CP Coldfront

[Icarus]

Coldfront (CP)
by Eric "Icarus" Wong
Email: ericgfwong@hotmail.com

Intro Movie - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AKx0ALJ-8-c
Fly-Through (RC2) - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rFLrZ7OmcfE
Development Timelapse - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=voQuywKfjLI

Control Points
Prepare for a Cold War
The five control points promise to switch hands fast and often in this straightforward map, designed with both competitive and public gameplay in mind (It's possible!). The varied but focused access points to every area will make sure turtling teams will not go unpunished.

Coldfront was originally two separate entries into TF2Maps.NET's CP Detailing Contest. My two entries won 1st and 3rd places, and they, coincidentally, became the 1st and 3rd CPs of my 5CP map, Coldfront. The two entries were planned to be parts of a 5CP map from the very beginning, so stitching them together was fairly easy.

I've had the blizzard theme planned from the start, and it's original name was CP_Stormfront. It was changed because it conflicted with an existing arena map that was named Storm Front, so a friend suggested I use Coldfront. A perfect name considering all the details I would add later on.

I like to try something new in every map I make, so I wanted a recognizable gameplay theme, similar to an aesthetic theme. Thus, I intentionally designed Coldfront with characteristics of "flat" and "basic" in mind, and instead allowed the focus on good team and class balance to create an interesting space to fight in. You could probably say I wanted to make the "Final Destination" of TF2.

My Goal: Create a truly unique 5CP experience that both public and competitive environments can enjoy. I playtested and iterated 26 versions for hours and hours with the TF2Maps.NET community and other external testing. The testing I did on 6v6 pugs really helped me to shape Coldfront up for ESEA's 6th season, which it was included in. ESEA was a competitive feedback gold mine, especially from Justin and Oplaid from BlightGaming.

Lastly, I'd like to thank Flame for all his support and feedback. He was the perfect person to bounce ideas off of, and he really helped me get exposure in the competitive world.

Special Thanks:
Selentic - Models
YM - Models
Void - Posters
Flame
BloodSire
A Boojum Snark
Kankle
2Barrels
Snacks
tf2maps.net
#tf2.pug.na

 

[nik]

Wow!

I love your second screenshot - middle point I presume?
The detail looks so beautiful! The beams and decaying building work perfectly.

 

[jpr]

So you changed the name after all?
Enjoyed it alot, last point was a bit annoying because of the sentry-friendliness but I guess the short captime makes up for it.

 

[TerabyteST]

Awesome use of your contest points

 

[Sharc]

Looks lovely.

 

[Martham112]

I'm actually really looking forward to playing this map. The final points slightly remind me of badlands in a good way and the middle cap looks very interesting. I've not played a map with a similar centre capture zone like that.

I don't know how the second points will play, but from the screenshot, it looks a bit bland to me.

 

[H-land]

I was going to write a detailed post on how to improve the playability of the map, what was wrong, what was right, and how you might fix the worse parts of the map. As it happens, though, I realized that I'm not sure WHAT, exactly, you want to happen on a 5 CP map. I really should know, since I'm designing one, but I don't, so I'll just say what I do know:
-The first, fifth and third points were hard to capture.
-I felt very vulnerable attacking the last point as a medic, or even going down to heal people. More vulnerable than I usually feel as medic, I should say.
-I had fun.

 

[grazr]

I was waiting for this to become an actual map. Didn't expect you to combine the final point there though.

Can't wait to get the chance to play it.

 

[SlayerBlitz]

I loved all the points, especially the middle point, but the 2nd/4th point fell really bland and easy to capture. It just didn't go with the other points at all and its not just because it isn't detailed. It feels like you really put a lot into the 1st/5th and middle points but just looked at the 2nd/4th as a unnecessary delay.

I think you should raise the platform the the right of the point (the one closest to the ground) and raise it up like a balcony and put the medkit under it, and the ammokit above on the balcony. You should also take off the ramp closest to the spawn so that its easier for the attacking team to use while the other area across the point is easier for the defending team to reach. The raised area near the point you have now seems really unprotected. You need to add some waist high walls or metal barriers. Also a purely aesthetic idea I had for this point is to put a large window on the ceiling over the control point.

