pl_roofrack _b2a
- Author Tiftid
- Creation date
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-fixed the cart outline rendering behind the roofrack and cage, thereby becoming invisible
-clipped a large nonsolid crane and attempted to use hints to stop it rendering from the other side of the A -> B building
-further trimmed back the evil displacement wall at C that the payload could trap players inside forever
-the finale explosion now blows up the laser prop as it was originally meant to
-fixed a couple of displacement seams
-moved the kangaroo cutout at the A flank closer to the wall to make it less obvious that it's nonsolid
Change | Reasoning
increased RED's respawn wave time when defending A from 6 seconds to 8 seconds |added back the fence at the tower over A that stops sentries built there from seeing the cart path |6 seconds was good enough when RED spawned really far from the point, but now they spawn much closer it has become obnoxiousmoved the health and ammo in the boardwalk closer to BLU |without this fence an engineer could easily build an overpowered sentry on A even if their previous overpowered sentry was destroyed, and BLU would have a hard time taking A. Now, BLU can easily sneak the cart past this sentry and cap, so if a RED engineer wants to have a backward hold after losing their forward hold on A, they have to sacrifice their high ground in doing so.upgraded the small health in the long flank at A |this makes RED engineers have to choose between putting themself in danger or taking a long trek where they don't have sight of their sentry if they want health and ammo - it also disadvantages BLU when attacking B slightly, and helps BLU to gradually take over the boardwalk more and more over time, since one bit of progress can be sustained thanks to the healthRED's first spawn now includes a second resupply locker next to the bottom exit |this was a common place for BLU to congregate, but the small health wasn't nearly enough to sustain them for a real attack. So, upgrading it makes sense.RED gets an instant respawn when A is capped |I was finding that RED was using the bottom exit to stop BLU's push from A as I was expecting, but they just didn't have the health to sustain them while they were doing that. This should help.Instead of BLU starting with five and a half minutes and getting four and a half minutes for capping A, they now start with six minutes and get four minutes for capping A |They actually already got one, but it was 10 seconds after the capture, because I suspected that BLU would take A by taking the boardwalk, killing RED off and then lazily pushing the cart up behind them - that way, the instant respawn would come after RED had already respawned, engaged with BLU and had a few members die. With the changes I made that might be more possible, but it's safer to just give them an instant respawn immediately when A is capped on top of the one they already had, so they're not vulnerable to any respawn RNG.reduced setup time to 70 seconds from 80 |If A is too hard and takes ages to attack, and B is too easy and gets blown past in a trice, it makes sense to give BLU more time to attack A and less to attack B, rewarding RED for being good enough to defend both points.RED now spawns between the high and low exit in their first spawn |what with RED spawning closer to A now, I was finding it pretty easy to have all my buildings at level 3 on the boardwalk before the gates even open, which is pretty irregular among TF2 maps. Plus, you ideally want setup time to be as low as possible without griefing engineers, because waiting for a whole 80 seconds in BLU spawn was pretty tiring even for me, the guy who made the map and was eager to play it.fixed several displacement issues |previously, they spawned on the low ground and needed to climb a ridiculously tall staircase.
widened a claustrophic cliff face before C that the cart could push people into |
seems like I left a sign upside down. whoops. |added another kangaroo cutout |don't worry about the kangaroo cutouts, this is not a conspiracy concocted by the aussies to steal your tf2 mapmaking skillz. the signs were never upside down, there is no such thing as a coincidence.he is spectating the battle and learning your techniques
Did I ever tell you that I built this map for the Rule of Threes Major Contest? Well, here's the version I'm probably gonna submit to said contest, if all goes well.
