[WiP] cp_villa {BEWARE:LARGE IMAGES}

[Sgt Frag]

I like the grey walls being mixed in.

I think it helps tie it together as a town and helps break up the red/blue sides from being just re/blu.

I do think the red spawn tower building in the back should be red brick too though.

I think the main thing is from any point on the map it should have enough color that it's easy for players to know what side they are on without thinking. And even to a degree be able to see a glimpse of the other color so they know which way to go.
Arrow signs help but I like to be able to easily find my way without tons of arrows. I don't think that's a problem with this map, rather I'm pointing out that I think it's actually a plus with this map.

 

[Ravidge]

I think the cobblestones look really great but it all looks the same. Create a blend texture (cobblestone<->dirt) and then paint on some mud or whatever in the streets to make them less repetative. Maybe use the same dirt color that is in between the cobbles atm, would look quite natural I think.

 

[Apom]

Before going into the blend direction (which isn't bad per se), using a normal map for the cobblestones would make a huge difference.

 

[TotalMark]

Before going into the blend direction (which isn't bad per se), using a normal map for the cobblestones would make a huge difference.

It already has one...

EDIT: I just made a blend texture for the cobble, but I might make more than one just for variety...

 

[Apom]

It already has one...

It doesn't show in the screenshots - the texture looks flat. If you already have one, then I think you should try increasing the normal scale to make its effect more visible.

 

[TotalMark]

It doesn't show in the screenshots - the texture looks flat. If you already have one, then I think you should try increasing the normal scale to make its effect more visible.

I'll get a screenshot of the texture with normal and without normal. It's really subtle.

 

[Apom]

I think my point is, it shouldn't be subtle

If I remember correctly, there is a normal scale factor than you can directly change in the .vmf (without actually modifying the .vmt), maybe you could try some different values for that (like 1-2-4-8, or whatever appropriate). The texture itself looks really good and has a nice TF2 feeling to it, so I'd really like to see it shine!

 

[TotalMark]

The lighter of the two is the normal mapped texture. The darker has no normal and is thus flat.

 

[Sgt Frag]

It is a good tf2 cobble stone tex, you should upload that to the textures forum

The normal one does look better. I'm not a fan of too much normal map in tf2, just doesn't seem to fit very well if there is too much detail.

I think a couple blends is a great idea.

 

[Icarus]

This map sold me on the visuals. The colorful town works really well with the TF2 style. It is very tightly held together.

I'd like to make a note that your ambient light is a bit low making those alleyways look pretty dim. However, with strategic lighting you can turn it to your advantage. Some well placed lights can illuminate critical areas that draw the players towards it, whether it be an item or detailing, and you can get away with not having to detail every face on your map.

 

[trainRiderJ]

The map seems very small and very flat to me.

 

[Phobos]

The map seems very small and very flat to me.

Quite the contrary. I played it today and the moment it was discovered that you could actually rocket jump on all the rooftops, gameplay immediately changed in favor of the map.

But to be honest, I'm not too fond of the city environment. I couldn't lose the feeling that I was playing a CS:S map.

The many corners of the map were perfect for scouts and pyros to prepare ambushes and surprise attacks, at the same time demos and soldiers kept on raining their explosives down on the streets. Gave me a hard time as medic (but that's not a complaint but rather a smallish gameplay report).

Three things I'd like to point out:

1. Could it be that all the spawn positions in the Blu spawn face away from the exit? If I recall it correctly I always had to turn around to get out of spawn.

2. There is small health pick up located on a counter in each of the buildings directly at the central cp. You have to crouchjump to get to it. I can see that this part of the style but I think it's better located on the ground.

3. The capture zone of the last cp is ridiculously huge. Every time we made a push and started to capture the point, someone from the opposing team came out of his base, walked around the corner and immediately blocked the capture.

