TF 2 map testing story

TravisTouchdown

L2: Junior Member
Apr 15, 2013
68
5
I am getting close to my 125th map. I have a story about something that happened to me a year or so ago back.

So I met this guy who had an mvm server. Well it turns out that he is also from Kentucky and like 75 miles away from me. I told him that I could make a special map and he could give me music for it but I wanted to add in some textures for it.

So I make the map for him. He gave me some 80s heavy metal music for it. I put some textures in it to poke fun of the part of Kentucky we are from. I compile the map and give it to him and told him "Here is your map. Please look over it. Test it good. Please let me know if you spot any kinda bugs or any textures are not lined up. I will fix that right away"

I probably should have said that it was not server ready. Instead of looking at the map, he puts it on his server and starts inviting his server regulars to play it. Within the hour, My steam profile is spammed and I am getting messages on steam from our mutual friends. They all said something along the lines of that I was a bad mapper and that I was going off and releasing bugs maps and that I should not be allowed to submit maps to the mapping community's because of all its bugs.

I guess, if you ask a friend to look over a test map, you should tell them not to put it on a public server and give it to there friends.
 

Crowbar

Spiritual preprocessor
aa
Dec 19, 2015
1,455
1,297
…how do you test an mvm map without other players anyway? And they've been told to test it good.
 

TravisTouchdown

L2: Junior Member
Apr 15, 2013
68
5
I actually set in the spawn and let the robots cap just to make sure that I didn't mess up on the pop file some how.

You can add bots to your side. Adding a few expert bots on your team is good sometimes.

You can also set the robots health low and just build a sentry gun.

Those are just a few ways that I do it and have showed my friends to do it.

There is more then just testing the robots to. I have one friend who will walk the entire map and make sure all textures are aligned. He also checks to make sure that the polys are all textured and that I didn't leave a no draw somewhere. On MvM maps, I have a friend who goes and try to get on top of all the buildings and find spots where sentry busters cant get to.
 

Da Spud Lord

Occasionally I make maps
aa
Mar 23, 2017
1,339
994
I actually set in the spawn and let the robots cap just to make sure that I didn't mess up on the pop file some how.

You can add bots to your side. Adding a few expert bots on your team is good sometimes.

You can also set the robots health low and just build a sentry gun.

Those are just a few ways that I do it and have showed my friends to do it.

There is more then just testing the robots to. I have one friend who will walk the entire map and make sure all textures are aligned. He also checks to make sure that the polys are all textured and that I didn't leave a no draw somewhere. On MvM maps, I have a friend who goes and try to get on top of all the buildings and find spots where sentry busters cant get to.
Although expert bots can sometimes help, due to their lack of upgrades they become worse in later rounds. I usually test my MvM logic and popfiles by using sv_cheats 1, currency_give 15000 (should be enough to get all upgrades), addcond 33 (guaranteed crits until you die or use removecond 33), and addcond 73 (permanent quick-fix uber, essentially super fast health regen that overheals you to double your max health, lasts until death or removecond 73).
 

Da Spud Lord

Occasionally I make maps
aa
Mar 23, 2017
1,339
994
That makes it impossible to test stuff like liberty launcher soldiers, airblast pyros, natasha heavies...
Actually, I still find that I can get knocked around by soldiers, although I've never tested it in a controlled setting. I think it just gives you the healing effect, not the movement impairing ability resistance.