Posts by grapen

Update. Imgur: http://imgur.com/a/aHQVO

I'm overall happy with what I managed to achieve in three months, though I still have a lot of detail planned that I'm going to have to add post deadline. If you see anything blocky or out of place you can be sure that I'm going to replace it. The indoor areas in general are in need of a lot more detail. What I have planned is going to be cool though.

Changelog (things I can recall off the top of my head, there's just too much to remember):

Gameplay:

• Leviated head peeks in a few areas.
• Made entering B as T less stressful. You can now scan the site angle by angle.
• Made entering A through the CT spawn connector less dangerous. You can now scan the site angle by angle.
• Made slight changes to boxes on the A-site.
• Moved a few CT spawn locations slightly farther away from mid.
• Added Name Places.
• Added soundscapes.
• Added chickens Kappa.

Visual:

• Made CT spawn less cramped and more in-line with my theme.
• Made the "alley" seem slightly off grid.
• Added arches in a few places.
• Added balusters.
• Added windows to walls.
• Added windows to roofs.
• Added chimneys.
• Added more towers.
• Added 3D skybox.
• Reworked the lighting to be more pleasing.
• Added a few textures and increased texture variance.
• Finished up the A-site towers.
• Added some grime here and there.

Quick update on what's happening. I'll be releasing a massive update before the deadline, currently trying to get as many details done as possible before then. I've made some gameplay changes as well, so that part feels solid right now.

Screens:

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The A-site buildings (here seen from mid) are getting some red bricks to better distinguish this part of the map from B:

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Changed the main CT entrance to A so that it allows scanning the site angle by angle. This change also leviated the head peek by the fence gate:

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Changed the T entrance to B so that it's less scary to enter without nades. By removing the dead angle by the fence to the left (from the T perspective), you can now scan the site angle by angle. There's still the odd chance that a CT does a well timed peak from the right side of the screenshot below:

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These are just some of the gameplay and visual changes made though. Lots to be done, but much can happen in 9 days.

Quote from laminutederire

ohyeah haven't seen that, just made changes too fast and grid was like at 4 or 2 this time, and I must have missaligned things! I'll fix that. (Edit: I checked the vmf and wall thickness are just differents )

Lighting seem too bright but I think I mainly haven't got the best angle, because I have the same lighting parameters than in valve's sky list.

here is the link for the bsp

It's the default bloom acting up. Add a tonemap_ctrl and a logic_auto to your map, go to the properties of the logic_auto, then to the Outputs tab. I use the following values for Scepter, play around with them to find something that works for you:

OnMapSpawn tonemap_ctrl SetAutoExposureMax 1.5
OnMapSpawn tonemap_ctrl SetAutoExposureMin 0.5
OnMapSpawn tonemap_ctrl SetBloomScale 0.2
OnMapSpawn tonemap_ctrl SetTonemapRate 0.1

Quote from DooM

Sorry here it is:

-snip-

I'm talking about the boxes to the right of my crosshair, when I said you could block the angle by making them bigger, that flash is also really nice.

Ah, gotcha! I see what you mean. I'll be crunching angles tonight. Might be that I redesign the main CT spawn entrance to A altogether. The two week deadline is certainly felt right now :).

Quote from DooM

I think it's comparable to cobble or mirage in terms of learning the layout, not much verticality but enough routes to add interesting lurk options, but still quite a task to learn to angles and certain strategies you can execute. The one thing that seemed to be bothering the people in the teamspeak was that there are some very powerful head peeks in certain areas.

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Thanks a lot for the input! I think there might be a screenshot missing from that last angle where you compare it to Mirage?

The excessive head peaks might be me subconsiously designing for 1.6 where wallbanging was more of a thing hehe ;). I'm generally fine with head peaks so long as they can be countered in a smooth fashion, see this rush-flash for example:

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Molly also works as it forces the CT to step out.

Though I agree many of those head peaks are OP. I'll be looking into them!

Quote from laminutederire

You could, I think that if you make it like a church with huge tinted glass, it can make sense, especially since castles were sometimes built on existing castles, or around chapels which existed before

Yeah that would work! I have been toying with the idea of making the chapel stand out from the rest as an older building with a different roof and stone texture. We'll see what happens.

