Badlands classic Beta 1

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Buster Charlie

We had our first Beta tonight on newyears eve/day.

Got some good feedback. Going to talk about some of the fixes I've done since our first playtest.

Overall impressions were good, just need some work to finish it up!

Reduced the sky light brightness, artistically I don't like this but it reduces the glare on the bunkers to make it easier for the red sniper to see his dot.



However it's still harder for the red sniper to see his dot on the concrete in the sun than the blue, but I can't lower the light anymore without making it look un-badland-like. Another alternative would be I could put a rock outcropping to put the blue bunker in a shadow if that would be more fair.


Still on the list.

Fix stairway clipping/Try and find a way to make the stairs less nausia inducing.
DONE Happily I was able to convert my stairs into clipping ramps so they're much smoother now. Very smooth.

Made Med/Ammo kits useable by all teams (TFC leftover, people HATE in TF2)
DONE

Try and make the cap point more obvious for people who never played TFC.
I put those ugly 'capture point' signs on the floor, and put a spotlight above the point, and If need be i'll put the big glowing capture point projector model in the middle of the room if I have to. I also placed a capture point sign on the spawn room doors. I need to draw up a big map of the map to put in game for new players who never played TFC version.



Fix Seams in displacements that people get caught on.
Done.

Make 'SG rock' accessible.

Done

Fix bumpy terrain in points.

Done

Fix Respawn room doors so they always work.

Still working on this.

Tweak elevator: add damage, possibly adjust speed and or size.

Still working on proper trigger.


block off computer room so the entire red team doesn't get lost inside it and trapped. (True story)

Done


Added nobuild to door frames, under elevator, in respawn, and in flag room tube (it was too easy to defend with a SG blocking the exit.)

Done

Smooth out entire map with clip brushes

Pretty much done, need to tweak one or two places but you can pretty much wall hug most of the map now without getting snagged on anything.
 
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Crimson

L3: Member
Nov 25, 2007
119
1
Yeah, I was the first one to get lost and trapped inside of the computer room, I will admit it. Thankfully there was more to follow so I didn't look like an idiot so much.

Anyways, had a blast playing the map on the server tonight. I know a lot of people really enjoyed it, and once all those little playertest bugs are fixed, it might even wind up being in the rotation with all the official maps.

1) Elevator Damage - One thing I have learned from testing a lot of custom maps out on my community, people hate taking unecessary damage. I think maybe 2 health very rapidly to signify to them to gtfo from underneath would work rather than big numbers like 25 a hit or something.

The respawn room doors will be very nice, that was a nasty problem when 3-4 of us would get stuck in a resupply.

Aside from that the map was very awesome. Might want to consider clipping off the top of the base so people cannot get up there, unless you plan on doing a 3d skybox, and in that case nevermind :)
 
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Buster Charlie

Yeah, I was the first one to get lost and trapped inside of the computer room, I will admit it. Thankfully there was more to follow so I didn't look like an idiot so much.

Anyways, had a blast playing the map on the server tonight. I know a lot of people really enjoyed it, and once all those little playertest bugs are fixed, it might even wind up being in the rotation with all the official maps.

1) Elevator Damage - One thing I have learned from testing a lot of custom maps out on my community, people hate taking unecessary damage. I think maybe 2 health very rapidly to signify to them to gtfo from underneath would work rather than big numbers like 25 a hit or something.

The respawn room doors will be very nice, that was a nasty problem when 3-4 of us would get stuck in a resupply.

Aside from that the map was very awesome. Might want to consider clipping off the top of the base so people cannot get up there, unless you plan on doing a 3d skybox, and in that case nevermind :)

I will clip off the top of the base :) I will add 3d sky boxes but I guess untill then it'll just be off limits.

I gave the elevator a trigger, so it will only go up if your standing near the middle and on the ground level, it'll stay put for 4 seconds instead of 2. You wont be able to 'hold' the elevator up top.

I hope this will fix the issue. I will give it like 2 damage and see how that works.
 

