Gigantic B4

• Fixed players being able to stand on the new structures at mid
• Fixed various other perch points
  
• Fixed some overlays not being assigned to faces

It's getting closer to being good! The new mid is fun, but still too sniper-friendly. Engineers are also starting to defend, meaning the goal zones are finally getting testing and exposing new problems there. This version has some of the most drastic changes since A3, so I'm very interested in hearing what people think!

• Changes to mid:
  • Compressed mid horizontally
  • Made some rocks taller
  • Cover and routeing over the tracks have been reworked
  • New structures around the launch pads
  • New structures in place of the rocks on each side
  • Adjustments to the placements of the launch pads
• Changes to mid launch pad behaviors:
  • Players are now given a 100% move speed reduction for the first 0.25 seconds of a launch
  • This guarantees that players' air control is actually suppressed for 0.25 seconds after launch, which is the intended behavior. A bug in TF2 causes players that are already airstrafing when then touch the trigger to bypass the built-in air control suppression time that applies to non-airstrafing players, and this change fixes that
  • This is intended to prevent players from using them from getting into the enemy team's highground entrance to mid
• Added a bonus goal alarm system
  • An alarm goes off in the broken buildings when the bonus goal launcher goes off
  • There is a 2 second cool-down before it will go off again, so only the first player in a group will set off the alarm
• Visual overhaul of launch pads
  • They retain the shape and signage of the official PASS Time launch pads, but now they glow and have particles
  • They may be too sci-fi for the map, so let me know what you all think
• Added additional cover when entering mid from the lower route
• Reworked front spawn exits/routes in relation to the upper route into mid
  • The upper exit directly to the upper mid route is gone, players are now routed to the low ground to enter mid
  • There is a new staircase allowing access to the upper route
• Added push triggers to the tops of the telephone poles around the map
• Made getting on the shacks near the bonus goal launchers easier
  • Hopefully this helps spies trying to take care of sentries, but if they remain an issues I will probably removed the shacks once more
• Rearranged some cover around the goals
  • This should make it easier to take care of sentries, though if they remain a problem the area will probably be reworked in future versions
• Health/Ammo changes`
  
  • All full ammo packs have been replaced with mediums
    
  • Two of the small ammo in mid have been removed
    
  • Medium health packs on the sniper decks have been moved to next to the launch pads, in the new structures
• Lighting improvements

The last few tests have played progressively worse, with less and less coordinated pushes and defenses. I think all the small changes I had made finally reached critical mass and cascaded into bad things, so I've rolled back some of those changes. Also, mid has remained almost untouched since A1 and its starting to show its age, so the focus for now is seeing if I can make mid better while still keeping its identity.

• Rebuilt mid
  • The bridge is no longer a bridge
  • Blocked up a lot of sightlines
  • Reworked routes to funnel players though mid more predictably
  • Removed outer ramps to Broken Buildings
    • This should force players closer to the enemy to start a push
  • Returned small ammo packs at the base of the Jack-dropper platform
• Changes to the on-way entrances at mid
  • Shortened length of the sniper decks to allow easier dropping into mid
  • Raised the sniper decks by 32 units
    • This prevents snipers at the entrance to the broken buildings from shooting at enemies entering mid until they get up onto the sniper deck
  • Adjusted doorways to block sightlines
    • This was done in the unreleased artpass, but never made it to the backport testing for some reason
• Raised Jack dropper by 64 units
  • I've been meaning to do this for a while, but kept forgetting
  • This should make it easier to tell there's enemy snipers on the opposite deck
• Shortened catapult triggers on the vertical launchers
  • It should be significantly harder for players to get stuck now
• Removed the ramp below the bonus launcher (again)
  • I hoped it would help defenders, but it just made the bonus goal easier than the rest like before
• Replaced a rock near the bonus goal launchers with shacks
  • This should provide more cover for defenders/sentries
• Reworked some geometry around the run-in goals near the full ammo pack
  • This should make run-in goals slightly harder to pull off
• Increased speed pad boost duration to 3 seconds (up from 2)
• Returned air control suppression time on all player launchers to default 0.25 seconds
  • Bonus goal launchers were already using the default, and are unaffected
  • This should make enemies using player launchers much more predictable
• Various small changes to block up abuse-able sightlines
• Clipping fixes
• Lighting improvements
• Optimization improvements

• Added two ramps to the low ground on each side
  • This is intended to help with rotations for defenders, but may also help attackers taking the low ground
  • This is a small, experimental change to see if I can get away with not having to rebuild the areas while still allowing defenders to rotate better
• Added two small ammo packs at the edges of mid
  • They are near the entrances to the broken buildings

• Fixed Red team being able to open Blu team spawn doors due to a misspelled filter name
• Compiled with hints on this time, whoops
• Removed some pillars near the ramps up to Mid
• Lighting improvements

This is a backport of various fixes and gameplay changes I've made for B1. Some of the existing geometry was just too strange to artpass easily, and so it became difficult to tell what was and wasn't playable space. It's become necessary for me to change some geometry to make things more readable, so I've chosen to test these changes in an new alpha rather than continue with the artpass.

