artpass_spud
- Thread starter Dr. Spud
- Start date
FreeLance_FoX
L6: Sharp Member
- Sep 6, 2008
- 353
- 173
If we can plant the simple notion of "vineyards" 3 layers deep in Robin Walker's mind, over time it will grow into an idea.
No no no no no. Inception is a delicate process, so we're going to need to go about it in a much more subtle way:
Layer one will take place in a beautiful restaurant, eating dinner with his wife. Surrounded by successful businessmen, everything will be perfect. Except... The waiter has yet to arrive with the wine, and he is so very thirsty. At this layer, subtle connections will be made between wine (representing vineyards) and happiness/success that we will expand upon later. Eventually, our disguise man will pretend to be the waiter, and get Robin to follow him all the way into the kitchen, where he will be ambushed and forced into a deeper layer of dreamland.
Layer two will take place on a vineyard. Next to the vineyard will be a granary, where two militant African factions will be fighting. Our disguise man will play the role of a secret agent, perhaps even James Bond, working with Robin to halt the fighting. He will explain to Robin that the best way to halt the combat is to stop the disagreement and anger between the two nations at war by taking out their leaders. In fact, the leaders are attending this very vineyard for a televised debate over the issues. When Robin and "Bond" finally sneak into the antechamber, the two leaders will be arguing over which weapons should be used, added, banned, and nerfed in this conflict. "Bond" will be captured, but not before handing over some special wine, imploring Robin to swap the leader's drinks with this chemical. The chemicals will cause the two leaders to get extremely cheerful and drunk, deciding to stop the war and make amends.
The imagery in this layer is complex, so I will go in-depth: The two countries represent the unreleasable portion of TF2's fanbase, while the battle on granary represents both TF2 itself, and the constant flame wars and arguments players have over how the game should evolve and update. The African factions will convey a sense of "wrongness" to this conflict, implying a disagreement that could be solved much more elegantly. Hence why "Bond" then comes into the equation. He is elegance personified, and his hand in the next events will lend weight to the idea that there is a singular, elegant solution to the problem. The two leaders are the smaller subset of users that stir up these debates, and their constant bickering is another reflection of the endless arguments about the game. Once again, however, the wine is the focus of the dream, representing the "elegant solution" that will so wow the players that all arguments will cease, and instead they will just play the game Robin has made.
Once he sees the result of the special wine, we will take him deeper, down into Layer 3. This will be the coup de grace. Robin will find himself in the dreaded map cp_orange_x, being chased by deformed, evil, caricatures of the TF2 classes. When all hope seems lost, the characters from Half Life 2 will arrive, knocking down a wall to reveal verdant growth on the other side, field after field of grape plants. He will proceed outside to see the entire cast of TF2 out there, fighting, but with a smile on their face, laughing as if they were kids playing in the sandbox. This will be the inception, planting the idea that TF2 will be perfect and successful, something to be proud of, only if he adds an elegant map with an air of class about it. Something that reminds him of wine... Such as a vineyard.
The next time he goes through the entries, he'll see spud's map and be reminded of this most peculiar dream... And immediately declare it the winner.
Wow. Very nice, Spud. Very nice.
Yeah I need to do a little more with it. Though I will say the point looks much better overall with the overpass than without it.
I feel like you should increase your minimum fog distance. Everything looks dusty (unnaturally so) and it irks me. Especially so in your third and fourth images where your maps colourful features get washed out in a murky grey.
The water also feels kinda arbitrary. Like it's there just so that it's different from other entries. But maybe that's just me being nit picky.
The water also feels kinda arbitrary. Like it's there just so that it's different from other entries. But maybe that's just me being nit picky.
I love it, it's stunning yet familiar.
It feels like a blend of alpine and granary, taking granary's farming theme and expanding it with alpines beautiful nature elements.
I do wonder what you will do about the pit on C though.
Removing it would undoubtedly count as a major gameplay change, so I'm really hoping you'll find a cool way to incorporate it into your theme
On the water, I think it's neat looking... but there's still something that feels off.
Is there possibly some darker ground texture to place beneath it, to make it appear more... wet? I'm not sure if that's what bugs me, but something about it is.
It feels like a blend of alpine and granary, taking granary's farming theme and expanding it with alpines beautiful nature elements.
I do wonder what you will do about the pit on C though.
Removing it would undoubtedly count as a major gameplay change, so I'm really hoping you'll find a cool way to incorporate it into your theme
On the water, I think it's neat looking... but there's still something that feels off.
Is there possibly some darker ground texture to place beneath it, to make it appear more... wet? I'm not sure if that's what bugs me, but something about it is.
- Apr 29, 2008
- 1,068
- 709
I disagree, no-one should be looking up there in normal gameplay, they should be focussing below it.
Great work Spud, keep it up. Sorry I've not got much to add to that, it's looking really nice and there's nothing much I can find fault with from the screens.
The water isn't just there, it leads to a bigger stram around B. The problem is as far as I know the water shader can't do the soft-edges on the water but still make it a deep blue color when you look straight down at it (because it's so shallow).