Balloon Race

[mdawgmike]

The biggest complaint I hear about this map whenever we play it on our server (FearedGamers) is the always present "clipping through the boat" bug. It was still very present in V3 T3 when we tested this new version last Sunday. In my mind this would be the first thing you would want to fix if the goal is for people to take this map seriously. Also there was a lot of complaints about the new lighting. Although the scenery, boats, and other particles are done very well; the player models are not. Having completely dark player models residing on otherwise well-lit ships was decidedly unsettling. We still have V2 as our current pick as a non-cycle "fun" map for the reasons above.

In terms of the PLR HUD suggestion by others, I really wouldn't find it to be a good measure for this map. Well...for the obvious reason that it involves other objectives besides the vehicles moving. The only way I could find this applicable is if you could somehow incorporate the control points into the mix.

/my two cents. You definitely have a great map with a lot of potential.

 

[Geit]

"clipping through the boat" bug. It was still very present in V3 T3 when we tested this new version last Sunday. In my mind this would be the first thing you would want to fix if the goal is for people to take this map seriously.

At the moment, the current fix for this, isn't working correctly, probably because trigger_push doesn't work when the player is inside a solid, this is something i want to have fixed for t5, because it is very annoying. On a side note, you should no longer be able to fall out the "back" of the boat, but only the bottom, in t3, the trigger push works there.

Also there was a lot of complaints about the new lighting. Although the scenery, boats, and other particles are done very well; the player models are not.

Yes, i noticed this in T3 too, and immediately fixed it, player models are no longer "Black" when on the boat, there is a dynamic light attached to the wheel.

/my two cents. You definitely have a great map with a lot of potential.

Thanks! And cheers for the feedback!

 

[a2h]

Hah, never realised you contributed to balloon_race. Nice to see you here.

And gee, the lack of those really huge avatars make a bit of a difference here

 

[runtime]

Map definitely should be plr

Also, v3 t3 is too dark to see anything, I think the original look was better

 

[Geit]

Map definitely should be plr

Like I've said before, I couldn't get PLR gamemode to work alongside the control points, nor could I get it to work with the balloons without bugging out, so it'll remain CP, which, imo, is more fun than a spam contest inbetween the two balloons.

Anyway, need more relevant feedback based on t4, please.:3

 

[Shmitz]

Have you considered locking the CPs until both boats arrive? The team that arrives first would still have an advantage as they could get to the CP as a group, possibly set up some sentries, and otherwise be in a much better position to hold the point until its capped. But the losing team would still have a chance, unlike the current feeling of "the other team is taking the point and there is absolutely nothing I can do about it", which is frustrating and detrimental to the play experience.

 

[a2h]

In relation to not being able to use the PLR hud without the balloons bugging out...

I've also tried making a separate tracktrain following the exact same path with no I/O and parenting links to the balloons. That still caused the balloon to bug out. (I've already mentioned this on Gaming Masters)

As a thought, perhaps a separate path could be made that is the same as the ordinary balloon's path, therefore the separate train will not only not have I/O and parenting links, but also not share the same path which could potentially be the reason.

But whether that's the cause of the problem I don't know. What happens when there is plr ents but a train is not defined for either track? I would imagine the balloons should not bug out, but I haven't tried that.

EDIT: Results from a playtest... cap 3 is unbalanced in favour towards the team on the bottom if they play well enough. Also, sudden death still causes only red to die, and has been this way since v2. Fix?

 

[poolesoft]

WE WILL BE TESTING THIS ON ARE 24/7 BALLOON RACE SERVER TOMORROW 66.90.103.192:27017 :thumbup:

 

[Geit]

Updated to t5.

 

[Gaw]

Updated to t5.

Haven't updated changelog for t5 ::

 

[panchoman]

can we get the changelog please

big glitch: sudden death causes red boat to burn, giving blue an instant victory.

also, you need to fix soliders getting on the enemy boat by rocket jumping. either make it so that everybody can still hop on (i liked the concept of hoping on but losing health) or make it so that soliders can't jump onto the boat.

 

[Kenny Loggins]

can we get the changelog please

big glitch: sudden death causes red boat to burn, giving blue an instant victory.

also, you need to fix soliders getting on the enemy boat by rocket jumping. either make it so that everybody can still hop on (i liked the concept of hoping on but losing health) or make it so that soliders can't jump onto the boat.

(i liked the concept of hoping on but losing health)

this was one thing that I missed from the v2 version.

 

[Kenny Loggins]

I have a 24/7 server setup with the most current map at:

66.90.103.192:27017

 

[panchoman]

boat camping has become worse now. when the boats stop at the points, you're able to hop on the enemy's boat and camp them. so if 5 blue heavies hop( or 2 pyros with backburners that stand behind the spawn points) on the red boat while stopped at the 1st point, i dont think red will be capping the 1st point any time soon.

 

[panchoman]

locking the point till both boats arrive sort of makes this more into like: drive and then have a big killfest, and drive, theres no race to it except for the last stretch also this poses a problem, because capping the point becomes nothing more then a big killfest, where most of the time theres a deadlock, and the game has to go into sudden death, which causes the sudden death glitch. the only alternative to the glitch would be to announce a stalemate or make the map time almost unlimited =/.

 

[panchoman]

pics for sudden death issue:

both boats burn, red players die, blue survive.

if all red players dont hop on their boat, blue team can cap and play like usual till the sudden death timer runs out and calls it a stalemate

 

[panchoman]

backburner camping

backburner camping @ spawn. too easy, the poor pyro didn't even have time to turn around.

 

[Epicfailzorz]

Most of the problems I saw in v4 were fixed - while Kenny's server had v4 I had DAMN fun! :wow:


V5's biggest problem is the fact that the boats can be spawn camped endlessly. In a game I played on the map, a medic and a heavy pair just stood in our boat and spawnkilled us until they were threatened with a voteban.

In V4, this was very limited, because only Soldiers and Demomen could get up there; usually damaged enough that they didn't last very long, unless they had a good dice roll from rtd, AND it was difficult to do unless the boat was standing still.

The spawn camping can be fixed by just leaving it as it was before, where the enemy couldn't board unless they were Soldier/Demo (which takes some skill). Spawn camping would happen so few times it really wouldn't be an issue.


Also.... It's... really... not a race if you have to wait for the other teams to arrive before you can start capping. The race, if any, currently starts after the final capture point. (Great job with that point by the way)

Something like this can help:

The losing boat could go faster then the max so it could catch up, and keep the race close.

The losing boat can go through the first shortcut on the map if the other team captured the first point.

Finally, the engineer needs to be able to build at least one machine on their boat. It's ridiculous when you have dispenser and a sentry near each other, acting as a shield for the engineer while he heals his machines.

Thanks for reading.

-Epic

 

[panchoman]

i think hoping on the enemies boat should be brought back, or ended all together. if it is brought back, driving the enemy boat should make it go backwards

CONGRATULATIONS on fixing the boat glitchs, haven't had one the whole time i've been playing t5 on kenny's server. you've done a lot of fixing and modeling and improving the map.

HOWEVER, you've messed up the concepts of the map. check the previous posts

 

[Mexican Apple Thief]

Wait... did you find a way to make engineers able to build on the boat?