KotH Highdive

Teddy Schnapps

L2: Junior Member
Feb 5, 2014
51
22
Hello fellow TF2 connoisseurs! This is just a little ol' map I've left in the crock pot for a bit (gotta get those map juices soaked in) and thought, hell, might as well give you a taste while it's fresh off the mapping-stove!

keep in mind this is my first attempt at officially presenting a map on this form thing so... yeah. Enjoy.


Bio:
In the distantly treacherous and leprechaun infested land of Bostonia lies a bedraggled and tattered factory, enduring mother nature's relentless deluge. A flux of runoff water has overtaken the base of the cracked and dampened warehouse. In this worthless and unrelenting landscape what fool would venture, and continuously fight, in an interminable conflict for nothing more than some muck and foot juice?

**RIPPING NOISE**

Money of course! And lots of it! You think they aren't getting paid for that miserable gig? Of course not! Ha, ha! Those poor souls lost a bet to me last week! Now these scumbags have to clean up this putrid pit and retrieve my sunken gold supply! Ha, ha. Well, hope you brought a nice rain coat; you'll probably need a new one later, after it decomposes from foul waste below!

Oh, while we're talking about poor unfortunate soles bathing in shame; why not treat yourself a little! Come on over to Mann Co. and get yourself a dirt cheap deal! We got hat's, weapons, and T-shirts! See you soon!
 
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Egan

aa
Feb 14, 2010
1,375
1,720
When I played this last gameday I kept thinking back to 'The Whaler's Hideout' from Dishonored. If you haven't played that, you should. Here are some screen-caps of the level 'The Surge' which takes place there, no spoils as far as I can see, but it does resemble your map, I think.

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Maybe they can give you some ideas of what to do with the walls / spaces / silhouettes.
 

Teddy Schnapps

L2: Junior Member
Feb 5, 2014
51
22
When I played this last gameday I kept thinking back to 'The Whaler's Hideout' from Dishonored. If you haven't played that, you should. Here are some screen-caps of the level 'The Surge' which takes place there, no spoils as far as I can see, but it does resemble your map, I think.

Yeah I can see how the mood is kinda the same; dark, stormy,and moody. I don't personally know that much about the game but I'd love to try it out!
And thank you for your help earlier! :thumbup:
 

Vincent

&#128296 Grandmaster Lizard Wizard Jedi &#128296
aa
Sep 5, 2009
912
684
Howdy.

I ran around your map to get a feel for it and I love your layout. I have no idea how it plays but I definitely want to try it out. Anyway the first thing I usually do is open the console up, very minor things I'm sure you know how to fix, mainly pet peeve stuff. Two props throwing vphysics errors and your cubemaps kinda freaked out.

On to the more useful info; I found an ERROR prop here. Not sure what it was supposed to be.

Clip this door, I got stuck on it.

I managed to basic jump my way up to this fenced bit around mid and clip myself.

Last thing, I love this area of the map, I don't know why.
 

Teddy Schnapps

L2: Junior Member
Feb 5, 2014
51
22
Thank you so much for your time with the feedback Egan, it really helped. The video was a very pleasant surprise!

Also thank you for taking the time to look through the map Vincent, although I was familiar with most of the issues the others were very helpful :)
 

Freyja

aa
Jul 31, 2009
2,994
5,813
I didn't get to play this for very long today, and my lag doesn't help, so take this with a grain of salt, however...

I played a few classes, but mainly medic. I felt that when the battle was in one teams favour, as they were in the rounds I played, the enemy had huge advantage covering your exit from spawn. I felt that every time I came out of spawn there were ten enemies on me from below and above and there wasn't much chance to get some breathing room to assess the situation as you left spawn. Moving the spawn back a little and extending the distance between spawn and the point might help this (You'll notice how maps like viaduct and lakeside have that almost quiet area coming out of spawn before the player decides which way to attack the point. Enemies can rarely get a good hold in this area).

Additionally, you have two levels of expensive water near mid (the pipe heading into mid and the pool below it). This doesn't work in source and the visual bugs you see with the water disappearing/changing refractive qualities around this area are the results.
 
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Teddy Schnapps

L2: Junior Member
Feb 5, 2014
51
22
Additionally, you have two levels of expensive water near mid (the pipe heading into mid and the pool below it). This doesn't work in source and the visual bugs you see with the water disappearing/changing refractive qualities around this area are the results.

so what do you recommend for the fix? I'd really love to keep the water effect and the pipes but I'm not sure the best way to go about this. The water falling seems to be a big problem in any map, I notice most maps just don't even bother and rather make an entire waterfall prop or just don't do it...
 

Zed

Certified Most Crunk™
aa
Aug 7, 2014
1,241
1,025
gq6eiwS.jpg


I don't like this spawn exit, especially how needlessly far out it extends. It feels like a BLU spawn on a Payload map. It also leads out very close to the point. You could probably just get rid of it completely if you moved the spawns back and constructed another yard before the one leading to the point, a la Viaduct.
 

Idolon

they/them
aa
Feb 7, 2008
2,105
6,106
My main gripe with the map is that you have to go through a cramped area to reach the point. The widest opening into the main point area is 192 units wide (I think), and they all also require going through a low-ceiling area with close walls. This makes it really easy to spam exits to lock them down.

