Month: December 2017

cp_nautilus_a1 and a2 were almost entirely identical with a2 being released a day later fixing a bunch of simple gameplay issues in a1 that should have been there on release; lack of clipping brushes on stairs, lack of nobuild brushes in grated off areas and actually adding health/ammo pickups etc – hey we all make mistakes on our first upload.

Around April 2015 I started work on my first actual Source map. I’d always wanted to create TF2 maps; Having sunk a good 1000 hours of my childhood into the game, I figured i had the game knowledge down and as someone who wanted to move into level design it seemed only fitting that I started mapping. But prior to that, I had neither the time, knowledge nor motivation to learn how to create a map in Hammer (great for an aspiring level designer, I know).

Redundancy from my first job then hit and I suddenly had an abundance of time and inspiration on my hands (it’s surprising how the desire to not starve motivates a person). And so, out of the dust that was my first job in the industry came cp_nautilus_a2! And well… it was a hot mess. A valiant effort (so I’ve been told) for a first attempt at a map, but still a mess of brushes, meshes and level logic that sort of fuse into something resembling a TF2 map.

cp_nautilus_a2 was a 3 point Attack/Defend CP map. For those who don’t play TF2, Attack/Defend maps revolve around BLU team needing to push and capture one point after the other (usually in an linear sequence), whilst RED team set up defences and hold off at each point for as long as they can. BLU team wins if all points are captured and RED wins if they hold out until the round timer reaches 0.

I really like attack/defend style maps; they offer a certain “narrative” to a multiplayer map that’s missing from regular 5 point symmetrical CP maps. There’s a definitive start, middle and end which allows room for a designer to outline a story within the flow of the level;

“Players start on a train, they push into the station and then onto the streets, through alleys and the city square, reaching the climax and a final showdown infront of city hall”.

All you then need is the players to fill in the pieces. Anyone who’s played a multiplayer shooter has had that one game where the round timer is almost up and your team makes the Hail Mary push that wins you the game. Attack/Defence maps accommodate this narrative really well and is why, in my opinion, they are so highly rated in the TF2 community (Dustbowl despite it’s flaws is the second most played map after 2Fort and even the most hardened of TF2 players can’t tell you exactly why 2Fort is so popular as it’s a pretty terrible map all things considered).

“Birth” – cp_nautilus_a2

Why Nautilus? The original theme was to be an underwater facility of some sort. As such it was dark, dank, grimy and generally an unappealing place – this would subsequently be a regular complaint the map received as TF2 is traditionally a bright colourful experience, and many didn’t think the “grittier” feel suited the style of the game. But on top of that, the map just wasn’t that great. So what made the map such a mess?

•  From a design perspective it was a navigational nightmare 

BLU team exit the spawn from one of two exits; the left path leads BLU into either this side building or up a ramp to the upper level, whilst the right path offers 4 routes (one to the left path, one to the upper level, one to point A and one to point B). Despite the navigational signs, the flow of the right path naturally leads players to Point B which was a common issue in the first play through and the left path took the players through the building down a random side passage. Neither path’s natural flow took the player to Point A which led to many players getting lost in the belly of the map before even capturing the first point.

The lack of a forward spawn for RED meant that all defenders were also spawning at the very back of the map and needing to trek past Point C and B just to reach the initial point of combat. The layout was just too confusing for many new players and no amount of arrows was likely to help.

Straight out of the BLU spawn there were 4 possible routes for the player to take. The natural flow always took them to 4 which was the one i didn’t want them to initially take.

• It was a technical mess

I’ll cut myself some slack on this one as it was my first map, but there were a bunch technical blunders that made iterating on the map somewhat awkward. The entire map was built on a grid size of 1; this is not only evidence of sloppy brushwork, but also meant even the most minor of changes risked creating a leak. Clipping brushes on the spawn doors didn’t block projectiles meaning players could kill each other before the round started. The displacements used around Point A and C were laughable (and still are in a3). Stair height and width weren’t in keeping with official TF2 standards, it all just screamed amateur, which is totally understandable (i had only been mapping for a month at that point); But fixing these problems would be a mammoth task and one i wasn’t too eager to engage upon at the time.

• It was detailed too early

I made the excuse back in a2 that the reason I was detailing early was to give myself a feel for the theme and setting, as well as refine some of the layout design. In hindsight this was a terrible excuse and it subsequently hurt the map. Small detailing is fine, it makes an alpha map look a little more than just a bunch of brushes thrown around. But too much and iteration becomes difficult. I remember opening this map and being faced with an mess of brushes and meshes. It was exhausting to even look at, let alone start to make changes to.

This is way too detailed for an A1 version of a map (to be honest it’s too detailed for even a B1).

• It was half finished

On the complete opposite end of the spectrum, Point C was sort of “half assed”. There were long empty rooms with nothing in them except boring geometry that served only as a way of connecting one point to another. The consistency was just jarring.

A few rooms were just boring and empty. You can definitely see the exact point of the map where i stopped caring.

• Did anything go right?

