Even with nice lighting it gives the map a sad feeling…
total not true. in stock ET the maps do have this sorta feeling. As a media studies student i can make judgments here that are my opinion feel free to contend them
the grey fog in railgun and grey structures tank in fueldumo give the maps a very gloomy looks and can apear faily washed out. The snow is quite blotchy and not very neat white so that give a more dirty look and make the maps apear more of a hard place to get along it. There is also a lot of metalic structures and crates placed around that players can assosiate with factories/industrial bulding that are undesirable places to people to be. Overall it can create a undesirable atmosphere that could discourage the players from wanting to play the map
by changin the setting to a train station in a city say you could use this to create a very differnt apearance to the player. First make the snow much “cleaner” more ideailc, christmas card snow rather then road sludge. I would go for late night with a very deep blue light from several sky direction. Then use windows a ample lighting though the map to give of strong and inviting oranage/yellow glowing making it look inviting. In the archutecture make it look intersting and use colour where you can to give a more lively feel to the place, !!avoid grey buildings and small constrictive windows!! make everyhting look large and inviting. Instead of crates and barrels (that give a industrial feel) try other probs like station lugage etc. Benches are good as they can symbolise some comfort and relaxation while giving cover to some more open parts of your map. Also if your making a station dont include coal truck and stuff like that… again they are industrial. Perhaps a few deep purplue pasanger or mail cars with a warm orange glow from inside (purple symbolizes wealth and luxury). If you base your map on ideas like that im pretty sure you can make a snow map that is anyhting but gloomy
a couple of images, not exactly what im trying to descrip but some good example of what im trying to gess accross
