Posts by NikiOo

Check out this AAA level lead up to the bomb site:

You come out of the cave and you see a tower, kind of hidden behind a tree, which enforces your curiousity, so you ask yourself, why would that tower be hidden behind a tree? I better check it out...

[Blocked Image: https://i.imgur.com/VZvYaaO.jpg]

You take the closest path to the tower (which is currently super dark, but will be well lit when it's done), and you enter a cave. You remember the tower was really tall, so even though you are in a cave, which is supposed to have a roof, you look up and guess what you see? The tower again...

[Blocked Image: https://i.imgur.com/D71A1wk.jpg]

...so you are drawn further down the cave, lead by the light, to an opening, but then you stop dumbfound, wondering where the tower went? You don't see the tower, but you do see a bunch of CTs. You kill them with your Bear Grills' Jungle Explorer Machete, and then you go on...

[Blocked Image: https://i.imgur.com/stUH9GV.jpg]

After the long fight, you are exhausted, covered in blood from the fight and dirt from the rain, lost orientation, as well as your map, you check your compass, but it's disrupted by some inexplicable magnetic force, as if an alien rock of unknown substance had fallen somewhere around here (presumably on the other bomb site), and so you go outside and look around, and then suddenly...BAM there's the tower again! Are you getting Deja Vu? No, you are simply experiencing great map design ?

[Blocked Image: https://i.imgur.com/HoPfFwM.jpg]

P.S.

I know I have the tendency to completely rework areas, instead of making small changes to perfect what I have, but I had an excuse this time, mid was really bad and had to be reworked, so after tossing away the junk, I had to reiterate on A to make it fit the new mid design, and it had to have only one entrance, so this is what came to my mind, plus Vaya said it looks fine, so I'm alright with it.

I'm using some aztec props as placeholders at the moment, but I might end up changing the theme to something more overgrown anyway.

So I decided to rebuild middle from the ground up, turning it from a convoluted mess of twisted and inconvenient connectors and ladders, to a more nice-looking, a bit less convoluted mess of convenient and quick connectors with half as many ladders.

Here's a few screenies, just for the sake of it:

Spoiler [Blocked Image: https://i.imgur.com/DDGKeCN.jpg]

[Blocked Image: https://i.imgur.com/YzxJAJI.jpg]

[Blocked Image: https://i.imgur.com/bCIC0Mu.jpg]

• So, the wallbang is still there, but it is will be made in such way that it is much less unfair for Ts.
• I've gotten rid of the big open bath and moved it here, where it is more secluded by the tall walls and protected from the wind.
• Now that same (mid 1) pathway is visible through the arch on the left in the last image, which allows me to more comfortably allow Ts to have access to CT spawn, that in turn would play in a very interesting way with bomb site A, which you will see in future update.
• The rotation times have decreased drastically down to about 14-16 from plant zone to plant zone.
• I've gotten rid of the 15 second door, which was frankly very funny, but I would not miss out on a chance to swap it out for a more convenient path. (I am planning a 20 second door, though at a different spot)
• Likely to remove the 270 degrees turn that CTs have to make at spawn to get to A.
• So now I'm trying to focus a lot of the action towards this middle area, which is difficult to access for Ts, but will inevitably give them a lot of options.
• The connector to B leads to a very powerful elevated spot through a bridge that can be destroyed both by CTs and Ts.

I like wacky gimmicky stuff, it's exotic contest after all. It does seem very big and complicated though.

So the playtest just finished, and there was a lot of negative feedback, mostly on the size of the map and the rotations, but also on the verticality and some other quirky features. It felt to me like it was fun, but maybe because I was only spectating ?. I am very positive, though because the main features, which I was skeptical about turned out pretty much the way I wanted them to.

I feared people wouldn't get the right timings on the wallbang, but there was a lot of wallbanging. I was worried they wouldn't use the door cause it's too slow, but they sat there and waited for it to open.

I understand where most of this criticism is coming from and I have some plans for addressing the biggest issues. There are some things I can't address, though, without turning this into a generic three lane layout, which go against my initial conception for the map, involving fast gameplay and a lot of high risk high reward decisions for both teams.

First thing to get rid of would be the pool in the middle. It was an aesthetic decision that severely limited my architecture and forced me to have this large height differential. Verticality is going to be decreased, but I won't get rid of the roof area on B will most likely remain as it is. I will make some changes to simplify the cover and make angles more clear and fair. I might also consider partially merging the two middles to simplify rotate paths and shorten rotates.

I'm gonna rewatch the VOD tomorrow and take some notes, It's late at night and I might not be thinking straight. Just wanted to update you all that your eagerness to turn this into Dust2 is not gonna crush my dreams.

