[Contest Entry] pl_zig

[Chilly]

Looking forward to the update. We played your map on our server for the first time the other night (finally got people to listen to my suggestion) and a bunch of people said it's now one of their favorite customs. We have a couple of players that said it's their new favorite sniping map as well, which may be a bad thing. For reference it filled our server... 11-12.

Obviously you've made some changes already, but I'll list out my recommendations anyway.
1. The red lighting in certain areas make it completely impossible to tell which team people are on. I'd like to see some white lights mixed in so you can catch glimpses of the person's actual color.

2. A few of the open areas are a bit too open. I'd love to see a single small building, crystal formation, etc added to those areas to help provide a bit more cover.

3. For some reason the sky is overly bland for me. I know it's intended to some extent, but I'd love to see it have a bit more warmth. Alternatively have you tried night/space skies while leaving the lighting in the map the same? Those might make the colors in the map itself stand out even more.

4. If gates are one-way, they should be marked for the team that cannot enter. It'll help the flow a little bit.

5. Something about blue's forward spawn bothers me. The arrow outside is an absolute requirement since the spawn feels like it's facing the wrong direction. If there's a way to move it to the other wall and rotate it, I think it would feel more natural. That's a very minor issue, though... just pointing it out in case you were considering it anyway.

6. You might want to consider changing the texture on the side of things from the texture on top. Right now stairs don't really pop, whereas if you used just a slightly different texture on the front face it'd really make them stand out and add some visual contrast.

Overall I really enjoy the map. Nicely done... I'm looking forward to future versions, especially with the new cart.

 

[Rexy]

Looking forward to the update. We played your map on our server for the first time the other night (finally got people to listen to my suggestion) and a bunch of people said it's now one of their favorite customs. We have a couple of players that said it's their new favorite sniping map as well, which may be a bad thing. For reference it filled our server... 11-12.

Obviously you've made some changes already, but I'll list out my recommendations anyway.
1. The red lighting in certain areas make it completely impossible to tell which team people are on. I'd like to see some white lights mixed in so you can catch glimpses of the person's actual color.

2. A few of the open areas are a bit too open. I'd love to see a single small building, crystal formation, etc added to those areas to help provide a bit more cover.

3. For some reason the sky is overly bland for me. I know it's intended to some extent, but I'd love to see it have a bit more warmth. Alternatively have you tried night/space skies while leaving the lighting in the map the same? Those might make the colors in the map itself stand out even more.

4. If gates are one-way, they should be marked for the team that cannot enter. It'll help the flow a little bit.

5. Something about blue's forward spawn bothers me. The arrow outside is an absolute requirement since the spawn feels like it's facing the wrong direction. If there's a way to move it to the other wall and rotate it, I think it would feel more natural. That's a very minor issue, though... just pointing it out in case you were considering it anyway.

6. You might want to consider changing the texture on the side of things from the texture on top. Right now stairs don't really pop, whereas if you used just a slightly different texture on the front face it'd really make them stand out and add some visual contrast.

Overall I really enjoy the map. Nicely done... I'm looking forward to future versions, especially with the new cart.

Those are all very excellent suggestions, and I want to thank you for the time spent telling me. Those are very valid, and I will be sure to implement as many of these changes as I can. For reference, did you play pl_zig or pl_zig_b8? The b8 has a lot more fixes than pl_zig. Also, for suggestion #5, which forward spawn did you mean? Blu has 2 forward spawns.

and for those who are interested...update on the cart, more screens, in game:

It's a little too dark, I need to lighten everything up, and fix the uv mapping on the dispenser, something clearly isn't right there...more later.

 

[Chilly]

For reference, did you play pl_zig or pl_zig_b8? The b8 has a lot more fixes than pl_zig. Also, for suggestion #5, which forward spawn did you mean? Blu has 2 forward spawns.

Oops... b4. That's weird... I linked either from your first post here or got it off FPS Banana. I updated all our maps 3 days ago, so I must have just grabbed the wrong version. I'll update it right away. Sorry.

I'll get back to you on the spawn after I update and play it again, since it may not be true anymore. It was the spawn right before the last red tunnel, though.

edit: Your first post links to b4. Might want to update that.

 

[Rexy]

Oops... b4. That's weird... I linked either from your first post here or got it off FPS Banana. I updated all our maps 3 days ago, so I must have just grabbed the wrong version. I'll update it right away. Sorry.

I'll get back to you on the spawn after I update and play it again, since it may not be true anymore. It was the spawn right before the last red tunnel, though.

edit: Your first post links to b4. Might want to update that.

ROFL! Oops! My bad, mate. I'll update the link. The newest version is available here on TF2Maps.net:

http://forums.tf2maps.net/downloads.php?do=file&id=949

 

[GrimGriz]

what's the latest version?

THe link in the first post goes to b4, and there's one to b8 a little ways up...I'm going to run this on my server and I want to make sure i Have the most recentest.

Cough cough!

p.s. check your pms

 

[Chilly]

Played b8 tonight. I think you made some improvements in terms of adding paths, but I also think you complicated the map in doing so. Here are my concerns with b8:

1. I dislike the doors on all the narrow halls now. More than anything they slow the pace down and stop you from hitting people in them as a sniper, demoman, soldier, etc... any ranged shots. They also show when spies come through them. Before they were kind of nice for spies... you really had to weight the tradeoff of a very narrow passage versus moving in the main path.

2. Blue's final spawn is nice in that it allows you to move to either of the final checkpoints. However, it's also a bit confusing since you're labeling things with letters even though the checkpoints aren't lettered. I'd suggest changing it to a single arrow that points to the shortest path, while still allowing people to use the alternate path if they want.

We also had our CEVO-P demoman playing with us tonight, playing as a soldier. His primary complaint was a lack of vertical gameplay in the map. He said that it ends up being a bit boring for soldier and demoman since they can't really do jumps to get any advantage and that as a result most smart players will opt for other classes.

To counter that, you could add some 2 story structures in certain areas. Good places would be in the first section ("column" section... either side of the track would work), the third section ("wood" section... either side of the track, or perhaps going over the track), and in the final area.

Hope this helps.

 

[ColdFire]

The new cart looks nice, can't wait for b9!

 

[DaBeatzProject]

Are those screens fulbright?

 

[Rexy]

Are those screens fulbright?

no

 

[Katsu! :3]

It's nearly 15 years later but we finally found out the real reason the crystals were being dug out of the earth