Posts by Soldat Du Christ

Molotovs can be used to check corners and area denial right? How do they differ from frags as far as use?

Well ill start with this instead, can a well placed smoke grenade disrupt the balance of a map? Could it undermine the importance of a specific encounter? How would you design your maps around this?

What are some examples of deliberately placed smokes that break/ undermine a lane/ encounter?

Quote from Freaky_Banana

1 hour ago, Freaky_Banana said: Sounds like a solid plan to me. If I understand correctly, you are suggesting a video just like the ones you showcased, but for CSGO?

Something like that I would be interested in, because it seems like you have a diverging viewpoint from the common consensus on what makes a CSGO map good. However, if, in fact, I misunderstand your post and you intend to make a comprehensive beginners' guide to CSGO map design, we already have a fair amount of those, and most of what you need to know as a CSGO map maker you learn by playing and watching the game. In this case I would consider it as a portfolio piece for yourself first and foremost. There might still things to be learned from a document like that, but my guess is Mapcore won't be the right crowd for it.

Anyways, I hope you go ahead with this. I remember liking your initial map proposal and was actually fairly sad to see it get put on ice.

It's not a tutorial, but it will be an outsiders suggestions based off of my interpretation of the game and what I believe it could benefit from. Again, not what the CSGO scene NEEDS, but what my outside perspective could ADD on to the experience. For example, I believe creating more movement by rounded off some lanes and encounters could benefit the game, which is otherwise filled with holding and optimizing choke points. Also, one way exits to add more high stakes decision making. Finally, separating the player footprint from player lines of sight a bit more to reward players who think more 3 dimensionaly. Those are some examples of iterations i have my mind on right now.

At best my outside perspective will help the community think out of the very small box i see level designers here being stuck in. But at the very least it will be an interesting and different look into the perspective of someone (me) who doesn't play, watch, or even like CSGO Esports.

So i decided i'm going to commit to making a CSGO map, after years of developing Halo maps since the beginning of H3. I started a Thread announcing this map near the beginning of the recent Map contest,

and got some encouragement to finish it, intrigue of the layout, and confusion over my method. Ultimately i gave up because my first run with the hammer editor was infuriating and i just wasn't ready to buckle down and trudge through the initial learning curve. I think i'm ready to see this through to the end, and i wanted to make this post to gauge the interest of the community on some things before moving forward...

In an effort to help the broader Level Design community grow and for my own portfolio, i've been documenting the step by step process of my map development. Here a few examples if this i've already shared here in the forums.

My first question is would you guys be interesting in seeing my step by step documentary of my CSGO map development process? This would include My interpretation of CSGO as an Esport, and how the high end play styles interact with level design, and how my interpretation will inspire the layout. Then I would elaborate on all the decisions that go into making each lane and interaction around the map according to my goals and interpretations. And then finally my commentary of the Esport and mapping community as a whole.

Those would be the fundamental goals of the design doc, are there any other additions you would like me to add to the documentary? Any specific talking points you would want me to weigh in on? I'm looking for suggestion and feedback before i start working on this to get a better idea of what the community would be interested in seeing. Thank you for your time and reading

- Soldat

No major spoilers ahead, but if you haven't played it and you want it to be a fresh experience just ignore this:

My conclusion is that tlou2 by itself is revolutionary piece of story telling, subverting the 'in group vs out group' thinking process, while reinforcing some very valuable lessons and themes like revenge is a fools game and such. And simultaneously it is a BAD squeal. While their are certain parallels you can try to point out between the two games that make them vaguely similar as far as the overarching narrative structure, the actual journey throughout part 2 is not a cohesive and gradual continuation of the first game. Ellie and joel are completely different people, and while i think the reasons for this are explained well and make sense, it's immediately polarizing at the start of the game and the flash back sequences don't do that transition justice. They did not EARN the bold moves in part 2 YET. I think part two should have taken place during the unraveling of joel and ellies relationship, all the while foreshadowing the inevitable tragedy that would be abby and ellies revenge plot entanglement that should have a part 3

wow guys really? no likes for my post?

Halo 5 Forge

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Remade in Unity

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Transparency and pressure from the community for the judge to be objective and not come to conclusions based off of their fleeting emotions is what gives us the most accurate scores. BUT i understand not every judge wants to take it seriously and would rather coast through the contest. Oh well, it is what it is, not like they are getting paid

Quote from Radu

12 hours ago, Radu said: Good points brougth up by @Soldat Du Christ

Congrats on the Halo 5 contest and setting an example! However, doing what you suggest would imply more time and effort, especially from the guest judges. Who would want to put in more time than necessary? Imagine having to find a replacement for, I don't know - Warowl.

