[CS:GO] de_scepter (WIP)

Mapcore,

It's high time I present myself and the map I've been working intensely on for the past three months: de_scepter.

The name:

Scepter (/'sep-ter/) refers to the symbolic ornamental staff or wand held by a ruling monarch. My reasoning behind using the US spelling of the word instead of 'Sceptre', is that I believe it's less prone to mispronounciation among us non-native english speakers.. In case anyone from the UK was wondering ;-).

Setting and plot:

The map itself is set in a fictional palace somewhere in Germany. Once a seat of power in central Europe, now a popular attraction and world heritage site. The architecture is influenced by neo gothicism.

The Phoenix has set out to fund their operations by stealing the crown jewels that are up on display in the castle treasury. They succeed in doing so, though choose to leave some men behind for one final explosive message. Counter-Terrorists arrive just before this happens.

I aim to tie this into Scepter 2 and possibly 3 as an overaching story, inspired by the campaign format of Left 4 Dead.

Miscellaneous map[/b] information:

Scepter features my own custom textures and models, made specically for this map.

Playable area is roughly 3500 x 3600 hammer units (small, comparable in size to Dust 2)

Links:

Workshop (not updated)

Changelog:

(NEW) Screenshots from Version 1.0 (not yet released):

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(OLD - for reference sake) Screenshots from BETA 1.0: Imgur album

Thank you in advance for taking the time checking out my map.

Quote from UnknownPredator

I really love the art style, and the layout seems very solid and interesting. Please keep us posted on this, very promising

Thank you, I certainly will. I played CS from 1999-2007, the latter half of which on a highly competitive level in the swedish scene, so layout alongside with catering to many different playstyles is my main concern. I always did prefer the fast, aim heavy maps such as D2, Strike (Mirage) and Mill however, so that certainly influence my decision making when level designing for CS:GO.

Quote from poLemin

The map looks really cool! In my opinion you should also use some variation in texture and/or architecture. If everything looks the same the player gets easily confused. But I must say, it looks really promising so far!

Thanks! Texture variation along with unique landmarks are definitely coming.

Quote from MaanMan

While the map visual looks very nice, there are some very strange in mid and B. I would playtest and look at changing some of these angles before working on the map anymore.

Which angles are you referring to? I could probably explain my thought process.

Quote from MaanMan

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B is awkward because you have to turn right to act against this sight line but in doing that you leave yourself exposed to another strange angle.

In regards to B:

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The first player to step close to the entrace to B can scan every angle on the right side (as illustrated from your red line on the radar) without exposing himself to any CT hiding behind a corner on the left side. This is done thanks to the small area in the top right corner of the radar. The only exception to this being if the CT is standing very, very close right around the corner on either side. A likely situation on ecos. Internal tests have shown that it's quite safe to enter the site without using nades. Though I would certainly recommend utilizing the three windows above the two entrances, as some nice flashes and smokes can be thrown (it's also possible to smoke the site safely from mid) or throwing a molotov in the bottom right corner of the screenshot below.

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In regards to A:

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The average time it takes for the first T to enter mid, I mean really be at the green dot you painted, is 8 seconds. It takes a best-possible-spawn CT 13 seconds to run through A site, jump up on the balcony and look out through the window into the quad-like area on the left side of mid. Running the same path and spawn, but instead going down the stairs after jumping up on the balcony to look out the main gate of mid takes 14/15 seconds. This means that T's rushing mid fast only need to worry about the direction of CT spawn for a good 5 seconds. A flanking CT jumping up on the balcony can be a pretty risky move since T very well could already be aiming there (either from "quad" or from the safety of T side mid), or be three man boost peaking over one of the mid walls. Both teams need to secure mid, so the way I would play it as T would be to move fast towards mid, smoke and flash towards CT spawn so that we can take control over "quad" and the balcony area. I suppose pretty much the way a lot of people play mid on mirage, smoking off connector/balcony before setting up anti-flanking positions.

Thanks for the feedback. It's unfortunate that I didn't make it in time for the Reddit 5v5 playtests as all the spots have been taken. It would be interesting to see how people playing the map for the first time fare.

