Fortress Fighting Federation- concept and discussion

[asylum]

Melee Fort is dead.

Dead dead. Fully dead. Absolutely dead. And this time, I mean it.

In its place will be a series of maps quite like it. Not just me renaming all the Melee Fort maps and giving them a new splash of paint- I rather like having my testing privileges and would prefer to keep them. No, they will be very much different from each other, and even have different names, yet all will be subsumed under the umbrella banner of my latest long-term project, Fortress Fighting Federation.

I suppose it's no secret that I am a huuuuuuuge wrestling mark. So while trying to come up with a way to slip some Melee Fort into gameday events, I figured, "If they want different, why not give them different?" And that's what the maps under FFF will be. Each of them with completely unique layouts and aesthetics, and not just the same Malibu Stacey with a different hat. Oh, I'll be saving all the good stuff from Melee Fort, though. The TF-Trons, the stage pyrotechnics, the big ass boxcar boxing ring- all that will be there, don't you worry. Just in radically different formats.

I also figure, hey, since there's a lot- A LOT, of Melee Fort game types, why not test/release one of the twelve per month? Like wrestling Pay Per Views- oops, I mean, "Premium Live Events," as they're called now, and have them mirror certain "real world" wrestling events. Januarys will get Melee Kingdom, a KOTH map. March's special will see Melee Mania a PD map, etc. Oh, and December's annual event will be Deck the Skulls, a very much Christmas themed Ladder Match.

Now, I'm not going to start uploading them all now. I'm not even going to start building them now. No, this will all take a very, very long time. And the earliest you'll ever see of these will be in August.

....of 2026.

I'm taking a year and half to build these very unique a1 builds, and if there's something you'd like to see in these, something that you thought Melee Fort could have benefitted from, please let me know.

 

[asylum]

One issue that people had with "the old maps" was that it was either too difficult or too confusing to get into or out of the rings. My solution was to put pylon props beside the spots of the ropes where there was a gap in the nodraw brush, and accompany that with an impossible to miss practicum in the spawnrooms. Not good enough, apparently. So why not just have a gap in the ropes themselves instead of shoehorning in such faff and nonsense?

The thing is, I am not a mapper. I am, first and foremost, an artist. That some TF2 maps happen to be made as a byproduct is a happy coincidence. So the reason why the rings didn't have gaps in the sides is because rings don't have gaps in them and I don't want there to be.

Now that I'm starting fresh, with little too no ties with "those maps," one of the ideas I've had to make these walkable-non walkable spaces even easier to see and understand is having the sections intended to allow players to pass through to be slightly, yet still noticeably, transparent.

And pylons. Those are staying too, just in case.

Any ideas out there from you guys? Preferably, that don't involve taking out sections of the ropes entirely?

 

[asylum]

One of the things that people wanted to see in Melee Fort before it's untimely demise was more verticality. And that's what you'll be getting in FFF. So if you ever wanted to descend from the rafters like Sting and start walloping people like it's 1997, you won't be disappointed.

I'm also going to be getting a little more... "liberal" with weapons. No, we're not going to see the Demoshield weapons again. When even I have to start apologizing for a bad idea, you know it's a bad idea. For one, the lunchbox items are going to be allowed in. The Sandvich, Crit a Cola, all of 'em. Soldier's banners? Come on in, fam. And hell, even the Pyro's jetpack is getting in on the whitelist action. You wanted versatility? You got it.

And- I am going to spoil this right now- every one of these maps will have TF-Trons, even the ones whose Melee Fort counterparts didnt have one. KOTH Melee Kingdom? We got Red Rider and Dire Straights on tap. SD Rocket Rush? Steppenwolf and Creedence Clearwater Revival. ARENA Survival Series? Get ready for Rush and Blue Öyster Cult. A TF-Tron for every map. And that's a promise.