MVM Mannology

Vaconcovat

L3: Member
Jan 15, 2012
116
188
At this point there's not too much i can really do to it, in a10 i've replaced the final church area with a warehouse, but still keeping the same general layout idea. I think that because we're all still a bit new to mvm i'd rather play it safe and get it right rather than going with a risk and getting it wrong.

Playing it safe doesn't exactly win competitions, but hey, mabye next time.

I'll have a10 up soon
 

LeetLawrence

L1: Registered
Nov 25, 2012
1
0
Yea

I like the idea and all, but I think there should be a bit more things in the skybox, like more houses or trees... Overall I like it and would try it in a later version. Keep up the good work!
 

Vaconcovat

L3: Member
Jan 15, 2012
116
188
Alright, i'll put out a10 and then jump into beta to try and re-theme the map to something other than 'grey rocks'

There's a completely new popfile (I just need a finale) that trys to give each wave a 'theme' you can see it here

But, in doing that, I tried to figure out how to change a bot's icon and ended up writing this guide.

whee
 

Vaconcovat

L3: Member
Jan 15, 2012
116
188
Hey, here's some good news.

About a week ago, Ex-Tropical Cyclone Oswald hit the area I live in. To cut a long story short, there was widespread destruction mainly due to the high winds knocking down trees. And with all these trees, the above-ground lines also fell. I was without power for about 5 days and still haven't got phone lines back. Due to where i live, there's no wireless alternative for internet and thus we rely on our phonelines for all our internet needs. And we heard that we won't be getting these lines back anytime soon. (Estimate 10th - 12th Feb).

To add to that, Steam offline won't work. And Because of this, I can't access TF2 or use hammer properly. I was planning to put the map through a re-design over these last weeks (aesthetic changes, layout and popfiles i'm not really going to change, they're currently 'safe'). So yeah, I haven't been able to work on the map at all and wont be able to for a while. I'm not asking for an extension, just that the map probably wont be where i wanted it to be by the time the deadline comes around.

I'm posting this through a network that blocks all steam-related traffic.
 

Vaconcovat

L3: Member
Jan 15, 2012
116
188
342E35B0F9893BFA555A2F58171023083FED264D


It is getting there
 

Vaconcovat

L3: Member
Jan 15, 2012
116
188
Ok moved into beta now

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/10434261/mannology/mvm_plateau_b1.bsp

also I'm temp calling it plateau because there's some sort of plateau in the skybox also the alamo because i'm original

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I haven't properly detailed this area yet and there's a few things behind the camera that are dev textured until i work out what they actually are. I'm planning on having this building as the entrance to a more elaborate base inside the rockwall behind it

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Vaconcovat

L3: Member
Jan 15, 2012
116
188
Beta 3

Implemented the engy bot into some of the waves. Also made the initial few waves only slightly harder.
More detailing, 2 custom textures for signs. Displacements etc

2013-02-16_00006.jpg
 
Mar 20, 2012
391
806
So, there's a few things you should probably think about as you move on from this map:

Gameplay-wise, I believe it'd be beneficial to try out layouts that aren't so linear. In my opinion, the best area of your map is where the bots dropped in. The over-arching balcony with the side stairs provide an interesting dynamic of focusing fire and maintaining the flanks. I find it pretty neat that the bots can drop behind the rocks, forcing me to change positions to attack them directly.

Once the map falls back to middle and spawn, it becomes really boring. Bots get funneled to the left and right of the middle building, but end up in a pit where spam can just wreck them. There's no good spawn positions for Spy Bots in these areas (check Decoy and Coal Town - there's a lot of little nooks) so I virtually never had to worry about them. Pulling away from a Sentry Bot was super easy - I could see it from across the map.

In fact, that's probably my biggest criticism about your map. I can see everything from across the map. There's no surprise bot group coming around the corner or other tricky events that can make MvM interesting. I feel like I'm playing space invaders on a horizontal plane.

Aesthetically, I noted that I feel the map has an identity crises with Decoy and Coal Town. I understand the desire to play it safe, but it's so much so that safe has equated to boring. Even though you scrapped your church, I think you could have maintained that theme. It's just a bit disappointing that it ended up into a generic splice of two of the four officialized MvM maps. Been there, seen it all.

I hope that helps. You've got a lot of potential. You just need to learn how to wrangle it.
 

Vaconcovat

L3: Member
Jan 15, 2012
116
188
Alright, 7 hours left in the competition and i need to sleep

--SUBMISSION--

mvm_plateau_b5
mvm_plateau_b5_screen.jpg


Download BSP

And because somebody might find it interesting, here's the popfile and VMF:

Download .pop

Download .vmf

I would've hoped to get a little further that where the map currently is, there are still some graphical and detailing fixes that need to be made (lighting + source = random green blotches). Overall i'm pretty happy with the map for the competition, although the layout may have some issues, i feel the waves are strong and i've optimized it to the best of my ability.

Good luck to all the other entries!

also can someone change my thread name to plateau please
 
Last edited:

Melvin D Engineere

L4: Comfortable Member
Feb 25, 2012
173
192
I have uploaded a 23 minute video of your MvM map:

TF2: mvm_plateau_b5

After the contest is completely finished, a few bugs I've noticed:

I can't walk up the right side of this slope for some reason:
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That same slope but with a heavy stuck at that spot. He killed himself to get out:
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If a team fails a wave, the blue robot path arrows don't appear:
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And a bonus screenshot of someone's reaction to the robot makeup for Wave 8:
89A47883209C74E70C2EA91E36E0A1C02BB534C1
 

Idolon

they/them
aa
Feb 7, 2008
2,105
6,106
Gameplay: 5
The layout seems uncofused, and sometimes overscaled as well. The main choke leading out from the bot drop zone is about 1/3 of the map's width. The two bot routes were identical, meaning you're relying entirely on the waves to make your gameplay interesting. The high ground was a bit weird, because it took too long to access to really be effective – at the finale, for example, you have to go around the main fight to get the vantage point over the bots, which is counter intuitive. Consider centralizing your high ground, and making it more of where players want to be. Additionally, having bots have a large ramp down onto the players is an odd design choice – I don't know if it's good or not. Just think about it when you make any layout changes. On a positive note, your bot drop zone is actually really cool, since you have a lot of flanking opportunities, and it caters to a lot of play styles.

Waves: 4
Your waves aren't really bad, but they aren't very good either, and definitely too hard. You could probably get away with the same pop file on a different map, but the map isn't very easily defended, and the pop file doesn't do much to cater to that. Laser soldiers/enemies are annoying because it's hard to see the projectile, stock soldiers would function about the same and be much easier to dodge. I haven't seen the 2nd half of this pop file, but I imagine the difficulty-money curves are way too far from each other.

Aesthetics: 4
Your aesthetics are boring. There's nothing horribly wrong with them, and they're not broken, but they're entirely uninteresting. I don't say this because your map uses the same theme that's been around with TF2 for 5 years, but because your map looks like a textured alpha. There's props scattered about, but it really doesn't do a whole lot. You should go back to your church theme, because it was a lot more interesting.

Technical: 7
-Tanks could “pinch” a player against a wall and kill them
-Displacement ramp has a tri you can't walk up
-Dead bodies fall through hatch
-Few minor clipping errors (not in important areas)
-I was killed by a “Bonk Scout” with a scattergun.

Full Judgement PDF