[WIP] DE_MUROS

[pB.]

I've been working on this map for a while now and this is a great excuse to finish it. It is my first 5 vs 5 de_ map so it still needs work.

Story

This is going to be a really in depth story with many sub-plots and unexpected turns. I have spent a very long time on this so you better be ready for the awesomeness that this story shall entail. As far as CS maps GO (*budum tish*), this one is the most realistic in terms of realism and story yet. This story will be so amazing that you will literally be blown away with the awesomeness. Anyway, enough with the stalling; It is time to get on with the plot.

The story take place in an abandoned village in the Alps. The local villagers are sick with tourists ruining their town in the name or tourism so they have decided to blow up the whole town. The logic behind this is only understood by the few foolhardy chickens who still patrol the once busy streets. The Italian Board For The Prevention Of Anti-Tourism Acts Of Terrorism And Cruelty To Chickens (or IBFTPOATAOTACTC for short) has stepped in to put an end to this selfish act. The IBFTPOATAOTACTC must prevent the bomb from exploding in the short window of a round. The terrorists must plant the bomb and if they fail in the given time period, Gaben will give them less money than if they had of planted the bomb. There is a twist to this plot however. For no matter whether they succeed or not, time will be reset and all their efforts will be for nothing. Kinda like a weird version of Ground-hog day. The only way they can win is to perform this act or terrorism successfully 16 time. When, and only when, they have reached this target will the village they have sought so hard to protect be liberated from the relent of the tourists and the reign of the IBFTPOATAOTACTC.

Whether they achieve this is up to you. Do you choose the righteous path and liberate the village, or do choose the constitutional path and fight for justice. This is your moment to shape history. Act now!

De_Muros Workshop Link

Screens

Overview

Other screens:

If you have any feedback or recommendations for the map, please let me know . 

GLHF

Edited August 17, 2015 by pB.
New screens

[Vaya]

- Very low ceilings. You want the player to be able to fully jump

-Lots of extreme lighting...one area is brighter than the sun, next is like the dark side of the moon.

 

Looks very promising though. would be interesting to playtest.

[pB.]

- Very low ceilings. You want the player to be able to fully jump

-Lots of extreme lighting...one area is brighter than the sun, next is like the dark side of the moon.

 

Looks very promising though. would be interesting to playtest.

​I've started fixing these issues as well as other bugs. Thanks a lot for your feedback @Vaya

[Lizard]

This is looking very nice . Keep it up !

[pB.]

This is looking very nice . Keep it up !

​Thanks, will do!

[pB.]

New version out. The lighting has been changed to be more normal as well as some further detailing.

If you have any feedback, please just leave a comment.

[pB.]

Just uploaded another update. A few lighting fixes etc. and some bug fixes.

 

Edited July 15, 2015 by pB.

[pB.]

Update!

The bombsites being the wrong way round are now fixed!

[pB.]

This thread is so lonely  

[text_fish]

This thread is so lonely  

I often see people lamenting a lack of feedback. In my experience, slow/nonexistent feedback can be attributed to one or multiple of the following options:

1) You've not provided ample material (with sufficient info, such as labeling/describing overview features or design choices) for people to comment upon.

2) Somebody else has already provided all necessary feedback and it hasn't yet been demonstrably acted upon.

3) The project doesn't provide a sufficient challenge to people's expectations for them to feel they can provide valuable feedback. I.E. it's either "adequate but not remarkable in it's current state" or it's "terrible beyond the point of being savable" (I can assure you just from looking at your screenshots that it's not the latter in this case).

My advice would be to keep plugging away and updating your thread until somebody finds something to comment upon.

Just from looking at the overview radar, my initial feedback would be that your paths/routes seem very long and narrow, which will have the effect upon the player of making them feel like they don't have much freedom of movement, and may make timings feel longer than they actually are. You should also label the bombsites and spawns -- I can adequately guess where each team spawns, but I shouldn't have to, and knowing which site is A and B would make it easier for me to provide gameplay feedback if I had any.

Edited June 22, 2015 by text_fish

[pB.]

Just from looking at the overview radar, my initial feedback would be that your paths/routes seem very long and narrow, which will have the effect upon the player of making them feel like they don't have much freedom of movement, and may make timings feel longer than they actually are. You should also label the bombsites and spawns -- I can adequately guess where each team spawns, but I shouldn't have to, and knowing which site is A and B would make it easier for me to provide gameplay feedback if I had any.

Thanks a lot for your feedback. I have added icons to the radar as well as contact points. Playtesting last night came to the same conclusion as you about the width of the routes. I have started widening them and simplifying other aspects of the map.

Another issue that was obvious from playtesting was the lighting. I didn't realise how dark some areas of the map were as I forgot that I had fiddles with my graphics card colour options, thus making everything extremely bright for me. I have began to tone down the outside lighting and to increase indoor lighting levels.

