Airfield Assault

KotH Airfield Assault A9A

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Airfield Assault (Mirrored) - Plan B ain't gonna be pretty!

This is the original and mirrored version of the map, the name is a placeholder.
The map consists of a daring raid of BLU's Airfield.

The story goes:

After months of suffering casualties caused by BLU's air superiority, a small, motorized squad of RED commandos which have snuck through BLU's frontlines and their many Scouting Airplanes, have been spotted lurking near the airfield, the commandos being aware that they have been spotted, with their hopes of a clean and stealthy accomplishment of objectives gone, rush the town that's separating them from the airfield where they meet BLU guards defending said airfield. A bloody battle ensues.


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-Door to mid no longer looks like it's functional
-Mid has been widened, more space to fight in! yay!
-Reduced explosive's barrel damage output to 150 (from 250), only classes below 150 can get ohk now, if they're really close to the barrel of course
-Partially decreased the number of sightlines
-Health packs and ammo are now closer to mid, they've also been made easier to spot
-Mid point's house has had his windows made bigger so they cover the point less.
-Added a new route that has the high ground over Midpoint.
-Sniper House has had one of their windows blocked (the one closest to the entry) with glass because of the unfair and very concealed positions snipers could get without even getting in the house
-Sniper House has had his windows narrowed
-Lots of complaining over the house overlooking mid having a stair that leads to nowhere, now it's a path to ammo, hopefully, it will make sentry nests more common in that spot
-BLU spawn has been textured about 70% of the way, details are still lacking
-Now there is a nice big gap in the house near spawn leading to the flank, for scouts rollout and the like.
-BLU spawn now has some pretty beams from which lamps are hanging from.
-The height of the wooden barricade that blocks flank from midpoint has been made taller due to sneaky bowmen tryna pick people inside the midpoint house without a chance of them retaliating back
-A new route under the bridge has been made to completely avoid the explosive barrel.
-A soundscape has been added
-Other miscellaneous stuff I'm probably forgetting

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= EXPAND =
Update A3A

Patch Notes:

-Got rid of mid point house entirely, replacing it with a bridge with stone walls, the Minecraft kind of stone walls, I don't like calling them "fences"

-Separated the yard in 2 sides with a hedge to make fights feel, well, "separated" (the hedge has an entry that leads to the other side).

-Left flank's (POV of RED) high ground has been lowered, the house that was there was replaced with hedges (without a roof ofc), more playable space has been added in width but reduced in length.

-House leading to left flank has been made bigger.

-House leading to left flank has had its props near the entrance clipped off so some very nasty ambushes can't happen.

-House leading to left flank has had a window added looking to the tunnel, hedges too. Also will prevent getting shot in the back from the corner that's there, a tree has been added to reduce the severity of the corner.

-Changed the small ammopack to a medium one in the left flank closest to the point.

- The supplies that were near the house in the left flank that was removed have been moved near the new window.

-Some very early out of bounds areas have been added that might influence gameplay

-Patch notes, from now on, will be separated with a line so you can actually read them (sorry, not sorry)

-Added a small Healthkit to the tunnel connecting left flanks.

-Removed Healthkit under the bridge.

- (crabs) EXPLOSION BARREL IS GONE (crabs)
- (crabs) UNECCESARY WALL/FENCE ATROCITY IS GONE (crabs)
- (crabs) MID ROUTE'S HOUSE IS GONE (crabs)

-Playable space under the bridge is no longer divided into 2 small routes, they are now 2 medium routes :)

-A nicer solution has been found against an OP sentry/sniper spot on the right high ground flank, the sign has been removed because it's no longer needed.

-The room from which you drop from to the point in the right flank has been made bigger, the trench wall has been removed.

-More routes have been added to right flank's high ground house

-Supplies in right flank have been moved to be near the hedges

-The first house that leads to left flank has had his broken wall patched up, replaced with windows with glass to prevent some very ridiculous high ground taking of attacking forces against the ****ing spawn ( what was I thinking? )

-Entirely removed mid route's first house door that looked like it could open

-Smoothed out the supplies over the tables in left flank with playerclips so you don't have to jump.

