KotH united

[RetroGunner]

This is my first map that I've taken to a playable stage, so there's a lot of stuff I'm still not sure about. That being said, I am really looking forward to criticism and other helpful things like that.
The things I'm a little concerned about is slightly large sight lines that might make sniping a bit OP, but I tried to clean that up a bit, so let me know what you think. I also am a bit concerned about height advantage near the middle of the map, on the area shown in screenshot 5, but I've never played on this map with actual people before, and I guess I just wanted an opinion on it before I went around making changes a such.

Anyways, tell me what you think!

 

[nik]

Even if you have fixed some sightline issues, I see a major one in screenshot #2.

 

[RetroGunner]

Hmmm.... That screen shot is directly under the rounded thing in Screen 6, which was added to block sight lines, and I guess I was just assuming that teams would be able to control the area directly outside of their spawn.

But I'll play around with it a bit, see what I can do.

 

[red_flame586]

I can defiantly see some very big sightliness and open areas. I'm also unsure about the CP enclosed underneath the bridge, generally CPs are at points of importance, not hidden under a bridge. Otherwise, it looks like you've got good use of hight variations, so well done there. Good job on your first playable map.

 

[RetroGunner]

Originally the CP was under the bridge, and there was no building covering it. Obviously this meant snipers controlled the game, which is the biggest problem I'm having with this map.
I moved it down below to provide cover for the team trying to take the point, but it also makes it hard for them to see what is coming, since it is uphill both ways.

I suppose I could open up the building directly above the point a bit and move the CP up there?
Or maybe Make the point room accessible from the 2nd story by allowing players to jump down?

I do have some questions though:

About how long should a sniper be able to see?

I feel like the room where the point is located could be very sentry friendly, because of the blind spots directly to the right of the entrances to the room. How could I maybe give players a better chance against sentries?

And finally, should I add something more interesting than just a flat walkway on the areas you can access by leaving the bridge in the middle? (If that makes any sense) I mean the area on the right in Screen Shot #3

 

[absurdistof]

About how long should a sniper be able to see?

I feel like the room where the point is located could be very sentry friendly, because of the blind spots directly to the right of the entrances to the room. How could I maybe give players a better chance against sentries?

And finally, should I add something more interesting than just a flat walkway on the areas you can access by leaving the bridge in the middle? (If that makes any sense) I mean the area on the right in Screen Shot #3

Sniper sightlines are something I think a lot of people battle with (including me) and comfort with them only comes with time. Fortunately we've got some pretty mean snipers at TF2M so don't expect to see those sightlines not exploited. There is no specific length they should be, but if it's anything longer than 1536 units I'd be a bit worried for the map having such a sightline. Ususally 1024 us pretty long, but there are also other factors that come into play, such as how high traffic the sniping spot is, and how vulnerable the sniper is there.

Yes, I think you should. Adding interesting geometry almost always makes the map more fun to play

Finally, as with a lot of new maps, your map seems to be pretty overscaled. It also seems not-too-complicated (but it does have some nice curvy brushwork), so shrinking it shouldn't be too much of a problem. For example of a space I would consider verging on too large, an open box area of 768x768 or larger.

Good luck with the map

 

[RetroGunner]

Finally, as with a lot of new maps, your map seems to be pretty overscaled. It also seems not-too-complicated (but it does have some nice curvy brushwork), so shrinking it shouldn't be too much of a problem. For example of a space I would consider verging on too large, an open box area of 768x768 or larger.

Thanks for the pointers, but I was wondering if you could maybe define what you mean by overscaled. Do you mean that certain areas are too big, or just the whole map overall is too big?

And yeah, it is pretty blocky/simple right now, but I definitely have plans to change that later on. I guess i'm just still trying to get a feel for what a playable map should be before I get into all the cool details and stuff.

Also, if you check out screen shot #2 you can see the rough outline of a building put in front of the spawn. That fixes the long sight line nik mentioned. Obviously the building isn't finished yet, but I just felt like I should show that I am adjustments/progress on this map.

 

[RetroGunner]

Anything else to say? It kind of died here I guess, and I was just wondering what other people are thinking.

I'm stuck because I don't know what to fix, if anything at all.

 

[tyler]

You have to put it on a game day for testing.

 

[RetroGunner]

Oh, alright. I'll look into that.

 

[kwp20 pitts]

How are the Goal systems working? Are the players spawn protected? (kept from being spawn killed)