This is just kind of a rant post (though there's a nice little link halfway in if you want to see what I've been working on). Onwards;

Gosh, I'm getting really.. hmm.. frustrated/nervous/angry/worried/upset over the past few hours and just generally sickened/weary as far as the map. No specific reason, but some contributing factors:

• Hammer update, although very cool, seems to make it run much slower. It's noticeably choppier when navigating in a 3D view and this has only made me more worried about performance.
• PERFORMANCE. I already feel like the FPS is quite low in some areas and I still have a lot more I want to add. I know I should probably worry about it a bit later after I've got stuff laid out but it's this really awful, nagging feeling whenever I make something new, be it prop or brush, that "this isn't helping!" and it's really just frustrating, I can't get much anything done.
• Introducing more buildings... thus more details.. architecture is frustrating sometimes.
• Sealing off passages. Fences won't work for three seperate alleyways in one area, will they? Sigh. SIGH. SIGH.

The playing area is probably too big and discouraging as it is. Right? Here is how I've got it right now. I need to cut off some stuff. What/how?! And how will I deal with sealing off the huge expanse of hill? :\

I feel like listing a to-do so I can see just how much I've got ahead of me.

• Hole inside the corner building leading outside. Realistically. Maybe two of them. Back-of-head-performance-nagging-voice is shouting.
• Damage to the parking lot, I've wanted to do this since I saw Finger's illustrations. Performance voice nagging a lot more...
• Populate the environment with more buildings. They also need to have realistic layout, e.g. along streets. I can't just throw them all around the place like they seem to be in most maps. Do I even need to say that this is performance-worrying?
• More flow, basically a few more connected rooms between some things I already have. Guess what, performance-worrying.
• Texturing on the destroyed building, of course windows have to be blasted out rather than just sitting there. That sounds fun. It also sounds rather performance hurtful.

I can't even bother going on.. sigh.

I'll try to straighten out my thoughts on everything, decide what I'll have to do next, and just do it.. start cutting things down, trimming here and there...

Alright, so a quick update with particularly rough screenshots of entirely unfinished work. What's new? :smile:

Started working on the "alleyway" idea, behind the corner building that wraps around, so the player has somewhere to jump. I also redid all the holes in the damaged building with the new technique.

Screen 1 - a glance down the alleyway, and the size/location in comparison with an area you all should be familiar with.
Screen 2 - in the corner at the other end of the alleyway, looking down towards the street on the right and towards the parking lot on the left.
Screen 3 - a view of the alleyway from the parking lot.
Screen 4 - the alleyway from the roof of the corner building.
Screen 5 - new destroyed concrete (don't worry - more details/decals/texture work coming soon, just rough outlines).
Screen 6 - same as above.
Screen 7 - New ladder up the back of the building and way in to the sniper area, giving the sniper more to worry about and more places to go.
Screen 8 of the other sniper spot which I've done some work on, now it's a small room (e.g. hotel/apartment). Slightly brightened in Photoshop to show the wall texture.

Not really looking for crits on the alleyway yet, I just started it last night, maybe spent 20 minutes on laying it out before running off to bed. I've got some thoughts already on changes, but I like how it's started out. I've got some things planned; I'll have a weapon back there, or at least ammo; as well as a ladder to the roof (a second ladder, that is, considering the one by the parking lot) for an alternate route up. I'll as well have a route in/out of the building's interior (that damaged hallway with all the rocks - out; hole in the building - in). :smile: Should add a lot of fun variation/alternate-route gameplay.

Just a sneak peek, expect more polished screens in a few days...

Hey Elon-

Which rubble do you mean? The "ground" inside the destroyed building? It's already displacements, and I can make it more uneven.. that sounds a bit nicer, I'll try it later. :smile: Thanks.

You need to add more level changes in the rubble, use displacements, just like ordenery terrain.

