pl_repository

[MangyCarface]

Alright ace, this is what you currently have:

Notice you're drawing things wayyy out of the current playable area. Hint brushes do NOT block visibility, they only tell the compiler how to cut up visibility sections (which sometimes aids optimization if done intelligently.) Here's what I was suggesting with the skybox:

The blue panels are skybox, extending from your world geometry on the apexes of your rooves up to the top of your skybox. The red denotes the new axis along which your map would be divided into 2 sets of visibility. Players won't notice that you're blocking the visiblity of the tops of rooves in the background, but they will notice the performance benefits. Try doing this throughout your map.

 

[Acegikmo]

Ah, alright.
I'll try that; thanks

 

[Acegikmo]

No difference in fps and it still draws beyond skybox brushes; and now the tower have been cut a bit.

The thing is that my map draws props that are beyond one, maybe two sealed skybox walls.
No idea why

 

[eerieone]

try disabling visgroups func_detail and check if there are nodraw-brushes seperating your areas , they are seethrough ingame, so everything beyond them is visible

as well as check if your skybox connects to worldbrushes, because func_detail doesn´t block visibility

 

[Acegikmo]

Another playtest!
This time it's pl_repository_b1 we're testing.
Sean/Heyo will host the server
It will start in about 10-30 minutes.
I'll let you know in the thread when the playtest starts
Server ip: 98.221.85.52

 

[Acegikmo]

The playtest server is up

Edit:

Now closed. Thanks for coming!

 

[FLOOR_MASTER]

A couple of notes on B1:

The new path out of BLU spawn to the balcony is great, but the path to it ought to be wider and more obvious. Something along the lines of:

Along these lines, I'd recommend removing the stairs down and the stairs outside - it's a vulnerable and little-used path and would free up a lot of space for actual combat in the area just outside of spawn:

The sentry position shown here in yellow is very overpowered and has stalled games quite a bit. I'd recommend truncating the building a bit as shown:

This area is the most significant chokepoint in the map and BLU is at a disadvantage. Two changes I think can help are sealing off the roof shown so BLU can have a staging area for a CP2 push, and adding an alternate path at the bottom so BLU can flank RED's defense:

 

[Acegikmo]

Thanks!
Shortening that roof is a great idea; I'll do that.
And sealing the hole and adding the path would be great too.
Removing blue's lower path and changing the side path could be harder though; blue's spawn was the first thing I made in the map so it wasn't exactly made in a good way so I can alter it easily. I will do it anyway

 

[Acegikmo]

The path around the building has been added, the hole closes after blue caps the first point and the spawn path have been fixed

 

[Acegikmo]

Beta 2 is up!
Two new screenshots added in the first post
Changes made in Beta 2:

- Invisible wall on the tower fixed
- Fixed fade distance on a plant
- Fixed fade distance on two barrels
- Fixed fade distance on a few metal panels
- Sealed up the fence outside red's first spawn for optimization reasons
- Shortened the large roof between cap 1 and 2 with the tough sentry spot
- The hole in the building near cap 2 now closes after blue caps the first point
- Moved some healthpacks and ammopacks to be more visible
- Added a medium healthpack at the payload gate
- Added a path behind the building on the left at cap 2
- Removed the two lower right paths from blue's spawn;
shortening the side path leading to the upper level outside
- Added lights at two exit signs at blue's spawn
- Fixed a few overlays not showing
- The one way gate after the roof at cap 2 have been extruded and rotated
- The room at the roof near cap 2 now have a window so blue can see the sentries easier
- The respawnwave time after cap 2 for red have been reduced by two seconds
- Added some playerclips to make it easier to get into the building at cap 2
- Moved the blu spawn downstairs and sealed off the upper level

 

[Acegikmo]

Beta 3 released now

Changes made in Beta 3:

- Two invisible surfaces at the blue spawn fixed
- The second blue spawn now has another exit
- The one way door is now working properly
- Added a cap sign at the second and third control point
- Areaportal optimization
- Hint optimization
- Fade distance fixes
- Minor detailing work done in a few places

 

[FLOOR_MASTER]

We've been playing B3 regularly since its release.

I've noticed in BLU's forward spawn and RED's final spawn that when the rolling doors are closed, some of the surfaces in the doorframe become see-through. From my VERY limited mapping knowledge, I would guess that you have some sort of area portal brushes that are overlapping the doorframe.

