Caribou A9b

Fixed some bad clips over Blu spawn

A8 plays way better, but respawn times hurt both teams playing on the new B

At first, red spwans behind the corner room on C. When A or B is captured, Red moves back closer to whichever point they didn't lose. When A and B are captured, they respawn at the same place as they do now.

New respawn wave times for most of the map

Added a new prop sign pointing Red to the B shortcut

Fixed a clip brush in one of the windows

Added placeholder details to all the dev texture computers (gonna make all my own props just you wait)

and no more elevator

Its the BIG UPDATE

Finally understand where I went wrong with Caribou. The same mistakes from Gravel Pit and Steel. A and B are far apart, so Blu can't push C and Red can't hold A and B. So I made HEAPS a changes

ALL NEW B POINT

• its a spire
• it has height
• not a p anymore
• kinda looks like upward but dont think about it
• Batts are way more focused toward C and A instead of going way behind b

All new A/B/C flanks

• From 8 doorways to like 3 kinda
• Has some different health
• Two floors ;w;
• no bad gray door

Spawn changes

• New exit for blu that opens when A and B are captured
• Its to stop engies from complaining about teles
• New red exit where it used to be (its in both places)
• Red respawns faster when A and B are captured (8-16s)

The rest of the changes

• Fixed (mostly) the door in Red's spawn flying into oblivion at the end of the round
• Fixed a fog trigger in Blu spawn facing the wrong wayy
• Cleaned up the room behind C
• made C's B door nice and big
• most scuffed use of the foundry roof prop eva
  
• 
  
• loads of small shit i forgot ))

map loads now

this engine drives me to drink

Third shot at getting a full-server test! More tiny changes. People new to the map seem to get lost,

• Swapped Gate 3 for the adjacent window (thanks, fault)
• Changed a couple rectangle signs to new, round signs (thanks, cnub66)
• Extended the fade distance on the one-way window on B from 1024 hu to 1536 hu
• Lubed up a ton of little lips in the walls (mostly where doors meet walls) to stop you from getting stuck on walls you aren't looking at, as well as to stop some jittering on a couple slopes you often strafe into.
• Removed the window that shuts on C so Blu doesn't have to push right through Red's spawn

New players getting lost is a known issue, hopefully going to change if this version plays well and I get to move to Beta?

Another hotfix update, didn't get *any feedback* last time. Dead imp that got overshadowed by a broken door sound. Silenced the offending door and removed a nearby ambient_generic. We'll see if it happens again, sounds do weird shit during imps.

• Reduced C's cap time from 40s to 30s
  • This is to encourage Blu to pressure C harder while only A or B is captured, by punishing Red 25% harder
  • Every Blu win ends with a kinda drawn out segment at the end where Blu is holding down Red's batts
• Added a laser in place of the custom one I'm gonna make outside the big windows on C
• Fixed a displacement on A that's been bothering me for like all the versions
• Fixed z-fighting on the window on B which shuts when A and B have been captured
• Fixed a long-standing issue with the snow/coal blend using ssbump while all the other snow textures use normal maps. Might go back and make them all use ssbump later, but for now, they're consistent.
• Fixed dev texture alignment around Red's spawn (which is now higher than it was)

Gonna try and make the next version B1? We'll see how the next test goes.

On the whole, I was really satisfied with the way A6 played! A lot of the issues people ran into were the concessions I had to make in previous versions to get it to play well enough to solve other issues.

A6 was successful in making A play *way better,* that height Red got in the ditch made a huge difference. B wasn't really contested much, but that's fine, A5 let us know it *could* be done. Whether A overshadows it remains to be seen.

The main takeaway was that C was kinda red-sided. Namely because while the spawn is better, it still puts Red in the same choke no matter which door they come out of. It's a choke Red has a strong hold over because of their dropdown exit, but it's a choke.

