de_pontifici BETA (CS:GO)

Hello everyone, I'm here with a new map called de_pontifici

I was adviced to bring my map here to get feedback on playtesting, especially since adding cover and decently putting props in is one of my weaker aspects. For other references to older work of mine, you can find this here. You'll instantly notice that making bombsites isn't particularly my talent and that's why I need the words of experienced users that are familiar with competitive gameplay.

I did prepare the timings it takes from getting to the bombsites on either teams and made sure that the bridge is currently the main advantageous way to go from Bombsite A to B or vice versa.

Workshop Link: TBA

[Blocked Image: http://files.gamebanana.com/img/ss/maps/550f59c9975ee.jpg]

[Blocked Image: http://files.gamebanana.com/img/ss/maps/550f5996dd237.jpg]

[Blocked Image: http://files.gamebanana.com/img/ss/maps/550f5998b6ef4.jpg]

And the basic layout for the moment:

[Blocked Image: http://i1293.photobucket.com/albums/b585/JorisCeoen/de_pontifici_layout_zpsq2rfbgwb.jpg]

Right now these are the following things I know that are left to do and should not be mentioned in terms of feedback:

• Graphical artifacts on some brushes
• Some visible nodraw faces, I know all of them, please do not mention
• Dev textures
• Missing props
• Non-reflective water
• No cubemaps
• No radar
• No sufficient detail
• No effort in lighting done yet
• No bumpmaps or shaders to fancy the map up
• No optimised navigation
• No optimisation at all

These are the things I seek feedback on:

• Gameplay flow
• Coverspots
• Bombsites
• Exploits and glitches
• Should the water be trespassable, or deep instead (deep = dying when falling into it)?
• Texture combinations
• What do you think are interesting types of props for a medieval theme like this one? You can mention a specific part of the map with a certain item in mind as well!

I should note that all of the crates and stuff currently implemented in the map are placeholders for where I thought cover needed to be. The final version will include custom made props that fit a medieval theme.

That's it for now, I hope that while people playtest the map, they'll have fun, and hopefully you can ignore the bombhiding spots as I haven't done anything at all right now to prevent this, so please do not intentionally hide the bomb in the many places where it can be done

Workshop link coming ASAP

Quote from onebit

Seeing as you're two people to finish this in 4 days I suggest one of you do the brushwork and the other does the props, which are easily transferable between files.

Well Shawn Olson is the programmer behind the program in which I designed the level, but didn't actually work on the level (brushwork and props) at all, so for finishing stuff up, it's a one-man job However I'm confident that I'll be able to do all of that in time (at least what is necessary to have). It's more that I'm willing to have the most optimal gameplay feeling possible at the time of the deadline.

Quote from Nestakyo

I shall name this the Pokéball layout!

Haha, why xD?

The current version has improved graphics, a radar, cubemaps and more detail. I'm still working on a new iteration that will feature soundscapes, alternative routes and limited acces to the river (only for accessing alternative routes).

Whenever that version is live, I will scedule a playtesting moment on the testserver and hopefully we'll be able to work from that moment on towards a final version for competitive/casual gameplay

The next version will feature:

• Improved navigation file
• Improved radar file
• Soundscapes
• Improved lighting
• Improved cubemaps
• Completely realised 3D Skybox
• Gameplay: Alternative route to B from CT spawn to balance out extra T entrance to B
• Gameplay: Alternative route for T to A via the water towards the 'A arches hall'
• Gameplay: Complete cover between long B when CT and T almost instantly meet when using snipers (my last attempt to this still failed...)
• Gameplay: CT water wheel house will be refurbished for extra cover and better lighting.
• Optimisation

Quote from TheGuma

I love the idea of pink in your map, but unless it's Japan full of sakura trees I don't think it fits well.

Haha, you should do Attack On Titan theme, that would be amazing. Imagine the skybox being huge walls around the map.

One more thing is that on the second picture the balcony to the right has no platforms to support it. How does it hold on cinder bricks? Add some wooden beams, they would also serve as detail.

Map lacks some trims as well.

Lastly, if you work with custom textures you might want to look into adding normal maps and $detail to them.

Go to Valve Developer Community to look these things up, it will make your map 10x better.

Display More

Hey thanks for your feedback! I am currently redoing the whole map with baking textures, normal maps, specular maps etc. I agree the red/pink slate textures aren't the best choice, that's why I'm redoing the whole scenery it's gonna take a while, but in the end it's going to look 100x times better.

That balcony doesn't make sense indeed. I kinda ended up on a dead end for that house and didn't have time anymore to correct it before the deadline (literally submitted until the last second).

The trims where planned as info_overlays, but again, I didn't have time. On a 31-day period there are things you can and can't do, and those fine details unfortunatly had to be left out

I know the SDK Docs out of my head In the past when I was still working with Hammer I looked it up everyday. It's just that currently I didn't really see the greatest benefit in adding bumpmaps with the size of the textures (in other words many other things were at that time more important). Shaders can be added by matter of minutes anyways. (badly generated ones yes, which I won't do now, but I could have done that)

The 3D Skybox is on its way. It will be visible through the doors of the bombsites (technically I had to cover them to hide the fact that there's none right now) as I will remove them once it's built. I will definitly make houses pop up above the lower city walls, but right now it's more important to refine the houses which now imo look too bland. (I kind of want to head towards an art style similar to FMPone, or at least to the Texture and Model artists FMPone hires).

Quote from tomm

that is a very odd place for a van.

Indeed, it's gone for the next version Like I said (or at least on GameBanana, ALL the giant crates are currently placeholders. It's still BETA so I have to use something for cover which in this case were those crates, the bombcrates and that van over there. The truck is ment to be there though (the longnose one) and normally the back of that gate is open, but I had to close it to hide the fact that right now there's no 3D Skybox.

But you're right, it's out of place there.

Quote from Pampers

the van also illustrates that the overall scale is wrong

Yea that's spot on. After having received that same opinion from multiple other people I have decided to retake the entire Bombsite B. The 2 main reasons that it currently looks like this is because of the house on the right (on that picture) and the giant door. I will keep the door although lower the height and size, and the house on the right was a creative block during the development phase so I will completely remove that one and see what I can replace it with.