ctf_geo

[Paria]

This is my first map (ever), its loosely based on an old ut2003 map ctf_geothermal, but since its my first map only the very basic layout will reflect that map.

At the moment i have blocked out half a level (had a quick playtest with it mirrored, made the suggested changes), not im at the stage of texturing/lighting etc,

So far i have the red flag room close to completion (minus the intel atm ;)), still playing round the lighting as its a total learning experience,

Well enough chatter heres the first screeny :)

http://img155.imageshack.us/my.php?image=geo1pf9.jpg

comments /criticism/advice welcome

[DJive]

Looking good =) Few things i would put work into.

The Ceiling skylights - Texture is out of place and to far down, maybe move the glass in the middle of the brushes instead of on the grid with them. I'd like to even see a much larger skylight(s)

The floor - I love the trim but the "step-up" feels to high, Id clip *or better yet* just move the floor *red part* up a few grids so you still have depth, it just doesnt feel like a large step.

Ceiling - feels empty. If you check out your walls you have a lot going on, support beams add a nice touch. The ceiling should also have some curves to it =)

Good Job so far, =)

[Scoobingsthe2nd]

the room you posted looks absolutely freakin huge.

Absolutely freakin huge doesn't work that well for CTF :\

[Noggin]

My only issue with this is that all the maps are all going to start looking the same...

[Paria]

been working on your advice DJive - redone the walkways added concerete beams to the roof along with a few more props, still tinkering with the dimensions of the exits and fo course the adjacent rooms arent textured or lit yet :)

really enjoying it so far, just dreading when i reach the middle main room :D

http://img167.imageshack.us/my.php?image=geo90000xv0.jpg

[Logo]

Looking much nicer, keep up the good work.

My only criticism is that it's a rather large area all at one height and without cover or objects around. You don't want to clutter up the space but I find that areas like this tend to be annoying to fight in as you don't have many strategic options and it's quite a bit easier to predict where to shoot with rockets, nades and sniper rifles. If you could vary the height of the room by small amounts and/or provide some sort structures or props to break up the room a bit it'd go a long way. Another option would be to shrink the size of the room but I'm guessing you don't want to do that.

Just don't over do it or clutter the area with things that prevent people from fighting effectively.

[greenridge]

its fine as long as 1 sg cant lock the whole area down
maybe add a few pillars

[Paria]

thought i best update with a fairly current screeny :)

lighting is only temporary, as are the cubemap placements (floor isnt lit correctly) but i've added more to the room to flesh it out- and hopefully retained floorspace for some decent movement, have tested how it plays alot (maybe too much) along the way,

some of the other rooms/corridors are becoming more fleshed and its starting to take shape.

http://img514.imageshack.us/my.php?image=geo2cx2.jpg

[Scotland Tom]

That room is looking good. Very much improved from before. It now looks like there's plenty of space to move, but that island in the middle now blocks some line of sight and adds some cover, which should make the gameplay much more dynamic in that area.

Lighting may only be temporary, but it's looking very good. Not over lit, but doesn't allow for too many dark areas either. Very much in the TF2 style.

[Paria]

red spawn room is complete - as are numerous corrdidors and visual side rooms, been working alot today on the red spawn exit room - its supposed to reflect somewhat the workings of a geothermal base (pipe goes into the ceiling with alot of support structures to hold it in place :D,

i seem to spend ages wasting time on lighting at the moment even if alot is semi-temporary i've struggled to find any tutorials that are more advanced than the place lightbulb near ceiling ones :/

anyway hes what ive done so far http://img514.imageshack.us/my.php?image=geo3ai6.jpg

(had to photoshop the brightness since its still not properly lit up)

[Paria]

most of the red base is completed, working my way through some optimizing atm, whilst i get some inspiration to finish the middle area of the map, anyway heres a screeny of the red base layout and half the middle of the map (top left corner)

http://img230.imageshack.us/my.php?image=geo4fw6.jpg

[Noggin]

Looks good from above from what u can see in the ariel view :)

[poopster101]

paria, this looks really good. looks kinda big
but still very very very good

[Paria]

yeah im pretty pleased with how it has turned out for my first map, made a shed load of mistakes along the way, and learnt so much which i've then gone back and redone certain parts,

still there plenty of areas im not happy with but i think i've reached the point where i need to finish this first effort :), so basically its the boring trying to optmizie map stages / adding more detail to the centre area , and hoping i can understand how lighting works a bit better to make it look better,

not quite sure how long thats going to take but ive got a nice period off work atm to really get stuck into it :)

[poopster101]

so this is your first instance of mapping ever?
if so im very impressed :D
either way
good job

[Paria]

starting to work on the middle area now, the sunshine was temporary and is kinda overbright :D but anyway it gives you a rough idea of whats gonna be in the middle of the map :D

http://img89.imageshack.us/my.php?image=geo5fl2.jpg

[Juice]

Amazing first map.

