ZM Mapping tutorials 1: Zombie spawns

Tutorial table of contents
ZM Mapping tutorials 1: Zombie spawns
ZM Mapping tutorials 2: Manipulates - Activatable zombiespawn
ZM Mapping tutorials 2: Manipulates - pipetrap
ZM Mapping tutorials 2: Manipulates - zombietrap

Welcome all to my first tutorial for ZM mapping goodness!

Now first of all, im a kinda new at mapping for HL2 and ZM. I mapped tons of maps HL1, quake 3 and other "bsp like games" and even

Unreal Tournament! (which is a whole different concept for mapping!)

Anyway, i decided to make these tutorials because ALOT of mappers are having problems with the whole same things. When you look at

it its actually quite simple, took me only two days to figure out the input/output system using Pi's test case map and

interlopers.com

Anyway, the first one will be a simple Zombie Master Zombie Spawn. After that we will look into "Collecting items" and "Placing

Traps".

Zombie Master: zombie spawns!

The creation of a zombie master spawn is actually quite easy, the "dewds" made it so we can just place a nice red orb where zombie

masters can spawn from. Ill show you how that is done (what entity to use) and how to make it spawn at different locations and how

to make them walk to a location.

First of all, i created a rectangular room. Nothing fancy, you just do the same untill you have something like this:

I added 2 lights with a brighness of 450, a info_player_deathmatch and a info_player_zombiemaster so to give it a "better touch".

Now, we are planning on adding a simple zombiemaster spawn location, if you had prepared yourself before hand you would have

noticed this little thread by Angry Lawyer:

http://www.zombiemaster.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=307

It shows ALL entities they added for ZM usage! So the entity we will be needing is:

info_zombiespawn
the entity that Zombies come from. This also appears as a red sphere, and will spawn Zombies directly in front of it, unless

spawn points for it have been defined.

Variables:
Active - 0 or 1, whether this button is triggerable/visible.
Zombieflags - what zombies can be spawned here (see the note at the end of this for details)
Rallyname - Targetname of a rally node, if any, for the zombies to walk towards after spawning.
Nodename - The targetname of the first spawn point in the chain, if any, for Zombies to spawn on.

Inputs:
Toggle - switch between active and disabled.
Hide - disable the trigger.
Unhide - enable the trigger.

Now, this looks all very logical, we have an "active" variable, which turns it on/off. An Zombieflags bit variable, we can enter a

value to enable and disable zombies. A Rally name target variable, its the entity you point at where zombies need to walk to. And a

"Nodename" variable, it shows the location where zombies should spawn.

Now, click the entity tool and make sure it says: info_zombiespawn in the objects box and click in the middle of the map. Make sure

its located inside the map and press enter to place it. Now you have a nice new zombie spawn!

If we were to go in game now, we would see the red sphere floating and we could create any zombie we wanted. Generally this is a

bad idea on a small map like this. Hulks would kill us instantly!

Now select the info_zombiespawn with the arrow tool and press either: "alt+enter" or go to "Edit -> Properties" you get the

properties of the zombiespawn. Now i will go over the variables once more:

Name
The name should only be entered if you want to use the zombie spawm with something. For example if you want to only to be active

when the survivors reach a certain point you need to be able to speak to it using its name. We are gonna do this in this tutorial

so give it a nice name. I like to call my entities in a certain way, location_type_number. So this would be:

Smallroom_zombiespawn_1.

Parent
Is this entity bound to another one? you can simply see this as a "connection" If the parent moves this would move as well. If you

place a spawn on a elevator or something its a good idea to parent it otherwise the zombies would still spawn on the floor instead

of on the elevator.

active
Is it on or not? simply 1 for on, 0 for off. Easy right?

Zombieflags
Cewl, the part where we get to pick what zombies we want! In the thread of AL (Angry Lawyer) you see that you can enter something

for it. Its done like this:

0 - Everything
1 - Shamblers
2 - Banshees
4 - Hulks
8 - Drifters
16 - Immolators (currently disabled)

These are the numbers for the zombies, if we wanted ONLY shamblers, you simply place 1 in there. If you wanted Shamblers AND

banshees we would do: 1 + 2 = 3, enter 3 in there! If you wanted Drifters but no hulk, you place: 1 + 2 + 8 which is 11! And hence

you can only make shamblers, banshees and drifters.

Now lets make it Shamblers and Drifters so insert 9 into the zombieflags.

Now before i start with the rallyname and nodename lets add some of those so we can target them! Click the entity tool again and

insert: "info_spawnnode".

These will be the location where zombies spawn. A good example of the use it "ZM_asylum" near the elevator. You can spawn zombies

in the small office room, but somehow 2 still spawn from the bathrooms! How thats done? Using the spawnnodes and placing two of

them in the bathrooms!

So, i will just place 5 randomly around the room. Now select he one closest to the zombiespawn and "alt+enter" or click properties

again. Now the spawnnodes work in a chain. That means the zombiespawn will target the first spawnnode, and when that one is used

the second one will be targeted.

I name it: Smallroom_zombiespawn_1_node1

With this its very easy to see to what zombiespawn it belongs, so no need to check the location or anything! Now enter into

the "Nodename": "Smallroom_zombiespawn_1_node2". Even though the name will be red, that doesnt really matter it will work when we

name the other nodes like this.

So select the second node and name it: "Smallroom_zombiespawn_1_node2" and the Nodename: "Smallroom_zombiespawn_1_node3". Do this

untill you reach Smallroom_zombiespawn_1_node5 as a name, but be sure to NOT enter a Smallroom_zombiespawn_1_node6 as the Nodename.

Now, select the entity tool again and find: "info_rallypoint" and place it somewhere on the map, it doesnt really matter where. Now open its properties and name it: "Smallroom_zombiespawn_1_rally". (or name is cheese_cake_is_tasty if you like, remember, this is just how i do it)

Now, select the "info_zombiespawn" again, and Select: "Nodename" at node name enter "Smallroom_zombiespawn_1_node1" to select the

first one in chain. Then select "Rallyname" and enter: "Smallroom_zombiespawn_1_rally".

Now, you can fire up the map to see how it works. Spawn a single shambler, it spawns in the middle or closest spawn node, make five

of them and they will spawn all at their locations and walk to the rally point!

Zombies! Raaawr![/b]

	Welcome, Guest. Please login or register. Did you miss your activation email? May 22, 2013, 06:32:34 am

News: Trouble in Terrorist Town? Site here, forum here.