Shabbytown - opinions on progress ???

Open Blade

L420: High Member
Nov 30, 2007
439
34
Okay, so Shabbytown beta 2 is availble for download. After a week of playtesting and getting all kinds of comments I decided to make some changes. I would appreciate your imput if you think I am going the right direction with this or any advice you have.

So alot of people said they love the map. It looks great and has a good feel to it. By far the biggest complaint was that it was too wide open and there wasn't enough true routes. You could basically go anywhere.

So I decided to fix that. If you have played the map, the following pics below will make sense.

The green lines are the new routes to the new area. I am moving the center cap point further back to the new area (obviously still under construction). I am going to seal off the front side (where a new building will be shown in red). The blue circle is where the new center cap will be. Basically got 3 routes to middle of map and one of those routes cuts over to other side and you can bypass the center cap. Before, it was just too wide open.

Thanks for the comments.

st3_1.jpg


st3_2.jpg


st3_3.jpg


st3_4.jpg


st3_5.jpg


st3_6.jpg


http://zona.nikegames.net/Misc/Hammer/Map Screen Shots/shabbytown/ST Beta2/ST Beta3/st3_7.jpg

http://zona.nikegames.net/Misc/Hammer/Map Screen Shots/shabbytown/ST Beta2/ST Beta3/st3_8.jpg
 

Open Blade

L420: High Member
Nov 30, 2007
439
34
Dude, I know you mean to help people out and that's cool but don't tell me 2 threads is flooding. I mean, I see a new thread in this section a few times a day. Gimme a break. You act like it's a posting frenzy here or something.
 

Vander

L8: Fancy Shmancy Member
Feb 16, 2008
506
215
I think what he is trying to say is you could have kept this with the original thread without any problems.

In any event, what you have looks cool, but really hard to judge without any real lighting.
 

xxack

L1: Registered
Jul 10, 2008
13
0
It looks a little sad to me.

Not sad as in pitiful, the design looks great, just the colors and texture seem less like TF2.
 

Earl

L6: Sharp Member
Dec 21, 2007
284
38
Needs some lighting. It's hard to make a judgment when everything is fullbright. That's probably why it looks so sad...
 

Open Blade

L420: High Member
Nov 30, 2007
439
34
Thanks for the comments gents but I was really looking for some info based on the layout. If you have not played the map then I know it's hard. I was hoping you had or at least looked at the other pics. The lighting is fine and the texturing is fine also. I am happy with those and the feedback I got was good in those areas too. But that's beta 2. I am working on the new section and the only reason I am doing that is based on the routes and game play flow.

But I will throw up the pics with good lighting so you can see those on this post also. I guess I will have to get this new stage closer to completion so you can get a better idea of how the map will look.

xxack - not sure what you mean by less TF2ish. I only have one custom texture and the rest are stock TF2 so everything you see in the map is total TF2 themes and colors and textures. Maybe the generic lighting is throwing you off.

These are the pics I attached with download file

st1s.jpg


st2s.jpg


st3s.jpg


st4s.jpg


st5s.jpg


st6s.jpg


st7s.jpg


st8s.jpg


st9s.jpg


st10s.jpg
 

flubber

L4: Comfortable Member
Nov 16, 2007
171
35
I've put it in our server rotation, i'll have feedback in a day or two.
 

Vander

L8: Fancy Shmancy Member
Feb 16, 2008
506
215
Now, THAT looks much better. Great looking map. How about an overview so we can get a better idea of the layout?
 

Spike

L10: Glamorous Member
Feb 13, 2008
716
82
When you shown the first pictures of the no-lighted map I thought it was horrible. But Now that I've seen the full-compiled map I can tell you it looks fucking awesome and nice.

Only thing I would remove is the ugly wall texture on the 2nd pic, the RED texture.
 

tenaciousg

L1: Registered
Jan 8, 2008
44
7
When you shown the first pictures of the no-lighted map I thought it was horrible. But Now that I've seen the full-compiled map I can tell you it looks fucking awesome and nice.

Only thing I would remove is the ugly wall texture on the 2nd pic, the RED texture.

i gotta agree with spike about the first shown pics compared to the others, the map looks fantastic but i dont agree on the RED decal it doesn't bother me.
 

FLOOR_MASTER

L3: Member
Mar 10, 2008
118
140
I've run beta2 with 15v15 several times over the past few days, and it works surprisingly well, albeit it's slightly pyro-friendly with that many players running around. I think the layout is fine now and you run the risk of overcrowding passageways if you try to funnel players into particular routes without expanding the map a bit. The wide entrance to the middle point is somewhat cramped - perhaps move the train a few feet away from the entrance. The health placement is well thought out. I think more visibility around the two final points would help - windows or some other way to tell players are coming.

Optimization definitely seems to be an issue as a lot of players mentioned noticeable framerate hits, but this may be a function of there being a lot of players on.

Keep up the good work!
 

Open Blade

L420: High Member
Nov 30, 2007
439
34
I've run beta2 with 15v15 several times over the past few days, and it works surprisingly well, albeit it's slightly pyro-friendly with that many players running around. I think the layout is fine now and you run the risk of overcrowding passageways if you try to funnel players into particular routes without expanding the map a bit. The wide entrance to the middle point is somewhat cramped - perhaps move the train a few feet away from the entrance. The health placement is well thought out. I think more visibility around the two final points would help - windows or some other way to tell players are coming.

Optimization definitely seems to be an issue as a lot of players mentioned noticeable framerate hits, but this may be a function of there being a lot of players on.

Keep up the good work!


I've heard much of the same thing. It is too pyro friendly and that is why I am going to funnel the routes more, but as I mentioned, the map is expanding by a pretty substantial amount. That middle point is no longer there. It's now in the new area further away in a much larger building. I have opened up cap 2 and 4 some so it's not as tight. Trying to do what I can with cap 1 and 5 but I won't open it up too much. I like the caps to have some different looks to sizes to them. The middle cap will be the largest, pyros will not have such an advantage as they do now. 2 and 4 will be a little larger then they are now and 1 and 5 just a tad more open but not larger. I like your idea about making 1 and 5 not larger but more visability. I think I will knock out that solid wall between spawn area and cap and fill it with beams. That will provide more visability as well as some other way to shoot at the invaders, although the beams will provide them with a certain degree of protection.

I do need to do better optimization but I've funced as much as I can and now it's up to using hints and I am trying to figure out how to layout the larger hints that subdivide the entire map. I have the ones in the doorways and windows already.

Thanks for the feedback. All of you.
 

grazr

Old Man Mutant Ninja Turtle
aa
Mar 4, 2008
5,441
3,814
Have you set your lightmap values? You could probably half your frame rate issues just be enlarging unnecasserily small lightmap scales. IE faces with no or all shadow.

Try it if you havn't addressed that already.
 

Open Blade

L420: High Member
Nov 30, 2007
439
34
Have you set your lightmap values? You could probably half your frame rate issues just be enlarging unnecasserily small lightmap scales. IE faces with no or all shadow.

Try it if you havn't addressed that already.

I never even heard of doing that. More info?

I did cut out alot of lights and am using the glow entity alot more. Not sure if that helps.