KotH Boxes A10

[Piesofthesky]

Boxes - KOTH aboard a cargo ship full of cargo containers.

koth_boxes

This is my first attempt at creating a more serious map. I wanted to resist my urge to make crazy off-the-grid brushwork and focus on the basics, which gave me the idea to make much of my map from cargo containers. Eventually, I want to include a scrolling 3D skybox, similar to ctf_convoy.

It has been worked on and refined until my ideas ran dry, and I would now like feedback to help inform the direction the map should take next. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Piesofthesky]

Made several changes based on feedback from play-testing. The point has been raised to make the height disadvantage less punishing. Height variation has been added to the main sight-line to make sniper play more difficult and less linear. Changes were made to the below-deck area, to make it less cramped, and to add a few more options for getting around. This included a stairway from the engine room to the point. The biggest change by far in this version however is the spawn room rework. The spawn is now far bigger, and it is more clear where the player needs to go to leave spawn.

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[Piesofthesky]

Version A7

The two biggest problems facing previous versions of this map were:
- The containers do not cut visleaves,
- and the containers need staticproplighting, which takes forever during the compile because there are so many of them.
These were both big problems, and both contributed towards lag. I came up with an interesting idea to solve both of these problems; I took screenshots of the containers, made custom textures for all four sides, and replaced the containers with brushes.
This way, not only do the containers cut visleaves, they also require far less memory to light. The results look better too. Since the container props are quite low-poly, the brushes effectively have a better lightmap scale, because staticproplighting only considers each vertex and not the space between.

Other changes were made too:
- The ramp leading from the lower deck to the point was removed, and a staircase to the engine room was added in its place. This should help to consolidate the routes around the control point, making the map less confusing for new players.
- A stack of containers near the upper spawn exit has been lowered, and a plank was added to help players get up there.
- Some suspended planks have been added above the control point. There is a medium health pack up there. I added this because all of the health packs were in enclosed spaces, which made life difficult for rocket jumping soldiers and demomen.
- The size of the health and ammo packs near the top spawn were reduced.
- Added some more cover near the point. I hope this will help engineers hide buildings, and help players avoid snipers.

One final note; I experimented with CompilePal while trying to pack the container textures in the bsp file. In the process, I ended up with incredibly cool HDR lighting. While this will be inconsistent with future alpha versions, I thought it would be a shame to waste the time spend compiling it, and decided to keep it. I hope you enjoy the fancy lighting.

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[Piesofthesky]

The entire area surrounding spawn has been completely reworked. The spawn rooms themselves have also been changed again. The intention here was to create a single, unified area outside spawn, where previously the spawn exits led to entirely separated decks. Additionally, the the map has been made longer, with the inclusion of extra space between the spawns and the control points.

I feel this has been achieved, but I am not entirely happy with the result. While some elements present are very cool, and will definitely remain, I am a bit uneasy about how open and vertical this area is.

Despite this unhappiness, I am keen to release this version, because I feel as though I have no indication as to what needs to change next regarding the spawn area. I am eager to test this version, and study the effects of my changes on the way the map plays.

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[Piesofthesky]

The two sides of my map felt very similar, and I found that despite the extremely vivid team colouring on this map, I was still occasionally getting confused about which side of the map I was on. This was particularly prevalent on the control point. I would find myself expecting the enemy to come from my team's side of the map only to be killed by an enemy from behind.

For this reason, the decision has been made to test the map with mirrored symmetry, as opposed to its former rotational symmetry. This makes the red side of the map, (the side that has been altered), feel truly different from the blu half.

Some other more minor changes were also made. These include:
Making certain pathways wider
Blocking long sniper sightlines (which were created as a result of the widening and mirroring changes in this version)
Adding clip brushes in important areas
Fixing a few bugs (such as stickies bouncing off planks)

Enjoy

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[Piesofthesky]

This update saw some changes to the control point. Changing from rotational to mirrored symmetry allowed for some extra flexibility, which was utilised. A ship's bridge was also added in the skybox to the Blu side of the map. Other minor details were changed and added.

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