Team Fortress 2

Team Fortress 2

Bonelands! (KOTH)
Stogie 24 Feb, 2023 @ 12:08pm
How I'd Improve This Reskin
Feels like a lot more effort should go into this then just tossing in some Halloween assets and building a quick Hell dimension. Folks nowadays only tolerate Halloween reskins if they properly transform the map into something new.
Compare Mountainlab to Mann Manor, for example. The layout is the same, and yet it feels like an entirely different map. Likewise, Bonelands should be a completely different environment.


Let's see... if I was re-skinning this map using assets already in the game, here's what I'd do:

1. Make the team's spawns into old castles, repurposed at some point into asylums/prisons. I'd achieve this by mixing medieval/Halloween assets and textures with props from maps like Enclosure, which includes things like checkpoint towers, electric fences, and observation windows.

2. Make the central point a stone or concrete bridge, and the pit beneath it a mist-filled dumping ground for bodies. You could even add a layer of bones beneath the bridge using Zues's TF2 bonepile texture (you can find it on Youtube). Now the name "bonelands" makes sense!

3. Have the buildings on either side of the bridge be old prison checkpoints, again using Enclosure and Yeti Park assets to get this effect.


That's just my own take, of course. As for Halloween gimmicks, I'd have either skeletons emerge from the pit when the point is captured, or have a huge hell portal appear under the bridge, accessible by anyone who jumps off, into the mass grave.
< >
Showing 1-2 of 2 comments
linxyville  [developer] 4 Mar, 2023 @ 10:26pm 
Thanks for the feedback! I can certainly see where this comes from, however, the complexity point doesn't always apply. For example, maps like harvest event, eyeaduct and soul-mill have very simplistic reskins in comparison to the likes of mann manor, gorge event and helltower for instance, and that was pretty much my initial objective with bonelands, to create just a simple reskin rather than something extravagant. But like I said I absolutely see where you're coming from and I'll definitely think on and look into your suggestions! :)
Stogie 5 Mar, 2023 @ 1:08pm 
Originally posted by Linxy:
Thanks for the feedback! I can certainly see where this comes from, however, the complexity point doesn't always apply. For example, maps like harvest event, eyeaduct and soul-mill have very simplistic reskins in comparison to the likes of mann manor, gorge event and helltower for instance, and that was pretty much my initial objective with bonelands, to create just a simple reskin rather than something extravagant. But like I said I absolutely see where you're coming from and I'll definitely think on and look into your suggestions! :)

Helltower was bare-bones because it introduced spells, Eyeduct likewise introduced Monoculus. Harvest Event meanwhile was the very first Halloween community map introduced in 2009, making its lack of pizzazz excusable.

The same doesn't apply to Soul-Mill, which got a lukewarm reception and was really only tolerated due to its unique, randomly-spawning ghost saw gimmick, and its extremely unique hell dimension. Bonelands doesn't really have anything comparable to these.

You mentioned Gorge Event, and that's actually a solid example of the sort of transformative efforts you should be aiming for. While it lacks gimmicks, it remains visually very different from Gorge. Go look at the bridge points side-by-side to see what I mean. On top of this Gorge Event gave Red's base the full Mann Manor makeover, while ALSO adding additional paths and modifications to the map's layout that tied directly into its new visual identity.

If you intend to give Badlands a similar (mostly visual) makeover to Gorge Event, you'll need to make it feel like a completely different location, just as that map did.
< >
Showing 1-2 of 2 comments
Per page: 1530 50