Just make a brush in the shape of a ramp from the top of the stairs to the bottom with material “tools/toolsclip”. This will block players as well as projectiles. If they are stairs that are open with gaps between them (like the wooden stairs in 2fort for example) then use “tools/toolsplayerclip” which will allow projectiles through the gaps.
Team Fortress 2 CTF level [image heavy]
kromano
#82
I will have to go back and investigate if it’s changed, but clip never blocked projectiles when I was working on a map for CS: S. Grenades would still pass through areas blocked off by clip brushes, playerclip didn’t seem to provide any different functionality.
I imagine that was the intended design of the different clip brushes, but it just never worked like that in my experience. I believe what it used to be was Clip brushes would block players and NPCs, playerclip would only block players, NPCs could still pass through.
Swizzle
#84
I know that there are a few different types of clip brushes, though the only two that spring to mind at the moment are the player clip and NPC clip ones. If I understand correctly, player clip only blocks the player from entering an area but lets all projectiles through and NPC clip is for AI NPCs like the resistance fighters in HL2.
Also:
I’m going to have the next version of the map available for download in a few hours. Have to do some adjustments to the intel rooms so people don’t get stuck and stuff, possibly sew up the caves and make them playable if I have time, and tweak a few things in the canyon and it’ll be ready for the next test.
Geta-Ve
#85
Yes! Been waiting 
The clip brush I used was the tools/toolsclip (standard im guessing?) I tried out the other playerclip brush but it didn’t seem to make a difference (projectiles and such went through both)
Swizzle
#86
Well, hell.
I thought I was going to have the updated map ready for tonight’s match and it’s been compiling for a half hour now. Something is terribly amiss.
kromano
#87
Remember when I was complaining about my vis compile times being over an hour? I managed to reduce them by over 30 minutes by finding and removing a number of intersecting, non-entity brushes.
Check out your new bases and look for brushes that intersect each other, could make a huge difference in compile times.
Swizzle
#88
I did add a good number of brushes before that last compile, so that’s probably it. There were several non-planar faces and I could’ve screwed things up in vertex edit mode and made some funky intersections, so I’ll see if that’s what made the difference and report back.
EDIT:
I figured out what the problem was, and I have a suggestion for anybody reading this thread:
Don’t go overboard with vertex manipulation in Hammer.
Turns out that vvis was having trouble figuring out where visportals or something along those lines should go because I had glass walls that were doing all sorts of funky things in the intel room. As a result of this, a redesign is in order.
sigh
Geta-Ve
#89
That is unfortunate dude. Perhaps using a different kind of wall? Or segregating the wall so you don’t have to do too much vertex manipulations? Would love to see the problem area, might have some second opinions?
kromano
#90
Do a quick read on how visportals work and/or how to use the hint brush texture. Glass shouldn’t cause many problems unless your brushes are either A) Concave, all brushes MUST be convex. Use multiple brushes to create a concave shape. Or B) You have two verticies on a horziontal line between two corners, as in ±--------±--------+
Weld the third vertex to form a single line ±--------------+
It might not hurt to turn your glass into func_detail entities, if they aren’t already to see if that allieviates some problems.
Vertex manipulation in Hammer can be a cruel mistress at times. In most cases I generally just layer brushes up to make the shape I want rather than carving and vertex editing a single brush. The end result SHOULD be the same, but sometimes might result in strange brush cutting.
Swizzle
#92
No updates yet. I just finished my finals and also just got back from dealing with family stuff five hundred miles away from home, so things have been hectic.
I’ll see if I can get something working by Friday, though.
kromano
#95
If I remember there used to be plugins for HL1 map building in 3ds Max however even if you COULD I would recommend against doing so.
The way quake-style engines compile maps would make map building in max a real pain. When I first learned Hammer for HL1, I learned it alongside 3ds Max and found the two to be similar enough that it was a pretty easy learning curve for me. You probably wouldn’t have much difficulty in picking it up either.
Kirt
#96
Hey Swizzle, we were playing your map last night and found a bug. Sometimes the red team will spawn in the forward blue spawn room. This traps the player in there. You might want to check all your spawn point properties.
Animalator
#98
After playing your map during the CGtalk match last night I must say Im pleased with its progress. Although, I did prefer the original intel rooms you had designed. I understood the reasoning for changing it. They were too easy to defend I’m assuming?? I think once you get an alternate route that leads to the intel it should make it a lot harder.
If I remember correctly you also had 3 100hp health packs sitting close to the bases entrance/exists. It seems a little much for those areas. I think 1, maybe 2, would do the job. Just a suggestion.
There were also spawn problems last night again by the way, which I think you might already know about.
kromano
#99
I think there was consensus over the intel rooms last night in preference to the original design. I think you could do a good combo of both, though. Have your current sinister desk and vault, but behind the desk is overlooking the NASA room (as many put it).
I think we proved pretty adamantly that a pair of engineers (or even just one, probably) can effectively control that room as is (that is until they get bored of camping out). As I suggested in game a ceiling drop would be very useful in getting those campers out. A demoman could drop down some pellets of doom and flush them out. The room was too small for a single spy to really take anything out if an engineer was still hiding out there.
I’m really curious about the spawn problems that plague. You’ve got more than enough locations so that shouldn’t be the issue. I’ve found that if you’re short spawn locations for a player on one team, TF will put him onto the other team, regardless of which team it was set to be a spawn for.
Here’s a suggestion, use the entity report menu option to bring up a list of every entity, filter it down to info_playerteamspawn and select them, entire teams at a time and set them to the appropriate team. Hoping that made sense, I have some reports to write (and it’s only been the first class too).
Swizzle
#100
I’ve been trying to figure out the layout for the insides of the bases for a really long time and it’s proving to be a nightmare. I really don’t have much aptitude for industrial or architectural design, so that’s part of why the insides of the bases have been weird. I’m definitely going to add a vent to the top of the intel rooms and I still need to get the caves done. Once I get those things in (along with some other tweaks), the intel rooms should be better balanced. I’m also going to add background scenery like the big control room, but it needs to play well before I do that.
I figured out the spawn point issues as soon as I heard about them. I apparently had two spawn points set to red insead of blue and that was the problem.
Here’s a paintover of the front of the bases for the next iteration:
