The Rift by ShilkaLive



Very long ago what now is known as 'The Rift' started out as an underground river. For centuries it carved out underground caves until finally the cave ceilings became too thin and collapsed. This event revealed a large rift in the African Savannah.

When The Rift was discovered by native tribes it quickly became inhabited as a large Dogon settlement was built within. The Rift offered shelter from the scorching African sun and safety from predators causing the natives to live an almost idyllic life in this beautifull and peacefull place.

There came a quick end to the peacefullness as APR heard about the diamonds to be found in a nearby cave. They came swiftly and violently, destroying part of the Dogon settlement while looking for riches to support their everlasting hunger for fundings of their need for new weapons and ammunition. Where once was serenity the APR brought dirt, blood and rusty metal.

When the UFLL got notice of this they came in to defend the natives from the APR. At least, that is what they claimed. It will be of no surprise to you that the real reason for their arrival was to steal the APR diamonds. With both factions in the narrow rift, fighting ensued....

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Eventhough there's still room to spare in the object department it took me around 60-70 hours to make this map. I basicly thought up the storyline first, and then built the map accordingly. It took a huge amount of tweaking and object adjustment with all the rocks and heightdifferences, and the Dogon buildings with their uneven floors didn't make putting interiours in any easier either...
I'm really pleased with the created atmosphere, and how I managed to stay true to the story I thought up beforehand. Let's hope you feel the same....
Now on to some more pictures;



Here you can see the section of the undestroyed part of the Dogon settlement from where the UFLL operates. They have a slight high ground advantage, but some trees obscure a direct line of sight to the APR, and when on a rooftop you'll find yourself pretty exposed. The UFLL also has a glider available.




The APR base. They have rebuilt right on top of the Dogon ruins, and their encampment also harbours the entrance to the cave where diamands are found.
The APR has an armed swampboat, but there's only one possible waterway towards the UFLL camp, where a ladder can be used to scale the steep cliff towards the UFLL.




A view on the undestroyed part of the dogon settlement (UFLL on the left bank), which still shows some of the paradise like image The Rift used to have. Two crossing hangbridges connect both parts of the settlement.




Apart from the direct approach from camp to camp, crossing the river sooner of later, there are two alternative ways from APR to UFLL. Near the APR is a broken bridge, where the river can be crossed by a double jump. It leads to this path across half open terrain, so it might be dangerous. Though if lucky, the enemies attention might be distracted....




The other alternative route is through the cave where the diamonds are being mined. It leads into a narrow canyon towards the baobab tree near the undestroyed Dogon settlement. It is a relative safe route, out of sight and with plenty of cover, but lengthy. This may not be your first option of attackroute, but it's nice to be able to sneak around the back when a direct approach fails. (Sorry for the bad picture quality, my cam didn't like the darkness of the cave)




Detailpic inside the UFLL base where the Dogon settlement is still in its original state.




Detail pic inside the APR base, with the decay and destruction clearly visible.




A top down view of the main playing area (cave not visible) with the UFLL at lower left, and APR at top right.



I designed the map with Deathmatch, Teamdeathmatch and CTD in mind. Uprising is supported, but was not predesigned, so I'm not sure how that will work out. All buildings have furniture, but all pathways and windows are clear and accessible unless otherwise intended. Many rooftops are accessible, either by ladder or by jumping from nearby rocks, walls or ledges.
During the build I have continuously checked and doublechecked all objectplacements, and if correctly there shouldn't be anything out of place. There are plenty of spawns. Eventhough smaller then my previous maps I still classified the map as large due to the amount of cover.

I'm curious what you all think of it, and I hope it will work out well on the servers.
Any feedback is welcome ofcourse

Looks good! Again, you show a lot of attention to detail, which is always very nice to see. Is it easy to get out of the water? The banks looked like they might be a little high from the pictures.

I'll check this one out this week sometime.

It's definately not easy to get out of the water. There are some random 'Y spots' if you look for low edges, but those are hard to use.
However, I designed in some get out of the water spots at each base, which even can be used strategically.
Near the UFLL base is a half submerged rock you can swim upon, and then you can use a ladder to get up a cliff, leading into the backyard of a house which you can go through.
At the APR base is a collapsed bridge, with one part half submerged that you can use to get on the rock in the middle of the river. Then you can jump either way on the riverbank. You can also ofcourse use the swampboat to get out.
If you drop in at the center then you're up for a 5-10 sec swim though.

looks sweet.. lot of detail work again
i'll download later on. looks like a lot land to travel but thats ok, nice work..

Thanks guys.
If there's any feedback on how this worked out on a (well filled) server, I'd love any feedback you have.
Being from Europe and having to take care of my son who recently had his 1st birthday makes it hard for me to host a server around prime-time, if at all. So I guess I depend on you guys for the quality feedback...

Played this one last night...finally! Kudos once again for your attention to detail. Played Team Deathmatch and had a close game.

The only real issue that came up were players getting stuck in the water. This was a real buzz-kill for many players. When you're playing, you do not want to have to deal with figuring out how to get out of water. When I was in the editor and no one was shooting at me, I was STILL having trouble getting out of the water. I would strongly encourage you to address the waterlines. I don't even think it's necessary to make the whole edges of the river accessible, just wider and obvious sections of it.

A couple of players mentioned that they felt like there was almost TOO much detail...but I am not one of those players. I really dig the time and attention you put into this, especially to the layout of the walkways. Very nice stuff.

Strong encouragement by dave, ok, that will do the trick :P
I'll try to find time coming week to edit this and my other map, though the waterline should be easy to edit, still got to brainstorm a bit about how to do it and still have it look good (I really like how the stone edges help in making the water look crisp).

And 'too much detail', there's something I love to be accused of, hence my mapmaking name hehehe
Many thanks for the feedback, it's very helpfull, I hope I can return the favor by editing the maps more to the players liking

Very nice map...looks realistic. Too bad its 360 and I can check this out.

LOL at too much detail...they would hate me on the 360 side then

Map has been updated april 18, please redownload!

I have added 8 places to get out of the water.
There's a couple canoes that are tweaked for the Y sweet spot which you can use to jump on the shore, and there are a bunch of stairs leading out of the water.

Eventhough I still don't think it's tactically wise to be in the water, you will now have a bunch of options (around 10 of 'm) to get out again (next to some random Y spots on the shore, the broken bridge and the ladder at UFLL) I hope this solves your problems.

it should definetly add to the gameplay for for people trying to take a shortcut thru the water or whatever reason they had for being in there. lol
nice extra touches bro.

I was checking stats on this map and I saw it got hosted over 500 times. It's really satisfying to see the map got played that many times, and I want to thank you all for playing and especially hosting the map, it really makes the effort I put in it worth while.
Now it has been played so many times I'd still love some feedback on it about the gameplay (I know it looks good :P). Making maps is still one of my favorite pasttimes, and there's always room for improvement

I have hosted this a few times. It gets no shortage of positive comments regarding the attention to detail. Game-play wise, the most notable for comments I've heard for improving it would be to reduce the number of hiding spots. A lot of gamers tend to find hiding spots and lie in wait. Unfortunately, if everyone does this, the match gets very quiet! I made a point of searching out the enemy, and usually got killed for it. But not always.

All in all, a very solid and fun map (if a little stressful in not knowing when you're going to get ambushed).