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GENERAL FIXES.
- Almost entirely eradicated all scenarios that may create ghost intels.
- Moved a small health pack at A.
- Blocked a sneaky sightline from the C building to B.
- Added a quality of life prop jump into the C building.
- Made some areas brighter.
- More signs.
MAJOR CHANGES.
- Pathway to the high ground above A has been totally redone.
- All ammo packs around A are now small.
When I designed A, I built the point and the surrounding areas around the concept of a high cliff watching over both the point and most of the main routes onto it. The idea was that a lot of the main defense and combat would occur around the cliff, but if blue managed start to gain foothold around the more distant routes, red would have to shift some of the pressure away from the cliff and in turn let blue now have easier time taking over the strongest position on the point.
This did occur, somewhat, but it was very awkward because of the way blue path to the cliff was laid out and it resulted in the route being very annoying to use and sometimes totally ignored in favor of other routes.
Another problem that raise it's ugly head during the test was engineers, more specifically, lots of fucking engineers, they were everywhere.
To combat these problems, the blue path to the cliff has been rebuilt to flow better when the attacking team is set up and pushing from the starting area, the building should also in theory be far less easy to spam mindlessly. You should now have to actively take fights to hold the route, instead of spamming a small doorway. There also now should be enough metal on the point to sustain one Engineer, but not two or three, rest have to go somewhere else.
- The long route entrance is now closer to the attacking team.
- The long route has been slightly adjusted and made smaller.
Speaking of the more distant routes, the furthest most route to A also had it's fair share of issues that have hopefully been at least somewhat fixed. The entrance to the building is now 100 units closer to the blue ramp down to the A yard, which means attackers don't have to walk so deep into an open area to get to this area. A lot of the dead space in the room has also been removed and the well door that made things quite awkward when pushing has now been turned into a gorge style door. Once it's open, it will stay open.
- Removed the second doorway out of lower window room.
- Replaced it with a new route to one of the side areas.
C didn't get a lot of play in the test, but what I saw was enough for me to decide to make some changes despite the very little play time on the point. When I designed C, the idea was there to be two fronts once red's forward hold fails and they have to fall back, with blue setting up in the big lobby above and red holding on and around the point.
Unfortunately, I had made an oversight and the attacking team got funneled into an one area little too much, which caused red to hold in front of the point instead of anywhere else at all. This is why there is now a new route that should in theory apply more pressure to anyone trying to hold directly in front of the point and in general make the point flow much better. This is of course only a theory... a map theory.
(Yes Chin, I stole your changelog style, sue me.)
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- Almost entirely eradicated all scenarios that may create ghost intels.
- Moved a small health pack at A.
- Blocked a sneaky sightline from the C building to B.
- Added a quality of life prop jump into the C building.
- Made some areas brighter.
- More signs.
MAJOR CHANGES.
- Pathway to the high ground above A has been totally redone.
- All ammo packs around A are now small.
When I designed A, I built the point and the surrounding areas around the concept of a high cliff watching over both the point and most of the main routes onto it. The idea was that a lot of the main defense and combat would occur around the cliff, but if blue managed start to gain foothold around the more distant routes, red would have to shift some of the pressure away from the cliff and in turn let blue now have easier time taking over the strongest position on the point.
This did occur, somewhat, but it was very awkward because of the way blue path to the cliff was laid out and it resulted in the route being very annoying to use and sometimes totally ignored in favor of other routes.
Another problem that raise it's ugly head during the test was engineers, more specifically, lots of fucking engineers, they were everywhere.
To combat these problems, the blue path to the cliff has been rebuilt to flow better when the attacking team is set up and pushing from the starting area, the building should also in theory be far less easy to spam mindlessly. You should now have to actively take fights to hold the route, instead of spamming a small doorway. There also now should be enough metal on the point to sustain one Engineer, but not two or three, rest have to go somewhere else.
- The long route entrance is now closer to the attacking team.
- The long route has been slightly adjusted and made smaller.
