[REL] DoD_Stuttgart_b2

[Albatros]

Hey.

I've been starting this in February; due to some more or less deserved successes in my real life occupation as a student of laws (yuck!), I was able to work 24/7 on this project. A rough estimation should come to about 440 - 480 hours so far, which is OK I guess taking in consideration the medium dimensions of the map. Download at the end of the first posting.

Anyway, the setting is as follows:

- Southern Germany in early 1945. American troops press to the east crossing the Rhine. On their way there are several large cities, among them Stuttgart, home to some of the most important war related industries in Germany.

In order to prepare for the american assault, all the bridges of the largely destroyed city get blown up, while scattered Wehrmacht and Volkssturm battalions use makeshift fortifications to set up a last line of defense...

There are six flags - four 1-man-caps, 2 two-man-caps. The locations of these flags are balanced in a way that allows both teams to cap the map out in reasonable time, since the capture time of all those flags is relatively short.

Side objectives are several bomb zones that will have a more or less significant influence on the environment. Blowing up a target will deliver different advantages.

Blowing up doors will open new routes. Those routes include decent sniper or MG locations. Also, two of the doors block 2 rooms full of German and American MGs, Panzerschrecks and Submachineguns which can be used (with the limitation of each weapon only having one magazine to keep it all nice and balanced). The last target, a generator, will cause parts of the street illumination to become switched off, changing the environment and, in parts, the gameplay.

Enough information now, here are the Screens:

Thanks to piu piu for the excellent overview + skybox... giving it the special touch !

http://www.albatros44.de/stb2/dod_stuttgart_ldr_b2.zip

[Albatros]

By the way - this is the low-detail, no-hdr-version, I call it SAD - Server Admins Darling, and somewhat sad indeed that players are too impatient to download a 30 MB bzip2 so I had to keep it at about 23 MB in that format (26 standard-zip).

The HDR-full-p.i.m.p.-version will be finished by april... hopefully...

Next set of screens:

[Albatros]

For those who aren't annoyed yet , four more thumbs and two additional "making-of" pics for some insight in the idea *behind* this vertical gameplay study:

Two Youtube Videos:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V15bCO1DHbI

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EYLJUKGAR6c

[The_Blond_night]

Lucky enough to play this the other day. It was a lot of fun, I sucked but I had to count in the "I don't know where the hell I am factor". Love the epic feeling.

[e-freak]

see my reply here (im too lazy to put this up here now as well and translating it...)

the 4 extra pictures and your concepts look better but try to do the same things there as well!

[hessi]

there is one thing i absolutly dont understand: why is there air attack on the city while allied soldiers attack on the ground? suicide?

though this map isnt that cool. the graphics are all rough and blocky and unlovely made. for example this tower roof or the lighting. i remember you posting a first screenshots like a month ago but for this setting a professional artist would require at least 3 months of full time work.

i am pretty much sure you can do better if you take more time and invest in more --> custom <-- content. for example make some need textures that look more like a german city before ww2. make the ruins more detailed. pick a lighting that fits the situation. there is a bomber attack and i dont see any light flashes at all.

you'd handle your custom map projects better if you would start learning modeling and creating textures now.

[Dodger]

Looks like another map that survived another earthquake in 1942.

+interesting

+tall building

+tanks and planes

+premiere

+ crates

-local propaganda

-white lighting

-no driveable tanks

total overall score=

6/10

.. DODGER..

[Minos]

hmm it's not a bad map at all but it could look a lot better with better lighting. The light-env is too uninteresting and some of the interior lighting needs more contrast.

[FMPONE]

Hmm, I hate to be the guy that shits all over a map because I'm not some expert or anything, but I feel that this map is on the whole very poor.

Allow me to explain, I've seen your previous work. One thing is for sure, you have an incredible grasp on the conceptual and the composition elements of mapping. In fact this is probably one of the best DOD:S maps released in terms of purely conceptual ambition.

Unfortunately your brushwork is, frankly, terrible. You use basic cubes with textures and clashing selection therein, some of the most simplistic brushwork I've seen in a passable map... and honestly I think you've spent way too much time trying to make something epic and on a large scale and not enough trying to make something realistic and impressive. Which is a shame, because you clearly have the technical knowledge.

Basically my advise mapper to mapper is to sit down and work on a small scale, try and polish up one scene and get expertise doing that. Understand how to make impressive brushwork (study some of Valve's maps) and then just go back and revisit these monsters with the lessons learned. Because I think at this rate you're just picking up bad habits and throwing them into an enormous map

I hope you understand, it would be a waste to continue in your current style.

[Dodger]

(study some of Valve's maps) .

Agreed. I have learned alot from the open source maps, and then I really mean ALOT of new information.

[General Vivi]

Love the theme of this map . The environment is very awsome good job man ^_^

[Erratic]

There's a lot to like in the map and it's quite unique, unlike anything I've seen come out of the dod:s custom maps, but it does appear to be pretty rough around the edges. If you could implement some of the suggestions above, especially in regards to the lighting/brushwork you could pull a lot more out of the map.

A few critiques, the arches in the warehouse screen could be a lot smoother, seems you only used about 6 brushes for each arch. Also, some of the buildings simply don't have the same structure as others. Maybe try and keep a consistent level of polish on all of them, otherwise they just appear awkward when placed next to one another. An example, the destroyed building in the third screen at the top of the thread, you basically just have a triangle to indicate a destroyed surface. Doesn't have quite the same amount of time put into it compared with the surrounding buildings.

Also, try to disable shadows on certain props. A lot of the time they, like the corner stone prop, tend to fit a lot better without the shadow casting.

[FrieChamp]

A few critiques, the arches in the warehouse screen could be a lot smoother, seems you only used about 6 brushes for each arch.

That scene puzzles me - it looks like a warehouse but there are umbrellas standing on carpets and a sign of a "Café" in the background.

Did the people in Stuttgart move their cafés into warehouses during the war due to too many bombs raining down outside?

Looks like a big level and lots of work, but it overall looks a bit rough - I agree with the others. The "Peek & Cloppenburg" sign made me chuckle though..

[Defrag]

It looks interesting, but the lighting & texturing in places makes it look really flat and disjointed. I don't much care for the sky, either. The sky is blue, orange, grey and has sunshine poking through, but the environment doesn't seem to match it at all. It doesn't feel like there's much of a coherent colour theme. Look at Erratic's DoD map and you'll see what I mean -- it has a strong and immediately arresting look to it whereas, with yours, I'm still trying to work out what time of day it is, whether it's warm/cool etc.

I agree with what FMPONE said. Start small and build up a coherent theme in a smallish area of the map. Once you've got the feel & look just right, then work your way through the map. Right now it's all a bit scattergun and feels a bit random.

[Furyo]

I'd have to say it would be extremely cool as a HL1 map. However it doesn't quite give justice to the Source engine as it is today.

I can't dismiss the map altogether at all either. You've managed to make me feel "wow this is cool" and "bleh that could be so much better" at the same time, something no other dods map has ever done.