[Ace]

Wow.

I will be happy if my map is half as good as that

Can't wait to play it

[Paria]

finally had the red base to the point where it was as complete as i think i can make it, so i've copied the bases over - recolored for blu today (fun fun fun) and started work on the middle main section, its pretty playable right now but there at least a few days left of me tinkering with stuff (particularly the middle) before im happy to even share a beta :)

http://img144.imageshack.us/my.php?image=geothermal7oj3.jpg

[Paria]

i've manged to have a few reasonable playtests on my server so far, i've fixed the amazing see through wooden beams - that some of you helped me with in tf2maps chat, it was quite funny to watch other people on the map, exploring the level like a bunch of hungry scavengers looking for problems :) - had to rebuild the staircase basically and make them in smaller portions.

My main concern was the travel time from the spawn rooms to where the main action areas are, so i will be re-working the spawn rooms slightly giving much faster access to the main areas, this will also interconnect the 2 "sniper" arches and hopefully give engineers more options to place teleporter entrances that are less vulnerable, the current spawn room exit will remain as it allows a decent travel time to the intelligence room for those pesky engineers that attempt to make turret farms :), so in essence the new spawn room will be made into a 2 floored affair with 2 exits - 1 directly out the main middle area and the 1 that will give you a direct route to the intelligence or a slightly longer but secondary option in reaching the battlements.

if anyone wants to have a run round my original playtest it is still hosted on my server

RL Server - Say no to 2fort - hlstatsx 217.163.27.129:27015

you can

nominate geothermal_playtest01

and then

rtv (rock the vote)

if enough regulars are on they should be happily to oblige, if not it might be a problem at busy times :)

[dirtyminuth]

Good to hear your staircases are in working order. Great looking map. Any more thoughts on the sewer passages (i.e. more motivation to use them)?

[Paria]

its really hard to gauge at the moment, since the best playtest i've had so far was probably an 8v8, that was pretty evenly balanced in class distribution which was pleasing, however the main purpose of the tunnels for me were for 3 classes

the heavy to avoid having to cross the middle and be a sitting duck/the spy to get behind the enemy without having to burn all of their cloak, and for the offensive style engineers for setting up teleporters/turrets in more offensive postions, unfortunately i think people need to learn the map a bit more before they fully utlize everything you put in there for them to use, i'm gonna test out the changes/improvements i make to the spawn areas to see how that impacts the general flow.

people have suggested it would be nice to be able to swim from the middle main tower (inside room) to these connecting rooms, but honestly i dont think that adds much to the map.

I think ill run a second playtest version with improved spawns, im hoping this will make the middle area much more chaotic and intense, and then be brave and release a beta and see how it pans out.

hopefully on my days off i should be able to make some good progress on the changes.

edit ,
http://img168.imageshack.us/my.php?image=geooverlayij8.jpg
thought i best attach my uber ms paint skills version, the blue arrow marks the existing "quick" way from the spawn room (its actually underneath the room u can see on the map), the red areas are the portions of the spawn room /corridors i will be adding, and the yellow routes are the hopefully new way to spice up the action, less travel time more carnage :) and a couple more options.

[Paria]

thought i better supply a few more screenshots , level is almost ready for a beta release, still have some clipping to decide on in the middle area, but apart from that it seems ok,

http://rtcw.co.uk/tf/maps/ctf_geothermal_1.jpg

http://rtcw.co.uk/tf/maps/ctf_geothermal_2.jpg

http://rtcw.co.uk/tf/maps/ctf_geothermal_3.jpg

http://rtcw.co.uk/tf/maps/ctf_geothermal_4.jpg

http://rtcw.co.uk/tf/maps/ctf_geothermal_5.jpg

http://rtcw.co.uk/tf/maps/ctf_geothermal_6.jpg

http://rtcw.co.uk/tf/maps/ctf_geothermal_7.jpg

http://rtcw.co.uk/tf/maps/ctf_geothermal_8.jpg

[Juice]

Wow, no way this is a first map. Haha

[YM]

whoooooeeee! that sure is on a grand scale!

