Just for fun, I decided to fly about Anubis in search of small changes. In the latest
patchnotes, numerous major adjustments to A were documented. But apparently, other things
had also changed. And just like that, the gauntlet was thrown
down for me to find the changes in the latest Anubis version.
I noticed subtle lighting changes across the map on the props. This might not have been
intentional though, just one of those small things that changes if the render options
are modified at all. In some places this is an improvement, like
on these stones here which blend in better with their surrounding materials. But in other
places maybe it’s not so good, as this bit here now looks like it’s glowing slightly.
Whatever. It’s subjective. Let’s search for other changes.
I did a load of comparison shots around the map, but THIS one managed to capture almost
every change I found! For a start, there’s a new stone up here,
on the high wall separating B from long. AND the wall here at the entrance of palace
to B has been ever so slightly extended, which will obstruct vision between the two areas
ever so slightly, and will provide a bit more cover for… everybody around this section.
I don’t think it was intentional, but there’s a big black BLOB on the arch at CT spawn.
Please fix! And a few of the wall textures in middle have
been changed to appear more aged, with more wear and tear and fewer clean, straight lines.
And the fade- in distance of this trim has been extended, though looks no different up-close.
He also said that there was a mapcore easter-egg somewhere, which I don’t think I found.
But maybe this hotel symbol looks… a bit like the mapcore logo? Maybe?
There have been some adjustments to the clipping, too.
Any purple ‘playerclip’ brushes have been swapped for more general red ‘clip’ brushes,
though the impact this will have on the map is minimal. I think it was probably done just
to simplify it for Roald when he was working on his map.
The clipping around this cover below the sign to A in canals has been made ever slightly
more precise. And the clipping in palace room has been shifted
over a tiny bit, I guess because previously you could clip on the post in the corner here
if you were trying really hard to do so. And a grenade clip has been added to this
wall on B to make grenades bounce off it a bit more predictably.
So yeah, outside of A’s redesign, Anubis has had a few minor adjustments, a few purple
clips turned to red, and more greenery added. Speaking of which, let’s move onto Cache,
which rolled out with changes of its own- and more of them than Anubis has! But no major
redesign to a bombsite. This map was updated a while before Anubis was- it rolled out just
as the operation went live at the start of this month. Of course, Cache’s changes were
all overshadowed by the announcement of a new operation and everything else that came
with it, but I’ve got around to it now. As per usual for FMPone’s work, the changes
to this map isn’t contained to just one or two places, but the whole map has instead
been tweaked and changed in hundreds of minor ways which are most easily seen in comparison
shots like these that I’ll be showing. With these comparison shots I’d usually
point out spots of interest as I explain the changes that have happened, but I think these
images speak for themselves. The map has been brightened, lightened, messy
surfaces have been smoothed out, and the colour and theme of this map has shifted slightly
more, away from its initial look, and closer to whatever FMPone’s master plan is for
this map. Soon after the map’s release, Shattered
Web’s custom models came out and they caused particularly bad visibility problems on Cache’s
rather green, foliage-dense presentation. I feel like the changes to this map have,
at least in part, been made to improve visibility and to keep this map at least as clear and
as readable as the older version of Cache was. I understand when I see changes made
at eye-level, where there MAY have been visibility issues… but many of the adjustments are
to places like the rafters and other unplayable zones where I can’t imagine visibility was
the reason for those said changes.
While this map started off extremely green in colour, I’d call it more of a ‘yellowy-red’
coloured map now. A lot of the formerly moss-laden surfaces have been cleaned up, and it’s
crazy how much stuff has changed, even if you might not notice it without comparison
shots like these. I feel like Sunroom shows the changes most dramatically. FMPone has
re-aligned the door textures and added trims to them. He has shifted props. Removed some
entirely. Has recoloured surfaces. It’s honestly mad how much has changed in just
a few short months of minor tweaks.
Here and there, plants have been removed, or recoloured, and patches on the ground have
been retouched and altered, sometimes in the tiniest of ways.
CT spawn has changed a lot too, being made lighter and cleaner. When there are this many
visible changes to a map I don’t even care too much to look for adjustments to clipping,
but I’ll show them because they more easily show the changes to the positions of the 3D
props around the level. With clipping enabled you can make out how
many 3D props have been removed from the ground just outside CT spawn.
Valve certainly doesn’t neglect their maps, but none of them have had the sheer number
of changes that Cache has. Over on FMPone’s workshop, the old Cache had 88 different versions.
88! For a map that was already loved so early on. And that was before the new, greener version
was released- in the year and a bit since it first came out, green cache has already
had 150.