[WIP] cp_roswell

[Shmitz]

The final version of cp_roswell has been released!

The elite Blue branch of the US military has been sent to "recover" an "experimental weather balloon" from a ranch in Roswell, New Mexico. Red "workers" must defend their territory long enough for reinforcements to arrive.

Download from TF2maps.net (http://forums.tf2maps.net/downloads.php?do=file&id=247)
Download from FPSB (http://www.fpsbanana.com/maps/50746)

http://www.horizonscape.com/shmitz/maps/tf2/screenshots/cp_roswell/cp_roswell_balloon_th.jpg (http://www.horizonscape.com/shmitz/maps/tf2/screenshots/cp_roswell/cp_roswell_balloon.jpg)http://www.horizonscape.com/shmitz/maps/tf2/screenshots/cp_roswell/cp_roswell_courtyard_th.jpg (http://www.horizonscape.com/shmitz/maps/tf2/screenshots/cp_roswell/cp_roswell_courtyard.jpg)
http://www.horizonscape.com/shmitz/maps/tf2/screenshots/cp_roswell/cp_roswell_feedext_th.jpg (http://www.horizonscape.com/shmitz/maps/tf2/screenshots/cp_roswell/cp_roswell_feedext.jpg)http://www.horizonscape.com/shmitz/maps/tf2/screenshots/cp_roswell/cp_roswell_feedint_th.jpg (http://www.horizonscape.com/shmitz/maps/tf2/screenshots/cp_roswell/cp_roswell_feedint.jpg)
http://www.horizonscape.com/shmitz/maps/tf2/screenshots/cp_roswell/cp_roswell_bluespawn_th.jpg (http://www.horizonscape.com/shmitz/maps/tf2/screenshots/cp_roswell/cp_roswell_bluespawn.jpg)http://www.horizonscape.com/shmitz/maps/tf2/screenshots/cp_roswell/cp_roswell_manor_th.jpg (http://www.horizonscape.com/shmitz/maps/tf2/screenshots/cp_roswell/cp_roswell_manor.jpg)

[drpepper]

weather balloon eh...
looks good!

might want to add a little more detail to the roofs in the first pic :thumbup1:

[VelvetFistIronGlove]

Wow, that looks really great. The UFO is especially cool.

You might need to make the silos brushes though to get the right light & shadow on them...

[Milktoast]

Very nice work on the UFO, I mean "Experimental Weather Balloon"!!

[jakeparlay]

hahah good stuff shmitzy

[phatal]

Screens look really good this early. Roswell for some reason to me is a perfect fit for the tf2 theme. Hope to play this soon! :)

[Snipergen]

Omg shmitz.. is the top of the UFO a cap point?? That would be SO FUNNY like all the other cap points, but theres a ufo under it? Get what I mean?

[Shmitz]

Haha, no, the cap point is inside it, not on top. That would be amusing though. =P

[DrHaphazard]

Uh that is amazing. How big is that UFO though if the cap points inside it? Seems pretty small, less than the usual room size in there. Looks like a difficult point to take.

[Shmitz]

It's bigger than it looks. It's at least the same size as the top level of the gravelpit tower. Also, you can't see it from the screenshot that well, but there's a fairly gaping hole in the side/top of it that acts as a secondary entrance. They had landing problems you see...

[DrHaphazard]

"They" huh? I thought it was a weather balloon. The plot thickens.

[Keir]

looks awesome already!

[Squirrelly]

I love the idea and layout soo far!

I cant wait to try and cap a point inside a UFO! :D

[Shmitz]

After a lengthy interruption, I am back to work, mostly working on prop models.

Horse trailer, (slightly gamma corrected because the area it's in isn't properly lit yet):
http://www.horizonscape.com/shmitz/maps/tf2/screenshots/cp_roswell_005_th.jpg (http://www.horizonscape.com/shmitz/maps/tf2/screenshots/cp_roswell_005.jpg)

Military bus, courtesy of Buddikaman. I've only done finishing and skinning work:
http://www.horizonscape.com/shmitz/maps/tf2/screenshots/cp_roswell_006_th.jpg (http://www.horizonscape.com/shmitz/maps/tf2/screenshots/cp_roswell_006.jpg)

Both are obviously not quite done yet, but this thread needed a good bump. =)

[Narkissus]

Is the model of that truck pulling the horse trailer custom?

[Shmitz]

No, that truck is a TF2 model.

[Youme]

Nice miliatry bus, but the horse trailer doesn't feel wonky enough, the truck pulling it is very wonky, its all over the place but the trailer isnt.

[Narkissus]

No, that truck is a TF2 model.

Hmm, what is it under?

[Shmitz]

Updated initial post with screenshots and stuff.