Also around the middle point it be nice if you put some indication where the medkits and such spawn.

Also slopes are for noobs who dont know how to make stairs.

 

[infectedfury]

a very nice looking map. keep up the good work

 

[Time]

I just tested the map out by myself. Looks great! Keep up the good work!

 

[Flame]

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/3702088/tf.rar

demo from last night

biggest complaint was mid, its hard to see anything until it kills you, dont flatten it out too much but maybe a little? theres a few spots you get stuck on ill show you later and they said last caps too fast for how long a walk it is.

=P

 

[Dram]

Was blown away by the visual style and fidelity of the last cap point, and hugely impressed by your grasp of brushwork at the central during the CP mini-contest. Very excited to see this map.

question: May I presume that the screenshot of the final point shown in this thread is from an older build of the map, or did you want to open up the space by removing the computer terminals?

 

[lamelikemike]

super fun man, and good playin with you today, the second point feels a bit bland compared to the very well made mid and last point but over all it a great start

 

[Icarus]

Thanks everyone. Personally, 5CP is my absolute favourite game mode. I'm going to put everything I've got to make it fun and balanced.

@Slayerblitz: Could you be a little more specific when you ask for changes? I'm not too sure what point you're talking about, and where.

question: May I presume that the screenshot of the final point shown in this thread is from an older build of the map, or did you want to open up the space by removing the computer terminals?

I wanted to open up the space, yeah. I didn't feel that the cpoint entry, unedited, would play very well. Not to mention you'd get terrible FPS with all that detail.
I realize it looks rather bland right now, but everything will get a visual upgrade once I begin the detail pass and move into beta.
It's just that right now, I want to focus on making the gameplay fun, and not fretting too much about visuals right now is a lot easier.

@Flame: I'm going to lose some sleep over this as I watch the demo Thanks again for the utterly valuable opportunity to pug test my map, while it's in early development
Also, I totally agree with you on all accounts. As an additional plus, reducing the slope on mid will also give me more room to deal with those sightlines
Currently, the cap time on last is 3s (Yukon). I'm going to boost it up to 4s (Granary) and see how that plays out. I'm just a little afraid it's going to overpower turtlers in pubs.

 

[Tinker]

One of the problems I noticed on gameday was how hard it is to get back a point once you lose it - you're always fighting an uphill battle if you want a point back, and always downhill when you're attacking. Now, that's pretty normal in 5cp (the team with more points has a bigger advantage), but I felt it was a little hard on the defending team here.

 

[Ida]

I enjoyed this map, the middle was very different and fun.

But one thing I dislike is trying to attack a point while being forced to exit through a narrow corridor, i.e. the 2nd-1st connection. It stalemated right around the corridors pretty much every time I played, so I think you should find a more innovative way to connect them, making it easier to attack 1st/2nd for either team.

 

[Tinker]

Oh yeah, and I remember the first spawn (which is used the most) to be HUGE and teams got seperated at the start - I didn't like that. Especially for 6v6, which this definitely will be tried in, where the medic wants to overheal his team before the round begins, it could be very annoying. I'm not sure how to fit a smaller spawn into the final cap's layout, though.

Overall, a very promising map

 

[Dram]

In the vein of the user who said that the last cap was too long for the walk, which may be true (haven't tried this map with other players, just ran through it) I like the locations of the forward spawns, they're fairly close to what you'd see on valve 5cp maps in terms of distance to the next point.

The only thing I would tweak, and obviously this WILL be tweaked, is the lighting and visual style around the second point. Hitting that bleak point after the icy central and then going straight on into the cold look of that last, metallic point makes me think breaking it up with something warmer would be a good idea.

 

[Dram]

Oh yeah, and I remember the first spawn (which is used the most) to be HUGE and teams got seperated at the start - I didn't like that. Especially for 6v6, which this definitely will be tried in, where the medic wants to overheal his team before the round begins, it could be very annoying. I'm not sure how to fit a smaller spawn into the final cap's layout, though.

Overall, a very promising map

I'd suggest removing those side-rooms within the spawn and moving all the teamspawns into the area directly between where they used to be (farther back against the wall. It might make it a tighter angle to turn but it at least forces the player into one of two parties on round-start.