Change | Reasoning
gave every area on the map a quick art-pass |attempted fixes to the buggy nature of the payload |I went for simplicity here, knowing that if I aimed too high I was gonna be struck by the deadline. It turned out better than I thought.redistributed the health and ammo between B and C |You no longer get stuck in the roof and movement on top of the roof is now better; however, you can sometimes get stuck in the side, and the front shoves you away violently by necessity, since otherwise you would easily get stuck in the cart by opposing its motion just a little.RED now has a respawn wave time of 10 seconds while defending C instead of 9, and they spawn slightly further from their spawn exit. |this should strengthen and change the nature of RED's forward hold, which should position BLU well to attack C once they take that holdflipped the ramp up to the boardwalk at B to give RED more cover holding there |it was evident from a4b's playtest that moving BLU's spawn further away while also having RED spawn right on C was too advantageous for RED - it gave them the forward hold I wanted, but it seemingly made it way too hard for BLU to gain any ground from dispelling that forward hold. (Of course, the long rotation time between routes for BLU was a big contributor, and I hope the changes to health will help to unify where BLU gathers, somewhat negating this issue)reoriented the door between the boardwalk and B, and gave the lower exit of RED's first spawn a little more space to move around in |before it felt like RED's forward hold was just a bit too weak, because BLU snipers were contesting them there as I expected they would, but this denied RED access to any health and ammo which wasn't too fun.took all the comedy out of the map and renamed it from Yeswhere to Roofrack |the latter change is so that RED players who manage to get out of spawn can snipe the boardwalk door - this also helps BLU to contest sentriesthe cart now triggers the finale explosion by falling into the pit like other carts do, and this explosion is no longer silent |the jokes weren't funny anyway so no big loss. Oh, and this change includes renaming A and C - A went from "the Middle of Fucking Nowhere" to "the Power-Routing Building" and C went from "the Rainbow Dragon Cavern" to "the Mad Scientist's Dream"added more cubemaps |no more objective preventing you from participating in humiliationadded soundscapes |not too many, it's bad for the filesizeyep
-made it so that the trigger that teleports RED from their first spawn to their second starts disabled
-added a couple of lights
Owing to the fact that I only have 23 days to detail this if I want to submit it for the Rule of Threes Major Contest (which I do), this is probably how the gameplay's gonna stay until after the contest. Rejoice! Cry! Do whatever you want! You're not gonna remember this map in 10 years anyway, and I might not remember it either! Hooray!
Change | Reasoning
moved RED's first spawn into the sandy area to the side of the B building and made it smaller |made RED's second spawn substantially smaller and moved the resupply locker closer to the doors |The playtest of A4 made it apparent that RED needs to spawn closer to B and BLU needs to spawn further from C, both of which this spawn change should achieve. This notably also makes it impossible for BLU to enter the B building without either getting on top of the cart or using the entrance on RED's side of B, so B and C now have the same dynamic where RED has long respawn times so BLU are rewarded for killing them, but they also get strong defensive positions where it's hard for BLU to kill themremoved some of the health around C's low ground |C was meant to have a dynamic where RED has a long respawn time so BLU is rewarded for killing them, but they're very hard to kill - however, they had a long walk time between their spawns and the doors which extended their respawn time by a bit too much, and their highground which was supposed to be near-invincible had routes for BLU that looked directly onto it, and if RED were getting spammed from those routes, they had a long walk to the resupply locker, letting BLU gain ground absolutely for free.BLU's engineer balcony on C now connects to the high ground instead of the low ground |the cart dispenser proved to be more than enough to let BLU push here, particularly with the former engineer balcony letting them freely move between the top and bottom of the cart with easy access to health.removed the trigger_push I added to the top of the cart in a3b |This removes BLU's ability to freely move between the top and bottom of the cart, which restricts them from accessing the health that the lowground provides without making a big sacrifice in doing so. It also helps RED flow more easily between the high and mid ground, which should make it easier for them to hold forward after clearing BLU out of C, though I anticipate that this will already be feasible given that BLU now spawns further from C.clipped a rooftop at B |it was really fucked; it'd make movement really laggy and throw people off the cartadded a couple of missing pickup patches |letting people stand on tall things is always cringe, especially if it's by accident.thanks yoshimario for pointing one out
honestly these changes are even less significant than the ones I made in A3A
but I might get a map past A4 for the first time so that's nice
Change | Reasoning
