Thebes

Steaky

L1: Registered
Feb 22, 2009
10
1
Hi everyone!

I've been working on this map as a side project for quite some time now, and it's finally ready to be distributed to the public. It would be great if you would give it a run through, and let me know what you think.

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Thebes is a medium sized capture the flag map. The map consists of a central bridge separating the two teams. There are two entrances to the main yard, one of which takes the direct route, the other following the water underground. Finally, double-jumping scouts and explosive jumping players can access each team’s battlements that flank the sides of the bridge, allowing a very advantageous third entry point.

The goal when making this map was to create a simple yet balanced capture-the-flag layout which was fun for both offence and defense.

I hope you enjoy, and please feel to contact me with feedback.

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Jack Riguel

L10: Glamorous Member
Jul 19, 2009
721
254
Wow, looks very very nice. I really like your visual design of the intel as well. Throw it up on gameday once it starts up again.
 

Radenska

L2: Junior Member
Jan 31, 2008
53
18
Hey Steaky,

Purely from a visual standpoint, in reaction to the screenshots:

I'm usually not sure about it in TF2, but you've really taken advantage of darkness and its strengths here. It gives the Egypt style a fresher look, and the geometry/brush work really helps generate the nice atmosphere from your lighting. Each screenshot stands out like a new spot in the map, and that is probably a good sign for designating landmarks and communication.

I'm enjoying seeing more instances of moodier spaces that don't break the game necessarily as well. Whether or not this is the case in playtesting I'll have to find out for myself still though.

A few minor suggestions for future revisions in the intel room: I'm not sure about the hot-red light in the pool. While it does serve a purpose as to help the intel stand out, it breaks a bit of the cohesion of the rest of the lighting style, and could probably be warmer -- not necessarily less intense, but less neon perhaps? You could get really creative with how you've lit the rest of the map, which looks really well treated. Also, I would mess/junk up the broken down door more as long as it doesn't cause any clipping issues. Possibly some ground rubble (tons of props for that of course) or maybe some formation of the ruble into piles by the bottom of the door corners.

That's all I can think of. Great job, I'll definitely give it a try sometime!
 

lana

Currently On: ?????
aa
Sep 28, 2009
3,075
2,778
Good way to break up the typical egypt theme tone with the lights.
 

FreeLance_FoX

L6: Sharp Member
Sep 6, 2008
353
173
I have to say that my jaw dropped too, your use of the Egypt theme is SO refreshing!

The environments created with the Egypt thing often come off as monotonous and for some reason people seem to thing stone tombs warrant square, tunnely geometry. Just from the screenshots, the use of interesting geometry, clever prop placement, and some very neat lighting makes me want to play this map. :3

I'll try it out later!
 

Exist

L6: Sharp Member
Oct 31, 2009
306
136
this map is AMAZING!

I love your attention to detail and trimmings, I will download now.

Edit: Tell me I read that wrong, 38.7 mb?
 

PHLuKZ

L1: Registered
Oct 11, 2009
11
2
This is one of the most beautiful maps I've seen to date, it would be almost the perfect map.. as a 5pt capture.. otherwise it's even on our 32/man server it's just too big to be a ctf. but I think it would be the damned most amazing 5pt capture. :D
 

Acumen

Annoyer
aa
Jun 11, 2009
704
628
gotta be totally with FreeLance_FoX on this one. could just quote his entire post.

i totally hated the egypt theme from the official stuff but your twist or take on it makes it so much more believable and fitting. it doesn't have the usual undetailled look to it. simply great architecture and detailling work.
i'd just say that the lighting could be overall a bit brighter and have more contrast. rest is awesome !!
 
Aug 10, 2009
1,240
399
Excellent use of the egypt supplies, not a new theme but about as close as you can get :D.

Judging from the screenies I just came up with a few quick comments.
-In screenshot 1 make sure that broken entrance is high enough so that you don't have to crouch (128+ units)
- In screenshot 3, I would try to lighten that area up either by bumping up the ambient brightness, or adding a few subtle 'invisible' lights just so that the contrast between light and dark in that area isn't so apparent.
- In screenshot 4, I love the bridge but I think if there was maybe a blue hieroglyphic substitute for the current blue texture later on that would be a good alternative
- In screenshot 5 the displacement after the bridge looks a little awkward, consider adding a stair step in there or lowering the displacement. Also, there is a pretty dark corner next to the far doorway that has 'hidden sniper' tagged all over it. You just can't see it now because it's too dark.
/analysis
 

The_Ulf

L6: Sharp Member
May 26, 2009
399
115
Good way to break up the typical egypt theme tone with the lights.

This.


You have no idea how much it makes me 'raeg' to see monotone, washed-out, overused egypt themed maps (Why, just take a gander at my present Avatar here). Thank you so damn much for using creative lighting and mostly open skybox light so that not everything looks like a sandy brown or orange and thank you EVEN MORE for remembering to team color code your areas.

That all said, it looks like some of the play area might be too much in shadow (having not played it yet, I couldn't really say) - might I suggest some artificial light sources like spotlights that an excavation team has brought in to work under or some such? Also, again, I am so happy to see someone putting team-color in egypt, but I think you can push it even more.

Now, that all said, this is looking awesome. Good work, man!
 

Steaky

L1: Registered
Feb 22, 2009
10
1
Hey Everyone!

Thanks for all the feedback, its very helpful. Hopefully once Im done some other projects, Ill fix up some problems and release a newer version!

For those of you who commented on the pink lighting; I did that so that the intel room would be unmistakable. The obvious choice was to do blue and red lighting accordingly. Unfortunately, while it worked great for blue, the red lighting merged with the orange torch lights and looked very plain. I tried playing around with a ton of colors, but in the end, the pink lighting worked out the best. I know its a bold look, but I think in game it works better than any of the other colors I tried.

Anyways, I'll keep playing with the lighting for future versions. I found it hard trying to balance the sun lighting with the torches in the exterior areas, and Im still not quite happy with it, so expect that to change.

Anyways, thanks again!