[WIP] Gridlock (56k beware, 1920×1128 pics within)

[English Mobster]

Exposing yourself to enemy fire, running around in a combination of closed spaces and open spaces, the works.
It's also the longest route physically possible. =P

[English Mobster]

Wasn't Dano a bit before your time EM?

No, he was banned in February. I registered in November and became really active in late December/early January.

It's over 100 years old.

In HALO terms. It still has futuristic signs, just not the MOST futuristic.

[sevlag]

How hard is it for sevlag to get the rocket on this map?

thats the big question i whored those things during the domain beta

but seriously, try to get the ODST magnum working on this map or the SMG atleast :P

still cant wait, and the countdown idea, would that cause any possible lag?

[English Mobster]

Maybe a slight ping spike for a second, but it should go back to normal pretty fast. It uses some of the same tech as the Yoyo V2 panic room, it's just that there's only 2 of 'em rather than the 5 or so that are on V2.

[sevlag]

Maybe a slight ping spike for a second, but it should go back to normal pretty fast. It uses some of the same tech as the Yoyo V2 panic room, it's just that there's only 2 of 'em rather than the 5 or so that are on V2.

ight

hopefully the shotgun doesnt respawn every 5 seconds like it did on domain

[English Mobster]

New pictures.


Took a fucking hour to render those two (30 minutes each).
The mall interior is now completely textured, and the fire exits are nice and labeled. The women's restroom now looks like a women's restroom. All is well.
I wish I could take a render of the inside without ripping off half the fucking building (light source, I'm using a skylight and any kind of interior structure turns black), because it looks really nice, IMO.

[n00b1n8R]

That building looks like it was made of cardboard (the way it's crumpled), not concrete(would have crummbled)/metal(bent and sheared more).

Otherwise seems good to me. Already much nicer than domain.

[English Mobster]

Got a couple new renders for you, with 1 more on the way.

This render has just had a bit of cleanup done, some new Mat IDs were in place, and there was some detailing done up at the top of the mall. Other than that, there aren't any real changes.

I've tried to make the train station less cardboard-y by taking out a massive chunk of the roof.
Also, I was thinking back to the Domain betas way back when and remembered how a single entrance to any structure is bad news when it comes to Oddball camping. As such, I added in a tiny hole near the base of the Train Station which leads into the station itself.
While it's not readily apparent in the render, there IS some rebar supporting it, the render's just at a bad angle.


The "West Gate", the gate which Blue Team can close to send their base into lockdown for 30 seconds, shows off the main part of the mall. The right side of the render needs some detail work, shops need to be placed, etc. In the middle right-hand side of the render, you can see some broken windows, serving as one of the 2 main sniper nests for Blue base.
You can tell I've made some deviations from the concept art for this one, in order to provide a place for the flag (in the mall, at the top of the escalators) and to add in some other gameplay mechanics (sniper nests, gate, etc.).
As for the middle and left sides of the render, this is one of the main courtyards for the Mall. I'm still going about adding in lights and little details to make it seem less plain and "blocky", but you can see the basics of gameplay. The escalators serve as the primary way to the Blue flag, and you can see a BIT of the hallway which marks the secondary path to the flag. The secondary flag path also doubles as the entrance to the blue's other sniper nest, which you can see a part of next to the escalators.
There is also a Warthog near the center of the picture, marking where one of the 2 Warthogs will spawn for the Blue team. The pavement hasn't been UVW'd yet, so just ignore it for now.
You can also see in the render the other side of Domain's "Wooden Gate", which was one of the few sections of the old District this mall was built on not demolished to build this mall.

There is one final render, showing off a bit more of the Blue base escalators and such from another angle, but it's only halfway finished as of right now. I'll post it once it's done rendering.

E:
This is a better overview of the Blue base.
You can see the second Warthog spawn and the Blue's second sniper nest quite easily in this one. The sniper nest is below the "Shelter" sign, and the Warthog spawn is below the sniper nest.
Next to the 'Hog is the escalators, which will mark the way up to the Blue flag. You can also see the other half of the hallway for the secondary way to access the flag.
Moving lower, you can see a bad polygon an extrusion jutting out from the sidewalk, with what will eventually be a planter in the middle. Since there's no trees in it as of yet and the angle of the render keeps you from seeing the dirt, it looks like shit. It'll look a lot nicer once the trees get put in.
I feel like the entire blue base is too blocky, and, as such, I'll be putting in some more details here and there, updating when necessary. Hopefully, it'll look a lot nicer come beta/release.

[Jean-Luc]

I'm going to be perfectly honest with you; this whole map was looking okay until I saw that comparison image. I know you weren't going for a direct 1:1 recreation of that environment in the ODST concept art, but yours is very, very inaccurate and truth be told, if you hadn't shown me the concept art as a base, I probably never would have realized that's what I was looking at. The biggest problem you seem to have with it is the scaling. In the concept art, there is a sense of grandeur, a sense of something large scale. Yours evokes both a sense of amateurism, and a feeling of claustrophobia. If you're interested, I'd have no problem taking that concept art and adding approximate dimensions to it to help you achieve a more accurate re-creation of it.

[English Mobster]

It's not really a 1:1 recreation; if it was, I would have made the map bigger.
Really, I just showed the concept art to try to demonstrate what the area was based off of.
The source of the inaccuracies in that particular image would mostly be due to the fact I had set up the map's layout beforehand, and so I had been modifying that image until I got something which would fit the map's gameplay. Tbh, I really shouldn't have posted the concept art for that one, since it wound up deviating from it quite a bit.