2fort Revamp

[Terr]

Wouldn't that make it almost too easy to get the intel out?

I can make guesses, but ultimately it'll need a playtest. There are a variety of things I can try doing if it's too easy:

• Increase the amount of twisty cave that has to be swum.
• Move the exit pipe to be closer to the sewer-stairs.
• Find some tasteful way to let defenders know someone is taking that route. (Really noisy distinct custom door or splash sound?)
• Put a button for the door that must be pressed first, and a slow-moving door/trapdoor?

I could always move the entrance door further up the spiral, but then it would be past the corner where I see most spiral-escapers already dying.

Here's some of the pictures I've been posting on the [ame="http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?p=10822434#post10822434"]Steam forums[/ame]. (Some of them are missing the fog due to cordon issues.)












The green lights are supposed to be from glow-sticks on the floor, but I haven't gotten to the custom model yet. (Never done any serious modeling before.)

Is the green light good because it's visually different and interesting, or bad because it's not consistent with other underground lighting? I'm not sure.

 

[Engineer]

I dont remember, ithink i allready posted here, but now i saw your signature... Sorry man, but this isn't your first map This is VALVe content that you are editing... Please stop...Or atleast don't claim it as your map...

 

[Psy]

The green lights are horrible. This is TF2 not TFC.

 

[eraSuS]

GJ, you made a shitty map decent.
I like the green lights, feels cool.

 

[Void]

The green lights look horrid.

TF2 has style, mein freund, and green lighting isn't part of it.

 

[Terr]

Or atleast don't claim it as your map...

Can you please clarify exactly what you mean by this, dear sir?

Any player dumb enough to believe either that
(A) the map is an official one by Valve
or
(B) the map isn't a modification of the original 2fort
... that type of person's cluelessness isn't my problem. (Blame the parents. Or videogames.)

And if I didn't say I was involved making it, who the heck should I put down as "Author"? Obviously I can't leave it blank (even if various online forms allowed it) and having it be blank or "Valve" means you'd just start complaining that I was somehow trying to mislead people that it's official.

Is the green light good because it's visually different and interesting, or bad because it's not consistent with other underground lighting? I'm not sure.

The green lights look horrid. TF2 has style, mein freund, and green lighting isn't part of it.

So you want the warm/cool lights embedded in the ceiling or walls, I take it? I would point out that TF2 stock maps don't have gloomy rocky underwater tunnels much either.

I could do yellow glow-sticks, but that just seems weird. (Esp. for the time period.) Players might think they're anlion grubs or something. Unfortunately the positioning doesn't make much sense for having some sort of "skylight" shafts.

 

[Engineer]

Are you trying to tell me that this isnt a modification of 2fort What did u do than? Remade the all map?

 

[AntonJ3000]

And if I didn't say I was involved making it, who the heck should I put down as "Author"? Obviously I can't leave it blank (even if various online forms allowed it) and having it be blank or "Valve" means you'd just start complaining that I was somehow trying to mislead people that it's official.

Instead of doing

[HvC]Terr - Mapper
Valve Software - Original Map SDK provider

Do something like

[HvC]Terr - Minor edits on the map
Valve Software - Mapper and Original SDK Provider

 

[Terr]

Look, at some point I think it boils down to this: I'm not going to run in circles futilely trying to gain your approval over the little details of how the map is presented, because I don't think it's really possible to please you: You're dead set against the entire project on some quasi-doctrinal level.

However, if you have any useful criticism, even if negative (ex: "Your clipping planes suck in room X") then I'm certainly interested.

 

[Terr]

OK, so I've been having second-thoughts about the current water-ramps. They make the bridge pretty superfluous, because you can just jump in the water and then climb out. I'd like to maintain a way to leave the water without making the bridge a less-attractive route for crossing from one side to another.



So copied from the [ame=http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?p=10977557#post10977557]Steam Forums post[/ame], what do you guys think about this? I am deliberately trying to fashion a way-out which is less convenient. (Both in terms of distance traveled, and also in terms of being able to defend yourself against attack.)

It has the benefit of seeming at least plausible for a canal/river construct. It could also be decorated as the destroyed pilings of an earlier bridge.

Someone suggested running planks across, which I may do--it allows steeper inclines than horizontal jumping--in which case I can eliminate the center pillar and move the right-hand pillar further from the wall.

 

[Terr]

OK, a [ame="http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showpost.php?p=10986956&postcount=272"]new iteration[/ame] for the "more dangerous and risky than before but still usable way out of the water" goal. I'm going for the look of old bridge pilings.

Before and After. If you look closely, you'll see I expanded the central area by about 64 units in each direction, although there's still a bit more touch-up work to do. Because of this, the area has more open space thatn before, even with the pilings.

​

Another angle.

​

A small nailed-in piece of board makes it much easier to go up the ramp (you can't go too far and fall off) and prevents people on the other side from using it as another bridge to keep their toes dry.

​

Thoughts?

 

[Terr]

Beta-2 uploaded. Big changes.

I'll marshall more enthusiasm after I've gotten some sleep

 

[Peterm]

this map is good i played it

 

[Monster Killer]

I thought you were not allowed to simply edit valve maps then post them here?

Though some of the changes look alright and in my point of view some of them would make game play slightly better.

 

[Micnax]

I thought you were not allowed to simply edit valve maps then post them here?

They are allowed, they're just generally frowned upon.

 

[absurdistof]

He's redeemed himself

http://forums.tf2maps.net/showthread.php?t=9301

 

[The Political Gamer]

Why was this thread revived? :E

 

[Terr]

Dunno. :3

Sometime I plan to go back and finish up on B3, but right now most of my free time is tied up in PackBsp. (Which keeps increasing in scope...)

 

[Terr]

Taking a break from PackBSP, gonna try to get B3 out the door soon.

• Major initiative to decrease file-size, mainly by disabling vertex lighting for everything that doesn't need it, and doing a bunch of lighting-origin fine tuning.
• Re-did the RED tower as brushwork to solve annoying lighting artifacts. It doesn't charmingly lean to the side anymore, but I doubt many people noticed it in the first place.
• Yet another attempt at good "water ramps".
• More light and decorative landmarks down in the underwater tunnel to help players orient themselves.

 

[Terr]

I think folks on TF2maps might like this, atypically because I am working off of a stock map, since it makes for an apples/apples comparison to the original 2fort.

The B2 -> B3 optimization involved turning off vertex-lighting on all static props except a few that really needed it, and using lighting_target for the rest. (Lots of iterative VRAD+cordon work to get it just right.)