Amaryllis

PL Amaryllis b2

dotmd

L2: Junior Member
Jul 23, 2016
80
195
pl_amaryllis - A facility deep in the jungle

Made for the payload checklist contest.

Featuring:
1. Payload crossing over it's own path
2. Payload goes underground for 1000 units
3. Payload goes straight for 1500 units
4. Dynamic payload element (a lowering bridge)
5. Ledge 256 units in height


Any and all feedback welcome :)

Credits:
fuzzymellow - jungle grass textures
JPRAS - models\props_temple\bush_fern_1/2/3
Vlek + JPRAS - models\props_temple\ground_flower
 

dotmd

L2: Junior Member
Jul 23, 2016
80
195
- Blu spawn no longer has shutter doors, just normal set up gates that stay open. Blu team spawns in a safer place now to compensate.
- Made the area behind the shack in front of Blu spawn more interesting. You can jump up onto the roof now.
- Added another section of track to C, hopefully allowing Red to set up more of a defense and make it less of a free point for Blu. This includes a medium health kit and small ammo pack.
- Nerfed a sightline on B a little bit (but not too much because I like it).
- Redesigned Red's forward spawn, giving them a second exit and having them spawn slightly further away from B point.
- Covered the pit at last until the cart reaches the rollback zone. When it is open, it stays open until the end of the round.
- Fixed some missing patches under health/ammo.
- Added clipping to places you could get stuck. Made some signs/lights non-solid so you can't perch up in places you shouldn't.
- Adjusted spectator cams
- Extra lighting in dark places.
- Optimisation, mainly around last, but still very much wip with this.
- Crocodile!

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dotmd

L2: Junior Member
Jul 23, 2016
80
195
- Reduced Blu respawn times
- Removed crate at A next to the shack that allowed players to jump up there as it created some strong sightlines for Blu
- Reverted change to sightlines on B to how it was in a1
- Turned the rollback zone at B into two shorter rollback zones with a buffer in between to act as a mini checkpoint half way up the ramp.
- Moved Red's resupply cabinet in forward spawn further back and away from the door.
- Reverted changes to the track at C to how it was in a1. The room to the side of the track is still there but the medium health kit has been reduced to a small.
- Added a path from the door into last up to the highground around C
- Added a balcony route into last for Blu.
- Widened doorways leading into last.
- Minor clipping and lighting changes

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dotmd

L2: Junior Member
Jul 23, 2016
80
195
- Added a medium ammo pack near the croc lake at A
- Removed rollback zone approaching B
- Redesigned the turbine room at B to give attackers more height over the tracks, but it's also now easier for defenders to use this room. Hopefully this should be a more contested place and draw more fighting there rather than splitting it between the 4 paths into the area.
- Added a route out of the pit at B back towards Blu's side. You have to jump out so it's not a super easy escape but still a way to retreat.
- Lowered some of the high ground Red has at B
- Shortened the end of the pit at B so you can more easily walk across the left side (where the big pipe was)
- Changed a small ammo kit at B to a medium ammo kit, the one in Blu's left most building.
- Added a forward spawn for Blu attacking C.
- Minor clipping/lighting changes

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Idolon

they/them
aa
Feb 7, 2008
2,105
6,106
reiterating some points from the test today cause fb plugin was dead

-B has red spawn really close to the point, which can work, but i dont think it is for this map. usually in cases where red spawns this close (badwater B, snowycoast B) red has some map disadvantage that makes up for their spawn advantage. badwater B has the rooftop either team can take over, snowycoast gives blue a slight overall height advantage. this map does the opposite and gives red the height advantage, which i dont think makes sense.

-also about B, there's that upper flank route. i dont like it very much - its the shortest route for either team to get from one side to the other and is also the most powerful (closest to the action). red also tends to set up sentry here because its a pretty good sentry spot, and a couple people will dedicate themselves to holding that route. usually when blue manages to take B, its because red somehow loses their hold on this one particular choke. neither team tends to use it for attack or defense, but it has to be held because otherwise the dam will burst wide open. im not sure if thats very fun.

-most final points tend to be a balance between "how easily can blue get into this space?" versus "how long does it take blue to do the objective?" badwater last is relatively easy for blue to access (three or four routes in, quite open), but the cart path is long. upward last is pretty difficult to access (small overall area, most entrances are small, red spawn offers a lot of protection and mobility) but the cart path is comparatively short. this map's final point looks like its trying to be upward but still gives a long cart path. this is somewhat compensated for by red not always having the best defensive positions (blue can pretty much push directly into all of red territory through the flanks on either side of the area), but again, not sure if that's very fun.

