KotH Railbridge

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TheKieranator

L6: Sharp Member
Mar 6, 2011
282
213
2012-08-31_00007.jpg

The glow on the Battlements sign is good, because that's highlighting an important doorway, but the wall lights are intent on being attention whores. There's three of them, and each of them is brighter than the sign glow. When I look at the picture, my eyes are drawn to the wall and not the door. And when I look at the wall, I see a row of industrial computers/machinery and a spytech computer that doesn't fit in. It appears too bright and clean when compared to the rest of the scene.

Badlands for life!
 

colacan

L5: Dapper Member
Apr 14, 2012
235
85
I think the map looks very good now, judging from the screenshots. It really gives me the feeling from Badlands, which is of course a good thing. I do think that the blue spytech computer doesn't fit in some way, but it gives a little more variation in colors on that wall, so I think you should keep it. And the glowing lights on that wall are somewhat distracting.
 

Eyce

L6: Sharp Member
Jan 13, 2010
370
225
The glow on the Battlements sign is good, because that's highlighting an important doorway, but the wall lights are intent on being attention whores. There's three of them, and each of them is brighter than the sign glow. When I look at the picture, my eyes are drawn to the wall and not the door. And when I look at the wall, I see a row of industrial computers/machinery and a spytech computer that doesn't fit in. It appears too bright and clean when compared to the rest of the scene.

Badlands for life!

I was surprised to actually see computers on badlands when I turned around in spawn after I had put them in. I think they tried getting around the clean look by giving them grey borders. Not sure if theres a dirty-ish looking skin about for them, though.

On the lights front, I needed something attractive to the eye from a distance, as when you walk out of spawn and into the lobby, it didn't seem there was enough emphasis on the mini garage exit compared to the other options. When I put them in, they appeared to work as intended during play tests.

By the time the players get to the door, they see a visually noisy metal texture with some light from outside shooting in, so navigation hasn't been an issue. It's just about context, which I admit the screenshot doesn't do a good job of doing whatsoever.
 

LeSwordfish

semi-trained quasi-professional
aa
Aug 8, 2010
4,102
6,597
Congratulations!

Nobody has yet told me if i should be publishing reviews or not, but fuk da police.

RAILBRIDGE

Aesthetic

Final Aesthetic score: 83
Very badlands. I guess that’s no bad thing. Still, a bit generic. The bridge is nice enough to make the map stand out and give it it’s own identity.

Like many above, the detailing is fairly minimal, but generally good-looking. The detail that there is is coherent, and the map has a strong sense of place. Even if that place is badlands. It’s fairly low on detail, but largely feels less bare than most- although the spytech areas around spawns are very empty. Density of detail is good, and lights do its work better. The eye is drawn to the right areas, and so on, though i think more attention should be used to keep the people on the point looking upward.

Geometry is very similar on the two sides, which annoys me a bit, but it’s not too bad. There are no overly dark or bright areas, and there’s some nice brushwork details like wood trims and railings. Overall, a bit uninspiring, but solid, well-executed tf2 fare.

Album: http://leswordfish.minus.com/mZvd83rPX

Technical

Final Technical score: 89
  • Nodraw optimisation is decent, but there’s a fair few places it could be better.
  • FPS is good, and optimisation is excellent.
  • Clipping is okay. Most things are clipped- you can stand on a few lamps, and run on some trims but not others. Mostly good though.
  • A few errors but well within acceptable bounds.
  • Entities work well.
  • No console spam.
 

Eyce

L6: Sharp Member
Jan 13, 2010
370
225
Thanks all! :eek:

I'm quite surprised with this, I must say. Considering the timeline I was working on just to get this out. :)

Beta 2 will be coming sometime in December (before Christmas), I've got a lot on my plate finishing my degree. So, plenty of time for the community to get some critique in.
 

TheKieranator

L6: Sharp Member
Mar 6, 2011
282
213
Railbridge

Aesthetics

Final Aesthetics Score: 82

  • Because of it's obvious influences, I seem to have judged this category by comparing Railbridge to Badlands. It's hard not to, because this map is very Badlands-y. Badlands also happens to be one of my favourite maps, so there you go.
  • While the detailing is rather minimal, it works reasonably well. Some more props and overlay signs here and there would help complete it.
  • Many surfaces in the bases are blank and under detailed; they would benefit from additional attention.
  • The size of your skybox needs to be increased as players can see that it ends 60-100 metres from the playing area.

