PL Sunken Rocket

re1wind

aa
Aug 12, 2009
644
588
Sunken rocket b1

first detail pass, some overbright areas by final point.
 
Last edited:

re1wind

aa
Aug 12, 2009
644
588
a6 released

DOWNLOAD

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/12171801/pl_sunken_rocket_a6.bsp.bz2

MAIN CHANGES

- choke-point between the first control point and the second control point tweaked to blu's favour. Red now has a single entrance to the area by the first control point, with the exception of soldiers, demo's, and scouts.
- added more height variation throughout the first half of the map
- fixed floating platform issue on the first elevator section
- slightly redesigned the final cap point for better flow

UNCHANGED

- Blu's second forward spawn unchanged.
- red players can open blu's spawn door, but CANNOT enter it. (forgot about this)

KNOWN ISSUES

- The rollback zones marked on the hud and by the hazard strip areas are not actually rollback/forward zones. I am well aware of this. Call me lazy if you want, but implementing rollback/forward would require work which all mappers are allergic to.

- The second elevator before the final cap point goes crazy when it rolls back up to the top. I am fully aware of this, but again, i'm allergic to real work so it will stay like that untill it gets feedbacked by everyone simultaneously or a7, whichever comes first.

- Players that go past the new metal doors by cp 4 and into the area by the final cap will be stuck there (unless soldier, demo, scout, maybe pyro/engy) until blu caps the second-to-last control point. an oversight if you want.

-strange explosive behaviour by the new upstairs blu main spawn exit caused by func_nogrenade brushes.


SCREENSHOTS


060A654843E35E3346588BE28E64729840FDC45C

3E42733BA95F2C87FE6794DA4A33DCC0C5FA12BC

206FD9C11BD1B3CF024797A794F44618AAFB5A69

A04DE924E9D992932C5AFC5C0FF2780483E08B2F

FD567B2FAE336029CF3D6815E9EA4ED2A5C0319D

6F100506AE27D07E359B8D00B8965B5575A000A5

E9550E7D89235BB9ADD02C2BC45AE1AC629E335B

24E53B88E16426791B2BA2D25F4BABE056FC347A
 

Fruity Snacks

Creator of blackholes & memes. Destroyer of forums
aa
Sep 5, 2010
6,394
5,571
A thought popped into my head. With your elevators, the bottom of the ramp that the elevators are floating over, when the meet the base wall, they are pretty tight, and are semi-tough to get out of. So if there is enemies above you, you're basically dead. Perhaps you want to figure out some way to make it easier to get out of the little crevice that is there up-until the elevator reaches that point?
 

re1wind

aa
Aug 12, 2009
644
588
The first ramp doesn't have that problem anymore, and the 2nd ramp has the area beneath it.

:)
 

re1wind

aa
Aug 12, 2009
644
588
Right, imp today played decently well, at least the 3rd round after one red stonewall defence, and a steamroller blu push. A scramble later and while blu still won, the game was much more nuanced.

blu spawn also had a shiny mysteriously golden sheen to it. hell if i know where that came from. The material is that swamp-pack worn tile floor, which doesn't have any specular in hammer's viewport, shaded, unshaded, nothing.

Going to streamline and optimize the map and layout a bit more for a7, nothing too drastic™ as well as get rid of the full healthpack.

To be honest i wasn't really sure what areas would encourage which classes un/favourably, so now i can tweak those a bit.
 

re1wind

aa
Aug 12, 2009
644
588
half-serious half-assed attemptat getting some swampiness into the map. 99.9% placeholder.



C2017A89D73E65DAD7DD219BF5812043CE11E15E


C532279EFE16BBC450DBEE525E1D130D5652E6ED


5E292D6125519557457642290D99EBDA5B1BE000
 

re1wind

aa
Aug 12, 2009
644
588
skipping a few versions here...

a10

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/12171801/pl_sunken_rocket_a10.bsp.bz2

major changes

- moved red's second forward spawn closer to the action
- decreased the amount of floating bomb carts
- changed cp 1 to cp 2 area, cutting down on sightlines for optimization & balance


Possible issues

- red's new spawn point vulnerable to sightlines and spawn camping

known issues/unchanged
- pl cart models still don't change skin
- two forward spawn doors do not change skin
- Odd lighting within red's base
 

re1wind

aa
Aug 12, 2009
644
588
Turd-topped brownies. yummy

At least you won't notice the turd much due to being a similar colour and tone. ;)

guess i'll have to tweak the map a bit still.
 

re1wind

aa
Aug 12, 2009
644
588
tweaked, and while i was at it, improved almost everything else in the map, especially lighting.

compiled with -extrasky 32, which is equivalent of 2 times -final
noticeable effect in darker areas and smoother lightmaps in general.

E41872015DB01D68E3127E685EDA9AC10B9BE7ED


2C00EBA0CD75937E1227D3B2A1AA9D0AD4115570


6D913850B9F54EA87DA57A83DE804F33F62C120F
 

Fruity Snacks

Creator of blackholes & memes. Destroyer of forums
aa
Sep 5, 2010
6,394
5,571
tweaked, and while i was at it, improved almost everything else in the map, especially lighting.

compiled with -extrasky 32, which is equivalent of 2 times -final
noticeable effect in darker areas and smoother lightmaps in general.

and 4 times the file size :D
 

tyler

aa
Sep 11, 2013
5,102
4,621
Lighting is definitely better in some spots, but I can't say any of the ones that look mostly the same look any better. -extrasky 32 may have been kind of a waste.
 

re1wind

aa
Aug 12, 2009
644
588
and 4 times the file size :D


Frozen, you're silly and funny. the map is similar in size to previous versions. the extrasky command makes the existing lightmaps nicer in most cases, but doesn't touch the actual lightmaps themselves, so while i appreciate your attempt at being clever, you, sir, fail. :p
 

Tekku

aa
Aug 31, 2008
723
873
Not as detailed review as i wanted, but still something is better than nothing.