[Vilepickle]

hmm, I might actually have to give this a look. :o

[Snipergen]

How fantastic this even looks, even now i have something to bitch about: its close to the original tfc setting. And with the skill you have, i find that a bit sad :(

[Vander]

Excellent efforts, can't wait for the beta.

[MangyCarface]

Beautiful geometry and brushwork!

[Paria]

i've released a beta 1 version on fpsbanana

http://www.fpsbanana.com/maps/48692

struglling to upload to tf2maps atm without it timing out :<

[DJive]

eww, how did i miss the screenshot update.

Brushwork impresses me =) not often i say that lol.

looking forward to trying this out.

[Earl]

I DL'ed it, and it seems pretty cool! It took running around it for a while, but then I recognized features from the old ut2003 map. I'm going to reccomend it for my clan's server.

Only criticism I have is that you need to make your curves smoother -- the source engine can easily handle 32 sided instead of 16 sided cylinders. The blockiness really is noticeable.

[Noggin]

I liked this, I did a solo run around and was very impressed, will try and get Rattys server to give it a go.

I agree with Earl on the circular stuff, also put them cylinder faces in a smoothingA group, should help with the smooth-rounded effect.

Also I found the 'hut' a bit out of place, try replacing with big pipes or something?

This is what I mean...

http://rtcw.co.uk/tf/maps/ctf_geothermal_6.jpg

[Paria]

at least you recognised it as hut noggin :), that "feature " has been the bane of my life - people thought it was a train carriage and numerous other things it wasnt :) , i've probably rebuilt it from scratch 4 times already whilst i was learning hammer :D, its really there to prevent direct lline of sight to the main exit and also as a defendable choke point (engys can get on the roof using dsipenser /teleports)

as for the pipes comments its good to know, i started off using arches and cylinders with more sides - but after looking through the valve maps noticed they didnt tend to go too overboard so tried to follow suit, does anyone how big/small a strain to fps a 16 sided to 32 sided cylinder would make ?

the smoothing groups is something i did read about on the dev site so ill take a further look into that and try to suss it out.

[Noggin]

Yeah I just thought the hut looked out of place "Why is there a hut inside a building?"

Otherwise it looks great, well done :)

[Shmitz]

I get why the hut is there, but it does seem out of place. Also, the wood one on red side doesn't mesh well with the spytech everywhere else in the room. Maybe try a corrugated metal texture?

Without that hut, engineers would have no possible place to set up a sentry that isn't a cakewalk to take down. I found one place right where the main room connects with the hallway that leads to the hut. Anywhere else was easy pickings for stickies or out-of-range attacks.

[Paria]

yeah the engy thing was done on purpose, i really didnt want to make the flag room turtle friendly, although i might give the engy a bit more love in that room in b2, i've fixed all the bugs/clipping/no draw issues i've found, also thinking of adding a route from the main spawn exit, that when you take a right turn from the upper spawn will allow drop down access to the right hand sewer (and also allow a soldier/demo to jump upwards through it.

I made a quick fly-thru video today for it

YouTube - TF2 - CTF Geothermal b1 fly-thru

[Paria]

updated to b2

Beta 2.0 Changelist
Fixed various nodraw surfaces being visible
Improved spawn rooms to make it easier to distinguish on which level you have spawned on.
Added Playerclips to Blue spawn and numerous other areas
Fixed engineers being able to build in some areas of the spawn rooms
Fixed Intel getting stuck in various areas
Toned Down ambient sounds in most areas
Added smoothing groups to certain areas
Added Basic 3d Skybox
Added 1 new route for attackers/defenders - right of the upper spawn exit.
Added more detail and colour to the main section
Increased Lighting and ambient lighting and reduced the fog effect for better visibility


http://www.rtcw.co.uk/tf/maps/ctf_geothermal_92.jpg

[Spike]

Lol I played that map the other day at =VIA= clan server. I pwned but I think it has too much engi sentry sites. Also I get headshoted more than one time when going out of the spawn room, I think you need to cover the spawn room from snipe scopes

[ryodoan]

its fine as long as 1 sg cant lock the whole area down
maybe add a few pillars

I dont know if this got responded to, but if not, I want to say this now.

All Yall custom mappers need to stop hating on the engineer. :mad: seriously.

Look at 2fort, there are several places where 1 sentry gun can cover all entrances and yet they still get destroyed fairly easily. If you make a map to unfriendly for engineers you are going to piss of a large group of people that play CTF maps.