This map is a Guildhall scripting project, where the player controls a crane and must kill some metrocops and free some rebels.
The crane allows you to pick and drop exploding barrels, and accurately position the drop via a mini screen on the crane control deck.
Basic Details
- Title: Crate Factory
- File Name: hl2-ep2-sp-crate-factory.7z
- Size : 2.64Mb
- Author: Toby McCall
- Date Released: 13 February 2010
PlanetPhillip Download Servers
Installation Instructions
- Copy MCCALL_CrateFactory.bsp into your Half-Life 2: Episode Two Maps folder.
- Launch Half-Life 2: Episode Two
- Open the console and type map MCCALL_CrateFactory.
- Press enter/return or click the Submit button.
- Play and Enjoy.
If you require more help, please visit the Technical Help page.
Video
Here is a gameplay video made by the author. WARNING: If you watch this you will see everything there is to see and spoil the actual playthrough. See his YouTube Profile
Screenshots
Click on the thumbnails below to open a 800 pixel wide image.
WARNING: The screenshots may contain spoilers.
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Reader Recommendations
Total Downloads
Please note: These statistics are valid from December 2010
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Meta Review Data
Statistics based on 1 comment(s) with meta review data.
Installed:
Using Gauge: Users
Manually: 1 Users
Time Taken:
Average: 0 Hours, 10 Mins
Shortest: 0 Hours, 10 Mins by Daken50
Longest: 0 Hours, 10 Mins by Daken50
Total Time Played: 0 Hours, 10 Mins
Using Gauge: Users
Manually: 1 Users
Time Taken:
Average: 0 Hours, 10 Mins
Shortest: 0 Hours, 10 Mins by Daken50
Longest: 0 Hours, 10 Mins by Daken50
Total Time Played: 0 Hours, 10 Mins
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Allow me to explain my Maybe recommendation. This map doesn’t include any “normal” gameplay or action. It’s more of a simple level to introduce a new gameplay mechanic and as such shouldn’t really be seen as the focus of such a small level. As party of something larger it would be very interesting, but as a level it’s only really for those interested parties.
The mechanic works well and the mini screen is very useful. The little touches of the rebel coming to drop the control deck after you let him out is nice.
It’s a little easy to kill the rebels if you are not careful, but I suppose that’s half the fun.
It would have been fun if the rebels collected weapons from the dead Metrocops after you freed them and as you were escaping a bunch of Combine smashed through the roof, just to spice things up a bit, but it’s all good.
All in all, a nice little map with not enough action to please most players, but as mentioned earlier, it was never designed for that.
5 Words Or Less Review
Don’t drop what you’re doing.
A lot of these Guildhall maps come up with neat little ideas that I either thought of also, or would like to use. Are these ideas owned by the Guildhall? Or can I just ask the creator if I can borrow and build on his ideas?
I think I have heard of other gameplay features being used from Guildhall maps, just give the email author a shout and see what he says. I think you might especially like the Crossbow platfomer mechanic.
A curious diversion for 4 to 5 minutes.
The little video screen was good as was the ability to move the angle of the magnet (move your mouse back and forth). Moving the magnet angle did not seem to achieve a purpose.
I thought this particular mechanic was better done in “Rat’s Nest” but with containers. I, also remember, with satisfaction, wiping Combine out with containers using the crane in Highway 17 (or the start of Sandtraps – I can’t remember where the chapter changes).
No combat, no puzzles, no story but the curious will like it.
A few moments of quietitude and calm from my love of HL2 warfare.
hm…when will Guildhall make a nice arena map? Seeing his dedication to trying out new concepts with small, yet detailed maps, an Arena type map is apparently the only thing that’s missing…
If it’s done right, it could have high replayability and multiple variations.
this is a good example of what could be part of something bigger but alone and even if it was original it fell a little light in terms of design and puzzle to achieve
Hi all,
Firstly, thank you all and thank Phillip for this wonderful site and community. I’m Toby McCall the author of this map. A little backstory about this map, it was an assignment to explore some “out of the box” scripting in HL2. For many of us, including myself, this was our first time working with hammer. Actual worktime for this project was about 4 weeks and that was along with work from other classes also.
I originally wanted to pickup combine troops and civilians, but couldn’t find a way to override their tendency to fall/stick to the ground. Picking up barrels and crates was a work around to get the map completed by the deadlines. My main focus was to do the scripting and to create a believable space. I also wanted to experiment with lighting as seen by the light streaming in from the topmost windows. I’m probably more of an artistic LD rather than a heavy scripter, but I’m pretty satisfied what what I was able to get done in a few weeks. Keep your eye out for more maps from the Guildhall. Our group really did some fun stuff. We had a demolition derby map, 2 portal styled magnet based mechanics and a nice time warp map just to name a few.
@Zonbie
Please feel free to build on this concept. I don’t think it’s entirely original so I don’t think anyone can claim ownership. I would be nice to be mentioned as inspiration though 🙂
@Jasper
I’m not sure why the UI control didn’t lock your mouse XY. You shouldn’t be able to move the magnet’s angle. I’ll have to look at that. Since its a global setting, it was tricky to lock that down, yet set it back so it didn’t affect all maps.
@Anon_217700
So far, the Guildhall focuses on single player FPS levels. We’ve only made one multiplayer map and that was in UT3. It would be fun to make on in Hammer.
Thanks again!
I’m not sure why the UI control didn’t lock your mouse XY. You shouldn’t be able to move the magnet’s angle. I’ll have to look at that. Since its a global setting, it was tricky to lock that down, yet set it back so it didn’t affect all maps.
It would have been fun if the rebels collected weapons from the dead Metrocops after you freed them and as you were escaping a bunch of Combine smashed through the roof, just to spice things up a bit, but it’s all good.
While not a “traditional” map this map does do some impressive things going on. If you’re looking for escapism from normal Half-Life 2 I think this mechanic could be greatly elaborated on. Constructing a brand new crane mechanic from scripting alone was very cool. Ideally I’d love to see the player use it on a city-wide scale, some massive free-floating crane that could pick up destructible prop buildings… would be epic!
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This map doesn’t work for me.
I can activate the crane once, pick up a barrel and drop it. The first time I did it a second time, the barrel missed the CP and afterwards it would not pick up anything. The second time I did it a second time, the barrel it picked up was invisible, but it dropped on the other side of the factory than shown; after that, it wouldn’t pick up anything again.
At least I could detach myself from the crane this time, unlike in Rat’s Nest.
Unfortunately, it also locked my mouse (in-game) so that when I loaded other maps, my mouse could only move vertically–I could not look left or right.
Right now I’m working on figuring out which file I need to delete, in the hopes that I don’t need to do a full reinstall of Ep2.
Deleting ep2\cfg\config.cfg seemed to fix it.
The only bugs I found, besides the angle change, was that I could see outside the map behind me if I took the crane next to the wall and the fact that I couldn’t pick up barrels unless from the stash.
But tbh it was really boring, the repeated mechanical sounds and no fighting, not being able to move most of the time. Maybe add music bits, specially when mission is over and/or rebels shouting once they’re free. It’s got potential but like others said, in a bigger picture. For a standalone, you can play it later.
The download link is broken.
I have fixed the link.
The crane in HL2 was just enough. A whole concept, not so much.
Manually
Easy
10 Minutes