the one-way door between the boardwalk and B now belongs to BLU and not RED, and is open before A is capped |the rocky path between the boardwalk and B is no longer one-way |previously I didn't want to do this because it would have made RED's walk time between spawn and the boardwalk way too long, but it being open solves that nicely. Doing this allows me to give BLU a route between the boardwalk and B without letting RED go past them and spawncamp, and it makes RED's forward hold much less powerful, but still strong.added a ramp between the cart path and B building |this allows BLU to push into the boardwalk after taking A, eliminating the possibility of BLU running past RED to spawncamp them and RED running past BLU to also spawncamp them. It also allows RED a chance to retake the boardwalk when defending B, which the one-way door would otherwise deny them - but, this route is a lot further from spawn, so RED can no longer kill BLU and then immediately start spawncamping them.the gigantic open plain between A and B has been replaced with a building |this makes it so that BLU players who push via the highground feel less restricted to the cart path - it also means that if BLU takes over the sniper side of the building between A and B, they can take out any sentries RED have in front of the one-way doorExtended BLU's engineer balcony on C into RED's territory and connected it to the low ground |this should make it harder for RED snipers to completely lock down BLU's routes to B, but they should still have a purpose, since many strong sniper angles are still possible and they can easily stop BLU players from persecuting their engineers in the B buildingIncreased the starting round time from 4 minutes and 30 seconds to 5 minutes and 30 seconds and increased the maximum round time from 9 minutes to 10 minutes |Previously, BLU could easily set up teleporters that RED just couldn't take out, allowing them to keep up the pressure forever. Though this was nice since it forced gameplay into the C building which is an outcome I want, it turned out to be just a bit too much and made the point seem too easy for BLU compared to the other two points, so now BLU engineers have to work for any teleporter spots as far forward as this. It also gives RED a nice little temporary forward hold and gives BLU spies another defensive position to sneak behind via the cave route.RED now instantly respawns when A is capped |A and B both seemed to only get capped at the last second, which is worrying - with A, it's because RED gets a free and strong hold from the start of the round, and thereafter they have two different but individually strong avenues by which they can hold the point - the idea being that BLU uses the one RED doesn't use and eventually overpowers them - however, this "eventually" turned out to be a pretty long time. As for B, BLU having more time after capping A on average should help them to attack B in a timely manner, and other changes I made this version should hopefully make it less long-winded to attack anyway.RED now spawns closer to the door that's near the resupply cabinet - the fence between said door and cabinet has also been removed |if BLU caps A via gaining control of the boardwalk, they can easily push forward to RED spawn and start to spawncamp, denying RED their forward hold. This insta-respawn is intended to let RED push up to the one-way door, which stops them from getting spawncamped, which allows them to set up a forward hold in the B building.made the pre-A area more open |The other door, the one further from the resupply cabinet, saw ubiquitous use for some reason, and the fact that both doors and the spawns were pretty far from the resupply cabinet made it hard for RED engies to set up.clipped off the top of the walls of the B building |the cart now more directly goes under RED's highground instead of a thin trench into low doorways, which should help to make fighting around it more funadded a trigger_push to the top of the cart which pushes players as fast as the cart moves (only while the cart's moving) |letting people stand on tall things is ALWAYS. CRINGE.fighting on top of the cart was shitter than with other carts since the top is a func_brush parented to the func_tracktrain, so it didn't have traction - this trigger is an attempt to mitigate this
compiled with areaportals
and made a cliff wall look slightly less shit
and fixed a displacement seam
Change | Reasoning
rebuilt B to focus combat more around two buildings beside a trench |gave the boardwalk a makeover and created a new route between it and the area between A and B |the tunnel that was at B before was pretty commonly hated, since sightlines over it were brutal and it removed the only fun part of the cart. Now, RED either holds the low ground or relatively sightline-safe buildings beside the low ground, so they have real defensive positions and don't have to rely on spawning right next to the point. Meanwhile, BLU gets to have an easier time pushing up to the front line, but is stopped from trivially capping B by the strength of the side buildings and the health in the low ground, allowing RED to use the two-tiered nature of the cart to frantically contest rather than relying on sentries to deny BLU from reaching the cart - though they still have strong sentry spots, said spots can only watch one region of the cart at a time, meaning they're easily able to be pushed past unless RED is in position to block the cartgave RED a one-way door between B and the boardwalk over A |this route serves to punish RED if they manage to hold too far forward after A is capped - there is another route that's meant to do the same thing, but it is locked for a while even after A is capped and even if open would only serve to let BLU spawncamp, creating a strange divide where BLU players spawncamp RED and RED players spawncamp BLU, which isn't fun at all. This route instead allows BLU powerful highground over RED's default forward hold with health not too far away, which should help to push RED back to B, whereupon BLU can attack them head-on. To stop RED's forward hold from being too persecuted by this route, there is a building at B which allows RED players to hold in there and opportunistically block the cart - hence, this building becomes RED's forward hold, since BLU has to clear them out of it if they want to actually cap B.increased the time given for capturing A from 3 minutes and 30 seconds to 4 minutes and 30 seconds |previously this door was completely open to both teams, but that made it too easy for BLU to spawncamp. This solution should preserve RED's rollouts onto/defenses over via the boardwalk of A, and the dynamic where they choose whether to control the boardwalk and stop BLU from pressuring their most important sentry spot or to control B more traditionallyB is a point which involves long walk times for BLU, so each push tends to take a long time, so BLU runs out of time too easily.
