pl_hoodoo [Final release]

[drp]

Like I said I don't know how engies get to half the places they do, whats the process to get up here (and yes it was intentionally left available for the crafty, but it seems most people use it..)

build dispenser, get on it, build teleporter exit on ramp while jumping.

 

[Altaco]

I think there are some floating lockers in one of the spawns too, not a resupply locker but a plain locker prop.

 

[YM]

Yeah I had intended to leave that spot in, I put it there thinking soldiers might sit up there but actually it makes more sence to put a last-ditch sentry gun there..
Good one spotting the floating handcart.

 

[Randdalf]

You could actually put some stairs up to that spot thus qualifying it as a sentry spot, rather than leaving engies to figure it out, I mean despite the "h4xor" factor of getting there, it has no real advantages over other sentries.

 

[Camo_Leaf]

It's like you people have never seen hovering cabinets and handcarts before.

i no, see it all the time, i just throught i would let youme no, ok !!

 

[terrorist_hell]

Great map, unfortunately, almost no one likes to download 90MB or even likes customs. So, unless Valve accepts this map, I see no real future in this map or even the TF2 custom community. It sucks to be quite honest. But I can guess that the hypocrite and arrogant people will play pl_hoodoo with all pleasure if this map has the Valve mark on it. Sorry for the rant.

 

[00000000000000000000000]

Great map, unfortunately, almost no one likes to download 90MB or even likes customs. So, unless Valve accepts this map, I see no real future in this map or even the TF2 custom community. It sucks to be quite honest. But I can guess that the hypocrite and arrogant people will play pl_hoodoo with all pleasure if this map has the Valve mark on it. Sorry for the rant.

I'm pretty sure this whole community and all of the other mapping sites (Fps banana) like custom maps.

 

[terrorist_hell]

I'm pretty sure this whole community and all of the other mapping sites (Fps banana) like custom maps.

I'm not talking about the community itself, ofcourse a community devoted to customs will like that (just like any other community out there). It's about the mentality among regular TF2 players and the number of custom/mix servers. What's the point in making them if virtually no one will ever play or like to play them, unless Valve approves them? In the beginning of TF2, customs like castle were kind of appreciated, but nowadays it's horrible. It could be the Belgian/Dutch mentality, I don't know, but there sure was a sudden drop in interest. If you don't agree with me on that, then never mind, must be my mistake.

 

[ryodoan]

I'm not talking about the community itself, ofcourse a community devoted to customs will like that (just like any other community out there). It's about the mentality among regular TF2 players and the number of custom/mix servers. What's the point in making them if virtually no one will ever play or like to play them, unless Valve approves them? In the beginning of TF2, customs like castle were kind of appreciated, but nowadays it's horrible. It could be the Belgian/Dutch mentality, I don't know, but there sure was a sudden drop in interest. If you don't agree with me on that, then never mind, must be my mistake.

Eh, Most servers I play on have a mix of Custom / Standard maps, but it could be the type of servers I seek out.

I like to play CTF maps, and quite frankly Valves offerings for CTF maps have sucked donkey balls. I mean 2fort? Common.... ctf_well? WTF. But maps like ctf_mach4 and ctf_turbine are pretty fun.

All in all though, I think this thread has started to diverge from its purpose (Discussing pl_hoodoo) so as such, I am going to stop here and suggest that we return to discussing Youme's most excellent map.

If you want to continue this discussion, please move it to a new thread (I know I could go on at length as to how I feel on the subject which is part of the reason I would like to see a separate thread on this material.).

 

[flubber]

Hop la, a little heatmaps after 12hours of playing on hoodoo b2.
http://psychostats.canardplus.com/mapheat.php?id=85

 

[YM]

Nice find flubber, I'd almost given up hope on Canard doing heatmaps, they don't seem to have any for the newer maps.
Not much is actually suprising from the heatmap other than the volume of people still running though that zone-of-death we all know and love (I use that word loosely)
Terrorist - I've been well stuck into the custom mapping scene for a long time now, I don't need telling that the average player is one of those lame-as-anything dimwits who can't wait <2 minutes to load a good custom map. I know all the statistics behind it too, which is really depressing. But It doesn't matter, I don't make maps so that everyone will sit though the download and be content, I make them for the one small server who's regulars are fine with downloading big maps (<40mb iirc off a fast download redirect rather than 95mb off some crap server without a redirect (I mean seriously, putting custom maps on your server without a redirect, what sort of braindead neanderthal are you?)) who love the map. Also, I find mapping more fun than playing the game.
Since I know theres at least one small server with a load of people enjoying it I'm happy (and as it happens there are two, both full, right now)

Since I'm now finding spore less interesting (I still enjoy it but after a week of nothing-but.....) I'll be back to work on _b3 starting tomorrow I guess, not done any today since I've been cycling ALL day (10am until 6pm almost solid)
I've yet to see some real meaty comments about stage 3 yet, surely with _b2's weighting towards blu some of you must have seen it by now...?

