I think this map should be fun – I’ve been watching your progress. I actually played a new map today that reminded me of what you were shooting for (the outside areas, specifically). Check it out! http://www.fpsbanana.com/maps/screens/38412?img=http://titan.fpsbanana.com/ss/maps/77875.jpg
Team Fortress 2 CTF level [image heavy]
Swizzle
#22
nintenjo:
Adding all the little bits like shrubs and debris is the part I’m looking forward to mostby then I’ll have this thing basically done! 
I’m going to be releasing the first alpha version, as it were, in a few days’ time; there are still a few kinks that need to be worked out before it’s playable.
Zealotlee:
I'm doing playtests on my own every time I make a major change, so I can certainly see the advantage to playtesting before it's done.
That circle is one of the round signs with a white arrow that you sometimes see pointing to the bases. I put it there so I could orient myself properly while the map is still untextured. Dunno why the arrow wasn't in those screenshots.
One of the main places I've gone to learn more about Hammer and modding the Source engine in general is [Interlopers.net](http://www.interlopers.net/index.php). They have some good tutorials on how to use stuff that the Valve dev wiki only lists as being there.
HughieDM:
Thanks! I'll be excited when I can finally let people play on it.
Brocklesocks:
That map looks great and it those outdoor areas are some I should definitely study. This is my first foray into level design, so I find it amazing how fast some of these people can come up with good-looking stuff so fast.
Right. Enough talky-talk! On with the pictures!
[img]http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y29/xkostolny/tf2level010.jpg[/img]
[img]http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y29/xkostolny/tf2level011.jpg[/img]
I've started on the insides of the bases. This is still [u][i][b]extremely[/b][/i][/u] rough, but has some of the general layout that I want in the final version.
Some time this week I should have a playable build ready to be released. I still have some things I need to take care of before that happens, though:
-Widen the base of the canyon so that it’s easy to get around in groups.
-Add access to the cliffside paths and the central column.
-Add proper spawnrooms so that players don’t get massacred at spawn time.
-Add sniper nest to the front of each base so that they can counter the guys in the center column or give support to the guys on the ground.
-Put player clip over the top of the entire level so soldiers don’t rocket jump onto the tops of the cliffs.
-Use displacements for the walls and ceilings inside the base so it ties in better with the rest of the level. (purely cosmetic, I know)
Once I have those things done, I’ll start working on the caves. I think I have an interesting way that I could light them, so I’m eager to start working on that.
WyattHarris
#23
Good ideas so far.
Main thing about the sniper points it to make sure they can’t reach all the way across the map or at least some unfair distance. Looks like you’ve done that with the walls being closer together. Add an adequate amount of cover and it should be fine. Remember that snipers need to have fun too.
Now that you’ve brought the canyon walls closer what about a crossover point somewhere along the upper levels? I could see an engineer entrenching himself along one of those back corners. And as far as people falling off the cliffs. Don’t worry about it, stay on the ground if you can’t handle it. I mean widen them if need be but don’t add rails. I wouldn’t think they would fit in very well.
The bases look wide open. No suggestions on how to fix it or if it needs fixing really. Seems like an engineer could easily get entrenched in there but you never know.
Swizzle
#24
WyattHarris:
I’m working hard to make it so that snipers won’t rule the map while still having a good time. Right now it’s nearly impossible for a sniper to have a good line of sight to anybody going into and out of the bases, but they can still see most of the canyon area. I’m playing with some land bridge ideas that should give intermittent cover to anybody running along the cliffsides.
I’m still working hard on making the inside of the bases fit with some sketches I have, so don’t worry too much about that. There are going to be a lot of areas that an engineer won’t be able to reach with a single sentry.
You can sort of see in the screenshots that there are land bridges going across some areas in the middle of the map. I'm going to add a few more structures like this soon; they give visual interest and a good feeling of height to some areas that otherwise feel sort of cramped.
Today was mostly just devoted to tweaking things I already have, but I should have some more good stuff by the next updatethe start of the caves, most likely. It should also be entirely playable by the next time I update, so if it is I'll have a link to a download.
