So this is something I want to start doing. Reviewing albums from various bands and other artists that I like. Originally I was gonna do this on YouTube but, let's face it, I suck at reviewing stuff orally.

This is how I'm gonna do the reviews. I will review each song separately, then I'll put my overall review at the end. I'll also be rating each song 1-10 on how much I liked it. Finally, I'll be suggesting whether or not I recommend you listen to it or not. Let's do this.

Album: Take A Look In The Mirror
Artist: Korn
Year: 2003
Producer(s): Korn/Jonathan Davis

I am a massive fan of Korn and I love all their work whether it's their classic raw and heavy material, or their latest modern material with some dubstep influences. Take A Look In The Mirror was released November 21, 2003 as a hope to recover from their unfortunately low sales from the release of Untouchables in 2002. The record received many mixed reviews from critics. Korn themselves even considered the album to be "the worst record they ever did" in a 2013 interview. But does that actually make this record their worst?

Track 1: Right Now

Track 2: Break Some Off

Track 3: Counting On Me
Track 4: Here It Comes Again

Track 5: Deep Inside

Track 6: Did My Time

Track 7: Everything I've Known
Track 8: Play Me (feat. Nas)

Track 9: Alive

Track 10: Let's Do This Now

Track 11: I'm Done

Track 12: Y'all Want A Single

Track 13: When Will This End/One


Overall, I have to say this album was a nice return to Korn's raw and heavy sound in their first two albums. The album still has it's low points, but has an amazing amount of high points that are nearly unforgettable. Unfortunately, the band themselves still consider this to be their worst record to date. But I see it as a true masterpiece.

I rate this album 8/10.

Extra thoughts: Unless you are completely demented in the head and don't mind seeing the most disgusting shit ever, STAY AWAY from the official music video for Right Now.

Playlist for the album including music videos (excluding Everything I've Known):
http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLDgiaVwE3PvFXfqDVx25H5jPKXWrjkAdH

Full explicit album (video)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EDTHwoZ4EZ0

If you made it to this point, thank you. Feel free to suggest me anything else, and I'll probably do it.

Can we please stop uploading Christmas maps? Considering the fact that Christmas was nearly 2 months ago. It's almost spring and the only theme in a custom map I've seen at all lately is Christmas. It doesn't matter if you were already working on a Christmas map before Christmas came and you didn't have the time to finish it. Save it for next year, so you can add a lot more to it. Snowy maps are acceptable. However, if they are based around Christmas, then save it for later. Also, if you're gonna come up with a "justified" excuse like "Nukem released TMG Christmas mid-January", then you sir/ma'am are indenial.

This is just ridiculous.

Before I get into this, I just want to say that you do not have to follow each and every word I say in this to make your custom map good. I'm just basing this off of community opinion and what I've seen people react to. Also, I may come back and update this every now and then when I get more ideas.

This is mainly for mappers who really want to improve on their maps and make them better and more memorable.

DO have some inspiration
Inspiration in my eyes is key when it comes to making a really good map. For example, my upcoming map Night Club has a scary and creepy feel to it. This was inspired by the first couple of Zombie maps, Nacht and Verruckt, because they had lots of creepy sounds and stuff that contributed to the horror feel. Of course, your map can have a different inspiration. Like ZK's Prison Mission being inspired by The Walking Dead. Whatever your inspiration is, put it to use, but of course, don't over do it.

DON'T make your inspiration the main focus
Sometimes maps that have been inspired by a movie or TV show or any video game kind of overdo the inspiration. They try to center the map all around the inspiration, and sometimes it even makes you forget that you're playing Zombies. So set some boundaries.

DO have lots of new features
Features are what gives the map an objective, or just add to the fun factor. However, these can make or break a map. Nevertheless, if you want to make your map fun by adding in some objectives, then add some that will fit with the map. You can script some yourself if you have that type of experience, but if you're new, there are countless amounts of scripts and downloadable features provided by other members of the community. However, there are some features that will render your map "unplayable" for some.

DON'T add unnecessary jump scares
We've all played Bridge and we were spooked by the random jump scares (not here to hate), and these kept some players from playing the map. This goes to show that you should only add a jump scare to a map if it fits. If you want to make a map that's creepy and scary, and you just want to have a little jump scare in there, then do it. Unnecessary jump scares are only when it doesn't even fit with the map at all. If your map is bright and sunny, then don't add any jump scares. Also, don't constantly spam jump scares behind every single door of the map. If anything, learn from Rise V2. That map did jump scares correctly and centered them around gullibility.

