Afternoon Sandtraps [Map Replacement]
Highway 17 is a… bit of a long chapter, isn’t it? Not as long as Water Hazard and especially when you’re not even exploring everything, but where’s the fun in that? And it has always bothered me that the whole chapter happens during a bright clear-cloudy day unlike Water Hazard which actually becomes darker. But surely the next chapter will make it actually seem like the day’s getting dark.
And to a certain extent it does! Except it seems like it does so right after being taught how to use the bugbait and during the Nova Prospekt raid, when the map before it had such a bright skybox… what happened?
Y’see, it’s known that the raid takes place during a storm. But to many players it doesn’t even look like one to begin with. It just seems like it suddenly became night time. Apparently that’s not true and it just so happens the sky got dark because it’s a storm?
That is the one and only reason I didn’t call this ‘Lore-Friendly’. Not that this mod itself is ‘Lore-Breaking’ anyway, but if you feel like the raid does happen during the night (And makes sense after spending a long chapter and a half), I’ve got you covered, but with a twist!
This mod replaces the first three maps of Sandtraps, not only changing their skyboxes but also its lighting so it actually fits an orange afternoon: the sun has a different color, the fog for the distant landscape matches the sky… all while progressively making the maps more orange until it fittingly becomes dark during the raid. Maybe you’ll find some vibe to them too?
Now obviously, it’s understandable if you think they look way too different from vanilla (Especially for the first map, though it has grown on me), or that there’s some weird lighting. Most of which are vanilla thing, such as the pitch black windows when you’re far away on the first map or the first few rocks on the third one, near Laszlo and his buddy.
I couldn’t be bothered to "fix" any of that. I had to partially learn how to use hammer for this, it could’ve been a lot worse all things considered. Now if you were to rate and give some (hopefully constructive) feedback, I would greatly appreciate it! Just don’t expect any more updates to this, I’m just too tired even if I’ve only edited the original maps themselves.
Pairs well with Lore Friendly Post-Ravenholm Early Morning by UnknownPleasures:
Also pairs with Sunset "Follow Freeman" by Sm9uZXMgTHVya2Vy; made right after I made this mod because I inspired them, check it out!
