csWaldo

I'm completely biased here, but I think it would be a shame to entirely exclude maps that had been worked on before the contest announcement. It wasn't clear when or even if there would be another contest and I'd rather not have to pick putting my current work on ice for a year or not taking part in the contest. I completely get that having additional weeks or months can seem very unfair, but I think the area where it'll show up most will be polish. 9 months should be enough for any team to make a solid layout and some pretty good art. A level that was started prior to the contest would be expected to be much more polished by the end of it and that could be reflected in the judging. For example, if 20 points are given out for polish and overall quality, then it could be set to max. 10 points for maps that were already being worked on. I wasn't participating in the last contest, so I'd be curious to know how much the "already worked on maps" rule really contributed to the finalists and winners. Did anyone really get their position in the contest by simply submitted a map that was already half done?

A should be a bit easier to smoke off now

We made some changes to mid and A that should adress the concerns brought up by the last test. We'll do another 5v5 test tomorrow and that should hopefully finalize the layout and get us started on environment art. Radar before / after

Just uploaded the playtest ready version to the workshop. Here is a before /after of the layout. We made small changes to the cover and paths, mostly around A and B site. I think the bombsite's layouts are mostly finished. Hopefully the coming 5v5 test will confirm that. There's also a bunch more concept art in the level now, so here are some impressions from it. Hope to see some of you at the playtest

Lol yeah, we need a custom texture for that. We want to test next week, probably on thursday, unless something gets in our way.

Making some progress. Next playtest soon. Hope we can lock down the layout soon so we can focus on art. Props to @Vaya for this scene

Inferno uses models for arches. Afaik the texture for them are like 3 very generic brick colors and 1 grout color. The UVs for the bricks and the grout is then just stacked over these colors. Looks alright as long as you don't look too close at it. In general, to get nice arches, models are your best bet. You can use the ones from inferno, canals and cobble, or make your own

Will be clipped before the next playtest for sure. And yeah, that peek could be very powerful. I'm already debating wether to block it off, but I'll guess we'll see how it does in the next test first. Thanks I liked it too but the amount of entrances and playable space around the site made it very uncomfortable to take, plant and defend for Ts. Something had to go and the second door from CT got the short end. Some things just aren't meant to work out Thanks for the feedback guys, appreciate it!

B site needed some love after the last playtest, so here's another progress gif:

Released a new version just now. Here's a slider that shows our progress: https://imgsli.com/MTk1Mw

Well, time to scrap this map.

Gotta keep the thread alive, so here's a concept for B connector

Don't feel afraid to completely redo / drop a map when you're just starting out. You improve quickly and fixing a map takes much more time and effort than just making a new one. If you feel like a level is much worse than what you can do, just start over. I would just try to practice the entire process of making a map rather than just lets say grey boxing. Coming up with a theme, designing the rough structure and architecture of your level and doing actual detailing all go hand in hand with the layout and just doing one over and over won't help you improve as much. Im speaking from experience here If I were you, I'd work on this level for as long as I still enjoyed it, then move on to something new. Personally I'd recommend doing smaller projects that you actually finish. Making an entire defuse level is hard and takes a long time. Its easy to get stuck on the layout or not finish detailing especially for a beginner. I'd start by making small, detailed scenes and maps like say a well detailed, themed aim map, or just a particular scene youre interested in. Look at reference images from real life, other maps and games and study the way official maps build layouts, use cover and how they construct an environment with their assets.

The screenshot looks dope, but just judging from the radar, it might be a bit too complex and large? 3 chokes lead to 4 entrances onto site. I imagine that would be super hard to hold with 2 CTs. I wouldn't wanna say what to cut without playtesting the map, but I feel like something needs to go here. Great world building though. Would love to play that.

Here's a way to change flow to reflect that then: