ITT: Post maps/scenes that never saw the light of the day.

[RaVaGe]

[Shandy445]

[shm0]

Hey all!

 

I'm getting ready to release my first CS:GO map (for greyblock layout testing), so I thought it's time I finally share the original concept map I created for it:

 

Map greyblock has been released: 

 

Some background info on me and the map:

Hi!  My name is Will, I live in Toronto, Canada, I've been playing CS since June 19th 1999, and this is the first CS map I've created.  I've worked at Ubisoft Toronto since 2012 - I started as a Development Tester

Splinter Cell Blacklist, and due to my work on this map I was offered a temporary Junior LD position on Assassin's Creed Unity.  Since that time I've grown exponentially in this craft, and was hired full-time as a Level Designer with Ubi TO just recently! 

 

I'm a "do it myself, and learn myself" kind of person, which means I'm often slow at first when learning something new and made every single fucking mistake one could make when learning how to Level Design, and also with using Hammer as a tool.  However, I've learned from these mistakes, and carried on.  Even when I thought my work was complete shit, I still pushed through.. (sometimes having to take extensive breaks to re-evaluate concepts).

 

Before starting on this map, I hadn't used Hammer since it was called Worldcraft... essentially I was a complete noob.

 

-------------

I had a vivid dream I was playing a really awesome CS map that took place in a military airbase.  It was night time - pitch black, snow was falling and had blanketed the entire facility.  When I woke up I immediately starting putting everything I could remember down on paper.

 

 

Story & Setting:

The

Mont Blanc "Fleur de Rouge" Airbase was established in 1942 as a quick response mechanism for French defence along their Swiss border against Nazi bombardment.  Formerly a key airbase for the Armée de l'Air during WW2, shortly after the fall of the Nazi war machine in 1945 the airbase was de-militarized.  It served shortly as a communication outpost on the French border of Switzerland until it was listed non-operational in 1952. High maintence costs, poor visibility and icy runway conditions were listed as the main reasons for the Airbase's closure.

In 1964 the Airbase was reopened and listed as a storage facility for decommissioned military hardware. This however is not the entire truth. The Fleur de Rouge Airbase has secretly been operating as a distribution port for a secret nuclear arms manufacturing facility hidden within Mont Blanc. This facility has been given the codename:  "Mont Ruse" by the French Military.

 

A Serbian sleeper cell stationed in Torino, Italy has just came across leaked information on the airbase and the secret nuclear facility inside. Their plan of attack: detonate the French nuclear weapons on the French/Swiss border in an attempt to taint the relationship between the two nations and spark a 3rd World War.

 

 

Album here

 

 

While creating this map, I realised pretty early in development that it was not a typical CS style of map - it was very open, with more of a sandbox feel rather than linear paths and connections.  Truthfully, this map was more ideal for Battlefield, than it was for CS.  However, I had a vision for the map I wanted to create, and I wanted to complete that vision.  Also, working on it allowed me to learn Hammer while prototyping out different design ideas.

 

Ultimately, I wanted to create a map for 5v5 competitive play, and this map simply was not suitable for many different reasons.  This map would probably make a pretty fun armsrace, deathmatch or 32 man pub man, but not 5v5. So I took the parts of this map that played the best, cut the rest, pushed the art intentions from my mind as best as I could, and started fresh with a new layout.  

 

--------

 

Tomorrow afternoon I hope to share with everyone the new map (which is still in greyblock and needs some public testing).  The map also has a new name, as DE_RUSE was too similar to other map names, such as Rust, Rush, etc.  I have a few more things I need to do on it first before publishing, but I'm very eager to show off my hard and get some great feedback on it.

 

(link to the new map, DE_GAMBIT)

 

Cheers!

 

 

 

 

EDIT:  Interesting fact!  The design intentions of this map are strongly influenced from Goldeneye's Facility + Runway.

