Gloryhole

PL gloryhole b1

grazr

Old Man Mutant Ninja Turtle
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Mar 4, 2008
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I had intended to get this out before the end of March, but then i suddenly found myself with 2 jobs and barely enough downtime to unwind in the evenings with a couple episodes of Star Trek.

Anyway, at least i have 2 weeks to test this over detailed bastard child of a map.
 
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Mar 20, 2012
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I had intended to get this out before the end of March, but then i suddenly found myself with 2 jobs and barely enough downtime to unwind in the evenings with a couple episodes of Star Trek.

I was going to enter the contest, but college + a job crushed those plans quickly. And, when I get home from a long day, mapping can just make me even more tired. Ah well. Hopefully summer will be calmer.

The dynamic outside BLU's spawn is interesting. It's hard to tell from the screenshots, but it looks like a bridge that is activated by BLU standing in the specific zone on the side of the lake?

It's only an alpha, but you certainly have got a lot of brown wood and rustic sheet metal going on. Through testing, you might consider altering the aesthetic style of a building or two to gain variety. The overall architectural structure of the buildings is quite good. No boring square buildings here (with perhaps the only architectural complaint being a total lack of 45 degree angles, but that's the mapper's preference.)

On your final point, I'm a little worried some of those large balconies only have one access route, which would make it difficult for short-range classes to take out a sentry or a sniper. Without any proper cover, that final stretch around the water is going to be super tough for BLU.

This is all eyeballing and phantom theorizing. Without proper playtesting, it's too early to tell.
 

grazr

Old Man Mutant Ninja Turtle
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Mar 4, 2008
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The dynamic outside BLU's spawn is interesting. It's hard to tell from the screenshots, but it looks like a bridge that is activated by BLU standing in the specific zone on the side of the lake?

Spot on, to pass the bridge requires a team mate to activate the tracks on the bridge at a secondary capture zone.

It's only an alpha, but you certainly have got a lot of brown wood and rustic sheet metal going on. Through testing, you might consider altering the aesthetic style of a building or two to gain variety. The overall architectural structure of the buildings is quite good. No boring square buildings here (with perhaps the only architectural complaint being a total lack of 45 degree angles, but that's the mapper's preference.)

There are some 45 degree buildings at CP1 but for a single round A/D map it's often difficult to execute any angled structures without negactively impacting performance optimising and/or overall flow.

As you said, still alpha. Gonna spruce up the buildings with more wear, tear, overlays, paint and corrugated sheet metal.

On your final point, I'm a little worried some of those large balconies only have one access route, which would make it difficult for short-range classes to take out a sentry or a sniper. Without any proper cover, that final stretch around the water is going to be super tough for BLU.

This is all eyeballing and phantom theorizing. Without proper playtesting, it's too early to tell.

The balconies are actually smaller than they look and have a similar design theory to badwater. I've tried to carefully balance FoV's for hard to reach places: There are one way route elements to them, but they're not terribly restrictive as jump perk classes are not impeded by these restrictions.

The maps going up in 5 mins after i've dealt with cubes. Then people can get a better appreciation for scale etc.
 

tyler

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Sep 11, 2013
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I'm interested in this--I'm strongly reminded of your BATT map, which I liked. Looking forward to running through and seeing what you can do with a track of your own.
 

ev149

L1: Registered
Feb 11, 2011
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Looks pretty cool. The stone texture on the bridge and along the bank looks a little out of place, but I'm sure you'll fix up the textures and whatnot after alpha. The final point seems interesting, can't wait to see this develop.
 
Mar 20, 2012
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Spot on, to pass the bridge requires a team mate to activate the tracks on the bridge at a secondary capture zone.
Very cool.
There are some 45 degree buildings at CP1 but for a single round A/D map it's often difficult to execute any angled structures without negactively impacting performance optimising and/or overall flow.
Definitely understandable. It was only a remark, neither negative nor positive. While I think 45 degree angles can make things seem more natural, they certainly aren't required. And I already admire your architectural structuring in the map.

The balconies are actually smaller than they look and have a similar design theory to badwater. I've tried to carefully balance FoV's for hard to reach places: There are one way route elements to them, but they're not terribly restrictive as jump perk classes are not impeded by these restrictions.
Yeah, tough to eyeball overheard shots. I look forward to trying it out. I notice quite a few elements of Badwater (the underbuilding passage way, the claw-like balcony grasp at last) - of course, Badwater is, as a Spy player, the epitome of payload designs (followed closely by Upward for me), so you're looking at the right place to base your design theory on.
 

grazr

Old Man Mutant Ninja Turtle
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Mar 4, 2008
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There was me hoping people would help keep the word play on the subtle side.

P.S. For anyone wondering...

glory_hole_Monticello_Dam_2.jpg
 
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Pocket

Half a Lambert is better than one.
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Nov 14, 2009
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There was me hoping people would help keep the word play on the subtle side.

I'm a thousand percent sure more people are now more acquainted with the colloquial meaning of that phrase than the "real" one, thanks in no small part to the Internet.

Anyway, I hopped in to check out how well-implemented your hole is, and found that your cubemaps are missing, as are a few textures. Also why is there a huge geyser inside a hole that water is supposed to be flowing into? Judging from that photo you posted way back when you mentioned you were working on this, even the particle effects around the rim are unneeded.
 

grazr

Old Man Mutant Ninja Turtle
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Mar 4, 2008
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Anyway, I hopped in to check out how well-implemented your hole is, and found that your cubemaps are missing, as are a few textures. Also why is there a huge geyser inside a hole that water is supposed to be flowing into? Judging from that photo you posted way back when you mentioned you were working on this, even the particle effects around the rim are unneeded.

That completely depends on the design of the spillway:
glory-hole-spillway.jpg


The mist is a bit superfluous though, i agree, but it makes the final point look more dramatic. It's hardly a geyser, it was used for the sawmill waterfall after all. If i get a number of complaints about how "weird and inappropriate" it is i'll swap it out for a number of the small particle splashes instead later in development; but they are actually serving a function as well as they hide the poorly aligned falling water and water surface.

The cubemaps were built but i forgot to turn specular off for non-hdr, perhaps i accidently baked them into the reflections if you're not running hdr 2.

It's useful if you show me which/where textures are missing. I didn't purposefully use any custom content, i had intended to keep the file size low for the alpha phase.
 
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EArkham

Necromancer
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Aug 14, 2009
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Grazr's next map will be set in a workcamp on a volcano's ledge, and the name shall be pl_rimjob.
 

Pocket

Half a Lambert is better than one.
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Nov 14, 2009
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Combine the lumberyard theme with Super's dawn skybox and call it morningwood.

...I wonder how that would look, actually.