de_Kendo

Hey all, starting this a little later than I would have liked, but I'm working on de_Kendo, I've tried a few different layouts so far and haven't been too happy with them. I'm wanting to build a Japanese estate of some kind. Hopefully building in interesting movement options later on, but will have to see honestly! Very blank canvas at the moment. No workshop page just yet, but I'm building up one of my bombsites at the moment getting a feel for the scale and angles I want to play around with. Posting at the top of this page, https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/fi…/?id=3243015889 Still super early on, but on the workshop now for my own testing.

Building on the vertical elements, squashing, stretching and adding extra smaller details to help build up the feeling of the central area. Still not sure if this'll be my middle or a bombsite, but I'm using it as a bombsite right now to help test timings and angles.

Altering CT and alternate door positions to allow CTs onto the site faster, without adjusting T timings to main. Adding extra cubby spot spammable from T alternate. Swapping CT door has moved statue to the side into what now feels like dead space, but can be used to spam the planter if smoked off. made the room longer to stop Ts reaching the plant spot as quickly Adjusted CT spawn door to be closer allowing them access to the site faster without changing T timings, hopefully smooths out the approach to allow them to smoke main easier also. Cubby on the left allows CTs smoked off from site to spam through the paper walls. A wall further back, later maybe an alternative route, but right now a nicer left > right angle to should peak from. CT cover on the right side of site, allows them position to hold on the site itself not exposed to T alternative entrance, but can be spammed. Grenades can be exchanged through the window gaps. Adjusted T alternative cover behind squeaky to allow CTs to hold deeper and to cut down harsh angles to site

For this version, I've moved where my T spawn comes from. V1 looked like this, Ts would approach from my thumbnail angle, and would need to cross over or smoke the gap themselves to make it to the squeaky side route. It wasn't very good for T side, and if they did cross the side route was really tricky and crampt to push. In this new version, I've made the alternate route my new main, and have Ts push squeaky similar to nuke A site door. Where opening it plays a sound cue for players on site, but aren't immediately in danger. There is now also an outside route where CTs can hold wider awp lanes, they are also able to support the site from an alternative angle. Building up areas to pull CTs and Ts away from the site getting ready to figure out where my next site will be placed. Looks similar, but now T side entrance on the left side has the same width as the CT side to make smoking it easier. CT spawn is no longer angled to help with level flow, was easy to miss the corner to the main bombsite on CT side when the door pointed you more towards the heaven route previously CT box added for cheeky further back angle into main Heaven route added to CT connecting to outside CT Heaven + wrap doorway. Heaven can be self boosted into if outside is taken Squeaky route pushed out with wider doorframe to reduce tight angles from the previous thinner doorway Added sliding doorway to outside connector, building up visual language to the player than any section with this instance attached can be spammed, barring exceptions like the main doorways with a clear central divide between pieces I think its important that if a surface can be spammed, the map tells you it can be. Example being on this wall, the one section where the spam wouldn't work has a prop of a different type placed in front of it. Shrunk plant zone and pushed it closer to top site to try and build better plant positions. I need to add markup to make the plant zone clearer than it was before.

Had a fun 2v2 on what's currently there. Was nice playing the angles against real players. Got some valuable feedback from this. Just some clips from our game, helped me remember I need to add markings to the bombsite and should really setup a radar asap really.

Spent some time today making changes, and learning / setting up my radar. Biggest change I made to the level, is I flipped the entire thing. one of the points of feedback I got was that I had too many left to right peeks where your characters arm is visible before you can see who your fighting, in the above video theres a section where my teammate attempts a flank, and gets double headshot before they can see the enemy on their screen. By flipping the level and having most engagements lean into the players viewmodel, it should really improve the feeling of taking these fights. I widened the site by 64 units, the hall was feeling a little tight to move around in before. I moved the middle site cover, but this now meant you couldn't self boost onto a box at the back. I liked that spot, so re-added it in with a different climb. I clipped some of my instance to stop you getting snagged if you walked too close. Really quick change but makes it feel much better to move around the map.

Nothing huge to update, lots of very small height tweaks to allow angles to work better. Sorting out some crouch height boxes, improving lighting around the map to remove some of the worst cases. I found that stretching the room wider lost a little of the vertical feeling I liked from my main room. So pinched it back at the top again. Honestly putting off figuring out my B site haha, but I'll make some more real progress soon hopefully

Quote from csWaldo

2 hours ago, csWaldo said: Areas look fun 👍 Are you planning to keep the spawns like this? Currently it creates a weird tension where the outside path takes you way past and around the bombsite rather than attacking it. A path that leads you so far away from your actual goal will likely feel less useful / desirable to players and it might even feel like a chore going there. This could become even more awkward depending on where the second bombsite would be.

Simply moving the spawns to the left and right side of the map rather than the bottom could relieve this stress and make all paths feel more equal.

Right now I'm pretty sure you can also throw grenades into the other teams spawn if you wanted! No they'll change I've got them this close just so theres not as much of a run to the site as it is and I can get to the core of what I want to test as quickly as possible. I still need to add the other bombsite, and both my T and CT spawns and the routes around them are really bare bones at the moment. So it'll definitely change.

