PL Infinity

[English Mobster]

A general summary of what to expect from this thread soon enough.

Overview:
BLU had managed to secure a RED rocket before it was going to take off, managing to hoist their doomsday machine aboard.
However, before the ever-important battery was installed, the RED mercenaries still aboard the rocket suddenly managed to get it to take off, forcing BLU to give chase in their own rocket to get the ever-important power source in place.

The map proper takes place in space, where the RED and BLU rockets had successfully managed to dock with one another.
The main dynamic element of the map is the addition of 3 generators strategically positioned alongside the Payload track. The control points contained around these generators either double or halve the speed of the cart, depending on which team captured them. Only one is unlocked at the beginning of the round; the other 2 are unlocked as the cart moves about the track.
If BLU holds all 3, the cart's speed is 8 times normal.
If RED holds all 3, the cart's speed is 1/8th of normal.
To encourage players to cap the points, automatic rollback of an unattended cart is eliminated.


The map also only has 2 CPs, Gorge-style. Travel and cap times have been carefully measured and hopefully should be comparable to Gorge.
Here are the ideal times (posting this here mainly for myself in case I lose this unsaved Notepad file):

Time for BLU to reach CP 1 + Cap (no boosts): 1:40
Time for BLU to reach CP 1 + Cap (Doubled speed): 0:50
Time for BLU to reach CP 1 + Cap (Halved speed): 3:20

Time for BLU to reach CP 2 + Cap (no boosts): 0:38
Time for BLU to reach CP 2 + Cap (Doubled speed): 0:18
Time for BLU to reach CP 2 + Cap (Halved Speed): 1:16

Walk times:
Time for RED to reach CP 1: 0:17
Time for RED to reach CP 2: 0:08
Time for RED to reach BLU spawn: 0:28

Time for BLU to reach CP 1: 0:15
Time for BLU to reach CP 2: 0:16
Time for BLU to reach RED spawn: 0:19

Credit:
Rexy/Void (a lot of their stuff was lumped together): "Evil Lair" models, Computer Banks, Chemical Containers, Decontamination Nozzles, File Cabinets, a Forklift, Tech Doors, and probably some other things I'm forgetting.
The Creators of the Bulletcrops Project: Lots of Oceanic stuff repurposed to be in SPAAAACE.
The Creators of the Construction Pack: A hammer! And a drill! And some metal-y bits!
Cerulean: This awesome bomb cart thingymajig.
Artesia: Custom cap point models along the track.
Acumen: A chair.
VelvetFistIronGlove: The Skylab Sky.
Selentic: A Telephone Booth (that seems out of place, doesn't it?)
Honeymustard/Arnold: Creators of cp_Konkreet, which was an excellent learning tool for getting the rimlighting around the CPs to function correctly.
TheBladeRoden: Gray CP Signs.
Boojum: Entity help/setup, various prefabs, the Mapper's Resource.
YM: More prefabs and some textures and some overlays.
Ravidge: His lighting library.

I do believe that's everyone. If I missed you, I'm really sorry, just let me know and I'll add you in.

 

[English Mobster]

This MAY be why it's taking so long to get an alpha ready:

 

[Jeremy]

That barrel in the second screenshot looks really out of place, I think.

Anyway, I like the look of this map. It reminds me of Turbine.

 

[Jetti]

Looks beautiful, but I fear that players will just push the cart while it isn't being defended, rather than capture the points.

 

[English Mobster]

That barrel in the second screenshot looks really out of place, I think.

Anyway, I like the look of this map. It reminds me of Turbine.

Fixed. Here's a few more screenshots for taste:

The style is part Turbine, part Coldfront, and part Well.

Looks beautiful, but I fear that players will just push the cart while it isn't being defended, rather than capture the points.

Well, that's the point, to an extent. RED and BLU have to decide whether they should push/defend the cart to further the overall objective or if they should capture the points to make their objective easier.
The points are located along the track as well; no more than perhaps 15 seconds to/from each point from the track. While a single Sentry can't cover both, the travel time is such that players can react to a nearby point being capped or the cart being pushed/defended without too much trouble. As the cart has no rollback, there also isn't a penalty for BLU leaving the cart undefended to go capture/defend a point, which should encourage capping as opposed to pushing.
The idea to merge the ideas came from a frequent complaint that Payload is biased towards the slower heavy classes (Heavy, Demoman, etc.). Since a common complaint of CP maps is that the light classes (Scout, Spy, etc.) have too much pull with the objectives, this combines both elements to effectively make both important in pursuing the overall objective.

 

[Freyja]

It looks great. For a RC. :|

 

[English Mobster]

Don't feel bad, Aly. All I have done is the first point. The second isn't even blocked out yet.
Ah, the magic of detailing with prefabs.

 

[English Mobster]

A bit of an update (no pictures as I'm too lazy to go ingame and grab 'em, and they aren't bootiful RC-level stuff regardless; everything outside of spawn looks very alpha-y):
A lot of the delay on getting this map off of its feet has been due to attempting to get multiple dynamic-y stuff to work. I still have a couple more bugs to squash, however, so don't expect miracles to happen.
School starts for me on January 23rd, 8 days from this posting. I have a very full semester and may have to drop a class, so I have no idea how fast work will get done on this thing. Hopefully there shouldn't be too much of a delay, but my work schedule will be different.
As for actual mapping progress, I have gotten myself about halfway done with the cart's path. As soon as I patch up some nodraw, approximately half the map will be playable. The second half should be a bit faster, as it's supposed to take the cart 40 seconds to reach the final CP assuming a constant push at 1x compared to 1:40 to reach the first (remember, this is Gorge-style).
The only challenging thing coming up will be the finale (the finale itself will not be super-gameplay affecting, but the bits that eventually become the finale need to be planned out ahead of time, as gameplay happens around them). All other systems appear to be go.

 

[VelvetFistIronGlove]

Ensure you have at least a few very large rooms. A map that's all corridors isn't much fun for some classes.

 

[English Mobster]

That's the idea. I've been using the heights seen in Turbine and Junction as a basis for most of the map; running around, Demomen and Soldiers seem to have no problem rocketjumping about. But I know labyrinthine maps aren't fun, so I've tried my best to make every area feel unique and leave space for the mobile classes to get about whenever possible.

 

[Monsterclip]

Not a lot to say from the screenshots other than it's looking pretty good. That 2nd shot is blowing my mind though. Does the door just lead straight out to space? You'd think you'd see the hallway / room that it leads to from the window!