“Mechanical engineers build weapons, civil engineers build...targets.”
Unknown
“If you pick up a starving dog and make him prosperous, he will not bite you. This is the principal difference between a dog and a man.”
Mark Twain
1v1_ScoutFlash is a small rooftop battle between two or four players. Players spawn with Scout snipers and two flashbangs each. Flash the opponents, shoot them down, and try not to fall off the building. Despite its miniature size, ScoutFlash offers a lot of gameplay space as well as a new, unique, skill-based subset of Counter-Strike gameplay. The map further includes semi-hidden additional weapons and a goofy Godzilla mode.
There is also a very special characteristic of this map in terms of how it was built. I'll explain that further down the page!
There are two spawns per team, allowing a small degree of uncertainty in 1v1's while also allowing up to four players total. It should be noted that no spawn is in sight of an enemy spawn.
Players are given full armor, two flashbangs, and a Scout, which is a lightweight, bolt-action, 10-round magazine sniper rifle. There are two knives found in the map, one for each team, but they are located in semi-hidden yet vulnerable locations.
The map is built in a square, and two of its adjacent edges are drops off of the simulated building. Should a player fall off the edge, he obviously falls to his death, though perhaps not how one would normally expect. I will explain this further on.
The Scout sniper rifles have a very slow Rate of Fire (RoF), and require either a headshot for a kill, or two shots anywhere else. Given the close-quarters gameplay, the weapons are only used unscoped, and due to the low RoF, every shot is important. There is already a fairly popular subset 
of CS gameplay called 'ScoutKnives', where players are only given Scouts and Knives, usually in large, low-gravity maps, but it was my intention to create something completely different. I achieved this by adding the Flashbangs and the Danger Zones, while removing the knives from the spawning inventory.
Given the limited space and the lack of knives at spawn, players will often use their two equipped flashbangs to gain an advantage. Doing so gives the player extra time to aim and fire at the enemy or to locate and pick up one of the two knives located in the map.
But this map adds in an additional benefit to using flashbangs: the Danger Zones (i.e. the two sides of the map that a player can fall off of). With the frequent use of flashbangs, blinded players must not only worry about the enemy, but also of falling off the edge. As such, flashbangs gain importance, going from a simple option to gain an advantage to a necessary and feared tool in one's arsenal.
Furthermore, I created two distinct floorheights (as a player can climb the ladder to get onto the roof of the small structure), along with many additional vertical variations (such as the stairs that go up and down a few feet and the crates).
All these different gameplay dynamics come together to create a surprisingly hectic arena where multiple tactics may be employed against the enemy. Rounds are quick and intense, and it is quite satisfying to watch a blinded enemy scream as he falls off the ledge, only to leave a bloodsplatter on the street a hundred feet below.
A sidenote: Bots can be used on this map and would normally know how to avoid the ledges, but their AI's evasive algorithms (that take over once it spots an enemy) will somtimes run it right off the ledge. Whether this is a bad or realistic behaviour is up for debate.
The entire map is set within a cube of 512*512*512, roughly forty feet in every direction (assuming 1 unit = 1 inch). By using a rooftop skyscraper battle as the setting for the map, I naturally limited the gamespace while allowing the full surrounding city view to be simulated with a 1/16th scale 3D Skybox. This 3D Skybox was also fit into the cube.
I decided to use roughly the top 2/3rds of the available cube for the actual level, and the bottom 1/3rd for the 3D Skybox and the 'killroom' (explained in the next section). I restricted the city view to roughly only 180 degrees from the building, to maximize the city's view distance. I then decided on a gamespace layout that would give the maximum amount of gameplay in such a small area by using many vertical variations and geometry VIS blockers.
Obviously, the boundary restrictions did not allow for a player to properly fall down the side of a large building. I simulated the experience by a different method. When a player falls, their vision quickly fades to white while they hear their own scream, followed by a Thump a few seconds later as their 'body' hits the ground, killing them.
Their bodies then leave blood splatters on the street.
The instant the fade-out reaches full opacity, the player is actually teleported to a small 'killroom' under the floor, which waits a few seconds before it plays the thump sound and kills them. The contrast between the white fade-out of falling and the black fade-out of death insinuates that the player is still alive during the simulated fall.
Whenever this event occurs, another event is triggered to activate at random any one of the five invisible blood splatter decals on the street, on its respective side of the building (so there are actually ten blood decals total). This lets anyone see where the player fell either immediately after it occurs or in the following rounds.
Due to the extremely small map area and the limited playercount, I was able to fit a lot of detail into the map. I included many overlays, trimmings and prop models, while trying to keep the area uncluttered. I also included a high amount of detail in the 3D skybox.
A few other details of note would be the air conditioner with accompanying startup, running, and stopping sounds; a vent that suddenly releases steam with a startling sound; and a general whistling air sound which exacerbates the rooftop atmosphere.
One last thing to mention is the Godzilla mode. If a player gets on the top floor of the structure, jumps on the edge and then jumps far into the SKY-covered corner (which would usually drop him down to his death), he gets teleported into the skybox room. Appearing 16 times his normal size to a player in the map, this Godzilla player can find the invisible ladder that brings him onto the rooftops. From there he can actually jump 'on top' of the normal playspace, looking absolutely huge. Of course, entering the skybox will reveal all of the null'd backsides of the buildings due to optimization. It is simply a comical addition to the map, obviously unacceptable if the map if being used competitively.
I am quite proud of 1v1_ScoutFlash as an example of the creativity, gameplay and detail I can produce when given a restricted setting. The map is actually quite fun to play, proving to be a solid 1v1 or 2v2 arena. Not only can players fight to the death, but they can also snicker as they watch their opponents blindly run off a ledge and land with a satisfying Thump, or have some laughs as a 100 foot Terrorist jumps on their heads. Load it up and try it out with a friend, or watch as a random, curious player joins within seconds!