de_oakwood

hello wanderer,

may I stop you just for a minute, to tell you the tales of the seemingly fantastic? An ancient map long forgotten about ...

It had been raised fantastically by the always well-meaning community of its little town, Mapcore. But Oakwood wasn't yet done with what it wanted to see, wanted to do, to become. And so it left one night in their sleep.

after the short storytime which I hope you all enjoyed: it's been too long ... but I'm back! And I am so glad to be! After more than an entire year of intense personal life problems, I have finally picked myself up again and gathered enough energy to pursue this ancient project of mine. Not to say there hasn't been any activity on my end regarding it though.

Some of you may have seen my post in the lands many thought only existed in legends, the place noone has ever seen, except for those courageous enough to walk off the road and step into the mapping swamp's *flat* waters. Yes, I am talking about the

...

2D Forums

But here it is, in case you missed it:

much of what I presented there has already changed again, but it can give you a rough idea of where I want to take this project.

One of the overhauled areas is A with its Long entrance, always a favorite place of mine. So without further ado: here is a little peek at the overhauled A site and surrounding area.

I hope you enjoy! Definitely let me know what you think, I am super eager for feedback on the new visuals!

Cheers and hope you have a great rest of the night!

Quentin

Quote from mryeah

5 hours ago, mryeah said:

Not sure what kind of feedback on the visuals you expect for a greybox, but for some reason I expect the left curved wall and/or the ceiling to be made of glass to let the natural light flood in that area? I liked the theme you had going on the previous screenshots and I'm glad to see you pick this project up again, looking forward to the release!

hey, thanks a ton for the compliment on previous screenshots!

Concerning the visual feedback, after I read your comment I realised that "visuals" is not what I wanted the feedback on. As you said yourself I feel like the previous' iteration's visuals worked quite well for my theme. What didn't work well for me was creating believable architecture that still functioned well as a CSGO map. That is the problem I am trying to tackle with this new version of de_oakwood.

In that light, I think it's best, if I rephrase my question for "feedback on the new architecture." Thanks for pointing out this error!

Regarding the glass walls, it may be tough making the walls glass, since this part of the map will be inside a hillside, but the roof can definitely get a few slits here an there !

Also I made a little bit of progress:

There is a little bit more, but that doesn't feel presentable yet. Right now I am looking to fix superlong sightlines in CT Spawn and create a fun to play B bombsite.

Cheers!

Necroposting coming in. After all the revivals I have attempted on this topic ... I guess this is the Frankenstein's monster of threads

Anyways, once again I have redone almost all of the map. I took it all back to a greybox stage complete with redesigning the layout. After ridiculous amounts of time spent alone in my room, and drawing insipiration from all the traveling I am fortunate to get to do, I am now finally content to put v_36 out for a playtest! I hope all the best of this initial greybox comes across in the screenshots.

The playtest will be taking place this Sunday and I appreciate all participation

Cheers people, see you then.

Workshop link: https://steamcommunity.com/workshop/filed…/?id=1693753275

The playtest will take place on Sunday and I appreciate all participation :).

Cheers people, see you then.

Quote from Interfearance

7 hours ago, Interfearance said: Sexy displacement work. However, piles of brown leaves next to green trees can ruin the outdoor immersion and confuse the player thematically.

Hey, thanks on the compliment! And not to worry, no trees or leaves on the new map for now, but their colors will be more along these lines in the finished map:

Unfortunately I just have zero experience with 3D modeling or custom textures so I wasn't able to reskin the Valve trees. Just another thing I will have to learn for this project .

Unfortunately I just have zero experience with 3D Modeling or selfmade textures, so I wasn't able to reskin the Valve trees. Just another thing I will have to learn for this project

Hello people,

today is the day of the playtest! Whoever wants to experience what another year of redevelopment turned into shall gladly join me at 8 pm CEST on the MapCore Playtesting-server at the IP: 185.62.204.12:27035

I look forward to seeing all of you there, before we can collectively huddle back up with our loved ones and eagerly await the final episode of Game of Thrones!

A big thank you to everyone who participated in the playtest!

I have begun looking into all of the great feedback you left for me and will work out the new layout changes as soon as possible. For now I am happy most of you seem to have enjoyed the map, and am looking forward to further updates and playtests in this thread, whenever I next find the time to do them :).

And @Logic thanks for the picture! I will address all of those issues in the next update.

