Basically, Gridlock is a medium-sized map, a "sequel" to Domain of sorts.
It is located south of Domain, past the Pelican and the wooden door, and is almost completely based off of ODST concept art.
The map is larger than Domain, but there is an attempt to blend close-range combat (interior sections serving as a shortcut between bases/fight for the rocket spawn), medium-range combat (fighting within the bases themselves), and long-range combat (the "Main Street" of the level, serving as the Warthog passageway).
Anyway, pictures:
Overhead concept:

Pictures are arranged in chronological order, newest up top.
11/3/09:
YAY FOR COMPLETE REMODELING.


9/20:
Alpha build screenshots:
Trees need to be planted.

Going to remove the smoke, I don't care for it, myself.

A bit of the Mall interior:

The "escalators" (which aren't going to move and thus are more like stairs right now) to the blue flag:


Finally, a tribute to a fallen Spartan (going to light the area up better later).


9/6:

This render has just had a bit of cleanup done, some new Mat IDs were in place, and there was some detailing done up at the top of the mall. Other than that, there aren't any real changes.

I've tried to make the train station less cardboard-y by taking out a massive chunk of the roof.
Also, I was thinking back to the Domain betas way back when and remembered how a single entrance to any structure is bad news when it comes to Oddball camping. As such, I added in a tiny hole near the base of the Train Station which leads into the station itself.
While it's not readily apparent in the render, there IS some rebar supporting it, the render's just at a bad angle.


The "West Gate", the gate which Blue Team can close to send their base into lockdown for 30 seconds, shows off the main part of the mall. The right side of the render needs some detail work, shops need to be placed, etc. In the middle right-hand side of the render, you can see some broken windows, serving as one of the 2 main sniper nests for Blue base.
You can tell I've made some deviations from the concept art for this one, in order to provide a place for the flag (in the mall, at the top of the escalators) and to add in some other gameplay mechanics (sniper nests, gate, etc.).
As for the middle and left sides of the render, this is one of the main courtyards for the Mall. I'm still going about adding in lights and little details to make it seem less plain and "blocky", but you can see the basics of gameplay. The escalators serve as the primary way to the Blue flag, and you can see a BIT of the hallway which marks the secondary path to the flag. The secondary flag path also doubles as the entrance to the blue's other sniper nest, which you can see a part of next to the escalators.
There is also a Warthog near the center of the picture, marking where one of the 2 Warthogs will spawn for the Blue team. The pavement hasn't been UVW'd yet, so just ignore it for now.
You can also see in the render the other side of Domain's "Wooden Gate", which was one of the few sections of the old District this mall was built on not demolished to build this mall.

This is a better overview of the Blue base.
You can see the second Warthog spawn and the Blue's second sniper nest quite easily in this one. The sniper nest is below the "Shelter" sign, and the Warthog spawn is below the sniper nest.
Next to the 'Hog is the escalators, which will mark the way up to the Blue flag. You can also see the other half of the hallway for the secondary way to access the flag.
Moving lower, you can see an extrusion jutting out from the sidewalk, with what will eventually be a planter in the middle. Since there's no trees in it as of yet and the angle of the render keeps you from seeing the dirt, it looks like crap. It'll look a lot nicer once the trees get put in.
I feel like the entire blue base is too blocky, and, as such, I'll be putting in some more details here and there, updating when necessary. Hopefully, it'll look a lot nicer come beta/release.
8/28:


8/15:
Wraith (yep, another one, been thinking about screwing the concept art and putting a dead Scorpion there):

Concept art:

Train Station (I must stress this: THERE IS NO SMOOTHING.):

Anyway, from my past experience, posting the renders early as possible while having them look semi-good seems to generate the best possible crit.
This thread will be updated every time I make some bit of progress, so keep your eyes peeled, ladies and gents.
For those who enjoy looking at Modacity forum threads:
http://www.modacity.net/forums/showthread.php?t=17574
Edited by English Mobster on Sep 6, 2009 at 08:24 PM
Edited by English Mobster on Sep 20, 2009 at 05:15 PM
Edited by English Mobster on Oct 3, 2009 at 08:05 PM
Edited by English Mobster on Oct 3, 2009 at 08:06 PM
Edited by English Mobster on Nov 3, 2009 at 11:30 PM
Edited by English Mobster on Nov 3, 2009 at 11:30 PM

you're gonna have to make a special map where you combine Domain and this togther into one map

and looks good so far!

nice
Edited by FLASH on Aug 16, 2009 at 07:16 AM

Looks great. I'm Downloadin' it as soon as it's done!

