Multi Stage Dune (CP) [B13] 13.0.1

It was over by point A, resetting details messed up overlay stuff, but I think I got it all fixed. Oh, and respawn timings were quite off for point E, whoops. Fixed that so now the page description and in-game respawn wave time adjustments actually line up.

Howdy! +1K downloads, between testing and exploring the map yourselves, is much appreciated. Haven't had this stroke of success in a while, so here's to continuing to grow and get this project to a decent state for the workshop!

GAMEPLAY:

GENERAL

• Rounds now start at 6 minutes compared to 10 minutes but cannot exceed more than 10 minutes. Capturing a point adds 8 minutes to the clock to encourage the stalemate nature.
• More flanks, routes, and cover for all stages.
• Cap times are measured in Scout time (x2), just as a reminder!
• When points A, C, or E are captured, RED will be forcespawned to prepare a defense for B and D, and to help reclaim E.
• Generally speaking, BLU should now have an easier time in the First Stage, while RED has an easier time in later stages. Again, I hope.

FIRST STAGE

• The dreaded Sniper sightlines from the turret towers and palm tree near A have been blocked off.
• BLU has more high ground to work with when approaching point B.
• RED's spawn no longer has the two middle shutter doors, meaning RED only has two lengthy exits out of spawn.
• Point A now has a capture time of 11; point B's is 8.
• BLU's respawn wave while A isn't captured is 4, while RED's is 7.
• BLU's respawn wave while B isn't captured is 3, while RED's is 10.

SECOND STAGE

• The ladder flank leading into the fort's front entrance where point C is no longer exists; RED should have a bit of an easier time defending the area without fear of getting flanked from every angle.
• BLU has more high ground to work with when approaching point D from the Cargo flank.
• There is now a small health pack inside the alleyway; this, however, will not stop crimes... we're at 9 murders in that alley!
• The window inside the rusty building that looks onto point D has been blocked off so it isn't a super-lethal sightline.
• Point D has additional cover for RED, as well as a bit of high ground next to the Bunker building; don't worry, the Bunker itself is still useable!
• Point C now has a capture time of 15; point D's is 9.
• BLU's respawn wave while C isn't captured is 4, while RED's is 6.
• BLU's respawn wave while D isn't captured is 5, while RED's is 9.

FINAL STAGE

• The flank from the BLU warehouse to the RED rocket building has been cut off to better protect RED's side.
• RED has more high ground, as well as cover, to work with when approaching/defending point E.
• BLU's side now has less health and ammo to make it more challenging to defend point E while capping.
• Point E now has a capture time of 30.
• BLU's initial respawn wave at point E is 9, while RED's is 7.

MISC:

• On the map's overview page, there should be a more detailed explanation of the respawn wave adjustments for each point E capture.
• Each point that is being sought after by BLU, a set of nav_avoids will enable/disable at random time intervals to spread the BLU TFBots out and encourage more usage of flanks. Sniping and engineering spots have been adjusted accordingly for the new flanks/routes/cover.

Eyo! I adjusted the First Stage and a tiny bit of the Final Stage. BLU should have a much easier time setting up shop on the Data Center roof with the removal of the stairs behind the Data Center, and the planks next to the front of the building. There's also a full health and ammo there for BLU Engineers to help keep their buildings alive. The Final Stage has a minor tweak of +1 second added universally to BLU's respawn waves. I'm quite frankly afraid to touch the area because it is an absolute delight to balance a unique idea, so a minor tweak like that should work.

Well I certainly beefed up RED, but I really nerfed BLU's pushing power. This beta should fix the problem... boy I love balancing. :']

OPTIMIZATION:

• A lot of ambient generics have been removed, so hopefully that fixes the weird audio cut-outs.

GAMEPLAY:

GENERAL

• Adjusted respawn wave times.
• Added new routes/flanks in the First Stage.
• Added additional teamspawn points inside spawns.
• Fixed some clipping problems.
• Added some lovely dustmotes to spice up the visuals of some indoor areas.
• Skybox/ceiling playerclip has been raised; enjoy jumping!