Hey, Captain P;

Sure, I'll try to clutter it up a bit-- er... tactfully.. place some... very carefully-chosen... props... in very specific.. selected.. locations... :biggrin:

About the bricks.. thanks for your thoughts. If I keep them I'll probably redo them or at least readjust them so they're more aligned, considering that. I'd also like to do more destruction, but I need to keep a careful eye on performance as well, and finishing the layout.. this suffices for now but I'll try to get it more convincing. Thanks for the pointers. :smile:

I don't feel very likely to touch the road anymore but I'll certainly keep working on the buildings; I personally wouldn't consider any of them done (though maybe the hotel "nearly"). The debris will be more varied soon also when I add the new behind-corner-building alleyway. :smile:

And yeah, I think maybe like a week before I think I'll release it I'd really like to get some people from Snarkpit as well as friends + friends-of-friends together for a large playtest (hopefully like >8 people) to see how this map plays with a lot of people.. :biggrin:

BTW @everybody, I just redid part of the exploded building; here's a Hammer shot.

First thing that's noticeable is the open nature of this map. It's fresh, I like it. It does feel a bit empty because of that, so you may want to spread some props around, 'tactically placed' of course. :smile:

In the first shot I noticed those supporting bricks. At the hole in the wall, one of them is rotated... which is structurally incorrect, as those bricks are probably set deep into the underlying wall, and they wouldn't behave like that on impact. Just a small detail, but it shows somehow.
Besides that, the damage is too local and 'managed'. A building that takes such holes has taken moer than just that. Fire behind windows, broken glass, more damage spread across the building... and if it's recent damage, dust should fill the air and debris should be widespread 'available'.

Later shots show a very cubic nature. There's a few road curves, but that's mostly it. Add some curves, like in the train station plaza in HL, some buildings had nice little towers sticking out. I'm not sure what else you can do to break up the cubic buildings, some reference shots could help here. Also, one of the roads is blocked by debris - with an obvious linear edge between road and debris. Such things could be some more natural. I know it's a hard thing to do, but it'll pay off.

Besides those things, it's looking good. I wonder how it'll play, as it looks quite open and large. Buggy, anyone? :smile:

Hey, reaper47.

Thanks a lot for your comments, I also felt like I wanted to do something different from the typical bright-lit sunnyday lighting, and I like the atmosphere of this. :smile: Still some tweaking to do, but the basics are there. :smile:

As far as cutting it down a bit - that may be a good idea. here is an extremely rough paint over of what I was thinking when you mentioned this; cutting off a couple unnecessary buildings, mostly. I removed the crossbow in the upper right corner, leaving one in each campspot across the map from each other; thus that alleyway is unnecessary altogether and can be removed. I'll add a ladder up to the other crossbow in the campspot from behind soon; gives campers something to worry about and increases flow. Still trying to lay some things out until I do the fine-tuning but I think this is the way to go.

And I just realized what you meant with your last statement. Yeah, this is to be fixed. Maybe today. I need to redo the destruction around that hole in the building and in the process tweak the texturing and get rid of that window.

Thanks for the comments and heads up! :biggrin:

This map is really taking shape. I love the lighting now. There was a time when sunset lighting was a bit overused but after all the pale and colorless maps you see it's almost like a breath of fresh air. I love the way the orange light comes in in this very flat angle. The white-ish street-lights next to the orange-lit facades create an interesting contrast, I love it. It's near-perfect lighting-wise (which is one of my favourite aspects of map aesthetics).

I still think the map could benefit from a "less is more" approach. It's looking pretty vast at places (although I can only judge from the screenshots). I'm sure some of the streets or stairs/ramps could be stripped to make the layout a little tighter, circular and get a better gameflow.

One more thing I noticed: You can still see the shape of a window in the texture at the hole in the wall in the second screenshot. Looks very illogical once you notice.

Morphine-

Ah, you're right - better switch out that texture :smile: Should be more concrete-ish.

Also that sounds cool, having the collapsed support lead up to the apartment. I'll give it a try.

Elon-

Yes, I felt they were rather thin too... I don't know exactly what I'll do yet. Probably make them larger (maybe twice as large) and have them - near the top - shrink down to the size they are now (so they recieve all their pressure from the beams). That or maybe make a "block" of concrete that goes around the concrete beams, where they intersect, and have a bigger pole run up into that.

Dunno how clear any of that is, but I see it clearly in my mind. :biggrin:

Also, I started a tutorial on the concrete-chopping... I might finish it off tonight. I love writing. :smile:

The supports in the lower room looks from some reason too thin, I'm not sure they can hold the building in real life.