WIP IrishTown?

[Fink]

Some four years ago now I developed a map with a college of mine for a Quake 3 mod, the map was called IrishTown. This map is based on the original version in its basic design but differs significantly in many areas and really has no relevance to an Irish Town any more. It is designed for CSS and was built around the basic attributes common to many successful CS maps; relatively small and around three choke-points. The major differences with this map to others I have designed are:
• It is designed for high-spec machines. I have not optimised at all and “built what I wanted to”.
• I have built it for LAN environments. Hence not tested and possible to much lag for low-ping players.
• I wanted to show off some of the new CSS features (physics, much more open feel to it, etc).

It is around 90% completed. Outstanding items are:
• I would like to animate the train going through the centre of the map at random intervals. Will really not add much to the map except for a more realistic environment.
• Need to work out hostage way-points better (I am certain this changed just recently with the latest steam updates and things stopped working).
• I will add some ‘nice’ bits where it is still very plain at the moment with special focus around the terrorist base area.
• Needs new sky-box.

To get the hostages out you need to depress the leaver in the main terrorist base. It opens a door to a room near the end of the bridge.

I am looking for constructive feedback with a focus on balancing the two sides.

Before you flood me with messages, I know some of the hostages won’t move currently. I am posting this now as I am about to head off for a couple of days. So if anyone wants to point me to a nice tutorial on hostage info_path entities or bot path’s then that would be a bonus.

Hope you enjoy the map. Like I said, it is designed for a LAN – so I have no idea how it will perform on-line.

(also - if you can come up with a good name I am open to suggestions)

Fink.

Images are here:











P.S. - The current download was built using the -fast options on vrad and vvis - so it is not optimised and has an artifact over the bridge that should disappear in the final build.

[wiggle987]

• It is designed for high-spec machines. I have not optimised at all and “built what I wanted to”.
• I have built it for LAN environments. Hence not tested and possible to much lag for low-ping players.

you do realise those two parts are the most important that you get it for the broadest audience right?

[Cyberblast]

It looks allright though..

[Fink]

• It is designed for high-spec machines. I have not optimised at all and “built what I wanted to”.
• I have built it for LAN environments. Hence not tested and possible to much lag for low-ping players.

you do realise those two parts are the most important that you get it for the broadest audience right?

It wasn't designed for a broad audience, hence reason I noted it up front. It is designed for a LAN (or high-speed wireless) environment - something I personally enjoy more than on-line. Hence high-spec machine required to play it as well. I have hosted here for feedback where it is used in the environment for which it is designed for.

[holy_cheese]

-your point spot lights are coming from around 30cm below your hanging lights, most peoples do, dunno why.
-your steam jet in the last screeny seems to be coming out of mid air.
-your first screeny is awesom, i really like it, but for a high spec map, should the rails actually be there, looks a bit funky.

just some small details i noted. other than that it looks good.

[Fink]

-your point spot lights are coming from around 30cm below your hanging lights, most peoples do, dunno why.
-your steam jet in the last screeny seems to be coming out of mid air.
-your first screeny is awesom, i really like it, but for a high spec map, should the rails actually be there, looks a bit funky.

just some small details i noted. other than that it looks good.

Thanks. Good feedback.
- spot points - I agree. Originally I was going to change them around a bit but I ended up really warming to the look. In hindsight I will play around with the final detail once I get concensus that the overall size/speed of the map is OK.
- steam is spaced a litte away on purpose. I figured if steam comes out at that speed that there would be some space where the force of the jet does not actually show. But if it starts annoying people then I can put it closer. There is another heat-shimmer around the area that does not show well on the images and is quite suttle.
- Agreed - I will build rails. At the start I was not sure how many polys will show from inside the divide. If the train movement is implemented I may not build rails in case it kills frames.
Thanks again for feedback.

[Spartan]

To be honest it looks like anybody could play this map if they can play CSS on low settings. There is the sheer amount of detail or sprites that would cause a lot of lag. Not saying that this won't be a good map but it still doesn't have the advantage of "eye candy" that most people like to see in maps.

[Cyberblast]

To be honest it looks like anybody could play this map if they can play CSS on low settings. There is the sheer amount of detail or sprites that would cause a lot of lag. Not saying that this won't be a good map but it still doesn't have the advantage of "eye candy" that most people like to see in maps.

Uhh they like it but if the layout is good they will play it no matter what. Remember CS1.6 being played while games like DO_omIII and FarCry being out? compare them, just the gfx ^^ tell me what you see. But I agree with you bout the map not having the eye candy that would increase it's popularity. (btw spartan what happend to you while interlopers was down?)

[Cr4ig]

looks quite nice, only it looks nothing like an irish town (i think - never been to ireland)

[holy_cheese]

he could just add some leprecaun's and some drunk irish people stumbling around, or just throw some ragdolls in the map.

[Athlete{UK}]

ok its good but its not quite authentic.

-no potatos
-no guinnes fuled rugby union skin heads
-no one called paddy or murphy.

Aside from that its a good map. Could use some more varied lighting in places.

[BaRRaKID]

i don't like the textures in the secon screen.. look a bit out fo place, also the brushes are a bit to blocky.. medium map imo

[wiggle987]

oh, may i suggest you make a custom terrorist skin that comes packaged with the map? i think that would be quite cool

[Fink]

looks quite nice, only it looks nothing like an irish town (i think - never been to ireland)

Gents.
I wrote in the intro para " This map is based on the original version in its basic design but differs significantly in many areas and really has no relevance to an Irish Town any more."

So no more "I need potatoes"..., but if you have a good name then let me know.

I now have a train going through the middle of the map, added some env sounds - so the downloadable version needs updating.

[Jest@]

I'm guessing the 3rd screenie shows an unfinished bit, right? cos it looks pretty crude.

looks nice. Personally i'd change the ambient light - it looks a bit....i dunno, just plain white light. Maybe darken it a touch, a bit of a tint?

some of your open areas are little bland, eg screenies 7&8. Try breaking that road's layout up a bit, maybe a bit narrower? And the chimney smoke in screenie 7 looks horrid!

there's something really....wrong....about the 2nd screenie. For a start, floor texture scale is too high. And the floor contrasts too much with those rooms, giving them that blocky, brushes-thrown-on-top look Maybe a slight trim at the bottom?. I think it's places like that that need to be darker, defining the hanging lights a bit more. It looks like they're pretty much just highlighting the walls a bit, rather than actually providing the room's light...if you see what i mean...

Visually, the map currently has no real...identity. it has a similar visual style to a lot of maps already out there. Maybe work on particular architectural details, lighting styles and custom textures? try and distinguish its visuals from other maps a bit.

having said that, it doesnt look bad at all.