I am fairly new to the mapping community and I have a few questions about map tweaking and testing.

First, are there any small pub communities that are willing to tests orange versions of maps? I want to finish tweaking routes before I do much detail work and I am having a hard time finding a pub that will use the map. It will be a few more updates until it is ready for competitive 6v6 play.

How do you deal with gameplay vs atmosphere issues. My current map is fairly well lit with no dark corners. Dark corners are amazing for atmosphere and immersion. However, when people are trying to win, they have a tendency to just find the closest one and prone there. How do you find a medium between the two extremes?

Is there a way to turn off atmospheric sounds without switching the map? Assuming everything goes to plan, I would like to play this map in 6v6 matches where no atmosphere sounds are preferred. However, I understand how much they add to environment and immersion and I would like them to be included when not playing a match/scrim. I know the guy who remade solutide made a separate solitude_comp version of the map for leagues. Is that my best solution?

How do you deal with left peaking? Most of the people I play with know of the quirk/exploit when strafing left around a corner. You have the ability to see and shoot people while they can only see and hit your left elbow. This isn't a huge problem until people start prone left peeking. One example of this problem in a stock map is the allied exit from bunker. You can prone left peek there with a bar into axis second and you are nearly unhitable. My problem is that I just recently found a left (prone) peek location outside a spawn on my map. It is in a place where I cannot simply move routes around. If I just put a low wall there, people will just move to the end of the wall and peek there. Is there an easy fix for this problem?

Do any tutorials exist for making custom flag icons?

How do you show gameplay on map release screenshots? Almost every one of the screenshots I see on this board are very pretty but do not tell me anything about the gameplay of the map. How do you suggest scale and size of map in pictures? How do you suggest that a doorway is a major choke point or intersection in the level, and not just another doorway?

What is the best way to discretely put your name on the map? Many maps use the text files associated with the map. Coire has the secret in allied spawn. Some maps have a small room completely separated from the main area of the map. What is your preferred method?

Thanks for the help
- OJ

Good post OJ, though quite large it's very well presented.:carrot:

Orange levels:
I don't think many are really willing to play orange maps, they would just be too boring, even minimal details and textures would be a lot more well received. That said head over to the DOD-F (http://www.dod-federation.com/forum/) Forums and ask in the testing forum, or PM CoolHandLuke and ask for a test, they do weekly tests and often have a good attendance.

Gameplay vs atmosphere:
Gameplay is where it's at, atmosphere is only for immersion factor. Fully dark corners are not a good thing at all, but mid-dark are fine. There needs to be places for campers (that can't be too well camped that is) just because people often like to hide for a second or two, to let respawn waves pass, sneak around, or just camp. In RL (lol imanerd) there is hardly ever pitch-black places outdoors anyway. Use stock maps to compare, Avalanche even has a dark corner, in the bottom of the church.

Atmosphere sounds:
Two ways I can think (now that the stopsound is a cheat). 1; have a button in the map that stops sounds. This one could be a problem with pubs playing around with it (though it probably would only be clientside). And 2; release the map standard without ambient sounds and release a .ent file that servers can add themselves to put sounds in the map. You could release the map with soundscapes proxys everywhere where needed all point to a 'missing' soundscape that the .ent adds. Though this would give console errors. Or just put all the soundscape and soundscape proxys in the .ent. Which ever.

'Left peaking':
I'm not totaly sure I understand you on this one, though it sounds like you are describing the quick strafing speed in DOD, this cannot be changed by mappers, it's in the code. One thing to have a look at, though, are the powerpoles and lamp posts on stock maps such as Donner. On the sidewalks where there street turns (just past the axis second flag for example) there have been these thin static models placed. I quite like them in maps, though they may even help this issue you refer to.

Flag icons:
check out the dod-f link I gave you above, there may be one there. Or use google. There is definatly sound around. And if you can't find some, I'll write you one.

Gameplay screenies:
You can't really, just take some shots of the map being used, one of the overview too perhaps. "Sv_cheats 1" and "bot" commands will give you 2-3 bots that run stupidly around, but help with scale shots of need be. But models in the map, such as doors and windows should anyway.

