Map Discovery – t-chen’s “dust4”

If you love the rooftop jumping, tight flowing, and advanced maneuvering gameplay of forgotten, you will love this one, so read on for our in depth map review!

Dust4 by t-chen

Remember that FFA map we introduced as part of our new mapping channel? Well, it’s time for the second installment!

Please feast your eyes on our CTF map “dust4”! The same guy who brought you forgotten, haste, tempest, and many many more release maps, t-chen delivers yet another highly entertaining map.

Gameplay

t-chen’s “dust4” is not for those who have a hard time with challenging flow. As with “Forgotten,” you will most likely hate the gameplay after one real game, however after getting used to the flow and layout, you will learn to love it for all that it is worth.

With that being said, however, there are many exciting possibilities for flag runs and tactical routes running through the map. The rooftops are not clipped off, as on dust2, but instead can be accessed with just a few skilled trick jumps and are all relatively flat for some nice camping. There are also plenty of cables, wooden planks, and other details for challengingly precise trick jumps and flag runs. Did we mention this is not a map for newbs?

Layout

The layout has a nice relation to dust2 in that is has comfortably open areas for some rifle action or stalking of prey, but also many tight areas for shotgun camping or creeping ninja-style into the enemy base. With the rooftops excluded, the main layout is relatively flat and may pose for some boring battles, but it is complex enough that it could also hold its own with that fact alone. Just about every platform or edge has a short wall trimming which impedes perfectly smooth flow, but this can also be seen as just another conquerable challenge. As with a few other of his map, the lighting is so bright you cannot even see your cross hair in some places (if your’s is white). And as with most good CTF maps, running straight through the middle is the quickest, but is also the lowest route and leaves you the most exposed. This is clearly a map built by a veteran fragger.

Appearance

Dust4 is nothing special when it comes to looks. It is simply just another stone town with some sand on the ground. It seems to lack in any color aside from see subtle canopies and flags, and everything is the same pale gray. There are maybe about 12 different textures used all together. Anyone looking for only eye-candy will be disapointed. However, here is a quote from the creator himself on that exact subject:

“why do people always pay so much attention to the appearance of the map, than on the layout and gameplay? isnt that the most important aspect in the game?”

“most of the people playing sauer using texreduce 12 anyway. so texturing and detailing are much overrated!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”

Enough said.

Detailing

The appearance isn’t all bad, especially when it comes to details. t-chen has again applied his proven skill of ruining brick structures with piles of fallen brick. Other nice details including some wood-work and canopies ice the map throughout. The coolest one, however, has to be a small hole in a wall just inside each base which overlooks an alleyway below. Clearly designed for nade-spam defense, this blasted through hole works awesomely.

Build

This is for anyone who cares, i.e. mappers and/or anyone who plays on a toaster. For a map which claims to not be about the detailing or texturing, it actually comes in at fairly large 90k WTR. This is basically the amount of cubes that are in a given map and is what causes your fps lag and long map-load times. A lot of tiny details usually means high WTR count (look at a showy cm| map like cm-valley, compared to the minimalistic Turbine). This essentially makes dust4 larger than reissen, though as already mentioned should not mean too much unless you are still playing on your 2008 macbook pro (or a toaster. Same thing, right?)

To sum things up, any veteran or skilled player or anyone who just wants a challenge should give this map a shot. Anyone who wants awesome eye candy or who has a crappy graphics card will most likely be disappointed. Have fun on the map and we encourage you to play it for your matches! Let the games begin and have fun on the map!

Do you like the map? Let us know in the comments!

Our rating:

Gameplay: 8/10 (fun flagruns, challenging play)

Layout: 7/10 (nothing super special, fun rooftop accessibility)

Appearance/detailing: 6/10 (Very clean and professional, though nothing exciting)

Build (WTR count in relevance to detail): 5/10

Overall Rating: 7/10