Aquarium a16

Aquarium got the cold shoulder for a while after its feedback thread got eviscerated; I needed some time to sit on it and think anyway, and that just gave me the excuse to do so. I think people will be surprised by how little has changed in the eight months between versions, but I really didn't touch Hammer much in the whole period besides working on 5cpass. I solved oddly bright lights, added some helpful geometry, and fiddled with some stuff. I don't remember what I changed. I paused work a couple weeks after a15, but had already done some stuff by that point and now I'm uncertain as to what is new. Let's hope this is a step in the right direction.

teehee :3
this is just little bug fixes and mostly small non-gameplay patches

• made walls less bright
• removed double refracts (jury's still out on whether this was the thing causing frame stutters)
• removed chicken wire fence
• fixed catapult height

Pushing an update four days before the draft cup that features this map teehee

• Removed mid wings
• Reduced contrast between high and low points on suspended platforms
• Fixed med launchers
• Added demo ramps to spawn corners
• Made pretty window refract textures
• Increased ramp contrast on mid lower
• Extended grand staircase
• Squared off mid suspenders
• Edged the top edge of the side wall all the way around

I've been sitting on this update for a while. I wasn't sure what else would be good to add to make the map more pleasant beyond lowering the center floor; I knew more had to be done, but I wasn't sure what. This is the purpose of testing: This is a transient version to discover what works and what doesn't.

• Swapped height variation of middle and outer grounds
• Altered hanging platforms heavily
• Added ramp glides near side tanks, including modified Medic launch pads
• Corrected colors
• Laid pipe
• Raised mid side ramps
• Added fence to side ramps
• Added a couple lights

• Straightened corner
• Removed some cubemaps
• Improved visibility of certain materials
• Fixed goal lenience
• Raised skybox
• Changed pillar pickups to health
• Added large health pack to catwalk top
• I know I'm forgetting something, but I'm tired and I'm writing this days after the map was actually released

Loooooong patch notes for this one:

• Removed ceiling
• Widened map in center
• slanted walls to compensate
• Added surfing pool
• Shrank mid lightly
• Added auto exposure
• Added goal horns
• Adjusted goal holes
• Demolished pillars
• Added fire extinguishers
• Installed I-beams
• Added small pack to lower

• Remade goals
• Created custom particle effects
• Fixed pixelwalk on top
• Added small ammo pack to mid ramp
• Reassigned some cubemaps
• Added some sand?

This was mainly focused on making the bubbles and the other goal particle effects tbh.

Had a chat with the fellas and came out knowing I needed to get my act together on this map.

• Reworked mid
• Gave easier access to the center sky zone
• Allow the ball to go over the roof to other sky zones
• Removed water pit
• Reworked catapults
• Crushed pillars
• Added 3D skybox
• Scrapped refract textures on DirectX8 entirely (hopefully I'll be able to solve the flickering one day, and we can have DX8 refractive water tanks in harmony and bliss)
• Textured remaining dev brushes (let me know if I missed any!)
• Added bubbles
• Manifested particles
• Increased side ramp visibility for people without cubemaps
• Brightened spawn tubes
• Added spectator cams
• Hopefully fixed a minor wall visibility issue from inside of spawn
• Reduced size of push triggers in front of spawn that were blocking throws into the catapult

Writing these patch notes as quickly as possible:

• Added some lights to more important dark areas
• Un-nerfed water canal
• Shrunk center platforms more
• Slightly lengthened map
• Removed side pillars
• Added more demo ramps
• Added medic jump pads for mid
• Fell into a spiral over trying to fix refracts in DX80 (didn't fix it tho)
• Cut normal map size of custom goal texture in half, hopefully reducing map file size by megabytes

Wouldn't you know it, the past five goalfixes didn't work? When you keep trying the same thing, it doesn't solve much. Here are the updates this time around:

• Took a new clipped approach to goalfix
• Added octagons to goals
• Added a water-filled tunnel under mid
• Made side stairs more boring (and more consistent to ramp slide on)
• Hopefully fixed most of the ramp bugs on the glass side ramps, might still be a WIP
• Suspended mid platforms from the ceiling to free up mid a little more
• Improved side pillars
• Heightened the slope on mid platforms
• Extended tile section under demo ramps for consistent pill bounce
• Added decorative tanks to the center of the polyurethane segments
• Areaportal'd the side tanks and spawn doors
• Slowed down corner catapults for (hopefully) slightly more consistent trajectory