Arena Lighthouse

Galago

L2: Junior Member
Sep 29, 2008
90
5
Gameday response:
I loved your map. I play spy, and I racked up tons of kills. It provides TONS of nooks and areas to uncloak and sneak around. For me it was great, but for everyone elses' sake, you might want to do something about that. A good spy is deadly on your map. GJ; it could (and should ;D) be an official Valve map.
 

laghlagh

L6: Sharp Member
Jul 15, 2008
389
53
I played this a few minutes on gameday, and I have to say it's really beatiful. The granary sky, boat, lighting and lighthouse really gives this an unique feel.
 

cornontheCoD

L420: High Member
Mar 25, 2008
437
70
I never thought I would see something that qualifies as a 'cool spectator camera', but in your map, there is one. I really like the fact that two of the cameras are in the same place but on opposite sides, so you can see the same layout, but different textures, lighting, etc.
 

laghlagh

L6: Sharp Member
Jul 15, 2008
389
53
If you can you should add some discret sounds, like seagulls and waves.
 

Psy

The Imp Queen
aa
Apr 9, 2008
1,706
1,491
Thanks for the comments guys.

There are seagulls and waves that can be heard in the distance. It's just hard to hear over all the gunfire. :p
 

laghlagh

L6: Sharp Member
Jul 15, 2008
389
53
Thanks for the comments guys.

There are seagulls and waves that can be heard in the distance. It's just hard to hear over all the gunfire. :p
Smart minds think alike!
 

Psy

The Imp Queen
aa
Apr 9, 2008
1,706
1,491
There's another playtest going on tonight at 8pm GMT so feel free to come play.

Server Name: Wireplay.co.uk TF2 <16> Arena Lighthouse Playtest [no crits]
IP: 194.154.191.5:27019
Time: 8pm GMT
 

Laz

L420: High Member
Jul 5, 2008
461
35
looking good, one issue I have though, why is there a lighthouse in the middle of a small town? They tend to be on the edges of cliffs etc... perhaps you could consider a triangle layout of blu spawn-red spawn-lighthouse, instead of the linear blu spawn-lighthouse-red spawn you have now. Might even cause a slight change of gameplay, as people will not have to fight Through the other team, but alongside each other going towards the same direction.

Just throwing ideas out there :)

Defenitly going to give this one a try though :D
 

Psy

The Imp Queen
aa
Apr 9, 2008
1,706
1,491
looking good, one issue I have though, why is there a lighthouse in the middle of a small town? They tend to be on the edges of cliffs etc... perhaps you could consider a triangle layout of blu spawn-red spawn-lighthouse, instead of the linear blu spawn-lighthouse-red spawn you have now. Might even cause a slight change of gameplay, as people will not have to fight Through the other team, but alongside each other going towards the same direction.

Just throwing ideas out there :)

That's a good idea but it's a little too late to make any major changes to the layout now. ;)

I've been working on Beta 2 and so far I've addressed some issues.

First of all, I've changed the layout a fair bit to give engineers a few useful sentry gun positions and I've also moved the ammopacks around. There are now two large ammopacks; one outside spawn and one on each side of the lighthouse. This will hopefully please offensive engineers. :)

Maybe this is a major change but the health pack has been removed and replaced with water. I always found that when it was down to 1 player on each team players would just run to cap the point, retreat to collect the health then repeatingly move back and forth between spawn and the cap which was boring to watch and often lead to little.

In the words of Caspian from SPUF said, "It slows down the game when there are few players remaining. Players will retreat for health and this just lengthens the wait for everyone watching."

Some other changes include the lighting which has been modified so it's more evenly lit up for either side, the middle building which has been turned into an interior space, and the positioning of cover has been changed to help improve the flow of the layout.

Pics sometime soon, release for next week's Gameday. :D
 

HojoTheGreat

L5: Dapper Member
Nov 11, 2008
206
34
Random suggestion:

What if you placed a single small medkit on a platform on the 2nd level of the lighthouse? Forces the player to choose to move into the open to get it, and get off the capture point. Or don't have it at all, I think either option is good, this was just an alternate idea if you still want a medkit. Map looked great when I loaded it up, and the soundscape was perfect, well done!
 

Caspian30

L1: Registered
Nov 7, 2008
10
1
I like the addition of larger ammo packs :)
Scrambling for those little ammo packs made it really tough to offensively engineer.