Quote from laminutederire

Well, you already know that your layout is liked by people, and especially since I'm not good at gameplay I won't advise you on that (you're doing great on your own for that), so I'm staying with what I know, which is architecture I have rediscovered another book while searching for the other, it's Viollet-le-duc Raisonné (link ). It only covers until the 16th century but there are some really interesting stuff in that. (I won't advise you to read it all, it's roughly a 450Mo pdf.. and it is approximately 5000 pages long if I'm not mistaken, but it is like a dictionnary, so you can search articles on architectural feats which could help you design some things, for instance buttresses which are present in your map)

I've always liked flying buttresses and think they would look really cool where CT enters mid from spawn. Probably look way too gothic though.

Thanks to everyone who ran the playtest last night, your help is much appreciated. I wish I could have been there but my daughter needed me. I've read the logs and watched the demo, bonus points to @fnuggi for finding the ridiculous self boost out the A balcony window, that was instantly clipped :D.

Seems like most people liked the layout for the most part, though a few had issues with entering B as T. The upper pathway on B might be overpowered as you can easily duck behind the solid "railing" next to the wall while reloading. I intended for this spot to be exposed, a risk vs reward kind of balance, making it the less obvious choice to stand around as CT. Making this "railing" (for lack of a better word?) into an actual railing that you can see through might help solve this. While in competitive 5v5 I intend for people to split B more often, using mollies and coordinated flashes/smokes, as well as occasionally smoking B from mid over the rooftop, though I want the first time public players to also enjoy the map without knowing every little trick. There's also a small intrude into the wall below the upper B pathway that's going to get cut. That's a relic from an older version with a slightly different layout. I think it just overcomplicates things as it is now.

Screenshot of what I'm talking about:

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It would be interesting to know how fast you guys felt it was to learn the layout in comparison to other maps you play for the first time. Easier, harder or neutral?

Quote from laminutederire

Well, you already know that your layout is liked by people, and especially since I'm not good at gameplay I won't advise you on that (you're doing great on your own for that), so I'm staying with what I know, which is architecture I have rediscovered another book while searching for the other, it's Viollet-le-duc Raisonné (link ). It only covers until the 16th century but there are some really interesting stuff in that. (I won't advise you to read it all, it's roughly a 450Mo pdf.. and it is approximately 5000 pages long if I'm not mistaken, but it is like a dictionnary, so you can search articles on architectural feats which could help you design some things, for instance buttresses which are present in your map)

Cool! Thanks for the link, checking it out now.

Quote from laminutederire

Of course they are common, they were better than other existing things

I've done both countries and they are different. Materials are the same, but they are still different, like carrots are a bit differents between places. Anyway, I was just expressing my opinion, you don't have to agree. There's a good book for castles architecture, but I don't know if it has been translated I'll look that up!

Crit is alwasy welcomed!

Quote from laminutederire

I can tell and I knew.

It wasn't bound to one nation but to one region, because at that time, what matters the most was resources. You wasn't able to get rocks or woods from too far apart in great quantities, so you had to do what you can with what you had, and that led to choices that made part of the style of buildings. In addition, architects weren't the most important people there, the one with real powers in the decision were those who ordered the building and those who built it.

Which castles have you been visiting?

Yes of course, though limestone and granite are common in both Germany and France. We're talking neighbouring countries with comparative geology. Fact of the matter remains that castles in both France and Germany share aesthetic traits and materials, and that build times would sometimes prolong resulting in different styles. The Mansard roof of Scepter is commonplace all across Europe for instance. Just like you suggest, the person who pays for the castle is ultimately the one who decides in which style to build, meaning they could build whatever they like.

I haven't visited any castles outside of my home country. Internet studies are adequate.

Quote from laminutederire

I think that you should stick to references from only one reduced region, and one short period of time, otherwise it won't be recognizable and make a weird mix

Popular architectoral design was never bound to one nation. Work from successful architects would often be comissioned by royalty from all over Europe, many buildings in Stockholm were for instance designed by french architects in mixed styles. Neuschwanstein (Romanesque Revival) was started in 1869, but is today not finished. Palaces would sometimes take ages to construct and lead architect would change. Hampton Court Palace in England is another good example, where construction begun in 1515 and ended in 1694, which resulted in two different architectoral styles: Tudor and Baroque. My many references from France and Germany could be from either country, the average person can't tell.

