Symetrical Levels

the way i see it. whats going to make or break it will be how the 2 sides connect to eachother. if its just some plainass open area like in tfc kiss it bye bye. as for ugly symmetry. i have noticed in UT they manage to pull it off pretty well. as for distinguishing the 2 sides im classic and color does it all for me.

A lot depends on the static meshes available to you. You could go for fire vs ice theme, the classic red vs blue, you know. Or an 'organic' vs 'tech' theme, though organic shapes sometimes are more trouble than they're worth. Maybe a 'chess' type theme, black and white marble with gold and silver trims... and so forth. i dunno what your basic ideas are, so it's hard to elaborate on them

Maybe it was just the way you described it, but to me, i see you making an awesome outdoor/base oriented tfc map, remember that just because the level is symetrical doesnt mean the bases have to look exactly the same

an idea for the warm vs cool, off the top of my head i thought of the opposite kind of of your idea, the red base could possibly the more chaotic base (fire, decayed buildings, etc) while the blue side could have the base thats more organic, and easy on the eyes

Good vs Evil ? One side is like a church and the other side is like a temple to satan. The church would have a 'neutral' feeling (most yellow and white lighting) whereas the satan side (warm feeling of course) could be lit with candles, bonfires, and other random crap (D3 could help u on this heh). The only problem is that the satan side would be darker if you go for a "vatican" look on the god part (extremely bright areas with gold everywhere) but with a bit of creativity that wouldnt be a problem at all.

Random ideas for both sides:

God: White marble walls with golden trims, golden details and huge paintings on the ceiling. Mosaics. Maybe some plants. you cold make a garden in the middle and on the evil part the same garden would be a lava pit or something like that.

Satan: Corpses all over the place. Bonfires, ruins, blood (a waterfall of blood would be pretty neat heh), lava. You could get some ideas from Quake3.

Thats a cool idea and I never seen any CTF map like that.

hl1 vs hl2

one side has low res textures and basic bsp architecture

and the other is all *tricked out* with good looking stuff

or i guess youre using unreal engine so unreal vs ut2004

ol wins. Someone do it >

If anybody knows Soul Reaver, that effect would be cool. You'd basically treat each side as another dimension and the border of the symetry as a "passageway" to the other realm. As the player crosses over the textures would change as wel as the props into their otherwordly form.

Well, I guess it will at least trick out the "crossing the border"

side a = futuristic

side b = mideval ?

Well, say you have some sort of power house... futuristic type. On one side have the machinery that is producing the electricity, be it pumps, flowing etc that give off a redish glow, well maybe the pumps and such dont have to give off the glow but you get the point. Then on the other side have power cupplings that give off a blueish glow to show that the power generator is working and such and for the links in between.. have wires running through it as if it were a connector... which it is

Same with a water-based facility (pumping station, etc) - one end could be pristine, centred perhaps around a control room type locale for the 'base', gradiating towards more rusty and grungy decor, dripping water, pools of stagnant liquid, until the opposing side's pumping equipment sewer hole base is reached.

obligatory flood traps, etc.

you could think about architectural decay. The side with dead grass and such could also have ruined columns, rubble, etc, like you would fine in Greek and Roman ruins. The alive side with the bright green grass and flowers could have fully constructed classical style architecture, flourishes on walls, ppots and vases, fountains, etc.

I would go for a combination of min0's and fletch's idea. Good vs Evil, or more like Life vs Death, with nice and decayed flowers, pretty glorious architecture, and on the other side ruins. You could also do a lot with lighting, bright and friendly on one side, dark and grey on the other. I wouldn't go for a lava hell doom3 satan gore style though.

final gameplay map ? so gameplay based instead of visual based ? If the focus is on gameplay you really need a symmetrical map and symm really means symm. Keeping the basic bsp lay out the same wont do then since even 1 single pillars thats different in the other base will be enough to get people complaining about unequal gameplay

Same goes for bright and dark light, easier to see opponents and only changing lighting colors will be really ugly specially if you are going to do it with red and blue teamcolors or so, worst thing you can ever possibly do

Symm isnt that ugly but anyway, the most neutral + quickest solution (making 2 themes costs twice as much memory and mesh creation work + new style and concept needed) would be to just change textures ?

And do stuff with areas you cant reach so they wont influence gameplay, those you can make different. Stuff outside windows, ceilings, stuff below a grate in the floor etc

ctf maps are symmetrical for a reason...

Or have one side with red parts on textures, and blue parts on the other side. That would kick ass.

How about the two sides being life and death? (Edit: just noticed it's been suggested, but mine's a little different.) One could be a flourishing, idyllic children's playground - the innocent beginning of life - compared to the other team's decaying, overcast graveyard.