TF2 - The London Pack [WIP community asset/theme pack]

[TikwidToo]

By now, eleven years after they burst onto the contracted-objective-fulfilment scene, the mercenaries of Team Fortress 2 have travelled far beyond the dustbowls and gravelpits of vanilla; they’ve visited Japanese temples, tropical jungles, haunted theme parks, and even the screamless void of space. But in all this time, there’s one area of the world they haven’t really explored - one whose absence me and several other TF2 community members have finally decided to remedy.

So brush up on your Cockney rhyming slang, swap your dollars and cents for farthings and ha’pennies, and synchronise your death watches to Greenwich Mean Time - that’s right, Team Fortress 2 is hitting the streets of London!

https://i.imgur.com/2I02DNi.png

What is this?
This is an attempt to make a new custom asset pool specifically for TF2 mappers, allowing them to make maps set in London (as well as elsewhere in the United Kingdom). At a minimum, we hope the pack will release with a selection of the following assets:

Materials and models for buildings in a variety of British architectural styles, from Georgian townhouses to Victorian wharves to Edwardian offices
Signage including advertisements, posters, gameplay signs, and street names
Iconic British vehicles such as a Routemaster, a black Hackney carriage taxi, an Underground train, and the Aston Martin DB5
British street furniture, including traffic signs, phone/post/police boxes, barriers, lights, and more
Skybox models of iconic London landmarks including the Houses of Parliament, St. Paul’s Cathedral, and Tower Bridge

Depending on how much interest there is and how many people help out, the release could ultimately end up containing a lot more - more models, more materials, an example map or two, even other assets like sounds and particles. And if there’s exceptional interest, it would be great to expand the project to something of Frontline-esque scope, with cosmetics, taunts, paints, and even an SFM short.

All sounds good on paper, but have you actually made anything yet?
Indeed! Feast your eyes (all assets subject to change):

https://i.imgur.com/sX1L1ML.png

In addition, I’ve assembled a pitch/plan document specifying what the key models should be, including those of highest priority. You can view it here:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1SIGWKW5GjqhBqcMaXNkN-mCYmgstem0VDvi_In3KA_Q/edit?usp=sharing

Why London?
When it comes down to it, the UK is an obvious choice for a new TF2 theme. The many faces of sixties London are natural fits in the TF2 universe: the stylish and trendy Swinging London of Carnaby Street, the hidden spytech headquarters of James Bond, the hard-boiled criminal underworld of Michael Caine and the Kray twins, even the neo-Victorian absurdity of Monty Python. The city also has the necessary commercial-industrial foundation to ensure its environments still remain congruent with those of classic TF2 maps, and its sprawling millennia-built streets should (hopefully) be motivation for mappers to avoid flat and boxy layouts.

For me at least, there’s also a personal motivation: I’ve been fascinated with London since I was a kid, and have tried to recreate it and its charms many times in Source. You may be familiar with my biggest attempt to do such so far, a GMod RP map set in London. I’ve gently put that project to rest, but the experience obtained making it has been invaluable - and one copyright-free consistently stylised aesthetic feels like it would be easier to work with than an attempt to recreate reality in a single map. (Plus, let’s be honest, you probably wouldn’t have a good London experience with propspamming trolls and whiny admins breathing down your neck.)

You’ve won me over with the power of words - now I’m interested! How can I help?
At the moment we’re looking mainly for prop modellers and material artists, but any other help is appreciated. If you’re interested in making this pack a reality, add me on Discord (Mattie#6333) and we can chat - I’ve set up a server for the project, so if you decide you wanna commit I can invite you there.

Hope you folks like what we got so far, and here’s hoping this pack ends up a success!

https://i.imgur.com/miYODxi.png

[Wappen]

Suits the style perfectly, London is an ideal place for TF2's Spytek stuff, could be very spy movie esque.

[TikwidToo]

Quick update - there's still a long way to go but some great progress is being made, especially now that models are starting to come in (all assets WIP and subject to change):

https://i.imgur.com/YJ6gmJf.png

https://i.imgur.com/FKRLKP0.jpg

We've also set up a survey to judge the TF2 mapping community's thoughts on the pack and its potential features - if you could spare a few minutes to fill it out we'd really appreciate it: TF2 London pack survey