Q&A from Robin Walker

Bonafide

L6: Sharp Member
Mar 18, 2008
313
25
Q. The new Maps. What where the influencing factors to choose Turbine and Fastlane (Especially allowing for Robins comments on Redstone a few weeks ago)?

We had a variety of criteria when evaluating the maps. We collected player comments on maps from forums everywhere and emails we’ve received, and combined that with the gameplay data we get from all the TF2 servers out there, to build a list of over 30 interesting community maps. We ran playtests on all of those, and eventually settled on these two. We regard this as the first of several community map releases though, so you can expect to see more in the next class pack. We’re still developing maps internally as well, so you’ll see more official maps from Valve too.


Q. With the release of the above mentioned maps with the Pyro upgrade/achievements, is this something you are considering doing with each character upgrade. If so, will this mean the maps are considered based on the class being upgraded/unlocked?


Yes, we’ll be releasing new maps with each class pack. Right now we’re not really tying them directly to the class being upgraded, because we want to make sure everyone gets something in each pack, even if they don’t play the class being upgraded.


Q. Do Valve have a rough timeline based on the next & final class achievements release? E.g. By the end of July for the next class and end of the year for all classes? Also, who is going to be next and who is likely to be last?


Just like the Pyro, we’ll be releasing the next pack as soon as we’ve got it wrapped up. We’re pretty bad with dates, so it’s not worth me trying to guess when that’ll be. Rest assured, we’re working as fast as we can.


Q: In the Loadout Menu each Medic Unlockable has a Level number attached to it. Why is that?


Right now it’s not doing much at all.


Q: Will we see any more developer's comments?


We’ll be launching a new site any day now that’ll be focused on developer commentary on the changes we’re making. We hope to roll some of the content that appears on that site up into new commentary nodes.


Q. In an interview with Pwnage TV some time ago, Robin explained how the crit system works and also said that they were experimenting with letting players know their crit chance. Is there still a chance this will be implemented or has it fallen by the wayside?


We’re still trying this out, sorry.


Q. Some people are saying that the stickies for the demo are to strong. To the point where 3 stickies can remove a sentry, a dispenser and a full health Engie. Is this something that can/is being addressed or is it classed internally as “balanced”?


We agree that they’re a little too overpowered right now. In fact, internall, we refer to them as “winbombs”. We haven’t reached a decision on what we’ll change yet, though.


Q. The payload map GoldRush seems to have gone down very well. Personally, I love it. However, what’s the chances or timelines for any additional PL Maps being released by Valve or is it down to the community to get some released?


It’s been great to receive such positive feedback on GoldRush, and that feedback made it really easy for us to invest in more. We’re already playtesting the next Payload map, and it’s likely it’ll be in the next class pack.


Q. Pyro Achievements – I know many questions will be answered soon, but one of the main ones is that there is an achievement like the medic, where you need to achieve “1,000,000” – Is this total damage, including Axe and shotgun, or is it purely with the flamethrower?


It’s 1 million fire damage. That includes all damage done directly by the flamethrower or flare gun, along with all damage taken by players burning afterwards.


Q. Based on the lack of communication skills from the Pyro, how challenging is the “Meet the…” video going to be? Are we going to hear them speak and find out if they are Male, Female and which country they come from?


We’re going to keep quiet on the Meet the Pyro movie, sorry. It’s the one we’re having the most fun with.


Q: Last but definitely not least: Robin & Doug, if you HAD to choose a class to be, permanently, which one would it be and why?


Right now, the answer’s pretty easy: the Pyro. The compression blast is something I feel like I’m still learning more uses for every day. The latest one I’m enjoying is pairing up with another Pyro to defend the final bridge in Dustbowl. If enemy invuln pairs try to cross the bridge without paying attention to me, I can blast them off the bridge into the pit. Not sure I’ll get bored of that any time soon.



Hope you all have as much fun with the Pyro as we are!



Robin.
 

