[WIP] pl_piratesvsninjas

[Chilly]

Ok.. I've decided after giving tons of feedback on other mapper's maps to slowly start work on my own. I made a couple Quake 2 maps back in the day and I've modified a few TF2 maps (very minor changes), but this will really be my first map. The theme is going to be pirates vs ninjas (pirates will loot the ninja's shrine) and will be loosely based on the community map my clan had started but got nowhere on (http://forums.yinyarr.com/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=448).

I put about 45 minutes in today and made a little progress blocking out the first section, but I've already run into my first problem that I hope someone can help me with. This first picture is what my ground looks like in Hammer:


As you can see, I've lined up the vertices of each block so it looks like one big surface. This is what it looks like compiled:


As you can see, the edges aren't lining up. I will be using displacements as well in certain areas, but I wanted to get the overall structure together first. This is a beach, so it's quite complex... it wraps around the harbor area and slopes to the water from all sides.

Any advice someone can give will be greatly appreciated.

 

[FaTony]

Um, u have either concave brushes or bad geometry. Remember: each face must be on each plane.

 

[Chilly]

Thanks. I'll simplify it to just 3 brushes and match the wall edges up to it. I had done it the other way around, but that was stupid of me.

 

[Chilly]

Orange things are palm trees. Gray thing in water is placeholder for a pirate ship. The blue/yellow door is a placeholder for a japanese-styled doorway. The yellow passage on the right side of the beach will be an alternate route that opens once the first checkpoint is reached (the checkpoint will be at the top of the ramp by the japanese doorway). The gray areas are cliffs. The red blocks are wood buildings. It's probably too much of a sniper-fest on the beach right now, but the rest of the map will be much more constrained so I think it'll work. The area behind the pirate ship will hopefully be a 3d skybox with water and scattered rocks.

This will be payload, with the cart starting on the larger island, moving across the bridge and into the canyon. This is approximately 1/3 of the map, so it's not going to be all that big. I'm thinking it'll probably be 2 checkpoints + the final cap and no forward spawn for either team.

The beach area will be themed for pirates. The areas past the canyon will be themed as a Japanese shrine/dojo.

Am I blocking this out correctly? I've not done this before, so I want to make sure I'm making smart choices as I go along. Any feedback is appreciated.

 

[Vander]

Yeah, that error has happened to me a few times. I just remade the brush and it wasn't a problem anymore.

 

[Chilly]

Blocked out most of the 2nd third of the map. The ramp would have been a pain in the butt as well, so I added another section. At the bottom of the ramp will be part of the tunnel from the far side of the beach.




Not much lighting in here, but this will be a japanese themed building. Just trying to give an idea of scale/transitions.




This is the next major area. Once again, good for snipers in certain areas. The large orange things will be rock formations. The blue building at the bottom will be the entrance to the main shrine, which is the final 1/3 of the map. In the nook between the rocks on the right there will be a tunnel exit, which will come from the right side of the beach. This area will have some sort of trees. I'm hoping to get a cherry blossom model working and then use the ash effect to make it look like the flowers are falling, but I'm thinking that might be too big of a performance hit for such a large area. The slope is a lot of fun for attacking, which counteracts the snipers a bit. A sticky jump down the hill is a lot of fun. I'll be balancing it as much as possible with good sentry locations around those rocks.




This is the overview of the map. I've drawn the first 3 checkpoints as well as the cart path. The white areas are the side tunnels I need to add. The green line is a gate that will open once the attackers have reached A. The orange lines from B will be a drop-down route where the attackers can fall to the lower path. Most likely I'll make it so soldiers can rocket jump up as well. This side tunnel will probably get a 1-way gate at the end. If I do a forward spawn, it'll be at B. The defenders would start there until the attackers reached A and then they'd go to the back of the map. The attackers would spawn at their ship until they reach C and then they'd get that spawn.




The final 1/3 of the map, inside the shrine, will be very linear. The cart will travel down the exact middle of all the rooms and make only 90 degree turns. There will be a garden area as well, and I'm thinking I'll need an additional passage from the slope to the garden, which may end up being a narrow "mountain" pass.

 

[Psyphil]

I think you have too many open spaces for sniping, specially the first part when the red's spawn are very easy to snipe. I propose you make a tall house at the end of the bridge to protect the spawn a little better:

this would protect the spawn alittle better atelast now the snipers have to go either down where they don't have any protection at all or to the house where anyone can come from below and suprise.

 

[Chilly]

Excellent idea. I'm definitely going to do that.

 

[Chilly]

Ok, I made the change suggested by Psyphil. The building still allows snipers to shoot over the top, making for an easy shot right at the start (I'll be carefully planning the pirate ship to make it easier to move out of) but once you're off the ship you'll have plenty of cover from that building and the palm tree fronds. If it seems like snipers are too strong, I'll turn the whole beach area into a little beach village with a ton of buildings for cover.

You'll also see I added the tunnels on the right side of the beach. These will be themed for the pirates, complete with gold piles (loot) and chests, weapons (perhaps a cannon model?), and barrels of rum. They'll be lit with torches or similar, and be relatively dim. The tunnels are pretty simple, with the left leading to the ramps and the right dropping down and going to the grass slope and shrine.




This next image is the right side of the tunnel. The blue area is the dojo up on top. The red ramps going up will be a rickety wood stairway styled for the pirates. The orange boxes are large rocks. You can see a lower area down below with another ramp and light (later picture details this)... that leads to the grass slope and shrine. That lower area will be blocked off until blue reaches the second checkpoint in the dojo above.




This is just showing the left tunnel and the view up on the right side. It will remain open to the sky and the dojo's overhang will have support braces underneath for detail. The left tunnel just leads to the cart ramp.




This is the exit from the right tunnel to the slope and shrine. The blue ramps will be themed to look like japanese stairs. Basically everything red is pirate themed and everything blue is ninja themed. Red will have lots of wood, gold, and broken glass/boards. Blue will have lots of stone, translucent walls (rice paper), black trim, and colored highlights. Blu will still be the attacking team (pirates), but I'm just mapping the colors in reverse (oops). This exit will have a 1-way gate.




This is the drop-down from the right tunnel to the hall that leads to the shrine. Like I said, this area will be blocked off until the attackers get checkpoint 2. This is still pirate area and will have a bunch of rum barrels stored here. The gameplay goal here was to make it easy to attack from (building ubers), but the attackers will have to really watch their tails since the defenders can come from behind easily (from the dojo above). There will be little health down here... it'll be at the top of the ramp. That makes it a very good spot for a pyro to try rushing at enemies building ubers, but also a good spot for an offensive engineer to set up a sentry.




As before, feedback is greatly appreciated. The final 1/3 of the map (the shrine and garden) will come next, followed by the cart entities/track, and then alpha testing.