope this isn’t the direction that future comps take.
Work In Progress
I actually don’t buy that this is a newbie map at all. It’s a troll map. Plus, it should have been disqualified because it uses Snipers. I have zero feedback for this one – the author didn’t make a serious attempt at all.
Undefined Index
This was probably the most interesting of the lot. It’s actually paced fairly well. I thought Manhacks being delivered by Headcrab Canisters worked surprisingly well. The battery puzzle was a bit difficult because it wasn’t clear what you were supposed to do with the Rollermines. Throwing them back to the ledge where you came from works fine, but I would have liked to see some water here, which the mapper was generous enough to provide in an earlier Rollermine encounter, to build on that idea. The finale, well, it’s something. Not too challenging, but it’s always nice to blow something up at the end.
Encryption
I think this map found a reasonable substitute for Snipers in the rarely used Ceiling Turrets. Of all the maps, this one feels the most planned, cohesive and complete. I could easily see the ideas here being put to use in a non-contest level. The only qualms I have are that there’s too little cover from the Ceiling Turrets, and the ending finale was completely overkill. Of course, did it make me panic on my way to the elevator? You bet it did!
Manually
Easy
20 Minutes
I really dont know were to start …. i was really dissapointed with this competition …. two of the maps may be pretty well made but they just didnt do anything for me …. maybe it was the idea behind the comp or it could be just me
on a positive side there wasnt any zombies (ha,ha ) … but i know there are mappers out there ( such as miigga and jason gimba ) who should of took this idea by the teeth and produced some amazing entries … however they may have had other things to do and couldnt find the time
that said we have had competitions like this before and im sure we will have them again …. but i am dissapointed there wasnt more entries as the autoville idea shouldnt be too hard
on this occasion im not going to give a favourite map … all were pretty much the same …. but as a competition i hope the next one is better ….
Manually
Easy
1 Hour, 15 Minutes
You know, I have to give this a PIL. No, we don’t have wall of fame maps here like Minerva or Mission Improbable, but that’s not what this competition shoots for. Like Phillip, I was interested to see what authors could do with automated-only enemies.
I think if the contest went a month longer, we would of had some amazing maps. Maybe I’m too optimistic about the whole automated thing. But I see a lot of room for ideas with this kind of thing.
The second map “Undefined Index” was my favorite. It was mapped fairly well, good pacing, of course no skins on the walls, but that’s ok. I like Hammer orange :p
The third one “Encryption” was nice, it had skins. But I got bored after a few minutes. Having to dodge the turret and hide behind the tin pieces on the fence got frustrating.
The first one “Work in Progress” had a clever disclaimer at the start. I assume this is the authors first map? A lot of credit then, although the map had serious issues, not the least of which if you fall in the room at the start without first getting the crowbar…then your stuck. But I admire anyone who jumps in the pool for the first time and gets wet. That’s what it’s all about. There were some interesting parts to WIP, and probably the author will produce more polish, in time.
All in all not a bad little mod considering the short time to create the maps plus the tough theme.
Because there are still two good maps, I’ve given this a PIL.
The first map… Well, let’s say “I would have destroyed the rollermine if it hadn’t gotten stuck in the door that wouldn’t close the right direction”. It got stuck with the door open inside that narrow hall, and wouldn’t come out. I didn’t bother completing that map, if that little attention to detail (and the comments here about the rest of it not following the spirit of the challenge) was an example.
Undefined Index was actually quite fun, I liked the visuals on it a lot, and the game play was both challenging and I think well paced. It was a good tossup between it and Encryption for my favorite, but I voted for Encryption because it was a little longer and had a more complex puzzle value. I didn’t mind the dev textures as they didn’t really dominate the entire map like some have in other instances.
Encryption was a nicely made map, overall, though was a bit confounding since there were few times you could tell exactly what you were going to need to do. While you could see most of the map’s dangerous elements, figuring out the method of crossing it – and the occasional surprise – made it challenging and also quite fun. One thing I did have issue with was the ‘this grate will not break without x thing’ dynamic. If you destroy the manhacks you have to use a grenade to get out of the vent in one area and … well that makes HP a bit low. I like having to look around and examine the location for clues, and while most of the time it was well done, sometimes there just wasn’t enough to go on to see your objective. … Speaking of that: why didn’t we get to the car?