-the big loop the track makes at C feels like a deliberate time waster because red hardly has a hope of defending it. thats fine - lots of maps have time wasters, like the gates on snowycoast/steel or the long straight after upward B. however, it takes up the majority of the path of C, and blue has such a height advantage over that area that it feels like the entirety of C is a time waster (including the gate that slowly opens). this makes me think there's some good synergy between potential changes with this area and potential changes to B: change B so red is at a height disadvantage, and flip the height differences on C so the cart goes under the bridge first and then over. it'd require a lot of large layout changes, but in terms of the large broad moves of the map i think it makes a lot of sense, assuming you want to keep everything where you have it to meet the checkmark requirements (gate as a dynamic element [more or less requiring the close red spawn] and cart path crossing itself).
 
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dotmd

L2: Junior Member
Jul 23, 2016
80
195
Thanks Idolon, that's super helpful. Particularly about why upward/badwater lasts work well and how my last differs as you mentioned before. I've never been very happy with how C has played in any test and admit that the door to the bridge was kind of forced just to meet a checkmark and give Red a slight chance at defending C (although it did help block sightlines all the way through to B). I'm going to work on some major changes around C/D for the next version.
 

dotmd

L2: Junior Member
Jul 23, 2016
80
195
Took a while but we got there. Most changes are too big to be worth describing in text but generally,

- Diverted the track at B down to the low ground instead of across the bridge (which is now gone). Moved red's spawn at B slightly further back.
- Blu's final forward spawn has moved and in it's place is an extension to the side route into B, hopefully making it more useful than before.
- Almost completely reworked C, using some elements from previous versions.
- Flipped the whole last area and shortened the track leading into the pit. Adjusted flank routes into last for the new layout.

With this version, I've changed one of the checklist ticks from dynamic payload element to crossing over a hazard.

As always, any and all feedback welcome.

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dotmd

L2: Junior Member
Jul 23, 2016
80
195
Not that many gameplay changes, but thought I may as well call this a6

- Actually fixed packing this time, I was lying before
- Started texturing & detailing around A and the entrance to B
- Added a small ledge overlooking A, on Blu's side giving red another option to defend.
- Added clipping to the space between B and C where before demos/soldiers could fly pretty much fly from A to C
- Generally tidied things up, smoothed some displacements, clipped off some areas you could get stuck

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dotmd

L2: Junior Member
Jul 23, 2016
80
195
- Added an alternate route for Blu to bypass the bridge. It's designed to be a one way route for blu as I don't want red to easily be able to flank their spawn but jumping classes (including scout) can get up there.
- Redid the supports on the bridge
- Fixed some weird block bullets and sightlines around the bridge
- Added a safer, more protected way for non-jumping classes to get on top of the bridge.
- More signs to help show that the ground around the river will kill you
- Made the bridge prettier
- Lowered the skybox of the whole map, it's around the same height as badwater now rather than 6 miles high
- Semi-fixed some of the weird skybox issues drawing lines over everything but I plan on completely redoing this when the layout is finalised.
- Simplified the little shack with the medium ammo after the bridge so it's easier to access.
- Moved ceiling lights higher up so they're less in your face.
- Added a ramp to make it easier to exit the windows overlooking last.
- Added some missing patches under health/ammo in this room too.
- Fixed some displacement seams
- Fixed some clipping issues getting people trapped in rocks
- Continued texturing and minor detailing in some areas.

It's getting there. I still want to remake blu spawn as I've never really liked it, but I'll keep the doors where they are now. I also still need to fix the skybox issues making things invisible and finish texturing things. Then I can inch towards beta and start work on the 3d skybox

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dotmd

L2: Junior Member
Jul 23, 2016
80
195
sure beta why not.
Been working on it a lot since the last version so might miss some minor changes, but it's mostly just cosmetic stuff. I've tried to optimise some parts of the map better but I'm worried that some people might still get low fps because of the layout (and my cluenessless) making almost the entire map render at once in places. At this stage it's just area portals, slightly awkward skyboxes, and fade distances on props holding it all together, but I'm curious to see how this runs as it is now. I think I get lows of ~90fps in the worst areas but understand that it'll be very different with a server full of players and on different computers. Anyway,