-The second window in the right flank high ground house has been widened.

-The unexploded bomb with warning signs has been sadly removed :c

-Hedges in the right flank has been player clipped to prevent bruh moments, you could previously get stuck in these pretty easily, sorry Emil.

-Added some cover to both sidewalks near mid.

-Sidewalks are now wider.

-Overall, more playable space has been added.

-Other miscellaneous stuff I'm probably forgetting.

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= CONCEPT =
Minor Update A3B

Most of these changes are rough concepts that will be expanded upon A4 if they do well

-Sniper deck's opened window has been exposed way more.

-Removed the table that had supplies on it on the left flank (POV of RED), the supplies are now in the ground.

-Tunnel near mid that was previously blocked by a tank and a wood barrier has been removed, making a new route. Hopefully, this will make people trying to flank those who are on the point visible and predictable, you'll also won't have to completely retreat from the point in order to get health or ammo since of the new supplies placement.

-Replaced the 3 small healthkits on the left flank with a single medium healthkit in the middle.

-Expanded first house leading to mid route from spawn, also added some windows to it.

-Changed the stairs on the sniper house that led to high ground flank over mid with a drop, having to get back up there with a small crate, in the same building the stair has been moved a little to make them feel less steep.

-Added cover to stairs from pit leading to the left sidewalk.

-Removed trench walls that were against the support of the bridge in the pit.

-Opened up sidewalks by the sides of mid a little.

-Red spawn has been completely detailed and textured.



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= FULFILLMENT =
Update A4A

These new changes are the ones that were previously in A3B plus a few more, as I said then, these have been expanded upon.
-Sniper Deck has been nerfed even further by making it easier for enemies to get into and limiting its sightline with a hanging sign.

-A new route has been added that connects both right flank houses (POV of RED)

-Removed the pillar supporting the bridge in the middle increasing playable space, added a small pool of water in its place.

-Added a medium healthkit below the bridge in the middle, since literally no one was going there.

-Removed tunnel, the layout stayed mostly the same since hedges now make as if they were the tunnel's walls. The path that went through that tunnel to flank the point has been widened.

-Handrails now have colors depending on which side they are.

-Highground on the left flank surrounded by hedges is now bigger.

-Left sidewalk cover has had a makeover to prevent sightlines better.

-Added a trenchwall on top of the small house by the sidewalk on the right flank to prevent OP high ground against two of its entries.

-Aligned RED spawn's floorboard cracks with the board's texture for that sweet sweet 10/10 user experience.

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= Center =
Update A5A

Some changes were reverted from A4A, others were completely remade, having the same objective but with a different execution.

-Removed room connecting both houses on the right flank (POV OF RED) because the fighting was too unfocused and people were fighting on the sides instead of on the point.

-Added a few pipes near the point on the right sidewalk so you can climb to the sniper deck.

-The entry of the hedges that were blocked by a trenchwall is now just a hedge without and entry.

-Medium healthkit that was were left flank connected with the mid point was removed, making that area riskier.

-The lone ammo supply that was close to the window on the left flank is now accompanied by a small healthkit.

-A lot of doors have been made bigger so you don't smash your forehead when you jump against the door's frame.

-Changed the cover on the left sidewalk to prevent head glitching.

-Added some basic optimization, most noticeable inside buildings.

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= UPGRADE =
Minor Update A5B

These changes are mostly improvements to previous ones.

-Clipped a spot on the wall on the left flank (POV of RED) that made for an OP ambush

-Fixed a good sniper spot that could be jumped to from sniper deck so you can no longer do that.

-Changed the medium ammo on the left flank connector to a small one.

-Made the climbable pipes that lead to sniper deck more clear that they can be climbed.

-Added to 2 small ammo packs in mid.

-A new gate has been added to the house that leads to the right flank to prevent a very nasty sightline.

-Changed left sidewalk cover's back to a ramp instead of crates.

