[CS:GO] Exodium (hostage rescue)

After creating several AIM and FY maps, I decided to start working on a hostage rescue map. After about a month of work, I'm proud to present Exodium:

Download (version 0.33):

• Steam Workshop
• Gamebanana

This map is my attempt to re-balance hostage rescue mode so that it wouldn't be so T-sided. To do this, I did two things. First, I placed the hostages into two separate locations, similar to how bombsites are located on defuse maps. Thus, unlike a map such as Assault or Office, terrorists will now have to split up to effectively guard the hostages.

Secondly, I made the map dynamic. Instead of returning to CT spawn when a hostage is picked up, the CTs instead go to a new area that becomes accessible to rescue the hostage (see blue area in layout). More specifically, there are three doors to the hostage rescue zone that are closed at the start of each round (marked in red). The two doors near the chambers will open when the CTs pick up the hostages, while the door at terrorist spawn will open after a 10 second delay, to discourage terrorists from camping at T-spawn.

When a CT picks up a hostage, the round becomes a footrace to the rescue zone. Because the player carrying a hostage moves at only 200 units/second (as opposed for 250 units/seconds for knife players), the terrorists still have a chance to cut off the CTs before they reach the rescue zone. However, I also placed three separate rescue zones in three separate lots/warehouses, thus terrorists will have to choose which rescue zones to guard when they reach the back area. If they camp the wrong rescue zone, then the CT might easily slip past them undetected. Thus, CTs have a massive advantage when they reach a hostage, which I think it's fair given that reaching the hostage in my opinion should be the equivalent to planting a bomb in defuse mode.

I got this idea of a dynamic hostage rescue map from @El_Exodus, who first proposed this back in 2016. This is also why the map is named, well, Exodium.

And now, more screenshots:

While all the brushes are textured, cs_exodium is still in the early stages. Would really love to hear feedback regarding my tweaks to the hostage rescue mode, as well as the map in general.

Based on feedback I received so far, I've made a few changes to the map.

First, I simplified the hallways between the hostage chambers and the central rescue zone. The original path to the center warehouse required players to make a U-Turns, which tends to ruin player flow. This update removes the U-Turns and replaces them straight paths. Here's a GIF showing off the change in layout:

Secondly, a lot of people commented on how hostage rescue mode's economy needed to be fixed. In turn, using Vscripts, I created a custom economy that is more in-line with defuse mode's economy. Here are the rewards in this new economy:

• CT player reward for picking up hostage: $300 (same as default)
• CT team reward for picking up hostage: $800 (originally $600)
• CT team reward for eliminating Ts: $3250 (originally $3000)
• CT team reward for each hostage rescued: $0 (originally $600)
• CT team reward for winning by hostage rescue: $2700 (originally $2900)
• T team reward for eliminating CTs: $3250 (originally $3000)
• T team reward for winning by running out the time: $3250 (same as default)

All other cash rewards remain the same (loss rewards are the same in both defuse and hostage rescue). I also decided to keep the $1000 reward given to the individual players that rescue hostages, to offset potential penalties for injuring hostages. This custom economy only works in the custom game mode.

After a playtest, I've decided to make more changes to cs_exodium.

First, I modified the shed between Warehouse A and B to make it easier for remaining Ts to stop CTs going through Warehouse A. In version 0.11, CTs going from Chamber A can reach Warehouse A before Ts can, even when carrying a hostage (assuming remaining Ts were guarding Chamber B beforehand). This makes it incredibly easy for CTs to simply slip into the rescue zone A without encountering any terrorists.

For version 0.2, I decided to allow Ts a line of site from Warehouse B into Warehouse A. You can see what I'm talking about in the GIF below (terrorists running from Chamber B will arrive at the spot where these screenshots were taken seconds before a CT carrying a hostage will arrive at Warehouse A):

Another thing I did was to further discourage terrorists from camping a T-spawn. It did this two ways. First, I added obstacles in the tunnels between T-spawn and the Warehouse, forcing terrorists to sometimes crawl. These obstacles increase the travel time through the tunnels from 3 seconds to 5 seconds.

Secondly, I added a pit-like area in front of the doors to the tunnels. Thus, any Ts that try camping at the tunnel doors will be extremely vulnerable to any incendiary grenade CTs chuck over the crates and plant exhibit.

