CP Glacier RC6

[MangyCarface]

No Ace, that looks great. It would benefit vastly from a few splotches of warm light via the lantern/light combos in valve maps.... love it man, be back tomorrow to talk to you

 

[Tinker]

That looks a lot more traversible than the original cave. Awesome!

 

[Acegikmo]

No Ace, that looks great. It would benefit vastly from a few splotches of warm light via the lantern/light combos in valve maps.... love it man, be back tomorrow to talk to you

Thanks!
I've planned to have the warm lights at the red spawn area, to make it a bit more clear where the red side is.

 

[Dr. Spud]

The lighting looks better in that pick. You should rethink some of those displacements though, it's still pretty blocky.

edit: the darker lighting makes the normal maps look uber-shiny though, you could tone down them down a bit.

 

[Acegikmo]

The lighting looks better in that pick. You should rethink some of those displacements though, it's still pretty blocky.

I've already remade the blocky ones into smoother displacements

edit: the darker lighting makes the normal maps look uber-shiny though, you could tone down them down a bit.

Normal maps?
I guess you're thinking of the environment map.
I kinda like it though; it's supposed to look like it's melting; which means everything's wet. My soundscape has got echoing dripping sounds and such.

 

[Dr. Spud]

Normal maps?
I guess you're thinking of the environment map.
I kinda like it though; it's supposed to look like it's melting; which means everything's wet. My soundscape has got echoing dripping sounds and such.

Well, not the env map. I mean the normal map and the material settings. I do like that it looks like it's melting, but it's kind of over-kill at the moment. Like, remember all those next-gen games where all the textures were incredibly shiny like they were covered in goo? The "next-gen shine?" It's reminds me of that right now.

If you're not using these already, things I'd recommend are $normalmapenvmapmask (I think that's the command). That lets you tone down the strength of the reflection with an alpha channel in the normal map. It also lets you add imperfections to the reflection, so it's not like a bumpy mirror.

And sticking "$envmapcontrast" "X" in the .vmt as well helps control uber-shininess.

edit: sorry, I edited this post like three times, I'm done.

 

[Acegikmo]

The normal map has nothing to do with this, except that it holds and alpha channel that acts as the environment map, which is what we're talking about.
I see what you mean with the next-gen shine, but I believe that looks alright as long as the material is supposed to shine. Wet ice is pretty shiny
I am using $normalmapalphaenvmapmask, but I'll look into the envmapcontrast, thanks

 

[kankle_king]

Played it tonight in 6v6, it was really fun. Everyone loved the theme, and the map seems very balanced and well designed. We played 2 rounds; went A 1st, then B 1st for the 2nd round. After trying both strategies, A & B feel almost equally defendable.

B might have a slight edge due to the height advantage above the cap. It seems a little like A gives BLU height advantage (after they get pushed back a bit), and B gives RED the height. However, its not nearly as clear cut of a decision as Gravelpit, where you ALWAYS go A 1st. While B does give RED the height, you never feel safe while defending, which is exactly what you want when making a balanced A/D map. There are long sniper lanes but equal cover, and several different paths and areas to attack from. I also though the HP and ammo placement was great, having the big ammo and HP out in the open in the sniper lane makes it a risky trip, which is good.

I don't have too much to say about A other than suggesting adding a medium HP somewhere. It would be nice to have for the combo to fall back on after they lose the rock area. Having the small ones around is good, but I think 1 medium HP would help RED. (sorry if there IS one and I just didn't see it) Also there was some comments about the roofs, maybe take a look at that yourself, I wasn't completely sure what they meant.

It looks like you did a good job with the paths to and from C. There's lots of ways to get to C, but you'll see in the demo we didn't spend too much time attacking or defending C. (I think this was just the teams, not an issue with the map) We liked it best coming from A into C, there was sufficient ammo/HP and it just flowed nicely. This is all based of of 2 rounds, so keep that in mind.

Overall I think its a solid map and we'll definitely be putting this into our PUG rotation. I recomend watching both demo's, just to see if the other team's games played out differently than ours. I hope this helps, I'll post more as we play more matches on it.

Our game: http://tf2f.sishgupta.com/tf/demos/auto-20090704-2311-cp_glacier_a22.dem
2nd game:http://tf2f.sishgupta.com/tf/demos/auto-20090704-2312-cp_glacier_a22.dem

 

[DaBeatzProject]

I kinda like it though; it's supposed to look like it's melting; which means everything's wet. My soundscape has got echoing dripping sounds and such.