• Added a pipe you can use to get to the throw-in goal from the back spawns faster
• Fixed Blu team's back spawn doors not knocking the Jack away after it's dropped if a player attempts to enter the spawn with the Jack
• Increased push speed of trigger_pushes on the edges of the broken roofs
• Adjusted clipping on the Bonus goals
• Changes to ammo packs around mid
  • Removed small ammo packs under the Jack dropper platform
  • Added small ammo packs at each team's one-way mid entrance platform
  • There's been persistent issues with engineers locking down mid, I'm hoping pulling the ammo back further will make engineers weaker at mid
• Reworked the spawn side area around the throw-in goals
  • This should be more open and easier to recognize as a place that players can go
• Details ported from the upcoming artpass:
  • Reworked stairs inside Broken Buildings
  • Added roofs to the run-in goals
  • Extended the throw-in-goal building's height
  • Added wires and lighting around each team's base
  • Train bridge is now thicker
  • Ramps and structures around mid have been rebuilt
  • Lighting and fog changes

This map is heading for Beta at alarming speeds, at least for one of my maps. As long as these tweaks don't horribly break anything, I think the artpass is next.

The big change this time is a very small extra room at the base of the bonus goals that allows players to get out of that trench without having to walk way around if they fall in. I've also reduced the ammo at mid; if engineers continue to be a problem there I'll be relocating the or removing the ammo entirely.

• Added a new way up to the higher levels near the middle of The Trench™
  • This should give players in The Trench™ more options to leave The Trench™
• Added another crate below the bonus goal launchers to make a prop jump up out of The Trench™ possible
• Reduced ammo packs at Mid to Small
• Clipped the stairs in the water feature, finally
• Fixed some bad displacement blending

I'm quite happy with the tests so far, this is mostly just small fixes and a rework of the defenders' spawn. If this goes well, maybe we'll go into beta soon? I'll need to name this then, and I've got zero ideas for that.

There's a couple of people who've been vocal about their dislike of the broken building's roof route, but I'm going to stay the course and leave it in for now. Removing that route would fundamentally alter the structure of the entire map, and I think it would do more harm than good. It would make the building too strong of a hold for the attacking team; I believe having a surprise flank though the roof is important for defenders to clear out the building between pushes and to prevent really hard forward holds from attackers.

• Rebuilt the back spawns
  • They should flow better now
• Fixed broken Jack-blocking setup on Blu's back spawn doors
• Tweaked vertical launch pads
  • It should be much harder to get stuck now
• Set ball spawn countdown to 20 seconds (up from 15)
  • This should give more people time to spawn between goals
• Blocked up a very narrow sightline from mid to spawn
• Lowered the speed boosts to the height they're supposed to be at
• Fixed some patches that were targeting the wrong faces
• Fixed being able to stand near the tops of the giant trees
• Other clipping improvements

People keep giving feedback that they only want to push through the broken building. I don't know what you're trying to tell me by saying "this route is the main route!" over and over. I designed it that way; that's supposed to be the main route. Please let me know why you think that's important enough to feedback; I don't know what to do with the the statement that the main route is the main route.

The focus of this update is to keep making the bonus goals even harder. Teams did seem to be shifting towards trying to score on the other goals, but a few key individuals were finding new and exciting ways to break the map by making the bonus goal way too easy.

• Actually fixed the run-in goal effects going off when the bonus goal is scored on
• Raised and rotated the bonus goals
  • Far-throwing classes can no longer score from the inside of the broken building
  • Rocket jumping, catching a pass, and scoring on the bonus goal from inside the broken building is now significantly harder, if not impossible
  • Thanks chin
• Adjusted bonus goal launcher trajectories to make getting the ball into the new goals possible
• Reduced launch speeds on bonus goal launchers to 850 (down from 950)
  • You now consistently hit the water if you don't strafe
  • You can't reach the lower portion of the broken building from the launch anymore
• Reduced launch speeds on mid launchers to 850 (down from 1000)
• Increased push speed on the trigger_pushes keeping players from standing on the walls of the broken building
• Increased texture scale on the water
• More clipping on the rocks at mid, since there was another spot where the Jack could get stuck
• Increased signage
• Improved lighting
• Minor detailing changes
• Clipping improvements

I'm really happy with how receptive everyone has been of this map, and it seems to be playing alright. The biggest issue is how often teams are going for the bonus goal; I'm currently running on the assumption that it's too easy to reach the launcher for it, rather than it being too far forward.

• Rebuilt forward spawns and surrounding area
  • They've been pushed back quite a bit
  • The goal of this is to allow for better defense of the bonus goal, instead of spawning you at mid or way at the back
• Rebuilt the bonus goal launcher platform
  • Flow has been reworked to make it much harder to reach for attackers
• Pulled spawn changing triggers back to the main transition buildings
  • This will keep the new forward spawns active for longer, and should only move defenders back once the ball actually leaves mid
  • This should encourage better defense of the bonus goal and give defenders more time to set up
• Increased ammo pack near the bonus launchers to Full
• Moved forward boost pad to account for new spawns
• Fixed a spot where the Jack could get stuck inside the rocks near mid
• Potentially fixed run-in goal particle effects going off when the bonus goal is scored on
  • I fixed it in the prefab, but I don't remember if I did it in this map?
• Fixed the bonus goals not showing up as bonus goals on the HUD
  
• Increased lighting in some dark spots
• Added more cubemaps
• More attempts at optimization