Name in the map:
I quite like making a hidden room, it's fun to find and fun to build. But it's totally up to you.

Hoorah!

Thank you for the response.

To explain left peeking, go to the right side of a door so that you are completely concealed. Position someone outside if the foor about 30 feet back. Slowly strafe left until you can just barely see the person. At this point you have a clear shot at the enemy and he can only see your left arm and has about an 80% chance of arm shotting you. This become even worse when you are proned because it is fairly easy to get your arm size to less than 1/2 the size of the cone of fire at any range. There was a big thread about this about 6 months back.

The environment sound options are sort of depressing. It means I cannot add any environment sounds to my map. On a similar note, is it possible to turn precipitation off? I know at one point you could turn off snow (cl_snowenable 0) but that was recently turned into a cheat. My original plan was to set the map in a thunderstorm. However, for it to be accepted for league play, it cannot have precipitation effects or loud environment sounds.

I can't remember if this is a HL1 command or not, but try cl_particlefx 0. This should turn off precipitation. If not there is no doubt something around that would, snow and rain can lower fps and it isnt really possible to make a cheat out of it.

And for left peaking.. there is really no way around it. You could add something like playerclips around the every corner on your map where this might happen or something, but I wouldn't worry about it.

Here are a few more questions.

I have set up my level so that my buildings have different height roofs. Hopefully, this suggests the idea that there is a skyline within the level instead of the player's view being isolated to a single area. One of the problems I am having with this solution is that it is very easy to grenade over buildings. This upsets the balance of the map. What is the cheapest way to stop this. I assumed that brushes with the clip texture would work but they stop everything except grenades for some reason. Lowering the skybox is not an option. If I use nodraws, I get weird lighting issues on the faces they are flush against.

Looking at the hud flag icons, is there a limiting maximum detail level? I am using all custom icons with more detail than I have seen in other maps. They are grainy buy still usable for 640x480. Is there another consideration that should make me keep them simple?

Most of the doorways in my level are just openings instead of using actual rotating/moving doors. Is there any advantage top using areaportalwindows instead of areaportals? Is there a specific use for the windows? What should I avoid using them for? For actual windows, what is the advantage in using them if the player will never see them when the portal is beyond the maximum render distance?

As an old 3.1 dod player, I am implementing spammable walls in my map. So far, the most elegant solution has been to use glass. For thicknesses of 8, 16, and 32 I got these results: rifles dealt 5/8,1/2, and 1/4 damage and heavies dealt 1/2, 1/4, and no damage. Among other things, this setup means that using an 8 thickness glass walls gives a sorely needed advantage to the garand. At 5/8 damage, both the garand and the kar need 2 hits to kill. Using the glass material has been working great except for 2 problems. When I use it as a floor texture, it feels like friction has been lowered. This leads to missed jumps and messing up angles because it is harder to time your stop. Instead of a standard wood/metal/dirt hitsound, I get a glass hitsound. This just kills the immersion of the level. Is there a way for me to change these characteristics for individual glass textures. If not, is there another material that has the same spammable properties, specificalyl the 5/8 rifle damage through 8 unit brushes.

Is there any way to tell if a texture has built in grass? I am using several blend textures that completely surprised me when I changed the alpha values by adding grass. I understand how to make blend textures. Is adding grass just an additional line in the vmt?

Looking at blend textures a little more, I am amazed by how much they can do. How do they compare to overlays for level optimization. Assuming the load isn't too bad, I want to try making a wall a displacement and putting a blend texture on it to give a more natural look than an overlay. I am not planning on changing any of the geometry on the wall. How big of a performance hit will this be compared to simply using overlays?

Continuing with my questions.

Is there any way to get the size of the overview file smaller. Right now it is 5.3 megabytes out of an 8.5 megabyte map. Once I start adding more custom content I am afraid the size will balloon and I am looking for ways to keep the map size small. Other than going from 32 to 24 bits per pixel, are there any optimizations for the overview size?