ttt_arctic

TTT_Arctic

About:
This is an arctic terror base inspired by "The Thing"! After seeing the movie I felt this had to be made. The map features some breakable lights for stealthy encounters, security cameras, traps and secret paths.

This map was really fun to create. Though a problem that I encountered with prevented me for making a snowstorm setting. Garry's Mod (at the time) didn't support wind. But I still managed (without wind effects) to get a very cold,snowy and arctic setting which I am happy that I achieved.

Objective:
Trouble in Terrorist Town: Every player spawns on the map as innocents and searches for weapons. One (or more if many players) gets secretly chosen to be a traitor. The goal for the traitor is to kill all innocents while the goal for the innocents is to kill the traitor(s).

Specification:

Development: Unknown time frame (but it was released 2014).
Engine: Source.
Game: Garry's Mod.
Mode: Mutliplayer - Trouble In Terrorist Town.

Credits:

Leveldesign - Carl Ahlberg.
All textures and props are made by Valve Corporation.

HL2 Version

HL2: EP2 Version

Documentation:
In this map project I wanted to create a fun and engaging TTT map. I just had watched the move "The Thing (2011)" so I felt inspired and wanted to create an arctic, chilly, fun and engaging TTT map. Thus I started to quickly sketch up my map in Photoshop with the help of a reference sheet that I had prepared. After I was glad with the initial layout I gave it a better look to make it more presentable.

My reference sheet.

My sketch.

The finalized Top-Down.

Because of me wanting to create a blizzard type of enviroment to limit the players view, I first had to test it in a test enviroment. I created a simple stage and tried using the "func_precipitation" with the combination of "env_wind". This worked better than expected and already gave the map a chilly feel. To improve the arctic feel I also added some "func_dustcloud" to imitate snow moving across the ground. This also proved to work quite well. But when I tried exporting the test map into "Garry's Mod" a big problem came up. It was that the "env_wind" that I previously used was only supported in "Half-Life 2" (which is the standard game which the map was compiled to). Thus I had to increase the ammount of snow and dustmotes to still achieve an acceptable ammount to decrease the players view distance. And I tweaked this until it looked good enough.

The finalized enviroment in action!

One of the rooms in its current state.

Now that I knew that the feel of the map could be something to be achieved I continued blocking out my map and playtested it a couple of times to get the dimensions right. I had to rearrange and remove some of the rooms in the main building. This was to not overcomplicate the layout for the players with too many rooms to keep track of.

When the map had been blocked out I went straight to the interesting part; creating the traps. I designed three traps that I thought would work fine in my map.

1. In the main entrance I wanted the traitors to be able to start a gas leak that would quickly drain the health points from an oblivious innocent. The gas would remain within the inside of the entrance sluice so that the innocent players had a chance to escape the deadly fumes.
2. A fauly radiator in the sniper nest. If triggered by the traitors the radiator would give a spark in before it quickly explodes and kills the person standing close to it.
3. Breakable planks that supports a heavy refrigerator. If triggered the planks would break and the refrigerator would fall and crush the player underneath.

The gas trap.

The radiator trap.

The refrigerator trap.

An idea that I really wanted to bring from one of my previous works was the security cameras. This proved to work quite well in my "TTT_LordCharles_Mansion" map. It gave the players a place to overwatch different parts of the map from a secure location. It would also give the traitors an upper hand if left ignored by the innocents.

The security room in Lord Charles Mansion.

The security room in this map.

Because of the "Splinter Cell" games being close to me I really wanted to be able to have breakable lights inside the building. After some tweaking and scripting I succeeded creating the lights. But I didn't want all the lights on the map to be breakable. To tell the players which lights was breakable and which ones was not, I put metal wires over the lights to make them look more robust. But a problem that later came up was that Source didn't like having too many scripted lights within a certain range. This caused some props to appear black if not moved once while in-game. But to compromise; I removed some of the scripted lights and strategically placed them to cause as little problems as possible.

Something that I wanted to learn was to create tunnels using displacements which I also succeeded with. The tunnel I created on my map was used as a secret way out of the building that could be accessed via the basement. The tunnel led to the garage outside underneath the refrigerator trap (which was a good thing because of players not tending to go there for any other reason than moving from or to the tunnel).

The tunnel entrance.

Inside the tunnel.

The tunnel exit.

After my map was textured and propped I uploaded it to the workshop. I did this in two different versions. One version would be at a higher level of detail that would be for the players having the game "Half-Life: Episode 2". The other version had a lower level of detail and would be for the players only having the game "Half-Life 2". The map was well received by the community and it was really fun creating the map.

A top-down for the outside area of the finalized map.