After a long hiatus from mapping I started a new map last night from a whim of thinking what a payload race map would be like if the carts followed a double helix route, curling around each other. Story wise the administrator is mad at the teams, so both have to go into the mine, push little cart up and out of the mine, then back down into the shaft to detonate it and bury the losing team alive.
The Layout:
The cart paths never cross. The carts never get more than 700 HU apart either, they are continually in sight of each other as they proceed to spiral three times before emerging from the mine. Once out they go a very short distance to a drop hole at the top of the mine shaft to be pushed in, winning the round for the team that pulls this off.
While I say spiral, in truth the paths are squared off. The corners are enlarged to provide reasonably covered sentry positions. Also, symmetrical side passages link the two spirals together at the corners.
Spawn rooms are at the base of the shaft. Through glass windows persons in spawn can see each other before exiting. Each spawn has two exits on the base of the spiral, and a third onto the second turn of their cart's path.
I'm considering putting water at the base of the shaft to extinguish fires. Having to jump down is a considerable momentum loss.
Before the final third of the cart route each team has a side room with a resupply cabinet. The shape of the room and it's purpose is to help an engie get a teleporter and gun to guard it set up at this level. A level three teleporter is expected to be critical to succeeding at the final stage of the race since it can take a while to get back up to the cart at this point without one.
Class checklist
(Every class should have something to cheer for)
Scout: Scouts should be able to double jump between the spiral paths, and combined with the side passages they should be able to really work their maneuverability advantage on this map.
Soldier: Rocket jumping to get back to the cart will be used a lot.
Pyro: Compression blasting will be very useful on this map since the entire cart route for both teams is close to an edge to knock people off of. The side passages should also be useful to ambush pyros.
Heavy: One of the classes I worry about a little here. There's a lot of open space on this map on the cart route, though the heavy can use the cart itself for cover much of the time.
Demo: As with the solly, the demo's nade jumps will keep him up with the cart.
Engineer: The team that helps its engie get a nest with tele set up for the final push should usually be the winner. There are numerous spots to put a sentry that I think will be good spots without being overpowering.
Sniper: The shaft has a lot of long shots to play with and it's structure provides quite a bit of variety. No spot a sniper might want to use though protects his flank and back that well...
Spy: The spy has a lot of chinks in the walls and side passages without there being so many that the combat gets diluted, and with some work he should be able to flank the foe when needed
Medic: I haven't put anything in specifically to make playing a medic more or less enjoyable
Questions:
Anyone seen a map lacking a cross in the cart routes? I might be able to take some notes from that.
Lighting - I'm wanting to make the side passages pretty dark. The center room has the sky light and is expected to be well lit in general. Any examples of what is considered the darkest acceptable lighting for an area in a level?
Symmetry - How critical is it in payload race? I've been running under the assumption it's just as critical as in CTF.
Cart Rollback - I'm thinking of checking the cart's rollback at each corner.
Route length - The track length is longer than I've seen in any PLR map I've seen, though shorter than the three stages of Pipeline combined.
Any other thoughts? I hope to have some screens up within a week of the alpha build.
The Layout:
The cart paths never cross. The carts never get more than 700 HU apart either, they are continually in sight of each other as they proceed to spiral three times before emerging from the mine. Once out they go a very short distance to a drop hole at the top of the mine shaft to be pushed in, winning the round for the team that pulls this off.
While I say spiral, in truth the paths are squared off. The corners are enlarged to provide reasonably covered sentry positions. Also, symmetrical side passages link the two spirals together at the corners.
Spawn rooms are at the base of the shaft. Through glass windows persons in spawn can see each other before exiting. Each spawn has two exits on the base of the spiral, and a third onto the second turn of their cart's path.
I'm considering putting water at the base of the shaft to extinguish fires. Having to jump down is a considerable momentum loss.
Before the final third of the cart route each team has a side room with a resupply cabinet. The shape of the room and it's purpose is to help an engie get a teleporter and gun to guard it set up at this level. A level three teleporter is expected to be critical to succeeding at the final stage of the race since it can take a while to get back up to the cart at this point without one.
Class checklist
(Every class should have something to cheer for)
Scout: Scouts should be able to double jump between the spiral paths, and combined with the side passages they should be able to really work their maneuverability advantage on this map.
Soldier: Rocket jumping to get back to the cart will be used a lot.
Pyro: Compression blasting will be very useful on this map since the entire cart route for both teams is close to an edge to knock people off of. The side passages should also be useful to ambush pyros.
Heavy: One of the classes I worry about a little here. There's a lot of open space on this map on the cart route, though the heavy can use the cart itself for cover much of the time.
Demo: As with the solly, the demo's nade jumps will keep him up with the cart.
Engineer: The team that helps its engie get a nest with tele set up for the final push should usually be the winner. There are numerous spots to put a sentry that I think will be good spots without being overpowering.
Sniper: The shaft has a lot of long shots to play with and it's structure provides quite a bit of variety. No spot a sniper might want to use though protects his flank and back that well...
Spy: The spy has a lot of chinks in the walls and side passages without there being so many that the combat gets diluted, and with some work he should be able to flank the foe when needed
Medic: I haven't put anything in specifically to make playing a medic more or less enjoyable
Questions:
Anyone seen a map lacking a cross in the cart routes? I might be able to take some notes from that.
Lighting - I'm wanting to make the side passages pretty dark. The center room has the sky light and is expected to be well lit in general. Any examples of what is considered the darkest acceptable lighting for an area in a level?
Symmetry - How critical is it in payload race? I've been running under the assumption it's just as critical as in CTF.
Cart Rollback - I'm thinking of checking the cart's rollback at each corner.
Route length - The track length is longer than I've seen in any PLR map I've seen, though shorter than the three stages of Pipeline combined.
Any other thoughts? I hope to have some screens up within a week of the alpha build.