Change | Reasoning
transformed C to be more like Snowycoast D than Borneo D |RED now spawns above/to the side of C rather than below/behind it |I did this by making RED spawn above and to the side of the point - BLU has a highground flank opposite to this which RED scouts, snipers and spies need to pay special attention to so that BLU doesn't snipe their sentry spots or spawn doors - this gives light classes on both teams a place to play. RED engineers get close proximity to a resupply locker as well as a relative wealth of ammo, so sentries should be common - however, these will likely be above the cart, so the cart's unique property of allowing BLU to use it as a roof against RED players will get to see some use, which should hopefully convince players of the advantages of this cart design. BLU also gets a very quick route directly under RED's spawn balcony, so the heavy classes get to challenge RED players who are opportunistically trying to block the cart from above.substantially shortened the rollback zone at C and added a death pit behind/around it |This is intended to make RED hold high ground by default, whereupon they can drop down if they really need to block the cart, making stalling until your ground-bound teammates respawn relatively easy and thereby making defense more powerful. Although I wanted to add counterplay, so BLU gets fast routes below this high ground, and routes that allow them to snipe the high ground or rush the cart if they remain unchecked.the cavebound flank at C now requires BLU to enter it from the high ground |the rollback zone was intended to make the cart always end up at a place where BLU could easily push it from, thereby denying RED from holding in front of it - however, it turned out that BLU were perfectly capable of pushing it no matter where it was and the rollback zone just made the point frustrating to attack, so the rollback zone (which still has the important purpose of stopping BLU spies/scouts from just edging the point towards an inevitable cap) has been shortened but not removed. Oh, and the death pit is really just there for funnies and to stop snipers on both teams from getting long sightlines or weird angles onto the cart path which I don't want them getting.rebuilt B to make the "high ground" connecting to the boardwalk more distinct |Previously, the spawn door which dumps BLU right onto the approach to C was by far the fastest way to reach the point when combined with the cave route - moving the entrances to the high ground combats this, since this particular spawn exit requires a jumping class to reach the high ground. Hence, BLU must choose between using this fast spawn exit to rush the cart path directly, or using another spawn exit to use the cavebound flank. However, BLU scouts and soldiers can take full advantage of the cavebound route and the speed of the spawn exit thanks to their jumping abilities.completely opened up the bridge area and the front of the B building, save for a railing that blocks sightlines onto the cart path |This should help to allow BLU to punish RED for pushing forward more easily, since RED's default hold is now not on that high ground and they have a high rotate time if they want to contest it, so RED has to choose between pushing forward or trying to set up a hold on the high ground, which is harder but far less vulnerable than the alternative - this dynamic is exactly what I had originally envisioned for B and have been trying to create.added a bridge between the sniper area and house at B |This should make it completely impossible for RED to stand atop the cart while being unseen by BLU, and give RED snipers a clear purpose in countering the BLU snipers and preventing passage between the sniper deck and highground flank, while close-range class on both teams can fight unimpeded around the cart path.removed the rock pillar between A and B |this should help BLU snipers to feel like they can be effective on B beyond just poking RED's forward hold, since now they can rotate to RED's backward hold as well. This also gives BLU players attacking the highground flank a place to retreat to, and makes it easier for RED Snipers to get good angles on A and RED engineers to set up on A, although I anticipate that the boardwalk will still be the supreme engineer area, which is fine in my eyes.extended the building at the long flank onto A and added a platform over health and ammo next to it |this allows the sniper deck between A and B to become a potent place for RED snipers to watch the cart path closest to A, the long flank onto A and the cramped-room flank beneath the boardwalk - I anticipate this empowering RED's backward hold to the point where they might be able to not lose A in one push, which is slightly unsuitable for a Payload first and might further imbalance the difficulty curve to favour A and B over C, but I honestly just want to make the point more fun and this is an avenue towards that.stripped away some of the tower over A |the extension serves to make