KotH Canyon (beta)

VegetableFace

L1: Registered
Sep 4, 2011
8
0
A medium sized KotH map set in a canyon. Players do battle in various buildings suspended in the middle of the canyon with the constant threat of dying a clumsy, painful death. The control point is located in the middle, inside a tower looming above the map. A fair amount of vertical space should make for some interesting movement for Soldiers, Demomen and Scouts while not completely leaving the less mobile classes in the dust.

Sooo, first actual TF2 map I've worked on and released, and I'm fairly happy with it. As I've only been able to test it with bots, I'd appreciate any feedback on the map. Balance issues, visual niggles, whatever really. The map is largely done, but there are still some graphical issues, like tidying up the lighting in places and the water texture needs replacing as it produces some weird visual artifacts at times.

Oh, and if you're interested in including this map in your server rotation, could you let me know? As I said, I've only been able to play with bots so far, and it'd be interesting to play it with actual players for once.
 
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Kiddnils

L3: Member
Sep 2, 2011
140
224
Looks really cool. I am making a map with a canyon style, too. Maybe you could test the map in one of our gamedays?
 

VegetableFace

L1: Registered
Sep 4, 2011
8
0
Looks really cool. I am making a map with a canyon style, too. Maybe you could test the map in one of our gamedays?

Hey, thanks! I usually love canyon-ish maps in games so always fun to hear more people are doing it.

Aaaand I didn't realize you guys had gamedays like that. Sounds pretty neat, def gonna try and get my map in there someday. Thanks for pointing me in the right way!
 

Wilson

Boomer by Sleep
aa
May 4, 2010
1,385
1,223
First of all, i got to admit, it is way better than most first tf2 maps i seen here.
That doesn't mean there is no issues tough.

First of all, i understand this is canyon, people are going to fall down and there is going to be deathpits. Thing is, almost every route on the map has deathpit around it, making pyros overpowered and making fighting real pain in the ass, because you can't dodge anything without falling to your death.

BFE9B75E4B1BE7C17923C82BBE0F096155041EA0

You forgot to build cubemaps.

4CC996FC9C8DFF6F1126947A5D4B514390A8519C

This spawnroom is really tiny in general and filled with small and big props that get on the way and don't give you much room to dodge any spam that might be coming into spawn room.

0524B16F605F66DF52E20FE16101A61DE60865E7

Why is there minecart on the blu side of the room? Red team has corner their snipers can hide in and shoot everyone on roof areas, but blu doesn't.

1E2374E5DD3D204BB0A1C824CF5C8E8EB7E623D7

Not only does this sign look ugly, it makes no sense. This sure as hell ain't blast complex, it is wooden building built in canyon.

There is one really major issue tough.

E91B6316184C48C0C1EEF5AA329ADBEC539ED5AC

There is no optimization at all, whole map renders no matter where i am, this is really bad.
 
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VegetableFace

L1: Registered
Sep 4, 2011
8
0
First of all, i got to admit, it is way better than most first tf2 maps i seen here.
That doesn't mean there is no issues tough.
...

Alright, thanks for having a look. I'll take another pass later and go through your pointers. Although, I had built cubemaps prior to packing it up with Pakrat. I'm guessing I'll have to pack it up and then run it to build the cube maps correctly?

Okay i have a bit of screenshot feedback.

-You'll want to run it with the advanced lighting settings. Stuff like the rocks and planks will look way better.
-I really dont like that concrete bridge, or the way the train dangles off it.
-I bet you the name canyon is already taken.

Yeaah, I had some issues with the train. Realistically, that last bit shouldn't still be attached. I'll probably just get rid of it, and have that other wagon slightly poke out from the bridge.

As for the bridge, I should probably go for a more metal support kinda thing. The concrete was mainly there to give the blu side a...Well, blu feeling.

Thanks for the feedback so far, guys!
 
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Oct 6, 2008
1,947
445
Where are you getting the rocks and waterfalls from?
 

Fruity Snacks

Creator of blackholes & memes. Destroyer of forums
aa
Sep 5, 2010
6,394
5,571
Where are you getting the rocks and waterfalls from?

Rocks are props. You used them a LOT in your map, so you should have no trouble finding the others (search rock or cliff or boulder)


The waterfalls are props (see sawmill and thundermountain) ... or it can be a texture (don't know where it is)
 
Oct 6, 2008
1,947
445
Yes I DID use them - highlight DID - RC5 is coming out (hopefully soon) and is a major rebuild of the map - rocks now only about 2-5% of the map now. I've seen a lot of rocks, cliffs, boulders, etc and these ones he has looks like they would fit in well with my canyon map - they also look much SMALLER which is something that I can definitely use in my map as all the mining ones appear to be too large.

I completely forgot that sawmill and thundermountain had waterfalls in them thanks!
 

Idolon

they/them
aa
Feb 7, 2008
2,105
6,106
mat_leafvis 3 will show all visleafs visible from your current position, and mat_leafvis 1 will show the leaf you are currently in. Additionally, you can Map > Load Portal File in Hammer to look at the last compile's complete visleaf structure.
 

xzzy

aa
Jan 30, 2010
815
531
mat_wireframe 2 is my favorite, it cuts down on a lot of the noise because it won't draw wires for non-visible faces.

Props are still drawn in wireframe though, so you can see if you have vis optimization issues.