Technical

Final Technical Score: 79

  • Optimization was decent and I didn't take an fps hit; could do with some func_occluders to stop unnecessary prop rendering though
  • Clipping was pretty good and I couldn't find any real issues
  • All entities work
  • I did find a displacement-brush seam issue outside RED base; check the album for the location

imgur album with additional notes
 

Popo

L1: Registered
Jun 13, 2009
43
29
Congrats dude, you deserve it. Love the map, and I'd love to get to play the current version some time :)

Again, awesome stuff.

EDIT: I should also mention that I am incredibly jelly.
 
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hooky

L2: Junior Member
Aug 1, 2012
68
27
Feedback from 6s pugs: http://teamfortress.tv/forum/thread/1917-koth-railbridge

Hope this helps. Of course, since this is mainly a HL map it might screw up the balance for HL. But it definitely does not work in 6s in its current form.

However, this is an interesting idea:
One thing that would allow this map to be slightly more playable would be to move the point up to the rail area. General idea; a lot would have to be changed to make that work
Imagine the train going right over the point. That would be pretty awesome.

I hope you consider this advice. Sorry I couldn't give any advice myself, but I was playing medic. In fact, that makes me think that this is not a fun map for medics. That may be my problem.

Edit: There's also a problem with a part of the map where you can get stuck for 5 seconds pressing W. It's on an incline. I'll try to get a screenshot, maybe even a video.
 
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Eyce

L6: Sharp Member
Jan 13, 2010
370
225
Cheers for the 6's test. Frankly I'm not worried about specifically catering to Highlander play, even though it was the brief for the contest. It never even got highlander testing before the judgement happened.

I'm not surprised that the concept of having the point on the tracks was raised (heh), it's reasonably likely to happen, basing it off evidence from pretty much any map that's tried using a bridge as a control point.

I'll be going back on the map during December and do some pretty substantial changes, it's looking like a total rebuild.

Also, I'm pretty sure I know of the issue that you're talking about, is it the dirt hill directly under the curved concrete overhang?
 

hooky

L2: Junior Member
Aug 1, 2012
68
27
Cheers for the 6's test. Frankly I'm not worried about specifically catering to Highlander play, even though it was the brief for the contest. It never even got highlander testing before the judgement happened.

I'm not surprised that the concept of having the point on the tracks was raised (heh), it's reasonably likely to happen, basing it off evidence from pretty much any map that's tried using a bridge as a control point.

I'll be going back on the map during December and do some pretty substantial changes, it's looking like a total rebuild.

Also, I'm pretty sure I know of the issue that you're talking about, is it the dirt hill directly under the curved concrete overhang?

No problem, I love testing new maps. Glad you're taking this feedback into consideration as we need better maps to play in ESEA.

Yes, that is exactly what I was talking about. I run into it every time I walk in that direction.
 

RaVaGe

aa
Jun 23, 2010
733
1,210
Some visual feedback, only based on the screenshots.

2012-08-31_00001.jpg


Your geometry is boring, it's way too much straight, do some 45° to break the linear look of the map, and as your bridge is the main part to be focused by the eye of the player, you really should detail it generously.

Overall all the displacements are too smoothed, work on the top of them with a small radius (not too small) and make a lot of differences, same for the bottom.

2012-08-31_00007.jpg


This piece is boring, look at hydro for good spytech exemples, use trims and beams, add a lot of recess and work a lot on the lighting, you are also focusing the eye of the player in the wrong direction with those blue glows.

Looks good dude :)
 
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[ITA] *random*

L1: Registered
Jan 14, 2013
2
0
Just downloaded this map and played with bots.

The maps is great, it has the flavor of Badlands but it's pretty original.

Best of wishes for you!
 

cool_myll

L1: Registered
Aug 8, 2011
31
9
Calling it a day on this project, made a couple of changes.

Enjoy.

Removed wooden walls from Control Point

I think this change is for the worst. Players on the server reported the same.

Mini sentries have too much vision now.
Demos spam too much.
Snipers have too much vision.

What is your thoughts that made you remove them? I personally like it very much and thought it contributed to the balance of the map.