Chicane

[Boylee]

OK after chatting with some people who've just played a TF2Lobby game on it I think a10 will be a fairly major redesign.

The whole hub spawn thing was an experiment and I think, from the number of people who've commented on the forward spawn door, that it needs to change fairly dramatically.

There's a whole slew of possible changes to make but I'm going to do one at a time and test so that's going to be the first thing I think.

 

[Cerious]

I played in the lobby last night, and I have to say that the base felt like a maze to maneuver. People automatically steered to the forward spawn towards the intel, and moved around the whole path to the cap zone to actually get to the cap zone to defend. The bases felt absolutely gigantic, like there was just a lot of unnecessary room that could be cut out with little effect on the gameplay. I enjoy how there is a ton of open space for rocket jumping, so keep it like that, without turning the map into simply corridors and rooftops.

 

[Boylee]

Thanks for the feedback Cerious.

I'm going to do a load more playtesting on this before I rip out the hub spawns. They were, after all, the heart of the concept & I'm still convinced they can work. At the moment people aren't used to it they don't use it. I think that once the map's been played a few times the idea of it settles in and is easy to use. However that's just my opinion. Playtesting some more will show for sure. Also maybe better signposting both with signage and geometry will help.

I'm slightly puzzled as to why everyone thinks the map is huge, I thought it was fairly compact. :O
Oh well, I'm not adverse to changing the layout to make it a bit tighter and / or generally smaller. We'll see what some extended playtesting throws up.

 

[Leminnes]

Alright, I will do some comment stuff.

When I played last night, I was half dead. So me sucky was partially my reason for some of these complaints, but there isn't too much. (well, only 3 suggestion although one is pretty big. )

This spot drove me insane. Maybe It was because I sucked and fell down there a lot, but I did more times than I would've liked.

This area just seemed irrelevant and the main cause of issues when it came to defending the spot. I say scrap it or make it much narrower with only 2 ways to get in. One short, easily defended way. And one long, difficult to enter way.

This is my badly drawn suggestion for the spawn there. Elevated, covered from when they exit immediately. (The blue shaded in is solid walls.)

 

[lockitup]

Two things I forgot to mention in chat in relation to this lobby we did...

First thing is it might have been mentioned by cerious briefly, but the way the spawns are now, you basically can run into your spawn, avoiding fire, and come out at a great spot to cut off the intel carrier. I was one of the few who had a good idea of the map layout so even as medic i found myself cutting people off before they got to cap the intel.

Secondly one of the other teams few caps, or perhaps their only cap was a soldier who basically did 2 rocket jumps and capped the intel in a matter of like 10-20 seconds. Was rather pro rocket jumping but if he could do that just imagine whatd itd be like in an actual game where it wasnt just a bunch of mappers running around, no disrespect. not sure if this is criticism if its just not wow that was cool and needs to be mentioned again type of comment.

 

[Boylee]

First thing is it might have been mentioned by cerious briefly, but the way the spawns are now, you basically can run into your spawn, avoiding fire, and come out at a great spot to cut off the intel carrier. I was one of the few who had a good idea of the map layout so even as medic i found myself cutting people off before they got to cap the intel.

Just to clarify, does this mean you think the hub spawns are a good thing or too overpowered?

Oh and I had wondered about the rocket jumping. A previous version had the base divided in two by a building to stop just that. I thought the winding nature of the base would take care of it but it may still be a bit too easy to do.

 

[lockitup]

I don't like the fact that the spawns cut off the path to the intel. If they were on the other side away from the intel it mighta been better. Just my opinion though, too many people kept running into their spawn instead of staying out to fight.

 

[Leminnes]

Just saying, but if you do my idea (of elevating the spawn) that issues would be resolved (except for soldiers and demomen, but still.)

 

[Boylee]

I'm pulling chicane from the contest.

A few changes in real life circumstances have left me with less time to work on this, so instead of rushing it to get it done for the contest I'm pulling it.

I have a fair idea of how I can make it much more enjoyable and I'd like to take my time doing so as it'll need a fair bit of rejigging.

