Gigantic B4

I almost finished this version a few months back, but every thought about compiling it I added or change a few things and then forgot to compile, so I'm calling it here and getting the changes that have piled up tested. If it plays well I think I'll do a final lighting and optimization pass and maybe push to RC soon? A terrifying prospect, but it might be ready for it.

• Dead players on both teams now respawn when the ball drops after a goal
  • This does not effect the initial mid fight; this only triggers after goals
  • This does not happen if the ball is reset for any reason other than a goal either; this only triggers after goals
    
  • Since the ball spawn time is 15 seconds, all dead players will respawn 15 seconds after a goal
  • This is a very experimental change (and the first deviation from how "official" PASS Time works that I have done with this map), and I will be watching how rounds play accordingly
• Adjusted cover around the lower entrance to mid/spawn building exits
  • The tree has been moved up so the branches no longer interfere with gameplay
  • Nobuilds around the tree have been adjusted to account for this
• Adjusted geometry around the bonus goal launchers
  • It should be much harder for scouts to solo-score on the bonus goal now, since they can no longer jump up to the lower deck with a double jump
• Clipping improvements
  • Fixed a few ball stuck spots
  • Fixed the train station's roof being clipped wrong
  • Fixed a perch point on the broken roofs
  • Fixed lamps near mid being solid
  • Replaced Playerclip on the goals with Blockbullets2
  • Dozens of smaller clipping adjustments and fixes
• Texture fixes
• Minor detailing changes/fixes/improvements all over the map
• Lighting improvements
  • Dark areas near the edges of mid have been better lit
  • Most outdoor lights in direct sunlight have been turned off
  • Most outdoor lights in direct sunlight no longer have point_spotlights
  • Changes to a few lightmap scales around the map
• Optimization
  • New occluders on the broken buildings
  • More hints
  • More prop fades I think

About half of the rounds seem to play well, and I think I've gathered enough data to determine that it's usually because of teams when it doesn't. Because of this, this update is focusing more on optimization while I continue to observe how it plays to see if it needs any further large changes.

• Minor geometry changes to the interiors of the forward spawn buildings
• Removed barbed wire and hurt triggers from fences/cover at mid
• Added nobuild to the top of the ball dropper at mid
• Texture fixes
• Detail changes, improvements, and additions
  • Made all roofs 4hu thinner
  • Replaced some "Respawn" signs with "Battlements" signs
  • Cheap water has been replaced with much nicer expensive water
  • Other stuff
• Lighting changes
  • Made all major outdoor phantom lights match sky light color
  • Fixed an annoying lightmap issue on Red's side
  • Gave almost all lights either point_spotlights or env_lightglows, to make things look nicer
• Significant optimization improvements
  • The broken buildings now have proper areaportals, and don't have a bunch of cracks that caused upper floor to render when it wasn't supposed to be visible. Whoops!
  • Full, agressive occluder pass
    • Some of these might end up hurting more than helping in spots. Please leave feedback if you notice big framerate dips anywhere!
  • More prop fades
  • I'll do a full prop fades pass later

• Modified speed boost logic to match current prefab
  • This fixes the bug where the powerup models would stop spinning after about an hour
• Fixed some boards that were supposed to be non-solid being solid
• Fixed missing spectator cam for Red team
• Added back some more grass

The largest complaint I've gotten so far is that mid is too visually busy, but I've seen an equal number of people be confused about that claim saying it's fine. This is partially PASS Time's fault, since the UI is massive and different people have different abilities to ignore it. Regardless, I've tried to tone things down a bit.

• Attempts to reduce contrast around the map
  • There's less grass now
  • Replaced white wood at Mid with brown
  • Yellow train gates at Mid have been repainted to be brown
  • Replaced all white props_coalmines windows with others that get lit properly and don't stick out as much
• More details in some places, less in others
• Dozens of clipping improvements and fixes
  • Special thanks to @nesman and @catfish for a lot of these
• Shifted some cover around
• More changes to the vertical launch pads to try and keep players from getting stuck
  • Made the launch triggers smaller
  • Lowered push trigger activators
  • Adjusted the launch target position
• Adjustments to Mid launch pads to prevent players from activating them from below
• Improved nobuilds around the pine trees near run-in goals
  • You can no longer build anything inside the trees
  • You can no longer build sentries on the crate behind the trees
• Added trigger_pushes to a few high-up hiding spots that need to remain unclipped
• Changes to some walls around mid
  • They're taller now
  • They've got barbed wire on them now
  • They now deal 10 damage and shove you off if you try and stand on them
  • This is an attempt to keep scouts from running the ball that way so easily
  • I'll replace this with something better if I can think of something
• Replaced some HL2 props with TF2 equivalents
• Texture alignment fixes
• More optimization attempts
  • More hints!
  • Flipped some things from world geometry to func_detail!
  • Flipped some things from func_detail to world geometry!
  • Prop fades on some out-of-bounds areas
  • Replaced all dev textures with nodraw
• Removed the second light_environment with incorrect settings
  
