Shepherd

[mendaxyz]

Hi everyone!

I'm happy to finally be able to show what we've been working on recently, and hope ya'll enjoy!

A rural English village is raided by terrorists on a sunny morning. The SAS are dispatched in response to this threat.
Shepherd supports bomb defusal and deathmatch game modes.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3287246469

 

Edited August 2, 2024 by mendaxyz

[cyn inc]

Fun to play with bots, the map is really pretty, and the view outside T spawn is absolutely picturesque. Just a few things I noticed myself ...

You should be aware that players can lock themselves out of the playable map area if they hop the wall using the car just outside T spawn. It's also a little hard to tell at first glance where to plant the bomb at silo.
 

 

[mendaxyz]

Thanks! I've went ahead and fixed those so they'll be implemented after I do another all-night compile.

[tchick]

Looks sweet, good luck

[Daggerman]

Looks really nice, looking forward to having a look around

[mendaxyz]

We've been detailing the map, we well as fixing up CT spawn and Site B. We haven't updated the actual workshop with these changes yet, though we will before playtesting starts on Oct 18th.

 

[Jinqs]

the buildings are looking super nice

[mendaxyz]

3 hours ago, Jinqs said:

the buildings are looking super nice

Thanks!

[mendaxyz]

I've been trying to make each building feel individualized, with the houses styled and decorated a little differently than the ones beside it:

Also since the map takes place in the morning, I think some soft colored lighting helps create a nice mood:

(I'm still trying to touch up this this scene)

[mendaxyz]

Our map is in Group 5 for the playtests, which means it starts on the 18th. We've updated the map in preparation, including changing the CT Spawn and Site B. We've updated the workshop here:

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3287246469

Also, is anyone familiar with if we need to be present for playtests? We may miss the first week due to family obligations. Thanks!

[NordicDoesMapping]

The hub works very different from playtests. Anyone who wants can play them on the hub whenever they want so there will be multiple games every day. It would be quite impossible for you to be present. You also won't get feedback directly after each game like in a normal playtest.

[mendaxyz]

Okay cool, thanks!

[mendaxyz]

Looks like Shepherd was moved from Group 5 to Group 6, so playtesting is currently ongoing until the 15th. We look forward to hearing everyone's feedback!

[Uncuepa]

Was able to play this on Insane, an aussie community server. Super super pretty, love the theme and how well detailed everything is while remaining clean and readable! I did feel like mid was tight and a little windy, and B main felt a little too simple compared to A having 4 T routes. Some routes felt claustrophobic and that gaining space required waiting out a smoke, clearing 4 angles, and getting remoked having gained a single corner. Widening some spots might help. I can see B has gone through big changes, but I actually quite liked B, but I did have thoughts on simplifying the CT route, and adding a risk reward drop route from mid. With that, I have some visuals!

I absolutely adore this A long, its beautiful and flowing and readable. The only real gripe I have is with the catwalk-drop from mid. It wasnt used much in the game I played but it also felt a little out of place. The clipping over it actually stops jumps from their peak, but it also felt odd having a third route from mid leading out to the A site. I think forcing players that want to play Long, like on Dust 2, to wrap back around through mid, to outside bedroom(barn) and then re-entry into long is actually a fun gameplay element. If you ever wanted to try a version with the A bombsite larger or shifted, making part of the site visible from parts of long might be fun. A little dust2 inspo, but its fun! I also thought instead of removing this dropdown, you could somehow simplify the A con and add this as the second route from mid instead of third.

Speaking of mid!

I think it could be wider still - There was many rounds on both sides that involved smoking, nading and mollying around these mid corners for half the round. Anytime a smoke cleared, there was another smoke coming in, with very little way for either side to confidently take ground. Widening it so one smoke or molly isn't enough to cut mid in half might be good, forcing smokes further back towards A con or B yard, and allowing for more active mid gameplay. Might need some pushing and pulling of the edges of houses to not open up any crack angles into a con but i think it'd make it more fun.

A very minor suggestion is to open up the T B route here, as most rounds this doorway would be consecutively smoked, naded, molly'd. Its a bit tight, and by opening it up a little you allow Ts to hide their head below the balcony wall to get to the otherside of the angle, but also allow some play around the smaller CT incind. A minor thing but most rounds I was T, there was no point trying this route.

B site is a pretty good example of a simple site, though I wouldn't be afraid of playing with angles and widening up B main a little, perhaps adding a midsite crate or expanding the site just a little towards CT. A gripe I had and saw others fall for it too was this jump-shaped haystack that is clipped off. I actually think this would be an awesome spot to open up for players, and as you see the 4th jump...

Even possibly opening up this alley and back patio as a very tight, risky route from mid to B. Requires a skill jump or boost to get to from B site, and is easily smoked or molly'd to force players to wrap through B main. I think this second attacker route would add a really fun dynamic to this site. I think it might play like window in dust2 b or drop on cobble b. 

CT route into B though, I'm not a fan having a barn with a few angles to clear, that opens into site, but also opens into a small lurk yard, that has a 50/50 engagement eitherside, then into another barn with a lurk corner close.. its a lot to clear to retake from CT. I think B CT could be simplified by removing that small yard between the 2 buildings, and straightening out the angles in there allowing CTs to better opt for swinging site, or moving around the side hall, similar to ancient A site with CT and temple.

Those are some of my thoughts, overall I think its super pretty and was good fun! I think in places it's a little cramped, and worth widening up routes and playing with opening or closing routes. I hope to play it again real soon and get more of a feel for it. Hope this helped!

[mendaxyz]

Cool, thanks for the feedback! We've been redoing the layout a bit, I think we've noticed a lot of the same problems as you but we had different ways of solving them.

We ended up completely removing the drop down route from Mid to Long. It was supposed to be a nice little one-way rotation path but it made it too easy for players in Long to get attacked from behind.

We also redid Mid, and for a lot of the same reasons you said - making it wider and clearing some of those corners. Mid is now a straight path.

Right now we're focusing on improving B. We're probably going to end up redoing a lot of it but we'll keep your feedback in mind as we rebuild it. This will also change the time it takes for CT's to get to the courtyard, so we'll be sure it's not as easy for CT's to simply block the upper balcony with grenades.