cp_imbricatus

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As an experienced mapper who has spent so much time on it, just release it and be done with it. You will learn from any future maps, but dont' not release it just because it doesn't meet some impossible standards.

What's the main reason of doubt? Gameplay/gameflow issues or rather visual style coherency?

I don't know if you have taken a break from the map for sometime, but from my experience that's something that often helps.

I'll definitely second the "take a break" sentiment, especially with the holidays coming up. A little space can always be good for ideas to breathe.

For me personally, a lot of the frankenmap situations come about when I've been making a lot of revisions to a level over time and there starts to be a big mix of new vs. old - the style and idea is going to evolve over time and leave some of the older sections behind, but if you identify with those sections, it's hard to step back and really objectively look at if they're helping or hurting you.

Roundhouse may not look like much but I've been staring at that instance setup off and on for a couple years. One of the most important changes I made before the first playable version was taking a chunk of the roundhouse endcap that had been there for months, and just straight up deleting it. Once I got rid of that, I figured out exactly what I needed to do with that space and was able to get the map sealed up again for the first playtest. It had been there so long that I just assumed it was one of the untouchable sections of the layout, when in actuality it was holding me back. Maybe it's worth taking that sort of evaluation of the level? I'm not going to suggest gutting the whole thing and rebuilding it, but maybe find something that you're not happy with, or even something you've been really latched onto for a while, and just see what it looks like when it's not there. It might spark something, and if not - ctrl+z!

There's a lot of really great work in here that'd be a shame to see go to waste, but at the same time I'd hate to see you suffer through finishing up something you're not entirely happy with. Hope you can figure something out to get things rolling again!

A wise man once said;

Always finish your work and release it. Its always the last 10% that takes the longest and is the hardest to do.

Yeah just take a break. I work more than 3 year on the same map... which is still not finished But i'm very happy with it. It calld Frosty :

And I made a huge progress on it since at the beggining it was just a forest map. But with hard work I came to this. Of course I don't know if the map will be playable one day but now I think I have a good piece of art an I'm proud.

So TRY TO FINISH IT SOLDIER !!

It looks to have gotten a bit wooly and out of hand, I could see why that would create some unhappiness and discomfort on your part. Thankfully this is a reasonably simple problem to solve: try to pair it down to only the elements you simply couldn't stand for the players to lose. Keep only those that are useful for player guidance and scene composition.

Aim for a restrained sort of look. When you get there, and you think you've really paired it down, then you're good to release. I think this is a fitting final task.

Excited to test this.

I think visually its getting more and more in line with the TF2 look with every release, but we're still a tad too realistic. I find that for whatever reason I very much struggle to create anything good in TF2 because I lean too heavily on realism. Evidently it takes a lot of practice. I guess its also possible you're not as worried about the graphics at this stage, which would be understandable

this is what the world looks like to me

uh but nah it may be the lighting? or not, see what others think.

yeah, fog and lighting are really nice and subtle, not cartoonish. love it

Damn it, this is one of those maps that I would kill to fly around in hammer looking at brushes and shit.

Awesome job dude, I'm happy you are continuing to develop it.

To me I think it is the thin detail objects that give a realistic vibe. Many of the walls and even windows are are subdivided with reinforcements, some even subdivided into smaller ones with diagonal supports. Rather than having large, bold, stylized shapes and textures , it appears very calculated and made to support the structure like it would in real life. This definitely applies to the round red room and not so much with the exterior.

The architecture is cool as fuck...from a technical standpoit...but the map isn't easy to read and nothing is drawing my eye towards particular areas. I think you've taken the idea that "TF2 isn't realistic" too far and have ended up with an incoherent clusterfuck of a map.