KotH Watermill final

[Seba]

This room is useful pretty much only for setting up teles and for running away; I don't know whether that's a good thing or not.
Clip this building so you can't stand on the crossbeams.
Make this and other bottles prop_physics_multiplayer so they can be shot around the map.
This area is non-walkable, and trying to get out is super-frustrating. Smooth out the slope with DW on.

Overall, fun map. The roof over cap felt a bit too powerful, and since the side buildings were lower than the mid they weren't really able to counter any players assaulting from above the cap. There are also some long sightlines long the water which get really annoying. Also, I don't know how well this is optimised, but I got some pretty bad fps on this map, especially in the side buildings with medium health and full ammo for some reason.

 

[Loc_n_lol]

Updated screenshots, changelog and download link with b2. Considering the time it took to get it started, this will probably be the last version before final.

 

[Godslayer57]

Damn that middle looks so pretty

 

[grazr]

There's almost no ammo around the point (1 large ammo pack in the building opposite doesn't count).

Base colour recognition was almost impossible. You can only tell by the overlays outside or parheps the paint patches for drops (if you were that observant).

The map encourages spawn camping too much. 2 medium healths and large ammo supplies replenishing combatents occupying the buildings opposite the spawn... lets just say a single heavy managed to mow down several players, including myself (3 times consecutely no less), before he got taken out by a spy. You need to reconsider your health placement and sizes.

The water was horrible to be in. Sometimes you were submersed, sometimes you were forced above. You need to make it more obvious (and smoother transitions) on shallow and deep water depths.

Combat around the middle was fun, though.

 

[Godslayer57]

After playing this during yesterday's gamedy I really like the theme that you are going for but ,there is little to no colour recognition. TPG could easily sit around the spawn doors due to them being solid. Maybe you could switch in the windowed doors so we can see outside the spawn.
Let again I feel like i am repeating grazr, the water around the point is to unbalanced. Half the time you are expoded and the other half the time you are submerged, just smooth that out so your submerged enough but not entirely. Finally I feel that some parts of the other team's base was too easily accessed, players could hide in small isolated corners and jump you will a minigun.

 

[Batandy]

fits the style perfectly!
But it lacks of ammo and medikits.Add some small ones near the point.
And you need to lower the water level, else if a pyro falls there , he's screwed (maybe not if he has the shotgun equipped)

 

[Loc_n_lol]

Ok, thanks all for feedback a few things here:

Team recognition : I didn't like how it was in b1 because it was too uniform and not very fitting of the style imo (white wood for blu, red wood for red), there's still a bit of that though the larger building on each side is neutral color. I'll try to replace the white wood with some blu corrugated metal or something to see if it improves things.

Of health and ammo : well, this one is difficult because I've been changing them around every single time and it's never satisfying for everyone. After watching the demo I reckon yesterday's gameday had a fair share of spawncamping (something which rarely happened in previous versions). It's a damned if you do damned if you don't thing. If I put some health in the buildings, point owners can use it to press into the enemy spawn, if I don't put it, counter-attackers find themselves short on supplies when facing the point. I guess I'll move one medium health forward, between the building and the river, remove the other one and upgrade the small health in the shack maybe ? Of ammo on the point : the theory was that there would always be enough dead bodies lying around that part that it would never be a problem, but it probably doesn't unbalance anything to put 2 small ammo in each corner of the cp.

 

[Loc_n_lol]

Ok here's a couple of screenshots comparing BLU and RED sides as of now :



textures on RED side are unchanged, but BLU now uses blue corrugated metal for their alternate wall texture, and the other texture is the white wood (subtle, but different). You can also see the new health/ammo packs on the right, which replace the ones that were in the buildings, and how the BLU/RED letter overlays have been replaced (they looked pretty crappy IMO).


From inside the buildings, however, it's a lot more similar :




I'm not sure what steps, if any I should take. Some things to consider : Those buildings merely serve as a short transition/visblocking area, in context, you'd probably know which side you are on before you enter the buildings. Also, overlays and barrels are team-colorred, it's not very obvious, but it's a sure way to tell.

 

[grazr]

the theory was that there would always be enough dead bodies lying around that part that it would never be a problem.

That's fine until you realise A) weapons don't respawn for another player to resupply and B) a single player accidently grabbing 3 weapon drops, such as a pyro flame spamming for spies suddenly eating all the ammo and leaving half your team with under half ammo and waiting for a fully refreshed/replenished spawn wave counter attack.

Heavies had it paricularly hard as they eat up a lot of ammo and fighting at medium range whilst the rest of the team pushes forwards and grabs all the ammo from the kills. Especially when it's a sandwich heavy without a sidearm to full back to.

More smaller ammo packs plz.

 

[Loc_n_lol]

More smaller ammo packs plz.

I meant 2 small ammo, not 2 small health, in the cp room. It's done.

 

[tyler]

Add some paint splotches or whatever those overlays are to make the insides more identifiable.

I like this map. What did you think about my feedback about not having to jump onto the wheel? In retrospect, it might be a good idea to leave it how you have it. It just annoyed me at the time.

 

[Loc_n_lol]

Updated to b3, which I might as well have called rc1.
I was planning to put it on low priority for today's gameday but I found out I had not packed custom assets at the last minute and it filled up anyway.

To answer yyler's question, i toyed with the idea of a ramp before, but I think it just doesn't look good.
If it takes a little bit of time for people to figure out how to climb there, it's alright. On a half-full server, someone's going to find out very quickly.

 

[tyler]

Yeah, basically the longer it's been since I said that the more I disagree with my own feedback.

 

[Loc_n_lol]

Updated to b4 (It's like I don't really want to work on it anymore but cannot quite let it go until I can call it final...)
-Testing removal of anti-sniper fences on the ledges surrounding the point
-More optimization, lighting and detailing tweaks

 

[Jimmy Nicholls]

Looking forward to playing this on Wednesday bro

 

[Loc_n_lol]

Pre-gameday bump.
I'm especially looking for feedback on :
-Performance, particularly on lower-end PCs. Is it acceptable under regular gameplay conditions ? How does it compare to stock maps ?
-Sniper balance : overpowering snipers ? Too dificult to be an effective sniper ?
-Health & Ammo placement : Does it finally feel right ?

 

[Sgt Frag]

Looks pretty cool.

Just noticed, the axle for the water wheel should be metal

 

[Loc_n_lol]

Looks pretty cool.

Just noticed, the axle for the water wheel should be metal

It should ?
Guess I'm guilty of this.

 

[tyler]

There was no overtime just now because when BLU tried to cap back, me and another red were standing on it. I think.

This is really solid, I'm gonna try to get it into rotation on my regular server.

 

[Fruity Snacks]

There was no overtime just now because when BLU tried to cap back, me and another red were standing on it. I think.

This is really solid, I'm gonna try to get it into rotation on my regular server.

We had this issue when testing rundown, someone said that it was a server side thing?

Also, Loc, may I request to use your truck models? I think they are great and would make a fine add to my map (see sig)... If you answered this in-game, I didn't hear you or see if you typed..

-end guiltless pleading for models-