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Okay guys so this is stage 1 in my process of making a competitive map for TF2. I’ve never really bothered with Source mapping but I feel I should get in to it. I have made some pretty things in HL1 engine for NS before but haven’t bothered moving on properly until now.

Basically stage one, I got one simple question for the community as a whole; what features do you want in a competitive map? Example listings below:

– Figure of 8 layout
– Variation of height for areas
– Level over level play
– Visually pleasing
– Visuals to play a part in moveable area (ie. you can run along pipes/saw blades in sawmill that kill/glass windows so you can see what opponent is doing in another area)
– How large you’d like the map. ie. also best distances between 1-2 and 3-4 or 3-5 etc.
– How many escape routes or ways in to a given point
– How a point should be shielded

And so forth, the list is pretty long of what I can think of. I just want a general idea, especially as Granary and Badlands are probably the most popular and design wise they are layout wise very similar but visually and design on the whole extremely different.

I want to be able to design to cater for the community, sort of how the CS CAL maps were; this way we can add more maps to the ETF2L rotation and they can be maps which we will want to play. (I’m looking at you MR. Gravelpit… yes you :@)

Link to some old HL NS (and an old lost zombie panic map too it seems) work from a good 4 years ago, haven’t touched hammer since apart from random tutorial maps to teach people basic in HL1& Source, anyways rambling over; link to some old pretty HL1 stuff is CLICK HERE – FOR OLD WORK IMAGES (so you know im not a crap mapping time wasting git)*WARNINGSTUPID AMOUNT OF IMAGES*

Feedback will go in to the next brief of my plan to work on a map, will probably take 2-3weeks before I even get penciling layouts and features. Any external help much loved (particularly you modelers and animators)

I would suggest you make something that has been suggested on this forum a hundred times: take cp_gravelpit, mirror it around point B and make a 5 cp map out of it.

At least two people have already done this and run into the same problem: when you mirror it, the map will not compile as it has too many entities/too much detail.

So it isn’t as straightforward as just mirroring the map, it needs significant changes to the geometry/detail of the map.

(disclaimer: I know nothing about mapping so may well have my terms mixed up, but both efforts definitely ran into the same problem that was like what I described)

I would suggest you make something that has been suggested on this forum a hundred times: take cp_gravelpit, mirror it around point B and make a 5 cp map out of it.

At least two people have already done this and run into the same problem: when you mirror it, the map will not compile as it has too many entities/too much detail.

So it isn’t as straightforward as just mirroring the map, it needs significant changes to the geometry/detail of the map.

(disclaimer: I know nothing about mapping so may well have my terms mixed up, but both efforts definitely ran into the same problem that was like what I described)

rebuild from scratch. You can just copy the main architecture (B house, C tower)

+1 for a gravelpit style 5 point map.

I’m just having a small question about the gravelpit remake? Should the points be connected in the order

A-C-B-C-A or C-A-B-A-C ?

take a good look at cp_well, and do the exact opposite.

I’m just having a small question about the gravelpit remake? Should the points be connected in the order

A-C-B-C-A or C-A-B-A-C ?

C-A-B-A-C TBH

When i tried the 5 CP gravelpit it had too many brushes, too many faces, too many t juncs, too many uniqe texture orientations – basically too many anything. You would have to create it from scratch using Gravelpit as a reference.

I was planning on it being C-A-B-A-C, with extra passages between C and A and A and B to make up for the alternate routes lost. The main idea when it was suggested was that there would be a short route for heavies and a longer route for better flanking for scouts.

Overview of B: http://img16.imageshack.us/img16/6639/cpborrowpitbackup80003.jpg
New A-B connector: http://img16.imageshack.us/img16/6639/cpborrowpitbackup80003.jpg
http://img33.imageshack.us/img33/7814/cpborrowpitbackup80004.jpg
New C-A connector: http://img16.imageshack.us/img16/9043/cpborrowpitbackup80008.jpg
First forward spawn: http://img16.imageshack.us/img16/4976/cpborrowpitbackup80006l.jpg

This layout has some potential issues though. I had trouble finding a place for the first forward spawn. I ended up having it exit into the room below A) but since there’s a medium health and it’s so cramped i think it would be really easy to spawncamp. The extra connectors i added probably won’t be enough either. At A-B a demoman can camp two of the exits rather easily, and at C-A it’s so narrow and steep that pretty much anyone would be able to camp it. It’s a problem with the map in general though, it’s room-corridor-room rather than room-room-room like the stock push maps.

Here’s the last backup compile before i tried to mirror it and it went to hell. If anyone wants to run around it and get a feel for the changes i was trying to make feel free.
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=O8G95U00

my map noob eyes sees a lot of potential and a good work