[Contest Entry] pl_frontier

[Xaiodevil]

Hello, I have found a few bugs with your map.

The first bug I found is a spot demos can sticky jump to. It's near red spawn and is easy to camp.

The next one allows engineers to build teleporters through the fence. Beyond that fence you can build sentrys and dispencers. You are able to shoot through the fence too.

I enjoy your map I hope to see these fixed.

 

[Arhurt]

We had so much fun on this map last night on the Brazilian custom server. We where playing the bc version.

Playing as Blu we had a really hard time at the last cap, but I think that`s because we where a bad team well I was trying to be silly and play pyro and spy, my least played classes.

Can't wait for the beta!

 

[MangyCarface]

Thanks guys

Optimization is my first priority at the moment. I've fixed all mentioned bugs and changed some geometry/balance things but before I can release I want to reduce the lag around area 2 and 4. It would help me greatly if anyone who's played BC can post particular areas of lag, and the degree to which you lag in them compared to your normal, VALVe-approved tf2 experience.

Thanks,
Mangy

 

[Memento Mori]

Well, I found the maps performance was its only downside. I have Fps_max 60 and get a constant 60 fps on all valve maps (100 without limit but it goes down in combat so I put fps_max on) but on frontier_bc I unfortunately get around 20-30. It was generally the outdoor areas across the entire map but I think it got worse nearer to the end, after the big hill. Indoors it was better at about 45-50 fps but still erratic. I hope you can solve the problems.

Also - I have 8800GT but 4200+ processor which is a bit weak, so, as with most lag in my games, it's probably related to something processor heavy in the map, which would explain why someone else on the server with 8800GT had a good 100fps. Perhaps its a certain entity that you have a lot of or props aren't fading properly, I don't know

 

[MangyCarface]

BETA RELEASE: B1

Welcome to the Frontier!

This is a single-stage payload map with 4 control points for BLU to capture. It

is designed to address some of the problems with payload maps, namely the tendency to

push forward hard and then bring the cart up afterwards., and the overall advantage

towards RED/defenders.
To this end, in Frontier, players push a train! Meet Lil' Chew-Chew, the

Engineer's latest invention (though the Pyro contributed in design ideas.) This

payload is a large mechanized train engine with the ability to run over anyone in

front of it- contingent on at least 3 players pushing him along.
To capture points in Frontier, simply stand on or close by the platform Chew

Chew trails behind himself. He will absorb all frontal damage, and so RED is forced

to apply a very loose, flanking defense in order to stop his progress. Extensive

playtesting has been done to both ensure fair and fun gameplay for both BLU and RED

and each individual class, with special attention paid towards weakening overpowered

sentry locations. This map is tested mostly in a 32 player environment, as gameplay

scales downwards better than upwards. Recommended for 14-32 players, as offense will

receive a large advantage with any lower.

A lot of effort went into this map, not only on my part, but from an enormous

array of people in the custom community. Full credits, in no set order:

Map: MangyCarface
Lil' Chew Chew: Arhurt (of ctf_aerospace fame; check it out!)
Poster, extensive playtesting, statistics gathering & interpretation, major source of

ideas: "FLOOR_MASTER"
Engineer Poster: Ovens (fataldose on DA)
Server poster: Nineaxis (check out his WIP pl_stovepipe)
Decompiled bomb cart parts: Z33W13R+VALVe
Decompiled Laser: TheDarkerSideofYourShadow, Snipergen, VALVe
Laser choreography (note: temporary): TheDarkerSideofYourShadow
Extra track pieces: III Demon
Satellite dish below laser: *mostly* valve

Thank you to the following server operators and their corresponding servers:
FLOOR_MASTER & 2f2f
ChillyWI & YinYarr
Rahmie & PuniPuniNa
flubber & CanardPC
NoHeroes- soon to have a dedicated Frontier server.
EVERYONE at tf2maps.net. You know who you are, and how much you've helped in the form

of paintovers, ideas, and support along the way.

My friends at 2fort2furious for bearing with me in playtesting the 14 versions we

went through, some of which were awful.

Please enjoy!

Links:
Fpsbanana
Tf2maps.net

 

[Scotland Tom]

I'll have to see how it plays, but I may very well mention this one on my blog soon. It's got such a unique look with the mixture of alpine and desert elements that really captures the feel of a south/southeastern Colorado mining town. The only thing that breaks the atmosphere is the custom cart. While it looks totally awesome, it doesn't look like anything you'd find in such an environment.

