I am the best Counter-Terrorist ever . While most CTs stand at spawn wondering what gun they can afford, I'm standing at cs_office's dank car-park trying to work out the best way to squeeze a rollercoaster track through the collection containers. I'm addicted to bringing fun to a gun fight, turning cs_office's corridors into a ride, bending and twisting my rollercoaster through windows and corridors. Why? And more importantly, how? Read on.
I'll get the 'why' out the way first. Because when I got the chance to thread a thrillride through the familiar surroundings of my favourite CS map, I took it. I wanted to throw up a track that followed through the corridors, that banked and twisted through the windows. You needn't choose cs_office, but this is where I ended up.
That's cleared up, let's address the 'how'. You'll need Garry's Mod 13, the current beta that Garry's been developing for the last year. If you have GMod on Steam you'll now have access to the beta. You'll need it to install the Lua Rollercoasters mod that I found on the Steam Workshop. It's a remarkable building tool that gives you the power of roller coasters, right at the tip of your in-game gun.
At the bottom of the spawn menu's "tools" section is the Rollercoaster Gun. Firing it at the terrain spawns a node. A second shot will create a second node, and between them you'll see the ethereal glow of a potential track. The nodes are turning points and state shifters, where you can have a different track selection between each one. It means one section can be the designated length where carts spawn, while another could be set to speed up the cart. An incline is served by swapping a section of track from 'normal' to 'chained', so anyone riding that section will feel the ratchet of the chain dragging them slowly to the top. It's with these controls that you'll get the feel of the coaster, turning it from a pile of rails into the more familiar changes in speed that coasters deliver.
Nodes can be grabbed with the GMod physics gun, so you're able to alter the placement and height just by yanking up and down. You can change the angle of the coaster's dangle by altering the lean settings in the spawn menu. The system is surprisingly lenient: it allows for the tightest of turns, leaps between multiple tracks, and you can change track states and angles after placing them, so a normal flat sequence can be pepped up by changing the node settings in the spawn menu and shooting at the node: it'll update. There's no loop yet, but I'm hoping in time it'll come.
Dropping a track in cs_office was a test: I wanted to see how tightly wound I could make a track, and if I could fire a cart through a window. I led my track up from CT spawn and out into the little clearing that has a few ways into the buildings. Instead of following any of these, I veer up and through a window, into the office. A few more points drags the cart through the corridors, with the green line passing through the cabinets. I'd no idea if this will stop the cart, or if I'll burst triumphantly through them, and the only test is to launch myself through the offices in it.
I lead the tracks through the cluster of rooms at T-spawn and out the other side, hoping to crash through the large windows near and out into the small courtyard. Except I can't get back in that way: the electronic doors won't open, so I veer around inside the corridors instead, following the building's layout back to CT-spawn.
A top view shows how glorious my creation is. Behold.
Now to test it. This will definitely work.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZS3UtkrLeNw&feature=youtu.be
Hmm. It seems I have come across a design flaw: I built a rolllercoaster in an office. That's probably the reason that my cart crashed, because it was built in an office. No matter how much I fiddle with it, I can't seem to get a clear run through the area at T-spawn. Er, here's one I made earlier. If anything, it shows that there are better maps to try Lua Rollecoasters in.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eMApH917yBg&feature=plcp
