CTF_Round

[Terr]

You can turn any brush-entity back into a "normal" brush with the Move to World command.

Nodraw will indeed seal the map. As a general rule, anything the player should never be in a position to see while playing should be painted with nodraw.

However, don't worry about needing to paint the "outside" of the map with nodraw unless it makes it easier for you to see things (using ) while working. Any brush-faces which are completely touching the "void" (or completely covered by another brush-face) are automatically removed.

 

[Krowbar]

Ok, everything compiled and there are (currently) no more leaks so I just released alpha2 of the map. This version features a slightly redesigned central room (with the room made of quadrangles rather than that stupid carved cylinder), up-down stairs on the red and blue sides, a much smaller death-pit in the center, and automatic doors.
Both capture rooms were also redone with quadrangles and now feature intel carts, death pits, and intel respawners.

EDIT: I forgot to mention that I added some cheesy "laser mesh" custom textures that appear below both cap points. I made sure to use PackBSP to include them in the release. If someone could check that they are, indeed, there, I would appreciate it!

Right now I'm looking for some constructive criticism on the flow of the map. I'd like to change the long, straight corridors (never very interesting) to the right of each spawn and the other rooms overlooking the intel rooms (they currently contain cylinders and look quite poor). Any ideas? I'm all ears!

EDIT: I also forgot to mention that the overlays I put in the main room (for big "RED" and "BLU" signs) are currently not appearing in game. That will be my next step in addition to getting the cubemaps to compile (following the guild you provided didn't work).

 

[Krowbar]

So, five things I learned recently.
1) Just adding a env_cubemaps will fix the purple cube problem
2) light_spot does NOT like to be clipped into any other object.
3) The problem I was having with the overlays was because I was not using the overlay tool properly.
4) Adding multiple lights *significantly* increases the time it takes to compile the map.
5) Doing certain things in Hammer will cause the whole thing to sieze up (do the not responding thing) but never come back. Q_Q Fixing it involves terminating the application then actually restarting the computer since Hammer won't come back even if you ask very nicely.

I was also able to actually play through the map with some of my friends using Hamachi VPN. Getting all the server settings on the TF2 side was a pain, though. This means that if anyone would like to do a map runthrough with me, I know how to do it now and would be most appreciative of your input.

From the feedback I got from my friends, I decided to change up the long hallways near the center with overhangs and alternative routes to the center (that drop down into the area with the small health/ammo packs). I also added more lighting and fixed a potential wrangled sentry exploit (shooting way further than was intended).

I've still been looking into how to get circularly moving object but it seems that TF2 was never intended to support that feature. bummer

New screenies and a new alpha will be up soon... probably tomorrow. (BTW, when is it a good time to switch to "beta"?)

 

[Terr]

If someone could check that they are, indeed, there, I would appreciate it!

You can manually check by using GCFScape to open and look at the BSP contents. Alternately, rename/move all the custom content from your "tf" directories, restart TF2, and run around the map looking for missing texture/model placeholders. (Console may show notes about missing other stuff.)

4) Adding multiple lights *significantly* increases the time it takes to compile the map.

Make sure that the lights are not being switched by the I/O system and aren't marked "initially off", etc. Having N "switchable" lights will cause N^2 lighting passes.

5) Doing certain things in Hammer will cause the whole thing to sieze up

Using an external program like VBCT to run the compiles is handy, since you can continue tweaking as the compile goes on.

I've still been looking into how to get circularly moving object but it seems that TF2 was never intended to support that feature. bummer

Unfortunately func_rotating has been broken for a while in TF2, but there are workarounds that have different strengths and weaknesses. There's a func_motor workaround, and a func_tracktrain workaround. (If it's purely visual, I experimented with a workaround using rotating particle systems too.)

 

[Krowbar]

New screenies and a new alpha will be up soon... probably tomorrow.

Ok, so I lied. Weekend has been crazy and I've really been starting to "hit the mattress" and get my game on looking for a professional job. Anyway, on to the map.

I added a bunch of lights and changed around some existing lights. I added the overhang area as mentioned above. I decided to use VBCT and I am liking it a lot.
This time I properly packaged the custom images with the map (and checked that I did using GCFScape).

