Honestly.
I played it on the TF2maps.net's EU server just now, and for a map that's in a Release Candidate state (number 3 in fact) it has some big issues that should've been resolved in the beta stages of the map.
Couple of things I noticed.
UPDATE: I've just tested the map (RC3) on a New York TF2maps.net server, and all the performance issues are a thing of the past.
1: It has some spots on the map that are easily covered by one sentry that's almost impossible to destroy (cp B, stage 1, left of the control point has an elevated area that once a sentry is placed is impossible to overtake, which is problematic since there isn't a lot of cover around there to dodge it).
2: There are some big rendering issues on the map, particularly in the 3D skybox behind BLU's base (the smoke is being rendered behind the 2D skycard with the mountain as seen here).
3: Some areas have plenty of detail while other areas lack it. The cliff near cp B, stage 1 is a fine example of that. It's there, but at the bottom there is nothing but ground. A couple of trees would make it much more interesting to die there (although I did notice the doves with the bomb there which is an awesome easter egg). Also, if Thunder Mountain can have its roof fly of when the bomb goes boom I don't see a reason for it why Snowplow's final cp can't be blown up properly (flying roofs and barrels 'n stuff (or maybe I can since it would mean more entities of which this map already has a whackton of).
Now I'm not firing shots at Fr0Z3n or YM for the issues (mostly). The map will be fun and challenging for players, but only if at least these issues are resolved. I feel sorry for you guys. Valve could've helped you with the mapping process, but instead decided to cut it completely with the lame excuse of 'it's too complicated'. It's not. It just wasn't finished yet. If the movie came out with the update shipping a week or 2 later as part of the Smissmass update with the map properly finished and Valve actually SAID ANYTHING ON THEIR TF2 BLOG ABOUT IT we wouldn't have to go all ape♥♥♥♥ on them. And honestly. We went ape♥♥♥♥ on Valve, and with good reason. Recently Valve has become more of a money grabber that doesn't care about their games which is the completely and exactly the opposite direction of where they came from: a company who used to care about its community and the games they make.
Oh well. I talked for way too long now and my fingers are tired.
[EDIT]
Ok so a couple of screenshots incoming. I try to think as Valve does when it comes to detailing and I'm probably really anal about some small stuff, but if it catches my untrained eye it certainly catches the trained eye of Valve. The play areas that could use some changing in my opinion come after my 1.5 hour visit to the TF2maps.net EU server yesterday after probably about 6-7 pretty similar going rounds.
Also, on the performance side: the map never drops a single frame when you're the only one on the map. The map has around 1600 entities which is fine for itself, but the engine starts to struggle when you have a whackton of players on there with all their glorious unusuals and Australium Rocket Launchers and other projectiles and whatnots.
Anyway, for stage 1:
This is that overpowered sentry spot. RED can have one Engi with a Pybro around him and it's impossible to take down.
This door also plays a big part as to why that sentry spot is OP. I'd recommend it to be widened and not solid (Demoman+unseen Stickies=death).
This cliff area is the area I talked about whit the detailing portion of this post. It's there, but it's rather plain and simple.
This texture doesn't look right. I appreciate the normal map (I presume it's there) but it's too reflective. It doesn't fit the area (same for its green counterpart). Also, the textures misalign on the left (on the snowy texture that is).
While minor, I could see it when rocket jumping (building in question is right of the bridge in front of BLU's spawn).
That's quite a gap.
This lighting looks odd. The ceiling is very bright while the support beams and the surrounding area are way darker and look more natural.
This area needs 2 doorways to prevent people from camping here as an Engineer. There is no way to get behind a sentry that's going to be there every single round, you can only attack a sentry there when it already sees you.
Finally, for stage 1: This area needs a detailing pass. The wall on the left looks odd and there isn't a single bit of detail here. In fact, that whole area feels wrong. I'd suggest placing the spawn directly against the building in front of it and sealing off the back area so you can make it more detailed without having to worry about game play and hidden spots.