DO add lots of detail
Detail, above all, is the most CRUCIAL thing when it comes to custom zombie maps. There are tons of tutorials that show you how to work with terrain patching to make grassy hills or dirt piles or whatever you want with a brush. Add lots of xmodels to your map to contribute to your map's theme. If you have CoD4 for PC, download the mod tools for CoD4 and use Tom-BMX's CoD4 Xmodel Mover to add some models from CoD4 to give your map a modern feel. Also you can use Lime to rip models from MW2, Black Ops, MW3, Black Ops 2, Ghosts etc for you to use in your map. However, don't take detailing too far.

DON'T over detail
Never overfill your map with xmodels to the point that it makes it overly difficult to find things. Hobo Ville, for example, made finding the parts to building the power unbelievably difficult.

DON'T overly replicate Black Ops 2
In my opinion, Black Ops 2 completely did everything wrong. One thing that still bugs me to this day is that everyone hated the fact that you had to BUILD the power in TranZit, yet there are map makers that add buildable power to there maps, and they even said themselves that buildable power was a dumb idea. Never do what Black Ops 2 did wrong. Here's a small list if needed

DO have beta testers
Beta testers are the only way to know if your map is complete and ready for release. Make sure that you pick people who will actually find stuff in your map that is broken, glitched out, causes a script error, or overall just breaks the map. Most of the time "beta testers" will just play your map, and complement you on how good you did (trust me I did that once and the map I did it for didn't get positive community feedback). Anyways if the people you picked did not try to find anything broken in the map and just played it to see how you did, I'd suggest dropping them and not letting them beta test again. But if your testers did find broken stuff, FIX IT . Don't just let the stuff that is broken remain in the map just to be pointed out by the community after the map is released. And if you see the lines

If you find any bugs in the map, let me know please

in the release post, then the mapper either didn't have beta testers, or gave the map to people who said they would test the map for bugs, but just played the map and didn't look for anything at all.

DON'T give the "it's my first map so" excuse
This excuse aggravates me like it's nobody's business. In my eyes, it doesn't matter if it's your first map. At this point of time, custom zombies is nearly 5+ years old. We have seen maps that have heavy amounts of detail in them. I don't see how someone could make a less than detailed map as there first map. Never make that excuse. If it's your first map, take the constructive criticism into consideration and pay attention to what people liked, and what people didn't like. 

More to come soon possibly.

Hopefully this helps some of you guys out when you either make your next map or your first map. Also, I didn't make this to offend anyone. If you feel offended somehow, then don't post about it. There is nothing that should offend anyone at all on this.

So about 2 years ago, I made a map called Nazi_zombie_1337 and released it to ZM. The map was just a floating platform with the numbers 1337 floating on the side, 4 wall weapons, all 4 perks behind you, a PaP and box, and some boardwalk to a Juggernog xmodel with a broken trigger. The only custom thing to the map was the weapons and they were all just OP versions of the stock WaW guns. I get chills every time I think about that map. However, I wanted to do a Christmas themed map, so I've decided to sort of remake that piece of shit to something playable.

The map is re-imagined as a snowy hill in the middle of nowhere (I guess Alaska or someshit) with a house and stuff. I REALLY want to go all out with this map. Weapons are my main focus. I want to make sure that this map is fun even with lack of area to explore. I understand that making a map like this is lazy and shows lack of effort, but that's what the original map was.



Weapons for this map will mostly be from the guys over at CFGFactory and a couple of weapons from friends. I may put a couple of WaW weapons in there but I might only put in one. Expect mostly Black Ops 1 weapons though. I will also be making a Christmas themed Pack a Punch camo for the map with some other retextured models such as viewhands to enhance the Christmas feel.

Yes, I'm still working on Night Club. This is just a side project so I can have a little fun and step away from the more realistic and serious feel of Night Club.

Kind of weird for a support topic, but whatever. Anyways, I've developed some inspiration from playing some TMG maps and I kind of want to do some custom pack a punch weapons like they do. The thing is I have no ideas. So that's why I'm allowing you guys to give me ideas on some weapons. It can be any weapon from Black Ops, Black Ops 2, etc. Now don't take it overboard and say "AK-47 that shoots thundergun ammo and when you press 5 it shoots ray gun ammo". You still can if you want to though. I'm not stopping you. PaP names can be included but I've got some ideas for those, it's still an option though. Thanks for your ideas, and have a good one!

So as I am finishing up the soundtrack for Night Club, I'm still wondering how I will be able to add in the actual locations for when the music is cued. I.e. when you walk into a certain area, the musical track is played. Also, providing the sound alias would be well appreciated and whoever helps will have a special shout out in the map as well be added to the credits list. Thanks for helping, and have a good one

Ever since Zomb1e-kllr released the tutorials on how to do jump scares, there have been quite a number of maps that have been using them recently. What do I think of them? I hate them. I have always hated jump scares and I will never stop hating them. Especially when it comes to custom zombies.