Good luck to everyone who's still entering.







Would an admin be so kind as to move this thread to the normal map category please?

 

[Boylee]

Just a small bump to let everyone know I'm still working on this. It'd be a disservice to Rexy and his kick-ass model not to.

When I started this map I'd never even got a map into proper beta before, so I wasn't in any sort of position to take on a new gametype variant. Having got a small but playable map made now I think I'm in a better position to make this one fun.

Due to the manifold issues with the current base layout I'm going to redesign them from the ground up. There will be a few similarities in the layout but I will try and make the layout more navigable, varied and focussed. I still want to keep the idea of a hub-spawn that's centrally located allowing people who've just spawned to access the relevant part of the map quickly BUT I'm not going to let people go back in as a shortcut to the cap point so easily this time around.

More to follow soon...

 

[Leminnes]

I enjoyed helping you with the layout last night. From the looks of it, should be fun and interesting. Invade is an interesting game type, I hope this layout works out well.

 

[Boylee]

New & Shiny!
CTF_CHICANE_A10

Completely redesigned from the ground up, just for you.​

Invade CTF

• Intel respawns 25 seconds after capture
• Dropped intel can be retrieved by either team
• Dropped intel returns to the centre after 30 seconds

Everyone had a different gripe about what was wrong with the old chicane and I realised that this was because the base design was crap.
So how does one remedy that? By wiping them clean and starting again of course!
Don't worry though, it's still invade ctf and it still has Rexy's fantastic intel model, only now it will (hopefully) be a lot more interesting to play too!

So what are you waiting for? Go play it now!
Oh yeah, that's right..
You need to DOWNLOAD IT first!

See the original post for more screenies.​

Thanks to:

• Rexy for his sexy intel model
• a Boojum Snark for his ultimate resource pack
• VelvetFistIronGlove, Grazr, Supersandvich and Snacks for figuring out how to get the invade ctf scoring properly.
• Acegikmo for the environment gallery
• Mick-a-nator for his barrel cluster edit
• Wiebbe for his invade mode announcer sounds

Known issues:

- Lighting errors on a few surfaces in red base, invalid brushes I think.
- There's a few places (particularly corridors) that are badly lit.
- The HUD sometimes breaks and shows 2 intel indicators.


What's next:

+ Migrate entity setup to Psy's invade prefab to fix the hub.
+ Texture and prop passes
+ Custom skybox texture
+ Custom skybox models


Come play it on Blueprint tonight, along with many other far superior maps!

 

[DJive]

Bummer Ive yet to try this. I really cant wait to.

 

[Boylee]

Coming to Blueprint tonight DJive?

 

[DJive]

Coming to Blueprint tonight DJive?

working =( i got a crappy shift

 

[Mr. P. Kiwi]

Looks great, plays great but there are just almost no health and ammo pickups in places they are really needed...

 

[Boylee]

working =( i got a crappy shift

That's a bummer, sorry dude.

Looks great, plays great but there are just almost no health and ammo pickups in places they are really needed...

Thanks! You've playtested the new version already? Wow that was fast. You may well be right about the health and ammo, I always worry about putting too much in and end up putting too little.

That said there's two medium healths in the centre area, 3 small health and ammo packs in the front part of each base, and a medium health right in front of the cap point.

However, if you could suggest some more placements I'd definitely take a look at putting them in.

 

[Mr. P. Kiwi]

I suggest you'll take a look at this, it helped me a lot to understand things...

 

[Leminnes]

Looks great, plays great but there are just almost no health and ammo pickups in places they are really needed...

You have a server where you randomly test maps? Where is this, so I can sign up?

 

[Boylee]

I suggest you'll take a look at this, it helped me a lot to understand things...

Believe it or not I've read it several times. :blushing:

Trouble is I don't really know where the health and ammo will be most needed until I've tested the layout. It's not like a CP map where you know there'll be fighting in the chokes and near the points, and it's not like a traditional ctf map either. That's I why I asked if you could point out a few places that need more pickups. Oh well, I'm testing it tonight so I guess I'll know after that. :mellow: