Outback rc4

[Shmitz]

Ok, I think a lot of players were not making very good use of the upper deck for attacking the final point. I think this has to do with the way the pathing favors the lower route and makes getting up there a but unintuitive.

Upon exiting spawn, blue's first option for a path is staring them in the face. It takes them up and down some stairs, along a side deck, and drops them down onto the ground at the top of the hill. They'd have to plan from the start to ignore this path if they wanted the easy way to get up top. There's a set of stairs later on that can be used, but they lead away from the point, and thus to use them you'd have to turn your back on any soldiers/snipers/heavies firing on you from the bottom of the hill.

Here are my suggestions: First, open a doorway above these stairs so that blue players can just walk straight from the upper deck to go across that bridge and up further.

I know this would cause optimization issues, because that structure is clearly there to block visibility. But you've got stairs all over the place there, so it wouldn't be any problem to just wall up the opening on the other side:

If players at the top of the slope decide they need to get up higher, it's not much of a problem to just go back up the stairs they came down. If they want to choose that route to begin with, it's much easier with access from the side facing their spawn.

 

[Sgt Frag]

To clarify my 3rd point...

Mainly my point was that it seemed easy for Blu to steamroll to the end, then get stuck and not be able to get past that last point.

Part of this could be that Red is running out of that spawn I mentioned, going the wrong way all the way to the end, wasting time. By then Blu is already to 2nd cap.
So by adding one arrow at the second corner out of Red's foward spawn it might help that whole issue alot.
The problem is Red comes out of spawn and has to walk 180* around the building, it's more natural to flow back towards final then it is to go around to 2nd point.
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I don't feel that top path is overpowered as eeirie said.
Couple reasons.

the room is sooo high up that even sniping down is hard. Before you can even see down there a sniper has already got a headshot on you. You're not looking across like last point Badwater, you're looking straight down.

You can jump, but it's so high you take a huge hit of damage.

Sentries are beneath you AND on a ledge so you have to jump down, turn around, put on foot in, one foot out...wait a minute.,,, then find a way up onto the ledge of sentries to try and kill them.

Also you have the exposed path to get to it.
-----
that corner (as I said before) is bad because red has like 3 tiers to build a sentry on that are diffcult to reach, there is now way for Blu to get any shots in at them expect from by the cart on the ground. Blue needs a spot across the way, but that would be above red spawn.

 

[runtime]

What I told SWATY was these needed changes:

1) area before the final point would be better off with changes similar to those mentioned by shmitz

2) the BLU/RED combo spawn should be separated. That area should be reworked slightly...

3) open area after the B cap should be altered a bit

I like that Shmitz actually made some concrete suggestions and drawings, if you think something is broken, a drawing on how to fix it is the best thing to do

 

[S.W.A.T.Y]

I closed off the left corner.

Added some windows here and made a tiny gap on the left for snipers to shoot.

 

[kankle_king]

We played it tonight and it was AWESOME. So much fun, everyone loved it. We played 2 rounds and both teams capped all 4 the 1st one, and then won by defense 2nd round. This is a great example of a mapmaker listening to feedback/suggestions, and really making an effort to address every issue and improve the map. This map has gone through a TON to get where it is, and you really have done an excellent job. I could go on about how this is the most improved map I've ever seen, but yeah.

Only complaint was FPS was pretty shotty, ppl were complaing even their high end machines were getting significant FPS lag throughout. If you can optimize some more or w/e, this map is one of the greatest PL maps out there.

The map is still large, but even with only 10v10 it didn't feel overly big. The spawn times seemed appropriate to the distance back to the caps, and it was nice to push the cart a long way while the defense was respawning and deciding whether to let us have it or attempt to stop us. All in all, you've done a superb job of improving your map from the days of railroad, and you should feel proud of the work you've done here. I have the STV from the match, add me on steam if you want it.

steam: b_myne

 

[S.W.A.T.Y]

We played it tonight and it was AWESOME. So much fun, everyone loved it. We played 2 rounds and both teams capped all 4 the 1st one, and then won by defense 2nd round. This is a great example of a mapmaker listening to feedback/suggestions, and really making an effort to address every issue and improve the map. This map has gone through a TON to get where it is, and you really have done an excellent job. I could go on about how this is the most improved map I've ever seen, but yeah.

Only complaint was FPS was pretty shotty, ppl were complaing even their high end machines were getting significant FPS lag throughout. If you can optimize some more or w/e, this map is one of the greatest PL maps out there.

The map is still large, but even with only 10v10 it didn't feel overly big. The spawn times seemed appropriate to the distance back to the caps, and it was nice to push the cart a long way while the defense was respawning and deciding whether to let us have it or attempt to stop us. All in all, you've done a superb job of improving your map from the days of railroad, and you should feel proud of the work you've done here. I have the STV from the match, add me on steam if you want it.

steam: b_myne

Thank you sir for the feedback. I have improved FPS in rc2 by a lot so that shouldn't be an issue and also, I added you on steam.

 

[littleedge]

The screenshots don't take me that much time, actually. I think I spent half an hour in it taking them. Didn't feel like I was spending a decade, so it's all good. I think I found all I could, so don't expect any more screenshots from me in relation to pl_outback_rc. If you release an rc2, I will give you more if I can find them, but don't rush it - rc should be nearly final, and you shouldn't release many of them, specially in a short time.

