CP Mangroves

LeSwordfish

semi-trained quasi-professional
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Aug 8, 2010
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Cp_Mangroves, by Tom "LeSwordfish" Field

Mangroves is a swamp-themed CP map, with three linear control points. The first point is tucked into a small building, with attackers crossing the open space of a river ford. The second point perches above a swamp. The bulk of the health and ammo in this section is down in the mire, forcing attackers and defenders to retreat into a severe height disadvantage for their healing, being forced to make the sacrifice of getting their boots all muddy. Point C is in a spytech base, with several good sentry positions, and limited routes to it. Height advantages are key throughout. It has a sewer. Everyone loves sewers.

Pictures below. Lots of pictures.

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Uses the Void'n'Rexy'n'Valve computer screens prop, and the swamp pack stuff, plus the construction flatbed. So, props to them. Geddit??!!??

Yes, the Cp_MANNgroves pun has occured to me.
 
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The_Ulf

L6: Sharp Member
May 26, 2009
399
115
Oh man I love it. D:

The outdoor lighting seems to tend to awkwardly dark shadows, though (behind the rocks in that back-of-A screenshot, for example). Might wanna play with the environment light or throw in additional light sources around some of those gameplay areas.
 

Jeremy

L11: Posh Member
Oct 24, 2010
829
299
Some of the rocks in screenshot two are leaning too much. It doesn't look right.
 

REEJ

L420: High Member
Aug 26, 2010
437
176
1. This disappearing chunk is too often visible from the whole B point area:
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2. Nodraw on the ground
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Pocket

Half a Lambert is better than one.
aa
Nov 14, 2009
4,694
2,579
I see a severe lack of mangroves in this map.
 

LeSwordfish

semi-trained quasi-professional
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Aug 8, 2010
4,102
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That's them thats been turned into logs.

The random popping-in brush and the nodraw face are both bugs. The nodraw face in particular has been annoying me for ages. Hammer shows nothing wrong with that face (its textured and all), recreating the brush doesnt help, and there's no visleaf that fits that shape. The popping-in is due to skyboxes only blocking geometry when theyre in a good mood. These are both annoying, but i felt they werent worth delaying a release for.
 

LeSwordfish

semi-trained quasi-professional
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Aug 8, 2010
4,102
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Updated to A1b!

- Lowered health+ammo throughout
- Raised lights
- Added a sign+ an extra route out of the swamp at B
- Changed the glass
- Dodged the issue on a nodraw face
- Additional resupply lockers for blu

I (and, seemingly, everyone else) dislike A, so that is due remaking. For now, have bug fixes.
 

Sergis

L666: ])oo]v[
aa
Jul 22, 2009
1,874
1,257
That's them thats been turned into logs.

The random popping-in brush and the nodraw face are both bugs. The nodraw face in particular has been annoying me for ages. Hammer shows nothing wrong with that face (its textured and all), recreating the brush doesnt help, and there's no visleaf that fits that shape. The popping-in is due to skyboxes only blocking geometry when theyre in a good mood. These are both annoying, but i felt they werent worth delaying a release for.

skyboxes never block geometry. skybox stuff is always rendered behind nonskybox stuff. youll have to either put something in front of the stuff that shouldnt be seen (so its blocked) or rearrange optimization and geometry a bit so that "stuff that shouldnt be seen" is not potentially visible from the "location from where it shouldnt be seen" (so its not rendered at all).
 

grazr

Old Man Mutant Ninja Turtle
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Mar 4, 2008
5,441
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LeSwordfish

semi-trained quasi-professional
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Aug 8, 2010
4,102
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Right.

At least part of the reason blu had it so hard was that both teams had a equal respawn time, the default, thanks to me being a total lazy incompetant cock. A forward position like grazr suggested is also on the cards, (i'm thinking similar to the building just after dustbowl 2-1, the one with the window) plus some kind of route from the lower to upper level at C.

The capture time at a has been dropped slightly: i'm doubtful about this.

The problem wasn't about being forced OFF the point, it was that they couldnt get ON it.

Which is what she said.
 

LeSwordfish

semi-trained quasi-professional
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Aug 8, 2010
4,102
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Right. A3 is compiling now, should be up in half an hour or so. EDIT: Now up. Da-Daa!

Forward position for blu, ("the grazrhut" added).
Point A made larger. Its now comparable to dustbowl or goldrush, though smaller than both.
The ability to ambush players on the point with a sentrygun and the large door is now gone.
Ammo between A and B added.
Cover at B trimmed.
Approach to C- cover tweaked, route to balcony added.

My main goal was to draw a small amount of combat away from the points and into the transition areas. It felt too much like as soon as A was taken, red fell back to defend B from the point, and as soon as C was taken, they fell back to the final room. Hopefully the rearrangement of cover should entice some actual combat in these areas.

Since there was about four months between closing this mid-version and opening it again, I've completely forgotten what other ideas i was working on. (I do have a notepad, but its for the A2 of Levee), which means its even money that there's something unfinished in here, like i've taken all the health in the sideroutes out and not replaced it, or something.

Pictures will be updated tomorrow. Or not. You aren't the boss of me.
 
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Psy

The Imp Queen
aa
Apr 9, 2008
1,706
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There are a lot of issues with this map. The first CP was very hard to cap and there are some pretty huge sightlines around the area, especially along that bridge area to the right of the CP. Also, WHAT'S UP WITH ALL THE DOORS?! It's very confusing having doors which open/close all over the map. Whenever I see a open-able door it makes me automatically think, "I am leaving spawn" or "I am entering spawn".
 

LeSwordfish

semi-trained quasi-professional
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Aug 8, 2010
4,102
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I'm coming to the conclusion that mangroves is a half-decent map put together terribly. A lack of planning early on meant most of the updates have been trying to offset the ridiculous sightlines between A and B. I had started to suspevct this before, but an awful lot of this map needs reworking.

Ah well. So this is what you get when you make shit up on the spot, kids.
 

eddyhartzz

L2: Junior Member
Jul 19, 2010
52
2
Has no-one ever wondered why people are content to walk through other peoples bodily waste through some sewers?
Seems odd to me :p

Otherwise the map looks cool, I like the style, but planning is always good haha, I tend to do near 50 sketches of stuff before I start making something, but I'm really weird about stuff like that, I get confused easily without a plan and it all ends up going wrong ha!

Good luck anyway. :)