hoover

Sgt Frag

L14: Epic Member
May 20, 2008
1,443
710
New screenie>>>

New DL, beta 2.

Getting close, I can feel it. Down to skybox and some sound/light tweaking.

I'm gonna redo the displacements also.

added skybox, sprites, 'intel room', water intake towers. player clip, lots of details.

Significant change: decrease in water death. Still have to be careful though. Added bobbers in water to distinguish safe water. Need to turn into objects.

Still not sure about dam object lighting. Might have to use displacements.

------------
first test of new map [wip] thread :)

Alright, this is getting really close.

I went through and did TONS of optimizing, setting fade limits on all objects.
Added some areaportalwindows for a detail area.

Added alot of details, decals, etc...

Solidified the spawn rooms.

Fixed the water, you will get sucked under if you get too deep/too far out from center but you can get out if you are careful.

Added some detail to skybox, fogged skybox.

Added Darkersideofyourshadow's flatbed truck.

-------
known issues:

needs sounds
need to finish skybox
touch-up lighting, props
traintracks
need custom decals, no fishing/swimming..
water surface is ugly
custom tex for waterfall/river
get particles to be white

Failed to pakrat flatbed truck tex.
==============================
update 2-4-09

Photobucket doesn't do thumbs, images shack wont let me log on anymore so...image heavy

Did a bit of work, most of the detailing on middle is done. Gonna work on the spawns today, possibly skybox too. Done a little bit of testing and have done some adjustments accordingly, found a few areas that need clip... gonna have to make a custom river tex at some point.
I just hadn't built cubemaps yet so everything reflective was purple/black checkerboards.

lower cap point
cap2.jpg

above cap
hoover_cap1.jpg

looking down valley
hoover_canyon.jpg

in the back maintenece shed and the suckley ventilation device
maintenance.jpg

in front of dam office
stair.jpg

below last pic, looing at tunnel under point, leads to water and maintenence
tunnel.jpg

view from reseviour
water1.jpg


The water will suck you under. If you stay close to dam and near top of water you can escape.


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Updating this post as I go in case you dont wanna wade in the murk.

--news
I think the gameplay area is at 90% right now.

So I started detailing the main building, it's about done. Next the dam itself and the spawns.

The front ended up being a little more art deco than I had planned for, luckily the maintenance shed in the back helps balnce it out.


A view from the red side.
hoover_red.jpg


And from the blue
hoover_Blu.jpg

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A few shots of my new arena wip.
Shoshone (sho-sho-nee) is a dam in the Glenwood canyon a few hours up river (Colorado) from Hoover dam. This actually resembles Hoover dam more and that's the name I was gonna use, but it kindof sucks ;)
Of course it leads to alot of good posters for the map so Hoover might be the best choice.
Shoshone is a bit more original though.

I've had a few friends run through with me and give input. That helped alot and the size and areas have been scaled down.

I tried to make this one alot more open than my last, thus alot of windows...

It looks large but the gameplay area really is about the same as the original arena maps. approx 15 sec. from spawn to spawn for a scout. The Valve maps are 13-15 seconds.
overview (the ramps in the top left corner are no longer there):
hoover_span.jpg

spawn:
hoover_spawn.jpg

looking at cap:
hoover_top.jpg

above cap (there is a hanging platform above the point now):
http://i277.photobucket.com/albums/kk59/Schwaa1147/hoover_cap.jpg

I was gonna have some 'air lift' tubes going into the back towers and an area inside the dam but it was just too big.
 
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pl

L5: Dapper Member
Mar 6, 2009
248
55
I really like your style of the buildings! It actually surprisingly matches TF2's theme in my opinion.

Keep it up :)
 

coOKie

L1: Registered
Mar 22, 2009
12
0
are u studing architecture? This is just a great mix of historism and minimalism, and the windows look totaly great. Uve done to combine a fotorealistic and playable looking indoorareas, just awesome!
 