As a side note, would anyone guess that de_cbble is set in France?

Wish I could join in on the playtest tonight, though I was unable to find a babysitter making it impossible.

Version 0.6 is coming along nicely with new models and textures, as well as some minor gameplay improvements. Unfortunately I won't be able to push this to the workshop in time for the playtest tonight.

Changes to windows:

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The textures for these new models are not finished as I intend for them to be more ornate. The meshes are very low poly, though this might be reviewed post release depending on the frame budget at that point in time. Speaking of which, in the current build my FPS is running comfortably at 400, peaking at 500 in certain indoor areas. I'm running CS:GO @ 1080p with high settings on an i7 3770K with GTX 680 and 16 DDR3. This is before HINT brushes so things are looking fine.

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Non 45 or 90 degree geometry:

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A few changes being made to brushes in certain places to make the architecture seem more realistic (see reference below) and natural. This is the alley outside of the chapel, which is all 90 degrees in v0.5. An arch and door (only ornamental, no change in gameplay) is going to be added to the right wall to make the trip down there seem realistic.

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Floor plan for chateau de blois:

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Next up is working on arches and door openings, as well as giving T spawn a lift.

Just to add a bit to the mid theory crafting: my guess is that should balcony pushes become popular with CT's, the T meta would adapt by either pre-aiming the window opposite of balcony from the safety of mid, or pre-emptively mollying the balcony before stepping out into mid. If the molly hits balcony as the CT is jumping up on the boxes and portruding brick, he would take a lot of damage. An alternate way of handling it could be to make the balcony require a two man boost, meaning some early control of chapel will be turned over to the T's. The best possible spawn CT will get about 1 second head start on the aim duel down the chapel corridor, which is not always something you want to give up. Time will tell!

Quote from DooM

This map is really interesting, I ran around it for about an hour the other day, I think I agree with maanman to an extent that some of the angles feel awkward but I really want to play it before I can make any solid judgement. The whole 45 degree angle stuff reminds me of a little bit of contra in places.

One angle that I really don't like is this one from the A pit connector thingy to A main, because it's a head-peek and also if someone is playing there with an AWP it's going to be really hard to kill him, I think it's something akin to the head peek on dust 2 from A site to short but the difference with dust 2 is that you can smoke the bombsite from short, removing the angle but also not giving up map control, whereas with this bombsite I have to rotate out of A main quite far back to even think about throwing a smoke onto the bombsite. I suppose you could compare it to cache, but the head peek at truck is easily smoke-able from the inside of A main without exposing yourself to any angles. I think exposing more of the Ct here wouldn't be a bad thing.

Here's the angle in question:

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Thanks for the input! Well spotted on that head peek, in the build I'm currently working on I'm experimenting with some natural cover for that ledge, such as a short ornate wall, party due to the reason you mentioned, but also so that a CT could actually stand there and hold the underpass-looking connector without being exposed to the "chapel" you're standing in on the screenshot, so it goes both ways.

Mid certainly is slightly different than the current active duty pool, with CT's being able to flank from the balcony, albeit after T has already entered mid. They can't safely flank from the "chapel", since the T's will be able to set up an angle there first, especially with the boost/jump window above the closed chapel door on T side. Flanking from the chapel would be like flanking from upper dark on D2, random and highly risky.

Quote from ashton93

One of the few maps lately that I've even bothered testing out, something about the layout and the clean visuals is really interesting. Would love to playtest this in a 5v5 sometime

Glad you like it thus far! I've got a cool update coming in version 0.6 that I hope to push out before the 10v10 playtest on sunday. Unfortunately there's no 5v5 playtests currently planned since I was too late for the Reddit queue. I don't have many connections left in the scene, but I'll try to pull any remaining strings I've got. I'd try to organize one myself if it wasn't for me taking care of my one year old daughter while my wife is abroad on business.

