ynysllwynogod a14a

General assessment:
-The new W point worked fine, though obviously more testing is needed; the WX round didn't get played
-overall things are at a pretty good stage, no major complaints!
-main problem that sticks out is the diagonal rounds; there just isn't enough room to prevent it being a barely disguised corridor-choke
-one last point got played, defenders didn't realise they were supposed to defend and got wiped. Again. Oh dear.

Layout:
-added an underground route used for both diagonal rounds
-blockbullet'd the ambulance and added a box on top so that players can get to the roof from there
-added a window into the hospital garage
-changed the garage rear ramp into a set of stairs; now that you can see through them, the rear entrance isn't hidden by the ramp. Also added a sign to aid this
-made hospital spawn larger
-slightly altered the area outside of the bridge spawn to make the non drop-down exit more obvious

Balance:
-added another set of setup doors on both last points, to force defending teams to stay nearer the point during setup
-slightly adjusted pickups for diagonal rounds to favour players pushing into points
-gave blu more metal on their last point (please defend I am begging you)
-extended the atrium capture zone a little to make sentries hiding in the stairs a little less powerful

Other:
-renamed the points: W-> the Hospital, X-> the Plaza, Y-> the Bridge, Z-> the Atrium
-altered voicelines the announcer uses; calling every point the final point didn't make much sense
-added a voiceline at the start of final rounds to defend the point (please)
-added a fence to the hospital-bride walkway to make it obvious it's clipped during certain rounds
-stopped one of the hospital spawn exits from going through the roof
-some z fighting on plaza

General assessment:
-the classic hydro experience: stalemates! In the 30 minutes of playtime neither last was seen once
-I feel like these problems were partially the result of the W point and its connectors, so it's a good time to actually address those
-there's a few other things that could be addressed, but as usual I don't want to change too much in one go

Layout:
-W has been remade, although it retains the same rough shape
--areas have been cleaned up to not just be abstract geometry blocking areas out
--the main structure has been replaced with a flat-roofed building and car park, forming a playable space behind the point
--half the road has been removed and replaced with a lower area to add height variation
-the WX connector (to the stairs) has had one of its routes raised to a walkway - players weren't using the route otherwise, and this gives more gameplay then a generic choke
-a new connector for the WX rounds has been added - previously all you had on WX rounds were two doorways that were close enough to each other that it was just an extended choke; combined with the elevated walkway, there's now three distinct routes
-the WZ rounds (diagonal) now reuse geometry next to W to give an additional connector
-the WY rounds (to the bridge) have remained unchanged because they're good little connectors yes you are
-a little bit more room has been squeezed out of Z (the interior point) next to the stairs and under the main balcony; a sign has been added next to the stairs to offer a little cover
-Y's spawns have been moved back a little to make the upper spawn exit more obvious for all the w+m1 players

Balance:
-Z point has had its capture time reduced from 5s to 4s
-changed med kit in the Y bus stop from small to medium

Other:
-I've been diligently packing the round overviews for the past 3 maps, not realising that they weren't actually doing anything for the last 2 versions because they need to match the map name. Whoops! This one has a functioning round overview again
-added vscript to automatically set mp_stalemate_enable to 1
-added a brush and door that triggers removal of all the interconnecting brushes when it gets forced open during feedback rounds
-textures all the TC doors with the no-entry metal door texture so that people don't walk up to them

General assessment:
-surprisingly, glaring map problems are mostly gone - issues revolve around balance
-the exception to this is the last points; the slowly opening doors were mostly annoying, and defenders kept trying to push out rather than defend
-the new Y point only had one proper whack (lol tc) with a YZ round; the point area itself didn't lead to any significant problems, although there was some confusion about the YZ connectors themselves
-I noticed that Z players consistently followed the upper balcony, which inevitably lead to losing the midfight
-W and Y could be defended adequately, Z was a little too easy owing to sentries covering all entrances, and X was too hard owing to how open it is
-frustratingly, neither last points could be defended for any length of time
-in general no one had a terrible time and people seem to like the geo, so that's good c:
-W and its connectors are still in need of an overhaul, though I want to settle these changes before redoing another entire section so that'll be for a5

Layout:
-added a cubby to X
-a bus has arrived at the bus stop (hopefully makes the area feel less completely open)
-added a route in the garage outside Z that goes up to the next level in the staircase - the exit onto Z was very cramped and impossible to push out of if any attention was paid to it (or a sentry), so this gives attackers a route to the upper balcony area
-on red last, removed the direct route to the point and rerouted it to use the same connector as the entrance next to it
-on blu last, removed the attacker's entrance into the fan, instead creating a little area behind the defenders that the fan door opens into
-on blu last, changed the walkway pathing so it doesn't go directly to the defender's battlements

