de_arr

[text_fish]

Pirates! Pubs! The Sea! Cornwall! Somebody somewhere finds all this exotic and I happen to have a wealth of real world references not too far away, so this will be my theme.

I will have to complete the bulk of this map by September, because that's when my next job starts and I disappear for eighteen weeks. 

 

 

"To Err is Human. To ARR is Pirate". - Captain Pope

 

Thank you, I shall be back with a mood board all in good time.

Edit: As promised...

Good luck everybody.

Edited June 5, 2019 by text_fish

[text_fish]

Early Workflow and Brainstorming
I'm throwing myself full pelt at this project with the time I've got over the summer, so that once I start my next job I'm hopefully able to fine-tune a near complete layout and assets during the weekends. I'm hoping it'll be helpful to blog my progress here, more for my own piece of mind than anyone elses interest, but feedback on anything I show is obviously welcome!

Layout
I'm using the bare bones of a layout that I've been tinkering with in private for a year or so. In that time it's changed a hell of a lot, with the exception of a mechanic whereby T's have limited oversight of lower mid and the two bombsites very early on in the round, but have to be proactive (sorry Casual servers) and sacrifice some of that oversight in order to actually plant. Some people are going to absolutely loathe it, but if there's one thing I've learned in my failed attempts to complete a CS map over the years it's that the more of those players you listen to, the more your map ends up turning in to a boring variation of Dust, and that isn't what I want to make. I'll post an overview when I have one that illustrates the concept well enough, although it's going to be tough because a lot of the lines of sight are height dependant. On that note, I've been meaning to ask how people go about making those pretty height gradient radars that Valve have switched to recently. Is this something that the engine spits out, or just a case of painting over a traditional radar in Photoshop? 

Visuals
Here's an early list of assets I'm going to have to create over the next few months. It's rather intimidating when I see it down on paper, but it's also somewhat scaleable I guess.

General Props

• Lobster Pots (1 of 2 complete)
• Fish Crates
• Bundle of Nets
• Bundle of Ropes
• Fishing Buoy (1 of 3 complete)
• Mooring Ropes
• Mooring Chains
• Mooring Hooks
• Seaweed
• Old Fashioned British Post Box
• Plastic Bucket and Spades
• Pint Glass
• Sash Windows (4 variations)
• Lead Windows
• Metal Beer Keg
• Rum Crates
• Fish & Chip Shop Sign
• Cornish Pasty Sign
• Cornish Flag
• Bunting
• Roll Cage
• Railings

Hero Props

• Pub Signs (1 of 3 complete)
• Large Anchor
• Pirate Statue
• Ice Cream Stand

Materials

• Sand with Seashells
• Sand with Seaweed
• Seaweed Overlay
• Slate Panels
• Wooden Cladding
• Stucco Render

I'll endeavour to keep this list updated with any additions and strike through finished assets.

Edited June 11, 2019 by text_fish

[Squad]

20 minutes ago, text_fish said:

On that note, I've been meaning to ask how people go about making those pretty height gradient radars that Valve have switched to recently. Is this something that the engine spits out, or just a case of painting over a traditional radar in Photoshop? 

Terri's Radar Generator Making radars was never faster and easier.

[mr.jogurt]

27 minutes ago, text_fish said:

On that note, I've been meaning to ask how people go about making those pretty height gradient radars that Valve have switched to recently. Is this something that the engine spits out, or just a case of painting over a traditional radar in Photoshop? 

 

6 minutes ago, Squad said:

Terri's Radar Generator Making radars was never faster and easier.

 

Or follow TopHatWaffles Tutorial:

 

[text_fish]

Thanks Jogurt and Squad!

Edited June 6, 2019 by text_fish

[blackdog]

One of the best settings! I collected a good amount of reference myself for a Cornwall map setting.

Why not calling it more appropriately de_cornish?

[text_fish]

It is a beautiful place! I think de_cornish is too "on the nose" for my tastes. I'm currently on the fence between de_arr and de_kernow. Arr is a fun working title though so I'll stick with it for now.