* Right now I'm thinking of ways to balance the map for all classes so that it doesn't greatly favor the more mobile classes (ie scout, soldier, demoman) like it does now. Any advice on this?
* I'm also getting a weird bug where this texture is appearing in game that is not viewable in Hammer. What I mean is that that when I look at that area in Hammer, the texture is not there but when I open the game, it is (but shouldn't be).
Here are some photos of the phenomenon: In Hammer and In Game

-->>Newest Alpha now available at http://db.tt/IX6O07y <<--

Right now I'm really, really tired so I'll try and work on it more tomorrow evening.

EDIT: I think the reason why certain lights took forever to compile was that I was using a light_spot and made the spot angle 90degrees (I don't think Hammer likes this) to get a half-circular looking light "ball". I looked into the motor and tracktrain and I'm gonna just drop the moving parts idea until the rest of my map is completely fleshed out. Thanks for the links, though.
EDIT EDIT: New screenshots (with not fullbright, yeah!) should be out tomorrow. Too tired to get it out tonight.

 

[Terr]

The ceiling thing is probably where there are two brushes with a surface at the same place, and the game is randomly (or at least, unpredictably) choosing one or the other to display "in front", while Hammer is showing you a different one "first".

It can also manifest as flickering z-fighting.

 

[Krowbar]

The ceiling thing is probably where there are two brushes with a surface at the same place, and the game is randomly (or at least, unpredictably) choosing one or the other to display "in front", while Hammer is showing you a different one "first".

It can also manifest as flickering z-fighting.

You know, that's what I thought it was, too, at first but, like I said, there is NO other brush in that area with that texture (as in, brush A and B that show up in the screenie are flush with each other and there are no other brushes inside, outside, or around them) that would create this anomaly. Weird, huh? Hopefully I'll fix it sooner or later.

Anyway, NEW SCREENSHOTS! Yay! This time they're not in allbright, too! To boot, I got my friend Vince to run around the map and act as a model to help tell the scale of the map. Thanks, Vince!

With some of the play testing that he and I did, I realized that there are several more spots for wrangled sentry cheesing. Hopefully some well-placed walls will fix that. I also realized that the bottom of the main pit area was quite sparse and could use some props or objects. How do you go about just filling an open space with trucks and cows and such? Any good method?

Next, my friend noticed that it is quite hard to get to the very top bridge as you must go all the way past spawn, through the back sniper area, and up some stairs. Do you think it should or should not be easy to get the high-ground advantage there? If I should make it easier (way with steps or stairs) where should I place it? Right now I'm thinking that if I would make it easier, the stairs would go by sliding doors on either teams' side against the wall and up to the bridge (hard to explain with words, sorry). Any other ideas?

Lastly, I feel like we're almost up to beta so I would like several people to play-test this for additional balancing. Are there any servers or services out there where people would be willing to test out a no-name scrub's map?

 

[Krowbar]

So, forget that comment about being "almost out of beta" since I decided to change up a lot of things. So far, the current changes include turning the right-hand long hallway and the left side room with the elipses into big, open "outside" areas.
The only visual problem right now is that when you are in those areas and look back at the rest of the map there are some strange culling and no-draw issues but I'm sure I'll fix that by either increasing the size of the sky panels or some other thing.
This also means that I'm gonna have to learn a bit more about skyboxes. Huzzah! I'll also try and play-test it with some friends to see if the changes are actually for the better.
A new alpha will be out when I get the new areas to look nicer and when I feel like it.

 

[Krowbar]

Dead thread is not dead! I just haven't had anything to publish for a while since things still seemed not good enough to go public with.

Anyway, I think I landed on a design theme that I like. The color scheme would be HOT colors + fire, lava, sand, etc on the RED side and COOL colors + ice, snow, winter theme on the BLU side with a nebulous blackish shadow dividing the two. As silly as it sounds, I hope to pull it off fairly nicely.


EDIT: 9/23
I've hit a bit of a lull in the project. Nothing much going on but I'm still trying to get some textures and such looking right. I was also advised by my group of testers to try and put more emphasis on the center of the map rather than the outlying pathways since not many people went in there. I'm thinking of adding some ONE WAY GATES to restrict certain traffic flow. Does this work well on a mirror ctf map or would that just screw around with players too much?