-Replaced the sandbags that helped you climb to the left's flank high ground with a box.

-Removed the hanging steel sheets that lead to the left sidewalk since the ramp already does a good job at breaking up sightlines.



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= TEXTURED =
Mayor Update A6A


This is almost a beta since most of the map has already been detailed, however, I still want to make somewhat big changes so it'll stay in alpha for now.
This update brings the Old Brick Town (Red) VS A highly modern and industrialized base with hangars (Blu) to life.

-Most of the map has been detailed and textured, some details, however, are still lacking and will be added later. Lightning is also only final in the blue side, it still needs work on reds.

-Unclipped a spot on the wall on the left flank (POV of RED) that made for an OP ambush because i can't find a way to clip this and make it obvious enough, in a future update i will try to fix this spot regardless.

-Sniper deck house has been remade into a big industrial building with different gameplay mechanics.
-Sniper deck isn't as concealed as it used to be.
-Opened up the roof to allow bombings.
-Now both houses are connected somewhat.
-People used the jump to the sniper deck (those 2 crates that were besides 3 pipes that acted as a stair) very little since it wasn't obvious enough so they were replaced with huge white pipes that don't require you to jump 4 goddamn times.

-Minor changes to the first set of buildings leading to routes, mostly replacing big slopes with smaller stairs.

-Changed the skybox and the time of day to a warmer, gloomier afternoon.

-Replaced the 4 fences that (barely) covered the point with a more sturdier and better at concealing building.

-Right flank has been changed so it's more balanced (?) man, i wanted to experiment with the flow really, that's it.

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pont

huh? wuh?
aa
Mar 15, 2018
345
522
hey! people have been telling you to optimise your map every time it's tested. i'm going to take the time to explain why and how, since at this point it's been so many versions with the same complaints that i'm guessing you don't know.

the source engine cuts maps up into 'visibility leaves' - invisible boxes that split the map up into little chunks it can render, or not render, every frame. these are visible ingame with mat_leafvis 3, or in hammer with 'Load Portalfile' under the Map dropdown. during compile, VBSP creates visleaves, and VVIS figures out which leaves see eachother, checking line-of-sight between every vertex of every leaf. in large, open areas, VBSP automatically cuts leaves every few thousand units on the X and Y (horizontal) axes, but not on the Z (vertical) axis. this is why maps with their skybox as just one huge open box around the map like this run poorly.
upload_2020-4-14_21-17-37.png

your map is like this, causing everything outdoors (a LOT of props) to render constantly, even when they're not in line-of-sight. frontline props are generally pretty expensive to render compared to other assets - combined with rendering 23 other players, this consistently tanks people's framerates. i'm on a 1080ti even my game begins to struggle.

there are two main ways to solve this. the first is to bring the skybox tighter around the map. your map has two rows of buildings between team yards and lobbies that are perfect candidates for this.
upload_2020-4-14_21-39-17.png

whilst this means you won't be able to see the whole map from a high vantage point, nobody will notice or care. anyone up that high will be rocket/sticky jumping and will be focused on movement or be in combat.

the other thing you could do is use a hint brush (toolsskip, with toolshint on the side(s) you want to cut visleaves with) over the whole map to split the tall visleaves.
upload_2020-4-14_21-45-35.png

the hint face should be above all high detail props and geometry to cull them properly, and below or equal height to the skyline or you'll still get the same issue of the top vertices of each leaf being able to see eachother over buildings.

another thing you can do to help optimisation is to set fade distances on your props. this lets you control the distance at which source stops rendering a model, and is displayed by a wireframe sphere in the editor. since you use a lot of frontline assets, i'd recommend doing this as well as the visibility optimisations above.
 

Narpas

Takes way to long to make and update maps
aa
Jun 11, 2015
433
436
Nodraw.net has a great accessable guide on how optimization works, and common ways to optimize your map, and Interlopers has a very in-depth guide explaining exactly how everything works; I'd suggest reading up on both of them!
 

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= FADE =
Optimization Update A6C

Why not a6b? because: reasons.

