SD sd_nowhere _a10d

[Tiftid]

sd_nowhere - KOTH with extra steps

SD with three flags and one control point which you use to capture your flags, whereupon the control point becomes neutral and locks itself for 10 seconds.
Plays to 5 captures.
Each team gets one flag that's easy for them to access and the possibility of taking the neutral flag.
You get 5 minutes (+ 75 seconds whenever you capture a flag), and if a team fails to win in that time, the map just stalemates.
No flag-related voice lines and no crits on capture.
Mirrored symmetry out of necessity.

Currently, I have no particular theme in mind, so just decided to set it "nowhere", which means "fairly generic desert alpha-detailing".

I really tried on this one. I spent over a month developing it even before A1, and the only reason I released A1 at all was because I was beginning to drive myself mad through said development cycle and just wanted to see the map played.

Oh, also, if you want me to release a prefab of the control point logic, then reply to this thread and I'll do it.

I created this primarily out of a sudden urge to make "SD but good" which didn't fade even after a month had passed. I chose this specific way of making SD because I thought altering the number of flags you capture each time you capture the point by choosing individually as a player to go down different routes added lots of cool strategy that KOTH didn't have, hence "KOTH with extra steps". The spawns are also split to enforce this - half of the spawns point you towards your team's flag and the other half point you towards the neutral flag, but you can choose to go between either and the middle path towards the point, and rotate between routes in a manner typical to KOTH.

 

[Tiftid]

Changelog:
-removed the alarm that plays when a player uses the dropdown - I only added it in the first place because I was terrified that players would miss the dropdown, but it seems like they don't, or if they do, the alarm doesn't help.

-increased the time the point locks for when a team captures from 10 seconds to 30, because teams were far too easily able to consecutively capture multiple flags, which shortened the round time drastically. This also led to a feeling that the team which first capped the point was certain to win, though that'll need larger layout changes to solve completely.

-increased the point's cap time from 3 seconds to 4 seconds

-standardised the return time of all three flags at 16 seconds - previously, the teamed flags returned in 10 and the neutral flag returned in 16. I never saw a flag actually return, though, so the return time just means "double the time it takes the flag to become neutral", which is actually relevant, because longer is better for this map, because it creates time between winning fights and capping.

-experimentally tore down the walls around the garage at mid - hitscan classes were sorely underrepresented in A1, because the map was thin - I feel that this change creates some much-needed open space in the area of the point which was meant to be open to begin with, and helps players feel more involved with the garage.

-added a third route which splits off from the long-range route to mid - this essentially acts as a "sniper balcony" that helps attacking players spam at a decent range onto the point and have an actual quick retreat to a covered area.

-reduced the starting round timer from 5 minutes to 4 minutes, and reduced the time added on each capture from 75 seconds to 60 seconds.

-when I mirrored the map, I forgot to mirror the signs. This should now be fixed.

-experimentally moved the medium health near each team's spawn much further forward, since the original reason to keep it so far back was because I feared that teams would use it to spawncamp, but they aren't, so maybe it'll be fine.

-very slightly adjusted the lighting under the one-way drop in the garage to be more red and less pink

Known Issues:
-fast classes are still too good

-long-range classes probably won't come into fashion just because of the new sniper balcony - this is something I want to fix in A2, but it'll require a large layout rework, so I might have to save it for even later than A2.

-the team which wins the fight at the neutral flag spawn loses the point and thus loses the neutral flag, nullifying their effort - I have thought of some possible fixes, but have yet to think of one that feels fun, so I'll have to save that for later.

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[Tiftid]

Changelog:
-Created a HUD using PD logic

-Changed the neutral flag to be an australium briefcase - it now never becomes neutral when dropped, and returns after 8 seconds instead of 16. This prevents cases where teams win the fight at the neutral flag spawn, but then die with the neutral flag on the point, giving an extra capture to their enemies. This prevention should reduce the average number of flags which point-focused teams capture.

-The australium is now worth 2 points instead of 1

-Increased the number of points required to win from 5 to 7 to compensate for this

-Added a pickup to the australium room which gives 5 seconds of minicrits - this should help players who win the fight at the neutral flag spawn to clear players off the point and possibly cap their australium.

-Increased the trigger_capture_area's capture time from 4 seconds to 5 seconds - increasing it more later might be a decent idea, but for now a small increase shall do

-Flag captures should no longer add to the team score on the scoreboard

-Only the team which caps the point can deposit flags in the capture zone that opens thereafter.

-The capture zone now stays open for 5 seconds after the point is capped instead of 1 second.

