Arc Mountain

Radenska

L2: Junior Member
Jan 31, 2008
53
18
My first arena map. Both sides compete over control of an escape route from the leaning water tower, via locomotion & shipping platform.

I used an alpine style, and played with the lighting a bit so it has more of a late dawn feel, and to capture more of the deep purples found in the skybox.

I plan to re-enable the entities that control dynamic props upon capturing the CP, but that had its issues and will return polished as I finalize any revisions that playtesting reveals on the layout.

Planning to submit this to near future playtest weekends.
 
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PenPen

L5: Dapper Member
Apr 24, 2008
207
136
I did a runthrough of your map and found out some minor issues. Overall I like it myself, I really like the water tower tilting and dripping water part.:thumbup:

Anyway...

Over here there's this huge block of elevated playerclip, not good since this roof is rather easily accessible (rocket/sticky jump). So I'm floating in the air over here. Applies to both sides.

arena_arc_mountain_a10000.jpg


I can also jump off the map from here:
arena_arc_mountain_a10002.jpg


...and here...(I'm outside already, basically behind both fences near the spawn)

arena_arc_mountain_a10004.jpg


And at this house opposite the spawn there is an opening where I can access this area by rocket/sticky jump. I think you might be better off covering the opening by extending the roof.

arena_arc_mountain_a10003.jpg


I didn't take a picture but you can sticky jump out of spawn during countdown. It's not going to make much of a difference if you ask me, but it's just something that I noticed.
 

Radenska

L2: Junior Member
Jan 31, 2008
53
18
Penpen,

Thanks so much for doing that. I knew I was able to do that in an older build as well, but as new ones came with more geometry I was forgetting to revise that clip brush in particular. I'll definitely go in and get those areas better sealed-off.

Thanks!

It use to be CTF actually, which is why you might be wondering if that extra interior you found was at a time useful.
 

PenPen

L5: Dapper Member
Apr 24, 2008
207
136
No problems. Why didn't you keep it as a ctf map? Seems okay to me (maybe add more ammo and health around the map and stuff).

I just remembered about the spectator cameras as well, they were pretty far away. I think arena map spec cameras need to be closer to the action, perhaps you can see how effective they are after submitting for gameday.
 

Radenska

L2: Junior Member
Jan 31, 2008
53
18
Well, this was initially a semester final project for a class on Narrative in our medium, and changing from CTF to Arena gave me the idea for a central CP, which then led to the water tower and train landmarks. These were much more elegant tools for narrative (long story short), and plus I was more interested to try and make an arena at the time since the entities and mode was brand new when I started.

It solved a lot of grading criteria and design flaws I was facing at the time, basically, and it proved to get better feedback from in-studio play tests.

Thanks for asking though - I may get some mileage out of this map in the future if the layout is successful online, and make other versions.
 

Steff0o

L6: Sharp Member
May 31, 2009
295
132
Minor Bugs

i made a runtrough to.

arena_arc_mountain_a10005.jpg

I can stand in that tree:p

arena_arc_mountain_a10000.jpg

May i come up here?:confused:

arena_arc_mountain_a10004.jpg

if you drop yourself from the tower next to the watertower you can fall behind the map:p
 

Radenska

L2: Junior Member
Jan 31, 2008
53
18
steff0o,

Thanks to you as well for "surveying the land", haha.

I'm going to take a look at the map tonight and really spend some time closing off those areas before next Sunday's testing day.

The thing is, I'm really really awful with the sticky/rocket jumping, so I rarely bothered stress-testing these areas for accessibility. Fortunately, there are many people here who can use such talents to everyone's benefit ::p:
 

Radenska

L2: Junior Member
Jan 31, 2008
53
18
I updated most of the screenshots. I haven't uploaded the new .bsp yet (fixing the clip brush issues you guys pointed out above), but these better represent what I've tweaked visually.