plr_dipper

plr_dipper a7a

dotmd

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Jul 23, 2016
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dotmd

L2: Junior Member
Jul 23, 2016
80
195
- Fixed ldr fullbright issue
(- Updated my version of compilepal)
- Clipping fixes
- Leaving the slanted roof over the cap point unclipped was intentional, but might clip it off if it feels too powerful
- Mirroring fixes
- Changed the doors at spawn and near where the cart starts to make it more obvious they won't open
- Added some rocks near the cart crossing
- Few more lights
- Changed signs at spawn to encourage people to take the main route out, rather than the side exit
- Added a doorway leading from spawn to the capture point via the windowed side route
-Scattered a few more props around

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dotmd

L2: Junior Member
Jul 23, 2016
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- Clipped most of the roof over the cap point so you can still walk along there, but not go way up the ramp gaining too much advantage over the last/the balcony. There's a railing to show how far you can go
- ""Optimisation""
- Increased size of door triggers
- Clipping fixes
- More lighting
- Moved some spawn exits back
- Added cart explosions so Thewtus doesn't get stuck on the cart, they just die instead
- Reduced medium ammo in cart starting room to a small
- Removed the medium med kit in the central tower
- Added sirens on the rollback leading up to the final cap
- I wanted the tall diagonal building to be more defendable/more interesting so added a raised platform
- Moved cart track away from some walls

Just over 4 hours left, will there be time for a4??

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dotmd

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Jul 23, 2016
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dotmd

L2: Junior Member
Jul 23, 2016
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195
=== Post-jam update ===

- Reverted to the dev textures of a3. The a4 textures were rushed in the last couple of hours of the jam and I'd rather go back and texture everything properly later when the layout is more refined.
- Remade the spawn area, the yard in front of the original spawn building (and all other buildings in front) are now accessible by both teams.
>>The old spawn was kind of like if viaduct's spawn room covered the entire yard and the connectors to the yard which was really weird and confusing.
>>This should nerf the sniper balcony slightly as the enemy team can get behind. It should also make it slightly easier to push the cart when it's on the ramp close to spawn as you can push the defending team further back. To counter this slightly I have...
- Made the small ramp near the enemy spawn a rollback zone.
>>To compensate for the weaker spawns.
- Readded the medium health kit in the tower, inside a small cubby hole.
- Might be optimised slightly better? I still have no idea what I'm doing in terms of optimisation so I'm a bit worried I've just made things slightly worse but we'll see.
- Kill trigger doesn't persist after explosion
- More lights
- More asymmetry

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dotmd

L2: Junior Member
Jul 23, 2016
80
195
Wanted to add a post about how I developed this map during the 72hr jam, because I always think it's interesting seeing how other people make their maps so maybe someone else would be interested in this?
This shows from initial plan to the release of a1 and timings are roughly how long I spent working on it up to that point.

Pre-jam planning

This was my first time making a standard tf2 map in 72hours. I made a jump map for the jump.tf 2017 jump jam but that was my first time using hammer so it was a bit of a mess. Before even sketching anything I started looking at different payload race maps to see what they did that I liked and wrote a list of what I was aiming to create by the end of it. I found this helped more than I expected it to throughout the whole weekend because I could always refer back to that original feature list. Maybe the payload checklist contest rubbed off on me haha
JPEG_20190810_143601.jpg
On the back page it just says "Snow theme? Observatory?" and "jcinc1" who makes cool concept art that I liked.

I wanted to have a pretty complete plan to follow so spent a few days before the jam drawing some ideas and ended up with this:

upload_2019-8-10_12-50-11.png


The full paint.net file has more layers showing the lower level, alternate track path ideas,potential sightline issues and some alternate views of different areas. Link here if you want to look at that: https://www.dropbox.com/s/jthffnbfwi9wzvf/Layout plan.pdn?dl=0
I also drew a sketch of what I imagined the buildings at the back around the "observatory" would look like and compiled a few inspiration pictures, none of which I ended up looking at. After seeing Yrrzy mention something about making a prop library to reference, I also made a vmf of props and textures I was planning on using.

