Squeebo

Congratulations to all the winners! Some really cool maps came out of this; really fantastic to see. Cheers!

I'd love to see a contest for The Dark Mod. Would be amazing to see what people would come up with for that. It's singleplayer, which is an interesting level design opportunity and it's free which opens it up to everyone to develop for.

My vote went to UT4 though, was great to be a part of the last content for that! Definitely want to get into designing maps for that, and contests are always a good incentive.

There's incentive enough for people to develop for CS:GO regardless of a contest as well, what with the possibility of being included in Operations. If there was going to be a contest for CS:GO however, I'd love to see it be based around Arms Race levels, which could be a fun opportunity for people to develop a different sort of level. Perhaps contact Valve about adding some contest winning maps to the Arms Race rotation? It's a gamemode that really benefits from a large quantity of maps, but the current default rotation is lacking.

Here's a few small changes in scale to consider, I hope it's clear enough. The image on the left has re-scaled sections and the the right image is the original for comparison reference.

The map was fun and has potential and the theme could definitely work well with the layout. The middle of the map felt a little confusing to me, rather unnecessarily in some ways, I very often felt I was going to be shot in the back as it has entrances on different levels and players moving over top of and under each other. I don't know what exactly I would change to improve that but I would consider making it flow a little better between the different levels, with additional ways up and down. Just a thought. I might also consider adding additional cover in some areas in middle.

Definitely consider adding some additional cover on Long A, but be careful not to add too much.

I enjoyed the close quarters of bombsite B and also the many wall-bang opportunities the thin wooden shelves provide. My concern with the site is how to make it work visually, it might be hard to keep it interesting in such a small space, and if you haven't worked out a clear theme for the site I would give it some thought. Old nondescript warehouses usually aren't the most interesting locations, but they can still work if done right.

Hope the feedback helps a little and I look forward to seeing how this map will progress, best of luck with the next version.

Played 20 rounds or so with bots, the layout seems pretty solid, and the scale seems good for a competitive match to me, though it does feel on the small side. It's cool that half of middle is a pit players have to travel around, helps reinforce the theme of the map. The setting feels very fresh to me, I like the direction you're taking with the visuals.

This could be a viable safe plant spot, though I do assume it's not plantable as it might be too powerful:

The clipping here feels a little obtrusive, I really thought I'd be able to get over there. It could be more obvious it's not traversable, or you could make let players get up on the roof, which could also be interesting:

This route seems like a somewhat drastic turn and felt a little awkward. Perhaps it could be shifted to flow better? Not a big deal but something to consider:

These are all very minor gripes, I enjoyed the map, I look forward to seeing it done.

I do recommend you submit it for playtesting on Mapcore before finalizing it though.

Cheers!

Hey! Just wanted to update this thread real quick, asking if anyone has any feedback about the map, as we've just done a playtest.

So far I've got to take into consideration:

• May be too easy for CTs to flank Ts, at times from strange angles.
• Direct route to B from CT spawn is unnecessarily windy and indirect.
• Awkward timings in mid allow CTs to flank Ts from stairwell, can feel strange.
• No safe plant on bombsite B
• Apartment windows overlooking A might provide problematic angles.

Cheers for the playtest guys! I'll see if I can make the level flow a little better. Very grateful if anyone has ideas towards that goal.

Very much a work in progress, but this is the map I'm going to try and focus all my attention on until it's good and done. I think it has a lot of potential.

Sorry I haven't taken many screenshots yet but please do let me know if you think there's any problems with it so far.

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=767048217

Gonna try and get it playtested as soon as possible before I start fleshing out all the details.

Hey, ran around it today, just a few little things I noticed, for your consideration:

http://imgur.com/a/m4oJV

I thought it would be prudent to start a thread for this map since it's to be playtested soon.

Any and all feedback appreciated!

The map is to be set in Venice, here are a few screenshots and the overview:

Made my first model! Made in blender; it's a gothic ornament, hopefully for detailing a tower.

This map looks fantastic. Really looking forward to testing!

This would look a lot better with the props lit, but I had to use fast compile; the normal compile is taking like 20+ hours though, so clearly I've done something wrong here.

Is this a map anyone would be interested in playtesting if I got it optimized properly?

Congratulations to all the winners! All the winning submissions are excellent choices. Cheers for the contest guys.

8 hours ago, NATO said:

*heavy breathing*

edit: is it wrong that I'm trying to discern the map from the screens?

I think we all are.

• Carsten Booth
• Squeebo
• DM-Chasm
• Download Link: https://drive.google.com/open?id=0Bw0uQ365Jjm3cmhHQTVYYjdOdEU
• Alternate Download Link: https://www.dropbox.com/s/phehrovtgn6vekt/DM-Chasm-WindowsNoEditor.pak?dl=0

“I agree that this content constitutes a Submission under the Unreal Engine EULA ( https://www.unrealengine.com/eula )."

