sigma

Firest0rm

L4: Comfortable Member
Sep 27, 2009
171
33
ctf_sigma is a semi-deserty map. currently it's very open, which will soon be resolved with quite a few rocks placed around. it's largely untextured, except for spawn rooms, and cliff walls.

as it's only my 1st map i've released, obviously im open to large layout changes. please tell me any bugs you can see, or any suggestions you have.

heres a list of the bugs that i already know about:
  • Many, many lighting and shadow errors
  • the spawn room doors don't align perfectly with the walls around them
  • both custom sigma posters have strange border-like things that are sometimes visible
  • something inside the blue spawn is slightly visible from the outside
  • what looks like a misplaced brush on the back of tower-like thing in the middle. there is no brush around there, so i dont know why it's there
 

Nutomic

L11: Posh Member
Feb 7, 2009
888
177
Is that rock thing on the last picture the cap zone? If yes, its way too high. Theres only one way up, so demos, soldiers and engies can easily camp it. Usually, you want at least 2 ways to a flag or capture point, if not 3.

@misplaced brush: try to use alt+p to search for an invalid brush or so, and check/post the log. The think visible through walls could be an overlay texture directly on a brush. sometimes that comes out there.
 

Firest0rm

L4: Comfortable Member
Sep 27, 2009
171
33
the rock thing isn't a cap zone, its just a big rock.

alt+p doesn't tell me anything about the weird brush thing, and im going to recompile the map to see if that helps (and so i can get the compile log)

the thing visible through walls was related to an overlay, repositioning it fixed the problem.
 
Aug 10, 2009
1,240
399
alt+p is the problem checker. It doesn't always give you what you want. Recompile the map, and use the interlopers.net compile log checker (interlopers.net > Tutorials > Compile log errors) to see if you can resolve anything.

I hate to come off harsh, but I think this map need a complete redesign, or a massive remodel. The map itself isn't just big, or open. It's HUGE. And I mean MASSIVE. The distance fog is even blocking out parts of it the screenshots. I would go through most of the valve maps to get a better idea of scale, because walking through the map must be a complete bitch especially as a heavy. I also noticed some of the walls and windows were unnaturally thick. I think the grid you are building you map on is way, way, WAY too big. It almost looks like the minimum unit size is 64, which I would suggest bumping it down to 8 or 4. Just some dimensional tips:

- A wall should be no thicker than 16 units
- Normal room heights for tf2 are 128, 136, or 176 are most often used from what I have seen.
- Doors should be no wider than 192 units (from edge of the wall to edge of the wall)
- Try to keep basic dimensions to multiples of 16, or if you must, multiples of 8.
- The red spawn room is way WAY too big. Try making it about 512-768 units long and see how that works for you. I don't think any spawn room should ever be more than 1024 units long in a single room.

More on the map:
You seem to be having the corridors issue, where the map is essentially big rooms connected by corridors. This is bad. Try and keep your map as open and corridor-free (unless you are trying to do something spytech, or along corridor lines), especially for an outdoor map. Screenshot 3 looks to be way to wide, I would wager that is 4096+ units long which is way too big.

To re-iterate: Less corridors, more open. Correct the map scale. Add cover. Examine valve maps to get good proportions.

It's a lot of work, but I think the turn out will be much more positive.
 

Firest0rm

L4: Comfortable Member
Sep 27, 2009
171
33
yeah, now that you've pointed that out, i'm realizing that it is way too big. i'll redesign it completely, or maybe even make a completely different map.