I don't really play CS:S so I didn't try this with bots or players, but I had a look around anyways.

The architecture and - especially - texturing work are really great. Indoors, everything feels very realistically dirty - trash on the floor, stains on the walls of varying sizes and shapes, wood splinters. The texturing choices indoors look absolutely great. Outdoors - same. Dirt, stains, streaks. Very good texturing out here as well, quite varied and realistic. I liked the architecture as well, quite detailed but not overdone.

I did notice a few things that you should keep in mind for your next map. One - I noticed two chairs outside floating almost a foot off the ground. Two - there were several places (pile of logs, wagon, hand railing) where I could jump on top of and see over the edge of the map, to a lot of nodrawed faces etc. Try to clip these areas off or raise the walls a bit next time. Three - I saw several radiators (heaters) sitting on the ground, which is rather unrealistic.. try raising them up half a foot and making them motion disabled/asleep.

Regardless of a few small visual problems that I doubt most players will even notice, the map looks great and I'd bet it plays quite well. Nice job!

It looks good:), i didn't play it with bots or friends yet, but i'm sure it will play nicely!

Great job!

Here is ze dl linkie to beta 1:
http://www.mallosworld.co.uk/map/de_malta_b1.zip

It includes a nav file so you can run around with the bots :biggrin: Please give me as much feedback to work with as possible, ta!

(The pictures are more or less the same as in my last 2 posts so refer to them if you want a idea of how it looks)

Sex on a plate tbh.

Was gonna release a beta today but its taking longer than I thought and it was hogging the comp so it looks like being a leave-overnight job. Will just release some final pictures, this time to show how the outside area has changed (hopefully for the better :smile: )



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I'm looking at your shots and the only thing I can think of is pure beautiness. Then again there's something missing. But I think I know what it is now: floor detail

I once read about a guiding principle for architects that goes something like this: 1 millimeter on the floor is 1 decimeter on the walls and 1 meter on the ceiling. If you don't like meters it just means that floor detail is more important than wall detail and - obviously - much more important than ceiling detail.

Add some detail (it can be a flat border of another texture) to the floor. In all three shots the floor looks almost like an ocean of nothingness which you don't notice immediately because the walls and ceilings have excellent detail already.

My favourite maps intentionally have something surprisingly detailed on the ceilings. But ultimately, it's the attention to the floor that makes the looks. It gives the map consistency. It's not even about a million billion polygons. Giving enough attention to the floor can result in 5 more polygons - but them in exactly the right spot. Maybe you should try that.

This is looking great :biggrin: The only thing I can criticise from your new
pics is the first one, it's only a small point but it could benefit
from a more 3d skybox, with some extra houses or mountains.

Based on the feedback I've gone and hacked up a few places. Was gonna release a beta but I'm going away so I'll put up a few shots of what I have worked on so far.

This is the churchyard again. I've made it larger and added the foliage in the middle. This hopefully goes someway to resolving the repetitiveness of the colours here and adds a bit of extra cover. The lighting and skybox is also different and much more fitting a mediterranean setting I hope.


This is the crypt. Again its slightly larger. Ive changed some of the textures and made the roof arched which should fit in with the setting better.



<br style="color: white;">The cellar again. Hopefully I've sorted out the "box with props" thing that was going on before<br style="color: white;">


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I've playtested one of my maps when it was just out of the 'grey-orange' phase. Not a public playtest of course, only with a few friends. It was a helpfull thing indeed. A later playtest on the Snarkpit server gave me valuable feedback as well. The map had then less detail than this map, what I can see from the screenshots. Yet, it wasn't a bad idea at all.

I agree that releasing 10 beta's is probably overkill for us amateurs, though some companies seem to playtest much more extensively than that even before any real assets like models or textures are being made. I also agree visuals can (and for best results, should) be planned in beforehand.
Anyway, my point is: you'll need early playtesting to get the gameplay good from the start. Visuals can be judged by screenshots easier, but that's finally not the backbone of a good map (which doesn't mean it's not important, but what's cream without a cake underneath? :wink: ).

I think betas for non-commercial work (like custom maps) do require much more polished and "finished" releases because they mostly go directly to public. Before using "orange rooms" Valve made lots of little sandbox levels just to illustrate the theme, lighting, texturing, modeling ect and only then started with the actual levels, using bits and pieces from the sandbox. If you release a beta to public you can't really "explain" what it should look and feel like later. You have to show it inside the map already. That means waiting with a beta release for a more fleshed out version of the map makes sense. Sometimes visuals have to be planned as early as the layout (which doesn't mean it's more important). I think (think) that's what SpiKeRs means and I'd agree with that.