Finally, a Playtest!

Well it is the 8th week in and finally, after 3 weeks of struggle, a version of the map was posted and played. I got a lot of good feedback. I made a list of things people said while we were playing it, it seemed balanced to everyone, and most people liked it and wanted to see it with more art.

Things to fix:

-Change the scale of some areas.

The map was too big. There was too much unnecessary travel time. The main paths were long and the long paths were longer. Also, it made it hard for engies to cover large areas. I am going to have to fix this one and it will probably take a long time since I am already so far into production: I wish i had known this sooner.

- you couldn't get out of Red spawn 2 due to a glitch. I found the problem and it has been fixed, it was a naming error.

- Lighting: certain areas were too dark and needed some more lighting.

- Too much/little visual interest in uninteresting/interesting places.

Many were saying that the sidepaths should be narrow, so we know they are side paths and not main paths. Also, no arrows should point to a long path: let us find those, but let the arrows lead us through the space in the fastest way possible.

Also, people wanted landmarks and props to clearly know what room they were in. They wanted each room to feel distinct so that anyone could pick it up and start playing and know their way around. I couldn't agree more, and I do need to implement more props that make each area unique.

Things people liked:

-Plenty of "long" or "secret" paths.

My snipers, engies, spies, and scouts all liked the alternate routes, and thout there were enough to use to tackle a situation from any angle. There wasn't a perfect engy build spot, there wasn't a fortress a sniper could hide in inevitably.

-Well balanced:

Even if it was big it had a good balance against each side, each point felt unique and needed to be approached differently, and each class could have fun and be effective in each area. There are some nice chokepoints for pyros engineers and demos and enough vertical action for scouts and soldiers. They liked the multitude of sniper holes and hidey holes for spys and some nice open areas for everyone else.

- The art and outdoor lighting

People really liked the first red point and the dramatic evening lighting. They said it felt like a western area and that was really what I was going for. It is named cp_Buzzard after all.