For what it’s worth I absolutely love grabbity gun maps like these. I just wish that the first mapper had put any amount of effort into making their entry work. The other two, kudos for fun maps. I might head back in and try again.
Manually
Medium
30 Minutes
Did anyone figure out what you’re supposed to do in the first map once you get to the first Rollermine? I have to admit, I god moded and couldn’t find any obvious solution. Eventually, I noclipped past it. Judging from the rest of the map, I feel no remorse for this.
Roller Mines explode to both fire and water 😉
Well I tried rolling it through the fire, but nothing happened.
you dont have to use the manhacks or the grenade you can use the gravity gun for all the grates. it may wasnt 100% percent clear. i will try to comunicate more clear (or even at all) to player next time.
i wanted the player to get to the car but i built the finale in a seperate map and then i copy pasted it. the issue was it wasnt rotated the right way. when i rotated it and compiled it all the moving floors where cliping. i didnt have time for readjusting the move direction and the way back to the car was to long. so i just made a simple elevator.
Work in Progress
I have absolutely no shame in saying I cheated to complete this map. The puzzle logic makes no sense (destroying a rollermine in a fire somehow leads to a brick wall breaking?) On top of this some of the puzzles are just plain unfair. Because of the fall damage you receive at the beginning the rollermine can easily one shot you. you can shield yourself from the turret with the provided physics object but once you reach it you can’t get passed it because it never stops shooting. You then continue to get flooded by enemies and get to a room where I assumed the map ended with the weird cat texture. Some of the ideas are ok but they are no fun to play out because the map doesn’t seem to follow any coherent logic or have any flow.
Overall with this map I think the ideas are ok but the mapper really needs to consider how to communicate I/O relationships to the player and how to make gameplay more engaging.
Undefined Index
This map was pretty solid. It was challenging but not unreasonable, never unfair. At times I felt the visual language was a bit weak the worst example is with the battery holder which kind of just blends into the background. Enjoyable and competently executed.
Encryption
This was definitely the most fleshed out map I think it was unfair at points, dropping turrets in behind you, dropping you in a locked room full of manhacks and then the huge swarm at the end it kind of feels like the map is trying to catch the player out which feels like an artificial way of increasing difficulty.
Figuring out how to get through the environments throughout the map is very satisfying and the finale is rewarding to beat though it took me more than a few retries.
Using Gauge
Hard
37 Minutes
I too wish there was more then 3 maps for this. I think the idea had potential but maybe the period for the contests needs to be longer? Anyways, the first map “Work in Progress” is very rough around the edges. I didn’t realize that I had to destroy the roller mine to advance. This is bad design as there is no indication that I saw that destroying the mine was needed to open the door. I trapped it in the other room but then was stuck for what to do. This map was fairly rough but decent for someone’s first attempt. Undefined Index was a more enjoyable map as you are given the gravity gun and have a fighting chance. I wish that one had been longer. Encryption was the best entry of the 3 and I enjoyed it right up until the end when it got ridiculously difficult. I guess I could have used more strategy there but I like to try and clear a room when I can. Overall this is a PIL but Encryption is definitely worth playing.
Ten days has proven to be the best compromise.
Well overall I’m kind of pissed of by all of this gaming experience I had on this competition. And despite of that I have to say I don’t meant to offend in this recommendation to any mapper or gamer in this forum.
Sorry about that feeling, but that’s exactly the way I feel after playing this. You know, some parts of some maps really, really offended me as a gamer, because I think they were very abusive. I mean, if you can call fun to press a button into a map scenario and immediately being attacked by a bunch of, and many hordes, of manhacks, roller mines and turrets then something is wrong with you being the guy who designed that!!!! Really!!!!, that was so annoying and the worst of all is that we encounter that kind of nonsense abuse of the gamer in all of the 3 entries.
Overall the whole feeling about this comp. is that I really wasted my time playing 3 entries without gunfire combat against CMB troops, visually poor and in ugly-looking environments, and in arena butchering-style scenarios. Also those scenarios were like a very poor attempt to make them look like a portal torture chamber (at least on the 1st 2 entries).
