Caustic B1

Hello, reader.

The past few weeks I have made a decision regarding the future of this map this map:

Caustic will be on hold until further notice

Q: What does this mean?
A: Caustic will not receive updates until I notify otherwise

Q: Why?
A: Multiple reasons:
1. The map gets more complicated the more I decorate it due to "gameplay issues" and terrible brushwork
2. The most common complaint is "The Hightower moment" of carts being at the end almost always but neither of the teams ever winning, one could argue it's not a problem and it's up to the player to decide whether this is good or not; you are correct
3. I'm not currently interested in continuing development
4. Caustic And partially: Tasmania taught me the importance of good brushwork, because of Caustic I am now more careful in how I structure my maps

Q: What does this mean for the future of Caustic?
A: The future of caustic is one of these 2 options:
1. I quit the map entirely and release the VMF
2. I decorate, develop then release the map in a similar-to-current state just to have a finished product (less likely)
But for now it will remain in Indefinite hold

But don't worry, If you wanted another PLR map by me, I'm planning on releasing one soon to hopefully fix Caustic's problems, just like the original, it will remain in the Upward theme but will have three stages

That's all for now, Have a good one!

Menn and Gentlemenn, It's been a while, but it is with great honor to annouce that:

BETA ONE IS HERE!

*crickets*
...
We have a special guest (Cameraman), Demoman!

He will guide us in the refurbished map.
Here are the changes:
Removed Setup entirely: After a bit of feedback and multiple tests I decided the setup is no longer worth keeping around, sorry, Engies and Medics.
Added another exit to spawn rooms and a one-way window:

While spawn camping is a rare occurrence, the times it happens it's very oppressive
Do you believe this is not enough? Let me know.


Minor center rework:

Opened center a bit, Removed wooden thing and replaced it for a displacement elevation, this gives you a height advantage while making it riskier to stand on it while also making it easier to get on the bridge with the Max health
Q: Why not open the center more?
A: Sniper would become too powerful due to a map wide sightline, If this change is not enough I'll look into it further

Textured most of the map: not all of these are final and they are just there to give you an idea of what things are

Detailed the map more this includes;


Adding Out of Bounds details, placing down props, spraying overlays, adding a hidden signature, Etc...

Properly added soundscapes: They now work by triggers rather than the less reliable (and non-functional) distances

Updated 3D Skybox and Boundary Skybox: Mostly for deco & visleaf optimization respectively

Minor geometry changes:

Most changes are not noteworthy, biggest change is in the Sink area with the adjacent computer room which got a height elevation to make the gameplay more dynamic and also nerf sniper again, Lowered scaffolding height

Optimized multiple areas: This includes using hints and turning regular brushes into func_detail's


That's about it, enjoy!

*bzzt* Speedrunning development aren't we?

Good news everyone! Alpha 9 is out now, get it before it's gone (Never)
Here's a list of changes, with Sniper helping us take some wonderful pictures!



Updated Skybox to resemble Upward, there's a ton of nifty details, a Blu base, a House on a hill, a radio tower, lightouse, a train bridge and... uh, that's all? well then...



Textured more geometry this is to let players know this is the Upward theme and start to lay the foundation for, BETA 1.


Tracks are now team colored, this is to avoid confusion and make it easier to know where your Payload goes

ROCKET CARTS! What? Rocket carts? what does this mean?
Well, to combat stalemates I have added a 5 Minute timer, when this timer expires the ROCKET CARTS! Mode is activated, when ROCKET CARTS! are active the Payloads double their Max speed as well as a few neat effects to let you know what's going on
Rocket carts in action


Adjusted Payload tracks to remedy a bit of the carts going haywire on ramps, this still requires touching, most of the errors are visual so they don't interrupt gameplay as much.

