Ascension

Hanz

Ravin' Rabbid
aa
Jan 18, 2009
844
479
I played the map on gameday and on the gameday a week ago, and, I like the map very much! :D

I maybe suggest to make the captimes at A, B and C a bit shorter, or give, especially at A, blu some more advantange.

I really hope the map is on the next gameday!
 

captainAngry

L420: High Member
Feb 1, 2009
434
247
We played this one during our play test last night. I liked it but being untexttured there were a lot of people that had no idea what to do and ran around in circles. It has a lot of potential and I look forward to playing a future incarnation that isn't solid red :D.

I had no problem making my way around but some people aren't as used to dev textures as I am I guess.

 

Hobbes

L1: Registered
Feb 26, 2009
30
0
Updated to Alpha 5. Barring any major changes that come up on Game Day, I should be able to get most of the texturing done after this release.

Alpha 5: [May 8th, 2009]
- Opened up all paths
- Added second level to Blue spawn
- More paths between points
- Added gates blocking Blue from getting to point D before they should
- Finished displacements at point D
- Started texturing point D
- Slightly reduced cap times at A,B,C and increased D to 7 seconds
- Added another level to the Red side of point A
- Increased round times and awarded time from points
- Completely re-did direction signs
- First-pass Lighting at point D
- Generally tried to improve flow between points and approach to point A from Blue spawn
- Other small changes
 

DaFatCat

L3: Member
Apr 19, 2009
129
11
Looks to be a good layout, but it seems a bit crowded.
 

Fireman

L4: Comfortable Member
Mar 21, 2008
150
59
Comments from today's gameday

A seems really well balanced, evenly matched teams should be able to have a good fight for it.

B and C both went down relatively quickly following A, depending on which the offense decided to go for first. I didn't see either side's engineers going to set up at C, whenever they did decide to defend one of the second tier points, they seemed to favor B (odd since the defensive cover points there were rather poor at best). The map's flow out of the defending spawn just seems to promote the defense moving left instead of right.

Some oddities:

I don't know how Nine got back here, but he was definitely making the attacking demo rage with his stealth stickies :rolleyes:
cp_ascension_a50015.jpg


Your props, they are in my spawn!
cp_ascension_a50016.jpg
 

Rasputin

L3: Member
Sep 20, 2008
107
20
I don't know how Nine got back here, but he was definitely making the attacking demo rage with his stealth stickies :rolleyes:


Yes I was.

Anyways, I thought the map was balanced for the most part besides the defense having just one or two many spots that took dominance over the attackers, but it may have been just my terrible disposition and mine being spawn-camped at A...

Most of the action went around point B with C hardly being defended and D falling relatively quickly although this may have been due to the lack of good engineer placement spots. The last point also felt a bit cramped and the trafficking felt a bit awkward at times.
Keep up the good work.
 

Hobbes

L1: Registered
Feb 26, 2009
30
0
Gameday bump.

I don't know what happened with that door at "D" during the first round... the logic for it is sound, and it works every time I test it. Maybe something was blocking it from opening? I'll keep investigating.
 

Hobbes

L1: Registered
Feb 26, 2009
30
0
Update for Alpha 7 release. I didn't get a chance to get this tested last weekend since the Gameday's filled up so fast, so this should be a big update from the last one.

Alpha 7: [May 27th, 2009]
-First texture pass, just to get a feel for the look.
-Re-designed Blue spawn from the ground up
-Optimized all staircases
-Added walkable rafters above exits from Blue spawn
-You can now build in the front section of blue spawn, and the windowed hallway on the 2nd floor.
-Finished displacements at point A
-Made all non-visible faces NoDraw
-Added boxes outside the "C" door of blue spawn, letting you get up to the main area.
-Added spectator cameras (finally)
-Fixed a clipping problem at the track side door to point D.
-Various smaller changes.
 

Hobbes

L1: Registered
Feb 26, 2009
30
0
Gameday bump. Thanks for playing everyone. What did you think?

I heard a lot of complaints about lack of signs, which I will try to remedy this week. Any other thoughts? gameplay or aesthetically?
 

engoldin

L2: Junior Member
Apr 10, 2009
80
10
Let me open by saying I wasn't around on gameday. I was helping a friend move and couldn't play this one. That said, ascension might be my favorite "innovative" map in circulation right now. This map is highly interconnected and has an uphill feel that I haven't seen implemented as cleanly in other projects. The downside of the interconnection is that the map is complicated and navigation can be a real problem until you rise to the peak of the learning curve. The upside, which I think outweighs the down, is that the player has a vast number of routes to choose from and will make different decisions depending on the advantages that each offers... I think this above almost all other factors makes for great gameplay.
 

