NEVER have I EVER finished a map before. I'm lighter than air right now. This shit rules, why the hell haven't I done this before.
----
OVERALL
Brightened the playable area
Added more pipeball-exclusive clipping around the map
Added triggers in the out-of-bounds area that reset the ball if it gets knocked into an unreachable area
DRASTICALLY reworked the cover around the map, to better break up sightlines and make the map feel less boxy
Updated the menu pictures
Color correction!
LOGIC
Re-implemented a previous method of making the pipeballs glow, using a fix suggested by ficool
When Sudden Death is entered, all spawn doors will automatically open, so the COWARDS will have nowhere to run and hide.
Added special "ball push force scale" logic, based on code graciously written by @Box Of Paper! Now, primary and secondary weapons are slightly weaker when pushing the ball, and melee weapons are MUCH stronger! "Heavy stacking" should be much less annoying to fight against now!
This change does not fix certain weapons not pushing the ball, unfortunately. That's a bug with func_physbox entities themselves, and I've submitted a bug report to Valve.
TUNNEL
Added a small healthkit
GOALS
The "angle bumper" near the grinder has been moved closer towards the rear spawn exit, to act as a jump path to quickly access it from the goal area
The "angle bumpers" are now nobuild
The dropdown rooms now have glass in their windows
The goal is now wider
The main bumpers near the goal have been removed
The grinders are now inside a small shack, to reduce accidental resets
The grinders' warning klaxons are now louder
Grinders now function differently!
Both grinders now start locked
When an imbalance is detected, the trailing team's grinder will activate
Once used, the grinder will disable itself.
When teams are tied, any open grinders will automatically disable themselves.
These changes are, as far as I'm aware, the only pressing issues of the map. I honest-to-god feel that this map is RC-ready now. This is... genuinely exciting. Never finished a map before! We're in new territory!
It's 2 A.M. here, and I'm uploading this immediately before heading to bed. There's a few changes I didn't playtest, but I'm betting on them working as I intended (hence the update title of "The Gamble"). If they don't work, I'll push out a hotfix.
----
OVERALL
Added menu pictures
Clipping improvements, for both the ball and players
LOGIC
Reverted the previous version's timer change (the round timer is once again 5:20)
Increased the time on goal from 1:00 to 1:15
Fixed the finale effects being broken
The grinder cooldown has been increased from 30s to 45s
The grinder "about to open" klaxon is now louder, and can be heard from slightly further away
Grinding a ball now grants an additional 30s as a consolation
Fixed the "RED/BLU Grinder Enabled!" text appearing too many times
This is one of the "gamble on this working" changes. Here's hoping "StartTouch" and trigger_once entities work as advertised...
GOALS
Added a new room to the building behind the goal, creating a route between the rear spawn exit and the dropdown room
Increased the size of the health packs in this area
Detailed the dropdown area added in the previous version
SPAWN
Fixed RED's doors being open-able by BLU
I have no idea why this was even happening? The doors were set up correctly, as was the team filter logic. I replaced everything with 'fresh' logic, just in case that somehow fixed it.
SIDE DROPDOWN
Decreased the size of the health packs in these rooms
There's a bit more I wanted to get done for this update, but I'm moving soon so I won't have much time in the next week or so to work on this. I could've waited until after the move to release this, but I want people playing it NOW!
I was exclusively listening to the discography of Hall and Oates while making this update.
----
OVERALL
Further artpass adjustments (Thanks for the feedback, @Tiftid!)
LOGIC
Reverted the previous version's setup time change. It is once again 10 seconds long.
Decreased initial round time from 5:20 to 3:30. Maximum round time remains unchanged (8:00)
Falling to a goal now sends players to a "gib room", instead of lazily teleporting them into the grinder
The white ball is now slightly lighter (weight scale lowered from 0.35 to 0.3)
GOALS
The grinders now start "shut", and open up once your team loses a point
When used to reset the ball, grinders will now disable themselves for 30 seconds.
The grinder gates use a "timer door" texture, created by @dabmasterars!
MID/TUNNEL
Replaced the "oil car" side of mid with a new dropdown into the Tunnel
The goal-to-mid ramps are now slightly wider, to make accidental grinder uses less common
Extended the corrugated prop fences near the side dropdown room
Flipped the tunnel to lessen a sightline (as well as to fit the new center dropdown)
SPAWN
The stack of crate immediately outside of spawn are solid now. Whoops.
Slightly extended the security fences outside the rear exit, in attempt to discourage Snipers coagulating back there
If this is your first time logging in after the migration (Feb 8, 2022), you must reset your password to log in. Follow this guide if you're having trouble