de_chinatown

[Skybex]

Hello all

Seeing all these awesome CSGO maps coming out of Mapcore inspired me to start my own one, so here i am with a Chinatown themed map. Originally it was going to be set in China, but that would probably have meant near 100% custom assets, so I decided on making it a Chinatown in an American city.

Its a small, aggressive DE map designed specifically for the smaller player amounts in CSGO. But I will also prepare a Demolition version of the map.

Still a lot of work to do as the map is only at its first pass stage. Feedback is appreciated, or ideas for the type of things that could be added to help the theme.

[TarrySruman]

Put some more supports under those rails!

[RaVaGe]

Please try to do something like that, a chinatown in america doesn't make any sense imo.

[Squad]

Looks like a fun map (juding from the pictures )!

Does the map have a placeholder environmental lighting or is this the way you're going for? I'd consider trying a more atmospheric approach. An evening/night setting combined with neon lights, small lamps, etc could be nice, I think. As in this photo:

What is the rail btw?

[blackdog]

The second screenshot makes me think that you could use the lanterns as an unconsciouns guidance for the players, to move along the main routes; if you try the approach Squad is suggesting, it could work even better!

[Skybex]

Thanks for the comment guys.

@Squad. Currently everything is placeholder, What you see is 2 weeks of work since I got the layout down, that includes the lighting. Initially I was going in the direction of the image you posted, but it was too much like one of those maps that might look good in screens, but no one would play because it is either too gloomy, or too dark. So I have been trying with every compile to find a nice balance between friendliness and atmosphere where the lights and lanterns can show through.

and the rail thing will eventually look something like this.

Will take some time to model it so I want to make sure I have the final dimensions/scale before getting to work on it.

@RaVaGe. Doing a US version of Chinatown means I can use a lot of the stock content to get results like in the images below. Setting it in China would mean so much more custom content, making the download size massive, and turning it into a year long project.

http://www.new-york-chinatown.info/photos/chinatown-3.jpg

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7063/6795379236_7c49204165_z.jpg

@Blackdog. I didn't think of the lanterns in that way, only added them to add shadow over the bare road, but that's a good idea

[TarrySruman]

a chinatown in america doesn't make any sense imo.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinatown,_San_Francisco

>over 100,000 citizens

>founded 1848

>draws more tourists than the Golden Gate Bridge

[Skybex]

Little update

Made some changes based on feedback from last weeks test, and started working towards making some more Chinese style buildings. As always, feedback and your views are welcome.

[Squad]

Weird this hasn't got any replies yet.

It's starting to look more like chinatown, but I feel it's still missing something. Maybe it's the architecture which is still looking too "Western", how about some chinese looking railings, pillars, ... with colourful accents? What about some little street markets?

Perhaps it's the lighting. Your justified concern that it can not be too gloomy or dark, if you could manage to get an atmosphere as in the picture below, that should work I guess.

It's not too dark, but it still allows for neon lights/lampions/lanterns to come out looking good.

I can not comment on the gameplay, as I've not played it, but I'm hoping I'll be able to attend in the next coming weeks Keep it up!

[Skybex]

Some stuff I did over the weekend, and did a lot of changes based on information from the tests.

Also Squad, made some attempt to make things a little more like in the images you posted. Still needs a lot of work to get looking right, but I think its going in the right direction.

Also modelled the railway bridge finally

[ElectroSheep]

This is really good

[Minos]

Starting to look cool!

I'd get some more ornate and thinner trims, right now most of the trims are so thick that they make everything look even more bsp`ish. I also think you could get some more color pops here and there, right now everything looks very desaturated which is how 99% of CS:GO maps look Even with this desaturated lighting that you got going, you could gain a lot by using a few saturated walls here and there.

[Sjonsson]

I agree with Minos, it's taking shape now!

Something I noticed was that some streets look very clean, streets generally aren't clean - add some more papers and other kind of trash, that's my suggestion.

[Squad]

I think it looks more interesting now Perhaps a less cloudy sky? The lighting doesn't yet match the skybox (at least from the pictures), but I'm guessing it's still WIP.

Nice work on the railway, but the rails seem to be floating?

Is there a download available by any chance (older version would be cool too!)? I'd love to check it out

[FMPONE]

The lighting is the big issue for me now, too many colors not congealing well together

might make it a night map?

Edited May 14, 2013 by FMPONE