Many thanks for the feedback Will. I always appreciate long constructive criticism posts such as these.

with regards to the arch and the candle flicker: from experience i've found that adding a visible flicker either through a dynamic light or a sprite effect can be distractive to players as it draws the eye. add to that; tf2 doesn't really work well with dynamic lights as they pull a lot of rendering power to raytrace on the fly (yeh realtime ray-tracing...seriously)

with the arches - it's a lot of effect to align them on every single arch. i eventually came to the decision that it wasn't worth the time and difficulty to do so. i know that in the A-D corridor it stands out more visibly, and i did put some effect to reduce it but the fact remains that i just couldn't find a perfect sweetspot, and as you pointed out most players will not notice it.

for the FPS drop @ C, i've never heard of additional visleaves impacting FPS as you said. I'll have to do some experimentation with this, but I believe that the drop is actually due to a badly placed areaportal between C and E.

the trees - i could try turning shadows off but i'm reluctant as i don't think it'll look too good (i'm already using staticprops and textureshadows). i think it might be due to the fact that the leaves are sprites and sprites on models don't generate accurate textureshadows ( i think i read somewhere that vrad ignores the alpha channel on such surfaces).

I'm glad to hear you are enjoying the map. it's always great to know when someone enjoys something that you've put time into :)

Posted by will2k

Pros:

• Quality level design and nice brushwork in this map. Well done.
• Good attention to details (decals, props, rain, special effects...). I must also mention the seamless transition between gothic and TF2-esque environments; nothing feels out of place.
• Good optimization overall although I have a small point that I'll bring up in the cons.
• The lighting ,both indoor and outdoor, is well executed and gives the level a certain eeriness and gloominess much needed for the gothic feeling.
• Although the layout is a bit complex and multi-leveled, the gameplay is certainly fun and fluid. Wall markers are well placed to aid players reach control points without getting lost. There are also plenty of routes/locations to vary the defensive/offensive approach.
• Good use of clip brushes to facilitate player movements (stairs, beams...)
• Soundscapes certainly add to the overall eerie feeling of the level.

Cons:

• There was a slight drop in FPS near capture point "C" (the graveyard). After checking with r_drawstaticprops and r_drawfuncdetail, it seems that the 2 structures with sloped roof are regular world brushes (correct me if I'm wrong). They are unnecessarily cutting your visleaves and adding world polygons for the engine to render.
• There are misaligned textures on the arched hallway between capture points A and D. Hammer always fails to align the bottom and top faces of any arch. You need to rotate the top texture by 90° and shift its Y coordinate until the top texture aligns (99%) with the bottom one, and the visible seam disappears. (Don't worry, casual players won't notice it as it is now but it's better to fix it and make the map perfect)
• There is no flickering light near candles. It would be a nice touch to add slow flickering effect for the light source near the many candles in the levels. It will add to realism.
• This one is a little subjective: The trees outside the levels have a dark patch of shadow underneath them. One might argue that this adds to the dark and eerie atmosphere of the level, but I somehow feel that these shadows look unnatural as they are now.

Improvements:

• Switch the 2 house structures to func_detail to level the fps in this area with the rest of the map.
• Rotate and shift the texture on the arch to align it with the bottom texture.
• Add some flickering to the candle light.
• For the trees, if you want to experiment with the shadows, either compile with -staticproppolys and -textureshadows parameters (if you're not already doing it), or disable shadows and see if it looks better (or if it ruins the ambiance)

Notes:

• I enjoyed this map both visually and gameplay-wise. Good job and well done
• Because I enjoyed and liked this map, I was a little picky in my cons; don't be frustrated :), I only mean to help make it perfect.
• Keep up the good work and best of luck in your future projects.