Caribou A9b

A4's test went pretty poorly, because of a significant team imbalance that went unscrambled for like three or four rounds. Contrary to A3's test, almost nobody rotated between A and B, and Blu didn't pressure C sufficiently to pull Red off of A once B had been captured. Red never made an attempt to hold B, but was it due to the changes to the point? They held it fine in A3.

So the mystery is whether it was a map issue or a teams issue. The only solution is more testing, because A3's performance or A4's could have been a fluke. I really have no idea what sweeping changes need to be made. But before gathering more data, there are a few minor issues I need to address.

Still not drawing a lot of conclusions, but a couple super serious things need addressing.

• Removed the health pack from the ditch behind A
• Downgraded the ammo pack in the ditch from a large to a medium ammo pack
• Patched a hole in the barrier on the C batts
• Shrunk the cover on B to give Red more dominance over the lowground

Turns out, it's really easy to trap Red in their last spawn if you capture B first and take a demo to the point. While the door gives Red the strong advantage Blu takes away when A is captured

• Added an upper door which closes when A is captured. It's in nearly the same position as the door from A3, but it's accessible before the elevator moves up.
• Swapped which window to the side room is open to block sights onto the point from spawn, for both Red and Blu's sake. This may have knock-on effects on the way the rest of the point plays for Red engineers.

Navigation changes

• Removed a lot of signs from the A/B flank
• Added a C sign over the stairwell in Red's spawn
• The one-way door to the red spawn stairwell now opens when the round begins, to ensure Red knows where to go
• Added resupply signs above the doors to Red's spawn. Unlike Blu's spawn, it isn't obvious from outside that Blu isn't allowed in.
• Added a one-way sign to the one-way door that opens when A is captured

Miscellaneous

• Fixed a pixel ledge along the cliff above Blu's spawn
• Fixed an issue with Blu's respawn time that applied both respawn wave time changes at once, when both are captured (which meant Blu's 10s respawn wave time never changed, might have affected wrong team?)
  • Blu's respawn wave time should now change to 6 when A or B is captured
  • Red's respawn wave time is now 10 when A or B is captured and 15 with both
• Fixed a ledge outside Red's spawn where the railing didn't line up with the floor
• Removed a spectator camera on A which was a holdover from the original B point in A1
• Fixed an issue with some copy/pasted ABS logic that caused the map goal to improperly display as that from Granary
• Disabled collision on the setup doorframes around the map (including C's bridges)
• Extended the respawn visualizer on Blu's leftmost A spawn exit and added a clip brush above it to prevent Red soldiers from standing on the edge and shooting into Blu's spawn. Why can they do that even when the visualizer entity is flush with the rest of the wall? You tell me.

Watching the demo from A3 has been great! It's really cool watching Red respond to Blu. Feedback seems positive too!

In trying to fix Gravel Pit, I created a new issue: Instead of the easier to capture point going ignored, it's focused on too heavily. B ended up being too close to Blu's spawn, so it's super easy to keep up constant pressure on it. It plays the opposite way I expected it to as a result, being the more high-value point between A and B.

Ideally, both are equally valuable, for different reasons. B, if you want to try and scrape out a hectic win with your flank, or with the brute force of your combo through A.

• Moved the point back
• Adjusted the B lobby to accommodate the new connection
• Made the fence taller to block sightlines between Blu spawn and B
• Added a couple rocks to give the yard some flavor and to block sightlines.
• Moved the shield on the point to give defending players more cover from Blu players leaving spawn, as well as to benefit splash

A couple people found Red's spawn was frustrating, and while I don't really understand what they're running into, this is what I've got.

• The one-way door that prevents confused players from using the staircase to the upper spawn now opens once C is unlocked. This should get the message across that you shouldn't want to use it, but it's there if you need it.
• Moved Red's upper spawn points forward. The main shutter isn't quite in view, but it should prevent them from trying to go left.
• Removed the handrail from the upper spawn. Handrails say, "don't jump over me," but you're supposed to jump over it.
• Removed the one-way spawn exit. It didn't seem to have a noticeable impact on how Blu contested C, but the potential for abuse was *definitely there.* I may consider bringing it back for if A is capped before B? It's a window for now, though.
  
• Added a sign just in case you really don't get it.

I designed Caribou with a focus on keeping rotation between A, B, and C as short as possible, but that made a few areas too cramped fighting in.

