My 'getting the CTF arrows to point towards the cart on my es_cave map' experiment.

[Spacemonkeynz]

So here's what I did, I wanted to get the arrows that show up on the HUD in CTF maps to point towards the mine cart in my map es_cave.

Now the item_teamflag can't be parented to another object, but I found away around that.

- I parented an 'env_entity_maker' to the cart.

- Made a template of an 'item_teamflag', which was set to team blu.

- Made a 'logic_timer' set with a time of 1 second.

- Gave the timer two outputs, one output will delete the 'item_teamflag' that was spawn the second before, the second output will create a new 'item_teamflag' (with the same name as the old one) in a new position (directly below the cart).

It worked perfectly, when playing as blue, the blue arrow would always point towards the cart, at the 'flag' would constantly be deleted and respawned as the cart moved.

However there are two problems;

- The CTF has has two arrows, one for the blu flag, and one for the red flag.
So what I did was put a red flag at the red place (where no one can get it).
So the Blu arrow would point towards the cart, and the red arrow would point towards where the cart had to go (i.e. the red base)

- The second problem, which made it unacceptable imo, was everytime the blu flag was deleted and respawned, the hud arrow would flicker (from arrow to no arrow, then back to arrow), which would become very annoying.
I tried a few methods to get around the flicking, but so far nothing has work.

However if we could fix the flicker, then this setup would work great on escort maps. So if anyone has any ideas on how to make this work, please post them.

Here is a link to my escort cart setup
http://rapidshare.com/files/103453940/es_escort.vmf.html
Download it and have a look how it works.

I try a few more things with my experiments and uploaded a vmf of my setup if anyone wants to have a look.

Thanks

- Spacemonkey

 

[Spacemonkeynz]

Good News Everybody!

I fixed the flicker problem, I used two templates and two 'env_entity_maker's'.

Then I changed the timer to a oscillating timer.
Then for the outputs I had;

- OntimerHigh
Tells the first 'env_entity_maker' to spawn a blu flag.
Then after a delay of 0.1 seconds, kills the old flag which was spawned by the second 'env_entity_maker'.

- OnTimeLow
Like above only opposite.

I updated the cart vmf to include what I just did.
http://rapidshare.com/files/104174527/es_arrowtest.vmf.html

 

[Pseudo]

Just because an entity says that it can't be parented, doesn't mean that it actually cannot be parented. Turn off "SmartEdit" and add the key "parentname" to the item_teamflag with the value "Blu_train". This will show up as an error in Hammer, but ingame it will result in a flag parented to a train.

 

[Spacemonkeynz]

I'll try that, thanks for the tip.

 

[lerlerson]

You know, this kind of makes me wonder what Gold Rush's HUD will look like.

By the way, assuming this is supposed to be the same gametype as Gold Rush, it should be 'pl_Cave', not 'es_Cave'. Just a head's up.

 

[Spacemonkeynz]

You know, this kind of makes me wonder what Gold Rush's HUD will look like.

By the way, assuming this is supposed to be the same gametype as Gold Rush, it should be 'pl_Cave', not 'es_Cave'. Just a head's up.

I haven't seen anywhere that the prefix for Goldrush is going to be pl.

If it is i'll change it (however I like es much better)

 

[trainRiderJ]

The gametype allegedly will be "payload", according to some of those valve interviews floating around. I guess it's logical to assume the prefix will be "pl_". I'm with you though, I like "escort" and "es_" a lot better.

 

[phatal]

SpaceMonkeyns... So that you don't have to swap between red and blue flag maybe you should try King of the Hill or Invade gametype for ctf. 1 flag for both to fight over and the arrows will point to the same flag.

BTW... That's a great idea. I was playing an escort map I hadn't seen yesterday and it was HUGE. Everytime I spawned somewhere different I had no idea where to go much less where the cart was.

Also I love the big arrow atop the cart in es_dynamite2 if you might want to incorporate something like that as well.