[CS:GO] cs_nzuri

Been a while since I've worked on a personal project and decided to go with a CS:GO map. Its the complete opposite of what I've been doing at work and figured it would be refreshing change of pace (so far it has!). It is also my first source map that isn't a test gym, so I've got a lot to learn as the map progresses.

Location: Hotel/Casino located in a Las Vegas-ish area. Main inspiration is the Aria and will be going with a modern look to the architcture and furnishings.

Backstory: Terrorists attempted to pull off a hiest at a casino, but failed and took hostages when the police arrived on the scene.

Current Status: Finished the inital block out stage and will be refining the spaces.

Additional Notes:

- It takes each team about 12-14 seconds to reach the right and left choke points (favoring the terrorists by 1-2 seconds)

- Center choke point is a one way drop from a vent which takes CT's roughly 30 seconds from spawn to falling into the office area.

- Arrows denote stairs on the overview shot

- All of the glass is breakable and the doors are usable adding more mayhem in the office area

- "Nzuri" is swahili for "beautiful"

- Ceilings will be added in the near future

Just learned how to get the map on the workshop:

cs_nzuri Steam Workshop Page

I'll definitely schedule a playtest when the map is in a less exploitable state.

Update for the week: Been experimenting with the look and feel of the office area. Just brush work and adding custom materials at the moment while planning out custom prop needs. The break room has the biggest changes layout wise, but it hasn't affected the timings of choke points. Office and security room haven't been touched yet.

I made a pass at the atrium, but dislike it and will not be showing it until a better version is made.

TheGuma - I checked out de_nightfever_beta on the workshop and feel it's quite a bit different from what I'm aiming to achieve with this map.

Update for the week: Fleshed out the office, security room, and hotel atrium to get a better look/feel for these areas. No significant layout changes to these rooms, but I've been optimizing the brushes and changed some elements to instances to make it easier to work with the map as it grows in complexity.

The Workshop Page has been updated with a new version of the map.

Gooby - Its based off some reference I found, but I made the lines a bit too thin after scaling down the texture. It will be adjusted or replaced on the next pass of that area

Updates:

The Restaurant/Bar has its first pass complete although it’s a bit too brown for my taste at the moment.

The casino is in progress and has some significant changes to make combat more interesting. The high limits area is now a diamond shape while the stairs on the CT side have been given a similar treatment to create a more memorable chokepoint. This also fixed a sightline from the CT side that could see the T entrance which will (hopefully) encourage more combat within the casino. Materials for this area are incomplete!

I’m starting to toy around with ideas for the CT spawn area while figuring out the next steps for the main lobby and supporting hallways.

Additional Notes:

I've been moved to a new project at work which has pushed all dev time for the map to home (which will be slower). I'll just have to make more bite sized goals!

kinggambit - The rescue zones will be outside in the porte-conchere area. The exact placement and size is yet to be finalized due to the area being incomplete.

Updates:

Reworked the port-conchere area completely adding in a fountain, awning, more pronouced entrance, etc. Paired with the hotel towers that will be placed in the skybox it should make for an impressive first impression for spawning CTs.

Gutted and rebuilt the lobby within the same footprint. Pushed back and reduced the number of pillars to open up the space. The front desk will get some more love when I texture the area.

Next Steps:

Working on the hallways flanking the lobby and then completing the initial texture pass for the map brushes.

Additional Notes:

The port-conchere awning will become a static mesh due to brush precision not being high enough for the shape I want. It ends up looking cracked on the curved sections even after snapping all the verts

Edit:

Updated the steam workshop with the latest version of the map!

Been a little while since I posted an update, but there has been some progress made on the map!

Update:

After wondering why my envcubemaps weren't working a figured out my shader setttings in game were set too low. After fixing the video settings I quickly learned everything was a mirror and corrected the spec masks on almost all of the textures. That was some really shiny wood.

Been learning the Wall Worm tools to get custom 3D models into the game from Max. I've got a decent workflow going with it now

After finish a pass on 95% of the brushes throughout the level I've shifted my focus to completing the lobby. This is an effort to make a vertical slice of the quality I want to bring the level up to. It has also proven to be very valuable to learn many aspects of the source engine! Still needs a bit of work at the moment.

Note:

The workshop item has not been updated at this time. Having some touble with VIDE tonight.

Update:

I’ve continued to make progress on the lobby vertical slice at a decent pace over the last week. The list of textures and objects I want to put in it is getting shorter (and they will be used in other parts of the level as well). Starting to get that grandiose feel I want to achieve when the player comes through the front doors.

Picked up substance designer and I’ve started to make materials in it for the map. I’ve made a new drywall, metals, and a metal trim piece in it with more on the way. The thought is that if CS:GO is ported to Source 2 I’ll be able to boost the resolution of all textures made in substance quickly

(Plus its a lot of fun to use!)