Journal #8861

Posted 6 years ago2017-09-10 12:51:18 UTC
Alright, first Journal, lets do this.

I never really had much communication with a mapping community, my first one was in GameBananna but nobody really reviewed my maps (all of them suck don't bother) so I stagnated whenever I made maps. I always wanted to make a successful map, be it on Half Life or Counter Strike, I wanted to make a map that is fun to play in, a very hard job to do.

Fast forward to today, I decided to start on a new, simple project. I tried making a counter strike before but I managed to screw it up through vertex manipulation. So I made a new one, and in one or two hours, I made a layout I was comfortable with.
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Already this looked better than most of my other work. The next image shows the layout of the whole map, where ts and cts are, etc.
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Of course I shouldn't just make a map for the sake of making it, I need to make it original and stand out from other maps. First: Where is it? I've already included Dust textures and felt this map worked well with it, so it has to do somewhere in the desert. I first thought of making it somewhere in Africa, but I recently watched a documentary about the Soviet-Afghan War, and decided that's what I am planning on. The terrorists are the Mujahideen forces and the counter-terrorists are the Soviets (With M4 rifles lol).
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So I got the theme but that's not enough, how does the map perform gameplay wise? Every CS map has sightlines, a center, and 2 bombsites. Following the theme of this map, I decided to add a gameplay theory that could be more 'radical' from other CS maps: Conventional vs Guerilla Warfare.

I'm using these terms very broadly but here is what I mean: The CTs have control over all the sightlines in the map in one location that is very easy to get to: the fort.
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Which has control over Bombsite A...
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And a sightline towards the path to Bombsite B...
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This obviously gives the CTs a huge upper hand, in a competitive setting, they can just put one CT there and 4 others to protect the bombsites, Very Overpowered.

However, this doesn't mean the Ts can't fight back, as the Ts will always have control over the center of the map, which the CTs will always have to fight for and can easily lose due to how quick the Ts can establish dominance over.
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The idea is that the CTs can have a good static defense while the Ts have a wide array of flanks that can overwhelm the CTs. This theory will be covered on later, particularly in video form.

Another gameplay mechanic I want to briefly cover on is the terrain. One of the biggest disappointments I have with many maps is how flat everything is when moving. There are obviously some height differences in some areas of every map, but the lack of slopes that the player can take advantage of is what I want to fix. This map will be very dusty, more dusty than Dust and Dust2, and allow players not only attack while moving on the X/Y axis but also on Z axis, allowing full 3D movement (I might be over-exaggerating but I will try to make the most of this).

So these are my ideas that I want to bring out in this map I will call for now de_afghan (I will change it since someone else has used that name but don't have a good name for it yet).

Here is the list summary of what I'm making:

1. A map based on the Soviet-Afghan War

2. Use Conventional vs Guerilla warfare theory

3. Create a terrain that allows quick movement over Z axis.

I will continue making reports on the progress over the map, at maximum weekly. Hopefully I won't lose confidence in the future.

Here are more pictures of some parts of the map current map.
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3 Comments

Commented 6 years ago2017-09-10 14:05:59 UTC Comment #68593
Dude I hope you can get this finished. It seems like you have put more thought into this map than a lot of other people ever have. Don't quit, this has the potential to be awesome
Commented 6 years ago2017-09-11 08:28:26 UTC Comment #68595
Thanks @Tetsu0! I needed the commendation. I just hope my ideas aren't flawed with the gameplay and I don't focus too much on the wrong aspects, but as I continue making this map, I'll eventually find out whether these ideas and theories work out.
Commented 6 years ago2017-09-11 13:45:11 UTC Comment #68594
You just need more opinions and something which will attract those who give opinions. Not finishing a map is a shame if the map has good potential.

You've mentioned that you wanted to make a successful map, eh?
Here's what I did with de_kobbl:

1. Submitted a WiP at GameBanana, mid-development, and got a few hundred views on it
2. Submitted a beta-test thread at GameBanana and got a bunch of people
3. Spent a month or two testing the map with my testers and improved the map even more
4. Released the map and pushed out some smaller updates

But just as important, I posted screenshots in the "Post your screenshots!" thread at TWHL. Fellow TWHL'ers here gave me their opinions and that's one of those things which kept me going. Of course, that was somewhere mid-development.
And I did the same thing with ts_untergrund, 4Way, and so on...

Opinions can tell you what's wrong and what's good in the map. You'll be more certain and you'll know what to do next.

Of course, that's just one of the things which you should do to keep yourself motivated. And, obviously, you need to know how to accept opinions and critiques. But for now, work on the map, show screenshots later when you've got more to show.

Lastly, listen to some music, but don't get lost in it. :D

Edit:
While I'm at opinions, I don't have an opinion yet. At such an early development phase, opinions don't need to be given. :P

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