Looking out from the front of the blue base:
Looking back at the blue base from the center of the map:
An overview of the map:
This is so unfinished.
Armanguy
#25
that is looking sexy my friend it looks like a solid map, i got no complaints yet! 
cant wait for the textures.
kromano
#27
Your progress is looking pretty sweet, Swizzle. Should make for some fun times, give a call when playtesting is abound!
I had a question for you however. I’ve tried changing my skybox texture to one of the TF2 versions and I get compiler errors about non-matching resolutions and ingame either the skybox and reflections or simply reflections don’t work (with or without rebuilding cubemaps).
Any idea what’s happening here? It looks like you have a TF2 skybox happening in your canyon, unless I’m mistaken.
Swizzle
#28
Armanguy:
Thanks. Sorry, but I’m afraid it’s going to be a while until proper textures are anywhere to be seen in this thread. I want to make it play nice first and look nice second.
gsokol:
Thanks!
kromano:
I should be posting a link to a download later this week, so stay tuned.
If you're still having trouble getting your skybox to work, here's how you can do it and it should work properly:
The only way that you can make a proper skybox in Hammer is by applying the [b]toolsskybox[/b] texture (don't asky me about 2D skybox because I have no idea what the hell it does). You can find it by putting that name into the texture browser dialog box:
[img]http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y29/xkostolny/texbox.jpg[/img]
Once you've selected the skybox texture, just apply it to whatever faces you have selected and they should look like this:
[img]http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y29/xkostolny/skyboxtex.jpg[/img]
If everything looks alright, then go to [b]Map>>Map Properties...[/b]
[img]http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y29/xkostolny/mapmenu.jpg[/img]
The [b]Object Properties[/b] dialog box should pop up:
[img]http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y29/xkostolny/objprops.jpg[/img]
Select the item that says [b]SkyBox Texture Name [/b]and change the name in the box on the right-hand side to whatever skybox you want. You can find [a list of skybox names and properties at the Valve Developer Wiki](http://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/Sky_List#team_fortress_2_materials.gcf). Remember that the name you enter is just the name of the skybox, not one of the skybox textures or a path to a texture file. You don't need to add a file extension to the end or have leading or trailing slashes.
Once that’s done and you have the proper sky selected, press Apply and close the dialog box. If everything was done correctly, you should be able to compile your map and have a working sky. If not, then God help you.
kromano
#29
Thanks for going to all that effort for me, Swizzle… however I still get the same errors.
I am aware of the skybox tooltexture and all that, what my problem is relates to THIS error message:
writing E:\HammerMaps\relativity.prt...Building visibility clusters...
done (0)
*** Error: Skybox vtf files for skybox/sky_gravel_01 weren't compiled with the same size texture and/or same flags!
Can't load skybox file skybox/sky_gravel_01 to build the default cubemap!
*** Error: Skybox vtf files for skybox/sky_gravel_01 weren't compiled with the same size texture and/or same flags!
Can't load skybox file skybox/sky_gravel_01 to build the default cubemap!
If you check out the skybox texture sizes you’ll notice that all the skys are 512x512 or 1024x1024 or some other SQUARE whereas the TF2 skys are combos of 512x256 and other RECTANGLES… which appears to be causing the compiler to puke all over my map.
…And yet for some UNKNOWN reason, sky_hydro_01 WORKS… How very frustrating. Maybe I’ll have it solved some time, or maybe not, who knows? I guess I’ll use Hydro for now.
Geta-Ve
#30
Wow! Swizzle this is fantastic. I am really digging the design, the rounded cliffs and cliff faces are great, very organic feel and it differentiates itself to the mechanized inside of the bases.
Not quite sure if you have stated this already but are there going to be more than ‘‘1’’ way in/out of the bases? As someone state before short underground tunnels would be great, but having them lead in to the base might even be better? When I look at the inside of your base I can’t help but notice all the great sentry positions 
One other thing you should think about is the player count, since (unless I am mistaken?) the max players on a map can only be 32 you don’t want it to be too big correct? If the valley is too long then only scouts will be making the run to the base with heavys and medics on front door defense. engineers will set up turrets top side in front of base or at the flag, with a few throwing teleporters half way down the valley as I forsee snipes taking them down any further.