Closed "Center room" off, after enough feedback I will try to see if this helps, what this means is to get to the enemy's side there's no longer 4 (5 depending on how you count) and instead only 3, one of which merges in the center then splits again, this is intended to help diffuse back capturing possibilities

Center ramp has been merged, there's no reason to have a middle ground now that the previously mentioned room is closed, this also makes the gameplay better as pushing it requires more effort in an usually easy to steamroll location



Added more Roll For/Backward zones, These aren't very strong but change gameplay a bit
Also updated last rollback to have more reliable captures
Talking about last, most fast classes can now escape the blast zone!

Increased Skybox height, Why? you may ask, because I thought it'd be funny

Updated Pickups, such as locations, quantity and their power.

Changed some geometry to better fit the Theme and make last more defendable



Minor things not worth pointing out
Have fun!

Good evening! I bring to you A8 for our favorite map: Caustic!
We didn't get a Camera man today, sorry about that

Here's the list of changes:

Decorated multiple regions to fit the theme, this includes removing the ugly Dev texture wall in the center, adding more Displacements and changing multiple textures to resemble Upward.

Increased Cart speed and reduced respawn timers this is an attempt to break stalemates, if this does not work I will work on a stalemate-breaking mechanic such as faster pushing or automatic rolling (Like Plr_Nightfall, suggested by @14bit) after overtimes.

Shortened sightlines some sightlines were too powerful and thus were nerfed, again.

Map gameplay space has been expanded mostly for blast classes, you can easily sticky jump from one side of the map to the other to allow for more free gameplay.

Updated lighting, optimized visleaves, added cubemaps, soundscapes and fully compiled the map these are visual, decorative and performance only, HDR should now work properly too.

Changed minor gameplay aspects such as Pickup positions.

Known errors:
Certain up/downhill tracks are too rough, these will be smoothened out later
Multiple displacements have tiny gaps in them
If you go too high up certain parts of the map will unload making it look unrealistic.

Minor adjustments not worth mentioning, the list is short but some are meaningful changes

*bzzzt* *crackles*
Hello again, I've brought you a new update!
That was fast wasn't it? today we have a New! Cameraman to replace all of the previous ones, the hansome-est rogue of them all, the shadow in the daylight, the deadly back-masseur... (Red) Spy!

He will provide a tour of the changes:
That dev texture wall? No more, instead, you get another death pit! and a beautiful sight of... monotone sea.
The track has been extended and cart goal has been moved to the pit, instead of just stopping it inside the building it will now be thrown off the cliff and end in an explosion

Multiple locations have been decorated a bit to make it easier to recognize them
Turned the ladder to nowhere into a scaffold, this is a gameplay element!


Nerfed a few sightlines, again...
Spy trying to find a good sightline


Added patches to all pickups on the map.

Inner death pit caves have better and warm lighting


Added a door that automatically opens when the Payload reaches it, this is to slow down steamrolls and let respawning players get a last chance at defending the point
No Spy, the sapper doesn't work on doors


Added a few displacements

Bug fixes and logic changes:
(Hopefully) Fixed Payload carts becoming homesick and rotating towards the start

Completely removed the automatic rollback function
Smoothened some ramps
Crossing cart dings' pitch lowered to differentiate from Train dings (Is this too low?)

Well, that's all for today, have fun!

*Bzzzt* this thing on?
AHEM
Good afternoon my test subj- I mean; players, a new update has appeared!
No camera man this time, Soldierus was decapitated by the Pumpkin lord, swing by his grave will ya?

Un-tightened the map in general to give players breathing room



Textured and detailed some locations to have more colors



Track has been extended by a little bit encouraging a bigger fight in the outer corner

Nerfed annoying Sniper sightline

Near-Center building's doorway facing the pit has been closed off and the balcony's height was reduced, this is because the center was too choky.



Some pickups have been; added, changed positions and been made weaker
Inner corner's Medium health pickup has been turned to a Full health kit and added a Medium ammo pack to encourage using it, to balance it out the bridge was made thinner and there's no barriers to avoid knockback.