[text_fish]

I done gone made my first lobster pot. It's been a while since I went down this particular rabbit-hole so I had to relearn the convoluted workflows but I feel like I'm off to a good start. Need to play with the scale a little and make a few variations so that I can stack them for light cover.

[text_fish]

I'm continuing to make good progress on my asset list, working my way up to some of the more complicated props such as a pirate statue and an ice-cream stand, both of which will test various of my skills hopefully.

In the meantime, I started playing around with Terri's Auto Radar gizmo yesterday and it got me re-evaluating cover and some of the sightlines, so I had a fitful night of very little sleep trying not to think about it, then made some big changes when I got up this morning. Here's the current radar, with some rough timings:

Can auto-radar automatically crosshatch overlapping areas somehow? I couldn't see an obvious way in the guide, but perhaps I was looking for the wrong thing.

I've deleted a bunch of lazy blockwork in the top right corner of the map above bombsite B which is why it currently looks like a large empty expanse (it is), so redesigning that is next on my agenda layout-wise and once that's done I might be ready to pop it up on the workshop.

[text_fish]

People keep employing me (don't they know I have a very important mapping competition to lose?) which has slowed down progress, but I got a chance to experiment with my English seaside village aesthetic the last few days:

I want to add a bit more volume to that wisteria tree, but it's already heavier on the poly's than I intended so I'm going to need to get a bit more creative with it.

Not too happy with that fence, but it's important to control movement and sight-lines. I might try raising the wall and if all else fails I'll add "Slightly less ugly fence" to my ever-growing list of assets to create.

The beginnings of a seaside ice cream stand. The finished piece will have a nicer base, and some signage.

Salty's Wholesale Fishing Supply Co. because in another life people know me as Salty instead of Text Fish. Gotta change that horrible orange text at some point. To the bottom left you'll see where I've been experimenting with hacky ways to make a sea-wall out of displacements and Valve props, but I think I just need to open Blender and make something bespoke.

That's all for now folks, see you next time.

[Vaya]

when we testing this

[text_fish]

2 minutes ago, Vaya said:

when we testing this

Someday!

I realise that may have sounded a bit like "Sunday", but I'm happy to confirm that it will not be Sunday, as I will be holidaying in real Cornwall and hopefully taking some useful reference shots.

[blackdog]

On 6/11/2019 at 1:58 PM, text_fish said:

I'm continuing to make good progress on my asset list, working my way up to some of the more complicated props such as a pirate statue and an ice-cream stand, both of which will test various of my skills hopefully.

In the meantime, I started playing around with Terri's Auto Radar gizmo yesterday and it got me re-evaluating cover and some of the sightlines, so I had a fitful night of very little sleep trying not to think about it, then made some big changes when I got up this morning. Here's the current radar, with some rough timings:

Can auto-radar automatically crosshatch overlapping areas somehow? I couldn't see an obvious way in the guide, but perhaps I was looking for the wrong thing.

I've deleted a bunch of lazy blockwork in the top right corner of the map above bombsite B which is why it currently looks like a large empty expanse (it is), so redesigning that is next on my agenda layout-wise and once that's done I might be ready to pop it up on the workshop.

So is mid all water then? Seems very cool if it comes out the way I’m imagining it

[text_fish]

8 minutes ago, blackdog said:

So is mid all water then? Seems very cool if it comes out the way I’m imagining it

Heh. Nah, I can see how you'd think that from the radar, but the sea-level ends at about the second gridline (15) from the bottom, though there will be some evidence of flooding further up from high tides. An earlier version had more water in the playable area, but thematically I thought it felt a little gimmicky, and also meant I couldn't have a big sandy beach to run around on.

[Plantello]

Plus, water is kind of finicky anyways. It's pretty glitchy at times, and it slows people, and it splashes loudly when landed in... It affects the balance as well as the asthetics. My map used to include water in important areas, but bots handled it poorly and it was generally unpleasant to be playing around.

Edited July 8, 2019 by Plantello