PL Mesaworks Final

Really liking the detail on the map FSG! From the screenshots it looked like the detail was too much all-over and potentially distracting, but in-game it was pretty dandy.
- Are you using color correction? or just cool hdr for the white glowy effect on things?

I'm curious, how far away did you have to place the moon in your 3D skybox in order to make the parallaxing not noticeable?

Why is that in your regular gameplay space instead of a 3D skybox?

More info here.

Ah, I see. It was that one side view throwing me off.

See, now, if env_sun weren't locked into drawing in additive mode, you could have done it with that instead. Silly Valve, always making things less elegant than they could be.

This map is very pretty. You really know how to detail.

The ammount of details,paths,ammo/health distribution,sentry spots,spawns...

Everything,is just so beautiful. Probably a little bit laggy (crappy computer,you all know that),but still,it's wonderful.

And the eclipse? God,the eclipse. Making the map darker as BLU keeps getting the points.

Seriously,it's a wonderful and really well thought map. Hopefully I can reach this kind of level too... And everyone else,of course.

Keep your the good work,sir,because you deserve all the good things in the world.

I feel like the lighting on this map should be considerably darker, especially during the eclipse.

I just gave it a run through... I have a lot to say.

First, the eclipse.

I'll need to first try to explain my reasoning here. In Valve maps, they occasionally have Gimmicks like the eclipse. Nucleus has the... thing in the middle that the teams are fighting over. Doomsday has the teams fighting over the missile. And besides those, Valve likes to include a story of some sort with most of their maps in some way. Something that explains why the teams are fighting here and why.

I don't get that on your map. Not every map needs or has that, but when you include something like the eclipse, it just begs the question: why?

Why is it there? How does it effect the "story" of the map. Is one team trying to harvest the eclipse in some way? Did red cause it via voo doo or something and now blue is trying to stop it? Like, I see there are some solar panels, but why would blue be trying to blow up solar panels during an eclipse? Those solar panels are going to be less productive during an eclipse. If some weird energy is going to come from the eclipse and be absorbed by those panels, there's no indication of that anywhere. There's a complete lack of real narrative.

Alright, now for other stuff... This will all be speculation, as I haven't played the map, but take it as you will.


These supports look like the soldier tried his hand at being an engineer. They make no sense. Also... see that bulb on the right. You way, way, way too many of those just attached to walls. It looks weird.


Really really weird.

And speaking of Lights, you just have too many of them in general in places that make no sense. Like here:

How are there lights under this? Why are there lights under this? You have plenty (too many) lights in this room already. There's no indication of where to go visually besides the red arrow. And then there's another arrow on the right. Two arrows + too many lights = very confused player.


I walked right by that door multiple times. I had no idea it was usable. Like, I'll be the first person to say that a map being complicated is not always a problem. Complicated maps can be fun, but they just take time to learn. However, your map's layout isn't particularly complicated but the frankly schizophrenic detailing makes it feel like it is. Like when you leave red's first spawn you get this:



You have two doors and a control point within view of the player. Both those doors are inoperable, but the player will be attracted to that glowing red point. Why are there two doors? Why do we see a point if it's not important in the moment? There's just so many pieces of detail that feel like they could be indicative of affecting player agency, but they're not. It immediately causes me to question whether or not certain parts of the map are even there for a reason.




This is one area. This is the amount of detail I'd expect spread across an entire map, not one area. You have so many things going on here. There is a water tank on top of a tin roof, something that seems entirely physically impossible. You have at least a half dozen fans, but also an air conditioning unit. What is that metal box with tubes coming out of it?

This is also a good example of way, way too many lights. You probably need a third of what you have here. When I got feedback from Valve for Corrode, their main criticism was that I did not use lighting effectively. I needed to use it to draw attention of the player to places of importance. I am going to say the same thing to you. It is not important to light up the track. The track is an obvious point of interest, but it is important to light the areas where players are going. Places where they can get a vantage point or destination points of where the cart is going to go.

But it's not just lighting that attracts players, it's details. Special areas that feel unique that feel like places with a purpose. Your map is just so chock full of props, detail brushes, pipes, cliffs, windows, superfluous balconies, lights, ect. that no where feels particularly special. In fact, the places that felt most special were the areas outside the gameplay area, the detail areas in or near the skybox.

That's because those areas had the most amount of coherence, almost seemed to have a purpose. And most of them accomplished that by not overdoing the detail and keeping it concise and relevant.

Alright, I'm sorry if this is harsh but it's something I've tried to learn a lot while detailing my own map and something even I need to work on. However, I think, besides the lack of narrative, you could just reduce the gameplay area detailing significantly, have better choices of lighting, and the map would improve greatly. The narrative would certainly increase it, but I can't honestly give a true opinion of the map until I actual play it.