 

[GrimGriz]

This map was a really pleasant surprise, simply because I hadn't ever played it before. I like that you allow people all the way up on the roofs...but they seemed a little high. I don't know if some of the buildings were 3 stories or not...but they seemed a little high. Maybe shorter walls a bit?

The shadows seemed off somehow, but I couldn't put my finger on it. I'm definitely seeing a lot of potential though

 

[TotalMark]

Quite the contrary. I played it today and the moment it was discovered that you could actually rocket jump on all the rooftops, gameplay immediately changed in favor of the map.

But to be honest, I'm not too fond of the city environment. I couldn't lose the feeling that I was playing a CS:S map.

The many corners of the map were perfect for scouts and pyros to prepare ambushes and surprise attacks, at the same time demos and soldiers kept on raining their explosives down on the streets. Gave me a hard time as medic (but that's not a complaint but rather a smallish gameplay report).

Three things I'd like to point out:

1. Could it be that all the spawn positions in the Blu spawn face away from the exit? If I recall it correctly I always had to turn around to get out of spawn.

2. There is small health pick up located on a counter in each of the buildings directly at the central cp. You have to crouchjump to get to it. I can see that this part of the style but I think it's better located on the ground.

3. The capture zone of the last cp is ridiculously huge. Every time we made a push and started to capture the point, someone from the opposing team came out of his base, walked around the corner and immediately blocked the capture.

1. I've checked, half of them in the secondary spawn are turned, half are the other direction. It's the same way on RED, those buildings have two doors, so there are those variables to consider.

2. Will change it.

3. Will change that too.

 

[Icarus]

I like large rooms for final caps. It prevents the defending teams from becoming turtling faggots and stall the game.

I would suggest that you make the final point a fast cap. For a point like this I'd suggest using 2 seconds (same as Granary).

This map is awesome. I had lots of fun with it, especially the roof combat. (try letting the other classes onto some of the lower roofs, so it isn't too soldier-centric)

I'll also suggest streamlining the forward spawns. As it is now, I often end up walking the wrong way.

 

[Vigilante212]

Map needs optimizing in some areas. Alos the dead ends or the parts that lead to th end of th eplayable area need some indication that you cant go there. I cornered a few people this way and got cornered. I would add more buildings down those routes to make it look nice, but i would put up a fence or something to block it off.

As the gameplay went i think it was back and forth the entire 30 minutes after the first round where we just steamrolled when hardly anyone was on the server. when the server was nearly full 16+ it was a stalemate back and forth.

 

[TotalMark]

Map needs optimizing in some areas. Alos the dead ends or the parts that lead to th end of th eplayable area need some indication that you cant go there. I cornered a few people this way and got cornered. I would add more buildings down those routes to make it look nice, but i would put up a fence or something to block it off.

As the gameplay went i think it was back and forth the entire 30 minutes after the first round where we just steamrolled when hardly anyone was on the server. when the server was nearly full 16+ it was a stalemate back and forth.

Would tweeking the cap times fix some of the stalemate issues?

 

[Phobos]

As the gameplay went i think it was back and forth the entire 30 minutes after the first round where we just steamrolled when hardly anyone was on the server. when the server was nearly full 16+ it was a stalemate back and forth.

True, there were some intense battles going on once the server was full. Although it wasn't necessarily a stalemate situation. Points switched ownership every minute, no team turtled to keep their final point safe. So it wasn't the typical "we defend the last cp until time runs out" stalemate. The problem was rather that the last point was too hard to capture as it was:

-too easy to block the capture due to the size of the capture zone.
-too long of capture time

So basically the final cp is the main problem I see in the map.

 

[TotalMark]

Cap zone is slightly smaller, and cap time is 5 seconds.

 

[Icarus]

Looking better!

The walls need to be less plain, and teams should have an objective (why are they trying to capture this area anyways?)

It's nice to see a skybox starting to form, but you might want to reduce the thickness of the fog -- it doesn't fit in with he rest of the map, and the smokestacks stand terribly out.