[CS:GO] De_oldbarrow

[Hlynur]

Hey there. This is my first thread on this forum.

Who am I?

My name is Hlynur and I've recently graduated from uni and have some free time now to have fun doing some creative stuff.

I found this forum by searching fmpone's username on google and now I've been lurking here for a few weeks.

What I'm working on

At the moment I'm working on my first map. It happens to be a cs go map in an industrial setting. I know the theme is overused but it's what I wanted to do and maybe I'll manage to do something new with it. I've now spent two months on creating the map but it's still a very early work in progress. 

I've already had to learn everything that I've done in the editor and every day I'm still learning a lot. I'm sure making a large competitive map as your first map is never a good idea. But I've already started so lets finish this.

 

Yea the map is called de_oldbarrow for now... thats just something a random name generator made for me before posting this thread... lets see if it will stick or not.

Focus

With this project I wanted to focus on a few things.
Firstly the main focus is on gameplay. I wanted the movement to be as fluid as possible. Rotation times being quick and navigation pretty straight forward. Furthermore I want visual clarity to be above everything else. I'm trying to make the map as bright as possible without looking dull or ugly and I'm trying to keep most of the clutter above the action or in areas that don't see that much action. Lastly regarding gameplay I've decided to have no small spaces like vents since these seem to frustrate me. Same goes for ladders.

Visually I want to make the environment feel like it's worth exploring. I just want to make it look as good as I possibly can.

Overview/layout:
I tried to take an overview picture of the map but it got a little bit buggy and it's not as clear as it should be. The green lines represent a ramp that the "lab" is actually positioned under. What the white dots represent is just that it's a ledge that you can jump off of. I like the classic feel of b rushes on dust 2 where you jump off that ledge.. wanted to recreate something similar.

I do believe this layout has potential. At the moment I do have problems with awp's looking like they'll be to powerful both on mid and from the window in "warehouse" as well. Bombside A is still a work in progress and long towards bomb side A is going to get changed in the next few days.

I've been warned that I really should finish the layout and getting it playtested before starting to texture and detail. But making the map look good is what keeps me motivated... So I detail small parts of it along the way.

And for screens: 

Bombside B currently has A painted on it... Thats going to change. In this pic you are coming through underpass from T spawn and looking on B bombside and "ramp".

Here we are looking from B to lab.

So why am I posting here?

Firstly I wanted to document the project a bit for myself. I also believe that posting here will motivate me to actually go and see the project through. Furthermore I know you guys have great insight into map making and I'm sure I'll get a lot of good help from the members of this community. I think posting here might also give me a chance to find some guys to playtest the map with. That should most likely be a priority for me now to get in some playtesting. And lastly I'm trying to grab some attention for my map so someone will actually play it once it get released.

Thanks for reading. Please tell me what you think and all help and criticism is welcomed. 

Edited September 5, 2014 by Hlynur

[Niller^.-]

Hey there, good to see your work

 

Some comments based on the screenshots: It looks like you have alot of open areas with long sight-lines. As you mentioned yourself, this would probably greatly favor awp. A second minor thing would be the stairs on the last screenshot, they look rather steep, you might want to stretch it further out (which would also make the rails fit better ;P).

 

Good luck with the project. 

[N3tieb]

Hey have you checked how much time it takes eacht team to get to the bombsites? CT should be there faster by 1 or 2 seconds if rushed from each side. Also i cant see it very well but you should make paths to rotate for T's before the chokepoints.

[Hlynur]

Hey there, good to see your work

 

Some comments based on the screenshots: It looks like you have alot of open areas with long sight-lines. As you mentioned yourself, this would probably greatly favor awp. A second minor thing would be the stairs on the last screenshot, they look rather steep, you might want to stretch it further out (which would also make the rails fit better ;P).

 

Good luck with the project. 

Thanks for the comment. Yea I'll try to stretch the stairs out a bit and see how I like.

 

Hey have you checked how much time it takes eacht team to get to the bombsites? CT should be there faster by 1 or 2 seconds if rushed from each side. Also i cant see it very well but you should make paths to rotate for T's before the chokepoints.

Thanks for the reply.

Yea I've checked the timings. Ct's are arriving earlier to all chokepoints by 1-4 seconds. The terrorists are arriving to all the main "AWP battle spots" a fraction of a second earlier than the ct's and this was something I thought would make the gameplay better.

The lack of rotation routes for the T's is done intentionally. Every route I add just feels like It's making the map more complicated rather than enchanting gameplay in any way. Rotating back towards middle is also pretty short distance from underpass. However A long might benefit from an alternative route to back off... just afraid that it would give the T's an easy control over middle. 

[Hlynur]

Now I need a little bit of help.

A few windows (prop static) in my map have turned completely unlit and I've got no idea what the problem is. Here are some pictures:

 

I also have a similar problem with two staircases in the map where the steps aren't lit at all.. Completely black. Any clue what it might be?

[jackophant]

Now I need a little bit of help.

A few windows (prop static) in my map have turned completely unlit and I've got no idea what the problem is. Here are some pictures:

 

I also have a similar problem with two staircases in the map where the steps aren't lit at all.. Completely black. Any clue what it might be?

 

Screenshot of the staircases? The underside of that roof is also completely black, and it looks like you've placed lights directly in front of the window props to try and light them?

 

Did you do a fast compile by any chance?

[esspho]

The black texture ingame can happen if you use a custom material and mistype the name of a bumpmap/ specularmap or the likes of that in your *.vmt-file.

Can't tell if this is the case here.

[Hlynur]

 

Now I need a little bit of help.

A few windows (prop static) in my map have turned completely unlit and I've got no idea what the problem is. Here are some pictures:

 

I also have a similar problem with two staircases in the map where the steps aren't lit at all.. Completely black. Any clue what it might be?

 

Screenshot of the staircases? The underside of that roof is also completely black, and it looks like you've placed lights directly in front of the window props to try and light them?

 

Did you do a fast compile by any chance?

 

 

The black texture ingame can happen if you use a custom material and mistype the name of a bumpmap/ specularmap or the likes of that in your *.vmt-file.

Can't tell if this is the case here.

 

Thanks guys for the replies and the attempt to help.

Deh0lise managed to help me through the chat on here. I had to place info_lightning outside of the windows and link it with the props. That solved the problem with the props being unlit. Thanks a lot for the help.

@Jack textures under the roof are almost black. Thought it would look good. Might need to relook at that

And yea I placed light entities facing the windows just to check if it had something to do with strange shadows or something.

Still haven't managed to get the staircases to work.

Any suggestions welcomed... I'll probably just redo both these stairs soon and see if that doesn't fix it.

Edited September 12, 2014 by Hlynur

[Hlynur]

Deh0lise came to the rescue again. Was just a simple problem with turning off shadows on those railings.

The map is slowly progressing. It just looks a little bit better every time I open up hammer. I'm kinda at the stage where I just want to finish what is left of it and release it. The detailing isn't really looking up to other peoples standards and the whole map is just feeling more and more boring to me every time I open up hammer. Kind of just want to get it out of the way so I can take up some smaller projects like little aim maps or something haha.

[Hlynur]

 

The map is still slowly progressing. I'm getting better and better at mapping so I really have to revisit my old areas to make em look up to par with what I'm making now. Still main focus on just finishing the buildings around CT spawn and then fixing the whole thing up and releasing it.