Tropic (A/D Single CP)

FlavorRage

L4: Comfortable Member
Oct 12, 2008
197
57
After a bit of playtesting with some friends, alpha 2 released!

Hi there tf2maps! I would like to proudly present to you my first map, cp_tropic. This map is based off of the thrill of Gravelpit's final tower capture point, with a unique theme (spytech/island) and only one control point. Custom materials used: Tribes 2 switch and Team colored dev textures.

The main tower is crowned by the control point, but the smaller one houses a switch that raises/lowers a large catwalk from one of the upper levels of the tower to assist/hinder BLU's efforts.

I'm willing to change anything about it, please let me know if you find any problems.

Changelog:

Alpha 2:
Revamped BLU's pier area
Water no longer kills
made water look better
Added stairs out of the water
fixed missing model error for the switch
various minor improvements
added many more items

Alpha 3:
Fixed Switch textures
smoothed displacements and added a bit more detail overall
Skybox cinematic for RED win :thumbup1:
Fixed doors not opening at round start



To Do:

Soundscapes
HDR
Playtesting and balancing
 
Last edited:

Tom Foolery

L1: Registered
Apr 13, 2009
48
4
Looks interesting, but like it's a pain to move around. I think I'll d/l it, look around, then come back and comment again. I am by no means experienced with mapping, so you know.

EDIT:

I'd like to start out by saying that I love the theme, and for a map in alpha 1, it's beautiful. Almost... to beautiful. I say that because I think you're going to have to change a lot in terms of layout. There's a lot I like about this map, like the theme and the idea of 1 point A/D, but unfortunately you can't improve your map if I only tell you about what I like. So...

In (02) you can see a sandwich board in the lower left. It has no sign. I doubt that this is intentional, but if it is, okay.

In (03) there's that big red error. I'm guessing that you forgot to give something such as a prop_static a model. EDIT: I just read your bit about the switch, so I guess you need to work that out. How does the switch activate? Does a blue player just have to walk through it?

In (04)... I like what you did with the waterfall and the bars. It needs particle effects at the bottom (not sure where you can get these, may want to copy/paste out of Sawmill). While I'm on the subject of water, I'd like to say that I don't like that falling into the water kills you. I'd like it if you took some fall damage, but dying seems a bit unfair. While the map is good for snipers, I think that it's a pyro/soldier/demoman's wet dream. Explosive knockback and the airblast will probably own due to the lethal water. Also, I think you should add more railings on the ramps so that people don't fall as much

The water... it really seems like the water should matter so much more in this map. If you lowered the entire map and made the water non-lethal but disadvantageous to stay in, I bet it would be more fun.

Also in (05), that high up area seems to me to be too good for demos and soldiers. In the Gravel Pit point B commentary, one of the devs says that the roof doesn't have health/ammo in order to make it a choice for demos and soldiers between survivability and a powerful position. There's health and ammo up there; I would suggest removing it.

Some final notes: I think that a minute and a half is ridiculously long for setup time. 30-45 seconds or even a full minute would be more reasonable to me. Oh yeah, and blue's spawn should be brighter.

Note that most of my comments are from intuition or my own experience, as this is before a gameplay test. I want to see this in a gameday soon. :D
 
Last edited:

Void

Local Man Unable To Map, Sources Say
aa
Sep 14, 2008
1,865
2,972
Open Containers and their doors are Official Models now, Tom.
 

Tom Foolery

L1: Registered
Apr 13, 2009
48
4
Open Containers and their doors are Official Models now, Tom.

Oh... sweet. When did that happen? Is there an official map that uses them?
 

FlavorRage

L4: Comfortable Member
Oct 12, 2008
197
57
Hey Tom, thanks for the awesome feedback!

That cheese board thing is a bit of a :facepalm thing for me, originally the catwalk was static and there was a sign there, I guess I missed one of the props that was sitting there. By the way, try hopping down into the container, I added doors on the other end that you can go through.

As for the switch model, dang. Does anyone know how to include models with your map? Will I jsut have to add the whole package with the map, model, and materials included?

With the water, I found dying to be the least frustrating thing that could happen (respawns are relatively short being such a small map) because it's a long way to the top if you want to rock and ro- I mean defend the point.

The minute and a half setup time was because red had only one point, so they needed to make sure they didn't get steamrolled right off the bat. Playtesting is still needed.
 
Last edited:

FlavorRage

L4: Comfortable Member
Oct 12, 2008
197
57
Bump.jpg


You didn't notice it at first, did you?