Looking for help with train map

N

Neo

http://neo.poned.com/traintesting02.vmf

I am only working on the bottom row of cars, so pick the red team if you want to see what happens.

This is a CTF map where you have to hop over moving trains to get to the flag and take it back. It's going to take a lot of work getting it right, but I think it will be really fun in the end.

To make an endless stream of train cars, I gave each prop a func_tracktrain, and gave each func_traintrack a path_track, where each starting path is the length of a car in distance away from the car in front of it. They all end at the same point (each car has their own ending point as well). What SHOULD happen is that each car gets to the ending point, and respawns at its own starting point, making an endless line of cars. But that's not what happens... There are gaps, and I can't figure out how to get rid of them.

If anyone can help, or knows an easier way of doing this...please let me know!

Thanks!
 
Oct 25, 2007
219
690
What SHOULD happen is that each car gets to the ending point, and respawns at its own starting point, making an endless line of cars. But that's not what happens... There are gaps, and I can't figure out how to get rid of them.

An interesting idea. I got it working for you. Check it out:
Download the working version here

Basically, you had a giant leak. I closed it by creating a cheap skybox. When you have leaks, a lot of entities won't work properly, including light, water and others. Traintracks included.

Hope that helps. ;)

Edit: I was just looking over the map, and I'll send you a PM with a suggestion that might help a lot.
 
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N

Neo

http://neo.poned.com/traintesting03.vmf
http://neo.poned.com/traintesting03.bsp

Mmkay, I got a little help with how to make an endless stream of train cars, and got most of that working (still a couple of rows that aren't quite working).

I've added trigger_hurt in 2 places, a.) if you don't land on a train car, you die and b.) if you ride a train car to the wall, you die. Both of these triggers should keep any person from blocking a train thus causing the whole thing to screw up.

My current problem other than some of the rows still malfunctioning is that the cars are not touching the ground. The flat cars even seem to float higher.

Seeing as how the map is challenging and some of the rows aren't working, I've yet to test if I did the CTF part right :p Also due to the floating issue, I am still not sure if all 9 classes are able to trainhop.

The map is still a ways from being complete... Detail and lighting will be the last thing I do. I can probably do the lighting myself, but detail is something I haven't messed around with because the maps I make are meant to be simple. Lighting alone can help make a map look awesome, but I'm looking for someone that thinks they can add a little spunk to the look of the map (honestly I hate my rectangular doorways, lol. They would look so much better curved maybe, but it's something I've never tried) I am happily open to suggestions!

Thanks to everyone that has helped me so far 8)
 

Armadillo of Doom

Group Founder, Lover of Pie
aa
Oct 25, 2007
949
1,228
I happen to love doing details :) Soon as I get home I"ll d/l this and take a look. In the meantime, could you put up a couple screens of the floating trains?
 

A Boojum Snark

Toraipoddodezain Mazahabado
aa
Nov 2, 2007
4,775
7,669
For them floating, you just need to move the path_tracks lower, or adjust the "height above track" field in the funk_tracktain to something negative.
 
N

Neo

Here it is! A fully functional CTF_trainhopping map!

http://neo.poned.com/ctf_trainhopping1.bsp
http://neo.poned.com/ctf_trainhopping1.vmf

As far as things to come, I've added no detail and no lighting, and I haven't gotten to test this with other players yet so there could still be some big changes.

The map is very hard, I messed around with it for a while as a scout and only made it across one time LOL. I tried heavy as well to see how that would go, and wasn't able to make it too far :p

One last problem that I can foresee, is someone dying on the trains with the flag. In most cases, it will not be retrievable. A friend suggested it would be fine this way as it could be a penalty for failing to make it across lol. I've considered if there was a way to make the flag elevate itself about 1 block or so after it is dropped, and maybe even change the respawn timer on it (default is 60 seconds).

Like I said, I haven't gotten to test this with players yet, so expect some changes. We'll see!
 
N

Neo

ROFL, okay. Finally did some testing with this map.

A lot is going to change. I wouldn't try downloading it for now (the above links need their team spawns adjusted anyway). After hours of playing with it, there were 0 successful attempts to capture the flag LOL. It's THAT hard! We could make it to the other side (very very very very rarely) but could never get lucky enough to make it back. I am really enjoying the concept though and I think it's really fun, but I'm gonna have to change some things.

I do still want to figure out how to elevate the flag when its dropped so that it can be picked up off the trains.

I'm also wondering if hosting it on a real server would get rid of the lag. I am thinking of removing a couple of the rows of trains and adding a platform in the middle, and am even considering adding walls between the trains to complicate things.
 

ryodoan

Resident Bum
Nov 2, 2007
409
117
I have not looked at the map at all yet (Screenies please!!) but from the way you describe it I see a visual picture of:
Trains.jpg


The red and blue dots are intelligence, the brown rectangles are trains. It seems to me that if you made the trains really close together and made their speeds really slow, then it would be almost like a continuous floor, but with the floor moving slowly to the sides.

I am gonna reserver further comments until I either see some screenshots or get to play the demo map you have.
 

Dox

L8: Fancy Shmancy Member
Oct 26, 2007
588
62
N

Neo

Paul that's EXACTLY what this map looks like :p

ctf_trainhopping02.jpg


ctf_trainhopping01.jpg


I took out the roof so I could explain this better. The white arrows show what direction the trains move. They all move at different speeds, the 2 in the middle (the ones that move the same direction) move the fastest and that's what's making this so hard right now. The red and blue arrows show where I am moving the flags to. No sense in having them sitting next to a teams spawn point, Lol. I'll be working more on this a lot tonight. I figure that I am probably going to give in and change the speeds of the trains. I was hoping not to, because I love that the map is a challenge. The flags will be in plain sight of each other, and the map is small. The trains ARE the map so I've got to focus on them, mostly. I think I'll just flip things around... make the middle trains a little slower and make the outter trains a bit faster. When this is all working right, I'm going to work on adding some props and such and then start on the lighting (which I am very bad at, apparently hehe). Gonna work on that trigger_push for the flag, too.

If anyone would let me test this map on a real server, let me know. I got a friend to host it from his computer, and the trains were laggy. He doesn't have a grand computer either, so that could've made it worse. I kind of need to know if it will work on a real server because if not, I'll have to go with my idea of removing some trains altogether.

Again, thanks to all for your support!
 

ryodoan

Resident Bum
Nov 2, 2007
409
117
Well, your image links are borked for me... Also, this is just a test map right? Just saying that if it was a real map then there could be some problems if you can see each others intelligences... (snipers!)