Battle of the Gods

[GrimGriz]

BATTLEOFTHEGODS
by David "GrimGriz" Wells
Custom HUD icons and instructions by Tom "zpqrei" Pritchard
Custom posters by "captainangry" and "awesomesauce"
TF2maps avatar overlay by Username00
Custom grass texture by Derek "arseNal" Williams
Special thanks to "MrAlBobo" for texture and brushwork

Description
Teams use CP/teleporters to enter the arena/skybox and gain points for eliminating the opposing team from the arena. Additional points are awarded for owning the arena long enough to capture it.

Revision History
Alpha 9 Revision 1
- Removed announcer from middle point
- Redecorated balloon with supporter logos
- Lowered ramp to middle teleport area for easier jumping
- Added exit signs and increased button visibility
- Added delay to scoring mechanism (in hopes of eliminating excessive overtime)
- Resigned middle teleporter
- Added spawn teleporter lock message

Alpha 9
- Separated middle teleporter from middle capture point
- Removed middle teleporter locking
- Removed elimination scoring (only arena captures score points now)
- Changed spawn teleports to button triggers
- Decreased necessary time to capture arena

Alpha 8 Revision 1
- Changed teleporter exits to doors & triggers
- Added grass texture to mortal area and miniature
- Added top stair to new blu tele stairs
- Added timers to correct teleport lock
- Spread out blu spawn locations
- Arena textures and brushwork by MrAlBobo

Alpha 8
- Added river and lake to arena area
- Moved most teleporter exits behind walls
- Added path to upper level from stream
- Opened tops of back paths for lighting
- Moved arena build area to ground level and expanded size
- Redid model displacement
- Attempted to improve optimization
- Tied spawn teleporter locking to arena presence.
- Added more stairs to blu spawn teleporter.
- Added objective screen picture/instructions.
- Added teleporter signs
- Added stonehenge at mid teleport
- Added shake and timer

Alpha 7 Revision 2
Teleports:
-Players now may teleport to different exits from standing on the same teleport pad.
-Two new random teleport exits added for each team.

Health/ammo:
-Removed 1 small ammo and 1 small health, moved mediums from top level to mid level in arena.
-Added medium health and ammo near neutral teleport.

Visuals:
-Cliffs supporting spawn area added to miniature and main.
-Retextured arena spawn room revisualizers.
-Rework of spawn lighting.

Alpha 7 Revision 1
- Scoring for arena capture separated
- Fixed teleport locking/disabling
- Added zpqrei-designed instructions
- Added calculated chaos posters to spawn rooms
- Miniature version realigned
- Nobuild sky

Alpha 7
- Red spawn reworked
- CP/tele visuals
- Added/moved arena buildzones
- Added health and ammo to arena
- Attempted to light arena stairs
- Fixed missing score 09 for both teams
- Added playerclips to prevent airblast/rocketjump over arena walls
- Blu spawn reworked
- Spawn/mortal area redesigned
- Miniature version of new spawns added

Alpha 6 Revision 02
- Middle CP/tele repair

Alpha 6 Revision 01
- Custom HUD fixed

Alpha 6
- Custom HUD added
- Scoring system changed
* middle cp no longer worth points
* point awarded if other team does not enter the arena

- Arena area expanded
- Buildable area added to arena

Alpha 5 Revision 01
-Made teleport exits large enough for taller characters

Alpha 5
-Added special effects to teleporter pads
-Added miniature airship and bases

Alpha 4 Revision 02
-Added airship.
-Changed arena layout.
-Randomized teleports
-Added pansie timers

Alpha 3
-Teleports activate on a 5 second delay with audible warning and can teleport multiple team members.
-Spawn area layout drastically changed.
-Cover added to arena area.

Contact/Feedback

• grimgriz@gmail.com
• This thread
• via PM on this forum

Known Issues
None.

 

[TMP]

I STILL Haven't gotten you that topdown.

Anyways, like I said, battles focus around the rock and on top. Move the engi buildings to the middle floor. Just nobuild the top and areas around teles and you should be ok with engis.

Also, move the HP pack from behind the rock to somewhere that isn't so... trod upon, like in the tunnel system underneath.

I love this map's style though, it's very fun.

And remember guys, it's ok to post here!

 

[Cerulean]

After playing this map several times... I think I have to say that it was always fun when there were 6-10 players, but less fun with much more than that.

Thats all.