Vilepickle

Banned
Oct 25, 2007
372
199
"Ba" as in sheep?
 
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Buster Charlie

The first Beta was barely playable due to some of the above issues. Beta 2 I hope will fix 99% of the major issues, then it will just be a issue of polishing and some graphical tweaks.

So I want a limited release until I get it to a state that it'll be fun for the non-hardcore tester person.
 

Intraman

L4: Comfortable Member
Nov 4, 2007
191
0
If you need a place to test it, I wouldn't mind setting up a little temp-server for it like I did for my map. We could put a password on it so it's not open to the public.
 
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Buster Charlie

Here are some updates, I completly revamped the displacements. Both reducing the polycount on a lot of them, and raising them up a bit so it's harder to see 'over' the map and still allow rocket/grenade jumping. I still may tweak them. I also added some 'upper base' to the bases to make them look a bit bigger, but this is just a unaccessible dummy building. I also added some dummy doors (which don't look like usable doors to avoid confusion) to make the base look more 'alive. Eventually i'll add some windows and 'decoration rooms' but for now this'll work.







I have to redo the floor displacements, but that'll have to wait. I also need to fix my elevator. But besides that I think i'm much closer to beta2, hell I've made so many changes I might call it Beta3.
 
P

Pegg

on that 2nd picture down is the light in there just a normal light? cause in tf2 all the lights are light_spot (with exception to 2 or 3 uses (exit sign glowing red etc)). Other than that the displacements look awesome. Cant wait to play the map
 

ThatGuy

L2: Junior Member
Nov 5, 2007
51
0
Do we have to wait until it's completely finished until we can try it out? Or will you post the updated betas?


Sorry I know I asked in the first page, I just cannot wait to play it


Ignore me if you wish, i know i can get annoying ;)
 

Buddikaman

L3: Member
Dec 31, 2007
107
11
Looks good buster, I really like what youve done here. The only thing keeping this from being valve quality is a 3d skybox, and more use of the industrial vs wood design concepts. The bases look great if not semi generic, and maybe a tad bit to identical for tf2. Either way, youve done a great job, as this is one of if not the best looking custom map for Tf2 I have seen yet!

-Buddikaman-
 
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B

Buster Charlie

on that 2nd picture down is the light in there just a normal light? cause in tf2 all the lights are light_spot (with exception to 2 or 3 uses (exit sign glowing red etc)). Other than that the displacements look awesome. Cant wait to play the map

First of all I'm not a member of the light_spot nazi party. I've found some lighting works geat with spots, and some works great with point lights.

HOWEVER it is neither. It is a texture light.
 
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Buster Charlie

Do we have to wait until it's completely finished until we can try it out? Or will you post the updated betas?


Sorry I know I asked in the first page, I just cannot wait to play it


Ignore me if you wish, i know i can get annoying ;)

I will release the public Beta2 after I do one more closed test to iron out any major bugs I may have missed. I don't want my crappy early betas spreading across the net if they're unplayable.

No skybox yet because this is a BETA. I'm not gonna delay release weeks because of something that has no effect on gameplay. I'm certainly going to tweak this map visually as times goes by, but I'm focusing mostly on getting a stable build.

This is called badlands CLASSIC because it is a remake of Badlands from TFC. I wanted to keep the gameplay as close as possible so this includes the base layout and shape AND LOOK because I wanted a feeling of nostalgia.

HOWEVER Any future maps I design will keep in the 'industrial / agricultural' look of TF2, but this map I made the exception for time reason and for nostalgia reason.
 

Buddikaman

L3: Member
Dec 31, 2007
107
11
This is called badlands CLASSIC because it is a remake of Badlands from TFC. I wanted to keep the gameplay as close as possible so this includes the base layout and shape AND LOOK because I wanted a feeling of nostalgia.

HOWEVER Any future maps I design will keep in the 'industrial / agricultural' look of TF2, but this map I made the exception for time reason and for nostalgia reason.

That makes sence, my bad. You might not even really need a skybox than. Either way, fantastic job, cant wait to play it.

-Buddikaman-