[WIP] ctf_hospitality

[DrHorrible]

The last time I built a level for anything was with WADED and it was for Doom II. Playing on custom maps for TF2 has given me the bug again and I thought I'd try my hand at modern map making. Hoo boy have things changed since then. I opened up 2Fort in Hammer and realized that as a superpower, X-Ray Vision would never work, because that much visual information is just waaaaay too hard to process at once. I decided to work outside of Hammer until I've got the layout and general architecture of my map worked out right.

I had two design ideas that I wanted to be central to the development of the map:

1) The map needs to feel VERTICAL. Most designs are very horizontal and I wanted mine to switch that up.

2) Getting to the intel should be more challenging than getting back out again. One-way routes and shortcuts are the answer to this.

The idea is that there are two tall buildings opposite one another (like two L-shaped Tetris pieces fitting together). The intel is in the Penthouse suite at the top of each. To get into the building you can either go in through the bottom (via ground floor or basement) or risk a very dangerous rooftop-to-rooftop highwire balancing act across some powerlines.

Once you have the intel, there are a few opportunities for a quick escape. Making it back onto the roof means a quick run across the powerlines--if you can avoid the snipers and other knockback effects. Alternatively you could take the "Atrium", which is going to be an open pit that runs all the way from the Penthouse to the Basement. It's a bit of a leap of faith--and you better avoid some of the "protrusions" on the way down or risk becoming a big stain.

In the primary concept sketch, the red arrows show possible flow into and out of the building. Bidirectional arrows mean that characters of any class can enter/exit there. One way arrows imply a fall or other "one-way" option. Of course, these don't take into account the extra mobility of demomen, soldiers, and scouts, which I am planning on compensating and designing for.

This second image is a cutaway view of the lobby. I've labeled where each passageway is supposed to go. So far I haven't added in placement for spawnrooms, figuring that would be something that would fit in where it seems best. The large wireframe cylinder in the middle of the image would be the "atrium".

Nothing is to scale or in it's final "design" shape, but it does give a good idea for relative positioning of design elements and regions of the map.

Good level design isn't something I'm completely unfamiliar with, but there's a lot to be said for actual level building experience.

I would really appreciate comments and criticism about the concept and design of the map. Thanks everybody for checking in!

 

[Ezekel]

i like the overall idea, and i get the feeling the buildings will have a hospitally theme (which i think is neat too).
the problem with vertical maps, in my opinion, is they can suffer from strong sniper spots, and the fact that going upwards usually creates bottlenecks (i.e. stairwells, staircases).
do you plan to have the intel on the roof itself?

that balcony will be accessible by scouts using doublejumps/FaN from the outside staircase.

the outside staircase itself might be too monotonous as well (i.e. a poor fighting area, and a case of doing the same mouse/keyboard maneouvres over and over)

also it seems that there's only one route between bases here.
a couple of questions i think that should be considered are:
will the basements be connected? or will the only path between the 2 buildings be by walking across the ground level? will they be close enough for soldiers to rocket jump from roof to roof?

 

[DrHorrible]

The plan was for multiple entrances and exits for the buildings.

1. Ground Level Front Door
2. Basement/Sewer
3. Balcony (via rocket/sticky jumping)
4. Roof

I was also planning on having power lines running from building to building that people could cross over on from roof to roof. The buildings are going to be relatively close together--enough that a perfect rocket/sticky jump will land you on the other side--but just barely.

I wanted to keep enough lanes of traffic open that no single opportunity arises for a single chokepoint to stall the entire game, as well as enough obstacles to keep a few Snipers from dominating. The "repetitive motion" point is something I'll have to think about. By nature this type of map will need lots of stairs, and that can get pretty boring/frustrating/annoying quickly I imagine...

As far as background, I was thinking two hotels opposite one another, but two hospitals gives me a few extra ideas...

Perhaps they are the last two uninfected hospitals in the City and RED and BLU are each trying to capture the others' anti-virus in an effort to stay safe from the spreading infection while crippling the other. There could be barricades at the end of the block and I could use some L4D sound effects as environmental noise...