I know my map is good. And is a BETA! A lot of things need improvement. But at least I did a good job.

Posted by Erilis

Let me start by saying first I think the concept is very unique and I actually really like that you made a custom model for the payload cart. The police car is very fitting for the setting of TF2 as it really does appear to be 1950s style vehicle. However while the environment is certainly fitting for its time the style seems quite remote from TF2. There's no rule against making your own models or using HL2 models for TF2, in fact Valve has even used some HL2 models in a few maps, but this map feels more like something that would belong in HL2 to me.

You have a lot of vibrant colors for this map and that's definitely TF2 style, but playing through some official TF2 maps I notice that spatially your map is quite different. The ceilings in this map are very low and the walls are quite narrow--they're realistic, but TF2 maps typically feature very large environments to, I think, invoke more of that cartoony style.

I don't particularly like the small push volume for the car nor the waiting at the very end. I think I get what you were trying to do because it seems like at the end BLU would have to duke it out with RED for a while there, but that requires someone standing very close to the car at all times in an area even smaller than a regular capture point (the car takes up a lot of the room in the push volume). Maybe you could make it so that as long as BLU is in the warehouse it counts? Like switching to a large trigger area that covers the whole warehouse, you know?

I liked some of the details and even some of the buildings you have in here. While I personally like playing TF2 maps that are very stylistically appropriate I think you guys should definitely keep making more maps. I wish you the best of luck.

Thank you very much for your feedback. This map is in its early stage of development. I'll fix most of the problems you assigned in the Beta 2.0. I didn't had time enough to make the proper optimization, but I'll fix that soon. Thanks dude.

Posted by will2k

Pros:

• The map has a very nice overall design and the brushwork is well done. It is certainly a refreshing change from the standard TF2 layouts and visuals.
• The ambiance is warm and relaxing and the lighting adds to this feeling of well-being while traveling the map.
• Good attention to details (decals, props, trims...).
• The map is well optimized (areaportals, nodraw, fading props, func details…) considering it is mostly open-space streets although I have couple of points that I will address in the cons.
• The police car idea is certainly more fun & innovative than the standard cart.
• The final capture point is a nice surprise: The Delorean brought back fond childhood memories. I was disappointed not to see Marty or Dr. Brown come out of the car :)
• The gameplay is fun, but snipers can wreak havoc in open streets without proper cover.

Cons:

• Keep in mind that I'm not trying to undermine your good work with the below cons; on the contrary, I respect what you have accomplished in the time frame of the contest and I'm aiming to further help you make the map run smoother and be glitch-free :)
• There were some frame rate drops in the warehouse (last CP) and the surrounding area. I will give my suggestions in the next section.
• Some big props were fading too early breaking the visual immersion of the map, mainly the silos and the big AC roof units near BLU base.
• Some props were not solid although they are expected to be by the player. Examples are sign poles, wood planks stacks, metal beams and pillars mainly on the street near BLU base. This will also break immersion and logical gameplay when the player can run through supposedly solid objects.
• Some of your decals are extending from walls to the adjacent floor. The most obvious ones are to the left and in front of BLU base on surrounding walls.
• The triangular building on the corner edge near RED base has a weird shape and looks like a wall with a window rather than an actual building.
• The sidewalks have many misaligned textures and the transition seams are visible.
• There are couple of small errors in the console for static props with no vphysics model.
• No nav file for offline play with bots.

Improvements:

• For the fps in the warehouse, this is my suggestion: add a horizontal hint brush on the door upper edge level to prevent outer visleaves from seeing the inside upper leaves. Try to reduce the number of light fixture props on the ceiling. Fade some small props (camera, fire extinguisher). Although I don't like occluders, you can consider adding one on the front entrance wall and test if it helps in increasing the FPS.
• The map could benefit from couple more areaportals and hints: add 2 areaportals on each extremity of the central street (2nd CP) going from street level all the way to skybox level. You need also to add couple of hint brushes on street corners to prevent visleaves from poking from one side to the other (unnecessary additional visleaves rendering)
• Increase the fade distance of big visible props; you can always counter this optimization drawback with smaller fade distance for small, non-critical props that no one will notice from a distance.
• For the oversized decals, either reposition them on the wall or switch them to overlays (little costlier but you can control the size)
• Align the sidewalk textures and where it is not possible, add a dirt decal to hide the seam.
• Rework the odd shaped building to a more conventional shape
• Review the solidity of the mentioned props or add clip brushes if the model is not solid. For the console errors, set the solidity of the offending static props to non-solid to avoid these readings.
• Consider changing the main screenshot because this nice map deserves a better screenshot to promote it ;)

Notes:

• Allow me to congratulate you on this refreshing map that was done in a short time schedule for the contest and emerged in the last moment as a nice surprise; I certainly enjoyed it. Good job and well done.
• Don't be frustrated from the lengthy review I wrote; I really liked the map and wanted to help you out in every possible aspect.
• Keep up the good work and best of luck in your future projects