de_desertion [CSS]

[pk_hunter]

Hey guys!
So for the past 3 months or so since the release of cs_trepidation I've been working on a defusal map under the title "de_desertion."

After seeing what I guessed to be the fortieth generic Dust-clone map I had come across in my time as a CSS player, I decided that I needed to make a point. I wanted to show that it's possible to make a map in the Dust setting without losing a sense of uniqueness and originality. This map would not be a Dust clone. This map had to have its own personality - it had to be crammed with custom content and with things never usually seen in the environment CSS players devote themselves to.

So I came up with several ideas but the one that stuck was a high-tech lab hidden underground in a desert environment. This was for two reasons - one, I had just made a neat set of lab textures based loosely on the game Evil Genius, and two, I wanted there to be an extremely stark contrast to the map to give it some flair.

Three months later, I had a playable layout.

The following shots are very WIP, but give a good idea of the location.













This is without a doubt the biggest map I've ever made. The surface alone is bigger than de_aztec, and there are also a whole series of underground passages and labs.
It messes with the conventions of CSS by having quite an open layout and expansive bombsites which make firefights extremely unpredictable. It's my hope that this will keep players coming back. There's always a new tactic to try.

I'd love to know what you think of it so far and whether or not you agree with my desire to be as far removed from de_dust2 as possible. I mean, obviously the classic does something right or players wouldn't keep going back to it - but I personally am sick of playing the same rounds over and over on it.

Any suggestions are welcomed with open arms and an open mind.

Also, I would really, really, really like some help regarding optimisation of huge open maps like this. The compile times are starting to get... Excessive.

Cheers, folks.

[- Livewire -]

The gameplay on this map is what's best, and it still looks pretty good too!

[ErikKiller]

Oh hey you're from Scotch & Coffee! Haha.
VERY good work!

[Furling]

When I look at the building in the first screenshot I can't help but think of Battlefield: Bad Company 2 hehe
The rest of the map looks good too. Since you already added dust particles, you can consider adding a fog (in the same colour) to imitate a dust storm. That should somewhat help with optimization too.
Turning the larger, inaccessible areas (like the road with the tunnel down below) into 3D skybox can also help performance

[pk_hunter]

Oh hey you're from Scotch & Coffee! Haha.
VERY good work!

Someone's heard of SnC? :3
Haha, thanks man

When I look at the building in the first screenshot I can't help but think of Battlefield: Bad Company 2 hehe

Well I figured that since Dice use that factory in like 8 of the BC2 maps, I might as well help them with their factory-based virus and port it into another game as well
I just remember one of my first plays of BC2 thinking that this factory would make an epic bomb site, so I built it from the ground up. Thanks

[mookie]

Looks like a nice concept for a map.

The outside area looks good so far. What I think it needs visually/texturally is more unity/consistency in things that look similar, and stronger contrast between things that are different. The two major buildings in the map (Lab, Factory) both have grey concrete for some of their exterior walls. It looks like the Lab exterior has one grey concrete wall texture, and the Factory exterior has three (3!) other grey concrete wall textures. Keeping some common visual elements through various areas of the map will give it a distinctive look. The factory even by itself looks weird; just having two textures that are basically the same colour but visibly inconsistent with each other tends to make things look shoddy.

The red stripe running along the base of the Factory walls is a good thought, but it doesn't need to go everywhere. Using it just on the primary structure, or just on certain material types, or only on certain areas (like where the ground below is level/paved/concrete) may be better. Putting a similar stripe (even if a different colour) on some other areas of the map like some parts of the Lab or one of the two smaller structures might be good as well.

The texturing of the blue Lab interior does not look good at all. The grey tile texture between the shiny walls and shiny ceiling looks good, but right now that's it. Some of the textures are over-the-top shiny, and the others are flat and badly in need of some bumpmapping. To get a good contrast between different areas like you want, each area needs to have its own strong visual cohesion. Right now this area is black and blue, and light blue, and grey, and dark orange, and a little yellow; basically it's all over the place. The visual chaos makes it hard for it to really contrast to anything.

The underground tunnel to my eye does not fit the rest of the map. It's a completely different style from all the other man-made structures, but it doesn't look older or even unused or run-down. To me, either go all the way with it and make it look like it was built and forgotten 300 years ago and now someone brought in some electric lights to make it usable, or make it look like a modern construction. As it is now, the slanted columns and arched ceiling together look bad. I don't know much about architecture, but if anything I'd expect the columns to slant the other way to support the arch.

Since this area is a tunnel with presumably only two entrances (no windows), it should be one place where you can add a lot of detail without causing performance problems. In the absolute worst case you should be able to just put an areaportal on each doorway.

This map is going to be naturally hard to optimize because of the large open space between the Lab and Factory. Your easiest big improvement would probably be to do something about the windows in the Factory that face towards the rest of the map. Since the building has windows on all sides and no significant interior walls, it basically does not block line-of-sight at all. Adding a large object which hides the windows on the south side from the bombsite A area might be another option.

There are not a lot of ways to optimize a big map like this. Optimizing each building as much as possible is a start. Figure out where each building can be seen from, and try to figure out if any parts of the interior (that contain any meaningful detail) will be fully out of sight from one angle or another, and put a hint there. Interior walls can be shifted around to reduce or eliminate the angles from which you can see through a window and clear into the next room or out the other side of the building. Any kind of antechamber/entry room is especially good for this WRT doors. Keep in mind that when looking from a particular angle, if you can see an area through one window, anything you do for this area from another window is useless. Careful use of hints outdoors at A and in the area over the cliff to the south will probably yield some improvement. Make sure you don't have any excessively tall leaves anywhere.

Your compile time is probably not going to go down much. Use the cordon tool to keep it down as much as possible while you're working.

[korge]

I thought this was Ivans Secrets lol

[Ich 666]

Cant wait to play it with the gentlemen
please give it some badass colorcorrection

[pk_hunter]

Holy wall of extremely critical and helpful text, batman!
Seriously mookie, thanks so much for taking the time to be that critical - I've taken it all on board!
The lab's cubemap was picking up the outside area which made the materials seem extra shiny. I've toned down their reflectivity with an alpha mask and fixed the cubemap issue. It looks a lot better now just fyi.

please give it some badass colorcorrection

Never used it before. Will give it a shot.

[mookie]

Also I forgot my one gameplay comment:

It seems like the area down the cliff to the south of A is very isolated. If a CT were here when the bomb were planted, he'd probably have a very hard time defusing at A. And the fact that you have to run all the way back to T spawn in order to flank the Ts means that in my mind this whole southern route is probably not viable for the CTs. Some way to get from here up near A, or back into the brownish Lab interior, would probably be good.

[jgoodroad]

The only things that let me down is the position of the spawns in relation to the large base-structure on the left, what puts me down is it seems like a great place to have gun fights, but I don't think the CT's can get there in time to set up a defence. it would look like they would get to site A but only barely reach the interiors of the mountain-base. so the interiors closest to the T's would be Potentially wasted, the other problem area is the flanking path to the right, I am not sure If any flank-defending CT's would be able to get to the center of the ruins at the same time as a flanking terrorist, instead it looks like they would meet in the bent tunnel closest to the T spawn, and it also proposes the problem of a CT getting there, only to realize that the terrorists have planted the bomb at A, what I would suggest is that you place some rocks under the vents and make the vent another path to A, however the jumping aswell as a vent section would slow down attacking T's and then place them in a small hole, where If a CT were to find them as they were leaving the vents it would give the defender an advantage (imagine the vent on CS_assault) and give the section south of A more traffic whilst and give the CT's an faster way to A after they go hunting for AFK's in T spawn...