RED snipers choose between watching the cart path and watching the long flank, and the platform offers a remarkable dynamic where RED players can hold there to easily get on top of the cart, but in order to get health they need to sacrifice their high ground and face a long walk back up - and, RED snipers need to sacrifice their strongest position for health, so they aren't too hard to dislodge. Both above and below the platform have medium ammo - sentries built above can be cheesed by hiding under the cart, while sentries built below can be cheesed by standing on top of the cart. This means that RED will need at least two sentries/groups of defenders to avoid cheese, which is hard to sustain and should hopefully result in the point becoming more fun both to attack and defend, since there's an inherent choice between which group you attack.reduced BLU's respawn wave time when attacking B from 4 seconds to 2 |this was a common sentry spot for the backward hold over A, but the sentry as I intended would often be countered by BLU players just hiding under the cart or toughing it out - the spot now does a better job of watching the cart path, discouraging BLU players from toughing it out (thereby encouraging them to hide under the cart more and teaching them about the purpose of this weird custom cart). However, it can now block BLU players from reaching the cart, allowing RED to more easily reform a forward hold after winning their backward hold (which may backfire and make the point too easy to defend, we'll have to see), and it is now further from ammo, which encourages BLU to use either of their two flanks to take it out, or wait for the cart to recede.moved the health and ammo at the boardwalk over A into the building that connects it to B and upgraded the ammo to full |Previously, BLU were experiencing slightly too long walk times to B, so a reduced respawn time should help to offset thisthe doors between B and C now take 20 seconds to open enough to admit a player through instead of 16, and take 66.55 seconds to open enough to admit the cart, up from 32 |This should serve to buff RED's defense on A as well as giving BLU a resource they can use to attack the high ground on Bwidened the door between B and C and stopped players from getting pushed into it by the cart |I felt like even with these slow-opening doors blocking BLU, BLU players were getting through too fast to allow RED to set up any kind of forward hold on C, and since this dynamic was intended to give RED a forward hold for free even after BLU got a forward spawn very close to them, it only makes sense to increase the time it delays BLU for in order for it to be successful.the cart's dispenser now heals BLU players who are on top of the cart |The way the door was before, BLU players couldn't even physically get through it without first pushing the cart through it - a difficult challenge when RED can have a scout stand on top and block the cart.made the underside of the cart slightly smaller |I didn't do this before because I was terrified that the height advantage alone was super strong and that'd lead BLU to take points too easily, but considering that I've now shifted to giving RED high ground and wanting BLU to stand under the cart to overcome it, it only makes sense to reward BLU players for standing both above and below the cart, particularly since I still want them to ride the cart in some circumstances, such as the attack on Aadded knee-deep water at B |this allows players to have trace amounts more fun while standing underneath it, which considering the nature of this version as encouraging them to do so, sounds like a good changecube now gibs players who touch it |waterturned the A and C signs upside down to match the B signs |funnymade some "blend ground to wall" textures into "blend ground to gravel" at BLU spawn |australia jokeI thought it looked nice, but people were complaining - I guess it made it hard to read the space considering that the exact same texture was used for the cliff walls
Change | Reasoning
Reworked the right-side highground on C to force combat therein to occur at a longer range |Added a stairwell between the area below the laser cannon on C, the area above it and the right-side highground |This gives snipers on both teams a purpose and lets sentry spots on this highground be outranged - it also has less ammo than before.Extended the bridge at B to become flush with the wall of the building |This makes it easier for RED players to utilise this area, simplifies it, and makes them play more around the fence, which is a good spot for them to hold since they can defend the cart from above with the advantage of health, forcing BLU to use the highground areas to flush them out - this will later be improved by making C widerThis makes it harder for RED to defend the cart from above with the advantage of health, which should help BLU to get past RED when they're forced back to the bridge, thereby forcing them to defend B proper and making the point more fun.