2 Maps for Fistful of Frags

Hello, I thought I'd post here to both show a few things I've been working on and to promote this great mod a bit.

The latest Fistful of Frags update comes with two maps I've worked on over the past several months.

'CrippleCreek'

Cripplecreek is a fairly large and open map, I started with a rough sketch but no clear idea of how it would play like or what sort of gameplay it would accommodate. With the help of the mod creator we found a fun solution. Vigilantes must go around the map collecting loot sacks and bring them to a cap zone, the desperado's must prevent this. The cap zone fixes to a moving train after the first loot capture, and that's when the chaos begins, the trains route can be changed by using rail switchers at junctions (You can see this in the video above).

Mod Creators comments

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CrippleCreek is a world on its own. The playable area exceeds anything we have seen in FoF before, and despite the huge draw distances it's really well optimized. There's a player controlled mini train that is key for gameplay purposes. Features a new game mode called 'Gold Rush', this is an asymmetric mode where a team grabs loot sacks and tries to capture them at specific locations. In this case, a shack and later a moving train. The train tracks can be switched shooting at them (or using any other attack, as dynamite in video).

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The biggest challenge alongside making this map fun was optimising it, since it was so big this wasn't easy. I managed to get the map running quite well using a few straightforward methods. The first is simple fade distances on static props, I gave props the same start and end fade distances wherever I could, as faded props don't go down 'the fast path',what this means fully I don't know, but what I do know is that they take longer to render. The second method I used was to combine many props into a single prop, this took a lot of work but was well worth it, the performance gained was really noticeable. I also tried to reuse textures wherever I could on the models.

'Rio Bravo'

Since I made so much new content for the first map I thought I should at least create a second so it saw its use. This map was much more relaxing to create, once I had the gameplay blocked in so early I was able to relax and just have fun making it. Its a symmetrical design with several layers to it, and is quite a dangerous environment. Falling to your death and avoiding a fast moving train spilling explosive barrels gives you something else to worry about alongside dynamite throwing lunatics. There is no visibility blocking in the map, so I used the same methods for Cripplecreek to keep the frame-rate steady.

Mod Creators comments

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RioBravo is a symmetric map where both teams bring loot back to their bases. The game mode is more conventional but its layout is quite innovative. There are multiple layers, combat in z axis is key to win, and there's that little train dropping explosive barrels. As you can see in the video, enemies will kick your way out of the map and beware of silly missteps! Time will tell, I wasn't very convinced when I saw it at first, but I think this map will be among the favorite ones for lot of players.

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I should have been showing WIP's of these previously but I found I didn't have much confidence in the work and was unsure if I'd ever finish them. I'm glad I did mange to finish them, I owe R_Yell, the mod lead a big thank you for keeping me motivated to get these out, and for keeping the FoF mod alive after so many years. In total I added 177 new props and a bunch of new textures.

I also created the train you can ride around on

(Click)

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Many thanks, and DOWNLOAD THIS GREAT MOD

And please vote YES on Greenlight!

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Thank you for all the kind comments, they're really encouraging to read

And thanks to anyone who took the time to vote for it on Greenlight!

FMPONE, I would LOVE to see what these maps look like in CS:GO with the new lighting, when I saw Source SDK 2013 release I had a glimmer of hope we might have access to it.

A few new members have joined the team which is good, if anyone out there is interested in creating some wild west themed character models for Fistful Of Frags, please get in touch!

Hi Pampers, it was good to see you playing last night. Most waist high fences can be jumped over, there are several locations that I've had to clip such as near the waterfall, with full stamina they should be manageable but I'll go over, check and refine them again so they are easier to get over. The rocks can be a real pain in several locations, some annoying spots where you can get stuck, and others are tricky to get onto when you need to get out of the river. I've been cleaning them up today and so far they are much easier to navigate, hopefully in the next patch this won't be so much of a problem. A new trailer was released today which I put together myself, so its not anything blockbuster   

Horrible bump, but Fistful of Frags got Greenlit today

Thanks guys, there might be an update in the works but I'm not sure of how big, still looking for some character artists