(Haven't tested this fully in game yet, mainly just looked around in Noclip.website and wanted to give my feedback from a game dev perspective)
Hmph, this is a tough one. Casting aside any differences looking at this I will say I admire the cute little details in spawn and the overall style you're going for, but I feel that this map could still use some more time in the oven before RC1. I admire FGD's props as he does do a good job, but I feel it may be good to aim for making some core brush props into props before all. The main bulk of props and detailing is in spawn or areas most players won't look, while at places in the actual map there are blocky placeholders or brush models that kinda take me out of things.
It's usually best to try and make big key structures and assets that are in areas players traverse the most the ones you tackle first. That way you can trick the player to see the map as more detailed while hiding the smart little tricks out of sight. Once you have your main props then you can do little funny easter eggs and such.
The detailing is serviceable and there are good looking pois, but I feel that there's a kind of odd feeling when I play where it just doesn't feel polished enough, but at the same time overly polished too? Is that the right way to say it? I guess part of it may be the map just looking a bit cluttered and overdetailed. I am having troubles focusing my attention when at ground level and it's just making me claustrophobic and overwhelmed (and this is coming from someone who loves compact and filled spaces haha)
Now not to detract from the bulk of cool geo, there are some cool pieces of brushwork and the bulk of mid's design I can say is cool (although doesn't stand out as much as the blockout did, idk why lol). But just going around the map just feels a bit confused in some of the detailing I think, and some revisions going forward may be needed, but I could see it genuinely looking rather good after some more work!
The road texture itself I thought looking quite neat ,although I will say both roads felt out of place and may need some more work, plus some of the building locations feel a bit odd placement wise, but is not something that's easy to change now eh?
(Now this is odd to kind of give full feedback as Noclip.website doesn't load them so I'm going off some glimpses elsewhere) I feel the particles and misc assets you mentioned were created in the update just feel a bit... underwhelming? No offense to Pinewabble as I do love the stuff they create! But the dust and such that was hyped up I kinda just feel a bit let down compared to what I could see really working well in this map. Now I will say what is there does work for it's purpose, but could just be a tad more worked on, you know? Maybe make it a bit grander and try going more out there, play it less safe. Maybe try creating a higher resolution dust particle from scratch and use it to make the dusty mist in the skybox and have it more closer to the ground and have it like a hazy fog. That would look sick imo!
The 3D skybox I think throws me off out of all of it, it looks out of place in the map to where (I'm really sorry to say this, please don't take it the wrong way but) I just feel it looks a bit amateurish :(
Now there could always be more work you plan to put in on it of course, but as it stands right now I'm just not too keen you know?
I did test this a bit and experienced a bit of performance issues but not enough to make it unplayable. Loading was kind of long both in game without custom assets mounted, and in Noclip.website. Texture usage was good, I'm not much of a fan of the skewed and stretched textures everywhere but it's serviceable and there's only a few visible nodraws, but I feel you may want to tone down the browns a bit. I know it's what the map is going for but it just feels a tad dark and (apologies for the terrible way of saying it) but I feel it's currently a bit more of a GTA 4 in the visual department with the browns on everything, when it needs to be more a GTA 5 in visuals... you know?
....
Ok that was a terrible analogy but you get it right? lmao
Now I will say I do commend the work here and it is still quite a feat. It's not quite up to the standard I usually expect from the map makers, but as a map I could still see quite a few community servers picking this up most certainly!
I hope you can implement some of this feedback in future updates to this and I can see some community servers picking this up for sure. This would make a great friendly map or trade server map!
Can't wait to see which other projects you two go on to make yourselves and I hope you can learn off this feedback for the future! Keep on mapping!!! :D
