TC Meridian rc3

[TMP]

My thought in the matter is have model palm logs or something over them all, and just have the current walls nodraw.

But I don't know how that would effect framerate.

 

[Shmitz]

How's this look?

Old vs New

 

[Ninjilla]

Like the new shack roof better, but the walls dont seem as tribal to me.

 

[Tinker]

New is best, fits more with TF2 style.

 

[Dr. Spud]

It's looking better, especially the wall, but the thatching is still a bit odd.

What I like about the old texture is the thatching is bigger and more cartoony, as is the alpha channel on the edges. The new one looks like it's trying to be realistic and failing.

 

[Shmitz]

My main reason for switching away from the old thatching is that the old has way too much visual noise.

In general, the texture maps used on the 3D world are impressionistic, meaning that they are painterly and maintain a minimum level of visual noise.

It succeeded in being somewhat painterly, but failed with the amount of noise it had. It's particularly important for areas where player attention is not meant to be focused. I want a nice looking roof, sure, but I don't want it to to be a distraction.

I won't be going back to the old thatching, but I'm open to suggestions on how to make the new one more interesting without being noisier.

Note: I certainly want to discuss the thatching more, but I don't want anyone to forget about the change to the walls. A few more yeas or nays should help me decide whether to keep the new or revert to the old.

 

[Dr. Spud]

Im just pointing out what I like about the old thatching, not that I want you to revert back. Right now, I guess the new one is better, but there's features of the old texture that I miss (eg larger thatching, more cartoony, painterly).

 

[Tinker]

New walls are better as well, much more a trunkwall than just a block of wood.

 

[[SpA]Lim-Dul]

OOoook - another update, another try with the particle system.

Does this sound like fixing anything?

* Added an optional per-map particle manifest called _particles.txt, which should be located in the maps directory, so map authors can load custom particle files

 

[Shmitz]

The good news is that custom particles work now! The bad news is that sadly, they switched the functionality of custom particles around from how it was described in the sdk beta. I set up _rc with the particles assuming a certain implementation that was not used, so you all will have to wait until _rc2 to see them in the map.

 

[Trotim]

Gameday today:
Near the submarine, there is a playerclip you apparently forgot to delete. Screenshot

 

[Nineaxis]

Felt great today, some rounds got a bit stalematey and drawn out (temple-submarine). Overall enjoyable. I really don't have any specifics to critique on, really feel all there is to do it cleaning up visuals and squeezing out the best framerates possible.

 

[Shmitz]

Since I've been running it every weekend for a while now and people have hopefully gotten a working understanding of it, here's an important question: Are there any rounds that you feel one area has an inherent advantage over another area? Not necessarily in terms of empirical evidence or testing, just the nature of your experience while playing that round.

 

[Sgt.Sausage]

I have yet to play through all the stages unfortunately due to the 30 min cap on gamedays. NExt time i see this map up il play it and hopefully see the whole map and get back to you on balence issues. But from what ive scene it seems balanced enough.

 

[captainAngry]

I suppose now that it's at RC I will give it another try on my server. I'll post a demo when we get to testing it again.

 

[Shmitz]

I originally made the map switch teams after a full win to make sure uneven teams wouldn't unduly impact balance data. By now it's kind of gotten ingrained in the gameplay, so I'd like people's opinions. Should I remove the team switch to bring it more in line with Hydro's TC gameplay, or should I leave it in?

 

[Nineaxis]

Leave it in. I like teams switching at map end.

 

[Icarus]

I can understand why you wanted to swap the teams to check for balance tests, but if the map is really balanced you really don't need to change teams.

Remove it to be in line with Valve's standards. It's one of the few things about Meridian that bothers me. That, and the final territories are too hard.

You should only team switch when absolutely necessary, like in A/D maps. You want to keep it as simple as possible.

Often times, when I'm not paying attention, I forget what team I'm on. I really should not have to struggle with this when I want to concentrate on playing the game.

This does not help by the fact that TC can already be a very confusing mode and the common HUD bug that displays the wrong colour.

No pros, only cons with frivolous team swapping.

 

[Dr. Spud]

That, and the final territories are too hard.

I disagree. Maybe they are a tiny bit hard, but I really like that the defending team has a good chance of getting back into the game. One thing I don't like about hydro is that once one team pushes the other back to their final territory, they almost always win. But meridian throws the defending team a bone which helps them not feel like total losers (plus once a final territory is successfully defended, the next stage is usually one that hasn't been played yet).

 

[Icarus]

Of the experiences I've had with Meridian, many games were "stalemates" because no team could win in the standard 30 minute mp_timelimit

Like 5CP maps, I believe the final CP should be easy to capture... but I agree not as easy as Hydro (ridiculous). Losers should be given a last chance to redeem themselves, but they should work hard for it.

They should be Badlands Final CP hard, not Dustbowl hard.