Trestle

IrishTaxIDriver

L6: Sharp Member
Sep 27, 2008
271
150
You really gotta open that point up. If you're gonna make it kind of enclosed, go with 384x384 or larger. Even something like 384x512 would be preferable.
 
Apr 19, 2009
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1,724
Old final!
hl2%202010-04-22%2018-02-24-11.jpg

New final!

hl2%202010-04-22%2018-00-51-48.jpg


Also a few improvements to 2nd.

hl2%202010-04-22%2018-02-51-17.jpg
 

grazr

Old Man Mutant Ninja Turtle
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Mar 4, 2008
5,441
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Your areas need to be less like squares. Also, lose that badlands spire ASAP. It's worse than the sawmill waterfall in terms of "holy shit, it's that prop from that map".

Your points would be a lot more interesting if you figured out what sort of resource they are based on. If you figure this out before you make them/your map then you can base your layout of the surrounding area on this knowledge too. Having them on "barely raised platforms" is just a cheap way of providing an objective to fight over. Everyone knows the high ground is important, but the objectives themselves should be based off of your aesthetics and theme. This way players feel like they're making real progression through your environment, particularly in 5 CP push which does have the tendancy to have arbitrary control point objectives (mostly on the 2nd CP).

Your areas should probably also be 25% smaller. (Not entirely your fault, it's the texture scale that influences that slightly over scaling).
 
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Apr 19, 2009
4,460
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I was kinda torn between multiple styles when it came to bocking out a theme for 2nd so I settled on leaving like that for the later stages when the layout is more or less set in stone.

Now on the subject of the badlands spire I am a little hesitant to remove it because I more planned the hole area with it in mind and it would take complete rework. Nevertheless, if I must I would remove it in later versions.

Oh and about the scale... yeah I still kinda suck at it don't I? :S
 

grazr

Old Man Mutant Ninja Turtle
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Mar 4, 2008
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Removing the spire can be a bitch, i know because i had to rework the spire area in Panamint. But the sooner you get rid of it the better. You don't need it and it's a horrible prop anyway.

If you're stuck for an alternative spire-y like structure, just consider something like gravelpit C. But even Gpit C and the spire are very very tall, boardering on excessively tall at that (Gpit less so because it has those platforms all around it).
 

Penguin

Clinically Diagnosed with Small Mapper's Syndrome
aa
May 21, 2009
2,039
1,484
Just make a spire out of brushes and displacements.

It's the fact that it's a prop that makes it suck.
 

grazr

Old Man Mutant Ninja Turtle
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Mar 4, 2008
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It's not necasserily the fact that it's a "prop"... Sure, the 2fort sniper fences, badlands spire, sawmill waterfall and nucleus spinny thing that get so overused are props, but really it's just that they're so unique and thus recognisable. Like the hydro bowl. That's not a prop... but it would be equally cheap pasting that it into your map. IE It'll still be the hydro bowl, just now it's in your map.

Making it out of displacements only inadvertantly works by making it not look like the badlands prop (Which should look cool if done right and designed well). Though It will be really time consuming, and probably a lot more effort than you'd want to put in for an alpha (make it func_detail brushes first, then change it in beta), but atleast you can control the height.
 
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Penguin

Clinically Diagnosed with Small Mapper's Syndrome
aa
May 21, 2009
2,039
1,484
That's not a prop... but it would be equally cheap pasting that it into your map. It'll still be the hydro bowl, just now it's in your map.

coughwildfirecough.

Anyway, I suppose grazr has a good point.
 

grazr

Old Man Mutant Ninja Turtle
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Mar 4, 2008
5,441
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Exactly. Wildfire got tons of posts asking for its removal, as did panamint get tons of posts about removing the badlands spire :p

Precisely why i made that example.
 
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grazr

Old Man Mutant Ninja Turtle
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Mar 4, 2008
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Sacrilege!!!!

Stop posting steam convo's onto the forums and seal your map Political. Next time i look at the steam chat i expect you to be in the SDK.