FIRST STAGE

• Health and ammo have been removed around point B.
• You can now access the sentry towers in the first stage.
• There are now more ways to access the highground around point A.
• Grating has been added to the Data Center roof.
• Health and ammo have been bumped up from small to medium size on the Data Center roof.
• BLU's respawn wave while B isn't captured is 4, while RED's is 10.
• You can now kinda climb the turbines inside red spawn. :]

SECOND STAGE

• Health and ammo have been removed around point D.
• BLU's spawn is now open, removing the upper doorway.
• BLU's respawn wave while D isn't captured is 3, while RED's is 9.

Did some private testing and wasn't satisfied with the results, so now point E is more central to the middle grounds instead of on the map border. RED has more cover and access to health/ammo, while BLU loses a bit of cover. The big metal spawn door was also removed, and that really cleaned up navigation in the third BLU spawn.

Now the point is captured in 15 seconds by a Scout, with a 9 second cooldown before RED owns the point again. RED spawn waves are initially 10, while BLU is 6. Every time the point is captured, RED's spawn wave count goes down by -1; every other capture lowers RED's spawn wave count by -2, and BLU's by -1. This repeats in this order until RED spawns in 1, and BLU spawns in 4.

This was to beef up RED's defense the more BLU chose to be aggressive. This also makes it harder for BLU to defend E while RED can spam the point in counterattacking. Without this, BLU was able to park right on the point with absolutely no retaliation from RED... they'd die before they could reach the point and do any serious damage!

Yada yada, images will be updated soon enough, etc etc.

As previously mentioned, I reworked point E. This'll go into further detail and elaborate on the intended mechanics, as well as some brief patching mentions and changes. Images and the menu photos will be updated in due time; I'm more concerned about making the intended gameplay of Point E engaging and unique.

OPTIMIZATION:

• Hammer decided to be funny, and upon Saving As, messed up a lot of static props and considered them out of bounds for absolutely no reason. A quick shuffle of the map fixed this, but also created more portals, which had to be adjusted accordingly for optimization. Please feel free to inform me if there's noticeable dips in FPS.

GAMEPLAY:

GENERAL

• Adjusted cap times and respawn wave times.
• As a side note, all capture rate adjustments are measured in, "Scout time," so a capture rate of 10 seconds would be 20 seconds for any single class that isn't Scout. Didn't know that until recently myself!
• Arrows and some other overlays were flipped or visually impacted by copying/shuffling the map. This should be fixed now.

SECOND STAGE

• Fixed missing health/ammo patches on some spots of sand.

FINAL STAGE

• I am very stubborn and would like to try to keep the spirit of this final area present. The problem is that BLU suddenly struggled to take E, and once E was guarded by a sentry, RED couldn't do much to escape the spawn area, making it a very iffy experience for both sides.
  • Point E is much quicker to capture for BLU, but at the cost of a capture cooldown when BLU owns the point before it resets to RED ownership.
  • In order for BLU to win, they must capture this point seven times, each capture adding +45 seconds to the round timer. RED wins by keeping them away from the point at all costs.
  • This should reintroduce the CP/KOTH hybrid idea: BLU must suddenly try to defend against RED trying to counterattack and reclaim their territory.
  • The point's been moved to lessen RED's grip on the point, but with cover that has been added from previous betas, should help RED Engineers set up shop to protect the flank to RED's rocket, or the point itself.
• The goal string for both teams has been updated to accommodate these changes to gameplay.
• Point E's rework had a cap time of 6, but was changed to 9 as of this patch. Point E's capture cooldown has been changed from 3 seconds to 6 seconds.
• BLU's respawn wave is 3, while RED's is 8.

Alright, got this done a lot quicker than I thought! Now the Final Stage operates like so:

BLU must capture point E a total of seven times to win the round; RED must prevent them from doing so.

We'll give this a go and see how it works. I'll update photos and such in due time!

Hey y'all! Still recovering from COVID, fairly certain I'm on the tail-end of it now. Starting to get a bit stir-crazy, but I'm pulling through.

Dune's testing cycles have been going fairly aight. I've gone ahead and adjusted respawn waves, health/ammo amounts, etc. to improve the quality of points B and D a bit. Here's the thing: E is this puzzle, and I cannot solve the puzzle. It's a flawed puzzle.

