Smalltime RC1a

CHANGELOG A18:

I'll use screenshots to communicate the changes this time.




I finally went ahead and changes the stupid ramp rock to a neat displacement instead with a small hoodoo friend. Players really didn't find the "rock ramp" inviting, so I figured this might help. I also added a door to show that it's actually a secret entrance(tm) to somewhere, explaining the vent.




That building got quite a large change to it. I had removed the entire lower room and decreased the size of the building and the "ramp hoodoo" next to it. I also added means to access that high ground via ramps right next to the main entrance to mid.

The goal of these changes was to make that flank much easier to access for the defenders, and to generally increase flexibility in routing. The removal of the bottom room also gets rid of another route for defenders to keep an eye on, which should reduce the amount of goons slipping into your base.

As far as the other side goes...



The entire lower area that used to lead you to the lower room has been changed to house some water instead. I originally toyed with the idea of making that a deathpit instead, but went with water as an alternative. I think it's cute.



Overall the changes make approaching from main with the JACK less of a stupid choice as swell. Will you go frontal? Left high ground? Right ramp? You sure have a lot of options.



This door has been changed to a one way. Enemy players pushing from this flank had a strangely effective way of just going to your spawn instead of the goal zone fight pit. No more.



While I'm at it, the spawn has been changed a bit as well. What was previously 3 frontal exists and 3 "spawn groups" has been changed to 2 frontal and 2 spawn groups.



This is a change I am less confident off. It's a "window" to the room that leads up the top rope of mid which you can access from this flank. The goal was to once again give a bit more flexibility for people going from the goals to mid from this side. It's a change that primarily benefits defenders pushing into mid...



Since this window cannot be accessed without mobility tools from the other side. I don't know if this is a good change though. It feels a bit swiss-cheesy. We'll have to see.



Lastly, we have this change. This side is now a "defender only!" high ground unless you have mobility tools. It robs the aggressors a route into the defending team's base unless they have mobility tools and gives the defenders a clear ground to stand on when trying to push back to mid.

Another big change that doesn't have a screenshot however is that I have removed respawn scaling based on the JACK being within a team's base. I think that kind of stuff makes sense for the more vanilla-esque PASS Time maps (even though it should still trigger only after n seconds passed, not instant) but for Smalltime it was a pretty clear blunder. It didn't help aggressors a lot and let to a slow bleed of defenders instead, making it harder for them to push out.

Outside of that, there were various smaller changes/fixes not worth noting.

Let's see if these changes are dogshit or help the map out. Smell ya next imp.

I polished up the new mid with new Hoodoo technology. Fuck rocks, me and my homies hate rocks.

CHANGELOG A17b:

- Previous "Cliff" at the Pickup cubby @ mid has been replaced with a displacement upwards to offer more routing from that area

- Replaced most rocks at mid with fashionable hoodoos instead. Takes up less space and let's players stand on them in a consistent fashion.

- The main route sightline block rock build has been replaced with a sightline blocker hoodoo that also acts as a ramp upwards.

- Lowground route has been made a bit lower so you dont bump your head on the ceiling of it

- The rock you could stand on to access the bonus goal has been changed to a hoodoo so you can stand on it more reliably

- Crate has been removed from that spot too, planks now directly lead you to the hoodoo platform

- Rock that was used as a tech jump to access the defensive building position at the goals has also been replaced with a hoodoo so that jump is more obvious and easier to do

- Added E

- Removed rim around defensive building at goals, was awkward

CHANGELOG A17:
- I have remade mid

Upon scoring, the team that got scored on will now be granted a speed boost in spawn that lasts 4 seconds and stays in their spawn for 14 seconds.
This should make it easier for the losing team to recover a bit and also make their spawn area a no-no for enemies to dwelve in after scoring without affecting combat in outside areas.

Something like this is actually present in official PASS Time maps - the speed boost pickups.

Except they only work for one person.

And then have to respawn.

Effectively disconnecting that one person from their own team, making them easier to kill.

Which sucks. So let's see how this affects play.

I originally wanted to do this in the next version but I might as well do it in this one.

While I fully intend to give aggressors the majority of the advantage when trying to score, the highground they are given did feel a little bit too imposing at times.

As such, I have taken the entire high-rope and lowered it by roughly 32Hu, bringing the height advantage they had from 288 to 256 - the magic number.

I also took the time and updated the map's screenshots to more properly reflect it's current state.

Last test of this map was pretty bad. Stacked teams and the famous "JACK short circuits carrier" effect caused for some awkward and frustrating issues.
But I still wanted to make a few changes to deal with some issues that did become present with this map test:

- Disabled Capture Crits! Something that I think a large group of people will be happy with. Capture Crits have been a large pain in the arse of this map and had gameplay implications that were far, far too severe to ignore. As such, I have disabled them.

This should have a MAJOR impact on the post-goal gameplay, as the losing team will no longer be cleaned up - having to fight back. The scoring team will either die and suffer the longer respawn, allowing the losers to come back a bit - or retreat to mid, allowing the losers to gain control of the goals again. Should make getting scored on VASTLY less frustrating.

- Restructured Spawn a bit:
--> Spawn has been widened and now is as wide as the map. The exits looking outwards now look forwards.
--> There are now three "spawn pockets" of 5/6/5 - all look forwards.
--> To account for the new exits, there are 2 new respawn cabinets.