I think I really dislike this comp. because overall combines ALL in one the stuff I HATE in HL2 combat, really hectic combat against those freakin’ manhacks that really stress the player out!!!, and the kind of stupid “pressing the button” puzzle specially if the buttons are located far from each other inside the map. I totally prefer to battle against 20 Hunters, than being pissed off by 20 manhacks all in once!!!!
So yeah really can not say more about this one, I decided not to review in deep each entry because I really didn’t like what I experienced in the 3 but if I have to say a word about each one of them I say this in short terms:
Entry1: please learn about the feedback given in the recommendations given about your entry, and if you plan to do further maps, please NEVER attempt to do something like this again, please plan more your maps layouts and do beta test if possible before releasing any map or mod, also don’t be IMPLICIT in gameplay dynamic, I mean, tell the gamer explicitly inside the map what he has to do…
Entry2: yours was the kinder of the 3, possibly if you would have used better textures the whole gaming experience would have been better.
Entry3: No words for you man!!! really, I can’t believe you torture the poor player like that at the end!!!! I didn’t vote for your entry neither, and though you may win this competition I think that kind of abuse to the gamer really don’t deserve to win anything.
PD. probably a better name for this competition would be the “HALF-QUAKE VILLE” because that hectic and most of all sadistic HL1 mod saga, I don’t know, I felt in some parts of this 3 entries, like a poor victim rather than a HL2 player.
Manually
Medium
3 Hours
as for entry 3
i will admite the ending was too hard. i wil try to give to give the player a better chance next time. i didnt intend to abuse the player. i apreciate your critcism and i hope i can make future maps more enjoyable.
Yeah, dont worry man. You know I guess I was kind of upset by the hectic theme of t.he competition. Though I also think your entry was The best before that complicated ending, and the celling turrets were outstanding in your map.
well i maybe shouldnt have played quake live before setting up the trigering in the finale. also im pleased you found atleast something you enjoyed. just started a new map you will hopefully have fun with it when it comes out. but for now have a nice time
Actually I liked your mod much better than when I posted, when I went through a second time. I got past the frustration as I learned how to shield myself from the turret fire. However, when I got to the big room with the big screen TV…I couldn’t figure out what to do. After 10 minutes I gave up.
For what its worth, my score of “Play it Now” was for Undefined Index and Encription.
in the room with the big screen just press the button on the console infront of the monitor to trigger the ”overkill” finale.
Sad. Entry #1 0/10, Entry # 2 6/10, Entry #3 looking like its cruising to the win and then, inexplicably not getting the “concept” of a game, that – – – – ending, so therefore 3/10.
Using Gauge
Medium
45 Minutes
Wow I thought Hec might have been unfair in his rating but after playing this pack I feel the same. I felt like I was being trolled in various parts of the 3 maps.
Maybe for the first time, I feel really bad rating this as Avoid It. I hate to be too hard on or discourage new mappers, so hopefully they take all the comments combined as criticism and not personal attacks. To be honest I think the disappointing result is also the fault of the theme. It’s an interesting idea but I think the “automatic” enemies take away too much of the fun of fighting in Half-Life 2: the enemies’ AI. Sure, the manhacks have AI but they’re no hunters or Combine soldiers. Hey, you do 25+ mapping competitions and you have to expect some duds.
Overall, not really worth your time.
Manually
Medium
30 Minutes
A while ago I was looking on RTSL for some old Villes to play and got fascinated by the mostly low ratings for this Ville. I was eager to find out and decided to give this mod a try. As a personal habit, I’m reviewing from best to worst:
The gameplay was good most of the time and the visuals weren’t bad either with quite some detail around the map. However, the end was total insanity and I managed to escape the masses of Manhacks and Turrets with sheer luck after dying around 30x. Encryption still managed to barely squeeze out a ‘good’ rating for me personally, despite the hellish end phase.
This entry offers acceptable gameplay and I gotta say the manhacks emerging from the canisters were an interesting and nice feature. Level design was OK but with lots and lots of dev textures around. Follows just behind Encryption.
I rarely cheat but I had to noclip with this one. Visuals aren’t great but I could live with that, but the gameplay was absolutely gruesome. I think I died dozens of times because of those snipers from the giant cat image. One of the worst maps I’ve ever played here on RTSL … !
Manually
Medium
50 Minutes
Check please.
Manually
Easy
15 Minutes