[WIP] Torga

[NikiOo]

Here's the layout:

Spoiler

Gonna have a playtest tonight.

I didn't add the permaclose door, but I did make one that takes 15 seconds to open, so that should be an interesting feature to test, should I say EXOTIC.

Rotation time between the sites is now reasonable.

Edited June 18, 2019 by NikiOo

[NikiOo]

So the playtest just finished, and there was a lot of negative feedback, mostly on the size of the map and the rotations, but also on the verticality and some other quirky features. It felt to me like it was fun, but maybe because I was only spectating . I am very positive, though because the main features, which I was skeptical about turned out pretty much the way I wanted them to.

I feared people wouldn't get the right timings on the wallbang, but there was a lot of wallbanging. I was worried they wouldn't use the door cause it's too slow, but they sat there and waited for it to open.

I understand where most of this criticism is coming from and I have some plans for addressing the biggest issues. There are some things I can't address, though, without turning this into a generic three lane layout, which go against my initial conception for the map, involving fast gameplay and a lot of high risk high reward decisions for both teams.

First thing to get rid of would be the pool in the middle. It was an aesthetic decision that severely limited my architecture and forced me to have this large height differential. Verticality is going to be decreased, but I won't get rid of the roof area on B will most likely remain as it is. I will make some changes to simplify the cover and make angles more clear and fair. I might also consider partially merging the two middles to simplify rotate paths and shorten rotates.

I'm gonna rewatch the VOD tomorrow and take some notes, It's late at night and I might not be thinking straight. Just wanted to update you all that your eagerness to turn this into Dust2 is not gonna crush my dreams.

Edited June 18, 2019 by NikiOo

[NikiOo]

So I decided to rebuild middle from the ground up, turning it from a convoluted mess of twisted and inconvenient connectors and ladders, to a more nice-looking, a bit less convoluted mess of convenient and quick connectors with half as many ladders.

Here's a few screenies, just for the sake of it:

Spoiler

• So, the wallbang is still there, but it  is will be made in such way that it is much less unfair for Ts.
• I've gotten rid of the big open bath and moved it here, where it is more secluded by the tall walls and protected from the wind.
• Now that same (mid 1) pathway is visible through the arch on the left in the last image, which allows me to more comfortably allow Ts to have access to CT spawn, that in turn would play in a very interesting way with bomb site A, which you will see in future update.
• The rotation times have decreased drastically down to about 14-16 from plant zone to plant zone.
• I've gotten rid of the 15 second door, which was frankly very funny, but I would not miss out on a chance to swap it out for a more convenient path. (I am planning a 20 second door, though at a different spot)
• Likely to remove the 270 degrees turn that CTs have to make at spawn to get to A.
• So now I'm trying to focus a lot of the action towards this middle area, which is difficult to access for Ts, but will inevitably give them a lot of options.
• The connector to B leads to a very powerful elevated spot through a bridge that can be destroyed both by CTs and Ts.

[Karthoum]

The map seemed to be far more open in the initial posts but I'm liking how it's turning out, looks a lot like Insurgency maps in some ways.

If there's (another?) Mapcore test I'll be definitely on the lookout for this one, the style you've gone for is intriguing.

 

[NikiOo]

Check out this AAA level lead up to the bomb site:

You come out of the cave and you see a tower, kind of hidden behind a tree, which enforces your curiousity, so you ask yourself, why would that tower be hidden behind a tree? I better check it out...

You take the closest path to the tower (which is currently super dark, but will be well lit when it's done), and you enter a cave. You remember the tower was really tall, so even though you are in a cave, which is supposed to have a roof, you look up and guess what you see? The tower again...

...so you are drawn further down the cave, lead by the light, to an opening, but then you stop dumbfound, wondering where the tower went? You don't see the tower, but you do see a bunch of CTs. You kill them with your Bear Grills' Jungle Explorer Machete, and then you go on...

After the long fight, you are exhausted, covered in blood from the fight and dirt from the rain, lost orientation, as well as your map, you check your compass, but it's disrupted by some inexplicable magnetic force, as if an alien rock of unknown substance had fallen somewhere around here (presumably on the other bomb site), and so you go outside and look around, and then suddenly...BAM there's the tower again! Are you getting Deja Vu? No, you are simply experiencing great map design 

P.S.

I know I have the tendency to completely rework areas, instead of making small changes to perfect what I have, but I had an excuse this time, mid was really bad and had to be reworked, so after tossing away the junk, I had to reiterate on A to make it fit the new mid design, and it had to have only one entrance, so this is what came to my mind, plus Vaya said it looks fine, so I'm alright with it.

I'm using some aztec props as placeholders at the moment, but I might end up changing the theme to something more overgrown anyway.

Edited June 26, 2019 by NikiOo

[NikiOo]

Alright, so my theme clearly wasn't exotic enough, so I'm changing it to an Old Fictional Chinese Fishing Village (maybe Abandoned, maybe there is still a terrible old man lurking in the shadows).