Still not dead. A new version is pending workshop verification, I will add the link once it's done on the workshop right now! Let's get to the screenshots and I will explain what changed:

Workshop link! https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/fi…/?id=1693753275

PLEASE NOTE: This is all very clearly a WIP! My main purpose right now is to get a layout down (after about 4 years now ^^).

First up: The radar

I know this looks very complex. But if you think about it, it is actually just a clover layout with two major additions. A) The skywalk connecting the two bombsites creates an incredibly potent, direct rotate option where normally there is none. This exists, because defenders on this map are already very spread out, and the more complex geometry of the main paths is a big obstacle to clear for efficient rotations. Skywalk alleviates a lot of this pressure for perfection from defending CTs and makes the gameplay a bit faster pace, which I also enjoy. B) The lower middle area on T-side. This plays to a similar point as skywalk, where the level geometry is very unforgiving for being on the wrong side of the map. Additionally, the lower mid area is essentially supposed to make movement feel more fluid and free across the level.

The bombsites:

I widened A (as per Logic and others' feedback) and thought about how to make the door in Long A integrate better into the site, making it a more comfortable approach for the Ts. The solution is what you see above. The door is now nested in what is an appendix to the circular site itself, with a better initial angle for dueling the defending CT, as well as a small area shielded from view behind the curve of the wall (which is however openly visible to the main defense spots inside the site). In the playtest a lot of you also commented on how contrived and bad the entire A Main structure and approach felt, so I changed it. Above you can see the main defense angle for an early warning on an A-Main push. This is also clearly visible when rifling. As seen in the last picture, I also changed around the position and size of the semicircle desk and removed other clutter from the site.

In B I opened up the space above the B Main entrance to site, using this opportunity to further expand the balcony running along the backwall. Over B Main it meets up with the new additional, elevated entrance into the site. Ts can reach this position by jumping on the boxes visible in the bottom left corner in the first picture, three jumps required. Further I added the server defense position visible in the back of both pictures, specifically with afterplant scenarios in mind, but if you are feeling yourself as a CT you can use it to risk a peek into Long B (timings are really tight and you're exposed on the exit). Actually forgot to take pictures of lower B tunnels area (might add later), that changed a little bit as well. but in general I moved the CT-side lower entrance from under skywalk to the end of the tunnel (under heaven). This again makes the angles much more pleasant for both sides, enabling cleaner sweeps both for takes and retakes (so from both sides, north and south). Also there is now a cool dueling line from heaven into the area where Ts enter B Main. T-side smokes can fairly effectively eliminate angles of defense, forcing CTs to play smart or adjust their position.

Thirdly, the connectors:

1): A Main connector into T topmid. Kind of uninspired (also the shape is much too square for A side, but better than everything else I could come up with). Hoping to make this one a tube, if it keeps its current layout. 2): Lower mid ladder into T-controlled B side. As said before really helps rotations, also a high risk high reward push for CTs who bu*rush mid. Geometry down here feels too complex, but not sure, so I want to test it with you guys ^^. But I already have a plan for simplification in mind, in case we need it. Might actually solve the issues I have with the feeling and sightlines of lowermid, so anything is possible. 3) and 4): the new connector into A Short from mid. As also visible in pic 4) I closed the left side of the ring-around-the-pillar, instead placing a spiral stairway inside a cylinder there. This change allows Ts to direct their focus toward the window and solitary floor-level defense position, instead of the overwhelming three spots they had to keep tabs on before. It also streamlines the mid for defending CTs, who can push and reclaim mid with much less fear of being shot in the back of the head now than before. It also involves the player playing skywalk in a more direct manner by providing another angle, if he gets smoked out or forced back. Lastly in this constellation there is a direct nade line (however not sightline!) for kobes, smokes or popflashes thrown by the A player into mid, or for Ts to gain control of A Short with a smoke from a pushed up position in mid.

Rest:

CT Spawn

Just because I think it's pretty (There is also a few more out of date but nice pictures in the general WIP thread, if you want to see more.)

Visual and optimization notes: I use a 3d skybox, but the entire surrounding is a mockup. Probably the mountains would be lower to let in more light and allow a better view of the skybox colors. Also keep in mind that I didn't figure out any of the visuals yet (I have different ideas, but didn't decide). So you are more than welcome to comment on what you might like or dislike about current visuals on the map! Outside I will still be going for an Indian Summer look.

