You guys, we did it! We played on the map and nothing was making anyone angry!
What a miracle!
Seriously though, did some edits, and with how it is now I think it's ready to go into beta soon... well at least once I find the time to detail.
Changes:
- Completely re-did the area farthest from the point. and it's WAY better now. Cool.
- Changed the powerup to just give you crits. It made me sad but it seems to play better because of it.
- Lengthened the spawn time of the powerup
- Raised, then lowered, then raised, then lowered again the platforms on either side of the powerup
- Added a warning sound to the powerup spawn so players get a countdown of when it's about to appear again.
Attachments
Okay dear God this map project is killing me.
So just in case you haven't seen the update logs recently, this is in fact the THIRD time I have rebuilt his map. I hope it is the last time I rebuild it, but given the previous record that's probably very likely.
Sigh....
Anyway, welcome to
ULTIDUO_CHAMPIONS
The map has been rebuilt with a new central gimmick: a powerup.
In the far back corner there's a big collectable - a "Powerup" if you will - and the goal of the game is to balance defending the point and defending this "powerup", which will help the attacking team get the point.
Well the catch is that the team who does NOT have the point is the only one that can collect it. It's kind of an equalizer between teams, as in the map will basically give you an easier way to take the point. The team that wins is the one that can best defend the powerup and delay that flip-flop.
The POINT is not the POINT of the map, does that make sense?
The goal of this being that the defending team has to focus on defending the powerup, and the capture zone is a way for the attackers to pressure the opposing team. Hopefully that could make an ultiduo match a bit more dynamic.
How the powerup works:
> When collected, the powerup will give the player who collected it both crits and ubercharge for 5 seconds
> The powerup spawns 27 seconds after the point is captured, and is coded for the team that does NOT have the point
> The powerup will stay activated until it is collected
> If the powerup is collected, it will respawn in 27 seconds.
> If the point is capped and the powerup is still available, it will disappear and a new timer for the opposite team will begin, spawning the powerup in the next 27 seconds.
> That's it I just wanted an even number of bullets
Let me give you guys some screenshots:
This is the powerup.
An overview
The view from Blu
Another angle, for fun
My favorite view - right in front of the powerup looking at the other side (A CHALLENGER APPEARS!)
Attachments
Ultiduo Champions had at last a few rounds of testing, so I felt confident enough to just make a few adjustments. They are as follows:
Cap point corners:
The capture point had corners on either side and because of the way it was on a slope, it was really easy to just walk up to the point and avoid a lot of splash damage - it made people walking up to the point very hard to hit. I made the point circular and lowered it, while also adding a small railing to push players away from hugging the base.
The big wall things:
initially there was a big diagonal wall in front of spawn. I removed about half of that wall and lowered it so you can just straight from spawn to the point. Verdict's still out if this was a good idea at all but I suppose we'll see.
Cap time:
Decreased from 12 seconds to ten.
Health and ammo:
Added a bit of high ground near the back to balance out he center point and the pillars on either side, plus kept the small ammo pack on it. I moved the health a bit more forward and put it on the platform closer to the point, so the medic as they are running away can grab it if things go south.
Minor bug changes and fixes
This map is slowly becoming designed for a better medic experience, I main medic but I don't quite like playing it on most maps because it's kind of like just having a dog on a leash at a dog park. They have fun while you try to make sure nobody gets hurt. The pillars and area behind the point is the for the medic mostly - especially since they benefit from literally having something to play around.
Hoping to get some professional testing done soon, all the playtesting I have on this map was just with my friends so I would love to see what some pros have to say about it.
Anyway I'm off!
- Twinmill
"Sometimes you just gotta go with the scorched-earth method"
Ultiduo_Champions had two things: issues and detail. Not a great combination. This mainly happened because I had very limited access to playtesting while I was making this.
So in the interest of my sanity in working with all the curved brushes I decided to wipe the slate clean again.
I built a new stadium on top of the old one using the feedback I got from the previous iteration. So let me go through a few things so that maybe when it's being tested, people have an Idea of what the goals here are.
NUMBER 1 thing I wanted to keep was the general layout. I like the back being raised in an "L", with a little bit of high-ground on the opposite side. It's just a layout I really like and I was tempted to make it horizontally mirrored, but the fact that there are few (?) 90 degree ultiduo maps just makes me want to play with this layout more.
I wanted the point to be the common hold (think baloo but less "hold the nipple") But hopefully with enough ways to contest it the team holding the point gets pushed off.
I put these alleyways on the (left blu, right red) side to mitigate the fact that this map was one big sightline. The goal is to give a little bit of cover from the higher spawn door. Also I put these really tall walls here so hopefully a creative soldier could use them to get on top of anyone anywhere. Also, there are now two small health kits on the map, I know that was a complaint.
Let's talk about behind the point. The iteration before this had nothing. It was kind of just a big open space and was a little boring. I put two pillars here so you have cover from the point on the backside, plus it's always fun to play around something. Might change this to one pillar in the center instead, I'm not sure yet.
You can also see that little lip I have down at the bottom. This is ever-so-slightly higher than the center point which I will most likely lower farther. The last tests it sounded like people were holding from here which I'm not really a fan of. OH! also I increased the cap time by a LOT. Some might say too much, but we'll see.
I've also added a small ammo kit underneath the lip so when the team on the point runs out of ammo, the have "cover" to resupply.
The biggest issue I expect to run into at the moment is scale. It feels... a little big to me. Might need to be made smaller, but I don't know for sure where exactly and how much yet, so I'm hoping feedback can help.
Here's one last shot cuz I need a cover image.
I feel better abot this than the last one. It's moreinteresting in my humble opinion. Hopefully I can get this tested enough to make it actually playable!