 

[keptfireball]

I played the next installment of this map and found a ton of little exploits and things you can stand on top off and such. But i have told swaty about most of this that should be fixed. Can't wait for the next team fortress 2 update to include this map

 

[littleedge]

I added you, SWATY.

 

[Uriak]

Hello, we playtested your latest version yesterday, and it should be included in our mapcycle (as winnebago was).

The modification of the latest CP was quite drastic and people thought that it became far too easy to take (and it... wasn't). This would require more test sessions, but we were especially slowed by a couple spies (they are fairly good on our server) so we couldn't see what a number of übers would have done. The one and only moment where two übers could be unleashed at once, the point could be taken. Anyway, it is really more playable this way (your older final cap point was quite despised, I should say)

People complained more on the zone near the second cap point, where the tracks take a short underground route. Your modifications leads to a number of alternatives but everyon was quite heavily watched, but it could have been raw level difference between the team. On the second round, we couldn't feel this, as our team stormed far before any serious defence could be set up.

I still don't like much the small area before the third CP, with its cramped feeling, but it's more personnal. This gauntlet becomes a real spamfest, but more generally this gamemode often ends with a heavy pack around the cart spamming endlessly to no end.

Again, on my personal feeling, this map is quite impressive in size and details (though they are mostly outdoors) and real work on the scenery. I'm a little sad that you gave up the highway theme for most of the map. Your desert is awesome but it took away the little thing that made this map different for me.

I'll try to post more feedback after the map has been played more, with general players impressions.

 

[S.W.A.T.Y]

Hello, we playtested your latest version yesterday, and it should be included in our mapcycle (as winnebago was).

The modification of the latest CP was quite drastic and people thought that it became far too easy to take (and it... wasn't). This would require more test sessions, but we were especially slowed by a couple spies (they are fairly good on our server) so we couldn't see what a number of übers would have done. The one and only moment where two übers could be unleashed at once, the point could be taken. Anyway, it is really more playable this way (your older final cap point was quite despised, I should say)

People complained more on the zone near the second cap point, where the tracks take a short underground route. Your modifications leads to a number of alternatives but everyon was quite heavily watched, but it could have been raw level difference between the team. On the second round, we couldn't feel this, as our team stormed far before any serious defence could be set up.

I still don't like much the small area before the third CP, with its cramped feeling, but it's more personnal. This gauntlet becomes a real spamfest, but more generally this gamemode often ends with a heavy pack around the cart spamming endlessly to no end.

Again, on my personal feeling, this map is quite impressive in size and details (though they are mostly outdoors) and real work on the scenery. I'm a little sad that you gave up the highway theme for most of the map. Your desert is awesome but it took away the little thing that made this map different for me.

I'll try to post more feedback after the map has been played more, with general players impressions.

Hey, thanks for the feedback. Im not quite sure if I understand what you mean when you said "I'm a little sad that you gave up the highway theme for most of the map. Your desert is awesome but it took away the little thing that made this map different for me. " What little thing did i remove that made the map different for you, I'd like to know.

 

[S.W.A.T.Y]

There is a server running pl_outback_rc 24/7
68.232.169.118:27015

 

[Sgt.Sausage]

There is a server running pl_outback_rc 24/7
68.232.169.118:27015

Awesome i will definettly be playing on it when i get the chance.

 

[| Cyclone |]

do you think you can make a download for this in .zip format? id rather have it take up more space than not be able to play it at all.

thnks

 

[Uriak]

Hey, thanks for the feedback. Im not quite sure if I understand what you mean when you said "I'm a little sad that you gave up the highway theme for most of the map. Your desert is awesome but it took away the little thing that made this map different for me. " What little thing did i remove that made the map different for you, I'd like to know.

Well, I've had the sensation that the previous version did feature more proeminently the highway them, with a much more open background, right from the start of the map. Now, you completed the surroundings with a rocky/sandy theme, complete with cactus and stuff, beautifully done. But it kinda feel more traditionnal, somehow. I saw your highway on the last part of the map, but it was much less put in front than before. It's just my feeling, don't really bother with it, your outdoors detailing is really great.

 

[S.W.A.T.Y]

do you think you can make a download for this in .zip format? id rather have it take up more space than not be able to play it at all.

thnks

Sure, I'll do that next time with rc2.

 

[| Cyclone |]

hey, i got peazip, so i can get rc1 now.

though, do rc2 as a zip file for the people who cant download rar, 7z, ect

 

[Sgt.Sausage]

hey, i got peazip, so i can get rc1 now.

though, do rc2 as a zip file for the people who cant download rar, 7z, ect

i understand, but you do realize 7zip or winrar are free and install and download in under 30 sec, and it shouldn't matter what OS.

 

[Terr]

Add another vote for 7-zip. It's a great app as long as you remember to do .zip whenever you want other people to be able to open things.

 

[Sgt.Sausage]

Add another vote for 7-zip. It's a great app as long as you remember to do .zip whenever you want other people to be able to open things.

i use winrar now as i like the context menu's better and more customizable. But 7zip is smaller, simpler and easier to install and use quickly.