A while ago in the SteamGroup chat, we were having a discussion about themes, and it came to light that half of the maps in tf2 are listed as "alpine", and there was a large disagreement on what exactly alpine is.
So I have decided to break down the official tf2 maps and categorize them by theme.
This page is broken down into 2 sections at the moment. Theme definitions, and a list of gamemodes (sorted by how valve manages it's servers) and an analysis of what themes are overused in what areas (payload+desert comes to mind).
Link to data (google sheets)
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1lC5OGbQiP9gNgyGKKnnO9SN2VbJZDr4ZPYIkXewQs00/edit?usp=sharing
█████████████████████████████████████████████████████
List of Themes
The themes are breifly described in the document, but I shall restate them with greater detail here.
koth_harvest, pl_barnblitz
The farm environment usually contains copious amounts of wood buildings and farm structures. Common motifs include, large slanted roofs, hay, milk jugs, grain-sacks, cows, yellow grass, and other low tech farm tools.
Sometimes combined with Industrial1 or Industrial2.
cp_junction, koth_nucleus, ctf_turbine
The super secret theme of super secret stuff. Most maps have a little bit of spytech in them here and there. Spytech is almost always underground or indoors. Common motifs include round doors, rockets, computers, more computers, big computer screens, maps, desks, tapes, waxed tile floors, decorative gravel with lights in it (why ... idk), and even more computers.
Almost always combined with Industrial3
rd_asteroid
The moonbase theme. Its all white walls with moon computers. What do you expect.
(also see Spaceturf for the non spytech parts of rd_asteroid)
cp_foundry, cp_well, plr_pipeline
Industrial 1 is the basic industrial theme. Common motifs include, trains, shipping containers, large equipment, smokestacks, plenty of bricks and cement, more trains.
cp_gorge, tc_hydro, cp_process
Industrial 2 is a cleaner version of industrial 1. Typically it includes white tile floors, lab equipment, brighter and cleaner white concrete walls, and rockets. The skyboxes for industrial 2 are usually devoid of smokestacks or pollution. Industrial 2 can also be seen as a dirtier version of spytech. This theme is commonly combined with Alpine 1.
cp_gravelpit, cp_badlands, pl_badwater
Industrial 3 is a dirtier version of Industrial 1. It usually includes run down concrete or wood buildings. Things are dirty, barren, and seemingly unused.
cp_dustbowl, cp_gullywash
TF2 has so many kinds of deserts that I had to make it 5 sub themes. This is for dustbowl desert. Dry yellowish rocks sometimes combined with yellow grass. Often includes mining motifs as well as caves and tunnels.
tc_hydro, cp_powerhouse
This is the cleaner desert that hydro takes place in. The rocks and ground have a redish -purpleish color to them.
cp_badlands, pl_badwater, cp_fastlane
This is the badlands desert. By far the most popular kind. It includes alot more terrain variation (hills, dunes, hoodoos, spires) as well as having very orangeish ground and rocks. Usually combined with Industrial 3.
cp_egypt, koth_lakeside
This is the Egyptian desert. It contains way more yellow and almost always has Egyptian styled ruins as main structures.
pl_upward
Similar to other deserts, except the rocks have a low saturation tan color. And there is usually more gravel.
arena_lumberyard, cp_gorge
This is every comp player's favorite environment. It is bright, clear, and has bright yellow-green grass everywhere. Usually includes wood buildings, logging themed stuff, pine trees, a giant fucking mountain, and grey rocks. The other 3 alpine themes are pretty much the same except vegetation color.
arena_sawmill, pl_thundermountain
A damper version of Alpine 1, the grass and mud are a darker color, and there usually are more water featers and/or a rainy atmosphere and skybox.
cp_yukon, pl_frontier
A drier version of Alpine 1, usually has brownish pineneedles all over the ground. Sometimes mixed with desert 5.
koth_viaduct, cp_coldfront
A snowy version of Alpine 1. All the grass is covered but there are still pinetrees and a giant snowy mountain.
koth_kong
It seems that every city map in TF2 has its own theme to it, so there are 4 diffrent urban themes.
Urban 1 is the hongkong-esc. It contains tall buildings, lots of pipes and tiles, hastily translated chinese signs (there is a blue sign on blu side that says "red hotel")
mvm_mannhatten
This theme is a Manhattan esc city (no shit), it includes skyscrapers and older brick apartment buildings.
mvm_rottenburg, cp_degrootkeep
The medieval theme, almost always combined with alpine 1, it includes buildings and details that fit in with a traditional Europe style.
koth_suijin
The classical japan theme. Includes tiled roofs, traditional japanese buildings, pink trees, bullet proof paper walls, the works.
rd_asteroid
Includes white/grey rocks with craters and little rocks floating around. Goes very well with Spytech2.
pl_borneo
Large deciduous trees with lush flowers and ground plants.
█████████████████████████████████████████████████████
Data Analysis
So, lets take a look at the current quickplay catigories and figure out what themes should be pursued and avoided.
Attack/Defense
Attack Defense is actually a terrible first example due to the large variety of themes used.
Themes good for new AD maps Farm, Urban(1/2), and Industrial 2.
Themes to avoid for new AD maps. Spytech, Industrial1, and desert 4.
█████████████████████████████████████████████████████
BEEP BOOP
So, before I go on further, I need your other opinions on this topic. I'm pretty sure many will dissagree with my theme choices, and I would very much like to hear your opinions.
Are any map's miss themed? (is gravel pit dersert 5? )
Are there any themes missing (does mountainlab have enough swampieness to count as a theme?)
Are there any themes that need to be merged?
Any mistakes (I noticed I had egypt set as a 5cp map in the spreadsheet while setting this up)
Also some parts of the sheet (namely the time of day for some maps) isn't fully set up yet, i'll get to that when I have time to.
Do note the purpose of this sheet is to provide insight on what theme a new map could follow. It is not meant to enforce that as a rule, it is merely a guideline. This also isn't meant to discourage the creation of new themes.
Also note that the theme icons aren't final. If this thread gains traction, i'll make some higher quality ones and then poke the mods so see if they could become forum emotes.
tl:dr :: alpine desert industrial WOO THEEMES
Last edited: