cs_knifeedge by Liberal.Nyulism

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1 rating
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1410 downloads
added Mon Nov 14th 2005
updated Mon Oct 27th 2025
more content for: Counter Strike Source

Map Description

Map Name: cs_knifeedge (beta 1e)

Author: Liberal.Nyulism

Release Date: November 14th

Number of Spawn Points: 64

Size: Medium (but simple routes that are easy to learn)

Screenshots:

The web site includes a number of thumbnails and screenshots: www.screamingneurons.com/ignorance/knifeedge.asp

Download:

http://www.screamingneurons.com/ignorance/knifeedge_files/cs_knifeedge_beta1e_files.zip

Bug Reports:

Please post bug reports on SteamPowered forums at or email them to [url=mailto:liberal_nyulism@hotmail.com]liberal_nyulism@hotmail.com.

Info:

INCLUDES

There are two hostage rescue zones, near each spawn.

There is only one hostage.

All necessary files in one bsp, so it's a file-copy-installation

.NAV file for bots.

The overview map, despite that it costs a meg to do it.

A number of new textures, and a lot of blended textures

New models for Weeds, Shrubbery and Sheep, and others

A new soundscape, with many new sounds

STORY

In the mountains of northern Afghanistan, is a small village of stone houses nestled up against the base of a mountain. It's early spring, and the snows that cover the mountains have started melting. The stream is still covered in a layer of ice, and just after dawn on this march morning, the air is cold and foggy. The sheep huddle together on the still barren fields, and the soft thunder of the waterfall can be heard from a distance. The village appears abandoned, and the area is quiet. But Terrorists live there, where they grow poppies, and make heroin for sale in the west, and they keep the village for use as a hideout and as a factory for their profits. Unfortunately, a spy has found the village, but he was caught, and is being held hostage in the center of the village. Now, Blackhawk helicopters have landed on the southern edge of town. The Terrorists know that a rescue mission has been launched.

STRATS

The approach routes are very carefully timed so that rushes result in conflicts in specific locations. And while the layout is deceptively simple, the number of strategies you can use is almost unlimited. In particular, how you split your teams will greatly affect the game play.

The map's layout is a cyclone model with both teams spaced equidistant from the hostages, and rushing to a center arena. The village is constructed so that the terrorists come in either straight or to the high side, and the CT's either straight and to the low side. Both can flank the other team within the village, or by the ground route around the village. You can get in and out of the buildings, and easily onto the roofs, and there are at least three different ways into the village center for each team. This layout creates the effect of the teams coming out of the woodwork in a central arena, if they both sprint to the center. The teams can also try to flank the low route outside the village, and the timing is set so that smokes, flashes, and snipers all play in that tactic.

Most of the routes that are interesting require you to break down a door or window, and this includes getting the hostages. The sound gives away your location.

The web site has a full list of the different strats that I used to plan the game play.

EASTER EGGS

There are two easter eggs on the map. One about myth and heroism where you can get a grenade, the other is an AK with one clip.

INSTALLATION

Copy the BSP file into you cstrike/maps directory

Start CS:S, select Create Server, and from the dropdown, select "cs_knifeedge_beta1a"

I recommend that you use seven bots (your processor will get eaten with more of them).

FPS

I'm getting 140+FPS near the edges of the map, 100FPS in the center, 90 in the good areas, and 70FPS in the slowest areas.

TECH SPECS

Build Time approximately 200 hours over six months.

Compile Time: 30 minutes/56 minutes

Triangle count: 32167

Optimized: 749 visible clusters (0.00%)

Total clusters visible: 148738

Average clusters visible: 247

Average clusters audible: 435

Overview: scale 11.00, pos_x -6623, pos_y 7109

OPEN ISSUES

bad window/shutter texture (normal map problem?)

one vis chimney problem

OTHER MAPS BY THE AUTHOR

de_ignorance - set in Iraq, and full of political commentary, it's a great map for strats and especially for playing against bots.

http://www.screamingneurons.com/ignorance

THANKS

I want to thank the people on the SteamPowered and VERC forums who made this map possible.

In particular: Nudel, Wolf, Zombie@Computer and of course, WiseMX.

Discussion

Posted by Madedog on Sat Nov 5th 2005 at 11:15am

Why not using displacements with power of 4? You could get along with lot lesser planes :razz:

And what bothers me is the optimization. How long does the VIS take? :razz:

Posted by Liberal.Nyulism on Sat Nov 5th 2005 at 4:46am

[Author]

ReNo said:
against the base surface,

They flickered against the base. I have had this problem a number of times.

ReNo said:
Map is looking good, though the displacement "mountains" seem a bit odd. I think they look a bit too sharp and extreme.

In oder to get what I"m looking for, I have to choose between displacments level 2 and level 3. At 3 its a lot more polys and it looks a lot better. At 2 it's a lot less polys and it doesn't look as good. It helps to remember that except for the buildings this entire map is displacements.

It doesn't look quite the same in game, because the mountain range is a series of steps, with the plain being the bottom, the village being the next, the mountains you see in the screenshots the next step, and then there is a really large set of mountains behind them, that are in the skybox. The fog effect obscures them, and the screenshots don't show them at all, but they're up there.

That said, I could fix this by splitting the mountain displacments along the north south axis, effectivley doubling the polys on those twenty displacments, and texturing them separately, and using the additional polys to smooth out the mountains. I thought I could get away with what I've got here, so I didn't do that. Fixing it, because the back side of the mountains is in the skybox, would be painful and annoyingly tedious. But if it's that big a deal I might do it. Let me think about it a bit.

Thank you very much for the feedback.

-LN

Posted by KoRnFlakes on Fri Nov 4th 2005 at 3:45pm

My CoD2 didnt arrive this morning =/

Anyway, some more things to comment on (some I couldnt possibly be aware of as there is no download)

Does this map have sound? it just sprung to mind it needed a cold wind
blustering past now and again, giving it an empty & suspenseful
atmosphere, not only that but typically of cs, people listen out for
footsteps & there are VERY few maps that use sound to mask them
& make you rely on other things.

Do the sheep animate/make sound?

What is that helicopter doing there on your site images? I am working
on the presumption the ct are trying to infiltrate this town which has
been taken by the t's. They would certainly restrict themselves to
mountaineering rather than a noisy helicopter.

Tunnels into caves afaik are prodominantly arched, for extra support. not to mention it would look nicer imo.

the neglection shown in
-this-
image (borded up window) is a nice touch.

What do these people do for a living? livestock or something related I
presume, I cant think of anything (props) directly involved that you
could add but for example
-this-
image, I dont know why, but I just see a wooden cart in it. it seems
plain & everyone can see down the pathways without obstruction/cover

on the other hand
-this-
image show's people do live here (ladder) which is pretty much what i'm
getting at.

Anyway, chew over some of that for a bit. if there is a download
available anywhere gimme a shout & il post a small ritique up.
(today if possible, my cod2 will arrive tommorow & I shant be seen
for a bit heh.)

Posted by Captain P on Fri Nov 4th 2005 at 3:07pm

Looks like a good theme and I like the screenshots so far, but somewhat
it still has some sort of HL feeling. I guess some more detail could
give it that extra touch. For example, the roofs of those houses are
just a simple brush, while some modelling could give it a much more
natural look. Those buildings feel too square too, perhaps using
displacements on their walls would be a good idea, or at least
something to make it all feel more natural.

But apart from that all, it looks like it's going to be good. Keep it up! :smile:

Posted by ReNo on Fri Nov 4th 2005 at 2:35pm

Were the overlays flickering against the base surface, or flickering
between each other? If the latter, then make sure your overlays that
touch each other are assigned to different layers in their properties.

Map is looking good, though the displacement "mountains" seem a bit
odd. I think they look a bit too sharp and extreme given that they are
quite small scale and near to the playing field. Are they actually part
of a 3D skybox, or just part of the main area? If the latter, you
should look into using a 3D skybox and consider increasing the scale to
make them more epically mountainous.

Posted by Liberal.Nyulism on Fri Nov 4th 2005 at 2:24pm

[Author]

KoRnFlakes said:
...snowy roof textures & some sort of masked texture

...a trickle of snow drops around would do it absolute wonders.

I tried using snow overlays but they "flicker", and ruin the effect. Now that the light is lower, maybe I can try again.

The weather effects are wonderful, but they're also VERY expensive to render. CSS needs FPS, more than single player does, so while I would love to add mist, it's just too expensive.

Thank you so much for your ideas, you've been very helpful.

-LN

Posted by KoRnFlakes on Thu Nov 3rd 2005 at 11:09pm

hmm, fair 'uff. What I was trying to get at was, perhaps snowy roof
textures & some sort of masked texture (not sure what theyre called
now tbh, havent mapped since hl1) that looks like snow/ice hanging down
the side of the roofing.

+ SURELY in hl2 weather effects can be added? its supposed to be a
modern engine, a trickle of snow drops around would do it absolute
wonders. (someone must have done this)

Posted by Liberal.Nyulism on Thu Nov 3rd 2005 at 11:04pm

[Author]

Korn....

Great feedback, thank you.

1) I have made snow models to be used as details, so that there is a bit more snow around, but they're a drain on the engine and I pulled them. I'll see if I can add some more.

2) I have lowered the light as Satch recommended, and it looks much better. If I can get the sky right now, I'll be thrilled.

3) The damage is a good idea. I"ll collapse a few parts of buidings.

Now, if you see the reference photo, the truth is, that this looks about right. I have others, and really, the villages aren't unmaintained. Individual family farms are unmaintained in rural areas. But generally, villages, which have a different economic model, are sloppy, but not necessarily unmaintained.

-Cheers.

Posted by KoRnFlakes on Thu Nov 3rd 2005 at 10:37pm

the sheep and the 1st screenshot indicate this place is very very rural.

Nion every rural town has its wear & tear, theyve often been around
for years. yet the buildings all look to be in good nick.

Perhaps a bit of damage/neglect wouldnt go amiss.

The second image, suggests this is very high land (which explains the
sheep) and as satch mentioned before it is too bright & too warm
for such a place. evidence of snowy peaks in the background make me
wonder if there should be snow around the village also.

Edit: Noticed there is some snow, but no evidence of it "landing" you
need some hanging off the rooftops etc. think of where it may fall
& build up.

Posted by Liberal.Nyulism on Thu Nov 3rd 2005 at 8:15pm

[Author]

Fish...

Fixed the link.

Thanks

<div class="abouttext">Message submitted 4 minutes after original post:</b></div>

satchmo said:
I just love the attention .... Kudos to you.

Thank you very much. From you that's high praise.

satchmo said:
That said, the map looks a bit bright

I have tried everything I can think of. I am trying to get that "just at dawn on a cold morning at the beginning of spring", feeling and I can't get both the atmosphere thick enough and the shadows quite right. Perhaps you're right and I just need to reduce the light a bit.

Thanks for the feedback.
-LN