I've seen it compared to Hydro, Dustbowl last, which in that sense, good! It's intended to bring back the vibe of older TF2 maps where teamwork makes the dream work. With all that said, there's been an underlying issue with E: we go from a paradise for BLU, to a sunny session for RED where even Engineer struggles to hold a defense. I for one love playing Engineer to help my team and catch people unaware with stupid sentry spots, so the sentiment hits home. Even I struggle as a RED Engineer on E, there's nowhere to hide from waves of BLU.

The concept of the teams having their roles reversed on the final point is still a fascinating concept that has been noted by playtesters, and I stepped away from the original CP/KOTH hybrid concept due to there being no point in going for the point till the very end, due to RED being able to recapture E.

The layout of the map, upon typing this, I really do like, and I think I'd want to at the very least keep it as such. The point and mechanic behind it, however, needs a revisit. Its location, its win condition, the area surrounding it, the RED vs. BLU strength, it all needs work. I want it to work, so I'm going to try the CP/KOTH hybrid idea but with a different approach. For now, I will upload my latest version of Dune as is while I do some backstepping on point E. Thanks for the feedback, it's always appreciated!

Well, I went ahead and fixed a couple of texture hiccups and some other things, I'm sure.
Today is my day of birth, I've got Covid, I'm gonna not look at Hammer any time soon.
Hope y'all have been enjoying the changes made to Dune, btw!

I said screw it. Wasn't satisfied with beta 4 hitting TF2Maps testing servers, so we jumped to beta 5 and solved a lot of long-term issues with the map!

OPTIMIZATION:

• More hint brushes to separate areas of the map! At the moment, I seem to sit around 90-120 fps, of course this depends on the PC. I've yet to stress-test the map on my laptop.

GAMEPLAY:

GENERAL

• Adjusted cap times and respawn wave times.
• Added new routes/flanks in the Second and Final Stage.
• Adjusted areas for a majority of spawns for both teams.
• Fixed some clipping problems.
• Allowed for more rock-climbing and prop-climbing for more movement options.
• As a side note, all capture rate adjustments are measured in, "Scout time," so a capture rate of 10 seconds would be 20 seconds for any single class that isn't Scout. Didn't know that until recently myself!

FIRST STAGE

• Some additional health and ammo have been provided around point B.
• RED's spawn has been reworked, now offering four ways to leave the spawn to combat spawn camping.
• Point B has been moved forward, right next to the Data Center.
• The doors leading from inside the Data Center's first floor to in front of point B has been sealed off.
• Point A now has a capture time of 16.
• Point B now has a capture time of 12.
• BLU's spawn door triggers have been decreased in size.
• BLU's respawn wave while A isn't captured is 2, while RED's is 7.
• BLU's respawn wave while B isn't captured is 0, while RED's is 6.

SECOND STAGE

• BLU Engineers can now build in certain areas of their spawn, ala Steel.
• Point C has been shoved into the fort's front entrance to pull RED back from potential spawn camping.
• A staircase leading from the lower floor of the fort's front entrance to the full health pack has been sealed off.
• A new building and flank have been added to give BLU more options when pushing to point D, a better sightline to anyone hiding within the Bunker, and a flank to the left side of the control point.
• The sightline looking down the lane from point D has been opened more to make the Bunker more useful.
• Point D is now moved far in front of the RED Bunker to force RED out of hiding when push comes to shove.
• RED has more cover at point D to help them hold a defense and hide from the new left flank.
• RED now has more health and ammo nearby the Bunker; all health and ammo along the way has been adjusted accordingly.
• RED now has another exit on the far-left side of the Bunker to further combat spawn camping.
• Point C now has a capture time of 18, and point D now has a capture time of 11.
• BLU's respawn wave while C isn't captured is 3, while RED's is 8.
• BLU's respawn wave while D isn't captured is 2, while RED's is 7.

FINAL STAGE

• BLU Engineers can now build in certain areas of their spawn, ala Steel.
• The middle ground between bases now has two medium health and ammo packs to aid BLU with holding the area.
• BLU spawn now has an additional exit to combat spawn camping: the BLU warehouse.
• The BLU Warehouse now offers a massive sightline that oversees the flanks for RED team to emerge from, again, to combat spawn camping; however, Snipers will not have a view of the point/central area itself, nor will they truly be safe. A staircase to access the Sniper's shanty is perfect for a RED flanker to absolutely shut down a Sniper.
• Point E now has a capture time of 25.
• BLU's respawn wave while E isn't captured is 3, while RED's is 6.