WiP in WiP, post your screenshots!

[fubarFX]

Here they are. About 6 or 7 in total, and I didn't want to make my post look too huge.

I'm working on something of an office building where both red, and blu enter, and go at it. I'm eventaully going to put in some windows that will be open so that smart enough soldiers, scouts, engineers, demos, or etc can skip a floor or two, but it will be high enough so that they'll take a lot of damage.

Also eventually I will figure out the skybox so I won't have to stare at brick walls everywhere, or dev. textures.

Ultimately I decided to use teleports to make an elevator I guess I'll put down something better than arrow decals later on. I was going to do an actual elevator, but they seem to be problematic, and generally are a pain in the butt. Teleports aren't perfect either, but it's better than nothing.

one thing to be careful about is making sure each floors are very distinct so the players can easily orient themselves. (I understand it's very early but your last screenshot suggests a lot of copypasting) you may find it difficult to make every area have a strong sense of purpose if they all offer similar/repetitive gameplay. it's part of what makes buildings tricky in level design.

as for teleports/elevators/ladders, I find they're all uninteresting ways to traverse vertical space gameplay-wise as they usually constrain player movement. it's good that you are planning a couple alternatives (windows and such) but you need to make sure to not divide the team too much by funneling different classes into different paths (or at least you'll need to figure out areas where teams can regroup). If the lower areas only get used by medics and heavies, you may have messed up as class diversity is part of what makes tf2 fun.

it's a lot of things to consider, but no one said making tf2 maps would be easy.

 

[Ninamori]

one thing to be careful about is making sure each floors are very distinct so the players can easily orient themselves. (I understand it's very early but your last screenshot suggests a lot of copypasting) you may find it difficult to make every area have a strong sense of purpose if they all offer similar/repetitive gameplay. it's part of what makes buildings tricky in level design.

Ya. I plan on trying to make the floors individualized so that it doesn't feel like the same thing over, and over again.

as for teleports/elevators/ladders, I find they're all uninteresting ways to traverse vertical space gameplay-wise as they usually constrain player movement. it's good that you are planning a couple alternatives (windows and such) but you need to make sure to not divide the team too much by funneling different classes into different paths

I'm trying to make it so that the elevator is an option, but not the only one. I plan on adding some windows in for jumping classes. Possibly some sort of fire escape for non-jumping characters. I've thought about putting maybe a small set of stairs as an alternate route within the building. Scaling this has been kind of weird.

The main goal of the map is to sort of force players to use the upper floors to defend, and also to push through it. One thing I never really liked about KOTH maps is that it kind of just forces them into a blender, and it just becomes brainless spam fest after some point. I'm trying to make it so that the team who can push, or defend the best will win not just who can spam the most rockets/stickies/etc.

All in all though this is still pre-alpha so I'm sure I'll change things around a lot. I've though about doing something like this, but with control points instead, but I feel like that'd be far too similar to what s/he did.

 

[Vel0city]

RC6 hype.

 

[Uncuepa]

I'm taking my time with the new version of Sandsnake. This map has caused a lot of hours wasted due to spawns, but because of all the time focusing on this map I have made some drastic changes. Here is a change that has nothing to do with that!

 

[Kill_the_Bug]

1. Well done as always getting it lined up.
2. That little ledge better be clipped or players will run along it - unless you want them too.
3. Interesting combat idea - 1st, 2nd floor but neither can interact with the other - can you sticky kill through that narrow glass wall?

 

[Crash]

They can run along it, but that's intended. Not sure where you are referring to the second floor, but above on the right is spawn. Stickies don't damage through any of the glass.

 

[Ninamori]

Crash: I like the map, and although the little fence you put to help protect pushers helps it still does give the defenders free spam at no cost.

Just spam pills, stickies, or whatever you want.

Otherwise it looks pretty good. I also like how you setup that barrel, and box so that it eats the majority of pill spam so engineers can still defend without having to worry about mindless spam.

 

[Crash]

Suppose I should've posted the rest of the changes in working on in there:

That little yellow railing next to the ramp going to the basement is going to be replaced though. It creates a nasty sight line into the basement how it currently is.

 

[Vel0city]

Make that little yellow railing a chainlink fence, so people can safely peek out of it.

