[FS HappyDay]

First of all, thanks for all the positive feedback. :) I'm kind of surprised by how many people actually enjoyed watching me working on the map.

BladeKiller, on 20 July 2015 - 08:15 PM, said:

I always wanted to expand the garage and have the parking part closed off so that the ramp is just the entrance. Then the size would make sense. The garage parking area would be in the non-playable area.

I've thought about that before and didn't really like it. Here's a few pics to illustrate.

I could make the parking area a bit bigger, extending it to the left, below the building, which would look something like this.




1. I'm not sure having a building above a parking deck would make it any more realistic.
2. Extending the garage like this would make it a campier area, unless I block it and make it part of the non-playable area, like you suggested. The only thing that comes to mind to block it off, is a fence, which seems kind of unrealistic to me as well. I've never seen a parking area divided by a fence.
(correct me if something like this actually exists)

I could extend the top of the garage as well and only add buildings next to it, like this.

Then I'd have to block off the area again or the red spawn would be very easy to camp. A fence could easily jumped over, unless I block it with an invisible wall, which again is unrealistic.

To conclude, I'm not convinced that any of these possibilities are any more realistic than the current state. I'm open for discussions and other ideas. It's a difficult task to make the map more realistic without messing with the layout.

cessquill, on 21 July 2015 - 01:10 PM, said:

Unless you're going for an abandoned Uptown look, I personally think you went a bit too far on distressing the slabs.

That's actually what I'm going for. An older, more deserted and damaged look for the map.

[KroniK]

Ok, what if instead you have a couple of big garage doors and parking ticket booths on that left wall (in your pictures above). Many buildings have underground parking. if you keep that hill that you show in your last picture, then the first level of that building in the second to last picture would be at about the level of the top of the parking garage.

Also, not sure how dystopian you are wanting to get with this, but a cool thought was replacing that hill you have in the last picture with a fallen highway, or a broken off-ramp to a highway that runs perpendicular to the main street there.

Also, while this goes away from the "abandoned" feel, what if the parking garage is instead a high rise building that is under construction? Scaffolding, concrete mixers, bags of material, wooden ramps etc. That would make the space much more interesting as a blank empty space.

[FS Zenity]

Invisible walls are not ideal, but don't worry about it too much. As long as it's clear to the player that the area is blocked off (a fence, etc), that's perfectly acceptable. With the kind of movement we have, we just won't be able to get around that. We'd have to build solid walls at every street exit...

The most natural thing to place as a fence would probably be a barrier gate (don't know how you call this, the ones you always find in parking lots). But you can also always be creative and e.g. put a couple of crashed cars or a construction site or something which blocks the passage. Or even a collapsed roof, depending on how run-down you want the place to look. :)

As for the space above, why don't you pretend that's just more floors of parking lot? Although when I first heard BladeKiller's suggestion I acctually thought of extending the garage below the spawn area. There isn't anything yet, is there?

[wG*Swiiitan]

I think kroniks idea of a construction site is a really good idea! Then those ramps can be wooden ramps that the workers used. Add some cement bags, tools and some unfinished walls and that boring garage will feel more alive :)

And it doesnt need to leave the abadoned feel, it was just never finished and for some reason the workers dropped everything and just let :)

This post has been edited by JustMe...: 24 July 2015 - 09:56 AM

[FS BladeKiller]

Yes, we have chain link gates that they pull across a floor entrance when they close off a section of a parkade which is why I suggested it. You could make the parkade damaged on the top floor and then block it off with police tape or construction barricades.

We have a parkade in downtown Vancouver with a circular ramp for the exit which Uptown always reminds me of. It's several floor high and uses chain link gates to close floors. The one I parked in for work also had the chain link gates for the same purpose.