Valley

[Mr.Late]

You need to clip that

These wooden planks look just wrong. They are too twisted... and wrong.

This 1-way door just near blu spawn seems a bit too good for RED team.

You can still attach sticky bombs to doors. (Every spawn door in this map)

This 100% health is maybe too much in this place. You maybe want to change it to 50%

 

[absurdistof]

A bit late on this feedback, but here you go (also 2 picture posts in a row :woot

Floating motor syndrome >.>

Looking in that direction murders, murders my FPS.

In general looking around this corner does too.

 

[Fraz]

I was getting 30 - 40 fps (my average outside most maps) inside buildings and 10 - 15fps outside going to as low as 5 in firefights. You really need to do something about that.

 

[Mr.Late]

I saw that you can actually shoot and see over the high buildings. Maybe that causes it...

 

[Omnomnick]

Thanks for the helpful posts, optimization has been a massive problem in my map and I guess I've never done anything to correct it. a15 should be around sometime later this week, hopefully it'll have a lot of key optimization features like areaportals and a better skybox.

Those last 2 screenshots are important, in that direction because theres very little to stop TF2 rendering the whole map at once, which is what causes your lag issues.
The work I've done so far has also fixed all the bugs that Mr.Late noted in his post. Yes, that means no more stickies on doors and I've moved the RED only door near BLU spawn back by 1 room, giving both teams a room of that building to themselves.

Thanks for the help guys, keep the feedback coming. It's the only way I can improve the map!

 

[DjD]

Those last 2 screenshots are important, in that direction because theres very little to stop TF2 rendering the whole map at once

Try to set the "Start Fade Dist / End Fade Dist" on props that arent in those certain areas. This helps to decrease the rendering that causes lag.

 

[Psy]

Start splitting your areas up with skybox brushes. That's the problem. The whole map is essentially covered by one giant skybox when it shouldn't be. Look at Goldrush and how each area has a skybox walls around it.

This is roughly how I'd do it.

Hinting would help a lot but you should get the general idea.

 

[Omnomnick]

Just a bit of an update.

Thanks for all the feedback, I'm taking feedback from here and the play tests I've had into account.

a15 is currently bugged because of a few broken area portals, but so far I've updated the death pit at the final CP, you can no longer fall into the pit unless the cart has fallen in. I've fixed pretty much every bug outlined, apart from the optimization issues which I'm working on today and tomorrow. Hopefully a15 will be finished and ready by Wednesday and I hope it'll be nice and smooth too.

 

[Fraz]

My main issues were right outside blue spawn. Here is what I'd do to give Blue more of a foothold there.

Remove this 1 way door, all it does is let defence run back, get some hp and ammo and then tank away at blue again.

I'd move the ramp down, remove the windows/1 of them and add a door marked in green.

Add a door here that opens when the point has been captured. This stops a shortcut that takes you from red spawn to blue spawn in ~5 secs as soldier. It will also focus more battle on the track/cart.

 

[Prestige]

you have a lot of corners. Put some hint brushes through em!

 

[Omnomnick]

I'm putting Valley on hold for about 5 weeks until my summer holidays. Until then I'm going to be making a new KoTH map entitled Knuckle, I hope to make a thread on it in a few days. Once Knuckle is setup to a reasonably playable Alpha, I will continue on both maps at the same time.

 

[Omnomnick]

Valley is back from the Dead!

After some long hours fixing bugs in the map and optimizing/generally improving Valley, it's time for the release!

Thanks to Psy for help fixing the areaportal bugs!

a16 Released, Changelog:
--a15 to a16 --

-Optimizated map using Areaportals and an improved skybox

-Fixed areaportal door bugs

-Removed ramp area before C

-Opened the detail area near C up, removed the fence and made the area part of the playable area

-Moved the area at the bottom of the ramp at C to the exit of the small warehouse, shortening the map and travel times

-Moved control point C back into the small warehouse

-Moved control point B back into the large warehouse

-Made 2 new BLU spawn rooms appropriately placed for the new control point positions

-Added a new detail area above RED main base

-Added displacement ground to all natural areas

-Changed final cap area to include custom made doors for the bomb to fall through

-Changed the fictional objective of the map. BLU now have to destroy an exposed part of a rocket fuel line. Old Fictional objective - BLU have to destroy RED's chemical waste plant

-Extended BLU base so the right door is further forwards

-Added thin fog

-Changed the map theme back to Sunny Alpine

-Added a light under the bridge near the final CP to fix a shadow bug

-Added a river and detail to the Valley in the middle of the map

-Fixed 3D skybox tree cards after complaints they were randomly placed

-Changed the second floor room in the warehouse into a Data Link (Spy Tech like room)

-Added the door leading through the building near the final point back again

 

[Wilson]

 

[Mr.Blob]

The main problem for me was the sniper lines. the windows mainly gave snipers a clear view of most of the map. Also, maybe you should no build the top of the bridge. A sentry there proved to be rather overpowered.

 

[Omnomnick]

Bridge has been nobuild'd for a16a and I'm working on fixing those sight lines tomorrow. Thanks for the feedback.

 

[Omnomnick]

Thanks to everyone who submitted feedback on the video and during the impromptu.

a16a Released

Changelog:
-- a16 to a16a --

-Removed areaportals in Spawn doors which were causing bugs

-Added a new flanking route near the bridge which opens after B is captured to get BLU team a better foothold in the area

-Added a new staircase up to the roof near C to make it more accessible

-Added a container in the field between C and D to break up the area's sightlines

-Updated health and ammo kits in the C-D area

-Changed most doors in the map to use nice looking prop door frames instead of ugly brush ones

-Fixed a bug with the building between C and D where players would get trapped on a bugged displacement

-Fixed a bug where the BLU primary spawn would stay active throughout the whole map

-Edited capture point timings to co-ordinate with the change of CP positions in the last version

-Added a nobuild area to the top of the bridge to prevent Wrangler engineers putting sentries up there and camp

 

[The Political Gamer]

-Added a nobuild area to the top of the bridge to prevent Wrangler engineers putting sentries up there and camp

Way to take the easy (lazy) way out. :/

 

[Omnomnick]

It's not my fault that the Wrangler ruin a whole load of TF2 maps, this is the best way to keep the top of the bridge in use without having engineers turtle it.

 

[Wilson]

It feels like Red has really easy time to protect cart as there is lack of any real routes to cart itself. The only route is easily locked down by demoman. I suggest adding 4th exit from blue area here.

Remove this door or make it just normal door.

Make this water deep enough to put out fire.

Clip this. I kept falling down in death pit because i was trying to jump on log and end up sliding down.

Obvious.

Huge sightline.

Remove this window to support red and give blue skill jump to sneak behind enemy.

 

[Mr.Blob]

Feedback:

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1518074/aly/7.jpg - Clip

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1518074/aly/8.jpg - Sniper line

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1518074/aly/9.jpg - strange texture

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1518074/aly/10.jpg - just omfg

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1518074/aly/11.jpg - same here

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1518074/aly/12.jpg - add cover maybe?

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1518074/aly/13.jpg - pipes

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1518074/aly/14.jpg - deeper