Hobbes

L1: Registered
Feb 26, 2009
30
0
Let me open by saying I wasn't around on gameday. I was helping a friend move and couldn't play this one. That said, ascension might be my favorite "innovative" map in circulation right now. This map is highly interconnected and has an uphill feel that I haven't seen implemented as cleanly in other projects. The downside of the interconnection is that the map is complicated and navigation can be a real problem until you rise to the peak of the learning curve. The upside, which I think outweighs the down, is that the player has a vast number of routes to choose from and will make different decisions depending on the advantages that each offers... I think this above almost all other factors makes for great gameplay.


I'm sort of blown away by your response, thanks a ton :D.

Gameday's are great for finding out the faults in a map, but then all you're hearing is what needs changing, so It's nice once in a while to get a really positive impression.

On the same note, I was really pleased with the response for my new Blue spawn. I put a lot of thought into it and it seems to have paid off. Thanks guys.
 

captainAngry

L420: High Member
Feb 1, 2009
434
247
Didn't get a chance to play myself but I did record a demo last night. I really like this map and I can't wait until I get a chance to play. I added it to the regular rotation on my server for this week because I know it will be a hit.

Once I have a chance to play, I will provide more detailed feedback.


 

Hobbes

L1: Registered
Feb 26, 2009
30
0
It's been a while since I've last updated this map (almost a month). I took a couple weeks break from it to work on other projects, but now I'm back to work and I have a new release uploaded and ready for gameday.

I redesigned the Red Spawn from the ground up and finished all of the displacements so the map looks decent now. I think I'm almost ready for a beta release, we'll see how it goes with the test this weekend.

Also I replaced all of the pictures with brand new spiffy looking ones :) .
Check out the first post for the new pictures.
 

Ten19

L2: Junior Member
Jun 17, 2009
85
38
No real complaints after Gameday, though I think I agree with the suggestions to remove the door at Point C (I think it was) that people were building sentries behind. Only other thing would be maybe some signage to the alternate routes?

Nice detailing in each teams spawn area, too!
 

Hobbes

L1: Registered
Feb 26, 2009
30
0
Alright new version and it's a major change. I changed the order that you capture points so that there isn't so much trouble for Blue grabbing A, and it lets B and C have more setup time for Red which should give those points a bit more play time.

So the new cap order is B&C open right away, grabbing both will unlock A, and then move on to D. I realise that the letters don't make sense anymore, I forgot to change them before compiling but I'll redo the lettering so it's in order for next time.

I also added a flanking route for Blue for point C and got rid of that door people complained about. I'm interested to see how these changes play out.
 

DrHaphazard

L5: Dapper Member
Jan 6, 2008
249
12
Aight, ill be honest here. While I am not overly opposed to this map, I have to say that playing as my favorite (only) character, the medic, this map is extremely annoying. Part of being a medic is trying to get your figurative back to the wall, getting in a position where you wont be attacked from behind and where you can make good your escape when need be.

In this map however people can literally come from every direction imaginable. Not only are there a myriad of ways to enter the A, B and C portions of the map, but theres tons of narrow hallways and blind corners with possible pyros all around.

I understand that youre probably attempting to get away from linear spam fests, but this might be too far in the opposite direction.

My other major complaint is that the map just doesn't look like a real place. Now of course no TF2 map actually looks like a real place, but they at least look like reasonable facimiles of buildings, something that someone would actually design.

As i stated in-game today, your map looks more like say a paintball arena, with ramps and hallways in odd places. I dunno how to quantify it exactly, but most of the indoor areas just seem oddly built.

All that being said, my experience was not overly negative, just sort of frustrating from a healing perspective. I kept feeling the urge not to follow teamates because they were running into areas where i could be ambushed easily.
 

Hobbes

L1: Registered
Feb 26, 2009
30
0
Alright, I took all the feedback from the previous gameday and am doing a big update. The center control point and the small staging area between blue spawn and that point have both been completely scrapped and I've re-designed them. I was never really happy with the center point so this is a nice change.

The new structures are less cluttered, far more intuitive and less confusing, as well as looking more like real interiors than they did before. This is going to be the first step in a larger set of changes which will include re-designing the exteriors of buildings to look more natural, as well as an entirely newly designed Red Spawn, featuring the same sideways nucleus and laser structure that I currently have, but with much more room and just an overall better design.

I won't have a new version ready for this weekend but you can expect one for a gameday next week, hopefully including the new red spawn but I won't make promises. At least I'll be able to test my new interiors and center point.
 

PenPen

L5: Dapper Member
Apr 24, 2008
207
136
I think I played the previous 2-3 versions and this is a huge change from what you had before (aside from point B which I think is pretty much the same).

At the first rounds it seems that it was a cakewalk for blu. But if red really wants to tighten their defenses as seen in the last one, it's pretty much fair game (but I forgot what blu was doing in the last round). I also like point C's new layout, while it is more direct, it is also very open. I say keep the basic layout and work on the misc stuff around it.

One thing is that I didn't like the previous versions much (perhaps due to the repetitive wooden textures), but I like this version much more than your older ones. I think it's much better.