Monday November 26th, Sketch Pad #11 CS_SPEED & News!

Firstly I want to clear up a miss-communication about the creation of DE_COAL. Turns out that Diabolik and Slackiller are both working on their own versions of the Sketch Pad map. Whenever they finish I will be releasing both of their works for your viewing/playing pleasure.

Today I have yet another kick butt Sketch Pad from p!no][wessie the maker of DE_COAL, this one is entitled CS_SPEED (154kb), you can also download a new COLLECTED SKETCHPAD ZIP (1.4Megs).

I have even more news related to Sketch Pad, turns out Kevin Laitey aka Silverbolt has found a mapper for his DE_BANKJOB sketch pad design. This mappers name is [DSLT] Unlucky Charms and I'm really looking forward to seeing how that project develops.

Always looking for new sketch pads, Half-Pint

Thursday November 22nd, DE_CLAN1_MILL and Sketch Pad News!

Hi, it's been awhile but your patience will be worth it. The first major item of news is a new submitted work of a CPL map DE_CLAN1_MILL by [CMC]v.i.p.z.. I can't even think of the number of times this one has been requested. Don't worry I will try to get Clan2_Fire too :)

This work is pretty slick and even shows the varying heights on the map. You can of course grab the updated COLLECTED WORKS ZIP (4.65Megs) or PDF (3.9Megs).

I have also spoken with a guy named m][.daemon who is working on DE_CLAN2_FIRE and I am continuing work on my DE_SURVIVOR map. 

Work continues on my mouse pad project. The basic design is finished all I have to do now is straighten out some problems with it and order my own proof copy. All in all I'm hoping to get it setup and online in the next 2 weeks, just in time for Christmas :) I decided on a black background and found a really cool font to help the design out. I plan to do both an English and German version.

Got word sent over to me of a site that has created Overviews for HLTV. Check out their site Half-Life TV Ownage on Tape or head over and grab overviews for various HL and TFC maps that you can use with HLTV. There's also a good site CS Extreme that has some info on setting up HLTV. (Special Thanks to Shadeone for the heads up).

Sketch Pad News
Turns out that a new mapper has taken over the DE_COAL project by -p!no][wessie-. His name is Diabolik and he looks to be fairly adept at map making. Check out the screenshots below! (click on them for full size)


Also turns out the Matt Soler has stopped production on DE_BOATRUN. In his words:
"I just ran into too many problems along the way (High r_speeds, bad layout) The idea looks good but once you map it out it doesn't work as nice. If you would like I could give you the source maps of what I have done to see if anyone else wants to finish it."
Matt Soler also informed me that he has moved onto weapon model design and sent me some pics of his work: (click on them for full size)


In other sketch pad related news, I wanted to let you know about a nifty little site X2-Mapping Crew. This site features a small staff of mappers willing to make maps for those that don't know how. So give them a shout if you got a great idea.

In the next few days I plan to add a large series of Spanish Translations done by David Primo.

Good Hunting, Half-Pint

Saturday November 3rd, CS2D Spanish, New Aztec Map, New Sketch Pad, Pics of DE_COAL in 3D! 

And a partridge in a pear tree! I got boot loads of new content for everyone today. So on with the show...

Two different people have worked up Spanish translations of my 2D maps. The first of the two was done by David Primo and they are nice translations of CS_ASSAULT, DE_DUST and CS_ITALY. These translations are only available as PDF and can be downloaded from each of those pages. The second person to translate the 2D maps to Spanish is Dark Shade who runs Counter-Addiction, he has translated all the 2D maps and made a CS2D Spanish map pack here.

There is now a brand new, completely fixed up revision of Anger's DE_AZTEC 2D map. This map was cleaned up quite well by peOn and finally corrects the positions of all the crates on the map. I have replaced the old AZTEC images and you can of course download the updated COLLECTED WORKS ZIP (4.57Megs) or PDF (3.8Megs).

Next in the news is some cool Sketch Pad related stuff. I received a brand new submission titled CS_BANKJOB (550kb) by Silverbolt, this is a pretty cool project because the map is rendered in 3D to give you a better idea of heights etc. You can also download all the sketch pads in a Collected Sketch ZIP (1.3Megs).

I also found out that DE_PERFECTTOWN (a 2D idea from sketch pad) is being mapped in 3D by a mapper by the name of Fragfiend, apparently the map has been renamed to DE_MAYHEM. You will hear more on this when I do :)

Some time ago I mentioned that work had begun on DE_COAL one of the earlier Sketch Pad Submissions. I have now been informed that a mapper named Slackiller is busy at work and has the following SCREENSHOTS for you to check out on his site.

Also be sure to look at the Friday News below, I'm working on a CS2D mouse pad idea and want to know what you think?? 

Thanks, Half-Pint

Friday November 2nd, CS2D Mouse Pad - Good or Bad idea?

Hi all! I have been toying around with the idea of making a mouse pad with my 2D plan of DE_DUST on it. It would probably look pretty cool combined with the CS2D logo. I was wondering if you could let me know if you think you would like something like this? I'm not planning on a big binge of merchandising, I'm just trying to think up things you might be interested in. To keep the economics in perspective the mouse pads would probably cost somewhere around 14 to 16 dollars each + shipping.

Thanks for any feedback on the idea, Half-Pint