[REL] DoD_Edelweiß Beta 3

[Albatros]

Hi everybody ,

I guess I'll have to introduce myself through my mostly finished project DoD_Edelweiss.

It's a map for Day of Defeat: Source, featuring a useable ropeway with cable cars made by TheSurgeon.

The setting shows a mountain village in the Bavarian Alps in early 1945; the six flags can all be captured either by taking the normal routes or by using the cable cars.

It's only a third beta, so there's still a hell of a lot of tweaking to be done.

http://www.albatros44.de/edb3/dod_edelweiss_b3.zip

Wish you all a good day & hope for some comments or suggestions : )

Cheers,

Albatros

[Evert]

Impressive as fuck if you ask me.

On the 6th of the thumbnailpics the debris edge looks weird, maybe make a blend between the stones and the debris.

On the 8th thumbnail the left wall tiles a lot, and it really ruins the composition, try to break it up with something.

The 9th picture shows some weird lit sandbags, they really pop out for me

[Warby]

that tarp in the first picture is clipping into the fuel tanks ?!

[FrieChamp]

Gotta love that setting, two thumbs up for that!

Just a bit work left to make it really awesome. I'd say work on those textures, all I see is bare brick walls everywhere. It's particularly bad in the 2nd shot, the windowframes. Try to make the texturing more interesting, possibly by adding some trims and supports here and there, maybe some railings, or add more destruction to the dull walls. Also - any way to make those shadows stronger? Most are barely visible, which result in some parts look a bit bland.

The 2nd approach to assault by using the cable cars sounds intriguing..I'm curious if that is actually a serious option or if everyone inside those cars gets constantly slaughtered

[Zacker]

Fantastic first impression, especially with the first picture. After a few seconds you begin to notice the lack of detail in some places, too few polygons used somewhere, missing shadows and other stuff.

The rocks in the background definatly need more polygons, it looks like each polygon is 10m long or something. The general building architecture could use some more details, especially in those flat places where you can see the texture tiling.

[JamesL]

Great first post.

Pretty much agree with what's been said. The atmosphere is lovely but the map lacks the fine detail to lift it into the realms of greatness.

Trims on arches, grime and dirt overlays, buffers at the end of those train tracks, more undulation in the floors, walls dirtied up. All that kinda detailing stuff would really help.

[Wesley Tack]

What most people said I agree on, great setting, reminds me of the wolfenstein maps, loved those!

Fine detail lacks in almost every shot though.

some examples:

http://www.albatros44.de/edb3/edb33.jpg

why is that metal arch floating between the two pillars ?

http://www.albatros44.de/edb3/edb3promo1.jpg

as mentioned above, the camouflage clips all over the place? looks weird?

also, the side railings of the bridge looks like a large fence texture?

http://www.albatros44.de/edb3/edb31.jpg

the cable cart isn't hanging in the move_rope, it's an easy fix to move that cart a bit, don't know why you didn't do that? Also the wall texture to the right int hat screen is tiled up, whereas if I recall correctly Valve has sets of that texture (bottom/middle/top), you should have used that

http://www.albatros44.de/edb3/edb35.jpg

the stairs in that shot float, you used the railing as the support for the stairs, but in reality the whole thing would collapse after a few moments

adding some diagonal beams would look a lot better

http://www.albatros44.de/edb3/edb36.jpg

in this screen you use the metal plate texture with the rails on it for the sides of the train carrier, looks weird. Also, I don't know if you can make custom textures, but if you can, a decal texture for the pile of snow would make a huge difference, this way you could add a decal or overlay entity and make the snow blend in and fade out with the floor beneath

So basically, overall the map looks like a solid 1st pass, but it could use a few more passes to add more detail, this is a WiP map imho. Hope you'll improve some points on this, or ed least pick them up on your next project!

[Grinwhrl]

I really like it, mainly for originality.

The metal stair cases are very weak though, takes away from how good other areas look.

[Minos]

wow amazing job. I love the setting.

[RA7]

Mirror at LanmaniaX

[Albatros]

Hey everybody ,

I'm awfully busy these days so this is just a short reply - in any case I do appreciate your ideas & comments and I'll definately answer in detail later!

Concerning the lack of custom models and textures I've got to say that the first beta came to about 11 MBytes, zipped - it was my main aim to keep the filesize as low as possible to ensure it will be played on public servers.

If I could bring it to about 20 MB, I could include quite a lot of additional detail. Concerning the empty and less detailed parts of the map: I've also tried to keep the FPS above those of the DoD:S stock maps, so even players with a somewhat weak machine could enjoy Edelweiss.

For the next beta I'm trying to optimize it even further and with some positive feedback on the performance I'll add more detail on almost every corner of the map.

Thanks a lot so far ,

Albatros

[teeluu]

Cool!

[Rokusho39]

It's maps like these that make me want to buy DOD:S, simply so I can just map for it

[D3ads]

Looks fantastic as it is, but fantastic isn't good enough for us, work on them fine details and you've got yourself a winnar

[hessi]

seems like i have to be the bitch saying that he does not like the map (besides the idea is very original and super!)

dude, your stairs are fucking ugly. i mean: dont't you see they look really weird? i feel kind of reset to my first week of mapping 7 years ago.

those metal stairs are really ugly too. the textures arent aligned and just don't look right.

this motor thing you took from the dod_kalt bakery doesnt fit there. it hangs in the air and i am asking my self how this whole thing should work. you might say players wont recognize, but in fact they are because i am a player too.

the last screenshot speaks for its self. no detail at all. some missmatching textures. no 3D in the rock wall. no connectivity between wall, ground and top.

some last big point: your lighting isn't making this scenery cold. all over warm colors but the scenery is covered with snow. better use blue and cold colors.

to come to an end: it's not that i dont like the idea. i just dislike how you tried to realise it. looks cheap and thrown together. give this map 4 months of hard work and make it pretty! i'd like to play it, but not like this.

take this image as a reference how i'd prefer the lighting