- May 4, 2008
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Borax - From A1 to B1 Progress
This is the progress thread about Borax. From the first version, Alpha 1 to the latest version today, Beta 1. The changes has been in large scales. I tried different things in each version, what looked best, what worked best and so on. I think I came with the best design in B1. But thing might change in later version.
The alpha version was all in dev textures, except the later ones, which contained some detailing in both Reds and Blus spawn. But lets get started on what I thought throughout the process and what I could have done differently. Here, I have only noted the biggest changes in each version.
Alpha 1
As you can see in the first picture, the main thing I was focusing on here was higher defend position for Red and ground level attack positions for Blue. Now that I look back, the first thing I see is that blue has much more advantage.
Blue exists from 3 doors, all 3 gave Blue good view over the battlefield and also could spread out very quickly and efficient. And to make it even worse, the Reds didn't have much cover on the defend areas as much as it could use.
Second picture, already here you can see that its very bland and boring. Not much color variation and its quite empty. The second Blue forward spawn was, back then, located on top off that little cliff. The stupidity of this was that when you capture the point on the screen (cap2) Blue would spawn in there. That makes Blue spawn closer to the goal then the actual cart is.
And here actually, I used Youme's 3D skybox from pl_halfacre. Which later on got replaced.
Third screenshot, this is where some awesome ideas about vertical advantages began. Later on it turned out not to be so awesome. Again, lack of cover for defenders. Also turns out to be to low in height to really give a vertical advantage. And also that sertain path restricts players and forces them to take that way around the enemy. Which is never a positive addon to gameplay.
Again, if you look futher back in the map, you can see more rocks, no color variation, boring and bland.
This is how the map looked like from above.
This is the original idea of the map from above. To the left, my original sketch and to the right, edited by Youme
Alpha 2
In short, here I started to do some more work on the buildings. I thought twice before making changes to them. Think about possibilities. Take every class in TF2 into consideration. Already in A2 we had custom props. Two actually, and both from Nova Silisko. He made me a Barrel Cart and a animated Fan for the final cap. And its great how fast he made them for me.
Also as you can see in the last picture there, I started to do some more structures and trying to improve as much as possible. Which in the end turned out to be to weak for attackers.
Alpha 3
Oh this version was embarrassing :blushing:! I forgot to compile with the player clip on! Haha it was quite funny on gameday but still very frustrating to see players jumping outside the map
Slight changes to it though. Nothing big.
Alpha 5
In A5 there was the biggest change from a version to another. In the first picture you can see how the last cap area has changed from the previous versions. I added more structures which improved attackers side in a positive way. Im still pretty happy with the basic design of the last cap. It's still in Beta 1
Second picture, main problem in Borax from the start was lack of signs. I really tried to counter this in A5. Added some static and dynamic ones that pop up on cap. Although it turned out not to be enough.
For example, Reds first spawn, players would walk straight forward when coming out from the spawn. But they where suppose to walk to the left. In later version I put 2 BIG dynamic arrows in the way on the main path. Pointing to the left. Magically enough players still walked right pass them D:. I decided that the problem really was the direction the spawn pointed, but more on that later.
I also added some covers to that 'vertical advantage' point but showed later on that it was no use, which is why we do alphas!
In the third image, you can see that I kinda carved one of the exits into the cliff. This looked good and gave a slight advantage to Red. Since they can see Blue coming from father distance. I also did some slight changes to the smaller cliffs where you could stand on. Which was removed completely in later versions.

From A1 to B1
This is the progress thread about Borax. From the first version, Alpha 1 to the latest version today, Beta 1. The changes has been in large scales. I tried different things in each version, what looked best, what worked best and so on. I think I came with the best design in B1. But thing might change in later version.
The alpha version was all in dev textures, except the later ones, which contained some detailing in both Reds and Blus spawn. But lets get started on what I thought throughout the process and what I could have done differently. Here, I have only noted the biggest changes in each version.
Alpha 1
As you can see in the first picture, the main thing I was focusing on here was higher defend position for Red and ground level attack positions for Blue. Now that I look back, the first thing I see is that blue has much more advantage.
Blue exists from 3 doors, all 3 gave Blue good view over the battlefield and also could spread out very quickly and efficient. And to make it even worse, the Reds didn't have much cover on the defend areas as much as it could use.
Second picture, already here you can see that its very bland and boring. Not much color variation and its quite empty. The second Blue forward spawn was, back then, located on top off that little cliff. The stupidity of this was that when you capture the point on the screen (cap2) Blue would spawn in there. That makes Blue spawn closer to the goal then the actual cart is.
And here actually, I used Youme's 3D skybox from pl_halfacre. Which later on got replaced.
Third screenshot, this is where some awesome ideas about vertical advantages began. Later on it turned out not to be so awesome. Again, lack of cover for defenders. Also turns out to be to low in height to really give a vertical advantage. And also that sertain path restricts players and forces them to take that way around the enemy. Which is never a positive addon to gameplay.
Again, if you look futher back in the map, you can see more rocks, no color variation, boring and bland.

This is how the map looked like from above.

This is the original idea of the map from above. To the left, my original sketch and to the right, edited by Youme
Alpha 2
In short, here I started to do some more work on the buildings. I thought twice before making changes to them. Think about possibilities. Take every class in TF2 into consideration. Already in A2 we had custom props. Two actually, and both from Nova Silisko. He made me a Barrel Cart and a animated Fan for the final cap. And its great how fast he made them for me.
Also as you can see in the last picture there, I started to do some more structures and trying to improve as much as possible. Which in the end turned out to be to weak for attackers.
Alpha 3
Oh this version was embarrassing :blushing:! I forgot to compile with the player clip on! Haha it was quite funny on gameday but still very frustrating to see players jumping outside the map
Alpha 5
In A5 there was the biggest change from a version to another. In the first picture you can see how the last cap area has changed from the previous versions. I added more structures which improved attackers side in a positive way. Im still pretty happy with the basic design of the last cap. It's still in Beta 1
Second picture, main problem in Borax from the start was lack of signs. I really tried to counter this in A5. Added some static and dynamic ones that pop up on cap. Although it turned out not to be enough.
For example, Reds first spawn, players would walk straight forward when coming out from the spawn. But they where suppose to walk to the left. In later version I put 2 BIG dynamic arrows in the way on the main path. Pointing to the left. Magically enough players still walked right pass them D:. I decided that the problem really was the direction the spawn pointed, but more on that later.
I also added some covers to that 'vertical advantage' point but showed later on that it was no use, which is why we do alphas!
In the third image, you can see that I kinda carved one of the exits into the cliff. This looked good and gave a slight advantage to Red. Since they can see Blue coming from father distance. I also did some slight changes to the smaller cliffs where you could stand on. Which was removed completely in later versions.
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