Speaking of the more distant routes, the furthest most route to A also had it's fair share of issues that have hopefully been at least somewhat fixed. The entrance to the building is now 100 units closer to the blue ramp down to the A yard, which means attackers don't have to walk so deep into an open area to get to this area. A lot of the dead space in the room has also been removed and the well door that made things quite awkward when pushing has now been turned into a gorge style door. Once it's open, it will stay open.
- Removed the second doorway out of lower window room.
- Replaced it with a new route to one of the side areas.
C didn't get a lot of play in the test, but what I saw was enough for me to decide to make some changes despite the very little play time on the point. When I designed C, the idea was there to be two fronts once red's forward hold fails and they have to fall back, with blue setting up in the big lobby above and red holding on and around the point.
Unfortunately, I had made an oversight and the attacking team got funneled into an one area little too much, which caused red to hold in front of the point instead of anywhere else at all. This is why there is now a new route that should in theory apply more pressure to anyone trying to hold directly in front of the point and in general make the point flow much better. This is of course only a theory... a map theory.
(Yes Chin, I stole your changelog style, sue me.)
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I'm going to write the changelog later, I need to get in the damn imp!
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Welcome to Alpha 4. baby! Here are pictures of some of the changes from A3 since I didn't write anything last time. The starting area has been totally redone and the further most path to A is now 200 units closer.
Anyway, onto the Alpha 4.
GENERAL CHANGES.
- There is now a ghost intel that indicates the players that a new intel will spawn on the point soon.
- Fixed a prop jump that allowed people to get where they shouldn't.
- Clipped some fences better.
- Raised one of the doorways at last by 16 units.
B POINT.
- More or less remade the whole damn point.
These B changes might be the most challenging redesign I have ever done when making maps, I don't have the time left in the contest to totally rearrange the entire map to fit an entirely new B but every redesign caused broken sightlines or navigation issues that would have misdirected players.
In the end I went for a hybrid of the old design and mix of various ideas from the various redesign attempts that hopefully should play relatively same as old B but without the headaches of the old one.
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Anyway, onto the Alpha 4.
GENERAL CHANGES.
- There is now a ghost intel that indicates the players that a new intel will spawn on the point soon.
- Fixed a prop jump that allowed people to get where they shouldn't.
- Clipped some fences better.
- Raised one of the doorways at last by 16 units.
B POINT.
- More or less remade the whole damn point.
These B changes might be the most challenging redesign I have ever done when making maps, I don't have the time left in the contest to totally rearrange the entire map to fit an entirely new B but every redesign caused broken sightlines or navigation issues that would have misdirected players.
In the end I went for a hybrid of the old design and mix of various ideas from the various redesign attempts that hopefully should play relatively same as old B but without the headaches of the old one.
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Welcome to Alpha 5, also known as the "Hopefully B can be now defended and the nipple is now smaller" edition!!!
GENERAL FIXES
- Fixed some small clipping errors.
- Made the ambient lighting a tad brighter.
- Fixed some rooms being little too dim.
MAJOR CHANGES.
- Changed red spawn times, they are now as following.
A: Min: 8 Seconds. Max: 16 Seconds.
B: Min: 7 Seconds. Max: 14 Seconds.
C: Min: 6 Seconds. Max: 12 Seconds.
Things have been pretty blue sided recently and I am not entirely sure if that is because of the map or just bad teams in few recent tests, I keep flipping between the two options constantly. That is why, just in case, I have adjusted the defensive respawn times to scale with the intended point difficulty. This might be a change that gets totally undone in the future, it depends on how things pan out in the future.
- Basement route at B now connects to the same areas the upper cliff route.
- B now has more space around it overall.
- B now has lot more ammo around it overall.
One thing I know for a fact is that all the B rolls were not because of the teams, every team seemed to get wiped on this point pretty fast and that is totally my fault. When I redesigned the point and combined all the different ideas I had in mind together, I had made a massive oversight regarding flow and how red is supposed to defend this point.
When moving the basement route and it's entrance, I had created a situation where blue comes from three different directions instead of two. This in itself wouldn't be so bad, if one of those directions wasn't behind the main defensive area, thus allowing blue to instantly cut any defense by the knees before red had successfully set anything up.
With the basement route now leading you to a relatively same area as the other route on that side of the point and general increase in ammo packs, red should be able to set up a proper defensive behind and on the point before blue totally overwhelms them with no chance of recovery.
