This is Sub-zero: FMPone’s 7th map for CS:GO.
You likely already know of his work.
Of his 6 existing maps, 5 made it to the operations and Cache even went one step further, being
added to the game permanently.
He kindly gave me early access to his latest creation and talked me through the making
of Sub-zero.
It’s based in and around NERO: a top-secret complex situated in the Arctic Circle.
I asked him why he chose this setting and he said because it’s AWESOME!
He had this idea of terrorists spawning on an epic submarine within a snowy setting and
decided that it just HAD to be made, kitting the CT’s out with a ship to go against the
terrorists’ submarine.
Gameplay comes first and foremost, but that doesn’t stop this map from being a visual
treat.
Everywhere you go there’s something to see; missiles, northern lights, spilled toxic waste
and as many shiny ice textures as you can eat.
Each location has a theme and story to tell and easter eggs to uncover.
You can climb on the submarine, turn on the snowmobile, and around the map are mysterious
hidden symbols and images to uncover.
He’s particularly happy with the computer room and the story that each monitor tells.
Source isn’t capable of modern graphical effects like PBR, but FMPone says that he’s
aimed for similar results through clever use of phong shaders, env map masks, and other
features that keep framerates high.
Because of course, what matters most is the gameplay.
He wants for this map to be easy to pick up but hard to master, something essential for
pro play.
If you look at each route, you’ll notice they aren’t exactly ‘lanes’, at least
not for long.
This means that if you’re heading towards A, you could choose another route into the
site last minute, or perhaps beat a hasty retreat and sneakily rotate to B instead.
These splits allow for the rounds to play out more dynamically and raises the skill
ceiling by allowing for advanced tactics and fakes.
This also encourages teams to push, not just for positional advantages but also for valuable
information on where the other team may or may not be.
FMPone has used unusual angles, elevations and engagement ranges to make Subzero’s
firefights unique and memorable.
In short, he wants for Subzero to look and play like nothing else currently available
in Counter Strike, whilst still being simple enough for new players to enjoy.
A lot of this map’s strategic depth comes through use of grenades.
He says the team’s skill with these will determine whether this map is CT or T-sided.
He wants terrorists utilising smokes to camouflage their movement, and CT’s to embrace flashes
to aid them in risky info-gathering pushes to work out the terrorists’ positions.
And sure enough, there is always an opportunity for a setup grenade throw, a boost to learn,
a wall to bang, or a prop to climb to shave seconds off your rotation times.
Just running about it I was aware of so many alternative routes and counters to what previously
seemed like overpowered positions.
Indeed, this map is testament to how far we’ve come since CS:GO was first released.
You remember the amount of time you spent obsessing over the trick jumps in the mid
of Cache?
FMPone started deliberately adding more of this kind of tricky-yet-rewarding parkour
to his later maps, which he has only elaborated on further with Sub-zero.
It almost doubles up as a jump map and I suspect it will be a long time before it is truly
mastered.
No missed opportunities here- he wants to make each and every part of this map useful
and fun in some way.
Plus it helps to reward teamwork and to keep the skill ceiling high as well.
Take bombsite B, for instance.
Let’s walk you through what the terrorists can expect to face when attacking.
This bunker is what lies between you and the site.
It features glass windows that can be shot out, immediately opening up a number of offensive
and defensive grenade strategies.
Which will be needed as you must cross this open window to reach the site.
Think the double-doors down the middle of Dust2.
You’ll want to have a smoke covering your attack if you choose to go this way.
From here you can choose to push straight onto the site, but risk attacks from both
the site and mid and with very little cover to protect you.
There’s a low wall here that you can either shoot through or lob grenades over to aid
your teammates in the attack.
Or you can enter the bunker itself, which gives you a choice between the dangerous window
entrance, or the door- which I’m sure will become a defining feature of this map.
And then there’s the mid entrance to the site as well, which opens up even more options
for both teams.
It’s already been tested in countless matches, of which I got this footage from.
FMPone assures me that he’s designing this map to scale from casual play right up to
competitive play at the highest level.
It isn’t a case of style over substance.
Every corner has been smoothed out, every prop optimised to keep the framerate high.
Subzero is now out and available for download from the workshop, which I strongly suggest
you do if you have an interest in mapping, CS:GO or shiny ice textures.
And it’s available for download right now from this video’s description from the workshop.
As a map maker myself I understand the huge amount of unseen work that goes into every
map and it’s so easy to take one like Sub-zero for granted.
There isn’t some massive team behind it.
There isn’t a huge budget.
PenE made the crates at B and seaside creator, Tanuki, aided in the layout which has undergone
literally 100’s of iterations.
And the rest, FMPone has done himself.
He has worked on each and every version of the map.
He has created custom textures and models himself, going as far as to make a new Terrorist
skin for the map: you may recognise them as the Arctic Avengers, who have been in previous
Counter Strike games.
A bit of nostalgia he wanted to reintroduce to the series.
There’s even a Sub-zero website, which covers the backstory and fleshes out the map’s
theme.
You can check it out in this video’s description.
He has told me that this is it: there is nothing more he can do to make this map a success.
He loves doing what he does.
Mapping has become his life!
But he’s aware as to how much of a risk this project has been.
To have invested over a year of his life into a single map and to know that it might not
go anywhere.
He hopes his time spent on Sub-zero pays off.
He wants to continue making content for the community but it’s such a gamble and his
future is uncertain.
A lot is riding on Sub-zero.