wip [CS2] de_minnow

[PJR]

Creating this as a place to log my thoughts and solicit feedback as I progress through making this map viable.

Intro & Themes:

There have been many ship based levels, I'm sure it's naturally interesting. However I wanted to make a map where the ship was more the target and less the environment itself. I felt this would naturally extend to make clash points intuitive, at the points where terrorists pathing would take them onto the ship. My first block outs were of a shipping container vessel, which felt it would naturally fit into the CS environments - but this was not inspiring or original. The name I've chosen is also a play on the name of a cargo ship a friend worked on, besides having the aquatic tie-in.

I've settled now on a super yacht. Naturally big enough to place two bomb-sites on with appropriate length for (normal?) rotation times (notwithstanding my first passes at bomb site configurations)
This has anchored things with well needed references. The vertical scaling does not quite work - but is not needed for my purposes. The overall shape and feel seems appropriate thus far, and I like that the radar tower gives a central landmark that will appear over other scenery as Ts progress towards the sites.

Themes outside of the ship will probably consist of an upscale yacht club/marina in an appropriate exotic/interesting locale. I've yet to pin down exactly what I want to do, but that is for the future anyway.

Layout:

I would consider this an experimental layout. CTs begin basically on top of the A (aft) site, not unlike overpass. They must commit to running the length of the ship to cover the B (bow) site if they choose to do so. Terrorists have the usual 3 options, A, B or Mid. The latter being the experimental part. The current configuration allows for access to both sides of the ship, what I am calling upper and lower mid. (mid-ship as well)
From there, you move in either direction towards a target. The risk/reward is to isolate holding CTs vs being flanked by the opposing site. My inexperience has me feeling unsure of how to accomplish this however. My first idea is to provide more cover for CTs at extreme ends, to promote safety away from mid. (and thereby trading mid for direct site control) I have many thoughts on this, but that is the gist of my general approach so far.

HELP: I'd be happy to take any feedback on the layout. My major concerns with the current state is audio range for footsteps, I think I have tucked the long paths too close to the ship, providing CTs early sound cues that are not warranted.
The entire layout will need refining. I don't imagine the site cover/configurations will last, nor the current arrangement of mid.

 

WIP:
With the current grey block I have been playing with bots, looking at timings, trying to promote CT favorable timing without giving away too much map control. I have begun to look at how overpass plays a bit more in-depth. With the clash near fountain being possible, and CTs retreating from there. This is not 1:1 with how I expect minnow to play, but there are certainly parallels that I should learn from.
Now that I have the spacial understanding from personal play testing, I have begun sketching on paper changes to the layout. (See sketch) I want to pull T-spawn closer/under the bow, so that the pathways may then be further away from the ship itself to address unintended audio cues being possible. Having the B approach wrap up and over the main path will allow for shorter rotations by dropping down instead of running the B approach loop. Similarly I think I can add a mini-connector from outside mid to the A-approach. The A-approach I envision dropping elevation towards the site, forcing CTs to run a longer path to take A-approach control. This feels a necessary mitigation, else CTs can push out very quickly and disrupt Mid and potentially B. (B approach being changed also mitigates this potential conflict if Ts choose to commit to B only)

On upper mid, I'm thinking of removing the main door opening, offering instead a single opening (or a squeaky door?) closer to the A-site. This cleans up a rotation pathway from being overly contested hopefully. B site cabin is also potentially split into two doors to spread out the retake entries to the site. Unsure if both should remain.

 

Upcoming:
Currently I have prepped the map enough for a first playtest coming at the end of the week. I will not be making any major changes until afterward. I'm hopeful to gather key feedback on this first pass - and roll that into my existing visions for improving the layout.


Anyway, quite a lot to put to writing. I would really appreciate input - I am expecting to learn quite a lot as I work through this layout. Thanks!
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3167656023

 

Edit: I will try to resize this images so they're not quite so ridiculous in the post..

 

 

Edited March 11 by PJR
Large images

[PJR]

First 5v5 playtest was yesterday.

Some big takeaways for me:
A-site heaven far too OP because of the circular walkway above vs lack of A-site cover.
Outside paths are a mess, bit lazy on my part.

What I'll focus on for the next iteration:
Rebuilding the entire outside pathways. The goal is to simplify what they are, to make it more intuitive to move from T-spawn towards A. As well as reduce the time to approach A main as a T. I will begin to focus on making this outside area a yacht-club environment. This should help me stay grounded in an idea/theme to make some areas with better play vs trying to put down pathways.
Lower mid off-ship will be expanded to create a more proper middle area to control.
Likewise, my upper mid route needs some real re-tooling. I think I will remove the upper mid to B route along the perimeter of the ship, opting instead of create a connector to lower mid to allow Ts to rotate somewhere on a failed push. TBD on if this might be some sort of 1-way etc.

There is a significant amount of other notes I collected that I wont try to document here, but I considered it a very successful playtest. Bit thank you to the group on the SE discord for playing.