ARENA Lumberyard Event b5

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:

1. Add a tie system
2. Add a balancing system for the losing team

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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

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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

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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)

 

To kick off entering beta, I've added some very base-level ideas for atmosphere, assets, and sounds.

Say hello to Beamy! Beamy is a friendly ghost who wants nothing more than to help your living friends with their spectral beam of good vibes. Beamy will be replacing the standard ghost model in this version.



At the moment the model only has a very basic hover animation, but down the line, Beamy will be fully animated. Beamy will also eventually be fully voice acted, to give helpful prompts, such as "Over here!", and "Wait up!", but for now, Beamy will yell out high pitched boos. Let me know what you think!



On top of this, I've put in place some major aspects of the atmosphere.

This map will be themed after a graveyard. The spawn rooms will serve as an entrance to the graveyard, as well as a morgue. The middle building will be a part mausoleum, part crematorium. The downpour weather for the past few days has lead to a mudslide, uncovering decades, maybe even centuries of old caskets and coffins. The overwhelming amount of uncovered dead has led to the freedom of all the souls trapped inside, the ghosts now finally ascending. From the massive amount of visible spectral energy, a curse (or blessing) has been cast on the graveyard- Eternal life!

So far, I've only laid down the most basic parts of this idea. There is a drizzle of rain covering the entire map, along with spooky graveyard fog amongst the gray gravel floor. Shrubbery is dead, and the mudslide has knocked over trees in its wake. The deathpit is filled with coffins, shrouded by fog.




You can see the souls being released from their cages, rising into ascension, on top of a custom skybox for the map that turns the usual trainyard sky into a misty, nighttime version.






If you're worried about your performance suffering from some of these effects, I've tagged a lot of them as "weather", which you can disable inside your advanced options!

Going beta also comes with a few fixes and tweaks. Here are the patchnotes for Beta 1:

• Healing ghosts now have a unique model and pitched-up sounds
• The dispenser noises from ghosts are now much quieter
• Added color correction
• Added new weather effects
• Added basic retheming
• The control point now unlocks 1:20 into the round (previously 1:30, and before that, 1:00)
• Fixed some exploits involving rare spells
  • NPCs spawned by rare spells will be instantly killed at the end and start of any round
  • Spells the player may be holding will be taken from them as soon as the round ends (previously when the round started)
• Adjusted some text on the screen to have better alignment
• Cleaned up a bit more clipping

Thanks for liking the map so far in it's development. I look forward to finishing it and seeing you all have more fun with it!



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Dan it's February, this level of spookiness isn't allowed yet

 

I LOVE THIS FUNKY LITTLE GHOST DUDE VERY MUCH

 

beamy loves you back

 

b1 notes:

• Lower emission rate of floor fog
• make the tongue on the ghost a different color to make it pop
• make the ghosts just a teeny bit larger
• look into fixing big glitched ghosts again- rework the big "OnEndTouch" trigger to instead be a trigger that checks for cond 77?

 

In today's tf2 update (3/2/2021), an undocumented change has fixed kills and deaths not working on ghosts. Rejoice!

 

I’ve sent an email to the TF2 team for various bugs that I was able to track down and reproduce-

• Dying to direct flames means you do not send an “EndTouch” output when you become a ghost- this means dying to direct flames on a control point makes you contest it forever.
• Sources of individual overwhelming explosive damage kill you outright instead of turning you into a ghost (oddly enough, it works for one crit sticky, but not a whole trap of normal stickies)
• Using the YER as Spy will not grant you the disguise of your victim if they have condition 76
• Touching an enemy lightning ball super spell will make you “EndTouch” any trigger you’re inside of, which can make you “leave” any objective you’re inside of, even if you survived and never left it
• Engineer’s teleporter and Eureka Effect can cause you to “EndTouch” any trigger you’re inside of, even if the same trigger encapsulates both the entrance and exit
• Color correction volumes apply to all players in the server when it should only apply to the activator (it seems this works in l4d but not tf2)

 

Welcome to B2! This version lays down a couple more bits of detailing groundwork while mainly focusing on tackling major bugs with the map and ghosts in general.

While I wait and see if my previously mentioned bug reports get a response, I've gone ahead and put together a ton of failsafes and logic re-works that solve some of the most major issues.

After lots of debugging, it turns out this was caused whenever a player died of direct flames. Not even afterburn, but direct fire- and it happened 100% of a time. Being a 'Big ghost' had several ramifications. The reason the ghosts were large is because there was a trigger surrounding the map. When you became a ghost, you'd leave the trigger (since ghosts cannot interact with them normally), and it'd send some outputs to you such as shrinking you down, giving you a dispenser, and most critically, counting you as dead. Uh oh! Turning someone into a ghost with direct fire meant all of this was bypassed. It wasn't caused by disguised spies like some testers speculated. Through rewriting how a lot of the mode works, this critical issue is now fixed.

A similar bug exists with all methods of teleportation in the game. Sort of like how turning into a ghost from pyro's flames makes you stay in any trigger you're in, teleportation would make you leave any trigger you're in, even if the entrance and destination were encapsulated by the same trigger. Like above, this meant living players who took a teleporter would be shrunken, given a dispenser, etc. For some reason, the lightning ball spell also 'teleports' players around with it's strong pull, making them rapidly exit/enter any trigger they're in. These are problems with the game itself that I cannot fix, however through reworking the gamemode logic, I was able to fix the most important problems. Currently there's still an annoying bug, where if every player on the other team is hit by your lightning ball, they will all be rewarded "Last Man Standing" minicrits, but it's a small and rare enough problem that I decided I'll tackle it later.

Patch Notes:

• Win condition is now first to 4 (from 5)
  
• Kills and deaths are now tracked (thanks tf2 team!)
  
• Fixed the majority of cases of players becoming a big ghost on death (and therefor considered alive, or considered contesting a control point)
  • Exceptions, such as multiple players dying at once, are now handled by a failsafe
• Fixed an bug with the engineer's teleporter and the lightning ball spell that caused players to appropriate the attributes of ghosts
  
• Fixed a couple bugged pumpkin bomb spawns
• Fixed players becoming large ghosts if they died after a round ended
  
• Fixed a case of some ghosts not getting a dispenser when dying at the same time as another player
  
  • This will need revisiting down the line, as it can still happen under rare circumstances.
• More collision improvements
  
• Bits of detailing
  
• Ground fog is 30% less dense to improve performance and visibility

Enjoy!






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Seems first test of B2 went well- Very few bugs! There were just two bugs that happened- engineer's would try to "teleport to home" with their eureka effect and teleport to the OOB debug box and not get placed back into the main map as they should've, and after a round where that happened, a win was tallied for the opposite team of that player when it shouldn't've. Other than that, super clean test, happy that a lot of the fixes are working