Castle

1v1 Slayer
8.3

Map Description

  1. Erk
    Hello, Castle is my submission for the 1v1 contest. It is technically complete but I will keep improving it when I can get feedback or playtests.
    Castle is a small asymmetrical map with a (you guessed it) castle theme. I wanted to stay away from a completely symmetrical map as that is what i usually stick to. Aesthetics were extremely important to me but i also chose to keep the geometry relatively simple for easy gameplay and smooth framerate. Once the map was built i went a little crazy on the background too.
    There are a lot of weapons on the map but weapon placement is not my specialty so this is likely to change. I wanted this map to be pretty hectic even in a 1v1 so right off spawn you have to choose which power weapon to go to. This is probably stupid for a super competative game but i'd like to playtest it how it is before changing to a more standard weapon layout.
    EDIT: Made a longer ramp up to middle from the right side and a tunnel from the far left dead end to middle. Also increased the sniper respawn from 60 to 120.
    EDIT 2: Removed Plasma Pistol, both AR's and magnums, made SMG's no extra clips, and removed a few of each grenades.
    Weapons on map include:
    1 Rocket: 180 sec : no extra clips
    1 Sniper: 120 sec : no extra clips
    2 BRs: 30 sec : 2 clips
    2 Carbines: 30 sec: 2 clips
    2 Silenced SMGs: 60 sec : no extra clips
    4 Frags: 15 sec
    4 Plasmas: 15 sec

    All weapons and grenades are on static weapon timers thanks to BuddhaCrane's tutorial.
    The map currently has 495 objects, about 100 of which are non geometry (spawns, weapons, timers, safe/death zones). Starting to push the limit on total object count but i can remove some background stuff if it has issues loading.
    Please leave any feedback based off pictures and video or thoughts on my (now less) crazy weapon layout. Or add me GT:xXxMENTALxXx and we can play this/your maps/checkers.

    A HUGE thanks to Mr Pokephile for making the awesome video. [​IMG]

    You should be able to find me on Campaign Timing, Normal, Pillar of Autumn. (should be working now)

Recent Reviews

  1. Beautiful looking map, and a great start so far. Still needs some polishing though.
  2. Just played a 3v3 on this map; it looks great and the weapons are approriate for the map. One concern is some of the spawn placement, but the game may be at work here. Great fun!

Discussion

  1. WAR

    WAR Cartographer
    The Creator Forge Critic

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    Amazing job theming out this map as a castle, I've seen "Camelot" by Chronmester do something similar but you really nailed it here. The layout of the map complements the aesthetics because its a believable space. Did you design it off of a pre-existing castle? Where did your inspiration come from for this map?
     
    #1 WAR, Feb 8, 2015
    Last edited: Feb 8, 2015
  2. MarcoStyleNL

    MarcoStyleNL Legendary

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    I added you on xbl since I was not able to find you on the leaderboards, I want to play this map and give you my opinion ;)
     
  3. Erk

    Erk Legendary

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    Thanks WARHOLIC, the inspiration was just to create the feel of a castle but i didn't follow any existing castle in particular. I did google images of castles but most are very complicated compared to this since i had to worry about budget limitations and framerate. I've wanted to make a map with this aesthetic for a while and with H2A's concrete block set and the 1v1 size as a motivation i finally put the effort in.

    Marco i added you back, leaderboard should be fixed, now on normal.
     
    #1 Erk, Feb 8, 2015
    Last edited: Feb 8, 2015
  4. MarcoStyleNL

    MarcoStyleNL Legendary

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    ok I played about 5 games on this map with my friend and here is what I think needs to be changed:
    1. the sniper respawns way too fast, so increase that time.
    2. the jump up needs to be more in the open and further away from the sniper (the one I talked about with you)
    3. The map should be a little bit eaier to navigate though when looking at the middle of the map, (and at where the care is). I often felt like the jumps were only possible with a crouch jump and wouldn't really be possible mid combat.
    other than that the map looks stunning, plays and feels great! it's just a few details that need to be worked on and you have got a good change of becoming second, (right after me ofcourse) ;) jkjk
     
  5. darkprince909

    darkprince909 Talented
    Creative Force

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    Wow. Beautiful map. Definitely feels like a castle, and the surroundings make it pretty believable (though maybe it would've looked better on Awash :p ) That does seem like a lot of weapons, though. You really wanna be careful with the AR in 1v1 maps. In my testing, in certain spaces, it basically becomes a power weapon itself.
     
  6. Erk

    Erk Legendary

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    Thanks, i like skyward better personally and you can't see below the map anywhere from inside. It probably would look cooler from above though. Yeah I will continue making adjustments and probably at the least reduce the ammo to one clip on the AR and Silenced SMG's after testing more and getting feedback.
     
  7. GT is: De Behr

    GT is: De Behr Legendary

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    I like the concept of the map and the way you used the natural building blocks, even though i think the concrete-only look is not very aesthetically pleasing.
    plus you shouldn't colorize the blocks via teamcolors because they switch back to white when the map is being played on free-for-all gametypes which makes it look a bit dull.
    its also very easy to get out of map and hide at some spots, which is kinda gamebreaking.
    but over all its one of my favorits in the competition so far.
     
  8. Erk

    Erk Legendary

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    I appreciate the feedback De Behr. Unfortunately the black/team 6 color is only available as a team color (and its made for the 1v1 contest where teams will be enabled). All the normal color options looked bad in my opinion for this theme, so i would have left it neutral anyway. Where can you hide outside of the map that you will not die from the soft kill? Are you saying i should put a hard kill right on the edges?

    As for concrete only i thought it was the best way to portray the castle theme. If you have suggestions for other non-concrete pieces or additions i may have a little bit of budget left before getting into the bad framerate area.
     
  9. GT is: De Behr

    GT is: De Behr Legendary

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    I've found a few hidingspots, but these are the most problematic in my opinion.
    Well, I am not a big fan of Killzones. because I think they are probably the laziest way to wall of certain parts of the map, but nehter the less: either you build these walls high enough so noone can climb them or you put some killzones in these places to punish campers.

    [iframe src="https://gfycat.com/RepulsiveFakeHadrosaurus" width="320" height="240"][/iframe]
    [iframe src="https://gfycat.com/SilkyDiscreteAfricanrockpython" width="320" height="240"][/iframe]
    [iframe src="https://gfycat.com/WeepyCreativeGecko" width="320" height="240"][/iframe]
     
    #1 GT is: De Behr, Feb 20, 2015
    Last edited: Feb 20, 2015
  10. Erk

    Erk Legendary

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    Ahhh, it seems you are playing an old version of the map. All of these spots and more are within death barriers (along with being harder to jump to without grenades/jumping off someones head) now along with a bunch of other improvements. Feel free to download the latest version from my fileshare.
     
    #1 Erk, Feb 21, 2015
    Last edited: Feb 21, 2015

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