Im making a mine-themed map, and I want opinions on some design options.

chandlerj333

L1: Registered
Jan 7, 2015
21
1
I'm making a TF2 map that takes place inside a mine. My first question is if the track this minecart is on should have ties or not.

Poll Here

Secondly, I want your opinion on whether the rail itself should be high or low; these are old pictures but I dont think it'll be too hard to fix. Currently it is in the high position.

Poll
 

iiboharz

eternally tired
aa
Nov 5, 2014
857
1,291
Mining rails should always have ties unless they're embedded within something I think.

It looks weird without ties anyway.

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Honestly though, this all seems like stuff you as the map designer should be deciding.
 

YM

LVL100 YM
aa
Dec 5, 2007
7,135
6,056
Why didn't you post any of the extra explanation like you did here? http://www.reddit.com/r/tf2/comments/2rkv45/im_making_a_map_and_i_want_your_opinion_about_a/

I've written several long, ranty posts and deleted them all because I can't find any non-agressive way to say this. but I'll try:

Stop. You're asking the wrong questions and in a crazy weird and unhelpful way, that's only putting people off from trying to help you.

It doesn't matter if you put the bridge high or low, it doesn't matter what we think either because we haven't any relevant information with which to draw a conclusion.

It doesn't really matter if you put it high or low because what you've got at the end is still a hollow cube with a single brush through the middle.


The question you should be asking is "How can I make my map not suck?" along with some clear screenshots (at least one of each distinct area in the map plus an overhead view, those are really useful)

Then you'd get comments like this:

  • Everything is incredibly boxy, you need to break up your forms and create more organic spaces. Try to build buildings instead of boxes. If you want ground terrain, look up displacements.
  • You've got no lighting, even simple lighting will make everything look better
  • Try not to use textures when making your first pass, use the grey/blu/red/orange developer textures to draw attention away from the ugliness of such basic texturework so people know they should focus on the gameplay and flow of the level. Once you're happy with gameplay you can swap out the dev textures for proper ones in your artpass
  • From your reddit pictures it looks like you've got high ground that's only acessible to the jumping classes. Looks like heavys, medics, spies, snipers and engies(to an extent) are all straight out of luck when it comes to high ground and are stuck on the incredibly flat open floor space. A general rule of thumb is that every class should be able to get to every area, and if they can't, that area needs a counter (eg: a ledge a soldier can sit on and spam rockets down from needs a location he can be sniped from)
  • Study the shapes and forms in official maps and try to emulate those, use props that you know the scale of (like the player models) in hammer to help with the scale. make a variety of open spaces and tighter spaces, but don't just make huge open rooms and tiny narrow corridors connecting them.