You gotta give credit to valve for the maps they have made so perfectly thus far. How much time and effort was put in to making sure there was balance for all nine classes. Insane!
But you are doing really well thus far, I would love to test it out when possible. 
Swizzle
#31
kromano:
Dude, that’s some serious mess-up-edness. I suspect, however, that it’s an issue with your SDK, as a lot of people have been complaining of myriad bugs from this latest release. Once Valve gets around to updating again, your problems may be solved. Try posting to some forums and see if anybody’s run into the same issue. I’m one of the lucky few whose problems have only been caused by user error.
Geta-Ve:
I’m definitely going to be having more than one way in and out of each base; there’s going to be an entire system of caves going underneath everything so that there are lots of alternate routes for all the classes. I don’t want this to be a strictly scout and sniper map because that would just plain suck, so there’s going to be a lot of room underground through which you can move.
BardurM
#32
Hi man… i just want to say that… That map looks SWEET!
i have been using Hammer Editor for some time (years… but just resently started again)
and i know how it can be a bit difficult to find a great balance to get the best game play…
but that map just looks so god damn sweet… im SURE it is a damn good map
Regards
Bardur
Swizzle
#33
bardur:
Thank you! I know what you mean about making the gameplay balanced, and that’s why…
[b]THE FIRST OPEN TEST IS TOMORROW
[/b]Tomorrow, (Friday the 16th) during the CGTalk Friday Night Deathmatch, we will be playing ctf_happyvalley v0.1. This will be the first time anybody has tested the map in actual gameplay, so I encourage you to have fun (hopefully), explore, test everything to the breaking point, and give me critiques in this thread.
While playing tomorrow, please keep in mind that the map is still very unfinished and many things must still be added, tweaked and improved. One of the major features currently not in the map is the system of caves. These will be playable at the time of the next release.
Here’s an update on the flag room. It’s still very unfinished; I still have to put in all sorts of little details that should make it look like a control room environment.
Zealotlee
#34
Aw man! I’m going away for the whole weekend! Oh well, I guess I’ll have to wait until the next test. Good luck with it though!
Shade01
#35
You are doing a great job at capturing the spirit of a TF2 map. This might be the first custom map I’ve seen that I actually want to play:thumbsup:
kromano
#36
I will be waiting until the moment I can wipe the drool off my chin and burn somebody with my sniper flamethrower rifle and sniper shotgun.
I sure hope I don’t get distracted by something and miss the playtest, this should be good fun, if a bit unbalanced until the rest of the map is finished. You’re making leaps and bounds of progress over me, it seems… I don’t even have a second base yet! But when I do, I expect to find you there helping me find the bugs (or just squashing the other team).
By the by, I love the little control box you have overlooking your command center but (as was mentioned before) your Flag room seems a little too wide open and easily camped by Fungineers (as it were). As a suggestion, perhaps stack crates / freight containers along the bottom as a storage area for unspeakable [evil]/[good] deeds. This would provide a little cover inside the room without feeling out of place.
And as a final post script, the name I’m using on TF2 (and any other Source MP game)is [AF]Meelo, if you happen to see me about say hi.
Swizzle
#38
Zealotlee:
Don’t worry! I’m going to be posting a link to a download in case you want to try out the map on your own.
Shade01:
Thank you. Comments like that really mean a lot to me and definitely provide a lot of encouragement.
kromano:
Hell yeah! I can't wait to play your map; the freaky upside-down rooms and stuff look kickass. If there's an easy way to control gravity in the Source engine, you should see if you could incorporate it into your map for all sorts of rocket jumping hijinks and whatnot.
I'm definitely going to be adding some cover before I upload it tomorrow. At present, a single turret could easily cover the entire flag room and that would just be awful. Things should improve when I start adding the caves, though, because the flag room is going to be one of the entrances to them and that'll give you ways to circumvent the entire front entrances to the bases.
I'll make sure to keep an eye out for you in-game. :D
HughieDM:
I hope to see you in the game tomorrow! And I’ll definitely watch my back. Keep in mind, though, I’m a mean Pyro.