cp_maya

[combatfetus]

cp_maya
by combatfetus

I've been working on a symmetrical 5 control point map, with a Mayan theme somewhat similar to cp_egypt. I've gotten some inspiration from Egypt's gameplay, and I'm hoping to make it very fast-paced and enjoyable. I will say that I am having a fun time making this look like a Mayan city. Still needs some lighting tweaks; I'm not satisfied with this current lighting.
Here are a few screens:
Central cap point, disregard skybox errors - I'm planning to fix them soon.


Final cap point for both sides.


Added little med room near 3rd point.


Wall goes up and down when point is captured by defenders and attackers, respectively, makes it less impossible to cap the last point. I fixed the lighting issue above the cap point after I took this.


It is not complete yet, and will enter beta stages soon. I am a member of the clan Alpha Omega, and we may host a server for beta testing - if any of you are interested I can let you know when it will occur.
I'd love to hear what you all think.

[jgoodroad]

I think you should change the texture of the top of the blocks that make up mid, you know, the ones complementing the stairs.

[mookie]

I don't play (or like) TF2 so take this FWIW.

The little bits of ledge hanging out opposite two of the stair runs don't look right. Unless there's something underneath them I can't see, they look unbelievable. I realize pillars would probably get in the way, but maybe a couple of supports coming off/out of the wall at an angle (like a bookshelf) would work.

The ground looks very blah, which also makes it more noticeable that the lighting (or maybe texturing?) doesn't match up between the displacements. Alpha blending to another texture (even if it's just a recolor of the existing texture) might improve it.

The ground in your last pictures looks weird. You have steps going up, then slightly above the top step you have this clean edge of ground. It seems like normally it would be one of two things, either (1) the ground above would be slightly lower than the top step leaving the top step as a bit of a retaining wall holding all the dirt/sand in its area, or (2) the ground above would overlap the top step (the top step might even be a platform that some dirt/sand just happens to be on) and so the displacement would disappear into the brushwork. The sand below the stairs looks a bit odd there as well. You can create a custom blended material out of any textures you want; blending the sand into the floor here would probably look a lot better than having the displacement dive into the brush leaving a hard edge.

To me, your brushwork would benefit from new textures on the upper sides where it looks like you've used wall textures. Some places (like on the layers of the pyramid) might do fine with just rotating the textures to match the direction of the bricks.

The light being cast from the torches looks a bit too smooth and homogenous to me. Maybe that's the style for TF2. To my eye though the light should be brighter and more concentrated; If you're using linear instead of quadratic maybe move back toward quadratic, or if it's just straight quadratic maybe increase the brightness a little, or if you've moved the light entities away from the torches maybe move them back a little closer. I'm not sure what to call the other things, so I'll go with lamp. Whatever they are, they look fine to me. The only odd thing is that some of these are standing free in the open getting rained on which doesn't seem to fit as most of them are under cover. Also it looks like one of these is missing in the third screenshot. The lamps just sitting on the tops of buildings visible in the last screenshots definitely look odd to me.

I can't remember offhand if you can choose the sprite for a flame but I'm thinking you probably can. It might be neat to have bluish flames in the blue area (and maybe whiter/yellower in the neutral area) to differentiate. Or it might be weird, and not worth the effort.

[combatfetus]

Thanks for the feedback- I'm planning to fix many of those problems.

Updated some things -


I really need to retexture/change those stairs, they seem out of place. Perhaps wooden stairs would be better.

[combatfetus]

Here's what I decided on. Subject to changes. And definite polishing, those edges are not too aesthetically pleasing.

[MáØ]

I like the style you're going for, but I think something i really needed to break up how simple the walls look. Fancy pained Mayan murals or something (in a tf2 cartoon style) or something? Just looks bland right now I think.

[combatfetus]

Thanks. Yes, I'll be doing that for sure. Just want to get the layout finalized before I start doing fine detailing like that.