de_abbottabad (wip)

[garthbartin]

I'm working on a map to recreate Osama Bin Laden's compound from Abbottabad. Someone else did this before me, but his map wasn't a very accurate recreation and wasn't very recognizable. I am going for as much accuracy to the real thing as I can manage. The compound walls are mostly estimated, however I had some dimensions which I was able to match exactly. The exterior of the guesthouse is esitmated, the interior, which I had almost no info on, was completely a guess. The first and second stories of the house are EXACT to the blueprints (if I did everything right) even to the width of the walls. The third story is estimated.

And with that, here's my latest screenie:

[Puddy]

You went all-in on this. I salute you sir. Now make it pretty and let it have really awkward gameplay.

[FMPONE]

smart, i thought baout doing this a while ago. should be a lot of fun

[Puddy]

also, if you re-introduced the escape game mode with this map you'd be the proud owner of two gigantonormous balls

[garthbartin]

To be honest, I'm relatively new to the cs community and especially it's modding community. I've been struggling with what game mode to try to make this map, what is the escape game mode? I've been thinking about a vip mode. Also I plan to have the terrorist team be spawning in different locations where the real life terrorists were when Seal Team Six performed the raid.

Also do you guys think I should keep the lighting? I did it because that's closer to the time that Seal Team Six hit, but it's bad for gameplay imo and doesn't look as nice. The other option would be a bright day map.

Edited May 13, 2013 by garthbartin

[selmitto]

Just keep in mind that while doing everything exactly how the osama operation was, what matters in the end is the gameplay.

[garthbartin]

For me, not really. I mostly do my projects for my own sake, and the part I enjoy the most is the aesthetic and architectural end of things, not the gameplay end, so gameplay is for me secondary. I know that's not the way to make good maps that people want to play, that's just the way I like to do it. That doesn't mean gameplay has to be bad though, if I can make great gameplay without sacrificing authenticity I'll do it.

[Puddy]

I gotta agree with Garth here. Trying to drag in gameplay considerations on this map would defeat it's purpose.

[garthbartin]

SoSo here's some more work on the map with a bonus comparison shot. All the architecture is more or less finished and I'm on to the details stage. Please! Detailed feedback! What's working? What isn't? What ideas do you have? Compliments are great, but criticism's even better. Really any input other than flaming is welcome and appreciated.

Edited May 20, 2013 by garthbartin

[Despo357]

Also do you guys think I should keep the lighting? I did it because that's closer to the time that Seal Team Six hit, but it's bad for gameplay imo and doesn't look as nice. The other option would be a bright day map.

You should keep this lighting. Darkness is a part of the gameplay of counter strike, like some places in de_dust and de_dust2 by exemple. When you can't see clearly, you just have to buy night vision googles.

Edited May 20, 2013 by Despo357

['RZL]

You should keep this lighting. Darkness is a part of the gameplay of counter strike, like some places in de_dust and de_dust2 by exemple. When you can't see clearly, you just have to buy night vision googles.

I cannot fully agree with this statement. Though darkness is a part of csgo, it should be used wisely and only in a few spots. I would give it a daytime environment, its much easier on the eye and you do not have to concentrate your eyes like 100% of the time, it's very exhausting and no fun. And you cannot buy nightvision goggles in csgo... not sure if despo was trolling in that regard or not.

[FMPONE]

i think the darkness is fine as a general idea but not well implemented in this example. it's just plain hard to see, you can have darkness that isn't game-breaking

local lighting (artificial lights) is a good compromise

Edited May 20, 2013 by FMPONE

[Puddy]

If NVG's were still in the game this would be hella-awesome with the addition of some local lights. Would give the map some nice and wonky flavour.

[Mazy]

RD would be proud~

[garthbartin]

If NVG's were still in the game this would be hella-awesome with the addition of some local lights. Would give the map some nice and wonky flavour.

Yeah I was thinking about that, nvgs would be really nice as the seal team had them (at least according to Zero Dark 30) and I toyed around with the idea of making the map much darker and the layout stacked in the terrorist's favor and then giving the cts nvgs on spawn to put them on even footing but it sounded too ambitious and tricky to pull off. If I could pull it off though it'd make for a really interesting mechanic.

Anyway, more screenies:

I've been tweaking the lighting a lot and I think it's slowly coming together. I'm definitely going to dump in a lot more artificial lights. The exterior details of the main house are more or less finished, and I've done some work on the other buildings. The interiors to all the sheds are more or less done, so it'll mostly just be the main house and guest house.

In Zero Dark 30 the Seal team whispers the terrorists' names as they move through the buildings. I'm thinking of doing some voice recording (I could just rip the movie's audio, but for authenticity I want to do it myself) of whipsering the terrorist's name and then setting the audio clip to trigger randomly as cts enter the houses.

Also, this is a long ways off but is there an effective way to manage the minimap with the multiple levels of the house? Can I use triggers to change between different minimaps corresponding to each floor?

Edited May 22, 2013 by garthbartin