Behind all this negativity however, there was actually a huge amount of positive gain from nautilus. It got me involved with the TF2 mapping community, it taught me the importance of testing early, testing frequently. I actually had a working map (which is more than can be said for future projects) and i learnt a lot about the Source engine in general. But for the most part I saw it as an unsalvageable project.

And so the map gathered dust. I found a new job shortly after the release of a2 so decided to shelve nautilus, reopening it a few times in some wild attempt to fix it, but nothing ever materialised. It served as a reminder to me as to “what not to do” when making a map and taught me a lot about the mapping development process. I would go on over the next 2 years to build a bunch new levels, only some of which getting close to a1, but nothing to the scale of nautilus.

“The Rebirth” – cp_nautilus_a3

Until now baby! WOOOOOOO. cp_nautilus_a3 was uploaded to TF2Maps.com 4 days ago and we are good to spin it for another round! I can’t remember what gave me the idea to go back to this monstrosity, but i’m glad I’m did as the rework of nautilus has rekindled that drive to get a map out of the alpha stage and onto the workshop!

Oh boy where do i begin with this one;

• Fixing those darn technical issues

Before any major work could begin on the layout, the entire thing needed to be moved onto a larger grid. So the previous map was moved onto a grid size of 4. I would have liked it on something larger like 16, but I went a little crazy with some of the angles so 4 will suffice for now. It is however, far more manageable than it was before which was ultimately the whole point of fixing it up. This took an uncomfortably large amount of time to change, so people take note; DON’T BUILD ON A GRID SIZE OF < 4.

The stairs and door frames were all rebuilt to the proper standardised scale, and the spawn doors were fixed to prevent those pesky bullets, pills and rockets entering the spawn rooms. The forward spawn for RED was also added and working (although for some reason it churns out a bunch of console errors that seem to have zero impact of the functionality of the spawn room… will look into that one later).

• Rebuilding of Point A and C

Point A and C recieved large geometry overhauls. I tried to keep as much of the original layout as possible (building on top of trash is often better than building from scratch), so whatever geometry could be salvaged was.

Point A had the right path blocked up only offering BLU 2 choices (one to the upper level, the other to the Point) and the left path had the awkward side room stripped out now only offering the player one route to the point. It’s more linear and streamlined (some might say too linear) but will hopefully allow for an easier navigation route to point A. A RED forward spawn was added down the end of the tunnel (with a second door exiting onto the centre HUB room) that offered the defence a direct path to A. Fingers crossed players actually make it to the correct point this time!

Point A was completely rebuilt,opened up and rotated 45°

I added some giant windows and a skybox as people complained about the lack of natural lighting and replaced that horrid corridor connect A to B with a much nicer connecting room. The centre “HUB” connecting room was slightly adjusted to accommodate for the new layout changes and the whole point of A was placed at a 45° angle to offer a more visually appealing and interesting layout (I’ll touch on this later, but upon reflection I feel it was a mistake).

Point B mostly had it’s detail stripped out and the layout of the room simplified. Also added a giant ramp down to the lower level

Not much change to Point B. A an awkward ramp was ham-fisted in to connect it to the lower levels of C (this will most likely get remade in the next update) and the original connection to C on the east wall was blocked off.

Point C however, was the shining beacon that made this update for me. It’s a three tiered descent down to the control point that obvious favours attackers but from a narrative perspective It feels like a satisfying end to a 3 point attack/defend map (I’m going to make it work… somehow). The large open area and obvious height advantage to BLU offers demos, soldiers and Snipers crazy good sight lines so that’s definitely something I’m going to have to keep an eye on.  More routes and cover are definitely needed to allow RED to reach some of the higher levels undamaged/detected, but its a huge step forward in the maps layout and now serves as the “money shot”.

[twentytwenty]

The final point is a 3 storey descent into the depths of the mountain

• Stripped out the detail

a3 might actually look like a step backwards from a2 visually, but honestly I think it was for the best. The detail can be added back in when needed, but for now a quick pipeline that allows for fast iteration and compiling is crucial and that just wasn’t happening in a2. I’m still working on what i want to achieve with this visually, but I have some ideas that I think will work quite nicely.

So going forward what needs doing:

• Lots of play testing!

I have a plan to get at least 2 tests of cp_nautilus_a3 done before considering any changes. I know what I want to do with some parts of the map, would like some actually play time in it first before I go ahead.

• More geometry changes

Point A is still a mess. I put this almost entirely down to the fact that I tried to maintain as much of the previous version as I could. I also blame the 45° angle change i made last minute. It was poorly thought through and as a result has some really weird geometry around A. Furthermore, it’s WAY too close to the first point. I’m surprised this was never brought up in the original play test of a2, but time from spawn to first contact at A is really short and needs to be extended. a4 will likely see another overhaul of this point.

Point B is going to get some more love as well. It’s a little cramped and honestly not that interesting of a combat area. I’ll likely make some small changes at first and if I’m not satisfied I might burn the whole centre section to the ground and build it from scratch… I’ll see how I feel on the day.

So there we have it. After 2 and a half years of sitting on my hard drive, cp_nautilus is back on the construction line and with all the ideas and experience I have accumulated from those years ready to be unleashed, I’m excited to see what the future brings.