  • Whoops!
• Spectator cams
  • They don't really do much in PASS Time and I messed one of them up, but I'm not recompiling to fix it

Neat, B1 didn't totally implode! Here's a few quick fixes and optimizations to try and get it to run better. A last minute change in B1 to allow the trees to be seen across areas ended up breaking a lot of the optimization, so this version attempts to fix that.

• Fixed a perch point on both sides that let players sit at the top of the map and snipe into mid
• Fixed a rendering bug on the gates at mid
• Clipping improvements
• Lighting changes
  • Added a missing light in Red's forward spawn building
  • Recolored lights on Red's side that I missed
  • Fixed incorrect lighting in Red's broken building
    • Every light was duplicated, whoops
    • Every light was the wrong color, whoops
• Significantly raised skybox to account for larger trees
• Optimization improvements
  • The trees have been replaced with larger variants that have matching 3D skybox versions
  • There are now 3D skybox versions of the main trees
  • This allows me to significantly close up parts of the map

Well, here it is! My first map to make it to proper beta (as in, not rushed there for a contest deadline) and get a real artpass. Shout outs to @Itspice, @nesman, and @Another Bad Pun for managing to figure out the name of the map early!

• Renamed the map to Gigantic
• Initial artpass
• Soundscapes
• Added goalie zones around bonus goal launchers to match official maps
• Completely rebuilt optimization attempts
  • New hints!
  • New areaportals!
  • Areaportalwindows!
  • A closer far-z clip plain!
• Dozens of small tweaks and changes

Mid is the big issue right now; it's fun to fight in but hard to push into enemy territory from. This version reworks the sides, increases cover, and adds more health in an attempt to get teams to push forwards more, rather than just hanging out in the low ground on their own side with the Jack.

• Rebuilt the sides of mid
  • These should flow better, and help teams push out easier
• Added additional medium health packs to the sides of Mid
• Adjustments to cover entering the broken building from Mid
• Made nobuilds around launch pads less aggressive
• Clipping improvements
• Further optimization attempts
  • Significantly more hints
  • Additional areaportals
  • New areaportalwindows

• Reduced health packs at mid to small (down from medium)

Fights in mid aren't evolving into pushes like they should be, and part of that seems to be that players can die, respawn, and reach the same fight they died in before it resolves. I'm hoping these tweaks will lessen that slightly.

• Added nobuilds beneath the pine trees near the low-ground entrances to mid
  • Sentries can still fire though the trees, but can't be built in the trees anymore
• Forward spawn RespawnWaveTimes have been increased to 8 (up from 7.5)
• Reduced air control suppression time for vertical launch pads to 0 (down from 0.25)
  • This should once again stop people from getting stuck, I don't know why I undid this
• Removed a box under the bonus goal launchers
  • This should make it slightly harder for teams to score on the bonus goal
• Returned the ball countdown duration to the default of 15 (down from 20)

Fights aren't leaving mid currently, and I think it's a combination of poor visibility and lack of viable options to push. People have long complained that the broken building feels like the only viable route, and despite my best efforts to make the other route better to push with it's not been enough. This version has an entirely new, center route between the two existing ones that should help teams push in and out of mid a bit more.

• Reverted shacks at mid to rocks
• Removed forward boost pads
• Added a new center route though the map, between mid and the low ground
  • Both the vertical and mid launch pad areas have been rebuilt to account for this new route
• Health and ammo changes
  • Removed medium health packs near the mid launch pads
  • Added medium health and ammo outside the lower spawn exits
• Clipping improvements
• Lighting improvements

This version likely has worse performance than past versions, since the new route breaks some of the existing optimization!