Tomb

It's hard to pass judgement without playing it, just go ahead and toss it out there!

Looks great, solid application of the Egypt style

There should be something done to differentiate team color between sides. That's more of a gripe with the Egypt style in general than anything specific about your map, though

Evang7 said:

Nice--this is the first Egypt-styled map I've seen that I really like visually since...Egypt!

Click to expand...

This is the first Egypt-styled map I've seen that I really like visually... period.

Seriously, it looks awesome and seems to me that it will play well too.

Can't wait to try it out on a gameday soon.

well...it was running a short time ago on a couch athletics server
The was alot of complaining about the spawn doors, basically it was that common problem where they close on people and the only solution is to have everyone take a few steps back before they will open again. Usually a result of using onstarttouch instead of onstarttouchall.

Aside from that I kinda like the concept of the control point being at the bottom of a pit, kinda forces people to kill the other team before capping. Its also a bit difficult to be useful as an engie. There is definitely no way to get a sentry guarding the point, and thats not necessarily a bad thing, but some effective position in guarding the area around the point would be nice.

And this is just something I was thinking...but maybe a bridge extending above the point would be interesting.

One more thing...jumping up the steps is not fun...i mean...im aware of the ramps and all...but you expect to be able to climb the steps, and alot of the times its the shortest path

I wouldn't really say it was ruining the map...just every so often you would hear "I hate this damn door"
I personally only got stuck once...but then Im kinda used to seeing it.

And unfortunately I don't really have any ideas for how to make it more engie friendly.

EDIT: and don't forget to switch the onEndTouchAll as well

The particle problems, if you're talking about Pyro's flames happened TF2-wide, it's Valve's problem.

I'd imagine another option for the bridge over the point could be that its broken and in disrepair, as in it extends only partly out on each side before falling away but the gap is small enough for scouts to double jump across if need be.

Yeah, I was playing Swiftwater at the time but they continued into Goldrush and Fastlane

The main issue now is that, in my view, the layout isn't particularly suited for KOTH. Virtually every successful KOTH map, in terms of gameplay, offers a center point that is protected in some way, with a finite number of entry points (Garbage Day, Loader, Harvest, Oilfield, Lighthouse, to name a few). Tomb's point is exposed to virtually the entire map, and it seems like an exercise in which team can spam the point the most. While it won't fix the issue, reducing the capture time dramatically would help. Loader and Garbage Day have short capture times and it makes for fast-paced, interesting gameplay - though the rounds tend to last longer as the point's handed off between the two teams much more frequently.

Two other major issues, IMO. First, there are extreme lines of sight for snipers in every area of the map. I think you should add walls or obstacles in the side routes on the "surface" (non-sunken) areas of the map to break up LOS. Secondly, the steps impede movement too much. In forcing players to pause and jump, the steps make players incredibly vulnerable and frustrate attempts to rapidly escape the area below. Snipers and other players up on the surface have free range of motion, but the steps turn the capture point area into a fish-in-a-barrel situation.

There are at least two ways of addressing the layout issue - you could add more structure around the point itself. You already have two small walls, but their protection is very minimal and it limits visibility when you're on the point more than it helps guard you against spam. You could add a roof over the point and space the walls out a bit further, aligning the entrances with the sides of the map (rotate the walls 90 degrees).

A second method is basically vertically inverting the map. Obviously, this is a very dramatic change, but one to consider. As it stands, it's virtually impossible to defend yourself from players perched up on the surface of the map. When shooting upwards, especially with rockets/pipes, your aim has to be perfect, and you lose out on splash damage, killing most of your effectiveness right there. For other weapons, the distance involved combined with weapon spread reduces their damage to the point of being useless.

I think if you were to simply switch the game rules to KOTH and change nothing else, Watchtower would have much more satisfying gameplay than Tomb in its current form.