-Deleted some windows and other details because of cluttering.

-Replaced hedges with walls to fit the theme of blu's side

-Added hints

-Added far-z clipping plane, also fog

-Pretty aggressive prop fade distances all over the map to aid optimization (planning to update the map so it uses pack v1.3 which has better optimization)

-Changed (almost) every func_areaportal with func_areaportalwindow

-Tightened the skybox around buildings, the nodraw under the floor has also been tightened

-Comparing both versions, I believe there's a 80% performance enhancement in this one​

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= lol =
""minor"" Update A7A


Thanks to void for suggesting to me this easy fix and the Frontline dev team for dismantling the infamous "unoptimized" stereotype given to map using said theme with version 1.3!


-Just updated the assets this map is using to v1.3

-This plus my heavy optimization pass of a6c gives an extraordinary performance boost of 150% from the original a6a, not even joking.​

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= DIMES =
Update A8A


Both sides have been changed plenty, mostly to make people fight in the middle more.

-Added one-way doors leading to the hedges on the left side (POV of RED) to make it less of a powerful position by denying retreats.

-The right side's high ground has been massively simplified.

-Dimed lights that brightened up detail only spaces.

-Now it's possible to stand on the roof of the tiny building on the right side.

-The left side's hedge areas have been changed a lot so teams can't just peacefully shot out of it without fighting because before they were separated, now those areas are united.

-Simplified some detail further.

-Removed windows that were in the hedge area because they were just too powerful.

-Changed the bright red and blu colors on the hedge area's walls to a less intrusive wood color

-Changed supplies placement to make control of the middle area more rewarding.

-A spot on the blu's side in which you could stand on the edge of the roof has been fixed.

-Significantly changed the middle's bridge house to make it a safer position for those that are on it or capping it.


Note: I want to address the feedback about the inconsistencies with the map's theme; they are not being ignored, i will act on them when I'm satisfied with how the map's layout plays.
Also, I'm sorry for not updating this when i updated the images! tf2maps decided to act up on me and really didn't want to let me upload anything!​

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= ROTATE =
Update A9A


This update is like a8a but expanded upon.

-The one way doors felt like they did wonders to the map's flow, achieving its intended goal of making people fighting were they're supposed to, in the middle. However, the same doors made nests very powerful and if you wanted to go back to that same room you had to deal with pretty long travel times + having to cross mid, this has been addressed (still needs to be tested) by making a third entry to that room, cutting travel times shorter and making nests up there a little bit more of a risk-reward kind of thing

-A small ammo pack has been added near that room mentioned earlier since getting a nest up there is difficult because of lack of supplies nearby and in safe places.

-Added barricades on the hedges overlooking mid to cut door to door sightlines

-Hedges area near mid has been widened considerably because of the change made earlier so it doesn't feel tight.

-Changed the part in which the wood planks are against the box facing the ammo packs to be facing, instead, the attacking sides.

-Added a hole on the wall near Hedges to reward aggressive snipers with a nice and discreet sightline that overlooks the enemy's sniper's deck, making that spot a bit more balanced.

-Changed the layout of the spawns so I could get rid of the cheap fix (that thing that every experienced player hates) that was the barricade right in front of the door to block sightlines.

-Removed sandbags on top of wood stand near spawn because they felt to me like they AIDED the spawn camper instead of the spawner.

-Spawn now has 4 doors instead of 3.

-Spawn now has a big one way window to primarily warn people if there are snipers on main route, which has a good sightline into spawn.

-Balanced sniper deck further by rotating the stairs shortening travel times to get up there.

-On BLU's sniper deck you had this aggressive and distracting constant popping in and out of trees near RED's warehouse, this has been fixed.

-Red spawn's doors have been fully opened!

Note: I'm thinking about making one of those top view of the map naming every place in it image, like; sniper deck, lower, warehouse, cobby and such. So i can be more specific in the update notes and (hopefully) aid competitive players with their callouts.
However, I'm waiting for the moment when i feel like the layout is solid enough.​

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