 

2012, Ubisoft Toronto - A quiet but often joyful Level Designer with a classic British accent sat beside me for at least a month before I finally felt compelled to ask him "So, Duncan, where did you work before Ubisoft?".  Very modestly he replies, something along the lines of "Well My first job in the industry was with Rare, working on Goldeneye".  My reaction:           Yes, Duncan Botwood - one of the original 9 Goldeneye Devs.  I pretty much told him on the spot that he's my hero and asked him to sign my mousepad.    (I was serious, he laughed)

 

Edited May 19, 2015 by shm0

[Vaya]

Detailing here is great. Lighting is probably too dark for comp CS too so keep that in mind. Visability is key.

[Pampers]

Detailing here is great. Lighting is probably too dark for comp CS too so keep that in mind. Visability is key.

 

You could say that map

(•_•)

( •_•)>⌐■-■ 

(⌐■_■),

never saw the light of day

[shm0]

Detailing here is great. Lighting is probably too dark for comp CS too so keep that in mind. Visability is key.

Ya, this was barely a 1st lighting pass - probably not many cubemaps placed either.  I wanted to do a night map, but not sure how that will work for competitive.  Plus sacrificing a lot of light play with the global ray cast is a shame... so it will likely be a somewhat daytime map.  Lighting and layouts were some fundamental problems with the map which I've fixed when I started from scratch (which is now  )

Edited May 18, 2015 by shm0

[Vaya]

 

Detailing here is great. Lighting is probably too dark for comp CS too so keep that in mind. Visability is key.

Ya, this was barely a 1st lighting pass - probably not many cubemaps placed either.  I wanted to do a night map, but not sure how that will work for competitive.  Plus sacrificing a lot of light play with the global ray cast is a shame... so it will likely be a somewhat daytime map.  Lighting and layouts were some fundamental problems with the map which I've fixed when I started from scratch (which is now  )

 

de_acceleration does it quite well, have a look at that as a base maybe?

[shm0]

 

 

Detailing here is great. Lighting is probably too dark for comp CS too so keep that in mind. Visability is key.

Ya, this was barely a 1st lighting pass - probably not many cubemaps placed either.  I wanted to do a night map, but not sure how that will work for competitive.  Plus sacrificing a lot of light play with the global ray cast is a shame... so it will likely be a somewhat daytime map.  Lighting and layouts were some fundamental problems with the map which I've fixed when I started from scratch (which is now  )

 

de_acceleration does it quite well, have a look at that as a base maybe?

 

Thanks for the suggestion!  I'll check it out

[RaVaGe]

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/4055243/blorav/cp_rav_b5_3.rar

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/4055243/de_rav.rar

[Quotingmc]

well im not gonna force this one, it isn't working for me

 

Isn't really work heh?

[Seldoon182]

Sometime I'm like woah this shit looks so good can't wait for it to be release.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And then I'm like.. fuck that thread.

[leplubodeslapin]

I found a concept i've made for my map fy_pool_day back in 2012 in which you were able to switch at any time from the version i made (with "csgo graphics") to the original version of the map (made by Squall on CS 1.6) by just switching a lever.

Here on this test version, there was no button/lever, you had to shoot at a box in the middle of the map :

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=v-njp5ekq3Q

 

Try to guess how i did it

[Deathy]

func_brush 

[leplubodeslapin]

Hehe you know what, you're right ! Or at least that's what i tried to do at first ^^

With this method, i had loooots of issues due to lighting and collision, and i needed real walls behind the func_brush to optimize the map (even if it's true it wasn't really needed for such a small map). So after transforming all the walls in func_brush and remaking the map with old graphics also in func_brush, i deleted everything and found a much simpler and elegant solution

The environment exists twice on the map : one for the "newer version" and one for the CS 1.6 version and there's a trigger_teleport that gets activated when you switch the lever/shoot the box. To keep the relative positions of each players according to the trigger_teleport box, i used a info_landmark entity.

The only constraint is that the collisions must be exactly the same (so that players don't get stuck when teleporting). If anyone wants to do the same for a new gamemod or something, don't hesitate to do it and ask me if you need any help.

[ElectroSheep]

I made a small map on 1.6 with some corridor from silent hill school. Then after a minute, the sirens were yelling and the map transform into rust, all with func brush too