Reason for this is to once again help the losers keep their ground and direct players a bit more towards the highground they have available to them from spawn. The "main exit" is the lowground one, and few players pay attention and go for the high ground ones.

- Disabled Third Person upon ball pick up: While I am still a major fan of it, feedback to it has been largely negative as players note that they find it disorientating.

- The "Post Goal" Process (Reset points/Reset Lights/some backend work and instant respawn) now happens 1s after a goal instead of 5.5sec. Once again, gives losers more time to get their shit together + I can actually do it this time since I dont have to wait out the capture crits anymore.

Small changes which should have massive effects. Very excited for the next test.

movie doesnt work, I cry, here is the map with a lower filesize, boohoo

CHANGELOG A15B:

- The map now features an Intro Movie! It's a generic one filmed on Brickyard that explains how PASS Time works. More info here: https://tf2maps.net/threads/pass-time-map-intro-tutorial-video.43999/

- Fixed Hint/various triggers not being stretched to fit the new defensive buildng width

- Made the room and door of the left (BLU) bottom room at mid a bit wider. giving you a bit more space to fight there.

- Fixed being able to stand in the Throw-in Goals

I've had a rude awakening: The caching issues which were apparently fixed are still present, causing the changes made in the previous update which relied on overwriting game files to flop in a hilarious fashion. Means that axing the ball trail, shield icons and goal icons in the HUD will break if you load any map before the specific pass time one.

I have found other means to achieve my goals though! This update includes some exciting system changes.

CHANGELOG A15A:

- The JACK Carrier will now enter Third Person! Originally an idea by Diva Dan, implementing this makes a surprising amount of sense. By putting the JACK Carrier into Third Person you:

- Instantly communicate that you are in a special state and can't attack.
- Communicate the fact that you take mini crits more reliably if the JACK Carrier is alone.
- Prevent the JACK Carrier's screen to become bloated with PASS Time visual effects such as the Ball Trail/Ball healing beams
- Allow the JACK Carrier a greater view, which enables them to not only more reliably spot sentries, but also allows them to detect and asses how many of their team mates they have around them more reliably.

The downsides are that it might be disorientating at first, and that rapid passing between team mates could prove awkward since you constantly switch between third and first person. However, players do not tend to do that a lot. Third Person could also negatively impact aiming the ball.

Super excited to see how this change plays out!

- The JACK's Trail has been drastically shortened! To reduce visual clutter, the ball trail has been reduced massively. This time it does not rely on custom files, making it work under all circumstances!

- Removed small fence at lowground flank
- Changed displacements up to ramp at lowground flank
- Removed small ammo pack from the building with fences on top
- Removed small ammo pack behind rocks into mid
- Added small ammo pack under the roof with fences on top around mid
- Removed metal cover from sniperfence at spawn highground
- Added small ammo at the spawn highgrounds small healthpack

- Reworked defensive building over the cubby:
--> The cubby has been replaced with a small connector room with stairs that lead up to the defensive high ground room
--> Room in question has been widened to account for the new stairs
--> ammo pack on top has been removed, health pack shrunk to small
--> There is now a rim you can stand on around the entire structure.

- Adjusted Respawn Time scaling to favor Attackers even more, up to a 10 second respawn wave duration for the defenders in case they have the ball in their base for a > 45 seconds.

- Reworked left (from blu) side of mid: The interior of the building with the medium healthkit has been massively simplified and the "high ground" out of it has been removed leaving the building at the exact same height as the normal ground. This should make traversing through it less awkward, and it's lowered height should make it feel less cramped, too.

- The "Rings" of the Throw-In goals have been changed from playerclip to blockbullets 2, preventing you from hiding stickies in them.

- Reduced Setup time drastically
- Changed some Announcer Voicelines
- Fixed Announcer Voiceline @ JACK spawn peaking

CHANGELOG A14a:

- Hopefully actually performed the changes from 13b. CompilePal has failed me and didn't seem to actually properly pack the shit, leading to only some stuff working. I'm manually packing using VIDE now, and tests have shown that it *should* work now - the trail and shield icon removal.

- Changed mid again. The previous one has resulted in mid becoming the Hyrule Temple fight pit in which explosive classes reign and everyone else suffers.
To counteract this, I have changed the right (from blu) side of mid. It's now a route that is on roughly the same level as mid/a bit more of a lowground route. The "balcony" has been removed, and the building has instead been changed to be a connector between the highground and lowground which you can access from mid. There is also a pillar there now to offer some cover.

- Changed some healthpack locations/generally added more ammo to the map. Still mostly small, though, so engineers will have to run around a lot.

- Lowered displacement at goal a bit so you can walk it up now

- Optimization! The map should have way better performance now. Hopefully.

- Increased base respawn times by 0.5s

- Respawn time change if the JACK is within a team's base is now a scaling mechanic instead of a binary on/off switch. The longer the JACK is within a team's base, the more the respawn times will change to favor attackers. This is to prevent a team just camping in their base with the JACK and also prevents respawn times changing if the JACK is only in your base for a few seconds.

0 - 10s: Uses base respawn times
10s - 25s: Attackers: 6s / Defenders: 7.5s
25s - 50s: Attackers: 5.5s / Defenders: 8s
50s+: Attackers: 5s / Defenders: 9s

Getting the JACK out of your base will reset the timer for the respawn times as well as the respawn times in general.