-Experimentally added a door into the australium room that opens 10 seconds after the round starts - this is to prevent Scouts and Soldiers from being overly annoying with the new minicrit pickup

Known Issues:
-The layout is still cramped, which harms class balance

-The gamemode still favours fast classes, which harms class balance

-Edging the point is still a viable strategy despite the fact that teammates in the australium room now have a lot of time to get to the point after it's captured

-The neutral flag is not the high-risk, high-reward alternative option that I want it to be - it ideally should be something losing teams want to use to possibly get ahead of the team who won the point without focusing on the neutral flag.

-The new mini-crit powerup could lead to players who fought fairly on the point feeling slighted because the team which won the fight at the neutral flag spawn gets free minicrits and gets to definitively win if their team's also winning the point battle or nullify the victory of an enemy team who fought fairly and won. In other words, it could leave players feeling too reliant on whether or not their teammates win, which is very problematic in a game where your individual contribution is meant to be what matters most.

-When on the point, the "cannot capture at this time" icon covers up the point unlock countdown.

-Frustratingly, I can't make capturing the teamed flags not increment the team score on the scoreboard without making them some flag type other than Invade

-I think I can't create a delay between captures without using the pd_ prefix, and I really don't want to use the pd_ prefix since this isn't a PD map

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[Tiftid]

Changelog:
-Increased the time the doors to the australium room take to open after the round starts from 10 seconds to 13.5 seconds, because players are frozen for 5 seconds at the start of the round, which meant that the door would close 5 seconds after they were first able to move, which meant that it barely hindered Scouts at all.

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[Tiftid]

So, I might have looked like I abandoned this map for the past nine months. And I did, but I was later inspired with a new way to make SD better - and hopefully less like "KOTH with extra steps".

The details are as follows:
-Removed both teamed flags
-Removed the speed boost pickup in the australium building
-Moved the control point into the australium building, and rebuilt the control point area, featuring an enclosed bridge which the australium has been shoved into
-The only dedicated entrance into this new mid-connector is a dropdown (although you can also access it through the point building)
-Added the rocket from Doomsday to the point building
-Reduced the point's captime to 2 seconds
-Map now plays to 3 points instead of 7

The idea is that if a team can hold the point area, all they get is a forward hold; however, if they can keep this forward hold going, they get to escort the australium to the point and score.
If you lose this forward hold, then the enemy team gets to take the point area and take control of the australium, so when you fight them again at the point area, either they score or the australium resets, whereupon you regain your forward hold and have to fight for the opportunity to go and grab the australium again.

It's a gameplay loop that requires you to win far fewer fights in a row to score than Doomsday does, which should hopefully make it less of a stalemate.

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[Tiftid]

-Increased control point's captime from 2 seconds to 4 seconds
-The australium now takes 60 seconds to be available again after a team captures, up from 45
-The australium now has a return time of 20 seconds instead of 15, and no longer disables itself for 30 seconds after returning
-Removed two medium ammo packs from the courtyard outside each team's spawn to nerf engineer slightly
-Upgraded the medium ammo pack under the bridge to full in hopes of encouraging engineers to build there
-Placed a medium ammo pack at the top of the point area to encourage sentry placement there, while also giving engineers temporary access to ammo after their team wins the point
-Clipped off an out-of-bounds area
-Disabled shadows on a number of doorframe props

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[Tiftid]

-The australium now takes 65 seconds to enable after the round starts (up from 45)
-I changed the colour of the lights at the bottom of each team's dropdown in A3A but forgot to mention it
-I am considering making this not be a dropdown any longer but that'll have to wait for A4

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[Tiftid]

-RED's respawn wave time is now 6 seconds like I had originally intended it to be
-Slightly shortened the bridge of death
-The dropdowns leading under the bridge have been replaced with a more playable area
-The australium is now only disabled for 40 seconds after being captured instead of 60
-The australium is now only disabled for 40 seconds after the round starts instead of 60
-When the australium is picked up from its pedestal, it locks the control point for 40 seconds
-Added pretty flowers to the ground

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[Tiftid]

-The control point no longer locks for 40 seconds after the australium is picked up
-Increased the control point's captime from 4 seconds to 40
-Gave the rocket silo a slight visual overhaul

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[Tiftid]

-Fixed a bit of asymmetry arising from a change to mid that I forgot to talk about, where I took out the long wooden boardwalk in hopes of giving players more walking space

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[Tiftid]

