- Jun 24, 2008
- 269
- 161
With the seeming popularity of each new theme that comes out, I wanted to make a discussion solely about themes. I haven't seen a centralized thread like this before and decided this was probably the best place to post a discussion thread about this kind of thing. The point of this thread is basically to discuss themes that work or don't work in TF2 and why, and what kinds of themes we would like to see expanded upon or new themes we'd like to see.
I notice that when a new theme comes out, people really tend to latch onto it. That may just be because people genuinely like that theme and it inspires all kinds of cool ideas in them, or it could just be because its new and someone wants to make "The First Ever X Map!" It happened (is still happening) with Alpine, and now it's working through Snow and Swamp maps.
I'm not a fan of Snow or Swamp, so I stay away from them. I like Alpine, but I don't think it's the best map theme ever. I think mainly I stay away from Alpine because it's just too relaxing, scenic and ideal - in other words I find myself wanting to spend more time imagining I'm in the Alpine level in question instead of blowing up those stupid BLUs.
I would like to spend more time developing a junk yard kind of theme - it could fit easily with almost any other theme, especially Desert, Alpine and Snow. But I would really like it in a Granary kind of setting, and I don't remember seeing too much about junk yards. I think it's a light sub-theme at best, but it could be good expanded to it's own full theme with blended textures from ground to rusty metal, some car/truck remains, etc. These things can be approximated already by using many current assets with some tricks like sticking a pickup model halfway into a desert displacement, even though it's not really the same as having its own full theme.
Another theme I'd like would be an Autumnal theme, which you see a little bit of in arena_harvest (I think) which introduces a dull orange lighting scheme, and makes one think of autumn with it being harvest time. I could see brown/orange/yellow complementing red and blue as themes, and it too could go well with many current themes with some additional assets like trees with dying leaves, scare crows, piles of leaves instead of piles of hay, etc.
What other themes would benefit TF2 ? What theme currently doesn't work in a map, and why? Is there a general consensus that the themes we have are fine or do people think that newer themes is good for TF2 in general?
I notice that when a new theme comes out, people really tend to latch onto it. That may just be because people genuinely like that theme and it inspires all kinds of cool ideas in them, or it could just be because its new and someone wants to make "The First Ever X Map!" It happened (is still happening) with Alpine, and now it's working through Snow and Swamp maps.
I'm not a fan of Snow or Swamp, so I stay away from them. I like Alpine, but I don't think it's the best map theme ever. I think mainly I stay away from Alpine because it's just too relaxing, scenic and ideal - in other words I find myself wanting to spend more time imagining I'm in the Alpine level in question instead of blowing up those stupid BLUs.
I would like to spend more time developing a junk yard kind of theme - it could fit easily with almost any other theme, especially Desert, Alpine and Snow. But I would really like it in a Granary kind of setting, and I don't remember seeing too much about junk yards. I think it's a light sub-theme at best, but it could be good expanded to it's own full theme with blended textures from ground to rusty metal, some car/truck remains, etc. These things can be approximated already by using many current assets with some tricks like sticking a pickup model halfway into a desert displacement, even though it's not really the same as having its own full theme.
Another theme I'd like would be an Autumnal theme, which you see a little bit of in arena_harvest (I think) which introduces a dull orange lighting scheme, and makes one think of autumn with it being harvest time. I could see brown/orange/yellow complementing red and blue as themes, and it too could go well with many current themes with some additional assets like trees with dying leaves, scare crows, piles of leaves instead of piles of hay, etc.
What other themes would benefit TF2 ? What theme currently doesn't work in a map, and why? Is there a general consensus that the themes we have are fine or do people think that newer themes is good for TF2 in general?