Downhill

PL Downhill Beta 3

MisterNine

L1: Registered
Dec 28, 2009
17
4
I use a source meta mod plugin to spawn props in the spawn areas, which lack the most detail at this stage in the maps's development. My friends are slowly come to try it a few at a time and they're all loving it. I can't wait until we get a full server on this map.
 

MisterNine

L1: Registered
Dec 28, 2009
17
4
Some things I noticed:

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You may want to move the supply cabinet over behind the boiler to break line of sight from the doorway.

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I spawned props in gmod to provide a bit more cover here. I'll spawn them on my server using an addon. This kinda stuff is pretty minor IMO. It subtracts nothing from this map's incredible gameplay.
 
Feb 14, 2008
1,051
931
I spawned props in gmod to provide a bit more cover here. I'll spawn them on my server using an addon. This kinda stuff is pretty minor IMO. It subtracts nothing from this map's incredible gameplay.

What the hell, that's a spawn room. Why on earth would you need cover there?
 

MisterNine

L1: Registered
Dec 28, 2009
17
4
What the hell, that's a spawn room. Why on earth would you need cover there?

That's not the spawn room. The spawn room is on the far side of that cabinet. It has no chance of being hit by anything. You're looking at the resupply area. The boxes are to break line of sight between the doors and the supply cabinet. It's not fun to be sniped while you're still inside your base.

EDIT: I constantly question my choices, searching for improvement and sticking the boxes inside the spawn made it seem a little too cluttered. The G-man helps me display what I believe to be a better approach to my preference for breaking line of sight here. Note that the positioning is generalized, I've tweaked the coords on my server to push them a bit closer to the caution stripes. I'm dangerous like that.

2z9ftqt.jpg
 
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Sel

Banned
Feb 18, 2009
1,239
2,570
The cart will push and get you stuck in this wall.

pl_downhill_b10000.jpg


pl_downhill_b10001.jpg


As far as I can tell you also can't dislodge yourself with explosions either.
 

MisterNine

L1: Registered
Dec 28, 2009
17
4
We ran Downhill for about 2-3 weeks on my old payload server, as mentioned in my above posts. The first issues such as the sightlines in areas around the final cap were easily corrected by using Stripper: Source to spawn props.

Other issues began to creep up:

1.) Players stuck near tracks as mentioned above.
2.) Players stuck on the front of the train engine near red's boiler room spawn. Directly on top of the gap between the front of the train and the cement platform.

Issue #1 is the reason we stopped running the map.
Issue #2 was patched up by spawning a stack of lumber laying over the front of the train. Looks very natural and formed a sort of bridge over the area where players were getting stuck. Sorry, I don't have screenshots at the moment.
 

Gadget

aa
Mar 10, 2008
531
527
Thanks for your comments and sorry for not checking this thread lately...been busy with my job, but I have been working on this map silently. The next release will have a custom explosion and maybe some custom props, much better skybox and more details of course. I removed every bit I didn't like (some cliffs and buildings) and replaced some stuff with new ideas. Unfortunately it's still a lot of work to do before it's done.

Anyway, I sure would like to fix players getting stuck near the tracks. I'd appreciate some screenshots of those places where it happens so I can fix it.
 

ShamanBond

L1: Registered
Apr 16, 2010
33
5
We've run PL Downhill B1 for a while on the 24/7 Payload server over at FreeFrag and while a lot of people really love the way it looks, we had a lot of issues with the defense side of things.

Let me first say that the map is visually stunning, it looks great and the Kart path is very well defined. I also really like the multi-exit blu starting spawn and the integration of buildings into the mountain terrain look.

The problem that the majority of people noted with this map is that there are a ton of ways to get everywhere on the map, making it pretty much impossible to defend. The multitude of balconies and overlook points makes it a sure thing that a Blu demo is going to be able to get an angle on stickies to take out pretty much any fixed defense.

The final point is better but the multitude of paths available to Blu make it very easy to spawncamp red and win the map.

I'd love to see a B2 of this with a little bit more closed in feel, less routes to each capture point and more defensable structures.

Thanks for all your hard work and I look forward to future versions of this map.
 

Viemärirotta

sniffer
aa
Feb 5, 2016
1,013
590
Please try to refrain from bumping old posts unless your reply adds new and relevant content to the thread.
This map went downhill.
 

Gadget

aa
Mar 10, 2008
531
527
Well, it's not entirely dead. Fact is that the second half of the map needed more work on the layout and some parts were not built very well in terms of brushwork quality and optimization. I've picked it up a few months ago to think about the layout and to change the theme for the medieval project. However it still needs another 100-200 hours to get it done which I currently don't have. I will try to spend a few hours on it now and then so hopefuly there will be a new release later this year.

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Gadget

aa
Mar 10, 2008
531
527
I've changed the lighting. Better or worse? It's almost ready for testing, I still gotta do all the clipping.
 

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Yellow

L1: Registered
Sep 10, 2014
24
34
Just out of curiosity, is just the theme of the map being made medieval or is the mode also going to be in medieval as well?

Also lighting gives it a distinguishing feel from other maps that use this theme (Rottenburg and DeGroot Keep), keep it.

The theme seems too persistent for how long it is. Point C being underground breaks it up a bit but I would definitely use some more different features for the last point so it doesn't look too much like point A and B (more fortifications and "castle-y" feel? Cobblestone ground around last? Even some spytech if it isn't medieval mode would work to a degree (atleast in red spawn)).