On to stage 2:
This doesn't feel right. You have a nice low lighted roof and surrounding area that is then completely dominated by this very bright wall.
Don't be this guy. Please. It's also possible to stand on the inside beams and be completely concealed of taking damage from above and the sides.
This is a problem. The clipping here will be very obvious without even having the train there.
This is a weird detailing decision. I get it, it's a brick base with a steel staircase on top of it (you can see that from the side) but you can only know that if you start looking at the building up close which would probably get you killed in a standard 11v11 pub. I'd suggest making it an all metal staircase while keeping the brick base. Also, the same staircase has an obvious texture misalignment.
RED's first spawn could also use some more detailing. The textures are a bit washed out and don't look very pretty, and it also lacks some props. One thing to help with the textures would be to have a normal map of it linked in the .vmf since the area itself is so bright and lit up.
Now this arrow. This arrow here is a bit misleading since there is a door straight below it. Even I got confused the first time I saw it. I get why the door is there, it explains how people can get to the lift's hydraulics, but that arrow can be positioned better.
This is also an overpowered Engineer camping spot (next to CP A). He has acces to health and ammo without having to worry about attackers since the only way to get to him and his sentry is to stand right in front of it. I'd make a drop down area above that point of some sort since BLU has all the high ground to the left of it which can reach that area without the sentry seeing them.
This combination of metal and wood doesn't make a ton of sense. I'd make it all wood.
These and these windows aren't properly clipped. You can stand on the very edge of them.
Oh and I don't have a screenshot of it but RED's final spawn is very bright on the inside. It'll look more natural if the lighting wasn't so bright but instead a bit more softer.
There are some other spots on both stages that could be considered OP to the defending team but that shouldn't be a problem if BLU has a proper team which knows what it's doing. The areas that are highlighted here however, have proven to be a problem, especially that first spot on stage 1, near CP B.
please don't come at me with brushes and entities (read: pitchforks and shotguns) please thank you
I played it on the TF2maps.net's EU server just now, and for a map that's in a Release Candidate state (number 3 in fact) it has some big issues that should've been resolved in the beta stages of the map.
Couple of things I noticed.
UPDATE: I've just tested the map (RC3) on a New York TF2maps.net server, and all the performance issues are a thing of the past.
1: It has some spots on the map that are easily covered by one sentry that's almost impossible to destroy (cp B, stage 1, left of the control point has an elevated area that once a sentry is placed is impossible to overtake, which is problematic since there isn't a lot of cover around there to dodge it).
2: There are some big rendering issues on the map, particularly in the 3D skybox behind BLU's base (the smoke is being rendered behind the 2D skycard with the mountain as seen here).
3: Some areas have plenty of detail while other areas lack it. The cliff near cp B, stage 1 is a fine example of that. It's there, but at the bottom there is nothing but ground. A couple of trees would make it much more interesting to die there (although I did notice the doves with the bomb there which is an awesome easter egg). Also, if Thunder Mountain can have its roof fly of when the bomb goes boom I don't see a reason for it why Snowplow's final cp can't be blown up properly (flying roofs and barrels 'n stuff (or maybe I can since it would mean more entities of which this map already has a whackton of).
Now I'm not firing shots at Fr0Z3n or YM for the issues (mostly). The map will be fun and challenging for players, but only if at least these issues are resolved. I feel sorry for you guys. Valve could've helped you with the mapping process, but instead decided to cut it completely with the lame excuse of 'it's too complicated'. It's not. It just wasn't finished yet. If the movie came out with the update shipping a week or 2 later as part of the Smissmass update with the map properly finished and Valve actually SAID ANYTHING ON THEIR TF2 BLOG ABOUT IT we wouldn't have to go all ape♥♥♥♥ on them. And honestly. We went ape♥♥♥♥ on Valve, and with good reason. Recently Valve has become more of a money grabber that doesn't care about their games which is the completely and exactly the opposite direction of where they came from: a company who used to care about its community and the games they make.
