Agate is a Team Fortress 2 attack-defend control point map made within the time restrictions of the 2022 72 hour TF2Maps Summer Jam. A singular setpiece geometry was made first (A point) and everything else within the map was then built around it. There was a slight update post jam that provided some changes that were minor to what the original intention was when the map was originally made.

The intent for the opening area of this map is for the defending red team to have a strong hold over the attacking BLU team, through the use of significant high ground for red and the limited ways for BLU to proceed through to the next area. Playtest of a slightly modified area showed that it achieved the desired effect, however playtesters were unhappy that the choke was too hard to push through, citing the want for a more effective flank than the one that was provided, especially in regard to the design for the rest of the first point. In future iterations this was considered, but it has yet to be seen if it would negate the original intention of the area.

The area around the first control point was the first area to be built for the map, after being inspired by various other similar community map’s point designs. For point A, the goal for it was to make it defendable for RED with spaces surrounding the point while BLU pushes through a narrow choke from one side to break through RED’s defenses.

Throughout the course of the playtest however it was revealed that it was slightly more defendable than intended, perhaps compounded by the earlier courtyard area where BLU cannot effectively push into the areas nearing the point, with this area on the top right ending up being the main choke where red holds their ground effectively with sentry placements.

The issue may also lie in the spawn for RED during this point is too close to the point area itself which helped red to maintain their defence easily. In considering future iterations this has been rectified, and red spawn is moved back significantly.

With the main point of focus during the playtest being shifted towards attacking the previous spot mentioned, these following spaces were used less frequently than I would have liked. I think the main supposed main route still had its merits for being a direct path to the point, but for future iterations a lot of the focus for creating attacking options for BLU have switched towards the discussed spot. There are plans for the main route to be widened and the side route to be shortened to rein in how split up BLU team should be while attacking A,.

The next area to be developed was the area between point A and point B. The idea was to have a state reset, funneling BLU to a low ground choke for them to fight through the RED forward hold, with a short distance between the BLU forward spawn and the B finale point. BLU goes down a direct downhill route leading to the point while the RED team stood above defending.

Unfortunately, what ended up happening was when A was capped, BLU was unable to clear RED off the immediate high ground area hold before the low ground choke, added with cascading issues of BLU forward spawn only having one exit, RED’s forward spawn being too close to the previous point, RED respawning quick enough and close enough because of the short distance between A and B to hold off BLU players that are spawning in.

To rectify this, future iterations redesigned the hold to make sure both RED spawns are further away from point A, extended the BLU spawn to have multiple exits and redesigned the connecting area to add in an extra lobby for RED to hold in.

The final point, point B was inspired by Valve’s cp_gorge final point, as well as community maps such as cp_glassworks and cp_kalinka. The centre setpiece, a circular point with a giant laser situated above it was conceived of first, then the rest of the gameplay space was constructed around it. As a finale point, the intent was to give RED as much defendable space as possible for BLU to really work and contribute to breaking RED’s defense down.

Because of the compounding issues from the previous lobby and the additional free high ground RED team was given to defend, in playtesting RED was able to hold the point defense consistently. Because of how open the downhill main route is, many BLU players opted to fight from the side instead because it was a safer option.

Other potential issues were discovered, such as the RED team being spread too far away with the split spawn door approach. All of the above was considered upon with the next iteration, with a newly redesigned B that allowed for RED to maintain a similar level of dominance but varied routes and playspace more so that BLU has more opportunities to attack from different angles instead of a singular perceived one. The added lobby in front of B should help with providing more entrances for BLU to approach the point from.

With Agate being the more recently developed map I feel confident in saying that, although it does have its faults, it is the most representative of what I could be doing today.