“There's a fine line between fishing and just standing on the shore like an idiot.”
Unknown
“The dumber people think you are, the more surprised they're going to be when you kill them.”
William Clayton
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The three buildings found in De_Cover were built with identical floor modules. That is, I built one floor that could fit above or below itself, and copied it five times for a building (adding a 6th modified floor for the roof), and then copied that building two more times.
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The floor layouts were designed to discourage quick sweeping of the buildings. Of the ten windows facing forwards on each floor, the left five and the right five are separated. As such, any player trying to kill all the snipers on a floor would have to run around the divider, or run along the outside trim of the building. This was done to give somewhat better protection for the window snipers.
The floorplan also provides ample nooks and crannies for hiding or ambushing. The rather dark overall lighting scheme inside the buildings adds to these options.
By using modular construction, I was able to update the entire map with far less work than normal. In a recent version of Cover, I took the standard floor module and added a huge amount of detail with additional textures, trim around the walls, etc. Said improved module was then copied to the rest of the map, greatly improving overall visuals.
Since De_Cover was meant to be a simply Fun map, an added benefit of the modular floorplans was the lowering of the learning curve. With so much accessible square footing (150+ windows, 20 separate floors), the identical, rather complex floor layouts leave a player to only learn a fraction of the map to be able to know it all.
Counter-Strike Source ships with a stellar multiplayer Bot AI - if the NavMesh has been properly created. I have edited the mesh as much as possible, and it does work well for its purpose. But, sadly, Cover's gameplay is not well suited for the bots. Most of the time, instead of using the upper windows, they will simply run down the stairs and out into the battlefield. Regardless, they are fantastic for general playtesting and some single-player fun.
Despite the small 'feel' to the map, De_Cover contains a massive play space. I was actually glad of this, as I could use the massive nav editing task ahead to really get a grasp of this style of AI editing.
As such, the NavMesh is fully edited, including:
The nav file is zipped into the bsp and is ready to go. Simply type bots_quota X, where X is the total playercount you wish.
The majority of the map was pre-planned in the one and only sketch I made for Cover. The initial build included the modular floors, stacked to create all three buildings, with relatively empty roofs and a basic terrorist Fort. This first version of the Fort included the current two layers of cover, i.e. the outer walls and the inner wooden beams. The battlefield had some sporadic cover.
In the next build I began to add variety and detail. A spotlight was added for each building to break up the monotony, and the tall cement platforms
were added for further gameplay options and cover variation. Of the two large trees in the map, the westerly one was placed so a few of its branches were in jumping distance from the buildings. This was done so that players could actually jump onto the tree, but lo and behold, the model had no clippings for the branches. So, I took the time to make them myself, and the end product is great fun.
This led to the first version to be playtested. It quickly became quite obvious that the Ts needed a large boosts Their equipment was upgraded from subs to rifles, for the range, and much more cover was added to the battlefield. With more playtesting, there was a general outcry for better visuals. At the time the building facades were bleak, and as such received small window frames and outer detail brushes. The 3D Skybox was also filled out greatly.
The Bunker in the middle of the battlefield was added as a boost for the Terrorists. There needed to be more incentive for the Ts to rush into the battlefield, aside from just the bombsite. Hence I added a solid fortification that provides Ts with some awesome defensive opportunities.
As a further boost for the Terrorists, the Fort was upgraded to hold an upper sniper zone. With many extremely tight viewholes and one larger sniper port, it really upgraded their counter-sniping potential. In the most recent build, tightropes were added for inter-building accessibility, the radar image was created, and extra overlays and displacements were placed, including a SprayNPray.net logo. I also added two Color Correction entities into the map, subtly modifying the Levels and the Curves to give sharper contrasts and slightly more vivid colours.
Two concepts were attempted and abandoned, including a 'zip-line' from the rooftops to the ground, and a CT Helicopter spawn with an auto sniper. The former was overly complex, and the latter's helicopter model was preventing the spawnpoint from working.
Next Page: Optimization and Performance,
Future Releases, and the Final Word