C is too Red-sided

• Reduced Blu's respawn wave time from 10 to 6 when A and B are captured
• Upgraded the small health pack in the cubby in the A/C lobby to a medium health pack
• Downgraded the health pack in the lower A/C lobby
• Raised the batts behind C to block sightlines through the entire flank
• Added a window to the A side flank on C
• Removed the railing from the isolated room on C
• Made the pit in C's B side deeper, widened the ramp, added more cover, and raised the glass shield to block sightlines between the balcony and the top of the doorway.
• Added a pipe (with extensive clipping) to allow the shield to be jumped and spammed over

Control point timing changes

• Decreased C's capture time from 45 to 35 to make C pushes easier and to put greater pressure on Red while only A or B is captured
• Increased the time rewarded for capturing A from 2:00 to 3:00

Miscellaneous

• Removed shadows from the rest of the chalkboards
• Made the dev textures more consistent
• Changed the sign that appears in Red spawn once A and B are captured to a one-way urban gate
• All doors which shut when A or B is captured open when C is captured, to make Blu's victory that much sweeter
• Restored patches under the pickups on Red's B batts
• Fixed a set of fog triggers in Blu's spawn which changed the fog backwards
• Changed the glass shields around the map to a different, more visible glass texture

added VERY MINOR DETAILING I"M SORRY

• Found some really great giant door frame props from Coaltown(?) that fit perfectly two of the doorways in Blu spawn
• Added some wood wall textures to one of Blu's spawn exit
• Turned one of the ramps in Blu's spawn to stairs
• Removed the words from the Wood Electric logo and overused it in Red's base
• Changed some pipes
• Added snow shovels
• Added cables to the catwalk over A

A couple other issues that got brought up were Red's spawn doors opening into the same choke, and Red holding on C from a super concentrated position, so playing Spy is hard.

They're both symptoms of essentially every area around C being taken up by something I can't bring myself to move or get rid of without upsetting the rest of the point. Red's upper spawn exit gives them a huge advantage in the area directly outside their spawn, and the wall above their shared doorway both shelters them from Blu players and makes sure that advantage stays right outside their doors. There was a suggestion to connect Red's spawn to the corner room, but I don't like the idea of having Blu push past Red's spawn to get to their batts.

As for spreading out Red more, again, I'm not concerned, because Red didn't play very aggressive and that's also an issue shared on a lot of other points. Not every point is going to cater to every class, and that's okay. Die mad.

• Fixed the wooden sign on A appearing black
• Fixed Red's upper door trigger disabling when A or B are captured, instead of A and B

A5's reception was finally super positive! Red was able to hold A and B

I'm really not satisfied, however. Red was able to be competitive and all the rounds came down to the wire,

Both teams put a much greater emphasis on B, Red consistently sent one engineer to A and basically gave it to Blu for free.

Red would go all-in on A or B, Blu would have little trouble snatching it up for free. Red wouldn't try to contest, and once they'd capped, Blu would band together to take Red's favorite point. Little pressure to C, and they'd

I don't like this dynamic per se, but I didn't get to play it, so it could very well be fun. Everybody who did seemed to enjoy themselves, but what worries me is that games focused so heavily on B. A didn't get as much play because Red doesn't get a free hold spot like on B. The ditch turns it into a DM area that Blu is always going to get the advantage in because of how close their spawn is.

Red's spawn is still bad for pushing out to C

• Added a proper forward spawn room, separate from the elevator, activated when A and B are captured, and Red's upper door is shut
• Added an upper spawn exit with a dropdown (don't worry, it's not a straight hole in the floor)
  • It puts you in the same place as the other door (because frankly I'm out of space on C), but makes up for it by being super dominant over Red's batts
• Added a big window
• Probably gonna be detailed as a turbine hall or something to do with the coal from B?

Control point timing changes

• Capturing A now rewards 2 minutes of round time, instead of 3
• Capturing B now rewards 3 minutes of round time, instead of 2

Red doesn't want to hold A

• Added ammo and health to the catwalks over A
• Downgraded the ammo and health under the stairs
• Buffed the fence beside the A cliff
• A and B have had their time on capture switched
• Lowered the cliff (that used to be the edge of the map) behind A and turned it into a shelf
• Connected the top of the stairs in the A/C lobby to the new cliff via a door which shuts when A is captured

Polished some communication stuff

• Changed the red-only shutter's signs to a nonsolid respawnroomvisualizer
• Changed the orange setup door in the B/C flank to a brush-based gray version (VALVE DID IT ON BARNBLITZ ITS OK)