My first map on UE4, learned a lot while making this; good times! Cheers for the contest and good luck to everyone.

I agree with a lot of what you said; nice to see someone bring up a lot of these talking points and to know there's someone who shares some of these frustrations. I do hope some UX/UI developers take heed.

Thanks for posting.

This is horrible... Horrible news. He was a great actor. I don't know what else to say. He'll be missed.

Full name: Carsten Booth

Nick name: Squeebo

Map name: DM-Chasm

Download Link: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/0Bw0uQ365Jjm3fjZEOHd3dFFYbWVmT1Z5SzRfSklqZzRaajRMZFNKOFkwT3NPRzJleVY4cGM

I agree that this content constitutes a Submission under the Unreal Engine EULA ( https://www.unrealengine.com/eula ).

Another small update; I think I will upload this version for playtest. What do you guys think?

Hey, long time no update,
been trying to prepare my map for a playtest just recently.
would be grateful for any feedback beforehand.

https://tornbannerjira.atlassian.net/wiki/display/CHIVCOM/Getting+started+with+map+editing

Apologies! Will use the submission form from now on. Cheers.

Could I have the next available playtest slot for my map de_butterfly?

I was wondering if anyone on here had experience creating/importing custom models with animations into Source/CS:GO.

I had planned on having the butterflies in my map be a prop_dynamic that played an animation loop of them flying around.

Anyone have advice on where to start on something like this?

Also thinking of making a custom butterfly particle effect, if anyone had experience with that, I'd love any advice.

If this is a butterfly garden I just want to say... that's one of the best settings I have ever seen

 

 

Right now the map looks a bit small, perhaps try moving the bomb sites apart from each other. Maybe give the Ts and CTs a bit more space between each other as well so they aren't thrown into combat as quickly

Butterfly garden is the plan! Hope I can get it convincing, it's definitely going to be a challenge.

Small was my intention, I think I will probably move the bombsites apart slightly. Ts and CTs being thrown into combat extremely quickly was also intentional, but I think you're right, it could be improved, as it didn't seem to play out particularly as interesting as I had hoped, I will probably make some changes in that regard.

Thanks very much for the comments!

Okay hopefully this makes enough sense.

 

Red - CT spawn move closer to mid

 

Blue - Move the circular mid area closer to the centre of the map. The CTs should have time to set up before the Ts can get to mid.

 

Orange- Bombsites need to be futher apart.

 

If the bombsites are too close together the CTs can rotate really fast. it was like 4-6 seconds between the edge of A and B

 

Try and avoid having foliage at head height too, Can lead to frustrating gameplay.

Makes sense to me, thanks for illustrating your points, I really appreciate it.

I'm considering changing the placement of both CT and T spawns; seems like their could be more variety in starts that way, I will likely move CT spawn thataway.

Bombsite A(Left on map) will probably be moved further left, that circular room it's in will probably be rearranged to play a little different.

I did want quick rotation times between bombsites for both teams, but I wanted the shortest route to be the most dangerous to take, which is not really the case with the current layout. I will try to make it a little more interesting.

I'll try to sort out the foliage for next playtest.

Thanks again for the feedback!

the size of the map isnt the problem, it's the horrific route balance.

 

T's get smashed at every angle. They get hit at 3 angles in the little rock room within about 3 seconds of round start, and their only other route into A excluding a CT route from flanking is a million miles away through a very dangerous mid. Again, B has only 1 real entrance which is also on a lower level where CTs can totally unhindered, flank over the top of Ts who then have to run out into the open.

 

CTs on the other hand have all the high ground and when they dont, have multiple additional entrance points. Also, why is there this drop down zone in CT spawn (see pink section)?

 

I get the impression this was never criticaly assessed for playability while being blocked out and followed a purely aesthetic approach.

 

There are also too many curved walls. They're a nice touch to mix up typically blocky maps, but they are harder to peak without showing a lot of your body, or going very wide and leaving yourself in the open.

The A bombsite rock room was meant to be hectic early in the round, both teams arrive in the room at the same time, but the CTs definitely do have more options, it seems. CTs can get to the bombsite quicker from the middle corridor and the right corridor, while the Ts can move to the left corridor to flank quicker, was the idea, but the odds are definitely stacked in the CTs favour. I'll try to even up the routes in the next version.

The drop down zone in CT spawn was meant to help terrorists get a vantage point when flanking CTs, was an idea that really didn't pan out; it's not feasible for the Ts get there in time to gain any advantage from it, generally. It'll probably be walled off in the next version.

Middle is meant to be equally dangerous for both teams, with the curved walls on both sides making it hard to peak, the CTs have a clear advantage here as well however, with a few more options.

Bombsite B could definitely be more interesting for the rushing terrorists, I'll try to improve the layout in that regard.

The curved walls are very intentional for that very reason, but you're right, it might be an improvement to have more variation between sharp corners and curved ones.

Thanks very much for the feedback, I do appreciate the criticism.