Aqualands

OlafK

L2: Junior Member
Sep 12, 2009
55
16
CP Aqualands is a map that is set in a canyon with a river going through it. At least that's what I think now it will be. Simple 3 CP map, Gravelpit style.
 
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Dr. ROCKZO

L8: Fancy Shmancy Member
Jul 25, 2009
580
159
It's very open, that may change with further versions naturally but that's something you'd want to look out for. Looks Good!
 

OlafK

L2: Junior Member
Sep 12, 2009
55
16
Yeah, I plan to add some cover at the corridors opening and in corners. Some buildings, some displacement wells + wooden walls and some niches in the rocks on the boundaries of areas, but I haven't planned exactly what to place and where. And d'oh I've of course forget about pickups and func_respawnroomvisualizer. a1a coming in few hours.
 
Aug 10, 2009
1,240
399
Well for the cover #1 priority is to cut off major sightlines, but also they can really compliment the flow of the game, so consider channeling common paths with displacements and wood walls, and blocking sightlines with the large rocks.
 

Spammish

L3: Member
Jan 2, 2010
117
34
It looks quite detailed for an a1, not necessarily a problem but it may make it a little more difficult to make any changes you will be inevitably making, overall alot of the points seem quite nice but open, more indoor or narrower enclosed areas or even just more cover by props would help the close combat classes to shine in these areas. Also, is this a gravelpit type attack-defend map? The a-b-c signs seem to suggest so but from the screenies (which would be better if slightly farther out for most of them) I can't imagine how it's laid out, an overview would make this much clearer. There also seem to be a few large, wide, plain areas which 1. look boring 2. will probably give uninteresting gameplay, and 3. may give snipers an unfair advantage. Try adding some props or walls to break up sightlines and add another dimension of height as well as prettying up the area a little, although obviously this will probably all be altered through your alphas. On a final note, all your rooms seem a little square. P.S. If you don't know how, it's "cl_leveloverview" and then put a number afterwards to determine your scale to fit your whole map in :D
 

OlafK

L2: Junior Member
Sep 12, 2009
55
16
Well, in my opinion main problem with Gravel Pit is the map being unbalanced. While A & B are extremely closed, C is extremely open. A is far away from both spawns, and B is close to both spawns. A is easy to capture when BLU team gets an advantage, and usually don't worth defending when they start capping it. B, on the other hand, is even more closed than A, and because of this often ends as a turtling spot and choke point. C is very open and caps very fast and a single stickyjumping Demoman, rocketjumping Soldier or a Scout sneaking in can win the game.

I've tried to kinda reverse that, by making A & B open, and C closed, thus hard to break in, but when accomplished, the result is overall victory. Of course, some cover is always needed, but a) not too much b) map is still in development. So, that's my point of view. Of course thanks for any feedback that I've gotten and that I'll got in the future.
 

Spammish

L3: Member
Jan 2, 2010
117
34
Thanks for the overview, really clarifies what I was worried about, it seems like there's going to be very little conflict between points, it almost seems like a 3 stage, 1 cp attack-defend map from this. As in it would be cap a, move on, cap b, move on, cap c. I just think it needs more to it, compare the size and detail of gravelpit a, it may be too far from red and thus much harder to defend but you'll notice that the actual cap takes up only a small piece of that area, you can then take 2 routes, one that passes by c via a building (rather than a passage like it appears to be on yours) that allows decent combat or you can go right through a shorter (possibly wider) passage that then opens onto b which is much like your c but with more cover and levels of height. Your areas seem to just simply be squares with very little height variation and more cover is still needed. These are just a few things that I would change if it were my map but feel free to just pick and choose ones that you feel are right, you're the one who has the idea of what it should be like. Before I leave you I have few things, you seem to say that gravelpit (a map that personally I love although do feel A should be made a little easier to defend) is unbalanced because the first points are closed and the last are open, I fail to see how this affects balance, only the required classes and strategy. Also, you say that A is far away from both spawns when the general balance goes like this; A and B are close to blue, C is much farther but blue have the advantage of multiple entrances and flanking points. Your A is much closer to blue than red, your B looks about right although a playtest will tell and your C is close to red as it should be, overall, the main thing I think when I look at your map is the varying types of lack of depth, whether it be structurally, differences in height, cover and such, it's got a long way to go. I criticise because I love :D
 

OlafK

L2: Junior Member
Sep 12, 2009
55
16
Well, A was actually made to be easier to cap, and it caps faster, but gives less time to the clock and opens smaller gap in C building. This was made because I originally planned to let BLU cap only A or B, and thus give them a choice - more time on clock and more attack space, or easier cap with more probability of success? I scrapped that idea, but its reminiscent are still in. Now about the lack of height variation and squarish rooms, I'll try to work more harder on it when I actually establish sizes of rooms, but I'll work on it now too. Some more buildings, some rocks, some height variation, all kind of cover and boredom-breakers.

On a side note, I'm in GMT +1, so it's 3 AM here, please don't mind if I say write some meaningless gibberish or stupid things. :O
 
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Bermuda Cake

L9: Fashionable Member
Feb 20, 2009
679
480
looks good but you might want to find a better way to connect the points, I can see the conflict taking place in between the points rather than at them
 

Gromaster

L1: Registered
Sep 25, 2009
2
0
I think that maps called "Aqualands" shoud have some more water on it. Also, there's too mush tunnels. You can replace one of them with simple, small canyon. And returning to water, near B is great place to the huge waterfall.
 

OlafK

L2: Junior Member
Sep 12, 2009
55
16
Well, I'll add more water soon. Waterfall, nice idea, I've planned the water near B to be simple slow river, but I'll take that into consideration. :)