Lumberyard Event - Halloween lumberyard with a bunch of gimmicks and logic that makes it work in casual Lumberyard event is a map im currently making that basically recreates all of the logic of arena, but uses the koth gamemode and prefix, so that it works on casual mode unlike arena. some of my goals making this are- make arena work in casual mode, since the mode is normally incompatible give dead players something to do spice it up with some gimmicks that don't overstay their welcome so here's what I've done so far: when you die, you can still participate in the match! dead players become tiny little see-thru ghosts, which have the ability of a dispenser. float around your teammates to help them out, or stack buffs with other ghost buddies onto one player. or, you can float around that annoying spy that killed you and try to reveal their position. maybe BOO over and over at the sniper dominating you to piss them off. or you can do nothing. no pressure. the choice is yours! there are more small health kits placed around to make the map a bit friendlier. the health kit that is normally on the log is now a spellbook spawner, so it will be a very hotly contested area. risk it for the biscuit, and u could get rewarded good spells for arena, like the healing aura spell! on top of this, there are also random map-wide events that can occur. these are rolled every other round. you'll start with one normal round, then a gimmicky one, and that repeats over n over. at the moment there are 7 unique gimmicks. these are subject to change: Mad Milk! - covers all players in mad milk, so when you damage people, you're rewarded with some health HHH! - spawns the hhh at mid Huge! - makes all players big. you'll have to crouch under some doorways if u wanna squeeze around Tiny! - makes you tiny. you can fit under some props and you move faster like this, so u better aim well More spells! - this adds two addition spellbook spawners to each team's side of the map. Chaos ensues Extreme fog! - this puts a very short distance, pitch black fog onto the map. use your projectiles to search your environment, and look for enemy silhouettes Rising lava! - Lava begins rising on the map instantly. seek high ground quickly or you'll get crispy finally, this map uses the koth_ prefix, but that's also subject to change. I'm just using this at the moment because it was easy to work with the koth timer to act as a psuedo win counter. each time a team wins, 10 seconds are deducted from their static timer. once it reaches zero they win. later on i want to totally rework the hud to work like arena, or if possible, even better. there are a few known bugs with a1 such as multiple players dying at the same time not all getting their own healing dispenser once they become a ghost, and team switching being a little bit finicky, but i plan on ironing these out over time. i hope you enjoy!
Radius for the ghost dispensers are larger Ghosts now drop ammo packs (previous oversight) Text will now pop up on the screen when you become a ghost, letting you know that you can heal teammates New hud Now uses the PD hud as a base instead of a koth clock The bar on the bottom tracks the wins each team has with text to hopefully explain it Win condition is still the same; you dont drop cores or anything Player counters will come soon Fixed issues with the lava event Skybox lava now matches speeds with the playspace lava Cap zone trigger now gets enabled on top of the hut, so you can win by capturing in the event of a bug or an invis spy hiding some weird spot Removed the "more spells" event Players now get overhealed during the "huge" event Sudden death now activates 120 seconds into the round all players will take incrementing, doubling damage after another 60 seconds Control point now takes 10 seconds to cap (previously 15) Clipping improvements Random bits of detail Read the rest of this update entry...
test 2 notes for myself: Majority of players feel happy they don't have to sit out ghosts lend themselves to being pretty memeable people enjoy coordinating with ghosts Too many of the events disadvantage sniper, which is a problem because people don't like switching out of their comfort zone in arena since punishment is higher Find some sort of way to remedy the fog- keep it interesting and gameplay-changing, but not unfair Make player's heads big when the tiny spell is active padding events with normal rounds helps a lot in making things feel more fair if a couple events get chopped, look into having it be "2 normal rounds, 1 gimmick" instead- makes events more sparse while making it so people don't feel like they're missing out if they don't see them all healing as a ghost was intuitive and people figured it out quickly MAYBE look into changing some sort of part of ghost movement- can be hard to catch up to allies sometimes, though the air mobility makes up for it, and having to stand relatively still as a player makes getting healed more of a conscious act, which is desirable make ghosts even more transparent the HUD is still confusing Just change the map prefix to arena while testing on TF2M and change it only on the workshop upload lava event has some issues with the round not ending when a team dies, fortunately the point still enables on the roof, but look into adding safety islands in the lava stage with health kits on them ghosts are still a tad too distracting- lower their alpha a bit check the map for more stuck spots, as the tiny ghosts can get stuck on more things clip the mid point so that ghosts don't move wonky on it (networking error) make the health kits more obvious somehow? players kept complaining about a lack of health even though there are 4 health kits on the map maybe the low health aspect of arena is outdated and maps should have more health kits- the map does have the ghosts however, maybe turn the smalls into mediums? required wins are too high, change it to first to 6 instead of first to 8 find a way to somehow balance teams Since team scramble isn't an option in casual mode, look into giving some sort of advantage to teams that are behind keep it fun while not creating a total stalemate, where both teams keep trading rounds only activate when down by at least 2 potential loser advantage ideas: Earlier rollout? Add text on the screen like "BLU gets a HEAD START!" potential logical nightmare slight overheal? More text prompts in general "RED WINS!" "BLU WINS!"
