MVM Helix 2017-05-10

[Diva Dan]

Helix - An MVM map set in an adobe village with a helix shape

Helix is a map where robots land in two completely different landing zones, labeled A and B and signed accordingly. The goal of this layout is to divide teams across the whole map, making players rely on good individual efforts or strong 2/3 player bonds. Tanks can come from either site, with the A tank traveling a much shorter route than the B one.

Below is a screenshot of how the paths work and where each drop zone is.

CREATORS:
BenCo: Bomb hatch area, spawns, pop file
HolySnickerPuffs: Landing zones, clipping, game logic
Diva Dan: Core layout, theme, original concept

We hope you enjoy!

Spoiler: Screenshots

 

[Infomaniac]

Interesting...

 

[SnickerPuffs]

When I downloaded the map to try it out, the mission didn't work, as the map file's name is different than the mission file's name. When I changed the nav file's name, the mission still didn't work because the spawnbot entity names don't match up with where the robots are told to spawn.

There we also some error messages in the console that I'll put in the Spoilers box below.

Spoiler: Error Messages

SOLID_VPHYSICS static prop with no vphysics model! (models/props_foliage/shrub_03_cluster02.mdl)

Must have a teleporter and/or a sentry hint with the same name.

Invalid Where argument 'spawnbot_mission_spy'
Unknown attribute 'Where' in Mission definition.

Invalid Where argument 'spawnbot_mission_sniper'
Unknown attribute 'Where' in Mission definition.


Invalid Where argument 'spawnbot'
Unknown attribute 'Where' in Mission definition.

 

[Star Bright]

Interesting. Is there any clue in the wave hud for which side bots are going to spawn in? I feel like that might alleviate a little bit of confusion, guesswork, and memorization.

 

[Freyja]

It sounds to me like they spawn from both all the time, forcing the players to split. I haven't played the map yet though

 

[Viemärirotta]

Gotta play this myself to understamd the thing better, but doesn't that shake up meta a bit? If you have a Engi and a Medic, they have to split up or else you risk up losing either health and ammo or just health. However this makes two way teles viable or possibly essential, but idk.

 

[Diva Dan]

Yeah, it's meant to shake things up completely. Think an engi at each zone, 2 pyros (for collecting money and DPS), 1 medic with high walk speed and a soldier for buffs.

 

[Empyre]

That name looks familiar. Mine was a KotH map several years ago, and it wasn't a big hit. Nobody is going to confuse yours for mine, or even remember mine. I didn't even bother reuploading it when the site changed.

 

[Freyja]

We tried this today. Like HolySnickerPuffs said, none of the spawnpoints are valid so literally no robots spawn at all, which makes the map unplayable.

Taking a poke in the popfile also reveals your popfile is using gatebot templates. This means they will ignore the bomb and try to cap an imaginary control point instead, which means they'll run to the hatch and sit on it until you kill them.

Your tanks also have no starting path_track node and are trying to spawn at a regular bot spawnpoint, which means it'll spawn at the first path_track it finds instead, not at specified ones which I imagine you'd want in a map like this. It's also in a squad which I don't think breaks anything but is unecessary.

Also, every single wavespawn pays $400 which is a lot of money, even for normal mode. That might be necessary for the split design, testing will reveal that, but usually you put less money on the spammy bots and more on the bosses, etc.

@BenCo I strongly recommend you don't use MvM.tf for making popfiles, it creates these problems. They are easy to write manually and makes it far easier to balance.

 

[BenCo]

@Freyja Thanks for the feedback. I'll make a proper pop file by the next version. This was more of a quick task that needs to be done, so I did not concentrated as much as I should've but now I have more time to work on it.