VSH Desert Facility [A1]

Lord Homicide

Recognized Member
A long, long time ago, on an absolute toaster of a laptop that couldn't handle anything, I used to make maps. I use the term lightly though, as anyone who has played on even a single one of my old maps likely knows how """"""""""good"""""""""" they were. Deciding I wanted to improve my skills by even a little bit, I loaded up Hammer on my new ultra-beef PC that can actually compile things properly, and the result is this map. Please note that it is still in its Alpha stage right now, so it does have a few minor issues, which are listed from most to least terrible below:

-The control point doesn't work, and is merely a decoration. I personally don't view this as an issue though, as I've noticed that most SG players don't tend to cap in the first place.
-File size is somewhat large, coming in at ~28 MB.
-The map uses a 2D skybox.
-In certain areas with just the right lighting, you can see lines on the walls and ground where I used the cut tool. They aren't too bad, and the extent to which they can be seen is in the hallways leading outside from the spawn rooms, but they can still be a bit of an eyesore for those with greater map standards.
-The map itself is also a bit on the large size, though not nearly as much as maps like mario64.
-The lighting in the basement area is a bit ugly, but nothing too hard on the eyes.
-In addition to the map's expansive size, a good portion of it away from the central bridge area is empty and devoid of props, though I feel that's how a desert should be.
-Depending on how you view death pits, the one in this map can be either a good thing or a bad thing. On one hand, it will instantly kill any RED player that falls in (MAYBE excluding fully overhealed heavies), but it only deals 1-2k damage to the Hale and teleports them to the middle of the map. In addition, it's way off in the corner of the map; you would have to physically go out of your way to find it.

Screenshots:

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RED Basement

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BLU Basement

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RED Basement Main Entrance

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BLU Basement Main Entrance

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BLU Spawn Interior

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BLU Spawn Exterior

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BLU Spawn Exterior With Watchtowers

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RED Spawn Interior

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RED Spawn Exterior

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RED Spawn Exterior With Watchtowers

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Control Point Inside Bridge

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Outer View of Bridge

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Death Pit

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Map Overview From RED Side

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Map Overview From BLU Side

EDIT: Turns out adding the spoiler severely messed with the screenshots. I'll fix it sometime tomorrow, it's literally midnight right now and it's not a huge deal.

Attached below is a ZIP containing the current BSP if you feel like adding it as-is or just play-testing it, as well as the VMF if you feel like editing it yourself for whatever reason.
 

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  • vsh_desertfacility.zip
    64.2 MB · Views: 214
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Ivy

Recognized Member
Overall your map looks good. although I found a few problems:

In some areas, the displacements you used had some holes in them, and weren't linked properly.

You need to light up more of the indoor areas. Areas like like this have detail, but don't have any lights to show it!

The death pit was abit empty and not scary at all. If you wan't it to really look like an infinite pit, you can add a blocklight, a func_dustcloud, and a black brush.

That's about it. Those were the only problems I found that you didn't already list. I do have to ask if you compiled in fastvis or normal though, as it looks like some of the clipping tool problems you have can be fixed if you compile in normal vis/rad/bsp. I also think you should join the discord server, I haven't seen you in there yet.

fuck bees.PNG
 

Lord Homicide

Recognized Member
Overall your map looks good. although I found a few problems:

In some areas, the displacements you used had some holes in them, and weren't linked properly.

You need to light up more of the indoor areas. Areas like like this have detail, but don't have any lights to show it!

The death pit was abit empty and not scary at all. If you wan't it to really look like an infinite pit, you can add a blocklight, a func_dustcloud, and a black brush.

That's about it. Those were the only problems I found that you didn't already list. I do have to ask if you compiled in fastvis or normal though, as it looks like some of the clipping tool problems you have can be fixed if you compile in normal vis/rad/bsp. I also think you should join the discord server, I haven't seen you in there yet.

View attachment 4752
Sssshh the room is a "secret" to everyone

Thanks for the info; the basement lighting turned up well on my end, wasn't expecting it to turn up poorly on others'. I'll fix that when a2 is released, and I'll also add some cosmetic adjustments to the death pit. I'll join the Discord later today, but I can't guarantee I'll be too active, since I almost never use Discord. Once I do join though, could you send some screenshots of the holes in the displacements? I didn't notice any, though it's entirely possible I just made a slight oversight.
 
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Lord Homicide

Recognized Member
This is like, super basic.
So are like half of the maps on the server *cough* dustshowdown *cough*

Besides, it's Alpha 1. Of course it's not going to be super-ultra-complex.
 
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Lord Homicide

Recognized Member
might be because you uploaded the bsp.bak file, and not the .bsp. I had to rename it from a bsp.bak to a .bsp to get it working.
Oh my God, I can't believe I didn't notice that. Thanks for the heads-up, the actual BSP is below. Turns out it's much, MUCH larger than I thought it was (95 MB on the dot), but I can easily reduce that if @Yuki asks me to, I'd just have to remove some custom models from the secret room.
 

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  • vsh_desertfacility_a1.bsp
    95.1 MB · Views: 190

Lord Homicide

Recognized Member
A2 (or technically some brief fixes of A1) is here, thanks to some extremely helpful pieces of advice from @Yuki. The changes include the following:

-Reduced file size of map (down to 64.8 MB from 95.0 MB, which is still large, just not as terrible)
-Control point now works, as well as arena mode (somehow I was stupid enough to not add a logic_arena)
-Slight optimization increases
-Basement lighting improved
-Added a crashed ambulance to the death pit to make it look more "intimidating"
 

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  • vsh_desertfacility_a2.bsp
    64.9 MB · Views: 209
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