Hello, I thought I'd post here to both show a few things I've been working on and to promote this great mod a bit.
The latest Fistful of Frags update comes with two maps I've worked on over the past several months.
'CrippleCreek'
Cripplecreek is a fairly large and open map, I started with a rough sketch but no clear idea of how it would play like or what sort of gameplay it would accommodate. With the help of the mod creator we found a fun solution. Vigilantes must go around the map collecting loot sacks and bring them to a cap zone, the desperado's must prevent this. The cap zone fixes to a moving train after the first loot capture, and that's when the chaos begins, the trains route can be changed by using rail switchers at junctions (You can see this in the video above).
Mod Creators comments
CrippleCreek is a world on its own. The playable area exceeds anything we have seen in FoF before, and despite the huge draw distances it's really well optimized. There's a player controlled mini train that is key for gameplay purposes. Features a new game mode called 'Gold Rush', this is an asymmetric mode where a team grabs loot sacks and tries to capture them at specific locations. In this case, a shack and later a moving train. The train tracks can be switched shooting at them (or using any other attack, as dynamite in video).
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The biggest challenge alongside making this map fun was optimising it, since it was so big this wasn't easy. I managed to get the map running quite well using a few straightforward methods. The first is simple fade distances on static props, I gave props the same start and end fade distances wherever I could, as faded props don't go down 'the fast path',what this means fully I don't know, but what I do know is that they take longer to render. The second method I used was to combine many props into a single prop, this took a lot of work but was well worth it, the performance gained was really noticeable. I also tried to reuse textures wherever I could on the models.
'Rio Bravo'
Since I made so much new content for the first map I thought I should at least create a second so it saw its use. This map was much more relaxing to create, once I had the gameplay blocked in so early I was able to relax and just have fun making it. Its a symmetrical design with several layers to it, and is quite a dangerous environment. Falling to your death and avoiding a fast moving train spilling explosive barrels gives you something else to worry about alongside dynamite throwing lunatics. There is no visibility blocking in the map, so I used the same methods for Cripplecreek to keep the frame-rate steady.
Mod Creators comments
RioBravo is a symmetric map where both teams bring loot back to their bases. The game mode is more conventional but its layout is quite innovative. There are multiple layers, combat in z axis is key to win, and there's that little train dropping explosive barrels. As you can see in the video, enemies will kick your way out of the map and beware of silly missteps! Time will tell, I wasn't very convinced when I saw it at first, but I think this map will be among the favorite ones for lot of players.
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I should have been showing WIP's of these previously but I found I didn't have much confidence in the work and was unsure if I'd ever finish them. I'm glad I did mange to finish them, I owe R_Yell, the mod lead a big thank you for keeping me motivated to get these out, and for keeping the FoF mod alive after so many years. In total I added 177 new props and a bunch of new textures.
I also created the train you can ride around on
(Click)
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Many thanks, and DOWNLOAD THIS GREAT MOD
And please vote YES on Greenlight!
