[WIP] Arena_offblast

[insta]

Here's some more screenshots of an Arena map I'm working on. It takes place around and inside a hollowed out mesa, both teams are fighting for control of a (somewhat) hidden missile silo.

The red side of the map. You spawn in the lower right corner and can either go directly into the silo or circle around. In the house there's a large ammopack in the bottom passage, and a small healthkit in the main room. The blue side is mirrored, but is in the shadow of the mountain.

The silo and the CP, looking towards blues entrance into it. If you go left (out of frame) on the platform you end up in the house in screenshot 1, the right exit leads to a flanking route. I'd really like a neutral skin on the rocket, but it only comes in red.

The lower area of the silo. Underneath the platform where the CP is you can barely see where the tunnel in the first screenshot leads. These tunnels are mainly there for snipers.
To the right there's a short flanking route with a medium ammopack.

I was thinking of having a "instant win" button where you could start up the rocketengine and fry anybody underneath, but I think it would only be fun the first time it happened.
It's also been suggested having the tunnel-doors closed at first and open once the CP is unlocked, I'll wait and see how the playtests turn out.

Release should be soonish, I just need to get some playtesting done on it, which will hopefully happen during the week. Also need to do some more optimizations.

Hope you like it!
(Sorry for the low graphics settings, I promise to take better screens next time )

 

[TheDarkerSideofYourShadow]

I does look good. I'll be interested in playing it (gameday?). However, the top of your silo in the first ss looks a little off :-/

 

[Scotland Tom]

I'm not an arena map player, but this looks like one that I'd be willing to hop in and try. The concept and overall design looks good and your detailing (especially on that wooden exterior building) looks fantastic.

I do have to agree with TheDarkerSide though, for some reason the top of the silo in the first shot looks a little odd. The only reason I can think that would be is that missile silos house the entire missile and are able to close. So having the missile sticking out of the top is a little strange unless it's actually launching.

My only other suggestion for improvements (based on the screenshots) would be to add some color to the interior. Right now it looks rather dark, gray and dull. It might be nice to spice it up a little more in there somehow.

I'd love to see this appear on a gameday and see how it plays (if I can remember to show up for one). Keep up the good work, insta! It's good to have you with us!

 

[grazr]

I can see this becoming official at some point.

No crits other than maybe round the cliff off at the top where it meets the silo wall. It looks a bit too 'coney' as is. Oh, and since that silo is fairly significant you might wanna add a few more sections to round it out. Maybe 20 pieces instead of 14.

 

[Icarus]

The map looks huge O_O

 

[Scotland Tom]

Due to the awesomeness of this map I wound up featuring it with two other custom maps in my blog today. As I mentioned earlier, this map looks good enough it actually makes me want to try jumping in an arena game just so I can give it some play time.

Is there somewhere people can download the map yet, or are you saving any wider releases for when the map is completed?

 

[Nineaxis]

What's with the name? It'd be a lot better if it didn't have such a weird one.

 

[Scotland Tom]

Well, it's a missile silo so I figured it was the reverse of "blast off."

 

[grazr]

arena_silo would probably do, but.. i imagine that ones taken already.

 

[insta]

Thanks for the comments. I'm gonna try to fix the smoothing-errors on the silo top by putting it into a smoothinggroup. I probably won't change the look of it since I want it to stick out a bit, feels more TF2-ish.

The silo interior I'm trying to keep pretty grey and neutral, but I'll see if I can extend the blue and red areas a bit, then just keep the middle neutral.

New screens coming once I've made a new compile.

 

[MangyCarface]

As I personally hate the arena gametype... is there any chance of a ctf modification at some point? Arena maps usually would make for good ctf maps, as they're not designed for bunkering down a la 2fort.

 

[Scotland Tom]

The silo interior I'm trying to keep pretty grey and neutral, but I'll see if I can extend the blue and red areas a bit, then just keep the middle neutral.

I can understand that. Now that I've had the chance to think about it, perhaps what might be bugging me is the lack of any exterior lighting to brighten things up? Whatever it is, I get the feeling that, even though you've used TF2 textures, it's an area that looks closer to something one might see in Half-Life - all drab and dreary. TF2 usually takes drab and dreary areas and still manages to add some life and vibrancy to them.

