de_Undercat
Counter Strike: 2 Custom Map
Originally created as part of an internship application over the course of three weeks.
Initial Planning
This is the original concept for the level as sketched out on my iPad very roughly, It includes rather sparse detailing and many of the overall shapes and scales of the level have been changed but many of the core concepts remain.
On the left are my notes detailing the critical elements of the level: two sites, two spawn points, CT must spawn closer to the sites, the middle of the map must feed into both sites, and their should be flanking routes open for both teams.
Further core tenants were explored later, for example making sure each site has at least 3 entrances for both teams and that each of those entrances can see the other two at any time.
Starting Blockout
The first blockout suffered many problems initially. Most obviously the map was way too big, the player felt like a child running around and that just wasn't what I wanted.
Other problems were associated a lot with the scale, there was a lot of dead space in the level that would never see gameplay and were just there to fill up empty areas.
All in all the level felt a little bloated, which honestly was good for me as it meant that now I just had to keep trimming the level down until what was left was a tight, purposeful feeling level.
There were four key areas of improvement from this stage
01
Scale Down
The entire map needed to be scaled down. I began by importing the standard player models into the map, something which I now know I should have done right at the beginning. I also imported some standard assets such as trucks and containers to get a better feel for the scale of the world outside of just the players
02
Remove Dead Space
Next I went around the map meticulously and decided where there was space on the map that simply didn't need to be there. After the scaling this became significantly easier as it was much easier to see where the players would never go.
Much of this wasted space was around the edges of the map so I brought many of the walls in without making anything too cramped
03
04
Balance Timings
Now that I had access to the standard player controllers, I could time how long it took each team to get to different locations on the map.
During this testing I discovered that some spawn points on the T side would actually reach the A site before the CTs could get there and sort out a reasonable defence. This is why the T Spawn is much more set back in this build than previous. Also extending the length of some corridors helped rectify this issue
Lighting and Texturing
Although this is perhaps not as important as timings and scale, lighting does a lot to help communicate the feeling and atmosphere of the level. I new from having the lorries in B site that this was some sort of industrial complex but through the lighting and texturing i began to create a through line with a warehouse and some hazardous materials to add a little weight behind the skirmish on this map.
Testing and Feedback
From a professional CS2 Player
"The sites need more boxes and stuff, everything feels way too open like I could get shot from anywhere"
"B site has sightlines that are way to long and way too thin, someone with an AWP down there can cover the whole site"
"There should be more places for players to hide, like little lurk spots that the enemy will have to be more careful of when rotating or pushing"
"B heaven is way too high up, it takes too long to get up there and makes anyone standing up there an easy target especially with the lack of cover"
"The mid push has way too many angles, its ok to make a push risky but it takes very little commitment to cover the entire section of the map, even a little bit of cover would break it up"
This was some very important feedback to me, I was lucky enough to have someone I knew that played counter strike professionally and knew everything about how every angle on the map could be exploited, every site execute shut down, every timing pushed to it's limit, without him I would not have been able to improve this map as much as I did especially in such a short time frame.
I sat in a discord call with him as he flew around the map and took notes as he ripped my map to shreds, but it was all for the best as shortening sightlines and lowering platforms did make the map feel not only more balanced but also a little more like a real space, long sightlines don't really exist in real life, warehouses are usually cluttered and filled with boxes so I am very glad he was so honest with his feedback.
I also showed this map to a few other people, less experienced in counter strike and they gave me much more casual but still applicable advice, a friend of mine complained that there were no places on this map where it looked like they could use a shotgun (their favourite weapon) so i put some close angles in, I'm designing this for all players, not just pros after all.
Final Result
Overall, I am proud of how this project went and am happy to both have published this map on the steam workshop and to put it on my portfolio, the only real limit to this project was time.
If I were to spend more time on this map it would mostly be spent on aesthetics, making the lighting more naturalistic, varying the textures more, and making the space a bit more believable. As it is now, the map is much more function over form, with more time I could see it becoming more of a mix between the two without sacrificing any of the function.
