doi_hinterhof

[hdkhh_]

Hello everybody,

I am new to the forums and I registered to present to you my most recent map called doi_hinterhof, which is the German word for backyard.

A platoon of British soldiers have to take over a fictional German village. This assault leads them through swamps, a - notorious for WW2 - church, through tight alleys and backyards and lastly the canals and an air-raid shelter. In Offensive, the British will have to take over three objectives (momentarily) and destroy one radio to cut off German supplies and troop reenforcements. For Liberating such a convoluted village it takes more than that. Six objectives and mostly harsh close quarter battle awaits both fighting parties with deadly consequences in an unforgiving environment.

The map was developed in the spirit of Insurgency maps and first drawn out by my own without it being a remake or an inspirational work after existing maps, thus meeting the criteria for entering the contest. When I say spirit of Insurgency I mean that the player has vast options to flank, surround or tackle the enemy head to head. Team play will be required to clear narrow areas of enemies to successfully occupy objectives, as it is the game's intention. Furthermore, the environment offers interaction with the player

Spoiler

as in turning lights on or off, finding secret passages or destroying certain parts of the surroundings itself

to deliver a variable experience. More of that is to be added in the final version of the map (if one ever comes).

But now have some screenshots!

The workshop link is as follows: http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=790354595

An update is scheduled before Nov 3rd.

Have a nice evening!

HDKHH

Edited November 10, 2016 by hdkhh_

[hdkhh_]

An update has been posted yesterday. Pictures in the post above will be updated this evening.

 

Greetings

HDKHH

 

[EDIT] Pictures are out with a bit of a delay. Sorry.

Edited November 10, 2016 by hdkhh_

[Todes]

The height variation throughout the map is pretty cool and the different areas do feel distinct. I like the blinding light effect at the end of the tunnel. A smart idea i haven't seen before. But i'd tone it down a bit, so a player can at least identify a silhouette standing outside. What this map would really benefit from are direct sunlight and shadows on the outside areas, maybe a less cyan skybox? Good stuff, keep it up!

[hdkhh_]

Hello and thank you for your constructive words. I will certainly look into these issues as soon as possible (might be on Friday).

What skybox would you suggest? This one blends well with the fog, which is why I kept it - yes, I did not choose it, it was a placeholder at first but it went well with the atmosphere.

[Todes]

Thats how it looks on my end. The skybox is really bright an suggests sunlight but the lighting in your level says otherwise, it feels like a cloudy day. Try to increase brightness (direct sunlight) and/or reduce ambient in the light_env entity. Even on cloudy days you get some kind of directional shadow from the sun. But first find a better skybox, i really can't tell you what to choose, but maybe something more moody - darker?

Edited November 16, 2016 by Todes

[hdkhh_]

Good morning,

I see the problem now. I did not test this map with the bloom effect on - ever! That is probably the cause for the overly bright skybox. I do not have a sun entity set up yet, because I did not want a sun to show. However, I will have a look on that.

Did you, by any chance, turn off your hud so the close-up fog does not show? I've experienced it, that's why I am asking this stupid sounding question. The pictures I posted are not altered. They are as I see the environment of my map, so I thought the ambient was set correctly.

I guess my point is: Thank you for the screenshot and bringing this to my attention. It should look far more grim than that lovely day you posted a picture of I heard the dev say something about the skybox on their livestream but it was running in the background so I did not check what was the problem. Now I know.

Have a great day

HDKHH

[hdkhh_]

I updated the map on Friday.

However, the bloom effect is overkill. I put in cubemaps but the skybox brightens up too excessively.

Trying to fix that until the deadline.

[modtools]

perhaps its the lighting there are sometimes weird effects.

Say if i can help you i will look over the settings of the map.

Perhaps i will find something.

 

Gz Modtools

[Daruth505]

>> Based of Playtestings on 27th Nov '16 <<

Hello hdkhh_ (maker of hinterhof)

Based of the most recent playtest i will now provide some clear and simple to read feedback, hope this helps:

 

> From my perspective with brightness maxed out for my monitor i found it very hard to visually see enemies, you might want to consider tweaking the 'skybox' light/sun to a slightly higher value to help with player visibility.

> I started to enjoy the map overtime. This is perfectly normal as player slowly learn the level itself. However i found myself running into deadends more often than most. Maybe look into some corridors etc that appear to be entrances/exits but aren't. Thus confusing the player (example German spawn left corridor deadend, some stair-wells appear to have doorways under them but dont etc).

> Cap radius, i feel like cap zones need to be increased insize. Thats just me, its fully your choice whether to extend them. I just felt like an 'easy target' while trying to capture, from weapons such as rockets.

> Some of the bigger areas appear to be smaller than what they are. Due to extra props taking up space. Some areas in my opinion should be opened up, however keep cover. I meant the props you placed that aren't cover, these just take up alittle too much space in your level.

 

Hope this helps, this isn't meant to be negative etc. Truly to help you and your level - Daruth505

Edited November 27, 2016 by Daruth505

[hdkhh_]

Good day @Daruth505!

Thank you so much for your feedback. This helps me clear things out.

1) Lighting: I noticed, too. That's why I changed lighting and the skybox. However, the problem persits and I have to take another look at it.

2) I will see to remove misleading corridors to provide a non-dead-ended experience.

3) This is something I haven't figured out myself yet. I changed the cap radius everytime I updated the map I'd love to wait for the playtest on sunday so more people can chime in on this topic.

4) Which areas exactly? The idea of the map is that you get caught in a convoluted village - too convoluted at times (see 2)) - and fight in unforgiving narrow surroundings. If you gave me an example, I'd be happy to take a look at it.

Note: I am overbearing with work at the moment so I have very little time to work on my map. The last time I did anything to it was two weeks ago. However, I will try to do as much improvement as possible.

Thanks to everyone who is helping me improve my map. Keep it coming.

Greetings

HDKHH

Edited December 1, 2016 by hdkhh_

[hdkhh_]

Hello everybody,

Since there were no additional notes on what needs changing I only adressed @Daruth505's list.

The changelog can be seen here: http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/changelog/790354595

The map has been updated accordingly, although #4 (cramped areas) I could not adress, because I got no answer on what areas have too much stuff in them specifically.

Please keep commenting.

Greetings
HDKHH

[Daruth505]

Hello good sir, sorry for the late reply. I too have alot on right now.

Lovly to see you addressing some of my concerns/opinions i had on your map. You can't follow every piece of advice, but the changes seem to improve the map overall. I haven't played the level too recently with players to address gameplay opinions, but your tweaks so far are welcomed. Keep it up, try find sometime if you possibly can.

As for any issues etc you can always find examples at: Steam\steamapps\common\dayofinfamy\sdk_content\maps\example         [within that folder you will find example maps, these might help out. Look at the: light_environment      etc etc incase you still have lighting issues. (the example folder at this current time is to assist mappers).

- Daruth505