Edit: "stuff" = alpha release

[DrHaphazard]

Look for pickup for the truck. I was just about to bump this thread to ask how things were progressing. I agree the trailer could use more of a beat up quality. Nice work though.

[fartron]

The red spawn room looks like the hostage shack in cs_compound; was that an inspiration?

I really like the manor building, are you studying photos of villas and haciendas? If that one part by the cp became a little more like cloisters (http://flickr.com/search/?q=cloisters) I think it might be more interesting. But it could throw your balance off, so don't take my word for it. I think the feed storage looks a little bit too boxy at the moment. Good detailing, but it feels too much like a box in a box from the shots.. I'd break up the flow a little bit more, either with obstacles, or side routes or something.

[Shmitz]

I'm not a CS player, so no, any similarity with the red spawn room is coincidental.

I am using reference images for the manor, but they come from a variety of different sources. Unfortunately the majority of them are probably more recent architecture than mid-20th century, so I am a little worried that I am making the interior too modern.

I'm not sure what you mean by "box in a box" though. Could you explain?

[crazychicken]

Looks good dude, goign off screens, maybe add stuff to wall shading/props to make them less plain and formative. looks nice map, will definitely play it.

[fartron]

I take back the box comment, it just looked that way in the screenshots. After playing it, I like it a lot. I do think the manor needs some work, including that big blank wall by A. B looks great, but the approaches seem long to me. Probably just taste, and I'd defer to the results of play testing it.

I made a shot at C, and drew arrows since my comments were more specific.

http://img176.imageshack.us/img176/3401/cproswellcommenttb0.th.jpg (http://img176.imageshack.us/my.php?image=cproswellcommenttb0.jpg)

[Shmitz]

cp_roswell has entered public beta 1 (http://tf2maps.net/showthread.php?t=1011).

Edit: Here's the FPSB entry (http://www.fpsbanana.com/maps/46859) in case anyone feels like being supportive and making an assessment.

[Noggin]

Played this last night, got incredibly lost in the buildings.

Spaceship model is really cool tho with the damage and inside.

[Shmitz]

I'm fixing a significant bug and will be releasing a second beta tonight or tomorrow. If anyone has any specific suggestions for changes/improvements, now would be an excellent time to give them. ^_^

[Shmitz]

Ok, so based on the game day yesterday, I'm going to be trying to make the displacements below the saucer a bit more friendly for navigation, and tweaking ammo/health a little. Any other suggestions come to mind for anyone?

[Shmitz]

cp_roswell has been updated to Beta 2 (http://tf2maps.net/downloads.php?do=file&id=164)!

Go go triple post! =P

[flubber]

Hi,
I made a map test session yesterday for our servers, and people loved roswell (100% vote @ 24 players) since studio and switchback frome our previous maptest sessions we didn't have those score, kudos. It's now part of our mapcycle. thx for the good work.

[Shmitz]

I'm mostly done with the aesthetic additions for the next beta release. Does anyone have any specific suggestions for gameplay changes?

[Shmitz]

Figured I'd post some screenshots, since someone coaxed me into uploading them.

Upstairs room, dresser and cabinet.
http://www.horizonscape.com/shmitz/maps/tf2/screenshots/cp_roswell_b3_furniture01th.jpg (http://www.horizonscape.com/shmitz/maps/tf2/screenshots/cp_roswell_b3_furniture01.jpg)

Downstairs atrium, bunch of bookcases.
http://www.horizonscape.com/shmitz/maps/tf2/screenshots/cp_roswell_b3_furniture02th.jpg (http://www.horizonscape.com/shmitz/maps/tf2/screenshots/cp_roswell_b3_furniture02.jpg)

Back end of the dining room.
http://www.horizonscape.com/shmitz/maps/tf2/screenshots/cp_roswell_b3_furniture03th.jpg (http://www.horizonscape.com/shmitz/maps/tf2/screenshots/cp_roswell_b3_furniture03.jpg)

Dining room, looking into kitchen. More cabinets and a shelf.
http://www.horizonscape.com/shmitz/maps/tf2/screenshots/cp_roswell_b3_furniture04th.jpg (http://www.horizonscape.com/shmitz/maps/tf2/screenshots/cp_roswell_b3_furniture04.jpg)

Upstairs study. More bookcases.
http://www.horizonscape.com/shmitz/maps/tf2/screenshots/cp_roswell_b3_furniture05th.jpg (http://www.horizonscape.com/shmitz/maps/tf2/screenshots/cp_roswell_b3_furniture05.jpg)

[Crimson]

Looks amazing. I really need to upload this to my servers. I tend to not run beta maps, especially in rotation, but I might have to make an exception lol.