Here's the layout:

Spoiler [Blocked Image: https://i.imgur.com/Z59IjZR.png]

Gonna have a playtest tonight.

I didn't add the permaclose door, but I did make one that takes 15 seconds to open, so that should be an interesting feature to test, should I say EXOTIC.

Rotation time between the sites is now reasonable.

Quote from Radu

13 hours ago, Radu said: Schedule a playtest on mapcore and get some proper feedback from people! Looking at the overview, it seems pretty clean and fluid, but I find the CT spawn with that long pathway behind them towards B a bit awkward. Also, there are two mids?

Yeah, It will be ready for a playtest by the end of the week at latest.

Also the 'two mids' aren't really mids, I mean they don't act as a mid in the traditional sense, it's more of a mid in a way cobblestone's mid is a mid, also the many one way drops (which have officially been reduced to 5) remove the danger of over complication, unpredictability and utter chaos that two mids would pose.

Also the rotation time between the two bomb sites is roughly 18-19 seconds, which is relatively long, compared to other maps. I haven't tested other maps rotation timings myself, only looked at online metrics, but it does feel about 2-3 seconds too slow, and I don't know how much of an issue that is gonna be.

On a more serious note, though, I was thinking of making this door be close-able, but not toggle-able (this is where the choke point is), meaning that if the Ts allow CTs close to the door, they can just press 'E' and close it forever, permanently preventing Ts from taking this route to the bomb site till the end of the round. I think this would really contribute to the Exotic™ nature of the map:

So I've pretty much blocked it all out, just need to close off all the edges and It'll be ready for some tests with bots.

Here's A site, inspired by some Quake map:

[Blocked Image: https://i.imgur.com/phRUmz9.jpg]

bad. very blocky. plywood ?

Here's what you'd call middle, with it's weird gimmicky shit:

[Blocked Image: https://i.imgur.com/B87GYdR.jpg]

There's also a ladder on the right up to that gap in the wall, but it's invisible.

And here's B site, where nothing has changed cause I haven't tested it and it seems fine to me:

[Blocked Image: https://i.imgur.com/wdPGG3A.jpg]

Oh, and there's also a 3 way underground area bellow the big pool of water, which acts as a sewer or something:

[Blocked Image: https://i.imgur.com/5P5F7GN.jpg]

There's gonna be somewhere between 4 and 7 one ways on the map. Heavy negotiations might take it down to three, but most likely not.

It's a very teamwork-y work-y map, so there's gonna be a lot of boosting your teammates.

Here's the radar:

Spoiler [Blocked Image: https://i.imgur.com/JH3RzRU.png]

except A is a little more complex.

And here's the rush choke points in green:

Spoiler [Blocked Image: https://i.imgur.com/N7WcNlM.png]

And yeah, the rocks are from the deathzone map, hr_massive or something, there's a lot of variety of shapes, so if you're comfortable with rotating and scaling props and placing them around, you can replicate pretty much any rock formation you're looking to make.

Quote from blackdog

2 hours ago, blackdog said: I like the look of it, @NikiOo can you also plant on the platform or only ground level?

At the moment you can only plant the bomb on the ground, since the upper level is only accessible with a boost from this side.

Here's some screenshots for yall to gawk at:

[Blocked Image: https://i.imgur.com/NdUNFlY.jpg]

[Blocked Image: https://i.imgur.com/3WasjxC.jpg][Blocked Image: https://i.imgur.com/Pbwrgye.jpg]

I decided to start from one bomb site and make it work well with middle and then continue on to the other site, considering balance, scale, fighting range variety, etc. The concept seems to be working out pretty well, this is either going to be super cool and unique or an utter failure.

And a random texture:

[Blocked Image: https://i.imgur.com/ykDS8Rm.png]

Still looking for an environment artist to help out with a lot of the modelling and texturing. If you think you're the best 3d artist in the world and my map is not trash, then hit me up. I'm right here.

I saw everyone piling up reference images, so I thought, why don't I reserve my exotic spot as well.

Here's where it's gonna take place:

[Blocked Image: https://i.imgur.com/GsHYWi8.jpg]

Chittorgarh - India

The layout is very experimental and the best way I can sketch it out is something like this:

[Blocked Image: https://i.imgur.com/dnRCcsp.png]

The timings are in such way that if CTs were to go straight to the bomb sites, the encounter would happen right before the entrance of the sight and they won't have much time to prepare and take further positions, but they can choose to send several units on a risky middle route, which only CTs can access, without a boost, that gives them a chance to attack the Ts before they've reached the sites and allow their teammates on the site to get a more advantageous position. It's also a good flanking path. The sites are generally easier to take than on other maps, but with this new middle path CTs can surprise attack the Ts and they can never expect when the action is going to begin. This middle route is also made in such way that it allows both teams to take sound cues and listen if there is anyone rushing. A CT rushing down the middle route can communicate to his teammates which site the Ts are rushing in and tell them to hold back, while he prepares to flank them, or plan a double pressure attack. I don't know if this is gonna work, but I'm willing to try my best to realize my idea.

