Rotating Spawn Room

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TheTurnip

L2: Junior Member
Mar 2, 2010
62
20
I'm new to Hammer editing, so naturally I choose an overly ambitious project for my first map :D.

I would like to create a map that includes a rotating spawn room. Basically, I want to create a circular CTF map with the intel on two carts on opposite sides of the circle, moving around the circumference of the circle. I've seen the moving intel cart on other maps (though not in the circle circumference configuration), so I know it's do-able. Along with this, i'd like the center of the circle to include the spawns for both teams, but rotating so that the RED spawn is always facing the RED intel, and vice versa.

Here's an image for clarification:
XYqoY.png


I know this opens up a number of balance issues and the like, though I have plans to deal with those. But first, is the rotating (or failing that, spawn that moves along a track) even possible?

I know that func_rotate has issues, thought to what extent i'm not sure. And a few demonstration maps i've downloaded that include rotating brushes through different uses of phys_motor and func_physbox appear to have issues with players standing on them.

Is this at all feasible?

EDIT: oooh boy that image is huge :p Any way to lower it's size?
 

TheTurnip

L2: Junior Member
Mar 2, 2010
62
20
Sorry, i'm new to this. What do you mean, move in location but not rotation?
 

Jethro

MUSty Complainer
Nov 2, 2009
287
281
Basically, the spawn room will rotate with the carts, but the player will probably be looking at the wall when he spawns.
 

TheTurnip

L2: Junior Member
Mar 2, 2010
62
20
If they're just facing an odd direction, that's fine. But I have the spawns set as two halves of a cylinder. Would this mean problems with rotating (i.e. people ending up in the wrong spawn?).

I mean, is the issue that the info_player_teamspawns wont rotate with the spawn at all?

And, if it's spawning issues, would it be possible to make the main part of the map rotate and have the spawn stay in position (a la ctf_convoy) or would this just cause more problems?
 

Terr

Cranky Coder
aa
Jul 31, 2009
1,590
410
It might be easier to manage it in chunks and approximate the cart's progress, by making multiple fixed spawn rooms (ex. 4, 6, 8) and alter which ones are active for which team based on a timer.

Then each spawn room can be set up with a teleport in it so that right before it becomes owned by a team (long after the door was locked from the outside) anyone still lingering in it is booted to outside their "proper" spawn. (This prevents a revved-up enemy heavy waiting in your spawn room.)

Not sure how you'd solve stickies, though.
 

TheTurnip

L2: Junior Member
Mar 2, 2010
62
20
Ok, now I get it Boojum Snark. That's not a big deal, but overall this seems to be problematic.

My new thought is to create a fixed spawn, but have the exit of the spawn be a teleporter entrance in the spawn, and have the exit of the teleporter rotate through a circle of teleporters around the center point (so that for practical purposes, you still exit the spawn facing the cart).

Any glaring flaws in that plan? :p
 

Pocket

Half a Lambert is better than one.
aa
Nov 14, 2009
4,694
2,579
Rotating the whole map would be a very bad idea for numerous reasons.

Darn. You just killed my hopes and dreams of creating a Carousel of Progress map, you realize that?

</notserious>

Anyway, I'm intrigued by the possibilies of this. How feasible would it be to just make the spawn room floor static, have the wall (with the one door in it) rotate, and lay out the spawn entities so that they're in like a circle, or two circles, all facing the outer wall?
 

Cynick

L4: Comfortable Member
Feb 7, 2010
153
284
On an optimization note, any brushes that would be rotating would not block visibility and therefore tf2 would draw much more of the level than what was needed and would make it (probably) be laggy.
 

Terr

Cranky Coder
aa
Jul 31, 2009
1,590
410
I think a cycle of rooms involving teleporters, doors, and ownership changes might be the best solution in terms of optimization. All you're really doing is re-routing teleport destination and filters, rather than causing any crazy graphics/physics stuff.

Of course, this might not work with the desired artistic vision either.

The real problem occurs when you want to let people get back into the respawn room.

____________

  • Have 8 rooms around the periphery of the map.
  • At any given time, one is BLUs, the other is RED's. The rest are "unowned".
  • All rooms are no-build.
  • All rooms have a door and a func_respawnroomvisualizer that prevents anyone not on the "owning" team from entering. "Unowned" rooms are locked.
  • A teleport trigger in the back of the room teleports members of the owning team back to their central spawn.
  • A teleport trigger in the WHOLE room teleports the "wrong" team to their own spawn. In "un-owned" rooms, this teleports anybody in them back to their home.
  • The rooms change based on a timer approximating the carts' fixed progress.

The nice thing about this set-up is that it's very optimization-friendly, and even if someone left some stickies on the floor, they might have to wait quite a while before they could use them. The "main" spawns can be any fixed spot on the map you want, with windows looking out onto the main arena.
 
Last edited:

TheTurnip

L2: Junior Member
Mar 2, 2010
62
20
The way I had originally planned, people couldn't get back into the spawn (but to make up for it, health and ammo were a little more plentiful on the map than normal). But due to this change in map setup, perhaps they will be accesible now.

Thanks for all the help, I'll get back to the drawing board to figure out how I want to do this now.

(The question now is, do I want the spawns exits inside the circular path the carts are on, or outside it?)