KotH Creek

TheKieranator

L6: Sharp Member
Mar 6, 2011
282
213
RED and BLU are fighting over a creek. There's nothing special about it. No, really. They have absolutely no reason to repeatedly kill each other for it. It's a creek, formed by the seemingly constant rainfall that characterizes the mountains. Nothing more. Seriously, stop pressing me for extra information. THERE ISN'T ANY.

A King of the Hill map, that will one day be stormy-alpine theme (Sawmill, Thundermountain, Nightfall). One thing I've noted is that the Administrator seems to like taking a break while the map is playing. She only gives warning that the round will be ending soon, before chastising/congratulating the Teams for losing/winning. (My theory? She's in the Outback with Saxton Hale if you know what I mean ;P)

With thanks to:
A Boojum Snark - for his ever-wonderful Ultimate Mapping Resource Pack
 
Last edited:

Jeremy

L11: Posh Member
Oct 24, 2010
829
299
I like the look of this map. It reminds me of Viaduct in a way.
 

Crash

func_nerd
aa
Mar 1, 2010
3,315
5,499
It was a bit too fun for me, as a sniper. ;)

I would say some more cover or even a building or two on that middle level where most of the action happens before the center point would greatly help the map.
 

Doctor Paprika

L4: Comfortable Member
Apr 24, 2011
150
53
I think it's too symmetrical, if you get what I mean. I don't see why each quadrant of the map has to be the same. Also, where is the creek? I would assume a map with this name would have water as a main gameplay component.
 

Tarry H Sruman

Large Orphanage Proprietor
aa
Jul 31, 2011
872
1,021
I thought the biggest problem was that the routes out of spawn were bad. If one team got enough momentum to push the other back into their spawn, it was extremely difficult to break out. The close-quarters central route to the cap was easily cleared out by pyros and constantly covered by snipers from across the map. The side routes forced players to fight uphill against snipers with long sightlines. Every exit was either an uphill battle, covered by snipers, or both.
 

TheKieranator

L6: Sharp Member
Mar 6, 2011
282
213
ZIP! ZEOOP! VROOM! PSSSHHHHH! DAKKA DAKKA DAKKA KABOOM!

That's the sound of eighteen moderately trained mercenaries mercilessly murdering each other over a mediocre objective. A sound that will once again be heard at the Creek. Yes, that means another version of this map has been released, and yes, that means that after about a year of TF2 mapping I have actually made it to a2 with a map! :O

Here's a slightly vague changelog
a2:
- Added the titular creek
- Changed buildings between spawn and middle area
- Created additional routes to the middle area
- Removed side tunnels
- Expanded the spawn room
- Reticulated splines
 

TheKieranator

L6: Sharp Member
Mar 6, 2011
282
213
Looking at the feedback from a2's Gameday debut, I've decided to compile a list of things to change for a3. If you have anything to add, please don't hesitate to say it.

The first thing that popped up in the feedback thread was the size of the map. You guys were saying that the map was too big for a King of the Hill map. Taking that into consideration, I put on my beret and moustache and got to testing for myself. I grabbed the nearest Heavy Weapons Guy and had him run to the hill from spawn, and it only took him about 20 seconds. Let's compare that with the spawn to hill times of official KotH maps:

koth_creek_a2 average: 20s
koth_harvest_final average: 13s
koth_lakeside_final average: 11s
koth_nucleus average: 11s
koth_sawmill average: 21s
koth_viaduct average: 17s

As you can see, the walk time is well within acceptable limits, but I will reduce it slightly.

Secondly, I am going to address the middle building, where the route opens up with two doors going in opposite directions, with a full health kit in the middle. The inability to see through the wall was brought up as a potential issue, as was the size of the health kit. For a3, I am going to remove the kit and provide some means of seeing through the wall.

koth_creek_a3_concept02.jpg


It was also suggested that I make the middle more like Badlands or Yukon, or even just remake Badlands. While a tempting proposition, I am not going to do so. I am, however, going to raise the point out of the creek, and add a souple of medium health and small ammo packs near the point.

koth_creek_a3_concept_01.jpg


Now that the initial test has been done, I'd like to reveal two 'secrets' in the map.


In the image below are two green lines and two yellow rings. Following the path of the green arrow, even a moderately skilled Demoman could stickyjump from spawn to the point in a single detonation using two stickies and take no fall damage. This was never an intended feature, but something I left in as an experiment. The yellow rings mark the location of two out of place but seemingly unimportant barrels. If you were to walk up to one, you would find that you would collide with it as normal. However, if you were to jump on top of it, you would find yourself with a new disguise. You can stand in the barrel. From what I could tell, Scout was the only class that could be completely hidden in the barrel, but other class would surely have fun ambushing people.

koth_creek_a2_shenanigans.jpg
 

MetalKev

L2: Junior Member
Mar 5, 2012
70
23
I am, however, going to raise the point out of the creek, and add a souple of medium health and small ammo packs near the point.
Darn. My favorite part of your map was the point being in the creek. It was a really unique feature of it. Though I'll definitely agree something had to be done to make capping easier.
You can stand in the barrel. From what I could tell, Scout was the only class that could be completely hidden in the barrel, but other class would surely have fun ambushing people.
Can classes still be damaged normally in the barrel? I'm reminded of the glitch in pl_swiftwater_ugc where a demoman could get "stuck" in a barrel at last and be totally invulnerable.
Looking forward to testing it on its next release.
 

TheKieranator

L6: Sharp Member
Mar 6, 2011
282
213
The point being on a bridge isn't necessarily how it will always be. I'm just trying to find out if it plays better that way or not. I'm not actually sure about the barrel. It's a prop_static set to have no collisions, with two thin playerclip brushes on the sides. The barrel probably won't be there in the final product, but I wanted to put it in anyway after finding out about cp_steel's barrel hiding spot.
 

tyler

aa
Sep 11, 2013
5,102
4,621
Something that people don't seem to always take into consideration with walk times is that yeah, the times could be right, but your map could still be too large in related-but-unimportant dimensions. It's important to trim the fat correctly and not just smush it together.
 

Harribo

aa
Nov 1, 2009
871
851
yeah when we said, well at least me, it was big we weren't talking about walk times but the size of the yard in front of spawn. It's a huge flat plain with a couple building plonked in the middle, if the attackers were you push you back into spawn I'd suspect you'd have a hard time pushing back out of spawn