snowsquall

Gerbil

aa
Feb 6, 2009
573
846
I made this map because I wasn't happy with clocktower. So I hope you guys will enjoy the new map I made, ctf_snowsquall (if the name is taken, I'll change it in the next alpha. I couldn't find any other map with this name)

This is a normal ctf map. Which hopefully will be more fun and less grindy than clocktower.

"Backstory":
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BLU and RED both fight for control of the supply passage between their factories. And the only way to do so is to steal the other teams satellite-batteries(intel) and use them to power their own satellite station.


Special thanks:

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- The swamp team for the great new skybox texture sky_fever_01.
- Ravidge for the lighting library.
- The TF2M community for the tutorials and such.
- Sinistar for the skybox tree models.
 
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nik

L12: Fabulous Member
Aug 14, 2009
987
564
I can't even get my 1 map out...

HOW DO YOU GET 2 OUT
 

Gerbil

aa
Feb 6, 2009
573
846
After the 1st test of clocktower I started working on a backup map in case the map sucks. I had a lot of free time D:
 

nik

L12: Fabulous Member
Aug 14, 2009
987
564
After the 1st test of clocktower I started working on a backup map in case the map sucks. I had a lot of free time D:

I'm halfway towards getting an alpha1 out for my contest entry lol.

how long did this take you?
 

Rikka

L5: Dapper Member
Feb 10, 2009
208
388
The opposing intel area was fairly easy to hold with a demo and a two alternating engineers together. That's not so bad when you consider it took three players, but you might want to look into making it less friendly in that regard.

And while it never really got a chance to show in-game, I wouldn't be surprised to see that the top of the bridge ends up being extremely powerful.
 

MrAlBobo

L13: Stunning Member
Feb 20, 2008
1,059
219
I like how effective offensive engie was, especially in contrast to the defensive engie not getting too much done. It was only 30mins so I don't have that much to say...
That full ammo pack at the top of the stairs when your on the way to the point from spawn in the most direct path should probably be shrunk to a medium, made it far too easy for me to get a forward base up. The other part was that there seemed to be a large chunk of the map that I never even used, might mean you can afford to cut out some paths out if it becomes an issue. And...last, I found the layout of the spawn very confusing, choose between 2 doors, then see a room with a door, or a door with a ramp. Regardless every time i exited I started going the wrong way before I saw something familiar.
 

Void

Local Man Unable To Map, Sources Say
aa
Sep 14, 2008
1,865
2,972
Oooh... sky_fever_01 seems to work in lots of situations - even outside the Swamp theme!
 

Gerbil

aa
Feb 6, 2009
573
846
It really does. I tested it because I thought it would look funny on the map but it turned out great. Thanks :p
 
Apr 19, 2009
4,460
1,722
Wait wat noentry textures in the spawn!?
wtf2.JPG

At first I though I could open this door.
nogo.JPG

Sniper linessssss
line1.JPG

line2.JPG

line3.JPG

line4.JPG

line5.JPG

Clip these:
sniper.JPG

clip2.JPG

Ach ze green it is so ugly
ugly.JPG
 

lana

Currently On: ?????
aa
Sep 28, 2009
3,075
2,778
I only played for a little while but I didn't realize you could get on the bridge until the very end. Otherwise, it felt somewhat good. For some reason it just didn't flow for me.
 

Gerbil

aa
Feb 6, 2009
573
846
Updated to A3. Blocked off the major sightlines along with a bunch of minor things.

I hope I packed everything correctly.
 

sniprpenguin

L6: Sharp Member
Mar 14, 2008
266
258
Aside from what Political Gamer put up about it, I had issues with:

1) Going up to the bridge took one of two overly-long routes: either doing some sort of switch-back out of the spawn, or going to the intel and through a maze of hallways.

2) On the route to the bridge straight from the spawn room, there is a room here. Why? There is nothing in it.
 

Caliostro

L6: Sharp Member
Jul 6, 2009
261
110
First, snow map! wooohoo! I really like snowmap and there are very few of those around. So, kudos.

That said, this map has a serious problem of scale... Especially considering this is a contest entry, technically designed for 6 vs 6...12 vs 12 the map already feels like it was made for giants, let alone 6 vs 6. Start by halving the map, as the layout itself doesn't seem bad.

The other issues are the huge sightlines (which will have to be reevaluated once the map is scaled down) and the excessive use of doors. You put doors seemingly everywhere. There are doors inside the spawn, that seem to serve no purpose whatsoever. Then there's another perplexing door on the bridge area which half the time people don't even notice is a functioning door... You should be very careful when using doors. Doors create a huge "break" in flow and, mostly, should only be used when you need that clear break between 2 areas.

Also there's a dead end near the center, next to the ramp you take to go up to the enemy base whose sole existence confused everyone. Why was it there? It serves no purpose. It's a trap, and players don't like traps.

That said, once you scale it down considerably (and add signs for the love of god) this map has quite some potential, if nothing else because it's using an extremely underused and interesting theme with a fairly decent layout.

Goodluck.
 

Gerbil

aa
Feb 6, 2009
573
846
@sniperpenguin:

Both those issues have been fixed. I've added a staircase up to the bridge from mid and closed off the useless room.

@Caliostro:

I'm not really going to scale the map down completely. But I have added a bunch of things to make the areas more compressed. This should probably help with the scale issue but if not I'll scale it down even more. As I said above, the useless trap room has been sealed off and turned into a detail area. I've also blocked the major sightlines and added signs.

The amount of doors has been cut down. I removed the inner doors in the spawns making the spawn a big room with 3 sections instead of 3 rooms. This should probably help with the flow (there's signs now too). The door near the bridge area was used to cut a sightline from one corridor to the building near the spawn while still being able to move between those places.

I'm probably not going to submit this to gameday anymore until I hit beta. Since I made a lot of changes in the week before the gameday and I feel like the test was almost unnecessary. I'll leave this for impromptu testing.

Thanks for the feedback guys. :)
 

Psy

The Imp Queen
aa
Apr 9, 2008
1,706
1,491
One thing that baffled me in this map is how you split up the spawn area with a door which opens and closes. What is the purpose of this? It only makes it more confusing to leave spawn and to find the resupply cabinet when you come back in.
 

Gerbil

aa
Feb 6, 2009
573
846
One thing that baffled me in this map is how you split up the spawn area with a door which opens and closes. What is the purpose of this? It only makes it more confusing to leave spawn and to find the resupply cabinet when you come back in.

As I said above, the doors were removed and signs were added along with some detailing. This should make the spawn much easier to navigate in.
 

Ravidge

Grand Vizier
aa
May 14, 2008
1,544
2,818
I was going to post some feedback in here, like you did for me in my thread.
BUT!
I spent 40 minutes flying around and testing various sightlines, sentryspots, scoutjumps, clips, collisions and whatever.

I could not find anything worthwhile on my own. It looks like a good solid map, there might be a bit too many corridor/tunnel buildings around for my personal taste, but it's not something I can really complain about.
A playtest would show if there's any big flow issues or not, It's not something I can see with just me in the map.

[1]: I love gigantic error signs! Hehe, don't worry about it, just double check next time :D

[2]: Does This door have any role in optimization? If not I don't know what it's doing there quite honestly, I don't see any function except stickytraps on the other side.

Good job man, I really could not find anything else to complain about! :)