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/1607727/Contest/sunken/pl_sunken_rocket_b10000.jpg
I would consider remaking the blue spawn, since right now it is really wide, big and boring, knowing the map theme it could be made into something unique.

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/1607727/Contest/sunken/pl_sunken_rocket_b10001.jpg
Again blue spawn, don't make the roof like this, it looks really weird, and boring.

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/1607727/Contest/sunken/pl_sunken_rocket_b10002.jpg
The main problem with 1st area is how wide it is, making it bit less wider but increasing the distance to the building might make it more interesting. Also, the 1st area seems to lack nice height advantage, so might add that too.

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/1607727/Contest/sunken/pl_sunken_rocket_b10003.jpg
Nodraw everything that players cant see.

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/1607727/Contest/sunken/pl_sunken_rocket_b10004.jpg
Clip these beams, since right now you get stuck in them.

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/1607727/Contest/sunken/pl_sunken_rocket_b10005.jpg
I would actually replace these boxes with a ramp, since right now they are barely used because of the need to jump.

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/1607727/Contest/sunken/pl_sunken_rocket_b10006.jpg
I can get stuck out here. @rock in 1st area.

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/1607727/Contest/sunken/pl_sunken_rocket_b10007.jpg
Mysterious light in the back.

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/1607727/Contest/sunken/pl_sunken_rocket_b10008.jpg
No need to spam light props like this, one is enough.

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/1607727/Contest/sunken/pl_sunken_rocket_b10009.jpg
I would actually remove one or another health/ammo pack out here, since this area has a lot of them, and just gives a huge advantage for blue team.

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/1607727/Contest/sunken/pl_sunken_rocket_b10010.jpg
Not sure what happened here, but it doesn't look right.

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/1607727/Contest/sunken/pl_sunken_rocket_b10011.jpg
Now this area could be a bit wider, right now it is quite small, and often was a roll for blue team.

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/1607727/Contest/sunken/pl_sunken_rocket_b10012.jpg
Can stand on beams.

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/1607727/Contest/sunken/pl_sunken_rocket_b10013.jpg
And again, next area is really wide once again, it could be less wide.

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/1607727/Contest/sunken/pl_sunken_rocket_b10014.jpg
Unnecessary light prop spam once again.

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/1607727/Contest/sunken/pl_sunken_rocket_b10015.jpg
I would actually lower the building and ramp, so it's on the same level.

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/1607727/Contest/sunken/pl_sunken_rocket_b10016.jpg
Increase fade distance on those crates out there.

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/1607727/Contest/sunken/pl_sunken_rocket_b10017.jpg
Either i would rebuild these ramps, or the whole room, right now it feels quite messy.

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/1607727/Contest/sunken/pl_sunken_rocket_b10018.jpg
What's the use of this, it doesn't really give anything, CLIP!

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/1607727/Contest/sunken/pl_sunken_rocket_b10019.jpg
There could be an additional entrance leading to this room, for blue team.

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/1607727/Contest/sunken/pl_sunken_rocket_b10020.jpg
No need to explain.

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/1607727/Contest/sunken/pl_sunken_rocket_b10021.jpg
I am not really a fan of the dynamic element, not sure what you can do about it, but in my opinion it's really bad, offering huge height advantage for blue team.

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/1607727/Contest/sunken/pl_sunken_rocket_b10022.jpg
This texture out here looks ugly.

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/1607727/Contest/sunken/pl_sunken_rocket_b10023.jpg
These signs aren't that needed out here, since blue rarely will use that top part of the map, also if used correct red team can build a sentry nest out there.

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/1607727/Contest/sunken/pl_sunken_rocket_b10024.jpg
Again, quite powerful sentry nests could be built out here, although i'm not that sure about this.

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/1607727/Contest/sunken/pl_sunken_rocket_b10025.jpg
What's the use of this? I have barely ever seen a sentry built there.

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/1607727/Contest/sunken/pl_sunken_rocket_b10026.jpg
I would expect to be able to jump there, but i cant.

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/1607727/Contest/sunken/pl_sunken_rocket_b10027.jpg
Don't do this, it just looks odd, either move each somewhere else, or use med kits.

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/1607727/Contest/sunken/pl_sunken_rocket_b10028.jpg
I would move the top spawn door to here, not sure how well it would work, but you could try.

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/1607727/Contest/sunken/pl_sunken_rocket_b10029.jpg
After moving the door, this is what i would do to the top balcony.

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/1607727/Contest/sunken/pl_sunken_rocket_b10030.jpg
And yeah.. Make railings non-solid.
 

pl

L5: Dapper Member
Mar 6, 2009
248
55
Was just about to say that too. I think you should give that area a bit more variation, IMO.

Everything else - looks like it's really coming together :)
I really like the architecture in the last shot on the left so far.