nat20 b2b

[Penguin]

The map literally two years in the making finally sees release!

Medieval Ball Escorting Action!

A Map by "Ravidge" and "A Whole Clan of Johnnies"
Featuring assets by "Rexy" and the Medieval Update team
With special thanks to "A Boojum Snark"

 

[Egan]

Why haven't I seen this yet? That looks really neat.

 

[Exelaratore]

I played this today! Super sweet map! It was a bit hard for the offending team where the little pond of water was though, not too sure if the defenders were just really good or the area was a bit tight for the D20 ball. Nonetheless, I enjoyed this map plenty!

 

[Penguin]

further testing on the Cafe revealed that BLU's forward spawn was broken (something TF2M never managed to figure out, being too bad at rolling a ball up a hill. Spawn times for both sides will also be reduced.

In the next release I'm also looking to make the ball always non-solid, so that players can't get stuck inside it when it stops rolling. I'm also going to try and figure out a way to make that hill less insane of a climb for an unprepared BLU team. Perhaps some sort of one-way barrier for the ball.

 

[Ælement]

I really like how the trees allows you to hide for ambushes φ(・∀・＊)

 

[Penguin]

yeah, i think the atmosphere is pretty well executed (thanks to Ravidge) for the project.

i wanted this to be more of an adventure than a balanced map, so it has a lot of areas to explore. Eventually, I'm going to start hiding treasures and secrets around some of the plains, so be on the watch.

 

[PoignardAzur]

Is there an actual D20 in the map ? If yes, maybe you should put screenshots of it ^^

 

[Harribo]

Is there an actual D20 in the map ? If yes, maybe you should put screenshots of it ^^

http://forums.tf2maps.net/showthread.php?t=16788

 

[Gadget]

I've just taken a look at your map because it looks quite interesting from the screenshots. Some things I noticed:

- Really nice atmosphere and landscape architecture
- The tree models are from Half-Life, aren't they? You should be using the TF2 trees as they are more fitting with the art style. Try props_foliage/tree_pine_extrasmall, props_foliage/tree_pine_small, props_foliage/tree_pine_huge (boojum's prop library really helps with those)
- The rope textures look weird, better use the black one
- The wooden towers don't have ladders, how would someone get up there?
- You could replace some of the brushwork fences with props_coalmines/wood_fence models as they look better
- Having sword fighting in the soundscape is a nice idea but after a while it gets a bit annoying. Maybe restrict it to the final area only. Also there's thunder in it although the sky is clear
- The map needs a better name

Edit: Also got some errors in the console...

MDLCache: Failed load of .VTX data for props_foliage/tree_pine_huge_transparent.mdl
MDLCache: Failed load of .VTX data for props_foliage/tree_pine_small_transparent.mdl
MDLCache: Failed load of .VTX data for props_forest/cliff_wall_01_cm.mdl
MDLCache: Failed load of .VTX data for props_misc\gaming_icosahedron_01.mdl
A custom HDR cubemap "materials/models/cubemaps/pyroland_cube_hdr.hdr.vtf": cannot be found on disk.
This really should have a HDR version, trying a fall back to a non-HDR version.
"materials/models/cubemaps/pyroland_cube_hdr.vtf": can't be found on disk
A custom HDR cubemap "materials/models/player/shared/eye-reflection-cubemap-.hdr.vtf": cannot be found on disk.
This really should have a HDR version, trying a fall back to a non-HDR version.
"materials/models/props_foliage/pine_tree_large_transparent.vtf": can't be found on disk
"materials/models/props_misc/gaming_icosahedron_01.vtf": can't be found on disk
"materials/models/props_misc/gaming_icosahedron_01_normal.vtf": can't be found on disk
"materials/models/props_misc/gaming_icosahedron_02.vtf": can't be found on disk
]

 

[Penguin]

nah, the trees are just re-textures of the stock tf2 pine trees.

not sure about those errors, since i believe those files are packed.

regarding the soundscapes, yeah, its just the stock medieval one at the moment. I'm gonna use something more serene in the future. Crickets, probably.

 

[Gadget]

Why the re-texturing then? It adds too much noise to the tree model.

 

[Penguin]

because the default pine trees are some of the ugliest game assets ever created

 

[ics]

Managed to get the ball stuck on B, won't move even if you hit it with RED team. http://cloud-2.steampowered.com/ugc/867216269231729995/258541AEA4D6C1A2D3E3065C5CAE445468A5EB1E/

Cubemaps are also broken on LDR. Looks like a nice alternative to default medieval but extremely hard to attack for the last points.

 

[Penguin]

that's truly bizarre, i have no idea why the ball would get stuck there.

and you say cubemaps are broken? that's also interesting, considering that they're built and evidently packed...

 

[ics]

that's truly bizarre, i have no idea why the ball would get stuck there.

and you say cubemaps are broken? that's also interesting, considering that they're built and evidently packed...

http://cloud-2.steampowered.com/ugc/867216269242099912/08A9DF47084A6CDE424F694EAF15F98441BC884C/

Something is causing that water to look like that on LDR (without hdr on). With HDR on, it's normal as it should be.

One other thing, i held a maptest on this with 30 players. I can't imagine the end result being much more different with 24 players but that hill on the right that you see on that shot there.. 4 rounds and every time neither of the teams could get that D20 ball up on there. It's too hard to go by.

 

[Penguin]

Well, I'm open to suggestions on ways to make that segment easier. People are suggesting a one-way gate at the bottom of the fort, which might be good. I'm not really sure what else i could do.

 

[Pocket]

because the default pine trees are some of the ugliest game assets ever created

These ones aren't that great either, what with Source not being able to anti-alias $alphatest textures and all.

 

[Ravidge]

I did those trees. The map was created in a 72hr competition 2 years ago. I didn't exactly have time to create new trees from scratch, but I wanted foliage in the playing area, but the stock opaque tree textures made it impossible to fight around them.

My first intention was to only have this transparency hack at the base of the tree, but that is not how the model UV's are set up, so the transparency had to effect everything.

It was a quick and dirty job, using as little time as possible to get the most out of the existing assets to fit the map.
And imo they don't look bad at all.

 

[Gadget]

I don't think they look bad either. It's just that all those little leafs and holes make them look very detailed and noisy which is more fitting for HL than it is for TF2. But whatever, keep 'em if you like them better.

 

[Penguin]

Ravidge has an excellent point in that these textures allow players to traverse among them with decent visibility.