Balance:
-the last rounds now have 35s setup time instead of slowly opening doors
-initial respawnwavetime was 10s, which felt too long and allowed for cheesing fast caps; lowered to 8s
-on the last rounds, attackers now have 5s, defenders now have 7s
-red's cap was 5s, blu's was 2.5s; upped blu's to 5s to match since red was still capped easily, so this shouldn't be too long
-there's been some suggestions of locking the points like in koth to prevent lightning caps, but in koth this behaviour is tied to the tf_logic_koth entity so not gonna experiment with that lol

Other:
-fixed some oopsie brushes on the X stairs and in a WZ doorway
-added more signs to the YZ route so players don't go wandering off the wrong direction if players can read which they can't
-added clipping to the windows on blu last

General assessment:
-importantly, no one complained about tight spaces, so we can move on from that
-the lasts had the exact same problem as before, ending almost immediately
--this is despite closely going for hydro's scaling; I think setup doors are basically required. Either that, or it's a layout issue
-Y point, the crossover, is essentially uncappable, although the changes did make it easier for attackers to reach the point at all
--specifically, the point being next to a large defenders higher ground - that they have no line of sight over since it's directly above them - is entirely untenable
-W point, the corner, sticks out as being rather boring in geometry and gameplay, which extends to its routes
-both points need to completely change, though I'd rather change one point at a time, so I'll go with Y

Layout:
-remade Y; I copied & pasted a detail map I made then mushed geometry around so it'd fit with the entrances. This means it was mostly built for cool factor rather than gameplay, but it probably plays better than the old one. It may be too confusing - there's more going on compared to the other points
-adjusted a ramp in X spawn; it was at an awkward angle so you'd slide off it easily

Balance:
-added slowly opening doors to the final points - a setup timer wouldn't fit, since I want defenders to defend the point rather than waltz all the way up to the attacker's spawn, so they get to set up while blu wait ~40s before they can fit through the doors

Other:
-a spawn point I used for debugging red's final was accidentally left in, so players defending X would spawn there - this has been removed
-moved skybox on red last so geo doesn't show through the skybox
-added double-clipping to the curved stairs on last so they're properly smooth

General assessment:
-overall, this layout worked surprisingly well - players generally found it fun, relatively easy to navigate, and liked the point designs
-the biggest complaints were with the connectors; the thin and choky corridors held back a lot of gameplay
-point Y (the bridge) was far too easy to defend from the W (streets) direction
-the last points for both teams could not be defended; I had thought I'd scaled them similarly to hydro, but attackers were always able to easily cap quickly
-there's a few navigation problems, where it isn't immediately obvious which direction all the available routes are in outside of spawn
-in general, I believe many of the core problems are due to rigidly sticking to Hydro's scaling, causing areas to be more cramped/restricted than necessary
-for this update, I'll focus on tweaking existing problems before making larger changes - I'm not a fan of W, the simple corner point, since it's mostly flat nothingness, and there's a few places where I could probably plop down vehicle props for cover, but those are for later

Layout:
-completely remade red and blue last, as well as the connectors to both of them
-widened XZ balcony route and the ledge below it
-widened lower doorway outside of Z spawn
-added ledge to locker route in Z garage area to make the route more obvious
-opened up the little balcony area on Z
-added another route out of spawn on Z that comes out onto the green ledge behind the stairs
-opened up the tight corridor area outside of Z, and gave it some geometry to not just be a plain corridor
-opened up the small room outside of the garage on the WZ stage
-slightly altered the blocking of the central area to allow more wiggle room
-slightly widened both WZ routes on the W side
-added a vent route from X to the garage, partially to make the X side more aware that the garage exists
-remade X spawn
--now has a little hut instead of some awkward raised area
--lower route and a more obvious route towards W; players would consistently go the long way during XW rounds
-opened up X by moving dynamic doors, players can now always use the alleyway
-remade the YX corridor route; it's now enclosed, and has a direct route to the hut's rooftop to give advantage to attackers
-altered the green slope next to the road ramp on Y; players can now directly traverse the green without having to walk into the meatgrinder
-added a few small bits of cover on Y (which will help attackers, right?)
-added barbed wire to show when jumpable fences aren't jumpable (Y to Z has two of these)
-raised the road on Y to smoothly fit with the pavement instead of having an awkward kerb
-added a tunnel on Y that goes behind the defenders
-widened the upper YW route

Balance:
-edited pickups for the central area; instead of 4 pairs of small ammo and health, there's two of each
-moved a few pickups around idk
-enlarged Y capture point

Other:
-added the map overview to the start of rounds
-fixed a few world brushes that had skybox textures on their sides
-moved some of the dynamic signs to make players notice them more easily
-added secret debug room to remove dynamic doors for fb rounds