- Author Wilson
- Creation date
This update reverts the Red spawn at last back to how it used to be almost fifteen versions ago, this change was done because of some complaints that this made the route totally useless for blue. In retrospect, this was a mistake and I went back and watched every Mannscape demo where C was played to see if data backed this up.
I pretty quickly noticed that the spawn being here was not nearly as big of a problem as it seemed and most people who were most vocal about it were scouts trying to brute force their way through this area. Another thing I also noticed that new players set up in much more logical areas on C when the spawn was here because when you come out of spawn here, you see all the good defensive areas right from the get go. Funnily enough this problem didn't raise it's head until later because when the change was made, a lot of the same players were playing the map over and over.
Because these players knew the map already and had a decent idea how to successfully defend C, the new spawn location didn't change the way they navigate and see the C point. Later on, after the contest, new players who hadn't played the map nearly as much started playing the map and that is when C started to become so blue sided even on balanced rounds despite nothing really changing. Data is funny.
Another major change to is the C forklift, it is now OSHA compliant.
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) is a large regulatory agency of the United States Department of Labor that originally had federal visitorial powers to inspect and examine workplaces. Congress established the agency under the Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSH Act), which President Richard M. Nixon signed into law on December 29, 1970. OSHA's mission is to "assure safe and healthy working conditions for working men and women by setting and enforcing standards and by providing training, outreach, education and assistance". The agency is also charged with enforcing a variety of whistleblower statutes and regulations. OSHA is currently headed by Acting Assistant Secretary of Labor Loren Sweatt. OSHA's workplace safety inspections have been shown to reduce injury rates and injury costs without adverse effects to employment, sales, credit ratings, or firm survival
Economic boom and associated labor turnover during World War II worsened work safety in nearly all areas of the United States economy, but after 1945 accidents again declined as long-term forces reasserted themselves. In addition, after World War II new and powerful labor unions played an increasingly important role in worker safety. In the 1960s increasing economic expansion again led to rising injury rates in spite of previous efforts and the resulting political pressures led Congress to establish the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) on April 28, 1971, the date that the Occupational Health and Safety Act became effective. George Guenther was appointed as the agency's first director.
OSHA has a number of training, compliance assistance, and health and safety recognition programs throughout its history. The OSHA Training Institute, which trains government and private sector health and safety personnel, began in 1972. In 1978, the agency began a grantmaking program, now called the Susan Harwood Training Grant Program, to train workers and employers in reducing workplace hazards. OSHA started the Voluntary Protection Programs in 1982, which allow employers to apply as "model workplaces" to achieve special designation if they meet certain requirements.
It has been a while since I have actually taken time to write anything here and now that the map has hit the Alpha 20 milestone, I think now is as good time as any to write few things. These cover changes from both A19 and A20 since the previous version had no changelog.
GENERAL CHANGES
- Fixed clipping exploits around the map.
- Fixed some dark spots.
- Hopefully fixed the kill credits not working at the B death pit.
- Readjusted respawn times. (A/C: 6/12 - 8/16 B: 7/14 - 8/16.)
These respawn time changes should in theory buy some extra time for engineers and newer players to set up a defense at B because the pressure onto the point is not as heavy and constant. This might be a change I quietly revert because I am not sure how I feel about it.
A POINT
- Added a new connector between the upper and lower routes.
A has been playing well except for some fringe cases where players have been doing some very strange things and lost the point in a dumb way. That said, players focusing way too much on the upper route has been an annoying issue that seems to go away when more experienced players play the map, but I still wanted to do something about it. This new one way route (Unless you are a jumping class) should allow players in the upper area rotate between the routes faster, which in theory should guide players to use the full arsenal of routes available at A.
B POINT
- Relocated Red's first spawn.
This is technically a change to A but I'll count it as a change to B since the spawn is there. Red spawn has been relocated both for mostly detailing reasons but also to make navigation better, improve spy gameplay for blue spies attacking A and make losing teleporters more impactful for Red.
C POINT
- Blue's secondary route has been made larger.
- Blue's side room at C has been reduced in size by 200 units.
- Added more cover to the main platform and side room.
- Added extra health pack to the main platform area.
Changes were made to the side route in an earlier version to make it harder for Red to use the side route to push Blue back, unfortunately this change revealed a rather nasty sniping position that can be very deadly if a team plays around the sniper. These changes aim to give attacking players better options to engage in combat and approach the point, this also should make it easier for blue to start taking over segments of the C point as they make further and further in through Red's hold.
- Remade Red's side room entirely.
- Increased amount of ammo in the side room to encourage Engineers.
- Added cover to further make this a better spot for Engineer nests.
Many players felt that this room felt too long to rotate through when attacking and many engineers on defense seemed to ignore it despite it being a very effective position to set up in. To fix these issues, I have made the room much smaller to cut down the rotation times from below and increased the amount of ammo and cover to signal engineers that this is a good place to build. This should also hopefully in theory make C more defensible because Engineers try building in places other than the platform behind C. There is nothing practically wrong with that but that strategy doesn't always work against certain kind line ups, which has caused C to totally roll sometimes.
This took a bit, didn't it? I started working on the first displacement pass after few tests on Alpha 16 but turns out B is kind of a clusterfuck to work around and work was restarted multiple times. After all, B was remade thrice in a big hurry because of the contest deadline. In the end I decided that I would rather test changes done to A and C than worry about getting the displacements right on B, I can take my time reworking the brushwork to be more workflow friendly when detailing is more of a priority.
Anyway, changes are following.
GENERAL CHANGES
- Repacked the map, it is getting pretty big now so it is warranted.
A POINT
- Displacements, these are not final and I still need to fix some shit.
- New spot for medics to hide in when pushing out of blue spawn.
- Various minor changes.
B POINT
- Various small changes and bugfixes.
- Added the hazard stripes back, only for them to disappear again.
C POINT
- Various small and big changes based on demos, in depth feedback from Idolon and Chin and some of my own brainstorming. (Big thanks to those two, by the way, they are very based.)
This is the part two of the big brainstorming update, this time focusing on A with the goal of making forward holding still somewhat effective but not as powerful as it used to be. Start of A is now much shorter, things have been made more open and routes have been adjusted.
If there is no need for major reworks, the next point of focus is displacement and C side routes.
Various changes based on suggestions and brainstorming with Chin and Idolon, there are still more changes to come but right now my focus is on B. Once I feel like B is in a good place, I will focus on applying changes based on these suggestions to the rest of the map. (Also. hopefully displacements.)