I started making a rooftops tileset:

The pierced fish is gonna be the emblem of the map and there's gonna be a lot of fish hanging around, I can also imagine making flies around the spoiled fish, but then again it's just my imagination and I might find it too hard and give up.

I decided to put more effort into the textures than the models (quite frankly I was just being lazy), but still, it's gonna be hanging high in the skies so no one should have  anything to complain about. Other than that, I think I got the colors pretty much right, the fish might have to change to a more metallic color, though.

I'm thinking of a relatively dark weather to fit with the gloomy mood, maybe early morning or late evening, or I could just make it a stormy day with rain and dark clouds.

Edited July 16, 2019 by NikiOo

[Ynel]

Those tiles are looking extra cool! But thr layout is very boring. Every round will play kinda the same. CTs rush out, and catch Ts off-gourd, while going to one of the sites.

[NikiOo]

On 7/16/2019 at 8:31 PM, Ynel said:

Those tiles are looking extra cool! But thr layout is very boring. Every round will play kinda the same. CTs rush out, and catch Ts off-gourd, while going to one of the sites.

That's the old layout. Mid has changed quite a lot since then.

 

Now you're gonna need to increase your brightness for this one, cause I'm too lazy to recompile.

Here's some screenshots of mid house:

Lighting is bad and I still haven't imported my custom brick textures, but so far I'd say it looks fine. I think I might scrap the night idea, though and just make it daytime with clouds, my textures are too dark and it's hard to see anything.

I imagine when I add some mossy brick textures, place some vines coming up the walls and roofs and a lot of grass, it would be much better looking.

Here's one with better lighting:

I was also looking for a giant fish skeleton prop to hang somewhere, and I think I've found a suitable one. I just need to make it look like a zombie.

[NikiOo]

I think I've decided on the lighting.

So apparently bamboo trees do grow on red soil.

Here's my little bamboo tree:

And here's my super dope, duper exotic 4-way blend texture:

I still haven't made up my mind on whether the village is gonna be abandoned or not, but I am starting to lean more and more towards the latter, for nothing else but my laziness to make things look old. Either way, there's gonna be a bit of moss over the buildings, otherwise they just won't fit in the color scheme and that's bad.

And because of how much I like to document my development process, here's a screenshot from the lake:

It's gonna have lanterns like these:

floating in the water, unless of course someone can confront me with a flash of cultural wisdom about how inadequate it would be to place them there.

P.S. I realized the wood textures on the houses was too dark and I've tried several different ones, but none seem to just Whoa me, maybe because of the messy blend of greybox visuals and prototype art that surrounds the buildings. Or maybe I just need to find an actually realistic looking wood texture that's not super dark.

bye

Edited July 19, 2019 by NikiOo

[NikiOo]

I'm just very proud of the way this turned out:

This doesn't look very abandoned, does it?

And for some reason I wanted to have green lighting in the lake, so here's a bunch of weird ghastly lanterns.

I'm also changing to the other rocks, from the other deathzone map, these look a lot better with my bamboo trees.

This is bombsite B. Beware! Big W.I.P. layout wise, it's gonna be very similar to the first version, I'm just trying out some weird quirky stuff.

And here's middle. I think I've managed to make the areas look quite distinct visually, and I still have a lot of unused balcony and windows props.

So far I think I'm doing a really good job at making this look like a fishing village as little as possible.

I could just keep people in the dark and reveal the art when it's all ready and that would probably have a much better effect on people who have been following the development, but I don't like keeping things in my closet, if something looks good, I wanna share it. Besides, now I'll have to look at these screenshots every time I open up my thread and I'll start to see why it looks bad.

All feedback is welcome!

bye

Edited July 21, 2019 by NikiOo

[NikiOo]

Thanks to @CommonCrayon for reminding me of this map's existence. Now that I'm quarantined at home, and now that my exams are postponed, I thought I might have some free time to work on some old maps.

I stopped working on this map back in July last year because I was beginning my first year in college and didn't have much free time. I might have also hit a creative block cause I found myself constantly switching themes and looking for new gimmicks to inspire me to continue with it. Now I am certain this is the theme I am going to stick with. And by this I mean a Chinese mountain village with rise fields surrounding it. I think I'm onto something with this dark atmosphere, cause I'm really digging it!

Anyways I thought I'd share some screenshots. Purely for documentation purposes, if anything. Here goes:

The story is that Riot games, terrified by death threats coming from the CSGO developers, have moved the development team of Valorant to a secret location in the Chinese mountains. The CSGO devs however managed to track them down with their very special computers, which have internet access, and they've now sent a terrorist team to bomb the location, along with the entire studio (which is hidden inside these conveniently shaped 72x72 crates), to halt development. This is only one location, however, I have 3 more maps coming with the backup servers.