It could be the render angle, but the top picture has some areas that look slightly out of scale in comparison. I hope you can see these as I can't describe pictures for my life.lol.

Make sure to add plenty of wreckage and scenery =D.

I think there is more space between the building and the wraith, and MC is actually further away from both.

Looks great to me though

It is the angle.

Looking good so far!

you are doing great, will ya put odst helmet? or just markV OR VI

To be honest, the metal and how the cliffs interact is really, really bad. You have the metal bending how the cliffs bend which looks bad. Most of the architcture looks decent but put some better textures on there and good shadows. Last time in domain you had alot of random non planars, and scenery and effects that look bad. Fix these things to make your map better. Make sure your weapon placment good too.

bad troll is bad

I'm not Leavin' I'm still online in Halo CE every now and again......I'm just waitin' for the number of players to come back up to a number like 250 - 500

Looks good, can't wait to see the rest of the map.

if you want a 600 and up go play 1.00ce

Cliffs? I see no cliffs. I see a bunch of placeholder textures for a reinforced concrete building, but no cliffs. Perhaps I should make some rebar jutting out of the destroyed freeway.

Textures are not final; I'm going to boot up Photoshop in a bit to make some new ones to place.
Shadows I'm leaving up to Halo (and Dee, if he's willing to make lightmaps again).

While I agree some of my effects looked bad, may I ask what a non planar is? I have no clue, and it makes me feel like a noob. My first guess would be "not a plane", but... If it's not a plane, what is it?

My motto is: "Balance first, looks second." This will go through beta after beta to find what works and what doesn't.


I will look into Open Sauce. I'll talk to Kornman a bit about it before he leaves.

Also, there is something which will tie all the maps I'm making together which I'm working on.

Keep it going

Bit of an update:

-The interior section is mostly finished. Texturing needs to be done (and I'll do it right this time, I swear) on the interiors, lights need to be added, etc. etc.
-Work has begun on red base ("The Courtyard"), located behind the crashed Pelican. My reference pics are from the CGI ODST trailer at E3 '08, mixed with some screengrabs from Jason Jones playing a bit of the beginning of ODST. Once the framework here is laid out, the entire map will have its foundations done.
-Detailing has begun on blue base ("The Mall"), located near the train station in the renders and behind the big wooden gate on Domain.

New pics.


The mall interior is now completely textured, and the fire exits are nice and labeled. The women's restroom now looks like a women's restroom. All is well.
I wish I could take a render of the inside without ripping off half the building (light source, I'm using a skylight and any kind of interior structure turns black), because it looks really nice, IMO.

E:

As with Domain, you will play as the ODST model I rigged up.
Edited by English Mobster on Aug 29, 2009 at 12:21 AM

looks awesome

Who can say no...

I don't know

lol, so will you play as an ODST?

Most likely not I'm geussing

is he using the Wraith or the Scorpion, the million dollar question.................

Yes. Yes you will.
See the user screenshots for Domain:
http://hce.halomaps.org/index.cfm?pg=91&iid=4682


Domain had a destroyed Wraith. As much as I'd love to reuse tags and thus have to do less work... Scorpions beat everything. So I changed it to the destroyed Scorpion.
Edited by English Mobster on Aug 29, 2009 at 12:35 AM

awesome!

but don't they where gloves?...............

The kind of gloves that don't cover the tips of the fingers

Cod 2 with the furry mosin and russian pistol made those gloves cool

Their fingers show in Halo 3: ODST.

And That is the only thing I hate about it.

What about the fact that it costs twice as much as it should?

sorry... trolling...

Well, the Marine arms were the best FP arms I could find. Making new FP arms is a pain, to be honest, so I went with what I had.

I'm going to reskin them (doing that right now, actually), to give them gloves. Since the ODST model has full-on gloves, the FP will, too.
Edited by English Mobster on Aug 29, 2009 at 12:48 AM

will there be AI in the map?

Yeah if you do use AI the CMT brutes (the good ones not the retarded ones) just got released so you could use them. This way it would be like Halo ODST were there are brutes but no elites.

yay started page 2.
Edited by SwordMa5ster on Aug 29, 2009 at 12:59 PM

The new CMT brutes were LEAKED, not released.

Yeah I had a feeling they were. Man masterz must be pissed lol.

ooooooooo.......what do they look like?

they look ill with a side of badass lol.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kPgqZ_FTjjQ

check the link to see.