 

[Uncuepa]

Suburban maps?

 

[chemelia]

I'd make most of those windows dark, all the lights aren't usually on. Also, those gutters stand out too much imo, you should use the gutter props.

 

[LeSwordfish]

Gutter props are really big for use like this. I think the current gutters are okay, but should be much darker.

 

[Ninamori]

Christ. I FINALLY got the stupid spawn doors to work properly. I kept having the issue of red being able to enter blues spawn.

Here is a video if anyone wants to see how things are coming along.

Stuff to do:
* Prevent demos from being able to sticky the door (at least so they just bounce off).
* Make the glass doors to the building slide slower, but able to kill anyone trying to block it (I'll have to remember to put some sort of caution sign near it).
* Do something to prevent demos/soldiers from being able to jump on top of spawn, and camping [easily].
* Lots of other crap.

 

[YM]

pssst Ninamori, turn off radial culling ( R in a red circle) It's doing nothing for you but making hammer run at a fraction of the speed it could do

 

[Ninamori]

pssst Ninamori, turn off radial culling ( R in a red circle) It's doing nothing for you but making hammer run at a fraction of the speed it could do

What is that supposed to do anyway? I didn't think it'd have much of a performance hit.

Any thoughts on how the map is coming along btw? Still lots of work to do as this is still pre-alpha though.

 

[killohurtz]

Radius culling is basically just a laggy and inferior version of the cordon tool. In cases where you need to only compile a specific section of your map at a time, cordon tool is always the way to go.

I also took a look at your video - the first thing I'll say is that the map is far too big and open. I assume you'll get around to building a more interesting layout since it's pre-alpha, but starting with a giant empty box is generally considered a bad mapping habit. The skyscraper is (supposedly) your centerpiece, so start building the map around that, and then wall off the play area when you're done. Keep a few player model props sprinkled throughout for a size reference and you should be good to go.

Second, the design of the skyscraper itself seems like it will be funneling everyone in through one entrance. You're going to want a few side and/or back doors to give players options when approaching the point and prevent the holding team from locking down a single entrance. Also consider how you traveled around in your map using sticky jumps - most classes don't have that luxury and will be significantly slower. Don't make them run all the way around the building just to get inside!

Also, to prevent players from jumping on top of the spawns, just add a brush with the playerclip texture clip: that extends from the roof to your skybox.

 

[Ninamori]

I also took a look at your video - the first thing I'll say is that the map is far too big and open. I assume you'll get around to building a more interesting layout since it's pre-alpha, but starting with a giant empty box is generally considered a bad mapping habit. The skyscraper is (supposedly) your centerpiece, so start building the map around that, and then wall off the play area when you're done. Keep a few player model props sprinkled throughout for a size reference and you should be good to go.

Ya scaling is a bit tough to get the hang of at first, but I will work on it. I kind of want to make it so that the Skyscraper looks big to the player, but not gigantic.

Second, the design of the skyscraper itself seems like it will be funneling everyone in through one entrance. You're going to want a few side and/or back doors to give players options when approaching the point and prevent the holding team from locking down a single entrance. Also consider how you traveled around in your map using sticky jumps - most classes don't have that luxury and will be significantly slower. Don't make them run all the way around the building just to get inside!

Well essentially the idea is to funnel players up to the top floor, and capture the point, but in the meantime players can defend on the 4th, and 5th floors. Players who take alternate routes (I plan on adding in windows, a fire escape, and maybe some other stuff too) will be rewarded, but they will be sacrificing health, and stealthiness. Basically I'm trying to make a smarter KOTH. It feels like KOTH almost always turns into a spam fest, and I want to give it a more intelligent approach.

I realize this is all easier said than done, but we'll see how it goes. I'm hoping to get Alpha 1 in about a week, but school will be starting soon for me so I may be slower on development.

 

[HQDefault]

My detailing itch brought me back to chilltower

Fog is a bit thick at the moment, but it was certainly necessary for making the map feel cold, along with the change in skybox.

 

[Egan]

Through some fiddling with entity crashes I got the PD boss gamemode working on a modified pl_badwater, just gonna test it to see if the gamemode is fun on a payload map.

 

[Zed]

I thought that was Boundary for a second.