Ruins

[Masakari]

Apologies in advance for this map - this is the first "serious" map I've attempted. I've made a few unserious novelty maps for my community, and I finally wanted to take everything I've learned and make something that could be played on a real server.

I've been working on this map on and off for a couple of months now. I'd been coming close to getting serious with texturing, but decided that it'd be better to test layouts and other important things before going onto that.

The appeal to a CTF map with rotational symmetry is, or course, that I'm only really making one base and then copy-paste-rotating and re-texturing. It's worked out fairly well, and I'm happy with what I have so far.

Halfway through the development of the map, someone from my community suggested the concept for an "invasion" kind of map using CTF - teams would have a limited number of neutral intels and must cap them in the enemy's base as many times as possible. The theory worked out kind of well - I ended up using ctf_turbine as a test for the theory, and ended up with a good entity setup for it (Including a hackjob HUD using gametexts). This is the mode that I included for the map (I used the inv_ start just to distinguish between my builds - will not keep it for any kind of a real release), but I can easily provide a real CTF build if anyone wants.

I feel the map, mainly the middle, may be a little bit on the big side, but it's hard to say. As well, there may be a few misaligned brushes and textures (Be warned!) - I just want to see how people think about both the gametype, as well as layout and other key things like that.

Thanks in advance for everything!

 

[Penguin]

This does not look too bad at all. Sign it up for a gameday.

 

[Flame]

get some color in there.

also that middle point looks like a death pit. but id be up for tryin it out.

good luck

 

[Sel]

Lookin pretty nice so far, as said above, colour it up a bit, and maybe make things a bit more ruined, and live up to the name?

Right now they're more along the lines of antiquated, since nothing looks like it's actually broken.

 

[Anagram Man]

Really Blocky, vertex that shit, yo.

 

[nik]

super cold and grey

I do rather like your brushwork though

 

[Masakari]

For those complaining about brushes/colour - that's why this is an alpha and why I stopped texturing until I fixed some bugs

I was trying to go for something a little different with the egypt textures - I used a gray lighting to create something, well, less egypt-y (For some reason I keep wanting to say Greek/Roman, but I think I'm just pulling things out of my butt). I don't know exactly how I can add colour - maps in this style do tend to be a little monochromatic. Detailing will bring out fire and torches, so I might be able to do something there. I could add some water and possible even dirt in the outside area too...

 

[Flame]

you need to be able to tell which side of the map on you are on at all times more or less. You can argue "well you cant on turbine" but thats not something people want

throwing tf2-looking signs into an ancient greek grey map might not look to good aesthetically.

I'm sure theres a way to incorporate color with this map well, and if you do pull it off you might b looking at being the first person to pull off said "theme"

 

[Masakari]

Each base does have a different texture theme to it, and you can kind of tell in the outside facade of the bases - blue has darker brick in it as well as a darker roof, floor, etc. while red is all about light colours. I knew walking into this that the big challenge would be to make the bases identifiable from afar and from any given point.

I should do a little bit of research on ancient architecture - I know red pigment's been around for a while - just not sure how often it was used in architecture. Just even thinking of the show Rome (Not a historical reference I know), they did have paintings and drawing s on the wall, which would have been done with some form of pigment. Hmmmm.....

 

[Dustoxx]

Isn't the name Ruins already used?

 

[The Political Gamer]

Isn't the name Ruins already used?

If it has been used I can't find it on this site.

 

[Masakari]

The only ctf_ruins I've found through Google has been for non-TF2 games.

 

[absurdistof]

Unless you are using some super bland form of the egypt texture, I think your problem lies mostly in the lighting. I would use the traditional egypt skyboxes, make, or request your own.

This map sets an excellent example of good egyptian lighting (Thebes by steaky)