 

[captainAngry]

We have a pretty good relationship with grim on our server so we have had a lot of differerent versions. The latest version is pretty good and finally has a lot of the confustion worked out of it.

 

[GrimGriz]

April 2, 2009 - alpha 9 revision 1 release

With any luck, this will be the last alpha and there will be:
Lots of testing
Lots of prettying up
&
Lots of time

before the next version

 

[GrimGriz]

So...if you hate it, why?
Any ideas on how to make the function of the middle/cp teleport more intuitive?

 

[Icarus]

Make a wire where red/blu lights (depending who owns it) travel from the CP to the teleport.

All you need is an animated texture and some patience to make the wire

players would naturally be curious about the pulsing wire, and will follow it to the teleport. It should be easy enough from that point to figure out the mechanics.

 

[VelvetFistIronGlove]

I don't hate it, I just found it much too confusing (I was playing for 10 minutes and couldn't figure out how to get into the arena) and a little too deathmatchy for my taste.

Several things contributed to making it confusing:

The HUD show four points, when there is only one obvious CP in the map. And the big central icon that was constantly activating appears to be linked to the arena, not to the CP near the teleport -- even though there's no CP visible in the arena.

Secondly, it was far from clear that the teleport to the arena was a teleport; if you placed a few prop_dynamic red and/or blue engineer's teleports with the corresponding info_particle_systems there (and obviously enabling/disabling them as the central CP gets captured), it'd be a lot clearer what the function of that area is. I'd suggest also having signs that point to the teleport point from the central CP that change as the point gets captured, to direct the players towards it; if the signs move as they change from red to blue (like badwater's ones for example), they'll be more visible to the players as well.

Third, I think the skybox area being one big capture area is not a good idea. Put a CP model in the middle of it, on the bridge, and it'll be clearer what is being captured, and why -- although the need to repeatedly capture it would still be a little confusing: CPs in the stock maps never automatically go neutral after being captured.

 

[Walliard]

Two main comments:

1. It would be nice to have some sort of post-teleport protection. A couple times I got killed while I was still getting my bearings in the middle.

2. Consider putting the spawn teleporter on a timer instead of a switch, to prevent griefing.

Other than that, I love the concept.

 

[GrimGriz]

Could you elaborate on point 2?

 

[Walliard]

Like, right now, the teleporter in the spawn room activates when someone hits the switch. After that, it can't be used until the mid point is captured by the enemy team. I'm suggesting putting it on, for example, a ten-second timer so that anyone who wants to can get there in time.

As it is now, it's possible for someone to pretty much screw their own team out of a point, intentionally or not, by shooting the switch too soon.

 

[captainAngry]

I don't remember if this got into a9 or not but I think there should be a little bit of setup time in the beginning with a gate on the bases. This forces everyone to go onto the teleporter in the beginning and will give people who have played the map a little time to tell everyone they need to get on the tele.

This will get the map started off on the right track anyway and would give you some time to display any instructions you want to give the user without blocking their view.

 

[captainAngry]

Not many ratings yet and I havn't had a chance to play it myself but here is the banner anyway:

 

[bakentake]

Honestly I rather like how the teleports are set up at the moment, however I've only gotten to play the map with 2-6 people, never any more than that.

Would be interesting to play the map with closer to 10 vs 10, then skirmishes could possibly make it to the outside of the arena with more fights over the middle teleporter, and I haven't even been on the balloon yet or into any of the area other than the arena itself and the area closest to the three teleporters.

I'll have to explore the rest of it next time its up, maybe you have a "kill all players in the arena" button hidden

Theres my feedback

Oh and one more thing, the whole button thing is rather confusing, had I not been in the server with you or somebody who hadn't played the map already I don't know as if I'd ever know to hit the button to activate the teleporter. Although I don't really know how you could explain to people how to do it :|

 

[kwagner]

Grim? Question?

On your airship, a player on it moves and turns as it moves. What accomplishes that? I've set up some moving objects on a test map, but they just slide out from under the players. Or, if they move the player, the player doesn't rotate as they rotate. (like standing on a Merry-go-round. As it spins your facing should change, from north to west to south to east and back to north. Instead, on my test map you keep facing north even as you move around with the platform.)

So, what's the trick?

 

[GrimGriz]

I dunno...people still get stuck in the airship, so I wouldn't copy it directly...but if you want I can pull the airship stuff out into a vmf and send it to you...

send me a pm if you want to go that route..