CTF Escalante

CTF_Escalante is my attempt to focus on the intense escape attempts of an intel carrying attacker and the pursuit of the enemy team. Even 2fort is fun when you narrowly avoid the enemy team, but the narrow, uphill exits from the intel rooms coupled with their route straight through enemy spawns can be frustrating.

With Escalante, I'm hoping I'll address these issues with:

• A layout that gives an advantage to teams travelling from their spawn and to teams approaching the enemy intel.
• A route for intel carriers that allows pursuers to catch up without going past their spawn.
• A tactically advantageous middle section that encourages teams to move up rather than camp their base.

My main gripe is with the middle as it feels somewhat cramped.

__________________

You may remember not caring about ctf_escalante 10 months ago, when I released the first version of many, spanning four themes and four layouts. After nearly a year in development, hopefully it will have been worth the wait.

__________________

Current version: Alpha 1 <-- Calling it alpha 1, even though it's on about 10 by now, because I lost count and it's pretty much a new map completely.

pytholos said:

I want to see a pic at the mid too. kinda hard to tell how it looks on the overview pic.

Click to expand...

added a pic to the OP

Alpha 2:

Although it's called a_1 because I never actually released the real a_1.

- Completely new middle area.





Download

Sergis said:

as i was saying in gameday, i was feeling like map was way too empty. felt like playercount is half what it actually is. the simpliest way to deal with it would be cut the spawntimes a little bit.
also i didnt really enjoy how everything felt kinda uniform, even for an alpha. generic empty building after generic empty building after generic empty building... that probably was adding to the empty feel i was having. maybe some basic landmark props or something would help just so the bases aren't a faceless maze.

Click to expand...

Thanks for the feedback - I agree that it felt empty, but I think it's not just the spawn times, mainly, it's completely overscaled. I completely agree about the uniformity - I made it almost completely out of right angles, which was a pretty lazy way of doing it.

I'll be reusing SOME assets from this version, but due to scale problems I think the only way is to start mainly again... This time, I'll use more player models to keep the scale in check, as well as compiling and running around often, I'll check some of the scales of valve maps, and I'll use more non 90 degree angles.

I'm fairly pleased with the layout, but there's a few bits I reckon I could cut, and after doing that and working on scale I'll see how it plays.

Thanks.

Realising what the main problem with this map is. It's not that the map is too big, the time to run from spawn to enemy flag is the same as other maps. The main reason for the failure is that it's very easy for enemies to avoid each other entirely.

Check it out:



I highlighted the route from spawn to mid. Blue is what it should be more like, forcing the paths to cross. I wanted a fast in, slow out approach to ctf, but it ended up being boring and non confrontational. Also, look at that huge narrow, long, uphill hallway in between the flag and the mid. Yawn.

Let this be a lesson to all of you. I'll be starting with this inspiration for the 72 hour contest (tomorrow for me)