Howdy everyone,

Well, guess I'll reuse this thread for the actual V4 Beta (years late, I know). I'll keep it short, please let me know of any errors or problems in regards to performance, missing textures, glitches, bugs, etc.. As part of the beta, there are rooms that have yet to be detailed or finished. I'll eventually get to these and it's not an issue that need to be reported.

However, that being said, please feel free to suggest any layout changes, or what kinds of rooms, environments, colors you'd like to see. All of the current layout and geometry is subject to change, and I've been lone wolfing it in the development of this map, so other opinions and ideas are always welcome.

Beta 2 major changes:
- A.I. nodes done from scratch in game (using the map_edit command). This should help provide some basic A.I. nodes for ground based NPCs. Air nodes and hint nodes for jumps will be added soon
- Removing missing decals
- More geometry, lighting, and props to empty areas
- Readjusted some props and optimized dynamic entities and lighting (was getting some bad crashing which took me a while to figure out)
- Some ladders are acting weird, reposition ladder points
- Bug fix for missing skybox building textures (thanks Exotetere for reporting this)
- Cubemaps in some areas are still having issues. This is also because some areas have had their brushes split into more subsections which causes inconsistent cubemaps across different surfaces.

Beta 3 upcoming changes/fixes:
- Finish detailing "Train Depot Lab" room
- More details to Spawn Building warehouse and adjacent rooms
- Begin remodel of Atlantic second floor
- Adjustments to spawn floor

Future version wishlist:
- Night version of the map (lighting and skybox update, everything else layout wise would still be the same)
- Underground Tarkov inspired "Labs" area under the spawn building
- Rework of the XCCR interior design
- Optimization improvements when outside in the train yard
- Consistent lighting and coloring in regards to the color correction tuning

Community Artwork sources:
https://nebulous.cloud/threads/competition-art-of-the-week.375/page-20
https://www.reddit.com/r/gmod/comments/2dudjw/the_only_easy_day_was_yesterday/
https://gtm.steamproxy.vip/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=745541768
https://www.reddit.com/r/gmod/comments/bmgtlj/hl2_hide/
http://fcstudio.weebly.com/creation.html

Howdy folks,

I know it's been a while since any word or information on updates since my last project. I'll elaborate more on that later if you're interested in what I've been up to in life.

Anyway I'll get right to it. I've had a Version 3 of both versions of Scrap Metal, as well as many nearly Workshop ready maps ready to release this summer from past projects and other incomplete maps I've dabbled with over the past few years. I'll be more than likely working on getting these ready for release in between my internship hours. I know I'm usually in Valve time when I say♥♥♥♥♥♥like this, but I've finally learned more about proper level design workflow and productivity methodologies I've gleaned from my software development experience.

A little history about Version 3 of Scrap Metal. After the initial feedback and response to the ZS version across many servers, I'd planned many balance changes and fixes to make the map more balanced for humans and zombies. I ended up overthinking a lot of the issues and ended up not being happy with the final result of Version 3 (which I handed out to a select few but never publically released). I had a finished version (albiet never playtested in an actual populated server) completed in Sept. 2016 but ended up scrapping the map and didn't touch it for nearly two years, until a few workshop subscribers got me motivated to pick it up again. This was in Sept./Oct. of 2017, and I'd made a lot of progress but then stopped working on the map due to being busy with college. I'm grateful for all the feedback and criticism given to make these maps better.

Now, I'm happy to annouce Version 4 of both the ZS and GM version of Scrap Metal! This update brings some more optimization and detailing changes, along with more routes, room balancing, and other gameplay changes for the ZS version. I had no idea I'd learn so much more about Source level design in the past 5 years, and while my main career focus and learning is on programming, I just can't resist the creative elements that Source and Garry's Mod bring.

Now in terms of release, I'm hoping for sometime before the end of the year, but with the recent death of NoxiousNet, I was planning on making some custom assets for a little tribute to the server that started it all. Version 4 is nearly done and there are a few new things I'd like to add.

I know I've said it a bunch, but thanks again everyone for your support on this map. I read all of the comments and I love hearing your stories on what you do in the map and I'm glad to see many have enjoyed the map throughout the years.

More info to follow throughout the summer and coming months.

Thanks,
Kawoofish