For those that weren't there for the test and want to look at it:
http://dpball.com/files/maps/beta/ub_abbey.bsphttp://dpball.com/files/maps/beta/ub_textures.zip (all you really need if you already have ub_rooftop is
http://dpball.com/files/textures/ub_textures/abbey2_wall14b.jpg)
Make sure you put it in your maps/beta directory so we don't end up having a bunch of different versions floating around.
I like the map. It looks nice. It's a refreshing change to see something that looks unique and original.
Now, down to the nitty-gritty:
First off, the doors to the spawn room. You need to make all the brushes for each door all one group. Right now, all of the pieces move individually, which looks weird, and if anything gets in the way, funky stuff like this happens:
Second, the .wal files are too bright causing reflected light to look super bright. This is a problem with the bsp pack I released before. There's a new pack with gamma-corrected .wal's to compensate for aghrad's texture brightening. Grab it here:
http://dpball.com/forums/index.php?topic=1164.0 . The custom textures you made also suffer from this problem. Here's the gamma corrected palette:
http://dpball.com/files/mapmaking/paintball2_g2.4.pal Load it up in wally and reconvert the custom textures you have and you should be good to go.
While I'm talking about the lighting, I noticed that the shadows don't really match up with the sky very well:
Notice how the sun is behind the base, but the front of the base is brightly lit. What I'd suggest doing is using arghrad's sun feature, but make the light, ambient, and diffuse values very close (since it's a cloudy sky, it would be mostly ambient lit anyway). This should allow you to have convincing directional lighting without changing the appearance too much.
Next, the capture point (I assume that's what the red rectangle is - I never actually captured a flag). It's red on both bases. Also, I see you've scaled the texture way down on it. That isn't necessary as the highres texture pack puts that texture in the hr4 directory, making it 4x's smaller, which is basically what you've done. If you have the highres textures AND your scaling, it'll be super tiny and probably look very tiled (if you can see the texture at all - I haven't tested it). Scaling textures down causes qbsp to chop it up a bunch:
I also think it would look better closer to the ground, maybe even completely embedded.
The doorway posts:
I think using the plank texture looks goofy. You should use a plain wood grain texture instead. Also, rotate the texture so the wood grain goes along the length of the post.
The trees. I don't know about these... A lot of the map looks very realistic, but then you have those trees, which kill the illusion and remind you that you're in a low-polygon quake2 map. From the design standpoint of the map, they look good, but the trees themselves... well, they're about all you can do with brushes. I should really make some tree models.
There are some things that need to be fixed if you decide to stick with them. One is the mysterious floating tree branch!:
The second is the branch thats just a little too low to walk under. It's a bit of a nuisance.
The stairway to nowhere:
I don't know if you had further plans for that or what.
The barrels... to be honest, I really don't like these. They look out of place and kill the atmosphere. It's not a requirement that every paintball2 map have barrels and/or crates.
Also, they look too fat:
Looks wider than it does tall (compare to real barrels:
http://www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com/bigmap/manhattan/randalls-wards/randallsisland/39cans.jpg)
Also, some color indicators might be handy in some of the center areas that have none. You should also consider having some equipment upgrades in various places in the map instead of spawning the players with everything. There are plenty of good locations for that. There's some slightly misaligned textures in places, too. I can point them all out if you really want me to.
All in all, a very nice map. I look forward to seeing it completed.