Reducing RED's respawn time during the point 3 attack made a HUGE difference in gameplay. We talked about how point 3 was far too easy for BLU in B2 and prior, but now I've witnessed a lot of rounds where BLU stalled out attempting to capture point 3. The problem was always one where there was a constant stream of RED players - BLU could never clear out enough RED to make any progress, and BLU was constantly getting flanked by RED in the relatively thin, narrow corridor that makes up most of the point 3 route. I believe you switched RED's respawn to 5-10 seconds. Can you bump this up to 6-12 for B4? I was really surprised at how dramatically the spawn timer tweak changed gameplay. It actually borders on frustrating for BLU.

You've found the right balance for point 1. It's almost always taken by BLU, but there's always a good fight before that happens. The layout of the map before point 1 is spacious and fun.

I think at some point you'll need to widen the long ramp out of RED's first spawn so that it's not so easily camped.

Point 2 really relies on BLU being halfway coordinated. I've seen RED set up a sentry inside the building with the roof hole that closes, and it can really stall BLU and eat up precious time. I think if you opened up the internal doorframe here, it'd make sentries perched on the indoor platform easier to hit:

I've seen rounds where BLU was camped at their forward spawn. The spawn room itself is on the small side and could be made bigger by expanding it to fill the indicated area:

I'm not sure if this is the best solution, but something should be done to address the vulnerability of this spawn point.

 

[Acegikmo]

Thanks F_M
I did those things you said and a few more:

- Inner frame removed in the house near cap 2
- Ammopack in the house near cap 2 degraded to a small ammopack instead of a medium sized one
- A small healthpack in the corridor leading to the house near cap 2 has been added
- Red's spawntime after cap 2 changed from 5-10 seconds to 6-12 seconds
- One way door and a ramp added to the building in front of
blue's second spawn to help them attack from the right side
and to keep red from flanking blue too easily
- A few displacements sewn together
- Some areaportals fixed
- Changed color of two control point signs
- The building in which blue's second spawn is; has the large hole closed and a visualizer added at the smaller exit
- Fixed a few demoman/soldier exploits
- Fixed a few fade distances

 

[FLOOR_MASTER]

We've tried B4 a few times and unfortunately the same issue remains - in a full server, point 3 is virtually impossible to capture. I've never seen BLU take it in a dozen or so rounds. I have plenty of ideas to help solve this -- I'll post later, but wanted to give you a head's up that this point is problematic.

 

[Acegikmo]

It is point 3 that's the problem. Point 2 is hard, but with some teamwork it gets easier.
Right now I'm thinking of changing the hole at point 3 to some stairs, and move the one-way gate up to the top of those stairs. I'm not sure if this would bee too much of an advantage for BLU though; red might have some trouble getting sentries up

Here's the heatmap from Canard PC:

 

[FLOOR_MASTER]

If BLU had access to the 2nd floor via the stairs shown here, this area wouldn't be such a brutal pyro/ambush trap for BLU:

BLU could use more health along this path:

On the other side, the indicated health and ammo gives RED too much of an advantage with RED's proximity to their resupply room:

I don't feel very strongly about this, but I think it would help if these doorways were widened:

If these upper platforms were extended, it would give BLU more incentive to use the upper path:

Corner sentries placed here are very difficult to deal with because of the door frame. I'd prevent building corner sentries by throwing some debris there:

 

[Acegikmo]

Alright, changes done

 

[Acegikmo]

Beta 5 uploaded!

Fixed in Beta 5:

The follwing changes are all at cap 3:
- Blue's second spawn is now better lit
- Some platforms have been added on the buildings to the left
- The hole has beed replaced with some stairs
- Medpack and ammopack removed on the red side of the gate
- Added a medpack on the blue side of the gate
- Moved out an ammopack on the red side of the gate and added some props in the corner

 

[Acegikmo]

Beta 6 has been released with the following changes:

- An invisible wall near the blue spawn is now visible
- The one way door at the roof building near cap 2 now opens faster and has a larger trigger
- In the unlikley event of someone jumping down the hole at the roof building near cap 2 as BLU cap cp1, they die.
- Some sprites having the wrong color after the first round have been fixed
- You can no longer get stuck for a few seconds in the blue spawn
- The spawnpoints in the second blue spawn have been rotated 45° so that more people realise there's a second exit
- A texture in the blue spawroom fixed
- Removed Vphysics on a sign to prevent exploiting
- Moved cap 3 back a bit
- Blue now gets 30 seconds more than they prevoiusly did capping the first point
- You can no longer build on the little shack outside blue's second spawn

 

[Cerious]

Move this ledge down so I don't have to jump onto it to get on top of it, but can simply walk on there.




Same here.




Lower this ledge so I can get on top of it through just jumping, not crouch-jumping.




Lower this ledge so I can just walk onto it, not have to jump onto it.




I'M FLOATING! WOOHOO! I'm levitating on top of the cart.