I recently completed a playtest of this map (h/t MapINK). Here are some highlights/lowlights from that playtest:

• As I suspected, the map was heavily CT-sided. Once a CT picked up a hostage, it was almost always a guaranteed win for the CTs. Overall, CTs won 20 out of 26 rounds.
• Relatedly, many players got frustrated by the fact that they could not rotate around the hostage rescue zones, which were located in three disconnected areas. I had intended for players to rotate around the warehouses in front of the rescue zones, but I guess the rotations between the warehouses just didn't play well
• Players also hated the fact that the door at T-Spawn had the 10 second delay. Given that defending the hostage rescue zone was hard enough, adding the 10 second delay was just another unnecessary (and confusing) obstacle.
• With regards to aesthetics, players disliked the hallways between the hostage chambers and the warehouses. They preferred that those paths be outdoors.
• On the plus side, players really enjoyed the vents in Chamber B.

Another major issue I noticed from this map, but was not mentioned during the playtest, was that the paths leading to the warehouses connected not to the hostage chambers themselves, but instead to the hallways behind the chambers. This led to some terrorists camping in said hallways instead of in the chambers, something I definitely did not want to happen. Directly connecting the chambers to the warehouses will hopefully encourage the chamber camping.

I'm currently overhauling the map based on this feedback. Hopefully I can release version 0.3 soon.

I made major changes in cs_exodium in update following the 0.21 playtest:

• In addition to removing the 10 second delay to the T-spawn door, I also added a short delay to the corresponding chamber door when a hostage is picked up (5 seconds in Chamber A, 4 seconds in Chamber B). For example, if a CT picks up a hostage in Chamber A, the door in Chamber A will open 5 seconds later, while the doors at T-spawn and Chamber B will immediately open. If CTs somehow manage to pick up both hostages at the same time, then there will be no such delays.
• I overhauled paths between the chambers and warehouses so that they are now outdoor walkways instead of hallways
• Given that CTs had a major advantage attacking Chamber A, I decided to remove access to the offices above Chamber A, leaving only two CT entrances into A. CTs still have 3 entrances into Chamber B
• To declutter Warehouse B, I removed the Exodium-branded trailer. Don't worry, you can see still see it in the junkyard near the Chamber A to Warehouse A/B path.
• Players can now rotate around the hostage rescue zone. A bunch of crates were added to prevent a single player from guarding all three exits at once.
• Warehouse-Chamber paths are now directly to the back of the hostage chambers, so to encourage the terrorists to defend inside the chambers, instead of the hallways behind the chambers
• Finally, I added a some detailing, such as barb wires and gravel patios

And now, on to the GIFs. First up, hostage chambers:

Gravel patio in front of Chamber B:

And in front of T-Spawn:

Chamber to warehouse paths:

Decluttering Warehouse B:

The hostage rescue zone:

And finally, the map overview:

For versions 0.31 and 0.32, I decided to overhaul the appearance of Chamber A and the mid-to-A connector to give them an even more of Asian/Japanese look. Here are some GIFs of the changes:

As you can see from the GIFs, I installed a couple of engawas in the chamber, added some furniture in the connector and changed some of the lighting. Some of the assets added in this update were taken from Jingshen. While I think the chamber looks better in this update, I also feel that the engawas might have made Chamber A a bit more cluttered. Would like to hear what other players think about the new layout.

For this update, I overhauled the layout around Chamber B to make it less CT sided. Here are some GIFs:

[Blocked Image: https://i.imgur.com/AcCX4Eq.gif]

[Blocked Image: https://i.imgur.com/g3AFRy4.gif]

[Blocked Image: https://i.imgur.com/HRkGfX4.gif]

And here's how these changes look on radar:

[Blocked Image: https://i.imgur.com/MtlaOlY.gif]

To summarize, I removed access through the bottom entrance, replacing them with closed doors, and widened the existing side entrance into Chamber B. While you can't enter Chamber B through the bottom entrance anymore, you can still wall-bang through those doors. I also modified the main B path to remove direct access to the vents and connect mid closer to the chamber. In turn, this update should make it quicker to reach the vents going through mid.