Caliostro
L6: Sharp Member
- Jul 6, 2009
- 261
- 110
Played this again today.
Got quite a few things good, quite a few things bad. So let's start with the good.
I fucking LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOVE the original concept of the underground silo, and the whole tunnel way from the spawns to each "area". Those tunnels are fucking awesome, don't change them. Ever.
It's also quite interesting to see the points integrated into a real system, "control", "fuel", etc, instead of seemingly disconnected "A" and "B". It just makes more sense.
That said, let's get to the bad stuff since that's what you need to fix.
First thing that bugs me about this map is that, for all it's pretty visuals, I can't shake the feeling that it seems more HL2 than TF2... Maybe it's the ambiance, maybe it's the fact that I'm pretty sure there's HL2 stuff thrown in the mix, but it's there. This is much more visible in the first two areas of the first stage than in the second stage, but it's still there.
Recommend that you do a bit further research on the TF2 art style. Keep the underground vibe you're going for, but adapt it to the TF2 world.
The second thing that bugs me about this is "scale". Quite a few parts of the map feel unnecessarily big, like you really just wanted to show us how pretty some stuff looks... There are a lot of areas around that seem to serve no purpose, where there's rarely any fighting and really just serve to augment the "grandeur" of the map. Ironically, the actual fighting areas by themselves become rather small and a bit bland. Look at the silo room (or "Fuel" or whatever, the area with the silos). It's very pretty, but in practice it's one big plane with some ramps around it and 2 poles. I put 1 sentry there, smack in the middle, and covered the whole thing. Maybe you could play around with the silo height or something, but as it is it's just one big plane really.
The courtyard or whatever (area opposed to the "fuel" room) is another good example. There's a lot of space... That's never used. Fighting there becomes a fleeting moment, shared between the point and ledge on top.
Inversely the final point of the first stage is amazingly cramped. for all the vertical space the room fails to accommodate the number of people that will normally be fighting in it, thus making the action chaotic. It's a shame because all that potential for great vertical combat seems to go to waste.
I find it very peculiar that you chose to make the final area considerably "tighter" than the other two, since, in my mind, the exact opposite would make more sense. Ideally all areas are big enough to accommodate all of both teams fighting in them, but given the choice in this gamemode, I'd sooner make the preceding 2 points more "cramped" than the last one, simply because the first two are optional, thus "flow" of combat can easily be rerouted if it becomes too cramped in one place, while the final point is mandatory. If one of the rooms is too cramped on the first points, the rest of the teams can simply move to the other, while the final point is, by definition, final. That's the last one, it's all there. It's especially peculiar because you then dedicate such a colossal space on stage 2 to a similarly vertical room that's almost always empty, because it's just a pathway.
Recommendation is that you work on the layout of the preceding two points (no need to make the space there smaller if you can justify it's existence) and make the final point (on the first stage) room bigger. In the 2nd stage, try to streamline the action a bit more. There are way too many areas that aren't even being used because they're so confusing and difficult to navigate.
Finally, try to resist temptation of just putting random overlays around... Some of yours don't make much sense... Considering the vibe you seem to be trying to give, some of those overlays make absolutely no sense... Why would someone post an ad about gardening tools or hamburgers in an underground base...? Coherence is very important. Overlays might seem unimportant, but even the smallest detail can quickly turn an experience down. Like the soundscape of the engineer's building damage warning. It looks like a good idea, but it's very confusing and disorienting to engineers.
That's pretty much it for now. I think the team imbalance would be fixed along with the aforementioned problems.
Cheers.
Got quite a few things good, quite a few things bad. So let's start with the good.
I fucking LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOVE the original concept of the underground silo, and the whole tunnel way from the spawns to each "area". Those tunnels are fucking awesome, don't change them. Ever.
It's also quite interesting to see the points integrated into a real system, "control", "fuel", etc, instead of seemingly disconnected "A" and "B". It just makes more sense.
That said, let's get to the bad stuff since that's what you need to fix.
First thing that bugs me about this map is that, for all it's pretty visuals, I can't shake the feeling that it seems more HL2 than TF2... Maybe it's the ambiance, maybe it's the fact that I'm pretty sure there's HL2 stuff thrown in the mix, but it's there. This is much more visible in the first two areas of the first stage than in the second stage, but it's still there.
Recommend that you do a bit further research on the TF2 art style. Keep the underground vibe you're going for, but adapt it to the TF2 world.
The second thing that bugs me about this is "scale". Quite a few parts of the map feel unnecessarily big, like you really just wanted to show us how pretty some stuff looks... There are a lot of areas around that seem to serve no purpose, where there's rarely any fighting and really just serve to augment the "grandeur" of the map. Ironically, the actual fighting areas by themselves become rather small and a bit bland. Look at the silo room (or "Fuel" or whatever, the area with the silos). It's very pretty, but in practice it's one big plane with some ramps around it and 2 poles. I put 1 sentry there, smack in the middle, and covered the whole thing. Maybe you could play around with the silo height or something, but as it is it's just one big plane really.
The courtyard or whatever (area opposed to the "fuel" room) is another good example. There's a lot of space... That's never used. Fighting there becomes a fleeting moment, shared between the point and ledge on top.
Inversely the final point of the first stage is amazingly cramped. for all the vertical space the room fails to accommodate the number of people that will normally be fighting in it, thus making the action chaotic. It's a shame because all that potential for great vertical combat seems to go to waste.
I find it very peculiar that you chose to make the final area considerably "tighter" than the other two, since, in my mind, the exact opposite would make more sense. Ideally all areas are big enough to accommodate all of both teams fighting in them, but given the choice in this gamemode, I'd sooner make the preceding 2 points more "cramped" than the last one, simply because the first two are optional, thus "flow" of combat can easily be rerouted if it becomes too cramped in one place, while the final point is mandatory. If one of the rooms is too cramped on the first points, the rest of the teams can simply move to the other, while the final point is, by definition, final. That's the last one, it's all there. It's especially peculiar because you then dedicate such a colossal space on stage 2 to a similarly vertical room that's almost always empty, because it's just a pathway.
Recommendation is that you work on the layout of the preceding two points (no need to make the space there smaller if you can justify it's existence) and make the final point (on the first stage) room bigger. In the 2nd stage, try to streamline the action a bit more. There are way too many areas that aren't even being used because they're so confusing and difficult to navigate.
Finally, try to resist temptation of just putting random overlays around... Some of yours don't make much sense... Considering the vibe you seem to be trying to give, some of those overlays make absolutely no sense... Why would someone post an ad about gardening tools or hamburgers in an underground base...? Coherence is very important. Overlays might seem unimportant, but even the smallest detail can quickly turn an experience down. Like the soundscape of the engineer's building damage warning. It looks like a good idea, but it's very confusing and disorienting to engineers.
That's pretty much it for now. I think the team imbalance would be fixed along with the aforementioned problems.
Cheers.