Counter-Strike 2

Counter-Strike 2

de_ancara
Shii 17 Oct, 2015 @ 11:03am
Map Testing
Hello My friends; i am a newtime map tester and I decided to playtest this map. Now lets get down to business.
CT spawn - Its airy and lightly coloured; I personally like how you borrow parts of B tunnels from Dust/Dust2, it seems a bit more in place; however there is no way to go straight to mid like you have in most maps; and in a later point i will explain why this is a bad thing. The passsages to bomb site b are quite nice, big enough to distinguish but almost a bit like a catacomb; with an exit randomly put down ct catacombs to give ct's easy mid control. Throughout the Spawn i saw alot of lighting bugs going on which is distracting and could be fixed; i will enclose some images when required. Furthermore; some 15% of props and the area suffer from over saturated shadows and transition bugs. When looking at the dent in CT spawn; a huge amount of optmisation is required, as the entirety of MID is rendered and is not needed.
CT Catacombs to mid - I personally dont mind CT Catacombs that much; a bit claustrophobic but the passage to mid from it is quite disappointing; with no cover for anyone rotating through catacombs into a site through window, furthermore it takes about 11 seconds to get from CT to A through this passage, which is a problem for anyone rotating from b to a that route. Furthermore; it seems unneccesary as opening up the CT wooden door and removing that passage; or adding some cover, would allow for faster rotating and more complicated strategies and flanks.
CT to B - The small, claustrophobic passage into B from CT is very easy to block up and leads to a very dim dead end on the right; and a overshadowed B site. I like how the CT's can cover pretty much any entrace to B through that passage; but the lack of cover underpowers the spot considerably. Consider adding a crate or 2 to balance that part of B Site, but all in all it feels bare and neglected. Furthermore, lighting bugs make another appearence which is slightly less distracting.
CT Spawn to A backalley - I'm afraid this is the most SHODDY optmisation i've seen since de_cache when it was first playtested. when looking at the right hand wall it rendered the entire map and causes 20% frame drops at times. Looks somewhat ugly due to a lack of character. As you get closer to the bomsite it opens up and gains a huge amount of detail; which is visually appealing and quite good for sneaky rotates; however that is nerfed by the building with stairs that overlooks part of the site and all of Backalley.
Bomb Site B - I dont like the bomb site at all. Its messy; the overhead covering is not needed; and in my case, not want. The bomb site is hard to cover due to all the ways to get in and out and the jumbled unthought cover. I would strongly recommend reconsidering routes into the bomb site and think of the cover and how over powered and underpowered it is; as i can see some potential for terrorists to get hidden and camp the site. Redeeming features are the opportunities for flashbangs and nades.
Bomb site A - Quite open and there aren't too many hiding spots; i quite like it, and it feels quite similar to Dust's bomb site b; but suffers from high contrast and lack of detail. Main downside is how in the bombsite it renders most of mid and the spawns. Overall a redeeming feature of the map. Each peice of cover provides some protection, but can be countered by another location so that nowhere is overpowered.
MID - Mid is bare; no doubt about it, on the CT side there is little detail and random ladders that just happen to give a quick passage to A window for ct's which is a poor choice; but allows for new strategies involving multi-smoke combinations and multiple pop-flashes. Both Sides can access it like in dust2, but it feels a bit T sided, with Terrorists having plenty of smoke and flash opportunities to get Mid control.
Appartments/Outer Mid - full of detail and character; some nice jump spots and simulates a middle eastern street; but feels a little claustrophobic and out of place due to random buildings. Once again Optimisation is poor leading to lower framerate
T Spawn - A classing Nuke example; though for a reason, it includes alot of walking before there is any action, but its partially to even out timings. Relatively minimalist until you get to a place i call Fork, where you can choose to go right where there are 2 ways to go to A, go left and theres 1 major way to get to b or go mid where you can split into 4 paths to reach either bombsite.
Skyboxes - Inconsisten and for terrorists trying to smoke out mid enterance to b is impossible from the fountain passage; due to invisible walsl and collision.

Overall Needed improvements: Lighting; contrast, optimisation and detail on previously mentioned points.

Overall Rating: 6/10 - Nice and unique; but not optimised and lack of needed detail at parts ruins it a little. Plently of places to use nades. (Sorry for being so harsh)


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Showing 1-6 of 6 comments
S h a l k a  [developer] 17 Oct, 2015 @ 2:54pm 
Hello,

It is ok, I apreciate that you took the time to test my map and giving me feedbacks that are certainly full of true. I did this map alone by taking my time with many testers all over the process who gave their remarks for improvement that did help me to build the map as it is today.

I am concerned to your remarks, that is why I have few questions for you:

- If I rework on this map to make improvements by following your suggestions, is there a chance to see de_ancar into the next cs-go operation?
- And if so, how many time left do I have to work on it?
- I have accepted your friend-list invitation, can I contact you any-time to speak about the map improvements, and testing future de_ancara workshop updates?

Sincerely.
Shii 18 Oct, 2015 @ 3:28am 
You can expect to see this as one of the possible operation ____ maps; and that should be released sometime November I belive. Furthermore; depending on how you approach these improvements can change the map for the better or worse, and I will be happy to constantly check this map out whenever you make changes.
Lastly; When i am avaliable i will always be open to converse with.
S h a l k a  [developer] 18 Oct, 2015 @ 6:21am 
Sounds good to me :)
S h a l k a  [developer] 21 Oct, 2015 @ 11:16pm 
Your points were updated and even more!

For example the door now makes noise and is breakable, the floor in the 'tea saloon' is in wood in order to identify by noise when a player is there, from CT to MID now there is a double entry to allow sniping from there to T spawn, no needed props were removed, new props added, few props have a new location to help the vision, more textures, lighting improved, skip cubes added that divided by two the rendering time (!), part of props now fade out, fps looks great, mini-map updated...

Check out my latest version and let me know ;)
Last edited by S h a l k a; 21 Oct, 2015 @ 11:25pm
Shii 22 Oct, 2015 @ 11:48am 
A Vast improvement; theres no longer distracting lighting and most problems i have listed were fixed, as well as some nicely needed but not mentioned additions made an appearence. On the topic of optimisation; framerates are up and at parts of the map is now perfect, but i've still seens areas rendered unintentionally resulting in a 5 +% drop in intense mapwide combat
Elsewise; this map would likely recieve a strong 7 or decent 8 on CEVO; however 1 bug is some players exhibit water sounds when not touching puddles.
S h a l k a  [developer] 22 Oct, 2015 @ 2:10pm 
Thanks! A soft 9 would work too ;)
Weird water bug that I did not notice, I will double check.
Regarding fps, long distance vision can hardly be better.

I had other comments:
- The ladder should be replaced by a box.
- On both bomb sites there is a box that allows a player to place the bomb on the top and suggest that this should be removed.

What I just did.

I think that I will leave the map as it is from now.
Last edited by S h a l k a; 22 Oct, 2015 @ 7:04pm
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