Not at all mate. Lots of valuable feedback there for me. Thanks very much for your efforts. By the time beta 2 is done I'll probably have spent another 10 hours on it, mostly sorting out the visuals - lighting changes, extra detailing, etc.

RE: the shadows under the benches. The shadows for ammo pickups had been disabled but no such option exists for the weapons. There are lots of weird weapon & dynamic prop shadows in many maps I've seen...items placed on a roof with the shadows in the room below etc. Not a great deal I can do about it really.

RE: the alcove - it is indeed intended for a defensive purpose. An "outlook" post of sorts, to see attackers coming in relative safety.

RE: the stairs...yep fair point, I thought that myself so have already changed them.

Beta 2 is now available - feedback is very appreciated.

Changes in beta 2:

- Lots and lots of visual changes. Far too many to mention individually.
- File name changed from tdmctf_riot to ctf_riot.
- Game type changed from Capture The Flag to Bombing Run.
- Layout simplified above the entrance to each base.
- RPG moved to a more precarious location.
- Restored bump mapping on textures (beta 1 had bump mapping removed from 3 floor textures).

Much of the lighting has been totally redone. Hopefully you should now find the lighting isn't as flat as it was, yet still retains the oppressive prison feeling.

I did experiment with the light_env colour but opted to keep it a dark blue. Having a warmish colour, such as a sunset, resulted in weird looking isolated blobs of more colourful light on the interior floors (ie where the light_env is coming through windows above).

I'm pretty much at the limit of adding more detailing to the level - the bsp is now 15mb. Apparently the default filesize for servers uploading files to clients is around 16mb, so I don't really want to increase filesize any more & risk servers not giving the bsp to clients.

Comments are welcome. Thanks.

Edit: forgot to mention, if anyone has any ideas for what the balls get fired into (must fit into the prison theme), feel free to let me know.

Pls make sure you've downloaded http://www.keved.com/ctf_riot_b2.zip The bsp should be called ctf_riot_b2.bsp and around 15mb in size. Seems like you've downloaded beta1 for the www.hl2ctf.com mod.

Only did a quick run-through, as i still am sick as a dog and have no energy today

these are just some quickie observations and mean nothing, if you chose to see them as such.

May be my wishful thinking, but the light level is much improved. It seems much brighter outside now, without actually ruining the night theme. Nice job.

May be just me, but this repeating texture looks wrong. I am unsure if there is a satisfactory replacement, but this one is wrong IMO.

Floor seems much to thin. Dunno why, but it caught my attention.

Light still doesn't sway when shot

Now this is a tuffy to explain, and a bitch to get into one screen shot as well. Notice specifically, the lights on the floor. you have the spotlight on the top, shining down on the bottom left, and the environmental light shining on the floor center. There is nothing actually wrong with the angles, but having that bright a light shine on the floor would blur out any ambient light such as the environ would cast. i suggest you increase the bounces. this map has IMO way to sharp a shadow line between light and dark. some areas actually look like they are in vacuum, as the line is so sharp. also, the light is not casting the correct number of shadows. the grate in the ceiling has no shadow, but the bars do. i hope all that made sense. i will gladly try to re-explain it if it is unclear.

now, i am going back to bed, /me feels woozy.

All that I do for the HL2CTF.com mod is supply new versions of Riot for them, I don't have any say in anything else to do with the mod. But the mod authors have told me they recognise the lack in quality in some of the maps they're using right now and their main aim over the next few version is to improve map quality. Like you say, it is only beta 1, the quality will increase given time.

Bandit/Nugget - I'll probably be using ctf_prisonriot for the final version. In the recent Valve vs HL2CTF community games, 2 of the 3 games were played on the version of Riot I did for that mod, but the bsp is called ctf_prisonriot. Like I say, I'll prob be renaming the HL2DM version so it is ctf_prisonriot too.