Gameplay changes:
- Moved the small health/ammo in window room overlooking last to the opposite wall. This should be easier to see when walking around that area, and is at a more protected angle for Blu if they're shooting out of the window and closer to Blu's left route into last. Should also be easier for Red to use it if playing around the right side defending the area after C.
- Put nobuild on the bridge roof. I wanted to avoid doing this by adding some angles for Blu to use to destroy any sentries up there but couldn't find somewhere that wouldn't benefit red more than blu.
- Made the side route to bypass the bridge more obvious by changing the shape of the big rock formation. Hopefully you'll be able to see the route when going around the spiral rather than it being completely obscured by the rock.
- Made the area just before the spiral easier to walk around. You can get up to the bridge from the ground without going inside the building.
- Added a ramp in the D-window room to make it easier to escape the low ground.
- Added a medium health kit in the far corner behind B, making this area less useless.
- Remade Blu first spawn. The doors are in roughly the same positions but the right exit is slightly more protected, good for sneaking up the cliffs.
- Fixed minor clipping/sewing issues

Other changes:
- Everything should be textured now. No dev textures unless I've missed something
- These places are detailed now:
- Blu first spawn!
- Space left of Blu's first spawn!
- The island in the middle of the lake!
- OOB area behind Red's forward spawn (around where the new medium health is)!
- That D-shaped building the cart goes through!
- Some of the rooms at last!
- Made the river/waterfall bit prettier.
- Changed the colour of some signs based on feedback.
- Added areaportals to separate the main B area from the main C area, hopefully improving performance(??)
- Tidied the skybox a bit so there should be less buildings popping into view, but I'm aware there are still some issues, particularly around the centre lake.


thanks for reading

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dotmd

L2: Junior Member
Jul 23, 2016
80
195
- Extended setup time to 80 seconds (from 60)
- At last, widened the space around the side entrance (right side from blu's perspective)
- Put a cliff in the middle of the water so you can't see across the map anymore. I'd prefer it if you could, but optimisation is more important! So hopefully frames should be better.
- For similar reasons, changed the fence near B to a solid wall.
- Smoothed the route up to the roof of the bridge on blu's side, should be a bit easier to get up there now without awkwardly jumping on rocks
- Fixed places you could get oob or stuck
- Added a beam across the main blu spawn door so it doesn't look invisible with just the grate texture from far away
- Changed the glass door covering the last pit to a white grate. As before, this opens when the cart gets close to the end but now it should be more obvious if there's the pit is open or not.
- Thinned a shelf
- More oob detailing
- Minor texturing and clipping changes
- I think that's everything?

As long as nothing huge breaks, this will probably be the last edit to my checklist contest entry. Been working on it for like 4 months now and have really lost motivation to do much with it lately. I'd rather not quickly rush to add a load more stuff now when I can just leave it as it is and come back in a couple months to finish everything up then.

thanks have fun

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A Ninja

L1: Registered
Nov 21, 2014
28
4
Played this map a few times now and I've enjoyed every instance, as have other players. I'm a big fan of how the mapper incorporated the gator lakes into the theme to make it feel more unique compared to other payload maps.

I understand that this was made with the contest deadline in mind, but I'd love to see a more complete version of the map. As it stands many of the structures feel like generic boxes, with the obvious case being between B and C, which I've attached a screenshot of. This area of the map feels like it needs the most improvement.

I apologize for my horrible Paint skills, but I wanted to try and provide a visual aide to what I'm suggesting.

1. The back field here feels unfinished and quite bland. I've also found that players don't seem to make much use of this route since all of the action at this stage takes place on the other side of the track. Furthermore, the white building to the left there feels particularly plain and empty, maybe some props or some detailing could fix that?

2. Obviously C is meant to be a chokepoint, but as it is there are no flanks and that path seems to be like 10 feet across, which seems rather tight. What if there was a flanking route for both teams (outlined in the red) that would allow a bit more flexibility? Not only would it give some people another path, but it would also provide a reason for players to use that empty space that I commented on above. A path could possibly go through the white building and along that natural green ledge, or possibly open up those fences to the right and create another route that way.

3. I quite enjoyed the danger of the gator lake at A, however I feel like it is underused at C with so many of the ledges having high walls. What if some (or all) of the windows in this structure that the cart runs through were removed, along with some of the walls on the opposite side of that lake as well? This would open up another possible route for players to fight over as jumpers could leap over the lake to fight on either side.

4. I feel like this spawn could really use some improvements. The ugly geometric arch here that the cart passes under feels very out of place in a map with much more natural looking rocks, and it could really be done in a cleaner manner. Blue is also very restricted in their options for leaving spawn here as both exits are within a few feet of each other. I'd propose removing/cleaning up that arch and adding another exit for blue, possibly opening up to that flanking route in red.

Even with my criticism of this area of the map, I still am a huge fan of it!
 

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Katsu! :3

Veteran Cat
aa
Jul 30, 2021
616
337
You should really put this on the workshop soon, I've always enjoyed Amaryllis when I got the chance to play it