Sgt Frag

L14: Epic Member
May 20, 2008
1,443
710
nah, but I have done construction ;) and I look at stuff around me alot and think 'that would be cool...'
I did look at pics of the Hoover dam a bit when I started, although not too much of that really carried through into the final.

After reading your post though coOKie I did search a little on wikipedia for architecture and came across this:
Cooper_Theatre.jpg


I saw Star Wars (yeah the first one on first release) in that theatre. The line wrapped all the way around the building twice. Took hours just to get in :0
 

MungoKing

L3: Member
Jul 12, 2008
148
47
This map was fantastic. The gameplay was very good, with subtle height advantages that worked well, but didn't give too much of an advantage, awesome job with the layout. Only thing, like many people were mentioning, is just to add one or two healthpacks, it seems to be quite a large map, so I don't think two small healthpacks would be overdoing it. Like many have already said the architecture is great, but you really can't tell how awesome it is until you're in game :thumbup1: Overall fun map, kind of sorry it had to be left early, but rounds did go quite quickly, another area I think healthpacks could benefit the map in. Arena should go quickly, but not too quickly. I'll say it again, it's a great map, looking forward to next release! :)
 
Aug 19, 2008
1,011
1,158
wow, i love that map, the detail, idea, execution :)

a small healthpack wouldn´t hurt, yeah
and also, i would make the pulling force way stronger at a certain depth, so diving in to deep or too close to the turbines means unavoidable death, like the death-cliff in lumberyard
 

TheDarkerSideofYourShadow

L10: Glamorous Member
Apr 12, 2008
792
286
I enjoyed this today Sgt. Frag. The idea of putting a small health pack in the bottom area sounds like a great idea. I would also consider changing the strength of the water pulling you down, since I jumped in once from the dam and went far enough to get sucked down. It should be strong, but also escapable. Just a couple of other things.

The orientation of the stripes here.
arena_hoover_b20001.jpg


Other visual things include some of the ibeam textures around the center building itself being off (what should be the top/bottom of the texture is in the center of the brush). Also, if you want to do some fancier detailing with those beams, cut each beam along the texture at 2 units on both ends, and then take the center piece and move it further in, so it makes an actual I. You're call, just something I've done before and liked.
 

Sgt Frag

L14: Epic Member
May 20, 2008
1,443
710
thanks guys,

I know that when I was working on my displacements I forgot to adjust the trigger. Someone got on the ledge below the dam yesterday and survived.
Today it sounded like someone got sucked under and not killed. :(

The water suction is in 3 stages depth wise and an arc around the back of the dam. I used to have suction under the safe water too. But when I lessened it alot so players could survive you would get trapped in the different layers of water, like you needed to jump up into the next trigger_push brush. So I just aced that stuff and only the very bottom has suction.

I need to get those stripes fixed, I think I'm gonna sink them into the floor. I didn't do too many 3d ibeams just trying to save on detail where I can. But the other tex is supposed to be like that, just trying to get another look out of the stock textures.
 

l3eeron

L8: Fancy Shmancy Member
Jan 4, 2008
593
88
I was all excited until I saw it was an Arena map :(

Oh well, just because I don't care for it, doesn't mean it wont work out.

Good luck with it! :)
 

Shadow Monkey

Super Monkey
Jun 7, 2008
244
23
Yeah it would be cool Att/Def Map like dustbowl....one stage.....BLU first cap the lower area and then the top.....red must defend :D
 

hadlock

L1: Registered
Jul 5, 2009
19
31
Jumping in here to say you need to release this one to final! Great map.

A lot of my players are still confused by how the water's "undertow" works. Also, the fence on the second level, you can walk around it if you're careful. I'm not sure if this is intentional.

arena_hoover.jpg


There's a weird bug on the map that you only notice when noclipping around - on the red side, sort of near the "intake tower" in the water, looking towards spawn, the cliffs have a weird magnification issue involving the skybox. This doesn't happen on the blu side.

But yeah, release the final version already so we can add it to our rotation!