Rollout

Ezekel

L11: Posh Member
Dec 16, 2008
818
245
well this is my entry for the map contest.


Alpha one release :)
that means all stages, and most of the niggly bits (including custom soundscapes) are sorted out

- one small bug that i'm aware of, and will fix in next version is that engineer buildings remain when the next stages begin, which can lead to a teleport exit being in the previous stage and thus could cause griefing.

so for now i'd ask that engineers be nice and destroy their buildings when a new stage starts.



---------

basically i'm planning to combine plr pipline gameplay with a simplified TC system.
there will be 5 stages in all, 2 bases, 2 intermediates and a middle map.
symmettry will exist over the whole map, but stages will be asymmetrical internally (excluding the middle map).
i'm also avoiding the cross-over tracks as i find them clunky personally.

now although gameplay layout of the levels will be symmetrical, the actual themes will vary somewhat, with red base set on the side of an alpine valley and blu base besides a hydroelectric dam. the reason that i decided to do this is linked to the idea of using trains/trucks as final terminus points. ergo, the idea is that there is a level of travel time between the 2 bases, and the fighting occurs in the transportation hubs between them.
oh and it won't be a night map! i'm going for nice-and-bright (similar to what i did in devil's brew).
although i admit that this is partially due to the fact that i'm having changing locales and i don't think i can get hammer to give me different skymaps + lighting for each area. however, it's mainly cos all the plr maps i'm seeing are night/rainy maps, and i don't think that plr has to be set at night.
 
Last edited:

Anda02

L1: Registered
May 30, 2009
29
2
It looks like a promising design, I can't really say more without viewing a larger portion of the map. I have to say though it does look interesting ;)
 

Ezekel

L11: Posh Member
Dec 16, 2008
818
245
It looks like a promising design, I can't really say more without viewing a larger portion of the map. I have to say though it does look interesting ;)

thanks anda.
i've actually only built the basics for that round so far. i'm still doing a lot of pencil/paper work though, as i've got some ideas that need developing and testing in hammer to make sure they work the way i want.
 

Ezekel

L11: Posh Member
Dec 16, 2008
818
245
i've not had much time mapping wise lately, however, i probably should put out some more info here:
rollout isn't going to be a vanilla plr. i was keeping a hat on the ideas cos i was still playing with them. since everyone else is showcasing their ideas openly, i guess i should too now i'm confident with them.

basically i'm planning to combine plr pipline gameplay with a simplified TC system.
there will be 5 stages in all, 2 bases, 2 intermediates and a middle map.
symmettry will exist over the whole map, but stages will be asymmetrical internally (excluding the middle map).
i'm also avoiding the cross-over tracks as i find them clunky personally.

now although gameplay layout of the levels will be symmetrical, the actual themes will vary somewhat, with red base set on the side of an alpine valley and blu base besides a hydroelectric dam. the reason that i decided to do this is linked to the idea of using trains/trucks as final terminus points. ergo, the idea is that there is a level of travel time between the 2 bases, and the fighting occurs in the transportation hubs between them.
oh and it won't be a night map! i'm going for nice-and-bright (similar to what i did in devil's brew).
although i admit that this is partially due to the fact that i'm having changing locales and i don't think i can get hammer to give me different skymaps + lighting for each area. however, it's mainly cos all the plr maps i'm seeing are night/rainy maps, and i don't think that plr has to be set at night.

the other little extra is that within the team's bases. the defending team will have a short area of track where the cart will roll forward (and subsequently be destroyed, though a new one is supplied right at the top of the roll forward area), and the defending team need to stand on a certain point to make sure the cart doesn't careen into a pit.
although this may seem unfair, the defending team will be moving downhill most of the time.

finally: the most important thing in my opinion is that there will be a game timer clock, which will trigger sudden death if a round runs for too long (i'm looking at 5-6 minutes a round at the moment).
i think this was a major failing in pipeline, as no one enjoys being in a stalemate ad infinitum.
 

Hanz

Ravin' Rabbid
aa
Jan 18, 2009
844
479
Yea, it looks kinda interesting, I will keep following this.. :)
 

Zeewier

L9: Fashionable Member
Sep 20, 2008
619
262
finally: the most important thing in my opinion is that there will be a game timer clock, which will trigger sudden death if a round runs for too long (i'm looking at 5-6 minutes a round at the moment).
i think this was a major failing in pipeline, as no one enjoys being in a stalemate ad infinitum.

I suggest something else (I will use this for my own plr map): give both trains a base speed after X time (I will start with 7 minutes when balancing) . So the team that pushed the best has the advantage. And in this map you will solve a stalemate problem that most tc maps have ;).
 

Ezekel

L11: Posh Member
Dec 16, 2008
818
245
actually after some bsic playtesting i've abandoned the round time limit, due in part to entity limitations, but also due to the fact that it doesn't actually seem necessary, as the rounds still eventually end even with a turtling team.
 

Ezekel

L11: Posh Member
Dec 16, 2008
818
245
Unfortunately, The map kept crashing the server after 2/3 rounds for some strange reason. Maybe a bad entity setup?

I enjoyed it though. I like the train-cart idea with the spawns.

i don't know the reason for the crash, as it's worked perfectly fine on other servers across multiple rounds and play.

i imagine there could be something in relation to certain server mods that might be the reason, and probably is tied to the fact i'm using only one round.
ABS said he knew a way to make this work as multiround. i'm eagerly awaiting his feedback post regarding this.
 

Cinnamon Whirl

L1: Registered
May 9, 2008
34
6
I liked the idea behind this map! I crashed about before the very end of the map, though.
You mentioned in game and above that there are 5 stages. The middle, first map is symmetric, the others are asmymetric and depend on the winners of the last round.

I wondered if it was not possible to dynamically allocate the spawn rooms of the teams after round win? That way, you could have only 3 maps, which would cut your mapping time and file size!
 
Last edited:

DrHaphazard

L5: Dapper Member
Jan 6, 2008
249
12
Yeah so im the medic who was having problems getting his kritz charged before the round. As I mentioned in-game, Valve instituted a setup time advantage for medics so that they ubered twice as fast, thus allowing the medics to have ubers built up before the round started.

In any case, one thing i noticed is that it doesnt actually say Setup Time during the supposed setup time. I'm not sure why that might be, but it may be related to my problem with building kritz. Speaking of which I was not smart enough to switch to medigun and try and build an uber instead of a kritz, so i dunno if both were thus affected. Also i am suprised that none of your clan mates that you tested with had this problem. Perhaps its a random bug.

I am intrigued by this idea Ezekel and i think that perhaps Z33W13R (ugh at that name btw) is dead on with his suggestion. In our test the teams seemed to be stacked so that mine always won fairly easily, but in case of a theoretical stalemate, making it so that both carts would start to roll (say after maybe 5 minutes or so) would garuntee that there would not be a stalemate. I think that this might be a huge breakthrough for the TC system since it eliminates the problems of stalemates on maps.
 

Tyker

L5: Dapper Member
Jun 1, 2009
232
142
I was on the team that kept on losing. It wasn't because of balance though, it was clearly the calibre of people. :p
Goodluck with it, the gameplay was nice and the idea is great. I hope you can make it work with rounds.