Carbonate

Nov 14, 2009
1,257
378
OK, so this is my first map of all ever on any game engine, ever. It is meant to be a more traditional CTF, as opposed to the many that people here post to "reinvent the wheel". In any ways, I hope its fun, and I could use some constructive criticism in any way that you want to give it! As of right now, there are no extreme glaring bugs, but I never know: I might have missed something, so if there is something obvious just post it here.
Things coming in the next alpha:
-Texturing
-Optimizing
-A new skybox
-A 3D skybox
-Something on the other side of the spawn (another alternate route)
-Clip stairs

Anyways, here it is!

Thanks to Youme for his prefabs pack, thats where the desk scene came from :p

To Do:
-Detail more
-Fix gameplay problems
-Fix weird leaky thing in the red water (geddit? leak in the water?)
 
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Nov 14, 2009
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*Bump*

Its so sad haveing the least amount of posts to my thread on this forum :(

Anyways, I have made numerous improvements to the last version, the most important being to add just about all the textures! For some reason, they were left out of the BSP last time. Anyways, please, someone post!
 

Da_Man

L4: Comfortable Member
Aug 23, 2009
173
39
Submit it to gameday, and you'll get some feedback. Unless it gets played, not a whole lot of people what to change in the map.

However, judging from the screens, your prop placement looks kinda haphazard. In the second screen, there are wooden and metal stairs, RED and BLU crates stacked with each other, cats and dogs living together. Its chaos.

More of a stylistic choice, but I would enclose the rocket in the middle up to the ceiling. If the rocket were to liftoff, everything inside would be cooked to a crisp, where if you were to stick it in a glass box, you could more or less pass it off as super awesome high tech glass. It also might provide enough cover for you to move those crates around.
 
Nov 14, 2009
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Thanks!
I feel like an utter noob, but how do I submit it to gameday?
Thanks for your feedback, it never really crossed my mind with the different colors, and how realistic it might look. I also like your idea of a glass casing!
 

Da_Man

L4: Comfortable Member
Aug 23, 2009
173
39
No problem. To set it up for game day, there is threads for weekly map testing, just stick it in there. Just be sure to follow all the rules. IT's under events on the main forum.
 

sniprpenguin

L6: Sharp Member
Mar 14, 2008
266
258
Jeez, where to begin?

There were a lot of tiny 1-unit gaps in walls and floors. Stop using a scale of 1 in Hammer and make sure that all the brushes line up together.

The boxcars in the middle look very unstable. Move the bottom ones closer.

Some rooms were extremely bright, while others were extremely dark. This is a huge problem. The only real suggestions I can make is that you check for leaks in your map, as it seemed not a whole lot of lights were performing their bounces, and then if that's fine, turn up the brightness of each light (It's the fourth number in the color box aka 255 255 200 500).

Despite the insane number of paths into the flag room, we just couldn't take the flag easily. I don't know if that's a real complaint or not, but the room is very sentry-friendly. Seriously, one sentry on top of the flag can watch the entire area.

The exits out of spawn are literally huge ramps. This felt very weird, especially combined with the fact that the door moved into a brush. Why is this?
 

A Boojum Snark

Toraipoddodezain Mazahabado
aa
Nov 2, 2007
4,775
7,669
I'm not sure if this map is salvageable. It would probably be easier to start over and make sure you use snap-to-grid with a decent grid size (16 or 32 for most stuff). Also, when making water only the top surface should be water material, and all the other faces should be nodraw.
 
Nov 14, 2009
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Thanks for your feedback! Il be watching the demo, and deciding what to do from there. If the intel room really is as bad as you say, I might just start over. Thanks a lot for your feedback about the stuff in the middle, I will do just that with the boxcars. However, the more I think about it, it might just be better to start over with an overall cleaner design and feel. Since this was my first map, many of the brushes are still there from when I was learning hammer.
I have one question from anyone who played it today:
Is the concept in any way good? Or should I just start over with a different one?
 

Ezekel

L11: Posh Member
Dec 16, 2008
818
245
i'd recommend heavily that you start afresh. the problems in the basic geometry of the map are such that you are going to have no end of trouble later on if you continuewith where you are now.

another thing people didn't mention that is important: don't build your map inside a giant empty box - this may mean no chances of leaking, but on the flip side it means that compiling will take longer, and gameplay will not be as optimised as possible.

in regards to layout: i think the overall concept is unfortunately too complex. i'd highly recommend thinking about simplification. the best way to think about it is to look at your map sketch/doodle and think if all the different paths are necessary. usually 2-3 entrances/paths to an important are is plenty. (important areas are things like flagrooms, map centre, the "lobby" area that exists just outside a spawnroom to connect it to other parts of the map, etc). - comparing to valve's maps and popular custom maps is very useful here.
oh one other thing: try to avoid using the staircase models if you can. make your own and func_detail them (select all the brushes of your stair case at once and then press CTRL+T) . it'll be good practise in texture orientation and brush manipulation. just don't forget to make a playerclip ramp to go along with it (to avoidthe bumpy camera affect of going up/down stairs that don't have a playerclip ramp).
 
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Sel

Banned
Feb 18, 2009
1,239
2,570
A Boojum Snark : what are you engineers doing
...
A Boojum Snark : oh, you two
A Boojum Snark : NO WONDER

highlight of the map
 
Nov 14, 2009
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You mean the two under the map? How did they get there anyways?
BTW, I am starting anew, with a space themed map. I hope that it will be better than this one! With Execkl's comment about doodling, it is funny that you mention it, since I have about 10 sketches of the intel room for my new map. And the giant penis rocket in the middle is staying!
 
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Sel

Banned
Feb 18, 2009
1,239
2,570
You mean the two under the map? How did they get there anyways?
BTW, I am starting anew, with a space themed map. I hope that it will be better than this one! With Execkl's comment about doodling, it is funny that you mention it, since I have about 10 sketches of the intel room for my new map. And the giant penis rocket in the middle is staying!

I wasn't aware we were under the map, I just thought it was some path that people would take to get to the flag :S

Though it was a little too well lit, with light props all over the place, so I'm guessing it wasn't?

Anyway long story short no one actually took that path so who knows.
 
Nov 14, 2009
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Yeah, it seemed like no-one took the "main" path to the intel. Maybe it is a sign that I made waaaay too many.