Miscellaneous fixes

• Removed some out-of-map entities that got stuck in the walls when I moved them without checking for entities
• Fixed the numbering of Red's spawn doors
• Extended the shield on B to block a sightline from Red's batts over B into Blu's spawn
• Clipped an unforgivable ledge in Blu's spawn
• Added a func_movelinear to the elevator in Red's spawn to stop physics objects (but not RAGDOLLS) from falling through. A minor detail, but one that matters to me for some reason.
• Fixed that bright red brush in Red's spawn by remaking it. It should also fix the whole map's weird lighting in the last version? SORSE!
• Streamlined the catwalks on B

A couple people didn't like the Rick May statue, but I made the map in May of last year and I think it's a cute thing to keep around. Don't really see the issue, a couple people have said they like it already, but it's gone and IT'S COMING BACK MAY 1ST

Missed the notification but found a post the other day from Idolon on Caribou's thread. Apparently y'all have been going behind my back and playing sixes on my map. The concern being that Red can hold too passively, and that places too much emphasis on Blu holding their batts rather than the point, and that letting Red hold after the point has been captured.

It isn't a problem that's come up in the imps, (aside from Red being able to hold B after it's captured, but that disappeared in A3) but it's definitely something I'll bear in mind, especially if there's any interest in balance specifically for 6v6 play. It's definitely possible this was why A4 was so red-sided, but that doesn't explain why that completely flipped in A4b.

It's gonna be another "lots of small changes" update, but this time it's gonna add up to something major. No sweeping layout changes, Red has proven capable of defending both points already.

Objective timing changes

• Increased C's capture time from 20s to 40s (I thought it was 30?)
• Reduced the amount of time Blu gets for capping B from 3 mins to 2 mins
• Reduced the initial round time from 6 mins to 4 mins
  • When Blu is steamrolling, they win in 4 minutes. The longest Red has held was 8 minutes, with Blu typically capturing C in 5-6.
  • This means the max round time is 9 minutes, and I'm shooting for Red to have to hold C for about 5, assuming Blu captures A and B.
  • This should also hopefully disincentivize Blu feeding so much onto A and B

Respawn wave/resupply changes: This is to make Blu less passive and give Red a stronger foothold at C

• Reduced Red's respawn wave time once A or B is captured to 6s
• Reduced Red's respawn wave time once A and B are captured from 15s to 8s
• Increased Blu's respawn wave time once A or B is captured from 6s to 8s
• Blu's respawn wave time no longer changes once A and B are captured
• Red's upper spawn exit now closes when A and B are captured, instead of A or B
• Added a longer tunnel for Blu out of their spawn
• Widened the cubby behind Red's C batts so as not to spawn them in such a choke
• Moved Blu's B resupply cabinet to the shelf on the right side of the pit, beside Gate 1

Better pickups for Red

• Moved the health and ammo in the B/C lobby up to the flank above B, for better access by Red
• Removed the medium pack from the batts outside Red's upper spawn exit
• Removed the small health pack from the cubby A/C lobby
• Added a large health pack to the ditch behind A
• Shrunk the area underneath the B batts
• Added a small health pack to Red's batts on B
• Added a small ammo pack to Red's batts on B
• Added a large ammo pack under C to give engineers a reason to jump in the pit
• Changed the medium ammo pack on Red's C balcony to a large ammo pack

Changes to C to make passive Red holds easier

• Increased C's capture time from 20s to 40s
• Added a shutter to the window in the C batts that shuts once A is captured
• Added greater cover on Red's C balcony to protect red sentries from spam from the closer exit from the A/C lobby. This is to solidify the rest of the other side of the point as the go-to anti-sentry position to take. Replaced the Hydro barrier with an upright one which is tall enough to conceal a sentry gun.

Layout changes to A and B

• Expanded Red's cubby above A to meet the far wall
• Added a fence (for red cover and blocking sightlines)
• Added a fence section to the cover outside Red's Gate 1 on B
• Widened the catwalk connecting Red's B batts to B itself
• Added a diagonal piece of cover to the catwalk behind B