The bombsites are also under change. The wall separating B from the mid connector has been removed, opening up the bombsite, thus making it less awkward. The contact point of A has also been changed from a drop and a ladder to a grassy bank leading up to the site.

There have also been other changes fixing bugs and exploits such as being able to escape over the outside wall at B as well as clipping on props and detailed brush work.

Thanks for all the feedback. It is invaluable in making this a better map.

-pB.

[pB.]

After reading text_fish's post, I can't but feel guilty about not giving feedback. I played the map on yesterday's (June  23) playtest.

Detailing: the detailing of the map is good enough to be visually appealing to me personally, but it has some major flaws that are bringing it down.

- There is lack of an unifying theme - your map seems to be a castle theme also implementing the usual Inferno/Italy-like village architecture. While having several contrasting themes that go together well should work, neither of them do, because many of your areas seem to not fully commit to either of them. The result is this seemingly random architecture, that does not feel real or aesthetic, because the themes in the map are mixed, you should fully commit to a certain theme in specific areas.

- Geometry was too blocky, underdetailed - don't get me wrong, there was plenty of well detailed architecture in your map, but many areas felt underdetailed and blocky and I think you can easily figure out which ones need more work just by looking at them.

- Too much geometry and prop clutter - when there are so many brushes and props in one place it becomes very distracting and most of all, absolutely uncomfortable walking around the map. This not only contributes to the detailing, but also the layout - there simply isn't too much space.

- Lighting could be improved - strong lighting makes everything look good, but there is a certain point where it becomes a burden to your eyes. I would suggest using a more desaturated shade of orange and a less strong light for the direct sunlight, and a stronger, less dark ambient light.

 

Layout: I enjoyed the layout, it was genuinely intresting and I played it as I would in competitive, I take it as a sign that a map is good enough to be taken seriously. However this is the place where you can really improve stuff.

- Awkward angles - on one round I was headshotted from CT before I even managed to leave T spawn, just putting that out there so you understand how much cleaning up has to be done. Your map has a lot of verticality to it, which automatically makes the angles uncomfortable for the attacking side, best example of this would be the T entrance to A stairs - you can just rush and mop down terrorists going to A; or T entrance to B - on one round I managed to spray down 3 people just because they were all in this tight, downward hallway. I don't think you need to delete the vertical elements, just make sure that they are compensated for the side that gets the penalty of using it. However most of all I disliked how the prop and brush clutter was obstructing vision like I mentioned before. Defending angles on A or B was not very enjoyable because of this.

 

- Tight pathways, chokepoints - I'm sure a lot of people would agree that your map features some annoyingly small paths, like that of upper B or T entrance to B. Also, both bombsites felt EXTREMELY tight, there were so many props/brushes in B and A it felt like an angle nightmare, I would suggest widening both bombsites and moving the stuff out of the way to make hiding and defending more intuitive.

 

That's all I can think of. I assume you wanted detailed feedback on how to improve, not praise, so here you go. Don't get discouraged by my wall of text, I think your map once improved will be great,

Wow.

Where should I start?

Detailing

I am aware that aspects of the map are underdeveloped. These areas will be built upon as this map is still a WIP. As to the underlying theme, I was going fro the Inferno/Italy look but with surrounding a central castle. I will work on making B and the connector area less different from the rest of the map as the construction theme doesn't seem to work with the sleepy village theme.

The prop clutter and tightness go hand in hand. I am working to simplify the sites as well as expand them.

The lighting is an issue that has been mentioned by multiple people. I am working on making the indoor lighting a similar level to the indoor lighting which will hopefully make the map less burdening fro the eyes.

Layout

The awkward angles were caused by the sudden change in height. Where the raised area on the T side of A was is now a grassy bank leading up  to the site which will hopefully make cross-hair placement easier. This goes for other areas of the map as well.

The tight choke-points and paths are also being widened. I feel that I over cluttered them as well with props. This, as well as making them narrower also led to people getting stuck whilst moving around the map. 

 

Thank you so much for you feedback. It would be impossible to improve a map without people like you.

-pB.

[pB.]

Just had a complete lighting overhaul. The map is now a lot brighter and easier to read. I have also fixed the cubemaps and the shadows from the birds looking like enemies . 

Thanks again for all the feedback

[pB.]

The post-playtesting update is here.

Major changes:

• Widened connectors. This seemed to be a real issue when playtesting so I have widened a lot of areas.
• Enlarged bombsites. These were noticeably tight when playing to I Have made them bigger.
• Better contact points. People thought the contact points at mid and A were awkward and messy so I have tidied them and simplified them.

I have done a new radar and the screens will come soon. This change is live on the workshop so you can go see for your self.

New radar image:

[pB.]

Just done the new screens. There are a few now in the original post but here is the imgur link to the full album.