Quote from MaanMan

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B is awkward because you have to turn right to act against this sight line but in doing that you leave yourself exposed to another strange angle.

In regards to B:

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The first player to step close to the entrace to B can scan every angle on the right side (as illustrated from your red line on the radar) without exposing himself to any CT hiding behind a corner on the left side. This is done thanks to the small area in the top right corner of the radar. The only exception to this being if the CT is standing very, very close right around the corner on either side. A likely situation on ecos. Internal tests have shown that it's quite safe to enter the site without using nades. Though I would certainly recommend utilizing the three windows above the two entrances, as some nice flashes and smokes can be thrown (it's also possible to smoke the site safely from mid) or throwing a molotov in the bottom right corner of the screenshot below.

[Blocked Image: http://i.imgur.com/vQtEFW6.jpg]

In regards to A:

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The average time it takes for the first T to enter mid, I mean really be at the green dot you painted, is 8 seconds. It takes a best-possible-spawn CT 13 seconds to run through A site, jump up on the balcony and look out through the window into the quad-like area on the left side of mid. Running the same path and spawn, but instead going down the stairs after jumping up on the balcony to look out the main gate of mid takes 14/15 seconds. This means that T's rushing mid fast only need to worry about the direction of CT spawn for a good 5 seconds. A flanking CT jumping up on the balcony can be a pretty risky move since T very well could already be aiming there (either from "quad" or from the safety of T side mid), or be three man boost peaking over one of the mid walls. Both teams need to secure mid, so the way I would play it as T would be to move fast towards mid, smoke and flash towards CT spawn so that we can take control over "quad" and the balcony area. I suppose pretty much the way a lot of people play mid on mirage, smoking off connector/balcony before setting up anti-flanking positions.

Thanks for the feedback. It's unfortunate that I didn't make it in time for the Reddit 5v5 playtests as all the spots have been taken. It would be interesting to see how people playing the map for the first time fare.

Quote from MaanMan

While the map visual looks very nice, there are some very strange in mid and B. I would playtest and look at changing some of these angles before working on the map anymore.

Which angles are you referring to? I could probably explain my thought process.

Quote from poLemin

The map looks really cool! In my opinion you should also use some variation in texture and/or architecture. If everything looks the same the player gets easily confused. But I must say, it looks really promising so far!

Thanks! Texture variation along with unique landmarks are definitely coming.

Quote from UnknownPredator

I really love the art style, and the layout seems very solid and interesting. Please keep us posted on this, very promising

Thank you, I certainly will. I played CS from 1999-2007, the latter half of which on a highly competitive level in the swedish scene, so layout alongside with catering to many different playstyles is my main concern. I always did prefer the fast, aim heavy maps such as D2, Strike (Mirage) and Mill however, so that certainly influence my decision making when level designing for CS:GO.

Mapcore,

It's high time I present myself and the map I've been working intensely on for the past three months: de_scepter.

The name:

Scepter (/'sep-ter/) refers to the symbolic ornamental staff or wand held by a ruling monarch. My reasoning behind using the US spelling of the word instead of 'Sceptre', is that I believe it's less prone to mispronounciation among us non-native english speakers.. In case anyone from the UK was wondering ;-).

Setting and plot:

The map itself is set in a fictional palace somewhere in Germany. Once a seat of power in central Europe, now a popular attraction and world heritage site. The architecture is influenced by neo gothicism.

The Phoenix has set out to fund their operations by stealing the crown jewels that are up on display in the castle treasury. They succeed in doing so, though choose to leave some men behind for one final explosive message. Counter-Terrorists arrive just before this happens.

I aim to tie this into Scepter 2 and possibly 3 as an overaching story, inspired by the campaign format of Left 4 Dead.

Miscellaneous map[/b] information:

Scepter features my own custom textures and models, made specically for this map.

Playable area is roughly 3500 x 3600 hammer units (small, comparable in size to Dust 2)

Links:

Workshop (not updated)

Changelog:

(NEW) Screenshots from Version 1.0 (not yet released):

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(OLD - for reference sake) Screenshots from BETA 1.0: Imgur album

Thank you in advance for taking the time checking out my map.