arena_shoshone by Original

[Sgt Frag]

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

above cap

looking down valley

in the back maintenece shed and the suckley ventilation device

in front of dam office

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

view from reseviour

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


-----------------
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.

And from the blue

-----------------
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):

spawn:

looking at cap:

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.

 

[Ida]

This looks nice, I love the overall style. It looks pretty unique as well.

Just a little thing about the name (can't help it since you were talking about it ): I'd pick arena_hoover_dam over arena_shoshone, because Hoover Dam explains the theme well and is simple and memorable, while Shoshone is a weird name that most people won't understand the meaning of.

 

[Cerious]

Shoshone is an Indian tribe, as well. I would use arena_hoover, just plain so that people know. Most people know about the Hoover Dam anyways.

EDIT: And I'm begging you, please use some of your textures and inspiration from Hydro. I love the Hydro scenery, so if you can use that well in this map, I'd be amazed.

 

[Sgt Frag]

Thanks, yeah, you guys are probably right, Hoover is better.
Plus I'll get to make overlays like:
'Suckley Ventilation Systems' that I was thinking about. (Hoover vacuum suck thing, get it )

I didn't mention, but the sides of the resevior skybox will be little 'camps, or towns' in the red and blue styles.

 

[Apom]

The arches you used for those semi-circular sections really need more sides. That, or turn them into auto-subdivided displacements.

This aside, I like the idea.

 

[laghlagh]

This looks very nice, keep it up keep it up!

 

[Sgt Frag]

--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.


I veiw from the red side.

And from the blue

 

[lerlerson]

Oh wow, I really like your subtle use of environmental light to help differentiate between the two teams' sides without using an overabundance of Red and Blu logos that make no sense on the same building.

 

[Sgt Frag]

I'm thinking of also making a CP map from this once I have the arena done.

For that I'll probably expand the top of the road (will be fenced off at each end of dam for arena with skybox behind) and put a team spawn on either side. Most likely 'up a road'/around a corner for optimizing.

What I'm thinking is a 4 point CP with a slight twist.

cap A would be outside red's spawn. They must cap this first, then mid-point C in the middle of dam building (see pics above) can be capped. If Blu caps B (blu spawn area) then they can cap C and/or B, blocking Red from a C cap and vice/versa.

D will be inside the bottom of the dam. It can only be capped by capping and holding C first.

Any comments on that would be great. Also if someone wants to post how the entities would work, I haven't even dug into that yet.

I think the spawn caps would be a fast cap time. Since it'll be close to spawn it'll always be easy for the home team to hold/recap. But a quick scout cap could change the situation at C fast so teams will have to dig in there a bit.

Once C is secure D will open. It'll be down in the whole so both teams will have to fight down into it. Most likely the team on it will then be at a slight disadvantage as they are in the bottom.

I don't know if the win would be cap your spawn (A or B), C and D or if it should be a 4 point cap to win. Most likely the play would be to fight your way down and control D. Once your team is holding it you need a fast cap of the other teams spawn.

If at anytime your spawn cap gets capped (A/B) you lose C and D is locked again.

 

[Sgt Frag]

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

above cap

looking down valley

in the back maintenece shed and the suckley ventilation device

in front of dam office

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

view from reseviour

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

 

[Zanpa]

Pretty.

I personnally don't like the water, though.

 

[Sgt Frag]

Don't like water in the map or how it looks?

I've upped the scale to .5 instead of .25, that looks better imo. I've also realigned the surface (it was mirrored) so the seam down the middle should be gone. And the back part wont be in the skybox, so that should fix that seam.

 

[Ida]

Water always looks best at a scale of 1. Especially such large bodies of water as that.

 

[Noggin]

Looks like it should be a TC or CP map. HINT.