CP Snow Station

Bakscratch

Finisher of Maps
aa
Oct 29, 2010
714
1,492
Reds snowbase has been picking up odd signals for the past few months, these signals have been getting closer and closer! Until today when it came! THE MOTHERSHIP! Red quickly scrambles to get their laser up and ready to defend.
Mean while BLU are trying to impress the Administrator, she has been up set with them recently due to the problem with train incident... They see that Red are about to destroy the Mothership, so they see it as there chance to impress the Administrator! They pack their bags and move down to the Snow Station...
 
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Bakscratch

Finisher of Maps
aa
Oct 29, 2010
714
1,492
I'd thought I would share my creative process of my 72 hour map while its still all fresh in my mind.

So this map first started me before asking people what there favorite game mode and what they wanted to see, The majority said CP A/D as 5cp has been done so much. Started looking at Valve A/D maps (Gorge, Artpass and Gpit) I tried to analyse what they did just from first glance and why they were good and fun to play.
Starting with gorge, It has a very unique playing style. The blu spawn leads to an open yard with a lot of height on the first building. I saw how It worked and tried to see how I could interpret that with my own knowledge. Also Gorge is flat, which was another thing I made a note of.
The Artpass map (manor and mountainlab) are very different from Gorge but play fairly similar, they both have a strong last. The other point are not that easy to defend, but when the team finally pushes last it is a chanllenge.
Gpit I just look at the point design and again the variation in heights.

I then started to put my ideas down onto "paper", I started by trying to a software called Grid Cartographer which lets you draw quick floor plans quickly. I found it helpful but it was hard to show variation in height and also things where blocky.
Screenshot%202014-06-24%2021.38.58.png

As you can see the result was nice, but confusing to most people so I went the old fashion way of just drawing it out.

72.png

You can now tell what things are better and what the general idea is of the map. As you can tell the map changed a lot just from the first version to this plan, This was the original A cap point.
Screenshot%202014-07-01%2000.24.03.png
As you can see its changed a lot, I wanted to try to get a Harvest feel but realised just laying it out this point would be horrible to attack on. So I went back to what I researched on and looked at gorges 1st point which was on a short open bridge so I tried to think how could I do that but more open with height variation, I came up with this.
Screenshot%202014-07-01%2000.29.26.png
You can see the similarites to it with narrow bridge and under pass, but the problem was the point it was that the rest of the map was just too small and short! Comparing A1 to A8 (72hr release)
output_1FY5KL.gif

You can (sorta) see the size difference from a1 to a8 the map as a whole has expanded a lot adding more routes and opening up a lot more of the areas.
A Cap Point has turned into the iconic point of the map as it has a lot of very unique gameplay, People think its is impossible to push out of. but in fact it involves the attackers to work together to push out from the sides whiles flanking from beneath, which makes for some impressive pushes out. The reason it works is because the minimal cover for red on the high ground which makes it easy for Demos and Snipers to get early pick offs.
2014-06-30_00005.jpg

This is the majority of what I did for Planning and Cap Point A, I will talk about the rest of the map another time.

Oh and here is a time lapse of day 1 map making: http://youtu.be/eN7WPU7Pjwc
 
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Ammy

L1: Registered
Dec 21, 2013
20
6
I liked it more with the purple and black textures.



/s
 

evanonline

L420: High Member
Mar 15, 2009
485
273
Place a sign on the sideways fence saying "THIS IS MY FENCE AND I WILL PERSONALLY SEE TO THE DEATH OF THE NEXT MAN WHO TRIES TO MOVE MY FENCE - SOLDIER"
 

Jelly~

L1: Registered
Sep 29, 2014
1
1
Tested cp_snowstation_72_a8 on my server

Just started running this map on my server. Everyone loves it and says it's really great so far, but a complaint that people had was that the last control point took too long to capture considering it was right next to Red's spawn.
Anyway, keep up the good work, and it would be awesome to get a completed version soon. It is a very fun map to play on!

P.S if you ever want a newer version of the map (or another map) to be playtested, just message me and I'll add a playtesting session to my server.
 

Pocket

Half a Lambert is better than one.
aa
Nov 14, 2009
4,694
2,579
This needs to be taken out of the contest entries subforum.
 

YM

LVL100 YM
aa
Dec 5, 2007
7,135
6,056
Map's good yo


Feelings:
Verticality of A is fucking awesome, as I said it feels a little like left hand flow takes blu past the point rather than onto it. the little route I suggested in feedback would help blu get onto the point.

B is booooorrrrring. There's nothing going on. It's just a CP on a bit of concrete. The gameplay is OK but just that. There is no interest.

C is a bit messy in terms of geometry. It feels like blue don't have many options in terms of attacking routes, that nice balcony blu have just drops them down into the same route they'd have come from if they went through the middle, so it doesn't really add anything. I'd give that route a little bit more usefulness and I'd make the whole area a little bigger so that there's more breathing room.
 

RubbishyUser

L7: Fancy Member
Feb 17, 2013
414
488
Because Red spawns all the back at C, would it be possible to have maybe 30 seconds more of setup time to help engineers get ready for A? By the time the set up had finished, and I'd found a spot, all I'd managed was a level 1 sentry and teleporter.

Also, what's the endgoal of the map? I feel like a satelite dish or missile or something is needed so I know what I'm blowing up.

Fun map otherwise.
 

RubbishyUser

L7: Fancy Member
Feb 17, 2013
414
488
I uuhhh, think I need to be scolded. The description is wittering about a mothership - where's that?