[MacNetron]

I had the opportunity to try it on gameday a couple of hours before all mayhem, so I had the time to notice that inside the 'weather balloon', my framerate drops radically.
Having a 8800GTX, it easily displays 60fps (capped due to the wait for vsync). It dropped to around 40 fps. Is the inside so complex that it has this effect?
I have to add that all other graphic options are set quite high (like 4x AA).

I DO like the map though. Small map, but loads of alternative routes.

[Shmitz]

I've noticed something similar, but from everything showbudget tells me there is absolutely nothing that should be impacting performance in there.

However, I've noticed a similar anomaly with the shiny brewing vat model of Valve's. If I get really close to it, my framerate drops for no explicable reason.

If you set mat_specular to 0, do you still take a performance hit?

[WarMecha]

Try turning on wireframe to see what the engine is actually rendering, also worth looking at what the visleafs are doing here with glview and stick in the relevant hints?

[Shmitz]

Try turning on wireframe to see what the engine is actually rendering, also worth looking at what the visleafs are doing here with glview and stick in the relevant hints?

Yeah, I've tested all that; I use mat_wireframe much more religiously than +showbudget. Nothing is being drawn that shouldn't be.

I'd like some way of finding out how widespread this issue is, since it also occurs with some Valve models for me. Is it a problem with the model that I can fix, or is it a graphics card/driver compatibility issue?

[Shmitz]

I have updated cp_roswell to Beta 3 (http://www.fpsbanana.com/maps/46859).

It's just on FPSB for the time being, until the problem with uploading files here gets resolved.

[Koei]

People thought the UFO was a bit closed down? I don't know what they ment with that specifically (I just left the server minutes before), but maybe you'll know. If not, I'll ask what they ment :)

[Shmitz]

Yeah, something more specific would be helpful. Also whether that's from the attacking or defending perspective.

[Koei]

He thought the ufo might be to easy to defend and a bit crampy. But now he also has figured out there is another entrance. Will do some more playtests the coming days, because people seem to like it (I haven't played it yet ).

[crazychicken]

Being able to fire sticky bombs intot he ufo from the right of the rock outside the tunnel entrance would be nice, by the time you get there with a full server its easy to get shot down befoer you have chance of exploding 3 stickies to knock out the sgs in ufo

[Paria]

ive played it a couple times now , not a full server but with enough players to have a good game,

point a has way too many ammo boxes at it currently, if im setting up on the roof area i can do a round trip around a and collect up to 6 different ammo boxes in a really short period of time, for instance on the upper level i think just the meduim would suffice, same for the lower level proably 2 boxes maximum not 4.

point b is better, the ammo and health are spread out a little more - offering some chance for the offence to grab some, theres some tough sentry spots but most are killable once your learn all the places you can shoot from,

my only complaint about c is that i would have loved the ufo to be bigger, it looks so awesome and really is the centrepiece of the map, but its actually the worst point of the 3 fight wise to play in, you get the odd sentry inside on defence that are pretty easy to demo spam clear, and a sprinkling of snipers seems to pop up once c needs defending but honestly i'd prefer a big indoors kinda battle inside the ufo, places where engys could set up a proper turrets and a proper offensive rush to cap the point, probably something thats too late in the day to change now but big ufo = uber cool scenario for an indoor fight :)

one minor annoyance is this beam - its does an awesome job of blocking sentry fire at level 1 :D

[Shmitz]

I've kinda neglected this thread lately, so have a couple screenshots:


Hey look, a hitching post.
http://www.horizonscape.com/shmitz/maps/tf2/screenshots/cp_roswell_hitch.jpg

Maybe I'll get fewer questions about where point C is now.
http://www.horizonscape.com/shmitz/maps/tf2/screenshots/cp_roswell_newc.jpg

For Paria, banister fixed... er, I mean broken!
http://www.horizonscape.com/shmitz/maps/tf2/screenshots/cp_roswell_banister.jpg


So... I'm probably going to release final soon unless someone gives me some feedback suggesting specific improvements.

[kaplan]

Overall, I love this map. Great Gravelpit style map. A couple of suggestions.

1. I've noticed that it can be difficult to exit the red spawn sometimes when there are multiple teleporter entrances in front of the spawn.

2. The full health pack located in the shack near red spawn, could it be possible to widen the entrance? For some reason I find it difficult to enter the shack.

[Shmitz]

CP_ROSWELL final version (http://www.fpsbanana.com/maps/50746) has been released! Huzzah!

[Earl]

This map was added to our clan's server: 8.6.15.83:27015

We played it on a full server and it was really great. People were saying "Wow! A custom map that doesn't suck!" Gravelpit-style CP seems popular.