A3 Patchnotes: Completely redid the HUD There is now a counter at the top of the HUD that will display how many players are alive on each team, just like normal arena The win counter looks much cleaner, now with new art Turned off all of the random events for the time being Text will appear on the screen to denote which team won the round Changed the win condition to 6 instead of 8 Players without minimal HUD enabled will get a hint prompt letting them know what ghosts do Fixed players being ressurected after a round ended Cleaned up more collisions TO DO: Add a tie system Add a balancing system for the losing team Read the rest of this update entry...
Notes players should be outlined when you're a ghost- look into the respawn team glow attribute if it's accessible some players still dont understand the main gimmick, maybe a bandaid fix like a sign in spawn would be fine for now before getting a VA for the map spell is too accessible, should only spawn when the point unlocks to make it so players who aren't dominating mid can get a spell and maybe turn the tides Add a last-man-standing bonus being the last man standing would give you some sort of damage or boost this would make it so maybe losing teams have an easier chance of comeback would be a dynamic way to balance teams that wouldn't lose its purpose on the following round like the head start would and avoids having to scramble players could also mean you can counteract the "final boss" on the other team having loads of ghosts on the cp by being able to damage them easier could lead to cool clutches, and if its a 1v1, create a really interesting duel
New mechanic "Last Man Standing" When your team is reduced to just one player, they will be announced as the last player remaining. This player will be given mini-crits, speed, and a particle effect. This effect will not apply if there is only 1 player on both teams when the round starts. This new mechanic will help the underdog, ensuring an interesting final fight. This will also make final 1V1's less of a stalemate, since the minicrit damage will more effectively counter any healing the opponent is getting from ghosts. Let me know what you think! The spellbook on the log will now only appear once the control point is unlocked This will stop the beginning of every round playing the same, where players would race for the spellbook right away. Teams unable to contest the control point can counter a grouped-up enemy team with a well-placed spell. Ghosts can now see ally positions and health Fly over to a teammate who needs some help! Ghost healing radius has been increased once more Merasmus VO now counts down the start of the round, and now announces events like sudden death, the point unlocking, and which team won a round Doors should hopefully not crush people any more Win condition is now 5 (from 6) Cleaned up more collisions and stuck spots Added skybox particles Read the rest of this update entry...
Notes: the sweeping trigger has a tendency to kill people- enable this only a few seconds after the round begins instead of a millisecond the last man standing buff is fun but the voiceline can get spammy minicrits are strong enough, speed isn't needed at all, tends to push the needle a little too far you dont see the last man standing bonus too often because rounds usually end by the point capping when the server is larger unlock the control point later add a big zappy particle when the spellbook spawns make the skybox stuff purple instead of green look into why some players dont get respawned? Make respawn times really short so people who die to a glitch/anything that circumvents the ghost condition can still come back into the game as a ghost
Good news! I sent an email to Eric Smith of Valve, and the issue with kills and deaths not being counted for when a player becomes a ghost is going to be fixed in the next update (whenever that happens to be).
The spellbook that spawns when the point unlocks is now a rare spell, and only spawns once The spellbook now has a particle effect to announce it's presence The point now unlocks 90 seconds into a round (previously 60) This should make the "Last Man Standing" bonus a more noticeable mechanic, leading to more varied battles that don't always revolve around the point The Last Man Standing no longer gets increased speed The player will still get mini-crits as usual Made voice lines more varied Fixed an edge case that was causing players to die at the start of the round Reworked respawn mechanics behind the scenes to prevent players from sitting out in spectator instead of becoming a ghost Fixed control point progress being staggered on the HUD Fixed repeated door sounds outside the map Read the rest of this update entry...
Notes- make unlock time somewhere between 60-90 ; 90 felt too drawn out and 60 is still a bit too short maybe increase dispenser range again? remove spells as soon as the round has a winner rather than waiting til the next round begins to prevent any exploits potentially kill all related entities if they're targettable? (meteors and monoculus)
