Lawrence Granroth's TF2 Maps

This is a small page dedicated to my map development projects for Team Fortress 2. All of my work can also be found on my TF2Maps.net page. Many of these maps are not complete as other projects often take priority over working on a map. Thus I only complete a map when I feel that I have something truly special.

As to why I make maps for Team Fortress 2 in particular, there are a couple reasons. Firstly, it has an established map development and testing community. TF2Maps has been fantastic to be a part of and its rare to find a reliable place to have your map played by other players on a regular basis They run tests daily, have a queue system tied into a discord bot, and a server plugin that records every match as a demo and logs the location of any feedback players leave in the game's chat window. I haven't found anything else like it. Secondly, TF2 fully supports custom maps. There have been a couple games to have come out recently that I would like to create maps for but there just not possible. Overwatch being one I had my eyes on, but sadly 3 years out of release and it still doesn't support any form of custom content. Thirdly, just like it. And various aspects of the game design make even the subtlest of changes to the map have large impacts on how it plays. It keeps things interesting.

(These maps are sorted by how much I like them, rather than completion date)

Link to my TF2 maps page where you can find downloads, along with more information and community feedback.
https://tf2maps.net/downloads/authors/hutty.17934/

CP MIST

Trailer: Mist is a map designed for comeptitive play utilizing the popular 5 controlpoint gamemode. It takes place in a mysterious facility deep in the jungle, pipes tangle with the undergrowth as large ventilation fans tower above.

I released the map back in March with critical acclaim. It held the top listing spot in the steam workshop for a while and has since been picked up by a couple competitive events. Time will tell whether or not it will remain popular though.

Mist's development history is a bumpy ride. Started in early 2018 for a competitive map development contest it failed to pick up any serious traction. After getting it to a stable state I just released it and let it be as I moved on to other things. However about 8 months later I was contacted by someone in the competitive community who was interested in seeing it developed further offering a list of suggested changes as well as a chance to get it tested with competitive players. I jumped on this opportunity, dusted off the old map and got a new build out the next week. Since then I've iterated and detailed the map till it is now fully complete and ready for competitive play.

Link to the TF2Maps thread: https://tf2maps.net/downloads/cp_mist.5630/ Link to the Steam Workshop Listing https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1686816800

CTF HYPERLINE

Hyperline is a map for TF2's underappreciated Mannpower gamemode. It features large fighting areas, a mountainous facility aesthetic, steep roofs for players to "surf" on, and plenty of interesting architecture for players to grapple around with.

The map started development in mid 2017, originally targeting a jungle theme where players would move around on the cliff-side ruins of an ancient temple. Development on it lapsed for a while till late 2018 when I picked it up again to finish the design.

Developing this map had many unique challenges that other maps projects don't encounter. First, the map is big, probably the largest I worked on in sheer size. Which leads to longer compile times and slower iteration. Mannpower is a strange gamemode so getting a proper play-test on it is difficult, additionally map design theory on this mode is underdeveloped so I must draw more from my own experiences than following advice from other map developers. (of which there are almost none for this mode).

One detail I picked up on is you really need some form of choke-point in the middle of the map. Because players can move so quickly with access to grapple hooks making a route that the flag carrier must go through is important maintaining any form of front lines.

I've made some new props for this map as well. None of the current community made blimp models were the size or detail density I needed, so I went ahead and made my own.

I released this map just last week, you can find it at the links below Link to the TF2Maps thread: https://tf2maps.net/downloads/hyperline.7262/ https://steamcommunity.com/app/440/workshop/

PLRSD POWERCELL

Powercell is a PLR map I'm working on for a (currently ongoing) payload map contest. However instead of making a traditional payload map I decided to shake it up and create a new variant of the payload-race gamemode. Instead of pushing the carts by standing in the radius, the players must instead fight over a battery on the map and deliver it to their cart. There is only one battery on the map, and after it is inserted into a cart it can be removed by the enemy team and carried to their cart.

Getting this working was far from straight forward, the battery, a modified ctf flag, would often duplicate, or even crash the client in early iterations of the map logic. On particular issue is sometimes the engine events would occur out of the intended order, causing a returning battery (after timing out on the ground) to not become intangible after disabling if a player is sitting on the return point and picks it up on the first possible tick. This causes the player to have a disabled flag on their back which will toggle the capture sequence repeatedly, every frame if brought to the capture zone (without getting removed form the player's back), this will cause an overflow of entities and crash every client currently playing to the desktop. After spending a couple days trying to debug this issue, I finally settled on a seemingly obtuse solution of moving the flag return point far out of reach when the flag is picked up and only bringing it back into bounds after its been returned. You can see it happening aboce, visualized with a large pillar, here. Surprisingly this all handles seamlessly, invisibly, and without issue when polished up, so I will stick with this solution unless another issue with it crops up. Considering that many simpler solutions failed for various reasons, this is one of those "it works, don't touch it" situations. The pile of battery duplicates is another bug I encountered, included here because it looks amusing.

The map download is below, sadly the newest build had some layout changes that didn't test well, so this isn't the map at its best, but the gamemode works fine and it is fully playable.

Link to the TF2Maps thread: https://tf2maps.net/threads/powercell.38055/

CTF URBANBROOK

Urbanbrook is a mid-size ctf map designed for close range combat, and frantic battles. The intel room has numerous entrances and exits making defending the flag a challenge. I originally made it for "The 2015 72hr Winter Special!" contest that was hosted by TF2Maps.net Following the contest I completely overhauled the map, both layout wise, and visually. I released it on November 1st 2015 and it received generally positive reviews from the public. For more details check out the entry in my main portfolio.

Link to the TF2Maps thread: https://tf2maps.net/downloads/ctf_urbanbrook.806/

Link to the Steam Workshop Thread: http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=546498227

CTF DULARIA

Dularia is a ctf map I've been working at on and off for a long while. The grand idea is a ctf map where you can see into the intel room early due to its glass floor / ceiling. The version shown here is my most recent attempt at making this idea work. And currently it plays pretty well, although I'm still struggling with some players who note that the map is too difficult to navigate. Every other map project is a higher priority than this one so its on the shelf for now.

Link to the TF2Maps thread: https://tf2maps.net/downloads/dularia.7137/

CTF SPACEMINE

Dularia is a ctf map I've been working at on and off for a long while. The grand idea is a ctf map where you can see into the intel room early due to its glass floor / ceiling. The version shown here is my most recent attempt at making this idea work. And currently it plays pretty well, although I'm still struggling with some players who note that the map is too difficult to navigate. Every other map project is a higher priority than this one so its on the shelf for now.

Link to the TF2Maps thread: https://tf2maps.net/downloads/ctf_spacemine.5458/

CTF LAKEBED

This is the map I made for the recent TF2 maps 72 hour contest. The entire thing was built within 72 hours. This CTF map shakes up the formula by having a series of chokes in the mid point rather than an open playspace.

Link to the TF2Maps thread: https://tf2maps.net/downloads/ctf_lakebed.3336/

CP DEEPWOODS

CP_Deepwoods was an effort to make a cometitivly viable 2 control point attack defence map. It plays alright in the casual space but hasn't seen any competitive testing. Its on the shelf at the moment, I may revisit it in the future.

Link to the TF2Maps thread: https://tf2maps.net/downloads/deepwoods.3881/

 Copyright © 2019 Lawrence Granroth