Quote from ashton93

One of the few maps lately that I've even bothered testing out, something about the layout and the clean visuals is really interesting. Would love to playtest this in a 5v5 sometime

Glad you like it thus far! I've got a cool update coming in version 0.6 that I hope to push out before the 10v10 playtest on sunday. Unfortunately there's no 5v5 playtests currently planned since I was too late for the Reddit queue. I don't have many connections left in the scene, but I'll try to pull any remaining strings I've got. I'd try to organize one myself if it wasn't for me taking care of my one year old daughter while my wife is abroad on business.

Quote from DooM

This map is really interesting, I ran around it for about an hour the other day, I think I agree with maanman to an extent that some of the angles feel awkward but I really want to play it before I can make any solid judgement. The whole 45 degree angle stuff reminds me of a little bit of contra in places.

One angle that I really don't like is this one from the A pit connector thingy to A main, because it's a head-peek and also if someone is playing there with an AWP it's going to be really hard to kill him, I think it's something akin to the head peek on dust 2 from A site to short but the difference with dust 2 is that you can smoke the bombsite from short, removing the angle but also not giving up map control, whereas with this bombsite I have to rotate out of A main quite far back to even think about throwing a smoke onto the bombsite. I suppose you could compare it to cache, but the head peek at truck is easily smoke-able from the inside of A main without exposing yourself to any angles. I think exposing more of the Ct here wouldn't be a bad thing.

Here's the angle in question:

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Thanks for the input! Well spotted on that head peek, in the build I'm currently working on I'm experimenting with some natural cover for that ledge, such as a short ornate wall, party due to the reason you mentioned, but also so that a CT could actually stand there and hold the underpass-looking connector without being exposed to the "chapel" you're standing in on the screenshot, so it goes both ways.

Mid certainly is slightly different than the current active duty pool, with CT's being able to flank from the balcony, albeit after T has already entered mid. They can't safely flank from the "chapel", since the T's will be able to set up an angle there first, especially with the boost/jump window above the closed chapel door on T side. Flanking from the chapel would be like flanking from upper dark on D2, random and highly risky.

Just to add a bit to the mid theory crafting: my guess is that should balcony pushes become popular with CT's, the T meta would adapt by either pre-aiming the window opposite of balcony from the safety of mid, or pre-emptively mollying the balcony before stepping out into mid. If the molly hits balcony as the CT is jumping up on the boxes and portruding brick, he would take a lot of damage. An alternate way of handling it could be to make the balcony require a two man boost, meaning some early control of chapel will be turned over to the T's. The best possible spawn CT will get about 1 second head start on the aim duel down the chapel corridor, which is not always something you want to give up. Time will tell!

Version 0.6 is coming along nicely with new models and textures, as well as some minor gameplay improvements. Unfortunately I won't be able to push this to the workshop in time for the playtest tonight.

Changes to windows:

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The textures for these new models are not finished as I intend for them to be more ornate. The meshes are very low poly, though this might be reviewed post release depending on the frame budget at that point in time. Speaking of which, in the current build my FPS is running comfortably at 400, peaking at 500 in certain indoor areas. I'm running CS:GO @ 1080p with high settings on an i7 3770K with GTX 680 and 16 DDR3. This is before HINT brushes so things are looking fine.

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Non 45 or 90 degree geometry:

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A few changes being made to brushes in certain places to make the architecture seem more realistic (see reference below) and natural. This is the alley outside of the chapel, which is all 90 degrees in v0.5. An arch and door (only ornamental, no change in gameplay) is going to be added to the right wall to make the trip down there seem realistic.

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Floor plan for chateau de blois:

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Next up is working on arches and door openings, as well as giving T spawn a lift.

Quote from laminutederire

I think that you should stick to references from only one reduced region, and one short period of time, otherwise it won't be recognizable and make a weird mix

Popular architectoral design was never bound to one nation. Work from successful architects would often be comissioned by royalty from all over Europe, many buildings in Stockholm were for instance designed by french architects in mixed styles. Neuschwanstein (Romanesque Revival) was started in 1869, but is today not finished. Palaces would sometimes take ages to construct and lead architect would change. Hampton Court Palace in England is another good example, where construction begun in 1515 and ended in 1694, which resulted in two different architectoral styles: Tudor and Baroque. My many references from France and Germany could be from either country, the average person can't tell.

As a side note, would anyone guess that de_cbble is set in France?