Ever since ZK released the tutorials for them, I haven't been able to go into a custom map normally anymore. I've always had to watch a video of the custom map itself just to make sure that there aren't any jump scares, and if there is any, it completely ruins it for me. I for one love scary, horror themed maps but if the map is just a simple map with a jump scare through every fuckin door of the map (I'm looking at you JR) it ruins it completely. Jump scares weren't even an idea until Treyarch did it in Mob of the Dead and Origins, and the way they did it is completely different from how Treyarch did it.

Treyarch's way of activating a jump scare: aiming at a certain point of the map from a certain area with a scoped sniper rifle. ZK's way of activating a jump scare: walking through a fucking door.

If you're gonna make a scary map, don't fill it with a bunch of jump scares and not even fucking take pride with it. Learn from Chromastone10 and add scary sounds and effects and design the map how a scary map should look. What do you guys think?

So I got the Cod4 Blackkit viewhands working in my map I guess...



This happened and the weapons aren't in the view hands and it feels like I'm tall as hell and can see through walls.
Help pls

Well, I'm very happy to announce that I have some progress made with this map and enough to make a W.I.P.

Do NOT ask about release date or for an early download link

Story info and other stuff can be found in the map idea post:
http://ugx-mods.com/forum/index.php?topic=3574.0

Images

Spawn room


Main room of the Night Club


Another shot of the spawn room and some outside of the map detailing


Some more outside of the map detailing (Die Rise vista buildings and Mob of the Dead vista mountains)


And a little friend to watch over you


Updated night club room


BO2 Double Tap II perk machine


CoD4 Specular images removed


New area


New PaP camo and more outside detailing


Planned features:
MW2, MW3, BO1, BO2, Ghosts, CoD4 weapons
Objective based ending
New characters
Some small Easter Eggs hinting towards the main story line
Custom round transitions and game over song
Dynamic soundtrack
Perks from Black Ops 1/2

Weapons list

Credits:
ZK - Mapping tutorials (Trust me there are no unnecessary jump scares in the map, and there never will be)
Jzob123 - Ray Gun Mark II, Mapping tips, Honey Badger model
Tom-BMX - Lime tool, CoD4 Xmodel Mover, Mapping support
Nav69 - Getting me Black Ops 1/2 with DLC
TMG Quizz - Weapon sounds
Tito - Black Ops 2/MW2 weapons
Elfenlied - Skorpion EVO anims
Rorke - Black Ops 1/2 weapons
MrMELUSIN - BF3 PP-19, Ghosts P226
ConvictioNDR - MW2 weapons, M1927
Sanya - MW2 weapons
Koene007 - MK22, AK74u models

Also, a fan-favorite wonder weapon from Black Ops 1 is returning

Load screen
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G3GiaC0otkk

Soundtrack (Not Complete)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v6rxAaAxqgI

Hope you guys are excited for the map!

How would I setup a texture to where in game it would glow?

I'm not able to find the sound files for the dlc3 characters in raw/sounds. Where are they located?

I'm just having a lot of problems with CFG Factory weapons aren't I?
So, I ported the Vector from CFG Factory and after I changed everything to make sure the weapon would load in the map, I got the 400 fx assets error. I will admit, I almost had an aneurysm (yeah these errors are really starting to piss me the hell off). So I used Addicted's 400 FX limit error fix, and jei9363's fix to try and fix the issue. The map I'm putting the weapon into doesn't use many fx at the minute so I removed a lot of useless FX. But even after all of that, I'm still getting the error. Someone please help me before I unplug my whole computer, toss it out a window, and just sit on my living room couch and think about political stuff.

I ported the USP from CoD4 and when I ADS it doesn't exactly ADS. It just zooms in and it still looks like it's hip firing. How do I fix this?

So I tried to port a weapon off of CFG Factory into my map, I did modify the weapon file to be compatible with WaW and I added it to "_zombiemode_weapons" and "dlc3_code" and included it in my mod.csv but when I build the mod I get this error

failed loading 'sp/zombie_mtar' of type 'weapon' found in source file '../zone_source/mod.csv'
	failed loading 'sp/zombie_mtar_upgraded' of type 'weapon' found in source file '../zone_source/mod.csv'

The weapon does not appear when I do give all, or if I give myself the weapon alone.
Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks for helping, and have a good one.

Do you need to use Call of Duty 4 in order to put weapons from CFG Factory into your map?