Made some small ammo packs more visible to attract eyes and let players know certain spots are not out of bounds/clipped

Made some jumps more obvious and easier to consistently pull them off

Fixed minor clipping issues

Removed automatic rollback: the Rollback is not a plr standard and it was added when the track was shorter, this is no longer the case.

Checkpoint removed: the checkpoint has been removed and instead the respawn timers increase the further the cart is pushed, there is no rollback now so the only upside to checkpoints was practically removed

Last now has rollback tracks, this is to avoid back-capping.




KNOWN ERRORS:
Last rollback makes the Cart point down, this will be fixed in A7
Death pit only uses skybox texture and the 3d skybox lighting does not fit the D-Pit lighting

*Bzzzt* Can you hear me? Hello? Ah, good!

Good afternoon, it's me again with a new update that will... SINK you!
*crickets*
Uhh, anyways, today we have a new camera guy, say hello to Soldierus and his trusty Magic wand!


The track got extended towards the outer edge to incentivize fighting for another "center"
Outside area was opened up by removing the room and opening it to the skybox
Notes: to capture the Track it now takes almost 2 minutes for a single player and 1 minute and 10 or so seconds for 3+ players.




Kicked out the residents of this house (Rats and other critters) then drilled two doorways on it


Some areas (like this one) now have more props and textures to make it easier to remember locations and less likely to get lost


The area under the now hollowed hut was made bigger and less uncomfortable to travel


Added a powerful defensive position that is accessible to all classes with a bit of jumping (Yes, heavy too)


That's it for geometry changes, we'll review logic changes:

Respawn time after checkpoint increased to 7, used to be 6

Cart speed increased minimally to fit the new track length

Smoothened out some ramp tracks

Lowered timer to 30 seconds from 35
I've gotten questions like "Why is there setup time in PLR"
My answer to this is for multiple reasons in descending order of importance:
1. Engineer can set up and Medic builds Über
2. All classes can get into a comfortable opening position and have some time left over
3. New players can explore the map in that time
And that's why there's a setup time.

That's all folks!

Casting a spell that you don't know what it does is not a good idea

*bzzzzt* -idn't we do this yesterday? we are doing it again?
*unintelligible*
Fine, I'll do it, but you're paying me extra, eh?

AHEM, Good evening! it's your (maybe) favorite mapper bringing you a new update
and a changelog longer than your grocery list!
Heavy was unavailable, he had a heart attack, not to worry though: Hearts grow back!
Anyways, Engineer was forc- I mean, up for the job, he will tour us through the changes today.
Our lovely cameraman.

Added a balcony to the room and a door that leads to it right outside the best (your!) spawn room.


This room was a bit claustrophobic so we shoo'd away the scary walls, tell us if they come back.


Removed the "step height" floor in this room, now it's comfy and easy to walk in!


It was very annoying for the mercs to go all the way around so we brought in a
Special Occasion™ Insta-stairs®.


This room needed a bit of fresh air, we dug a hole in it and we now call it a "doorway".


The wooden alcoves have been made bigger for sneakier sneaking.
Engineer waiting for unsuspecting victims.


Added... whatever you call this structure, to add some elevation to the center.
By falling to this pit you have read and agreed to our Terms of service


The further corner degraded a bit and now has 2 elevations, we increased the door size to allow more free movement too!
No, Engi. Don't do that!


Welp, that about su- waaaait a second!

Logic changes:

Cart rolls back a bit faster now, for mappers, this is how you do it:

Cart is slower in general including acc/deceleration.

Fixed multiple unintended ways to break the crossovers.

Disabled the Payload dispenser while setup is active.

Fixed RED not being able to block BLU's cart, This is an ABS gametype logic error;
Thanks to @Another Bad Pun @Stack Man for reporting and @DrLambda for his thread explaining what to do to fix it
Mini-tutorial: You need a "team_control_point_round", fill its settings and now go to all your player spawns and fill the "X spawn for round" with that team_control_point_round, X being the team.