~40 mins in


1.PNG


Started with the area where the cart starts and the lower room, mainly making sure that when the upper level is added, the drop isn't high enough to cause fall damage. The middle pillar being the main reference for height and size of the upper level. That tiny shack just right of the ramp, didn't last long there, but it ended up inspiring the whole barn on the left in the next screenshot when I tried copying it over to that side.

~ 2 hours in

2.PNG


Expanding outwards on each side. I didn't have a clear idea of what to do with the building the track goes into, so just improvised that part. I liked the idea of having a window in the diagonal building looking in at the cart when it's there I was thinking that ideally that would be a chokepoint. Started work on the staircase inside the tower, which is still a bit messy since I'm trying to go up three floors in a tight space.

~ 6 hours in

3.PNG


Forgot that I was meant taking screenshots so there's a bit more of a jump here. Continued the track round to the end point and made the buildings between spawn and the tower. I had changed my mind about that area from the original plan and ended up improvising most of those buildings. I also started placing a few shapes for large oob buildings that might help make an interesting silhouette. Wanted to make sure there were windows looking out at the final control point so that defenders can easily see how close the cart is to the end. The original idea for the finale was to have the centre tower be an observatory, and by blowing up the enemy's computer console, it would turn the telescope to the winning teams side, or something? Not sure if I'll continue with that idea or not.

~ 13 hours in

4.PNG


After waking up I completely forgot about taking these screenshots until here, featuring accidentally func_detailed playerclip. Changed that side to be red for some reason. I was always debating whether to add balcony around the tower or not, but ultimately decided that if it was added, there should be a way for defenders to counter against the height it gives attackers over last. I added the little sniper balcony, slightly higher than the tower, to help with this but it ended up looking way too powerful as you could see practically the entire map from up there. The super tall fences block the worst of those sightlines but I admit it's a bit of a clumsy solution. The general layout, including mirroring had been finished by this point so just needed to do all the boring logic/lights etc.

~ 14 hours in

5.jpg


Ingame fast compiled screenshot an hour later. Not sure if anything had really changed here, I was probably just testing the scale of spawn or something

~ 20 hours in

6.jpg


Mixing it up with the camera angle, this is the only screenshot I took at this stage. Mainly just checking that all the lighting is generally ok and places aren't too dark. I think I had removed the computer consoles at last by this point because the cart kept getting stuck right before the final path_track, stopping anyone from winning. Added a few props scattered around to make it a bit more interesting to look at. Also made sure to get a light shining down through those beams to get some cool looking shadows, nice nice.

~ 23 hours in (?)

20190804132838_1.jpg


I don't remember how much time I worked on this after the last screenshot and here, but this is the release of a1! Again, not much has changed in terms of layout, just lighting, doors, and logic. This was uploaded at 1:33pm on Sunday and I managed to get up to a4 before the end of the jam 7pm Monday, but you can see the development of that in this thread already.

So that about sums up the work from original feature list to a1 release. In hindsight I may have overplanned the layout slightly because I was worried about not being able to finish a map in the time limit. But I ended up redesigning a lot of the spawn areas anyway because the original plan ended up not fitting together well in hammer. I think people generally seem to like playing it and I'm not sure if it's just because it's my latest map, but I'm much happier with how this is going than any of my previous maps. So I'm still working on it post-jam and will probably enter it in the back to basics contest if I don't decide to start making something new by then.

Hope this was interesting in some way?
 
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dotmd

L2: Junior Member
Jul 23, 2016
80
195
- Added walls on mid to make the cart starting area a bit safer, blocking sightlines
- Reworked the area at the back of the map. There's now a building at the top of the middle ramp and new spaces behind.
- Raised platforms in the diag rooms have been made bigger

- Corrected an issue with the first rollback zone not being entirely symmetrical.
- Cart speed is now halved when on rollback zones
- Fixed a bug where blu team's cart couldn't be defended

- Removed small health and small ammo pack from room where the cart starts
- Reduced medium health kits in drop down shacks to smalls
- Health/ammo at the back of the map has been adjusted for the new layout.

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