 

[Randdalf]

I don't know what happened in stage 3, but on b1 it was MEGA spammy, and favoured sentries SO BADLY, and yet on b2, for a reason I have yet to see, it usually ends quite swiftly.

One thing that slightly annoys me about the second point is the sudden right turn onto the point which REALLY favours spamming and sentries, because you can't see what's coming. I'd like to see (athough I don't know if there's a point to it), a tunnel (possibly from the second floor middle) that goes above the area in front of the second cap, giving attackers an alternate route.

Also, currently, I don't feel obliged to use the 1-way door on attack mainly because it's too dangerous, it would be a ton more useful if RED couldn't access without jumping (although they would no longer be able to use it as a quick route to the start, but the stage is so small it's inconsequential), and would give BLU a "foothold" in that particular chokepoint.

The last point is the only one that doesn't feel right on offense.

My one other suggestion would be to nerf the use of the new one-way door on stage 2 by covering it with a building, and maybe also giving RED more sentry positions on the 4th point.

Hope that was useful

 

[Chilly]

You know, in addition to what Randdalf said, I've always found the final cap a little underwhelming compared to other good payload and A/D maps. For example, Dustbowl and Gold Rush's final stages wind through narrow passages until the last area, which opens up quite a bit. This makes it easier to defend, reduces spam for the defenders, and gives them a more "epic" feel. Same thing for Badwater, which goes from a medium corridor to a huge open area.

I don't know that it's necessary, since it's already such an excellent map, but if you get bored with other stuff you might consider opening the final cap quite a bit. I would probably take the final building and open it up, making it at least 4-5 times larger. You could have the bridge across wider, more like the width of the Dustbowl bridge. You could lower the floor and make the stairs switch back and the lower tunnel actually have stairs that go down (making it a good rocketjump platform as well). Some skylights on top would prevent it from feeling too closed in as well.

I think right now your best final point is on stage 1, where it opens up and is a reasonably sized area. I think stage 2 is fine in its current state. However, stage 3 feels much more claustrophobic and spammy. The design of the final room is pretty good, but people really don't see it much because it's so small and so little action happens there.

 

[flubber]

Nice find flubber, I'd almost given up hope on Canard doing heatmaps, they don't seem to have any for the newer maps.

Holidays, lots of work, drinking, so much excuses for not doing the heatmaps...:blushing:
If a mapper need one of the map currently running on the server is always welcome to ask.

 

[grazr]

I'll be back to work on _b3

About time i say.

 

[terrorist_hell]

(<40mb iirc off a fast download redirect rather than 95mb off some crap server without a redirect (I mean seriously, putting custom maps on your server without a redirect, what sort of braindead neanderthal are you?)) who love the map.

Afaik, pl_hoodoo_b2 is about 95MB uncompressed .bsp, I don't know where you get the 40MB. About the redirect, what are you talking about? The map is on the server and on a downloadserver, so people can download it from there @ 2MB/sec. And I don't know what you're thinking of me, but I was actually backing you up. Why the rant and spit on me? You should be glad that I am taking the patience and effort to let your map play on our community servers, but I guess you just don't care. If you expect people to download a map manually (exiting a game, downloading the 40MB compressed map from a 'redirect', unpacking and placing the map in the corresponding directory and joining the server once again) instead of automatically sitting through 50 seconds then I guess you are the Neaderthal.

 

[YM]

It wasn't an attack on you at all, unless you happen to run a server with custom maps and you don't have a fast download thing set up. The fast download redirect allows the server to dish out maps compressed in the .bsp.bz2 format which makes them often smaller than a standard .zip (so thats where the 40mb comes in to it) so they really aren't too bad to download (unless you're super impatient)
Basicly what I was saying was server admins who run custom maps but haven't set this up are doing more harm than good to the mapping community - And I've heard of several popular servers running custom maps without the .bsp.bz2 stuff set up.

Flubber - at least there are heatmaps there, its pretty much the only place that do heatmaps, a beacon of hope

 

[Vander]

If you expect people to download a map manually (exiting a game, downloading the 40MB compressed map from a 'redirect', unpacking and placing the map in the corresponding directory and joining the server once again) instead of automatically sitting through 50 seconds then I guess you are the Neaderthal.

If it's setup properly, nobody has to exit the game or do anything manually. It does it all automatically.

 

[Cerious]

Now that my community finally has a custom-only server going up soon, we'll be running this map on it. I'll try to notify you of any bugs/glitches I might find.

 

[MrAlBobo]

and just pointing out, the map is exactly 40mb in bz2 and downloaded in 2-3 mins on my server...just some random info