The other gripe is the structure of the exits coming into the main point area. Enemies can come out of 5 different doors. While it doesn't help that some of them are very dark, they are also spread out enough that it's kinda nerve wracking trying to watch all of them. If you're watching the exit on the far left, you pretty much have your back completely turned to the exit on the far right. It doesn't help that 2 or 3 of these exits are far enough from the point that you have to worry about getting sniped from them. As a result, attacking the point often feels like you're inevitably going to get attacked from whatever exit you choose to ignore.

There is a fairly open yard for each team to use, and it seems like it could be a fun gameplay space. The structure of the spawnrooms, though, pretty much guarantees that people will just use the rooms next to it to get to the point instead.

This poorly cropped still from Egan's video shows a place that a sniper was pretty easily abusing. They have a little window onto the point that pretty much covers the entire area.

Overall, a decent map. The geometry is interesting, though I think there are too many cramped spaces that favor explosives classes/pyro.
 

Teddy Schnapps

L2: Junior Member
Feb 5, 2014
51
22
NEW UPDATE!

Greetings Folks! are you ready for ALPHA 16! 16 TIMES MORE ACTION, and FUN!?

Well then come on by and check this baby out... she's not perfect but she'll keep you wanting more.

Download
 

Vincent

&#128296 Grandmaster Lizard Wizard Jedi &#128296
aa
Sep 5, 2009
912
684
While there wasn't many people at the test I enjoyed my time with your newest version. Going back into your map after testing I feel more certain about saying just reduce the respawn time slightly (~1 sec) for both teams. There's a bit of a walk but it's not a horrible one, I think it's a healthy walk. Maybe the reduced respawn time will help fight spawn camping issues (if your map has any, I haven't seen one yet).

In addition to what I was saying in game I wanted to follow up and say that the bottom doorway path looks as if it presses on forward when you're looking at it from spawn. So I think I'm beginning to understand why all those people were dismayed. Perhaps you could do something to this effect; make it small route that leads directly under the point. It most likely wouldn't be used till after the initial scuffle OR someone wants to try their luck. To dissuade new players from that route don't make it brightly lit or particularly interesting, so their attention is drawn to the top routes.

Understandably you originally removed this route to tighten up the gameplay. Maybe if this route is super simple (with just two basic 90° turns) it won't feel confusing or too much. If you're truly against the idea of bringing back the sewer maybe that bottom path could actually lead somewhere off to the side? Perhaps hooking this room up to the old side sewer entrances that are currently blocked off could yield good results.

Then again, you could just hold to keeping the bottom area of the spawn courtyards as more of a pit you need to get out of. (Which is more of a problem for attackers)
 

Teddy Schnapps

L2: Junior Member
Feb 5, 2014
51
22
If you're truly against the idea of bringing back the sewer maybe that bottom path could actually lead somewhere off to the side? Perhaps hooking this room up to the old side sewer entrances that are currently blocked off could yield good results.

Then again, you could just hold to keeping the bottom area of the spawn courtyards as more of a pit you need to get out of. (Which is more of a problem for attackers)

You bring up a good point, and is something I will play with in the next version. Thank you for your feedback.
 

Teddy Schnapps

L2: Junior Member
Feb 5, 2014
51
22
NEW UPDATE!

Welcome everyone! Young and old, tall and small, genitals and non-genitals, come and see the Grand Revealing of Alpha 17! **party string** **glitter bursts** **praise** Let its beauty seep into your eye sockets! Have it stuplify you with unrelenting intoxication... Have it impale your fingertips with complete unadulterated pleasure! :p

Download
 

Miss Frizzle

L1: Registered
Nov 2, 2014
4
1
Wow, a lot has improved since I last saw this. Looks more and more like a place. But I was wondering if you were going to keep fixing to lighting, just the level lighting, the map feels too light to be so covered by clouds... or maybe I'm just being picky. Either way looking good.
 

Fantaboi

Gone and one day forgotten
aa
Mar 11, 2013
892
1,050
I downloaded last week's demo and gave it a quick look as well as a small fly through. Here are my thoughts:

Stuff I personally think needs work:

thumb_koth_highdive_a17_right_hall_flank_blue.jpg

This area (Particularly the entrance red can use)

Red being able to sneak into blu territory here is waaay to powerful. Red is able to:
  1. Get to the other side virtually undetected
  2. Get BEHIND the control point
  3. Have the highground
These problems should be addressed before it leads to much more Spy surprise back-stabs

Spawn exits

I really like your spawn exits giving diversity to the player, however as of right now I feel as though they are incredibly limiting compared to which door you come out of. Exit 1 will give route 1, exit 2 will give route 2 but it's near impossible to go from route 1 to route 2 which leads to undesirable locations, positioning and confusion.
To be more specific: For the right side (from spawnroom) you have some easy paths to get into the center but they feel very obscure to get into and take time/annoying jumps.

For center, well done but needs to be able to fall into the pipe area, make far right route more visible

For left: Doesn't really feel like it's used enough, it's openness and accessibility makes it really seem like it should be utilised a lot more and start from higher sincie it gives an advantage. I'd cut the single ramp and do a big hill for the whole area about half the size up.

Control point
This sums up my thoughts:
AhedIDy.jpg


So this map is definitely interesting, I really would love to see this get more edited, studied or changed rather than overhauled (which i'm so glad i've not seen you hinted at) there are problems that need to be addressed to make it more balanced as well as the control point getting redesigned as you've stated. Good luck, it's going good so far!
 
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