Screwing around in Hammer

Here are some shots of a (really) rough brush build of the base. I was just kind of messing around seeing what I could do:

Base Layout

I decided that going to look at the building was a stupid idea. I shouldn't force myself to conform to the layout of the building. It's good to take inspiration from Sheats Apartments, but not to emulate it directly. So here are the changes:

• The building is only 2 floors but on multiple levels
• the intelligence room is buried in the in the back of the base to the other team has to work for it!
• some other layout changes to make the map more fun to play. (hopefully)

Neutral Areas

Quick Update

I was really hoping to burn through the layout for the base today and while the basement is pretty much squared away (at least on paper, we'll have to see how it works out in game). since it is close to the weekend I think a field trip to Sheats apartments is in order. I know it may seem a little obsessive, but I feel that having seen how the building is put together will really help with trying to correct the building to be more playable.

Anyway here is the Basement Layout:

Flow Chart

Flow Chart version of map, note some of the changes:



The major changes being that the low path was extended to the other side of the middle building, this is to discourage intelligence carriers from using this path because of the length and relative danger of getting trapped (much like the sewer in ctf_2fort).

the other change is an addition of an air shaft that branches off of the low path. Once on the Air Shaft path the player has to commit to going to the base. This path would be great for spies wanting to infiltrate the base with out the worries of burning their cloak time going through the open area of the crater. I think that is all for now.

Layout Image

Here is the image of the layout:

Where the Idea came from

Moon_Base came about after reading a post on the team fortress 2 blog about their environments. And i think it was on Kotaku and someone make a comment about "HEAVYSSS IN SPACEEEEEE!!" and that comment just stuck in my brain. I started getting ideas of having like 50's - 60's retro future base set on the moon. and everything went from there.

My first goal was to find a building that had the look I was going for. I was imagining a good amount of curved surfaces and glass, and Jackie Treehorn's house (from The Big Lebowski) seemed like a pretty close fit. I tracked down the Architects name (John Lautner) and started to research his other buildings and came across Sheats Apartments:

There are more detailed images here (but I think you need a gmail account). Anyway the base is going to be inspired by this building but a few things will definitely change to make it more game friendly.

I had originally wanted to do different buildings (Like Sheats APTs vs Wrights Fallingwater) and I have asked a few people what they thought and they all said that a different layout would give one team advantages over the other. (thanks SI) So to switch is up I made it more of a boomerang shape to break it up from being a straight line.

My main goal with this map is to create as little custom models/textures as possible. I get hung up on the details sometimes and I think only pulling from what is available to me from TF2's extensive stock will help me concentrate on just the level design and trying to make it more balanced for all classes.

Image of layout to follow.