What about putting some of the dripping water particles from sawmill in the cave then? Otherwise, I really like the view of the whole ice-cave. I bet An Icy Mouse wouldn't hesitate to move there!

 

[Acegikmo]

What about putting some of the dripping water particles from sawmill in the cave then? Otherwise, I really like the view of the whole ice-cave. I bet An Icy Mouse wouldn't hesitate to move there!

I have had those in the map for about 6 alphas, maybe even more.

 

[DaBeatzProject]

Oops.. Well, then don't get rid of them!

 

[Acegikmo]

Played it tonight in 6v6, it was really fun. Everyone loved the theme, and the map seems very balanced and well designed. We played 2 rounds; went A 1st, then B 1st for the 2nd round. After trying both strategies, A & B feel almost equally defendable.

Thanks!
Glad you tried it out
I realised after a few alphas that it isn't really possible to balance A and B fully. By instinct, 90% of the time the team will go for A first, since that's what they do in gravelpit. (And maybe because A is before B in the alphabet)

B might have a slight edge due to the height advantage above the cap. It seems a little like A gives BLU height advantage (after they get pushed back a bit), and B gives RED the height. However, its not nearly as clear cut of a decision as Gravelpit, where you ALWAYS go A 1st. While B does give RED the height, you never feel safe while defending, which is exactly what you want when making a balanced A/D map. There are long sniper lanes but equal cover, and several different paths and areas to attack from. I also though the HP and ammo placement was great, having the big ammo and HP out in the open in the sniper lane makes it a risky trip, which is good.

Yeah, red's height advantage was supposed to be balanced out by blue's sniper coverage. We'll see how that goes later on once people have played the beta for a while.

I don't have too much to say about A other than suggesting adding a medium HP somewhere. It would be nice to have for the combo to fall back on after they lose the rock area. Having the small ones around is good, but I think 1 medium HP would help RED. (sorry if there IS one and I just didn't see it) Also there was some comments about the roofs, maybe take a look at that yourself, I wasn't completely sure what they meant.

There is actually a medium healthpack at A. It's inside the building closest to C.
But you're right! A seems to be a bit easier to capture (Might be because it's what people prefer to attack). I will probably make a change at A for the beta version!

It looks like you did a good job with the paths to and from C. There's lots of ways to get to C, but you'll see in the demo we didn't spend too much time attacking or defending C. (I think this was just the teams, not an issue with the map) We liked it best coming from A into C, there was sufficient ammo/HP and it just flowed nicely. This is all based of of 2 rounds, so keep that in mind.

People do prefer the path from A to C. It's a more simple path, but the path that goes from B to C is actually equally fast to walk and gives you height advantage. once you arrive at C.

Overall I think its a solid map and we'll definitely be putting this into our PUG rotation. I recomend watching both demo's, just to see if the other team's games played out differently than ours. I hope this helps, I'll post more as we play more matches on it.

I'll definitely check out the demos once this compile is finished!
Thanks for adding it into the rotation and thanks for some great feedback!

 

[Acegikmo]

Beta released!
Updated the DL link and the screenshots

 

[Void]

disco lights, top right.

Edit:

other than that, it's

 

[Vigilante212]

Its really coming together good man. im still waiting on you to finish it so i can snag some textures

 

[Cerious]

glitch report: as a spy with the dead ringer, you can jump into the water, take minimal damage, swim down way below the hurt trigger, and swim around (before eventually dieing of drowning).

how to fix: extend the hurt triggers (i think) all the way down to the floor of your water area, so. if you find a more elegant way to fix it go ahead, but this should be a rudimentary fix for now.

edit: wait a second, it's not doing it for me in some areas :/ lemme see where it happened, and i'll record a demo.

double edit: fffff, can't reproduce it. Anyways, it definitely happened though sorry i couldn't record a demo

P.S: on one of the ledges at the water, you can stand on a perch and not fall off into the water.

 

[Acegikmo]

I have heard someone else getting the same problem.
I'll fix it for beta 2
Thanks for reporting!

 

[Zanpa]

The Dead Ringer has broken a lot of deathpits

Your map looks awesome, Acegikmo. I'm astonished by how you managed to create a totally new theme for TF2 ! Great work ; I'm definitely recommanding this map to all server admins I know (well, I know of two).

 

[The Gentlemanne]

This map went into BETA!! *Gasp*

 

[Cerious]

Successfully recorded a demo! http://www.megaupload.com/?d=GQ5XE1DF

If you jump from a high place into the water and gain enough speed, you can penetrate the hurt trigger and go swimming. I did it without dead ringer as spy, so an Engineer can do this exploit as well, but build a dispenser and a teleporter.