Build Around The Track

[possiblylethal]

If permitted someone should release a base version with path_track for people who are lazy or confunded.

Seconded. I could see it being part of the challenge but i think that its learning for the first 20 minutes or so and after that its killer.

Also, I like the track. I also hate the track, but that makes me like it even more because its a challenge.

 

[littleedge]

Yeah if somebody wants to upload a vmf of that last section of track without the -14.XX angles and path_tracks, go ahead. I'll put it in the OP too.

Prizes have been increased. TMP feels "like [he] should support the website a bit more for all the hell [he gives] its members" so winners get Donator courtesy of him.

 

[grazr]

Out of curiosity, there's no end path track. Does this imply the use of creative freedom?

How much creative freedom do we have at the end? Like if we have a 64 unit lip that angles up or down like in upward's finalé. Or cut the last piece of track into smaller pieces so that the track length remains the same but we can put a little more detail into the end pit?

 

[Penguin]

My payload is going to be upside down and run along the bottom of the track. You have to push the cart by constantly rocket jumping to it.

Whole map is underwater.

 

[littleedge]

Out of curiosity, there's no end path track. Does this imply the use of creative freedom?

How much creative freedom do we have at the end? Like if we have a 64 unit lip that angles up or down like in upward's finalé. Or cut the last piece of track into smaller pieces so that the track length remains the same but we can put a little more detail into the end pit?

From the OP:

You may not increase or decrease the physical size of the track. The first path_track is placed for you. The last path_track must be located at the last piece of the track (256-unit long track) - the participant places it where they need it to be for their endpit or whatever it is they are creating.

and

"You said the last path_track must be on the last piece of track. What if I have a pit and it needs to go down into it? What if I have an elevator it goes up and then explodes?"
As long as the final path_track that sets BLU team as having won is located on the final piece of the track, you're good. You could have the cart fly off the track and explode a bird for some reason if you wanted to, as long as the win condition for BLU occurred on that last piece of track.

I guess I should specify that you may shorten the length of that last 256 piece of track. You can have it be a 64 unit piece if you want. You have to keep the piece straight, but you may place a final path_track that sets BLU as winning the round somewhere on the original 256 piece - in between the previous track prop and the last one if you wanted - and change the track piece to be shorter to work with your endpit or explosion or whatever. However it may not take a change of course. You can have a larger hill following it for pure detail - the win condition must be activated in the spot provided and explained above - if it does a Uturn or goes down a huge hill after the win condition is all up to you.

 

[grazr]

push, push, push your cart gently down the track
if you see a control point, dont forget to...goddamn i suck at rhymes

FYI i seem to remember YM discovering that excessive path tracks increase file size significantly. YM experimented with smoother payload curves/turns around the time he produced hoodoo, if not immediately afterwards, and found that there is a sensible balance to be found between aesthetics and perminant file size. Deleting multiple path_track's on such corners on a map wide scale hlped reduced the file size by several MB.

 

[Sergis]

current version of my map is about 10 mb, about 2 mb without lighting, and it has about 230 path tracks (and over 100 breakables too ). doesn't look like path tracks are doing anything extra bad to the filesize.

 

[Zhan]

Yeah if somebody wants to upload a vmf of that last section of track without the -14.XX angles and path_tracks, go ahead. I'll put it in the OP too.

I don't the track really needs to be modified any more, especially since some people have already finished blocking out alphas. The 22.5 degree curves just add an extra 3 minutes of laying out path_tracks and it's really not such a big deal at all.

 

[littleedge]

I don't the track really needs to be modified any more, especially since some people have already finished blocking out alphas. The 22.5 degree curves just add an extra 3 minutes of laying out path_tracks and it's really not such a big deal at all.

The track wouldn't be modified, just path_tracks placed and there were a couple track pieces at the end that Hammer felt like putting at odd angles and I've given everyone clearance to correct the angles if they can't work with them. Now, I'm talking how some are rotated along the Z access at -14.99X or something when it could be -15. Don't know where it went wrong but I've learned to check the values in the properties better next time - I've never needed to do that before.

And it's only if somebody wants to.

 

[Sergis]

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/9180221/TF2/newtrack.vmf

here's earlier version of my track if someone wants to risk using it. i've flipped the start to comply with the new rules.
note that i havent gotten payload to have correct height up until the first turn yet so some height adjustments might be needed there. also after path_track 68 i have path_track 76.

 

[Pocket]

Yeah, I recommend people tweaking some of the track pieces so you can put the ground brushes at reasonable levels without the tracks floating or being partially sunk into them (as I've seen on some alpha maps so far). With a little shuffling, I was able to get a result where they actually line up better where the track bends up and down by doing this, without changing the X and Y positioning of any of the flat tracks or moving anything more than a couple units vertically.

 

[grazr]

So who else is entering? So far i've only seen pics from sergis; and no maps have gone up in the maps section despite the fact people are saying a number of BATT alpha's have been playtested.

 

[lana]

I will enter.

 

[TheKieranator]

I'm in. I've only built BLU spawn so far. (Fully detailed)

 

[Freyja]

I am entering.
>

 

[Zhan]

I've started working on something. Whether I'll actually submit anything depends on how busy I get when school starts up

 

[Nick2]

I've started working on something. Whether I'll actually submit anything depends on how busy I get when school starts up

Seconded, anything else, I'm going by a nondisclosure agreement.

 

[Fraz]

I had started, but other things will get in the way (I go back to school a week on Wednesday, going camping with mates, going to Alton Towers sometime later in August etc etc) would have been nice to do something but I have enough other TF2 stuff to keep under my belt for the next wee while, apart from time I would have entered this. (would have been a lot better starting this contest at the beginning of summer jfyi)

 

[Turbo Lover]

We tested my BATT entry last night on US, although i think most of us are holding off on making threads until either the contest is over, or they've made up their mind on whether they want to continue work on the map at a later date.

 

[English Mobster]

I'm entering, but I need to get everything playable before I make a thread in the maps section.