Thanks for the comments, roughrider!
roughrider wrote:
Everything is blocky and has no curve taste to it. I know it is an alpha so it is still early yet, but you want to have all that in mind right from the start so you dont have to go back and destroy a square area later on that you might have spent hours on to put in a better looking curved-type piece.
You 're right, there's not a single curve in the alpha. That's partly because I didn't even decide on the theme of the map yet (gothic, tech, whatever - I currently tend to make it look rather old with lots of curves.). Makes the screenies look even worse, you're right. But they would suck anyways, even with curves.
The idea of adding some of the important curves even in the alpha is good though, because they need more space then corners and could really mess up things when added later.
roughrider wrote:
That being said, I will say though that learning through destruction works wonders for pre-planning. In other words, if you are the type of person that can't plan a whole map out right at the start (like me) then building as you go and changing plans and ideas "on the fly" is cool.
I start creating floor plans of my maps using pencil and paper when I have the layout of the first room (flag room in this case) ready in my head. These floor planes usually show the major layout of the whole map and it takes me quite a few hours until such a plan is finished.
I tend to build the alpha of the first/major rooms quickly to test for jump distances, "travelling times" between items and LOS problems. The map starts to evolve then, using the floor plan as a base but not sticking to it by 100%.
roughrider wrote:
Here's some off-the-wall ideas that you could do, and this is just by looking at the screeny. I would move the flag off that location and drop it in a more central location, like the lower floor right in the middle.
Hehe, you can't see this on the screenie (because half of the room is not visible and the defenders positions are behind/below the position the screenshot was taken at) but believe me: this just won't work. It will completely break the lower route to the flag and make the upper one pretty useless, too.
This image may illustrate what I mean, but screenshots aren't appropriate for this imo. It shows the middle and lower routes to the flag. The tele goes to the upper route.
roughrider wrote:
And if you keep the flag where it is, I would definately work on the platform that the flag is sitting on. Maybe turn it into a circular-rotating platform or something, anything but that square-nothingness type ledge..
I will! :icon14:
roughrider wrote:
I would loose the lava too, that is more of a ffa-1v1 type thing. Lava doesn't have much purpose in a ctf map.
Thought about loosing the lava, though for different reasons - mainly because the bots jump in very often and you can't put NODROP on the ground in CTF maps because that will instantly return the flag to its base if an FC dies in it. :-(
I considered replacing it with water, but I don't want the bots to swim around it for hours diving for weapons that fell into it. I'd prefer to see them die quickly in the lava then tbh.
Apart from the bots, I see little reasons against using lava in CTF maps: it makes an area more dangerous - no matter whether it's FFA, tourney or CTF. Or am I missing something? (And it's ugly, you 're right.)
In this map, ithe lava punishes messed up tele-to-flag-jumps and makes the sneaky lower route that has MH and RG more dangerous. It's rather shallow though.
alpha2:
I'd make the lava a bit less deep (maybe 24 units?) so you can jump out and it's not quite such an insta-buzzkill.