Of course, there is always another possibility that I didn't consider, this point just sucks and is beyond saving. (Hopefully not.)
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GENERAL FIXES
- Fixed some small clipping errors.
- Made the ambient lighting a tad brighter.
- Fixed some rooms being little too dim.
MAJOR CHANGES.
- Changed red spawn times, they are now as following.
A: Min: 8 Seconds. Max: 16 Seconds.
B: Min: 7 Seconds. Max: 14 Seconds.
C: Min: 6 Seconds. Max: 12 Seconds.
Things have been pretty blue sided recently and I am not entirely sure if that is because of the map or just bad teams in few recent tests, I keep flipping between the two options constantly. That is why, just in case, I have adjusted the defensive respawn times to scale with the intended point difficulty. This might be a change that gets totally undone in the future, it depends on how things pan out in the future.
- Basement route at B now connects to the same areas the upper cliff route.
- B now has more space around it overall.
- B now has lot more ammo around it overall.
One thing I know for a fact is that all the B rolls were not because of the teams, every team seemed to get wiped on this point pretty fast and that is totally my fault. When I redesigned the point and combined all the different ideas I had in mind together, I had made a massive oversight regarding flow and how red is supposed to defend this point.
When moving the basement route and it's entrance, I had created a situation where blue comes from three different directions instead of two. This in itself wouldn't be so bad, if one of those directions wasn't behind the main defensive area, thus allowing blue to instantly cut any defense by the knees before red had successfully set anything up.
With the basement route now leading you to a relatively same area as the other route on that side of the point and general increase in ammo packs, red should be able to set up a proper defensive behind and on the point before blue totally overwhelms them with no chance of recovery.
Of course, there is always another possibility that I didn't consider, this point just sucks and is beyond saving. (Hopefully not.)
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Not that major changes in this one.
- Clipping fixes.
- Improved the flank at A.
- Red can no longer use the upper flank route.
- B has gone through further nipple reduction surgery.
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- Clipping fixes.
- Improved the flank at A.
- Red can no longer use the upper flank route.
- B has gone through further nipple reduction surgery.
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Still not entirely sure where to go with B, some people I ask like it, some people I ask don't. I am going to stick with it for now and this is another set of small changes to improve things.
- More ammo all around the map.
- B now gives 30 seconds of extra time upon cap.
- Improved the prop jump.
- No build the shed at B.
- Improved things for spies at C.
- Removed a sightline blocker at C.
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- More ammo all around the map.
- B now gives 30 seconds of extra time upon cap.
- Improved the prop jump.
- No build the shed at B.
- Improved things for spies at C.
- Removed a sightline blocker at C.
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Welcome to the cliff of death update, you're welcome Lo-Fi.
B is playing surprisingly decently as of late, but one issue that has been constant is how safe red can feel when holding the area behind the point. I considered adding the old basement route back, but that would have most likely brought back the same issues as it did previously. Another thing I considered was changing the building on the left size totally, but then I was presented with a much more appealing looking solution (Thanks, Chin) that I decided to go with instead.
There is now a new path to B, starting next to the stairs by the cliff. This path will let you pressure red's usual defensive area, but it comes with a risk of being very exposed to the big death pit. Hopefully this will be what finally pushes B into territory where I can say I am happy with how it plays.
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B is playing surprisingly decently as of late, but one issue that has been constant is how safe red can feel when holding the area behind the point. I considered adding the old basement route back, but that would have most likely brought back the same issues as it did previously. Another thing I considered was changing the building on the left size totally, but then I was presented with a much more appealing looking solution (Thanks, Chin) that I decided to go with instead.
There is now a new path to B, starting next to the stairs by the cliff. This path will let you pressure red's usual defensive area, but it comes with a risk of being very exposed to the big death pit. Hopefully this will be what finally pushes B into territory where I can say I am happy with how it plays.
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Need to get this in an imp, B is smaller, respawn times are not fucked.
Thanks.
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Thanks.
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Alright, let's get through some of these changes, some of these happened in A9 but whatever.
GENERAL CHANGES
- Nobuilded the intel nipples.
