So you want to create a battle between yourself and a particular type of enemy? Oh and you say you want the battle to never end? Maybe your after some kind of endurance map? Well, if it's something like that then you've come to the right place!

It's very simple to do this once you know how, and it only took me ten minutes to figure out! Just follow the steps and you'll be on your way to never-ending battle heaven!

1. Start by creating a large room, with enough space for yourself and the enemy to fire at eachother from a distance and such like. Create an info_player_start entity at one end of the room, and place an item_suit and a weapon_SMG1 entity somewhere where the player will be able to get them as soon as you run the map.
   
   
   
   
2. Now create a bunch of obstacles for yourself and the enemy to navigate around and hide behind etc.. Use the brush tool to create some medium-sized walls and such like around the battlefield. By doing this, you're giving yourself and the enemy a more strategic interest in the battle, and will make things more fun!
   
   
   
   
3. Before we make it possible to spawn enemies, we also need to place some info_node entities around the room, to give your future adversaries a way to move around to different strategic positions in the middle of the firefight. Place the nodes around key locations in the room. Make the level with the floor. The best place to have them is one on either side of your obstacles, so the enemy knows where they can hide and take cover to reload etc.
   
   
   
   
4. Now that the battlefield is ready for its battle, we need to create the spawn point for the enemy. Place an npc_maker entity at the opposite end of the room to your info_player_start entity, so that when you run the map, you won't start beside your enemy! Place it at the same height as the info_node entities, so the enemies don't spawn from too high off the ground and die from the fall. Also, make sure that the angle of the entity points toward the info_player_start entity, or the enemy might be facing the wall when you run the map.
   
   
   
   
5. Select the npc_maker entity and open the Properties. Change only the following settings to what is shown below (the settings are self explanatory in the editor):
   
   Name - npc_maker_1
   Start Disabled - No
   Frequency - 5
   Max Live NPCs - 5
   Class Name of Spawned NPC - npc_combine_s
   Children's Name - combine_1
   Children's Squad Name - combine_squad_1
   Weapons - SMG1
   
   (Feel free to change the settings to however you want the npc_maker tp act. These settings are simply guidelines for the specific battlescene I am trying to help you create!)
   
   
6. Once you have done this, open the Flags tab in the properties window, and check the following.
   
   Fade Corpse
   Infinite Children
   Do Not Drop
   
   Right, the settings have been configured for an unlimited stream of Combine Soldiers to come and whoop your ass! But there's still only one problem...
   
   
7. If you run the map now, you might notice that if you crouch and hide, the enemy won't even come looking for you. That's because there's only one guy standing there, he's blocking the way for the other spawners, and he's not going to move from his little spot just to come and get you on his own. So what you need to do, is copy the npc_maker entity, and paste it, so that you have two npc_maker entities, as apose to just one. Now, place the second entity in the same position as the first, just at a different wall (preferably at the same end of the room as the first npc_maker). Once you have done this, go into the Properties for the second npc_maker, and change the Name to npc_maker_2. If you want even more of a challenge, repeat this process for a third npc_maker entity, if you really must.
   
   
   
   Now that you have two (or three) spawn points for the enemy, if one of them notices you, he won't be afraid to come and get you, because he will have the backup of his other Combine buddy. Also, when he moves from his spot, another soldier will spawn there, and when that one moves, another one will spawn in his place, and so on. This should give you a never ending cycle of Combine slaughtering, (unless you run out of health and die!).
   
   

So there you have it! Sorry if it was a bit complicated, (though I tried my best to make everything clear), and I hope this tutorial has served you will in the art of HL2 map-making! Download the 'npc_maker - example map' if you want to get a more in-depth idea of how to use the entity. Read on for some additional ideas that might inspire you.



Why not...

Check out the other settings in the npc_maker properties, you might have already noticed that you can select from a number of different NPCs to spawn from it, the amount of NPCs that can be alive from it at one time, and how long it takes before it spawns another NPC.

By changing the settings in the npc_maker properties, try creating a never-ending battle between Combine Soldiers and Rebel Forces.

Or, try creating a large room, placing an info_player_start entity in the middle, and putting npc_maker entities in all four corners of the room, with the Zombie NPC spawning from each of them. Zombie Attack!!!