I'm digging up this old material :blushing: - especially for you Apom
So, by learning from the great custom maps that blossomed since the game launch, I'm confident that I can fix the issues of what was essentially a beginner's work.
Casablanca played okay (so our community thinks, at least) but suffered heavy issues
-squaryness
-bland surfaces
-monotonous colour tones
-long boring corridors
-lack of props
-use of HL2 material
-lack of space/open zones/inner rooms to look at
Now, I'm confident most ot it can be fixed
As a beginner, I was afraid of messing up with vvis and gave up drilling my buildings, or rounding a bit some angles. But details/nodraw WB and hints are here to help. I saw how in many great custom maps, "scenery rooms" are used to greatly decorated most places, and create a sens of life in the areas. Cp_egypt gave me access to palm tree
While I still want to keep up with a consistent color theme (white buildings, with small red and blu zones), by using alpha painting techniques, textures can be more varied. And I've given up going for a preindustrial look, so all sort of air vents, chimneys, electric cables will be used. I also learned how to split up single walls to use severals layers of texture.
Finally, I've made errors because I wanted casablanca to be a small scale project, hence the small tight hallways that were used to create more passages. Most of them should be turned into fully detailed rooms/buildings instead.
In this screen is shown the alpha painting effect on a wall, by mixing custom concrete and brick texture. It involves turning walls into displacement but may be worth it.