- Fixed a pixel walk.
- Made the cave route at B brighter.
- Made the area behind A brighter.
- Made entirety of C brighter.
MAJOR CHANGES
- B is now 400 units less wider.
- New B dropdown route.
- New way up onto the B point.
- 7/14 respawn wave times for red at B.
B was playing relatively well in the past and I was ready to call it a day for the duration of the contest, but I decided to go against my gut feeling and go for some pretty major changes anyway. (It looks to have paid off too.) Although B was playing fine in the past, it was only playing fine when teams were relatively organized, the more unorganized and chaotic the environment, the worse the point played.
This was because the two sides you attacked the point from were so split apart, this caused more unorganized players to get split into small groups and get eventually rolled by red as they gained more and more ground around the point. As a solution, an entire route has been removed and the whole B point is 400 units smaller to bring everything closer together. This should still keep the gameplay more or less the same but streamline things further for more casual environment.
- C is now on the same level as the blue main entrances.
- Blue now spawns faster.
- Red now spawns slower.
- Red spawn has been moved.
C point hasn't been getting that much playtime until recently and it has revealed some issues that need to be addressed. First problem the point had was the fucked up spawn times, I don't remember if I went full mad scientist at some point without realizing or just typed a wrong number, but red was spawning faster than blue, which made the point night impossible to attack.
Another problem was the lack of height in favor of blue when they tried to approach the point, every angle red chose to hold from, they had the high ground over blue. This has now been changed, the point is now on level with the blue side of the point, meaning red still has their high ground but to actively defend the point itself, they have to sacrifice it.
Red spawn has also been moved to prevent accidental spawn camping and make it easier for blue to hold the stairwell side of the point, should they be able to take control of the area from red.
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GENERAL CHANGES
- Nobuilded the intel nipples.
- Fixed a pixel walk.
- Made the cave route at B brighter.
- Made the area behind A brighter.
- Made entirety of C brighter.
MAJOR CHANGES
- B is now 400 units less wider.
- New B dropdown route.
- New way up onto the B point.
- 7/14 respawn wave times for red at B.
B was playing relatively well in the past and I was ready to call it a day for the duration of the contest, but I decided to go against my gut feeling and go for some pretty major changes anyway. (It looks to have paid off too.) Although B was playing fine in the past, it was only playing fine when teams were relatively organized, the more unorganized and chaotic the environment, the worse the point played.
This was because the two sides you attacked the point from were so split apart, this caused more unorganized players to get split into small groups and get eventually rolled by red as they gained more and more ground around the point. As a solution, an entire route has been removed and the whole B point is 400 units smaller to bring everything closer together. This should still keep the gameplay more or less the same but streamline things further for more casual environment.
- C is now on the same level as the blue main entrances.
- Blue now spawns faster.
- Red now spawns slower.
- Red spawn has been moved.
C point hasn't been getting that much playtime until recently and it has revealed some issues that need to be addressed. First problem the point had was the fucked up spawn times, I don't remember if I went full mad scientist at some point without realizing or just typed a wrong number, but red was spawning faster than blue, which made the point night impossible to attack.
Another problem was the lack of height in favor of blue when they tried to approach the point, every angle red chose to hold from, they had the high ground over blue. This has now been changed, the point is now on level with the blue side of the point, meaning red still has their high ground but to actively defend the point itself, they have to sacrifice it.
Red spawn has also been moved to prevent accidental spawn camping and make it easier for blue to hold the stairwell side of the point, should they be able to take control of the area from red.
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General fixes and tweaks, this is probably the contest version unless something happens.
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Demos have been watched, feedback has been written down, changes are now being made as I work on other stuff. This update does slight changes to A and some fairly major ones at B.
GENERAL FIXES
- Fixed some clipping exploits.
- Fixed a stuck spot.
- Delay between new flag spawns now eight seconds instead of seven.
MAJOR CHANGES
- Reduced health and ammo around the shed at blue spawn.
- Increase the size of the door out of the side building.