Hope you all enjoyed! Please check the level out in game (once the workshop is up), there is a bunch I didn't cover here.

Update: I want to register this map for a playtest at the end of this month, but before I do that I wanted to draw on all of your guys' collective wisdom in picture form. Three questions I want asking are:

1. What do you think about the new T-side lowermid and the paths to which it is connected?

2. Should the doorway from B CT-side heaven to skywalk be closed up?

3. Is A a good size? This is important because it informs the design of A Main, A Long and the mid-to-A stair chokepoint. (for this one you will probably have to hop in-game at: https://steamcommunity.com/workshop/filed…/?id=1693753275, there is unfortunately no way to really substitute that with pictures, but there are some included down here).

These are hopefully easy to answer questions with a big knock-on effect for how the map will feel and play in a playtest. I hope to iron these uncertainties out now, so that when the time comes we can make the most of the playtest. And finally - pictures:

Lowermid:

(And the connecting area between A Main, T mid and the outside path of Long A:)

A Site:

Since the last post, I've done some 1on1 testing and am glad to say, that I am confident to apply for a playtest! Hopefully happening on the 26th, will keep you informed. In the meantime enjoy some small updates to B site.

Heya people,

The playtest is happening tonight! And because none of you have spent as much time on this map as I have, I thought I'd put together a little something here to help you out.

The playtest is 9pm UK time (That's 8pm UTC and 10pm Central European summertime). I'm looking forward to everyone being there!

Hello people!

First off, I want to thank everybody for participating in the playtest on Sunday. From all the great feedback I received, I have picked out the following as the key takeaways:

Required changes:

• Reduce the number of corners that need to be checked.
• Reduce the number of paths ("SIMPLIFY!") and clean up some pathing directions / flow.(looking at you, B area and A underpass)
• give a first art pass to help with player navigation and sound differentiation
• Give Ts more defensive setup areas to stop CT aggression

The positives:

• Individually most areas seem to work, besides some corners that are too much. It was the many connectors that really created confusion. ("I've seen flanks getting flanked!")
• The rotations between sites were adequately fast and smooth
• "This feels like a map"

My proposed changes:

• Two options. One revolves around deleting the T to lower mid connection (that's what's depicted here). The other would be about deleting underpass. (My main worry about that second one, is that taking lowermid would give CTs absolute map control. That's obviously not great and why I think the first is probably preferrable.)

Along with these change ideas, there is three final questions I would love to discuss with you:

• How did you feel about engagements in A Main ?
• Did grenades feel useful on T-side? Was there enough setup areas?
• How did it feel to play in the middle spiral stairway area? Was it too connected?

Thanks everybody, I'm looking forward to hearing from you!

Ok people, I've been working a bit on this again lately, and I finally got around to making a proper canvas of reference images. Here it is!

This goes along with my attempt at nailing down the first art pass. I've also finished a large amount of mostly small layout changes - the bigger ones I implemented are roughly the ones shown in the post above (finished those as well). So hopefully I will soon have some finished first pass pictures to show you, stay tuned for that.

The post has only the best pics, find the rest on imgur: https://imgur.com/gallery/CQKlVkK

Ok people, I haven't finished A side, outsides or middle yet, but I'll be unable to work on this for the next two weeks and wanted to deliver some on my promise before then. So here is a look at the map's new and (hopefully) improved B side. As always, everything is fast compile and temp textures, because full compiles LITERALLY KILL MY LAPTOP in this heat.

Credit for the glass textures to Skybex and Yanzl from cs_cruise and Puddy and Yanzl from de_breach! Thank you for being able to use these now, long-term plan is 100% custom content.

These shots are only meant to summarize the general style of the B area, you can find more detail and some descriptions I whipped up for the rest of the pics on imgur! https://imgur.com/gallery/CQKlVkK

Cheers, see you all soon

Ok people, there has been a development, but not of the in-game type.

Despite all the corona-caused financial troubles, I have just clinched a full-time job. This means I am more unsure than ever how much time I will be able to spend on Oakwood as well as when. I will probably keep spending some of my evenings with it, but there is a lot to prepare and then a lot to adapt to, so it might take a while. I'm certain this isn't goodbye, but certainly not the devlog I had been hoping to put out today. On the other hand, though ... - HEY, I'VE GOT A JOB, HECK YES! -

So I will see you people tomorrow, or next week or month or whenever