That's also a good point, beggars can't be choosers right? I've seen War owls content and i think he is more credible than others when it comes to looking at maps objectively. Losing him would be a loss, i don't know about the other judges.

I mainly brought this up after going through the thread and saw people being condemned for making the very reasonable request for feedback. And was someone actually banned for making arguments across the forum? Has he ever actually said anything rude to individuals on a personal level? Or was he just being a critic? I don't know how you guys do things here, but my experience here is that the culture is not balanced. There is a healthy amount of positivity and support for others, which is good. But you also need to welcome and even encourage a healthy amount of debate, else the community and therefore their content become stagnant and never grow

I was a judge in a map contest for Forgehub.com along with three others, not nearly as high a prize pool mapcore has but the barrier to entree was also alot lower due to the tool being installed with the game (halo 5) so that made up for it. Anyways, we made all of our scores across all categories public, as well as a short summery of our thoughts on each. All the judges agreed to be transparent before hand and on top of that, if anybody wanted to know more they could ask any one of us and we would walk and talk with them on their map.

Why is this valuable? 2 main reasons, accountability and growth. Being a "judge" implies that you have some merit in the eyes of your peers to look at another map and determine it's quality. Scores are NOT arbitrary but instead are reflections of an individuals thoughts and conclusions. Conclusions which could very well be fallacious, and could be objectively identified as such if they are held accountable for those scores by giving reasons. The words that come out of your mouth are similar to mathematical statements, they can be tested. However because we are all flawed humans and because we are not all on equal footing when it comes to education on critical thinking or the laws of logic, yes you will get different scores and conclutions, but some will most definitely be more justified than others.

I rated this map x/x because i feels too hard to contest x bomb site or x lane

Vs

I rated this map x/x because the enemy team has too many corners to hide in as I round this corner which forces me to make too broad an assumption which leaves me at WORST immobilized by the risk that comes with going through or at BEST getting lucky by guessing the correct corner. Leaving encounters up to luck undermines the competitive nature of the game and is therefore inferior

...one of those is very obviously better feedback, and i'd even say it's an objective truth that encounters should not come down to luck. Thats why people love CS gunplay to begin with, the consistency and control.

By making judges and their reasons transparent, even if the results are shown after the contest, you will be able to weed out the weak ones and keep them from attaining authoritative positions in the future. And just the fact that they know they will have to be transparent will put pressure on them to make sure they aren't careless on any one map they may be unenthusiastic about from the start for whatever reason

This brings me to my final point, good feedback leads to growth in the community. And i mean REAL growth. Finding areas where you can improve is invaluable information, and when it comes to a contest where judges are already playing your maps and JUDGING THEM, feedback should be mandatory

Here is very in-depth look at the process behind FPS arena Level Design questions welcome! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5N0H8g064mg

Here is a very in-depth look at the making of my map Last Bastion questions welcome! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5N0H8g064mg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ux7LklSBW4Y

Spoiler

Map is looking good!

Thanks mate, yeah i watch all their videos, i might come back to it later just to have some closure, i trust that once you get past the learning curve it's not nearly as frustrating, lol

Update: I abandoned the project, or at least put it on the back burner. This was because of a mix of the hammer editor being outdated and frustrating, my impatience, my unwillingness to learn new tools, my incompitance, etc.

Its a fun change of pace designing for a different kind of fps, i feel like this would have been the best entree in the contest if i went through with it. Thank you for the support and or criticism everyone, good luck with the contest. If you want to see my other maps heres my yt channel: https://m.youtube.com/channel/UCYatg8Re7_v9jLaYB33hEgw

Quote from Vaya

10 hours ago, Vaya said: normally you would do the blockout in the engine you are using. Scales be different etc and stuff will be lost/changed in the port. you do you though.

Porting over is not that hard, I've remade maps originally made in Forge, in Unity 1:1. Forge is good for quickly laying out a concept like that

Quote from CommonCrayon

6 hours ago, CommonCrayon said: You have to be trolling.

nope, lol

Do you guys know what a blockout is? This is a preliminary phase before building the map using the hammer editor, maybe you are confused