While very lengthy forward holds at the very start of the map seemed to be more player than map issue, I decided it was better to be safe than sorry. There is now less ammo around the usual holdout position, enough to build a nest before setup time ends but not enough to keep rebuilding it over and over. The doorway out of the building also has been made wider to make it harder to just spam the door blindly from the roof of the shed.
- Slightly reduced the amount of ammo around B.
- Removed the cliffside path.
- Added a new route to the other side of the point area.
No doubt the biggest problem that raise it's ugly head during the extensive testing done during the judging period was a very specific B hold that blue never seemed to fully be able to break. This eventually became the go to strategy defense used when holding B, causing things to fall apart quite a bit.
These changes aim to change the dynamics of the point and force the defense to take a more active role when defending the point. If defense now only sits in that one corner, they will allow blue get to a very powerful position to counter them and take over the area. To balance how powerful this new area is, blue has lost one of their routes onto the point.
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GENERAL FIXES
- Fixed some clipping exploits.
- Fixed a stuck spot.
- Delay between new flag spawns now eight seconds instead of seven.
MAJOR CHANGES
- Reduced health and ammo around the shed at blue spawn.
- Increase the size of the door out of the side building.
While very lengthy forward holds at the very start of the map seemed to be more player than map issue, I decided it was better to be safe than sorry. There is now less ammo around the usual holdout position, enough to build a nest before setup time ends but not enough to keep rebuilding it over and over. The doorway out of the building also has been made wider to make it harder to just spam the door blindly from the roof of the shed.
- Slightly reduced the amount of ammo around B.
- Removed the cliffside path.
- Added a new route to the other side of the point area.
No doubt the biggest problem that raise it's ugly head during the extensive testing done during the judging period was a very specific B hold that blue never seemed to fully be able to break. This eventually became the go to strategy defense used when holding B, causing things to fall apart quite a bit.
These changes aim to change the dynamics of the point and force the defense to take a more active role when defending the point. If defense now only sits in that one corner, they will allow blue get to a very powerful position to counter them and take over the area. To balance how powerful this new area is, blue has lost one of their routes onto the point.
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Various small changes and adjustments to further improve things.
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Various changes based on suggestions and brainstorming with Chin and Idolon, there are still more changes to come but right now my focus is on B. Once I feel like B is in a good place, I will focus on applying changes based on these suggestions to the rest of the map. (Also hopefully displacements.)
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This is the part two of the big brainstorming update, this time focusing on A with the goal of making forward holding still somewhat effective but not as powerful as it used to be. Start of A is now much shorter, things have been made more open and routes have been adjusted.
If there is no need for major reworks, the next point of focus is displacement and C side routes.
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If there is no need for major reworks, the next point of focus is displacement and C side routes.
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This took a bit, didn't it? I started working on the first displacement pass after few tests on Alpha 16 but turns out B is kind of a clusterfuck to work around and work was restarted multiple times. After all, B was remade thrice in a big hurry because of the contest deadline. In the end I decided that I would rather test changes done to A and C than worry about getting the displacements right on B, I can take my time reworking the brushwork to be more workflow friendly when detailing is more of a priority.
Anyway, changes are following.
GENERAL CHANGES
- Repacked the map, it is getting pretty big now so it is warranted.
A POINT
- Displacements, these are not final and I still need to fix some shit.
- New spot for medics to hide in when pushing out of blue spawn.
- Various minor changes.
B POINT
- Various small changes and bugfixes.
- Added the hazard stripes back, only for them to disappear again.
C POINT
- Various small and big changes based on demos, in depth feedback from Idolon and Chin and some of my own brainstorming. (Big thanks to those two, by the way, they are very based.)
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Anyway, changes are following.
GENERAL CHANGES
- Repacked the map, it is getting pretty big now so it is warranted.
A POINT
- Displacements, these are not final and I still need to fix some shit.
- New spot for medics to hide in when pushing out of blue spawn.
- Various minor changes.
B POINT
- Various small changes and bugfixes.
- Added the hazard stripes back, only for them to disappear again.
C POINT
- Various small and big changes based on demos, in depth feedback from Idolon and Chin and some of my own brainstorming. (Big thanks to those two, by the way, they are very based.)
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Updating to put it in the imp, changes to C, respawn times and added the burger spot. Big pog!
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