Bonafide

L6: Sharp Member
Mar 18, 2008
313
25
Basically the most interesting aspect is that he said more maps will be released with the updates. I dont know about you but since turbine and fastlane were released, servers running custom map are getting less and less. I think this trend will continue.

I also think there will most likely never be a community map selection for release, it will all be down to valve to decide what they are releasing.

He also notes that he and his team played over 30 of the most popular TF2 community maps before settling on fastlane and turbine being the best for release. Personally I think this is a bare faced lie. I had never even heard of fastlane before the release and turbine is in need of some dire tweaking.
 

Corion

L2: Junior Member
May 17, 2008
67
8
He also notes that he and his team played over 30 of the most popular TF2 community maps before settling on fastlane and turbine being the best for release. Personally I think this is a bare faced lie. I had never even heard of fastlane before the release and turbine is in need of some dire tweaking.

Name 30 popular community maps. (Ones you would consider making official, i.e. no surf, fun, orange, etc. maps).

I couldn't.

It's likely that since they knew about Redstone (and we knew about it) they might have heard about the map since it's done by the same author and is considered "final" despite invisible sides of props being visible as well as displacement holes.
 

Brandished

L5: Dapper Member
Jan 19, 2008
234
311
steam forums. I brought it here for people that dont read the steam forums.

Ah, that's what I thought at first, I knew the community there was putting together a questionnaire.

I don't go to the Steam Forums TF2 section very often, almost every time I do there's usually 1 or 2 original threads for every 1000 "class x is overpowered" and "here's how valve can fix x" threads. I'm not sure if it's the large amount of bitching or the super well feed trolls, but dam, I feel sorry for the moderators there.
 

Shmitz

Old Hat
aa
Nov 12, 2007
1,128
746
Name 30 popular community maps. (Ones you would consider making official, i.e. no surf, fun, orange, etc. maps).

I couldn't.

In no particular order, off the top of my head (without referencing my maps directory):

cp_wolf
cp_redstone *
cp_fastlane *
ctf_turbine *
ctf_fishy
ctf_respect
cp_floodzone
cp_overflow
cp_roswell *
cp_science2 *
ctf_revolution *
ctf_scorpion
cp_spywinder
ctf_truss
ctf_chaos *
ctf_mach *
ctf_impact *
cp_stag *
cp_steel
cp_japan *
ctf_moonwalk
ctf_ataraxia
ctf_aseoprock
cp_avantiville
pl_dynamite
cp_bloodstained *
cp_sidewinder
ctf_convoy *
cp_switchback
ctf_crossover
cp_egypt *
cp_broma *

This list is with no surf maps, orange maps, gimmick maps, or crappy ports. Ones with an asterix are ones I know (again off the top of my head) have final versions and are not being actively revised, which means if we remove betas from the list, I'm down more than half.

However, this is not to say I would consider all of those maps qualified for release in a Valve map pack. Just if I'd never played any custom maps before, there are more than enough to fill a group of 30 to find out which ones are contenders.

My thought on why I don't think they actually played through 30 maps with the goal of choosing from this group for official release is because the caliber of the ones actually selected are a bit below several other maps out there. I think what really happened is they fished around from memory for maps they'd played on previous occasions or maps someone had mentioned, and looked at maybe a dozen for the official selection.
 

grazr

Old Man Mutant Ninja Turtle
aa
Mar 4, 2008
5,441
3,814
Q: In the Loadout Menu each Medic Unlockable has a Level number attached to it. Why is that?


Right now it’s not doing much at all.

Not a very elaborative answer, we can see it's not really doing much at all, they could have atleast explained why it's there in the first place. I'm guessing that is what the question really meant.

I think they went for maps of general quality but most of all fitting the TF2 theme. Even though i hate fastlane because it's just a mish mash of generic buildings of little imagination and always ends up a war at either teams last cp. It's not a terrible map.. it's just not all that, let alone with a bag of chips.