Oh well. I talked for way too long now and my fingers are tired.
[EDIT]
Ok so a couple of screenshots incoming. I try to think as Valve does when it comes to detailing and I'm probably really anal about some small stuff, but if it catches my untrained eye it certainly catches the trained eye of Valve. The play areas that could use some changing in my opinion come after my 1.5 hour visit to the TF2maps.net EU server yesterday after probably about 6-7 pretty similar going rounds.
Also, on the performance side: the map never drops a single frame when you're the only one on the map. The map has around 1600 entities which is fine for itself, but the engine starts to struggle when you have a whackton of players on there with all their glorious unusuals and Australium Rocket Launchers and other projectiles and whatnots.
Anyway, for stage 1:
This is that overpowered sentry spot. RED can have one Engi with a Pybro around him and it's impossible to take down.
This door also plays a big part as to why that sentry spot is OP. I'd recommend it to be widened and not solid (Demoman+unseen Stickies=death).
This cliff area is the area I talked about whit the detailing portion of this post. It's there, but it's rather plain and simple.
This texture doesn't look right. I appreciate the normal map (I presume it's there) but it's too reflective. It doesn't fit the area (same for its green counterpart). Also, the textures misalign on the left (on the snowy texture that is).
While minor, I could see it when rocket jumping (building in question is right of the bridge in front of BLU's spawn).
That's quite a gap.
This lighting looks odd. The ceiling is very bright while the support beams and the surrounding area are way darker and look more natural.
This area needs 2 doorways to prevent people from camping here as an Engineer. There is no way to get behind a sentry that's going to be there every single round, you can only attack a sentry there when it already sees you.
Finally, for stage 1: This area needs a detailing pass. The wall on the left looks odd and there isn't a single bit of detail here. In fact, that whole area feels wrong. I'd suggest placing the spawn directly against the building in front of it and sealing off the back area so you can make it more detailed without having to worry about game play and hidden spots.
On to stage 2:
This doesn't feel right. You have a nice low lighted roof and surrounding area that is then completely dominated by this very bright wall.
Don't be this guy. Please. It's also possible to stand on the inside beams and be completely concealed of taking damage from above and the sides.
This is a problem. The clipping here will be very obvious without even having the train there.
This is a weird detailing decision. I get it, it's a brick base with a steel staircase on top of it (you can see that from the side) but you can only know that if you start looking at the building up close which would probably get you killed in a standard 11v11 pub. I'd suggest making it an all metal staircase while keeping the brick base. Also, the same staircase has an obvious texture misalignment.
RED's first spawn could also use some more detailing. The textures are a bit washed out and don't look very pretty, and it also lacks some props. One thing to help with the textures would be to have a normal map of it linked in the .vmf since the area itself is so bright and lit up.
Now this arrow. This arrow here is a bit misleading since there is a door straight below it. Even I got confused the first time I saw it. I get why the door is there, it explains how people can get to the lift's hydraulics, but that arrow can be positioned better.
This is also an overpowered Engineer camping spot (next to CP A). He has acces to health and ammo without having to worry about attackers since the only way to get to him and his sentry is to stand right in front of it. I'd make a drop down area above that point of some sort since BLU has all the high ground to the left of it which can reach that area without the sentry seeing them.
This combination of metal and wood doesn't make a ton of sense. I'd make it all wood.
These and these windows aren't properly clipped. You can stand on the very edge of them.
Oh and I don't have a screenshot of it but RED's final spawn is very bright on the inside. It'll look more natural if the lighting wasn't so bright but instead a bit more softer.
There are some other spots on both stages that could be considered OP to the defending team but that shouldn't be a problem if BLU has a proper team which knows what it's doing. The areas that are highlighted here however, have proven to be a problem, especially that first spot on stage 1, near CP B.
please don't come at me with brushes and entities (read: pitchforks and shotguns) please thank you
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