CP cp_nightcap [Deleted]

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DaveA62

L1: Registered
Dec 4, 2015
13
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cp_nightcap - A medium sized 5CP map with weather effects.

My 3rd map uploaded to this website, and in my opinion, my best yet. ;)

Please, give me constructive criticism! I love being able to read what other people think about the map, and see what I can fix.
 

killohurtz

Distinction in Applied Carving
aa
Feb 22, 2014
1,016
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Night maps are awesome, but they require a little more care in the lighting department than daytime maps do. Usually your light_environment isn't enough to light the map sufficiently on its own (I'm talking bright enough to recognize player team colors), so you have to make up for it with plenty of lights and light_spots. Even if you have dark areas out in the open with no nearby places to put light fixtures, don't fret! You can just place disembodied light_spots above these areas, much like plr_pipeline does in this image:

pipeline2_hammer.PNG

[Full article I stole this from]

I also noticed that, in the corner of one of your screenshots, (at least) two of the control points are close enough to be seen at the same time. In 5CP, you want each point to be separated into its own distinct area of the map, or else a team that wins the fight for mid pretty much gets the next point as a freebie. Make the attacking team do some running so that the defenders have time to regroup!

7h9z6cz.png


Lastly: while you do have some displacement sculpting going on, your ground is still very flat. My best advice for making interesting ground is to build it out of smaller brushes and put them together like pieces of a puzzle. If you do that, it's much easier to turn some brushes into raised platforms and ramps, or create an area with a non-boxy shape. Plenty of height variation and cover is the key to making combat areas that are fun to fight in.
 

Crowbar

Spiritual preprocessor
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Dec 19, 2015
1,455
1,297
From screenshots, points look like just huge, blocky and uninteresting areas with small doorways.
 

DaveA62

L1: Registered
Dec 4, 2015
13
1
Night maps are awesome, but they require a little more care in the lighting department than daytime maps do. Usually your light_environment isn't enough to light the map sufficiently on its own (I'm talking bright enough to recognize player team colors), so you have to make up for it with plenty of lights and light_spots. Even if you have dark areas out in the open with no nearby places to put light fixtures, don't fret! You can just place disembodied light_spots above these areas, much like plr_pipeline does in this image:

pipeline2_hammer.PNG

[Full article I stole this from]

I also noticed that, in the corner of one of your screenshots, (at least) two of the control points are close enough to be seen at the same time. In 5CP, you want each point to be separated into its own distinct area of the map, or else a team that wins the fight for mid pretty much gets the next point as a freebie. Make the attacking team do some running so that the defenders have time to regroup!

7h9z6cz.png


Lastly: while you do have some displacement sculpting going on, your ground is still very flat. My best advice for making interesting ground is to build it out of smaller brushes and put them together like pieces of a puzzle. If you do that, it's much easier to turn some brushes into raised platforms and ramps, or create an area with a non-boxy shape. Plenty of height variation and cover is the key to making combat areas that are fun to fight in.

Thanks for the tips! I will be sure to add the lights in the next update. I will probably do what I did with mid point for red and blu front points. I literally ripped the mid point out of the map and made it seperate until I thought it looked good enough to slap it back in.

EDIT: I'm actually opening up hammer right now to fix the problems.
 

DaveA62

L1: Registered
Dec 4, 2015
13
1
Mid point is now non-existant. That space will be used for BLU Front point, and will be mirrored over for red as well. The back fences next to the old RED and BLU front points have been removed. The front fences for RED and BLU front point have been changed to metal cover. Displacement sculpting is now non-existant until I actually finish the layout. That's about all I did so far. I hope to have an update out sometime in the next few days.
 

DaveA62

L1: Registered
Dec 4, 2015
13
1
Night maps are awesome, but they require a little more care in the lighting department than daytime maps do. Usually your light_environment isn't enough to light the map sufficiently on its own (I'm talking bright enough to recognize player team colors), so you have to make up for it with plenty of lights and light_spots. Even if you have dark areas out in the open with no nearby places to put light fixtures, don't fret! You can just place disembodied light_spots above these areas, much like plr_pipeline does in this image:

pipeline2_hammer.PNG

[Full article I stole this from]

I also noticed that, in the corner of one of your screenshots, (at least) two of the control points are close enough to be seen at the same time. In 5CP, you want each point to be separated into its own distinct area of the map, or else a team that wins the fight for mid pretty much gets the next point as a freebie. Make the attacking team do some running so that the defenders have time to regroup!

7h9z6cz.png


Lastly: while you do have some displacement sculpting going on, your ground is still very flat. My best advice for making interesting ground is to build it out of smaller brushes and put them together like pieces of a puzzle. If you do that, it's much easier to turn some brushes into raised platforms and ramps, or create an area with a non-boxy shape. Plenty of height variation and cover is the key to making combat areas that are fun to fight in.

Thought I'd show my work so far on the new version. (Don't question the lava on mid, I don't even know why I put that there.)

This is the new forward cap for BLU:

newprogress1.png


And for RED:

newprogress2.png


And this is the new MID point:

newprogress3.png


And that's basically everything I did tonight. Don't mind the cap point owners, I was doing some testing with friends on a private server.
 
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