• Changed the shape of the lower route that opens when B is captured
• Added a vent and a pipe to separate the doorways from each other
• Widened the flank above B
• Widened the A lobby
• Added a cubby which opens once A is captured to give Blu more floor space
• Simplified the stairs up to the A-side C lobby, so there's just one landing instead of two between the two floors

General timing adjustments

• Red has their respawn wave time once A and B have been captured increased from 10 to 20
  
• Red has their respawn wave time once A or B have been captured increased from 3 to 10
• Red has their initial respawn wave time increased from 3 to 6
• Increased the cap time of C from 20 to 30

Miscellaneous changes

• Added the star icon from Steel to C on the hud
• Fixed a hole in the wall next to the shutter separating the upper and lower A/B connector
• Fixed(?) an issue with the bridges which caused stickies to float in the air
• Made Blu's giant door louder (god, i love the medieval gate sound)
• The blu spawn's giant door now opens faster to open in-time with the sound effect
  
• Removed the giant door's func_door sound
• Clipped off the top of the giant door, to prevent Blu players from getting wedged between it and the roof as it raises.
• Added an invisible step up to the window sill on C
• Narrowed some of the door trigger markers because it looks WAY cleaner
• Removed a couple lights from the connector that opens when B is capped
• Added a solid railing to the ledge above the door connecting the B/C connector to block a sightline across the point
• Extended the trigger for the shutter in the A/B connector to be in-line with the stencil
• Fixed *a lot* of unclipped ledges
• Fixed a gap between the orange one-way and the wall which snipers could shoot through
• Removed dynamic shadows from the chalkboards in Red's spawn

Navigational fixes

• Added a sign pointing you to C from the B batts, because the shape of the room doesn't direct you that way

Known issues

• Pyros can't airblast stickies stuck to the bridges. I'd rather have stickies you can't airblast than ones that won't stick at all?

Ended up not quite getting a full test last time (we eventually got down to 4v4) but it was actually pretty nice to see how the map handles in such a relatively low-bullshit environment.

The most apparent issue was that Blu didn't have a straightforward time getting to C once they'd capped A or B. Red still had a pretty easy time harassing them through B, and the routes through A weren't clearly marked. They didn't have a hard time upon making it to C, however.

• Added a lower route that opens once B is capped, connecting the A side of the main A/B flank to B, which Red has no way of holding while holding the upper part of B
• Added a ramp in place of Blu's prop climb
• Added a shutter to the shelf over B that closes once it's captured
  
• Moved the prop climb to the batts
• Added a dynamic sign to the batts, to direct Blu through to the lobby
• Reduced Blu's respawn wave time once A and B are captured to 6 seconds
• Added a one-way door which opens once A is captured, to help cement Blu's hold over the A corner lobby once A is captured
• Added dynamic signs to A once A is captured
• Changed the medium ammo pack above B to a small one
• Added a medium ammo pack to Red's balcony on C

Miscellaneous fixes

• Removed the ledge outside of Red's upper spawn exit
• Made Red's upper spawn exit a one-way dropdown
• Fixed a gap in Red's func_respawnroom behind Gate 3's visualizer
• Fixed some blown out lights on C
• Added 14bit's sticky stopper to the C bridges, several doors, and the elevator in Red's spawn
• Fixed a z-fighting displacement outside Blu's leftmost exit to B
• Added missing areaportals
• func_detail'd a bunch of geometry
• Fixed a hole in the wall of the vault door connector beside A
• Fixed a clip brush which clipped through the room behind A
• Disabled dynamic shadows on several props
• Added lights to several dark spots
• Changed the welcome point for both teams to a wide shot of A
  
• Added frost to some of the windows on C cuz its pretty

Hopefully the good vibes from A2 are gonna hold up to a full server?

Wasn't quite comfortable getting A1 tested, so here we are with an all new B point!

• New spire on B
• Changed overlays showing which point you're on (not directing you toward another point) to bright red, formerly white.
• Added health and ammo to the ditch on A
• Added soundscapes
• Removed a prop jump on B
• Fixed missing overlays
• Added a shutter to the routes leading to B
• Changed the catwalk over A to a grate, instead of being solid
• Fixed clipping inside Blu's spawn
• Removed some coal piles from out-of-bounds
• Started adding door frames where doors blended into the walls
• Added missing door trigger stencils on C
• Swapped the vault doors near A for Asd417's improved version

Hotfix for spawn visualizers