[WIP] koth_geese_tower

PenPen

L5: Dapper Member
Apr 24, 2008
207
136
Y halo thar!

I'm currently working on a map called koth_geese_tower. Simply, it's a koth map on top of a tower, and you can fall down from the tower.

The idea is taken from a fighting game called Fatal Fury, where the big baddie is named Geese Howard (wiki him), and you fight him on the top floor of his tower. And when you beat him, your character will knock him off the tower sending him to his demise.

My rendition is based off this stage: [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RQM7XmpSKlk"]YouTube - Real Bout Fatal Fury Terry Vs Geese[/ame] (From a sequel, Real Bout Fatal Fury).

Here's the results so far:
Side-top down view
A closer look
On the stage

The CP is right in the middle, and after capping the point you'll need to defend it for a total of 5 minutes.

There's also a few elements taken from the original source, namely the uncanny ability to break guardrails.
Before
After
All the outer guardrails are breakable. I'm not sure how it works in multiplayer though, I only did the runthroughs by myself thus far.

The other thing about this map is that after the point is capped, (technically) Geese's ghost isn't willing to give up his tower. So what happens here is...
Raging Storm!
Doesn't look like the best work of art though. But these spikes will throw the players into the air automatically when it's still around. That's one way to access the roof, but it actually damages you as well. To add to the fun, I actually took the soundbite of Geese saying that move's name and gave it a 'whirling' sound effect.

The major problem with the map I have thus far is that I have no idea how to handle the ground floor. Currently I give enough damage to severely hurt a player falling from the tower to ground floor (if the HP is over 100). So yes, it can kill, but assuming the player is still alive, the ground floor has too much open areas and looks pretty crappy.

A glimpse of the worst (yes, I know I haven't ran cubemaps yet)

There's supposedly a teleporting elevator thingy inside the building which takes you to the top floor again for more fun. The building interior isn't even halfway decent so I decided against putting screenies here.

The ground floor also got lighting problems which I think is because the light can't get down there very well. My light-fu is still weak.

There's only one thing that's awesome and I like, and it's the sign on the front door of the tower.
It's what it is

So what should I do here? Just kill off the player during the fall and respawn from the room, or improve the ground floor?

Also about the surrounding buildings - I've yet to add details because they're a part of the skybox. And yes, I know, these are HL2 textures. I don't like them that much either, but TF2 doesn't have much skybox building textures to work with. They'll look better eventually.

Any further comments/suggestions are welcomed. I'm still pretty green in this mapping business but I want to make this at least decent. Thanks in advance.
 
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Sgt Frag

L14: Epic Member
May 20, 2008
1,443
710
Well, it sounds like a unique map.

The choice of props is strange to me though (didn't watch vid), but big rocks growing out of boxes seems weird. Might be better just to use the chemical tanks, etc... You know building type props. Vents, etc...

I think gameplay is gonna be hectic as it seems like a fairly small area and a team had to hold it for quite awhile. So I think falling off the building and being able to survive is probably best.

Elevator should be fine but put some detail down there as players would probably see it alot. Make offices with glass windows you can see into in the hallway going to elevator...

Use TF2 tex on your skybox, then use tex scale lock and shrink it all down. I think that should be fine. But the bottoms of buildings where players are should be world spawn not skybox. Stickies won't stick to skybox even though they bounce off. Burn decals from rockets won't show either.

Put lights down below. You can fake diffuse lights if you give them a very large radius for the 0% value and very small for the 50% value. Make them real bright. Basically don't let the 50% radius touch any surfaces so it doesn't leave a hot spot. Light everything with the 50-0% value, it'll be alot softer.
 
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Géza!

L4: Comfortable Member
May 12, 2008
183
40
And replace the HL2 textures... I see them on the surrounding buildings. Otherwise fine. :D


(There are some office building skybox props from Well, use them.)
 

PenPen

L5: Dapper Member
Apr 24, 2008
207
136
Well, it sounds like a unique map.

The choice of props is strange to me though (didn't watch vid), but big rocks growing out of boxes seems weird. Might be better just to use the chemical tanks, etc... You know building type props. Vents, etc...

Thanks for the feedback. The original stage actually has buddha statues on it, but I'm not going there. So as a placeholder, I put rocks instead. Now that you mention it, it does look rather strange. Maybe I can change whatever that's holding the rock into something more acceptable.

Elevator should be fine but put some detail down there as players would probably see it alot. Make offices with glass windows you can see into in the hallway going to elevator...

Should the ground floor have offices? I had some problems going ahead with that since office towers usually have a big hall instead of directly getting into officespace. I'm trying to make a big hallway for now.

Use TF2 tex on your skybox, then use tex scale lock and shrink it all down. I think that should be fine. But the bottoms of buildings where players are should be world spawn not skybox. Stickies won't stick to skybox even though they bounce off. Burn decals from rockets won't show either.

Put lights down below. You can fake diffuse lights if you give them a very large radius for the 0% value and very small for the 50% value. Make them real bright. Basically don't let the 50% radius touch any surfaces so it doesn't leave a hot spot. Light everything with the 50-0% value, it'll be alot softer.

These two points sounds awesome, I'll start working on scaling with TF2 tex and lighting. Going to have lots of trial and error with lighting though.
 

Sgt Frag

L14: Epic Member
May 20, 2008
1,443
710
Well, I wouldn't say it has to be offices. I was just thinking instead of having a plain hallway a few rooms (behind glass windows) players can't get in would spice it up a bit.
Honestly I don't spend much time in large buildings :)

Maybe a security/reception desk by front door. At very least some doors to make it look more than just a plain hall. Maybe vending machine or something...