Hey! Been working hard on my CT and T sides. Reverted my placeholder middle and removed the side route to outside from T spawn. I'll add it back in later, but for right now it felt like a good stage to post another update. Changelist for this update would be:

• Reworked CT spawn. Adding an interior room for CTs to move through buffering time between CT rotates.
• Moved site box boost to alternate side to have it be better for post plants. Adding extra site box at back of the bombsite to block the previous boost corner.
• Made CT connector wider to stop player blocking and giving more room to breath.
• A main room is now connected to T short, rather than T main. The squeaky door gave too much power to CT side to play aggressively and backstab the T push into A.
• Large changes to T side overall.
• Ts now have a neutral space to control, playing off a "Kenny" angle, giving an option for a fast awp fight on both sides.
• Ts can avoid this duel by taking a slightly longer route around the screens, or can move through squeaky into A main.
• Underpass route connecting T neutral into middle. Hopefully allowing lurk plays where Ts can show presence on A and then slow rotate out.
• Tried a few versions of T neutral, and am continuing to simplify the space, boiling it down to the core components to make it easier to understand angles.
• Stretched A main to make grenades less oppressive.
• Also increased T side timings. Now taking around 10 seconds to meet, allowing more time for discussion pre-contact. (6 if you decide to take the awp duel)

CT Spawn Site box boost A main changes T Neutral space "Kenny" angle T Neutral options Underpass route (Spamable floor panel)

Reworking A site CT spawn T spawn T con T main Moving A cubby to opposite side Steamlining T site movement Adjusting kenny angle Building multiple viable plant positions on A to clarify default, CT and main plants

Looking for inspiration for my outside area, found a nice piece of concept art that had lots of elements I thought worked well! Referencing it as a base then tweaking from there. [Blocked Image: https://blenderartists.org/uploads/default/original/4X/2/2/1/2212bffbd48664eadb835615fdca17103604e573.jpeg] Other reference gathered below that I want to also lean into so its not 1to1 plagiarism of their concept art. I'm not spending the time making a minimap image just yet until I'm happier with the angles, timings and whatever else. Right now its split into multiple lanes. T's can wide swing coming from the river and challenge the CT awp position. They can hug close to the wall and rush under the bridge, but risk a disadvantageous fight against CTs swinging wider outside Or they can crouch through underpass, and come close to the front of the building. Where they are exposed but covered from the CT awper I'm also experimenting with moving the connection to A from outside to a front facing wider doorway. This makes it easier for Ts outside to move into, and harder for CTs to guarantee support to A site from this passage. Previously, if contact was made from A site, the outside awper could drop down and peek site within seconds. I wanted to add some more friction to that angle or force them to make the choice to try and support from CT instead.

Hey! I've been working away at figuring out my B site, and the feel of the level. I've tried quite a few versions, but wasn't happy with any of them so didn't feel the need to update this thread until I was more confident with the end result. Pretty much every corner has been slightly tweaked over the last week or so. I'm not sold on every engagement at the moment, but I really like where the overall structure has gotten to. Non-gif version. B site is very early on, and I'll be updating it moving forward, but the focus was more on how the two sites connected, the timings between them. The alternate routes for T side and how I can provide value to the outside route similar to Nukes outside. I really like the visual of my B site as well, contrasting the interior of A, but also providing the opportunity to connect the two with grenades to support players by throwing grenades through to upper windows. The biggest change is the removal of the short squeaky route for T side. It felt like I was handing them a path that was much better than their main option, while also devaluing the outside route. Instead its moved over to B short instead. This central room that it links to acts as connector on Overpass in a way. the route now connects to that same area leading to A, and also links to B. Allowing CTs to contest from multiple angles which I believe will be important since this area gives alot of map control to whichever team has it. The inclusion of this route also allows outside players to wrap down to B if they feel like they're being contested pushing into A which I love. Players going lower can throw support flashes through this window aswell to help main players push. CTs can self boost onto this box and see into that lower push position which hopefully encourages and rewards people to play slightly outside of the site itself. Which can be countered / held by a player in T main If a player sees a CT pushing aggressively they can go through underpass and join up with their outside players CT Heaven isn't just a balcony anymore, they have an interior route that they can drop into / boost back up from that helps them contest the outside push. This allows Ts to wrap CT spawn mid round to get into some interesting spots. A site is larger again, and a little bit longer to make it feel less claustrophobic. I removed the spammable room near T main, and pushed T main into the far side to give them an easier time clearing site. Previously you'd have to snap your wrist to clear all of the potential angles. There is now also a larger gap in the screen to throw grenades through, which can also be used to check if a T has boosted on site. If the T is holding the CT boost through that gap, it can feel nice to punish them checking you. Will be updating this version to the workshop when it finishes building. But its looking much much closer to being ready to playtest fully in a 5v5 setting.

Kendo is being featured on the mapcore hubs from the 7th till the 14th! With that, I've been cramming to get my B site feeling good after spending so long on my A, and then just improving everything as much as possible. Despite thinking I didn't want to change my A site, the top site, any more than I had to. I ended up reworking the entire level again while chipping away at my B anyway haha. To make things more confusing, A felt like a B (The interior rush site you can split) and B felt like an A (The exterior with more setup potential). SO as part of these changes I changes the letter around. In anycase heres the changes in minimap gif form. There were a few verions between now and my last post, but doing the minimap takes some time and I wanted to focus on faster iteration. Non gif form CT spawn CT A ramp CT A Heaven A site A Halls CT B main CT B Heaven Hell B Con B site T spawn T halls T angle onto B site T A main T drop Squeaky Bottom Con Outside