Overall it's more of a matter of taste. The interior looks really good, but for some reason it doesn't quite have that TF2 feel for me.

 

[insta]

Beta 1 has been released! Go here for the release thread :
http://forums.tf2maps.net/showthread.php?t=4567

The map is also available from FPS Banana :
http://www.fpsbanana.com/maps/73741

Some screens from beta 1 :

Hope you like the map!

 

[FLOOR_MASTER]

We tried this out a few minutes ago (15v15). It's tough to give feedback for symmetrical arena maps as balance issues are more dependent on player skill, but the map was well-received and looks phenomenal.

I'd love to see this concept adapted to another gametype -- pl or a/d.

 

[Nineaxis]

Played this today, it's a great map, very well done, very well received by players. After a while it got really repetitive, but it's that way with any arena map frankly.

 

[Memento Mori]

I played this yesterday, it was very good looking and played pretty well, although it was something like 15 on each team, so not exactly perfect arena map numbers (I find arena is best with lower teams). I found most people went straight up into the wooden building or camped outside it - some went through straight to middle but they usually died pretty quickly, and I don't think anyone used the top right entrance apart from as an escape route from middle. So the wood building is probably where most deaths happened - and it was very fun trying to airblast people off the edge - perhaps you could remove a bit more fencing?

 

[Sgt Frag]

Got to play a few rounds last night on this one with about 10 players.

Was pretty fun, I died alot just learning the layout but it's very original. Had fun sneaking up and around, dropping in behind the other team on the switchbacks.

One pyro fell off the cliff and hugged it, kindof hung in air about 20 feet down.
Probably should add some insta-death tex, you can do that in Lumberyards pit too, annoying engies build a base down there and camp making rounds last WAY too long.

For the mid maybe add some of those color light models above each side as an easyto see indicator of which side is which. I noticed in the screen you do have the red and blu walls at the top but that's hard to see in game action.
Some bright shiny lights would be easy to see but wouldn't have to discolor the center area alot.

 

[Ida]

One pyro fell off the cliff and hugged it, kindof hung in air about 20 feet down.
Probably should add some insta-death tex, you can do that in Lumberyards pit too, annoying engies build a base down there and camp making rounds last WAY too long.

Here's an idea: Add a trigger_hurt (or whatever you use to kill players that fall off) that goes along the cliffside. I don't like when I die on the way down from somewhere, but if I hit something along the way (ie a cliffside), it makes sense.

I can't say anything else right now because I haven't tried it yet. Is it just me, or hasn't there been a Gameday for quite some time? =(

 

[Caspian30]

LUElinks Scientologist Arena Experience (Run by Geoff/Sargeoff)
IP: 8.9.8.52:27015

You can ask a Mod to change it to arena_offblast, assuming a fair number of people want to play it. It should be on the Map Chooser soon IMO.

Other Customs currently on the Map Vote list
arena_lighthouse_b1b
arena_mach2
arena_sunder_v2
arena_goldtooth

 

[Chilly]

We ran this on our server tonight 7-7. We have a handful of members that can't stand arena maps but they stayed around for it anyway. Everyone really liked it. A lot. I can say without a doubt that it's my favorite arena map.

My single complaint about the map is the door to the right immediately after you exit the spawn, where it leads up the ramp to the middle. With such a short route to the middle, we found that almost everyone was just running up the ramp to immediately begin fighting and demomen were spamming through the middle right away. This is unfortunate since the rest of the map is so nice. My recommendation would be to put a gate on that opening that slowly opens, which would balance out the outside route. Or, block the area below the rocket a bit so demomen can't spam nades to the opposite ramp. Just a suggestion, but it's very minor.

I think a game type that would work very well on this map is a neutral push payload map, like pl_smog. A neutral middle checkpoint and a cap area outside each spawn, plus one at the top of the ramps on each side. Keep that bottom door/ramp blocked until a team gets to checkpoint 4 on the opposite side and then open their gate/ramp for a shortcut. You'd just have to slightly adjust the middle area to allow the cart through, add cart/track entities, and test. I think it'd be an excellent small payload map for people that don't like arena.