The lighthouse doesn't seem like a good spot for health. A team on the control point has the advantage to grab health. If no one is occupying the CP, then the lighthouse is relatively safe area to snag health from.

Lumberyard is the only stock arena map that features a health pack, and that is because there is no water. I think water is the greater convenience because it balances out burn damage a little more. Once the health packs are gone, the Pyro gets a huge advantage. One flare shot will deal 70 damage (20 base + 50 burn).

Health packs do slow down the match, which goes against the fast pace sudden death style of Arena.

With additional metal, dispensers can be set up more often.
 

laghlagh

L6: Sharp Member
Jul 15, 2008
389
53
Yeah I thpught about that too. It felt like the little town was in constant shadow? I suppose that can be quite cool with lots of warm lights though.
 

Psy

The Imp Queen
aa
Apr 9, 2008
1,706
1,491
Ahah. So that's how you fix those corrugated metal sheets. Thanks. :)
 

YM

LVL100 YM
aa
Dec 5, 2007
7,135
6,056
Yeah the way they've been made is using a single sheet of polygons, normally it would only be visible from one side but they've used a line in the vmt that makes it visible from both. Light however needs to fall on the front for it to light the prop, if it falls on the back it doesn't do anything and you end up with a dark prop.
Whoever made gravelpit doesn't know this (or didn't know this) because they've put one of these metal sheets the wrong way around and then stuck a light entity near it to try and light it, it appears pitch black ingame.
Its annoying because a lot of the time they look better the wrong way around, but then they're all dark :(
 

YM

LVL100 YM
aa
Dec 5, 2007
7,135
6,056
Oh I thought I added a description for it.. must not have gone through.

It was something along the lines of:
The rest of the map is mainly metal or wood and these two pillars are pretty much the only brick feature, it really sicks out as out of place.
Also its too dark!
 

Psy

The Imp Queen
aa
Apr 9, 2008
1,706
1,491
arena_lighthouse_b20000.jpg

arena_lighthouse_b20002.jpg

arena_lighthouse_b20003.jpg


Just a quick compile with some obvious flaws. :p
 

Caspian30

L1: Registered
Nov 7, 2008
10
1
The extra lighting feels warm :)
Before it did feel a little damp and dark, but perhaps that is what you were going for initially.

On my favourite Arena server, Lighthouse now has a spot on the map chooser.

Pimp that server!
LUElinks Scientologist Arena Experience
IP: 8.9.8.52:27015
 

Psy

The Imp Queen
aa
Apr 9, 2008
1,706
1,491
Just a little copy and pasta from Interlopers highlighting the changes for Beta 2.

Gameplay

The main problem with the gameplay so far is the dominance of scouts, lack of metal and the existence of healthkits.

The flaw with the healthkits was kindly pointed out by Caspian on the SPUF.

Caspian said:
It slows down the game when there are few players remaining. Players will retreat for health and this just lengthens the wait for everyone watching.

In light of this I've removed the healthkits and replaced them with pools of water.

Another thing which players complained about is the lack of ammopacks so I've added two large ammopacks on each team's side - one at the lighthouse and one outside spawn - whilst before I only had two small ammopacks for either side which isn't very useful for engineers.

Now for some side-by-side comparisons.

flow-change.jpg


Here I've removed the dead-end by deleting the fence and rotating one of the corrugated sheets so that it rests on the wooden rails. Now it can now be used as a ramp to jump over the ledge thus giving pyros and spies an escape route for when their ambushes go horribly wrong. :D

cover-change-before.jpg

cover-change-after.jpg


As you can tell, I've added an extra concrete block therefore creating a more viable position to take cover and to build a sentry. The addition of some hard-cover along the wall in the middle (in the form of a some support beams and a wall) makes it easier for engineers' buildings to survive against demomen who could typically stand well out of the sentries range without being harmed, and to help constrict scouts who can dominate the map when it's less than 5 players on each team.

building-before.jpg

building-after.jpg


Again, this area was far too open in Beta 1 so I've fleshed it out a little to turn it into a building you can actually enter.

building.jpg


Now here's a space that is useful for classes that are particular slow or weak when exposed in the open. This room can be used by players to transverse across the width of the map without putting themselves at risk of being sniped or being caught up by scouts.

Conclusion

So hopefully once I've completed all the changes I want to make, the gameplay in the next version will be pretty much final because then I can focus purely on fleshing out the details and making it look purdy. :)