Made the track minimally longer.

The rollback zones were not working properly I believe, those have been fixed.

Made the "fake checkpoint" an "actual (still fake) checkpoint", I'm unsure yet how to signal what it does, I hope this at least lets players know the cart can't roll back beyond the checkpoint.

Respawn times are now 3 without checkpoint and 6 with checkpoint.

------------------------------------------------------------------

Phew, that was a lot.
Remember to have fun, not having fun is not allowed.

Hello again! you're here for the new update aren't ya? well, here it is!

The RED Heavy was not available to take some pictures, the BLU Heavy will do it instead!

Carts were made slower by a bit, and their acc/deceleration was increased so "tapping" the cart is more effective

Carts can now rollback, after 10 seconds of no one capturing the cart will start rolling back
Payload track is now longer and has proper rollback zones, end of the line is much closer to enemy spawn


Added a Checkpoint, this checkpoint has multiple purposes, after being captured your team's spawnrates are Increased! this means it'll take longer to respawn, but on the bright side it does not let the cart to roll back beyond the checkpoint.


Crossover has a metal sheet under it for better visibility
Heavy, for god's sake don't eat that, it's not candy.


Added windows to the center's room, to watch your loved ones... or hated ones!


Outer corner's Health p- I mean, Pumpkin pie was changed for a Pot of soup, maybe it's too much for the mercs? We'll see how it plays
Gee Heavy how does BLU let you have TWO lunches!?


Made the less obvious bridge a little more obviously a bridge
Heavy wondering if he can make the jump (He can!)


Spawnrooms were made bigger, that's it, nothing else


Oh and one last thing: You're ugly The map has the most amount of Areaportals it can, well It could have more but all the logical spots have been filled, this means the map is heavily optimized now, woohoo!

I guess that's it? I'm not pointing out every little change, find it yourself! recording over... *BZZZT Click*

That was a spicy playtest, was it not?

Because of the novelty and the fact that there's only 77 (78 with Caustic) PLR maps on the site I think i'll let people know what I did
Here's the changes:

Uhh, where's scout?

... I see, today Heavy will be showing us around instead!
Fixed spawndoors closing with players nearby, people who were affected believed this to be a
logic error; doors had the same name, trigger had wrong outputs etc.. well, it was actually the fact I forgot to set "Delay before reset" to -1, oops

Fixed cart blocking the other on crossing, this was not a prefab error, all the logic was set up correctly, the problem was that the Cart stopped too early thus blocking the opposing cart, the easy solution is to simply add a delay for when the cart stops moving.

Added a few rollbacks to encourage pushing and try to deny cart-campers, These will be marked with a hazard strip

Carts now move faster in general, accelerates and decelerates faster as well.

Setup timer increased from 20 seconds to 45

Added some colors to aid team recognition

Added a "Stilt house" and a ground displacement to sell the upward theme



Added a death pit behind the center's death pit and turned the "Health pack cave" into a bridge; with another house on top!

Placed a few wooden barriers to nerf airblast, may need more.
Heavy kind of lost his lunch here too

Added a deathpit on the "Far center" (Corridor besides where you captured in A1) and placed a medium health pack
Heavy showing his bravery by standing in front of the very out of place lava.


Payload tracks keep going into enemy territory instead of looping into your side, NOTE: This path is not final and is a proof of concept, needs testing


Changed Sun angles and lighting to differentiate regions
Added an Upwardesque skybox

I tried fixing the sightlines to allow more free movement while not making sniper overpowered, what do you think?

Opened this room a bit
(I don't know why he took a picture of such a small change)



Final notes: I wanted to make the spawn be closer to the point by a bit, but I also want to get this update out so I'm planning to do that for A3, Lava pits are not final, they are there to let players know it's a death pit