This one's looking really good, Mangy! Congrats on making it to Beta!

 

[RavenStryker]

w00t! This one deserves to be an official map! Tell valve to get their buts over here and take a look at it. =D

 

[Vander]

Simply stunning! Great looking map.

 

[RavenStryker]

I found a minor bug, I'll find the screenshot and repost it here once i do.


Far Away Shot:

Close Up Shot:

 

[Memento Mori]

I found a minor bug, I'll find the screenshot and repost it here once i do.

That's the one i did but these pics show it much better.

Good news, I think b1 is much better optimised, going through it (by myself) gave me my FPS_MAX but perhaps with players it would still be low.

 

[NoHeroes]

That's the one i did but these pics show it much better.

Good news, I think b1 is much better optimised, going through it (by myself) gave me my FPS_MAX but perhaps with players it would still be low.

Haven't heard a single complaint about lag or FPS on our 32 player server. The problem with most server operators is that they run too many TF2 instances on low-end machines. I keep a 2.5Ghz core and at least 1GB of memory per TF2 instance, and server-side lag is rarely a problem on an optimized map.

As for Frontier....it's getting rave reviews, and will likely be full all weekend on the dedicated server I setup for it.

 

[Nineaxis]

Couple of bugs

Cone in a wall.

dunno how this happened, but I died shortly after and when I respawned it was back with the train.

 

[RavenStryker]

That's kind of weird... Dunno how that is even possible... Lol. Well there was blue spawning from the red spawn during the very end.... at least i think they were cause i don't know any other way they could have gotten up there behind all of us without anyone seeing them. They were coming out from the left side of the tracks spawn when your looking down at it from the ledge above.

FPS were a little shaky on the one of the [NO HEROES] server I played on yesterday. I was around 30fps the whole time but it still took some hit everyone now and then and I don't have a low end system. I can always sit at a constant 60fps with v-sync on with this hardware: E6750@3.50GHz, Radeon HD2900 Pro overclocked to the max running at 1920x1200. So a little more optimization could be done. But right now it's def. playable, even at higher resolutions.

Also in the second SS you provided Nine, why on earth is the train cart disconnected from the train itself. I didn't know that was possible either. Unless it's just a lag somewhere and it reconnected again.

 

[Nineaxis]

Also in the second SS you provided Nine, why on earth is the train cart disconnected from the train itself. I didn't know that was possible either. Unless it's just a lag somewhere and it reconnected again.

I have no clue what happened. It was just the brushes themselves that disconnected, there was an invisible platform still attached to the train engine. It was pretty weird.

 

[FLOOR_MASTER]

The cart separation thing appears to be a client-side problem. Throughout our testing on 2f2f, whenever someone mentioned seeing that happen, everyone else on the server had a normal-looking cart.

 

[MangyCarface]

Thank you for continuing bug reports and feedback. Rest assured I'll address them in each new beta iteration. I'm not sure what I can do about the clientside stuff though....

 

[laghlagh]

Awesome! Can someone give some more screens of Arhurts new cart?

 

[Randdalf]

Perhaps you could make the bit you stand on a model as well, to solve the problems with the brushes.

 

[YM]

Just behind where the flatbed section is on this photo, where the three pipes are, I got kinda wedged in there as the train was rolling backwards. I don't think i was actually stuck inside anything I just could barely move at all, leaving me wide open to be backstabbed...

Also, the train is so enormously huge there are a few issues with it, firstly its halfway through the tracks, in fact I think I remember seeing the bottom of the wheels even lower than the sleepers themselves - looks terrible especially as the cow catcher has tracks clipping through it all the time. The other problem with its enormous size is the cornering, the front sticks out a mile because it pivots near the back of the engine. It just looks unbelievably bad compared to everything else in the map that looks so good. Whilst this isn't a problem with gameplay or balancing it is very emersion-breaking.

Have you got any kind of colour correction at all? i noticed the map was incredibly grey all the way though. Whilst it was easy to spot players against the dull background it is a little, well..dull.

 

[flubber]

Got the same bug as youme on our plus i got strange line appearing between point 1 a 2 :




Never had those on the BC version, and it occurs only in this zone.

Also i didn't have time to take a screenshots but over the house at the end of the track you should put a nobuild since spy can't really access the zone except if hey are on the bridge between the last spawn.