PL Fray

ROFLsnakes

L2: Junior Member
Apr 24, 2012
72
5
little bits of a map I'm working on. Should be at least a release candidate in about 4 weeks. Only going to show the parts I'm happy with currently.Would like some feedback on this, Thanks!

Edit: going to get some better pictures soon. Realized I wasn't in full screen when I took these.
 
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Ptimz

L2: Junior Member
May 8, 2011
61
61
Feedback is hard when you don't even show us the cart.
You're probably gonna have to show us the parts you aren't happy with, too.
 

tyler

aa
Sep 11, 2013
5,102
4,621
Test this. Don't just make the entire map and detail it and call it done. You won't end up with anything good that way.
 

ROFLsnakes

L2: Junior Member
Apr 24, 2012
72
5
Been drawing this out on paper for about 2 months, so sorry for coming across as "'I'm just going to throw crap together and hope it works". Right now all I'm really looking for styling feedback, I've not even implemented game-type.I started it this morning and decided to share. I've stilling missing 3/4 the map. anyhow,most is in skeleton and in the midst of going drawing to hammer.

Also, when it is in workshop it'll generally mean it. I may not have the same methods as you for creating a map but it still gets what I want done. I really don't understand how no feedback is possible without the cart but alright.

Sorry if this comes across as brash on my end, but I don't take lightly to "work-in-progress" being attacked.I feel it's the same thing as pointing at a house without siding saying "that's crap it's got no siding". If you can tell it's being worked don't jump to conclusions... sorry for putting up my creation of 4hrs of work if it's not deemed worthy of this area,sorry I'll try to make a complete playable map for you to waltz through next time.
 

tyler

aa
Sep 11, 2013
5,102
4,621
OK, no. What I mean is that we can't give you any meaningful feedback without playing it in a gameday. What I want you to do is not detail everything and instead use dev textures so that it's easier to change things and move stuff around. If you detail, you get attached to it. Look at the other maps in the workshop. Most are using dev textures or very basic texturing.

Your screenshots don't really tell me anything. I don't know what any of those areas are and no significant portion of the layout is shown. I don't know where Red or Blu come from in any of these shots. Hence testing.

I just wanted to make sure you knew this, since "release candidate" is usually the term reserved for a final version of a map and you're already detailing after four hours.
 
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ROFLsnakes

L2: Junior Member
Apr 24, 2012
72
5
Yeah if you look at zodiac another map I've posted, now with a download It's got the basic dev texture thing down. I usually do this when I'm mapping from my head not from written detailed sketches, floor plans,concepts etc.
 
May 2, 2009
320
306
The last picture looks like that the hallway is upside down. You have wall texture as a floor and those lights usually should be higher on the wall. Also your ceilings are a bit low.
 

JeanPaul

L6: Sharp Member
Aug 5, 2010
284
279
You want styling critiques? Okay, that I can do for ya right now.

Shot #1
-Your roofs are way too thick, they look to be 32 units or so thick, they should be 4 units maximum if they are using that metal roof texture.
-Your walls are insanely thick in this shot and it makes your door ways and especially your window frames look weird as hell being as deep as they are.
-Your rock displacements are random and jagged, nothing looks good about them currently. Try building a nice shape out of brushwork before converting it to displacements to give yourself a better base for how it will look and you will have an easier time adjusting them to look good.
-Your window frames in the background behind the rock displacements are touching the roof, this is a no-no in both the visual department and the realistic geometry department.
-Is that a path to the bottom left in this shot? It seems awkwardly built. Also thin out some of the wooden brushwork in this map, no one likes super thick beams everywhere.

Shot #2
-Same stuff as shot #1 comments
-Spawn door is dark, but I bet you knew that.
-The displacement lump here looks like it might be annoying for smooth walking about

Shot #3
-I am critiquing your styling here but there almost isnt any. You have a massively thick floor with glass coming out of it and no trim or anything? That looks really odd.
-Ceilings are way too low, take a look at official tf2 maps, the scale is much larger than other source engine games.
-Your ceiling is flat and using that metal texture again, it looks weird.
-Why do you have those small light fixtures near the floor in the background? They are just plastered on the wall with this random light blob around them. Try messing with your lighting settings to get clearer lighting. ALso, sprites and light glows make light prop appear on, use them.

Shot #4
-Nothing really to say here besides my lighting comments in shot #3

Shot #5
-That concrete texture is a wall texture. Unless you use it well, it should remain a wall texture, it looks weird being on the floor here.
-Your windows are touching the roof outside and the ceiling inside and it looks massively weird. Stick to using window frame props for your windows, it looks a lot nicer. There are tf2 prop zoo maps floating around this website somewhere.
-Move your lights away from the floor and more towards the ceiling and seriously give them some love as right now they are just blobs

Overall
-Your environment lighting is bland at best and leaves a lot to be desired, try messing with the color and brightness settings.
-Use fog but make sure the color matches the 2d skybox so you dont get that awful ghosting you see in amateur maps.
-Youll need more lighting besides the environment light to guide players through the level
-You have zero height variation in your first shot and I am assuming the rest of your level. Add some stuff in the background to break up the monotony.
-This will need a lot of polish to look good so...

Work on your gameplay first then come back to the styling.
 

MegapiemanPHD

Doctorate in Deliciousness
aa
Mar 31, 2012
1,937
1,280
Game play is the most essential part of a map. A good looking map is nothing if it's not fun or interesting to play, this works the other way around as bad looking maps can be really fun, some of the orange maps come to mind. JeanPaul gave some really good advice. Your map is very chunky and cramped at the moment. I would also advise in including a screenshot of the maps overview to help give people an idea of the maps layout. This map needs quite a bit of work but I can see some potential in it.
 

Melvin D Engineere

L4: Comfortable Member
Feb 25, 2012
173
192
There's another reason why testing one's map with PEOPLE is important: players may stumble upon previously undiscovered exploits, unclipped walls, or other bugs in any given map. The most recent example I can recall is koth_sanitarium_a7: that map had unclipped walls (i.e. walls where people can walk through). Usually, these bugs break the map to the point where they disrupt normal gameplay.