I'm going to post some greybox images this weekend or next week at latest.

I'm also looking for someone to collab with. Ideally I wanna be doing the level design on a large scale, meaning the general layout idea, and then we can split the second greyboxing architecture pass, and I'm gonna be making props and textures, while you are placing them around. We can split the work 50/50, I have a pretty wide skillset and I go deep in color theory. If you're interested and you wanna work on a theme like this, hit me up. You can check out my portfolio, if you think I'm worthy: https://nikio.artstation.com/

I saw everyone piling up reference images, so I thought, why don't I reserve my exotic spot as well.

Here's where it's gonna take place:

[Blocked Image: https://i.imgur.com/GsHYWi8.jpg]

Chittorgarh - India

The layout is very experimental and the best way I can sketch it out is something like this:

[Blocked Image: https://i.imgur.com/dnRCcsp.png]

The timings are in such way that if CTs were to go straight to the bomb sites, the encounter would happen right before the entrance of the sight and they won't have much time to prepare and take further positions, but they can choose to send several units on a risky middle route, which only CTs can access, without a boost, that gives them a chance to attack the Ts before they've reached the sites and allow their teammates on the site to get a more advantageous position. It's also a good flanking path. The sites are generally easier to take than on other maps, but with this new middle path CTs can surprise attack the Ts and they can never expect when the action is going to begin. This middle route is also made in such way that it allows both teams to take sound cues and listen if there is anyone rushing. A CT rushing down the middle route can communicate to his teammates which site the Ts are rushing in and tell them to hold back, while he prepares to flank them, or plan a double pressure attack. I don't know if this is gonna work, but I'm willing to try my best to realize my idea.

I'm going to post some greybox images this weekend or next week at latest. Might also look to collab with an environment artist.

Remember that ugly ass wall from two weeks ago?

Decided to make a small environment out of it.

[Blocked Image: https://i.imgur.com/cGYfm4X.png]

Don't know if this classifies as Models or Levels.

There's some more images on my ArtStation: https://nikio.artstation.com/

Started working on a modular tile set. Here's a random piece:

[Blocked Image: https://i.imgur.com/r2AYHiY.png]

[Blocked Image: https://i.imgur.com/kY5HxV3.jpg]

It's updated on the workshop now :https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/fi…/?id=1297030515

Here's the new layout:

[Blocked Image: https://i.imgur.com/E0tzWzc.png]

So I chopped off some dead weight by squashing the entire middle horizon of the map and cutting some rotation timings, while making middle a much more short range of an engagement.

The most incomplete areas are the open part of middle and the CT to A connector.

Any feedback is appreciated. It'd be really helpful If I could get some feedback on the performance of the map right now, cause sometimes I can't tell if it's bad optimization that's dropping my frames or it's just my laptop struggling out of the ordinary.

Next thing's I should probably give it some better looking grass and ground textures.

Quote from incredible-ninja

3 hours ago, incredible-ninja said: This is going to be so glorious when it's completed. Can not wait to play this updated version.

Is there a problem with the current workshop version though? Cos my game keeps crashing 1/15 seconds into the match. Very strange.

Yeah, there was an issue with a broken trigger, which made it crash.

It's fixed now. I'll update the workshop version when It's ready for the playtest.

The reflections look awesome and those are some really nice rocks. Are they photoscanned?

[Blocked Image: https://i.imgur.com/SmyMyv8.png]

Quote from Serialmapper

11 hours ago, Serialmapper said: maybe something like this

*Image goes here, but I deleted it to not stretch out the comment*

Give it some ladders, add some smaller props like buckets, tools, etc. This really goes a long way to making it a believable place. Also why are there scaffoldings there? Is there some reconstruction going on? Make that more visible, for example you can make it look that they're applying/reapplying the purple paint on the bricks right now or something like that.

Ooops... I leaked a screenshot.

Unlucko.

It has the Canals syndrome of looking like a dead place where no one lives. Add some shop signs and glowing windows. And scaffoldings. You just don't have enough scaffoldings. I'm sorry, that's just the hard truth. Scaffoldings can make or break an environment.