Sentinel

Sentinel A8

Changelog for alpha 8:

-Reworked stairwell area at A to give RED less direct vision from it
-Reworked left lobby for BLU at A
-Removed the cliff route and A and replaced it with a much simpler and less powerful shack thing. Should negate the ludicrous flanking potential it used to have
-BLU's forward spawn now activates 5 seconds after capturing A (used to be 0 seconds)
-Rotated B 90 degrees to help map flow and hopefully decrease incidents where RED gets flanked from the fourth dimension (thanks to Emil for suggesting this)
-Increased cap time at B from 9 (18) to 10 (20) seconds
-Changed environment lighting (again)
-Slight health and ammo pack placement changes
-Wiggled some gameplay props around
-Improved optimization
Changelog for alpha 7:

-Added a silo in the spawn courtyard to block a sightline, and also hopefully create some dynamic gameplay around it
-Changed the left hand flank for BLU at A to add drop-down
-Reduced the amount of health and ammo for RED on A
-Removed the sewer route under the lobby to B
-Reworked the right hand flank for BLU on B to eliminate a sightline and make it less confusing to navigate
-Removed some cover at B which led to cheesy capping
-General texturing improvements
-General lighting improvements
-General optimization
-Fixed a bug where a few func_illusionary's were not getting enabled on the next round due to not supporting re-enabling
Changelog for alpha 6:

-Removed the cliff route near A
-Reworked forward spawns for BLU
-Flipped environment lighting
-Added ammo and health to the low ground at B
-Lowered RED respawn time at B from 9 seconds to 8 seconds
-Lowered cap time at B from 9 (18) seconds to 8 (16) seconds
-General lighting improvements
-General optimization
Update notes for alpha 5:

A:

-New flank for BLU. Should be easier to push because of a one-way.
-Replaced ladder prop near the flank house with displacements.
-Completely redesigned spawn courtyard.

B:
-Left hand route reworked. should hopefully be less chokey.

Miscellaneous:
-Minor detailing work
-Flank house at A has a slightly updated interior
-Right hand exit out of RED spawn slightly changed
-BLU respawn time at A lowered
-RED respawn time at A increased
Left hand flank (for BLU) at A redone
In previous versions barely any fighting happened around this flank, except for one corner. This felt uninteresting and boring to me. The new flank is more open and connected to the area around A.

Right hand flank (again for BLU) at B redone
this was done to patch up a very overpowered sightline, which dominated the entire area around B. This has hopefully been eliminated.

Miscellaneous:
-RED's respawn time for B increased by 1 second
-Improved indoor lighting
-Slight changes to environment lighting
-Improved performance using areaportals and occluders

Things that I still am not completely happy with include BLU's spawn courtyard and the right hand exit out of RED spawn at last. both feel somewhat clunky and could use a redesign later down the road.

I will include images when I feel like it, which could be tomorrow or never. :p
The important shit:

New lobby for BLU
20211123194329_1.jpg
Previously, this room was just open ground, allowing BLU snipers to sit all the way in the back of the map and snipe to B uncontested. Adding this room forces a sniper hoping to get sight of B to push at least to the doorway, giving RED a chance to avoid or engage them. This lobby should also provide RED players with some interesting holds.

New main entrance for RED towards A
20211123194347_1.jpg
This split doorway configuration, along with the redesign of the lobby to the right (see image below), aims to provide some more interesting options for RED to approach A.

New lobby for RED near A
20211123194402_1.jpg
Previously, this lobby used to be a single hallway. This lobby should prove more interesting, along with giving RED a new area to hold.

Modifications to area surrounding A
20211123200107_1.jpg
Previously, this area used to be a single open flowing space, which was too open and empty for interesting gameplay. This new geometry hopefully fixes that issue.

Thanks to @d3adfin for the suggestions made in their review of my map!


The miscellaneous shit:


-The train tracks at BLU's spawn have been made thinner to prevent players getting stuck between trains
-Redesigned the right-hand route to A for BLU to make it less difficult to traverse for attackers
-Slight gameplay tweaks to A's point
-Modified BLU's forward spawn to clarify when it is and isn't active
-The capture zone of B has been lowered by 32 hu
-The capture time of B has been increased from 16 seconds to 18 seconds
-The red water tank in the lower route to B has been clipped off
-Improved clipping overall
-The environment lighting has been brightened slightly and interior lighting has been generally improved
-New health & ammo packs and changes to existing packs
-BLU's spawn interior has received upgrades
-Removed the observer
-Updated the localization files
Changelog for alpha 2:

New B point
20211104205143_1.jpg

The previous B point sucked. So I made a new one
No changes to A (yet) because I want to focus on getting B to a playable state. Once that's done I will start working on making A more interesting (I already have a few ideas that may or may not be terrible)

Miscellaneous stuff:
-More health and ammo packs across the whole map and some moved out of dubious locations
-Added signs to the points
-BLU's initial spawn has received upgrades
-Shuffling around of the geometry of the building before B
-Brand spanking new soundscapes
-Updated the localization files
-Removed the observer
fixed a fucked up displacement lmao