-The bridge of death is finally gone
-It has been replaced with a pit in between the two sides of mid, requiring a team to control both sides before they can make use of the australium, which is something the bridge basically did
-Added a wide, open path beside mid that encourages long-range combat, which should hopefully give Scouts and Spies a fun place to play
-Finally removed the hill sightline
-Reverted the point's captime from 40 seconds to 4 seconds, and re-introduced the mechanic which locked the point for 40 seconds after the australium was picked up
-Added a route from mid into the rocket area's courtyard to discourage camping with the australium
-Rebuilt the spawns; both doors now have a resupply locker right next to them, and the group of players who spawn near the rocket area's courtyard now have slightly increased walk times
-Gave the HUD an overhaul with Leezo's help to make it look less like Player Destruction

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[Tiftid]

-Moved the australium further from the control point; both sides of mid should now have a say over whether it reaches the point or not
-Redistributed health and ammo, and altered cover in the long-range cliff side of mid
-Added a rotational route between the cliff and silo sides of mid
-Added a 40-second HUD countdown illustrating when the point will unlock
-Deepened the death pit by 256 units
-Idfk man

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[Tiftid]

-Fixed an issue where some triggers thought they were world brushes
-Added zythe's ocs to the rocket silo

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[Tiftid]

-Added roofs
-Removed ledge that didn't look like a death pit
-Retextured death pit to look suitably uninviting

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[Tiftid]

-Added a building to block visibility in between spawn and the australium bridge
-Slightly increased the amount of health and ammo mapwide because as a player I never really felt like it was easy enough to stay topped up
-Removed the medium ammo pack at the top of the rocket area, because it was proving too strong for engineers when combined with the two small ammo packs in the area connecting the australium bridge and rocket silo
-The round timer is now paused while the point is waiting to unlock

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[Tiftid]

-Sealed up the dropdown from mid to the courtyard before the rocket room, since it made it completely impossible to stage an attack from that courtyard
-Consolidated all the health at the sniper side of mid to be more useful to attackers; this should hopefully solve the big flanking problem -Added more crates to mid
-This includes a crate that lets players on the lowest part of mid (other than the rocket room) jump to the bridge via the shack (thank you FloofCollie for inspiring this idea)
-You can no longer stand on the grain elevator attached to RED's sniper building
-You can no longer stand in the window-frame of the windows in the sniper buildings
-Apparently there was a rock in the pre-rocket courtyard on RED's side of the map which was semi-important for gameplay, and this rock just wasn't there on BLU's side and nobody knew or cared - well, anyway I added it to BLU's side

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[Tiftid]

-Finally gave in to peer pressure and widened the rocket room slightly; I was only convinced to do this because I finally realised that one explosive could deny both doorways at the same time, and having the rocket be away from the wall would add a lot of strategy, where you predict which direction around it the enemy soldier's gonna fire. This still leaves you at a disadvantage against the soldier, but it should be more fun now.

-Anti-flag barriers now prevent you from taking the australium back into your base and camping, or griefing your team by pointlessly taking the australium into the enemy base and dying

-Knocked down a wall in spawn to shorten rotate times between the exits and make it easier to go to the exit you want upon spawning

-Did some rudimentary detailing in the rocket room. I was affected with a wave of nostalgia while making it, so I think it turned out very 2009-y, but you might not feel that way.

-Upgraded the HUD to include the control point

-Moved Itchigo and Laycie from their precarious perch to a safer position right next to the rocket which is in the middle of a battlefield of RED and BLU desperately trying to launch said rocket

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[Tiftid]

-Made mid less flat with the power of displacements

-Increased the control point's captime from 4 to 8 seconds, since I felt like captures often didn't meet enough resistance, and the new rocket room layout will make it even easier to protect your teammates as they cap

-The australium now locks the point for 80 seconds instead of 40 if the team who previously owned it picks it up after it resets - this is to prevent scenarios where the enemy team was carrying the australium, and you'd kill them and get the australium to reset, but then they'd pick it up, win the following fight and capture. It wasn't fun, because if you personally happened to be dead for most of that fight, you might get capped on without a chance to have prevented it.

-Moved the spawns for the rocket area slightly closer to said rocket area, since I felt like the new spawn design would make players almost ubiquitously use the cliff side, when I want them to sometimes use the cliff side and sometimes go to the rocket area.

-Positioned the spectator cameras more artfully

-Added soundscapes

Beta ready????
Direct route to mid from spawn coming soon??
Honestly, I have no idea what this map's future is gonna be.

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[Tiftid]

-The australium now takes 60 seconds to be enabled after the round starts and after it's captured, up from 40. This should help teams have a chance to contest the enemy team's foothold over mid after the enemy team captures.

-Reverted a change from A8 where the control point would lock for 80 seconds instead of 40 when the australium was picked up by the team who had previously held it (unless that team had captured the point the first time they picked the australium up)

-The anti-flag doorways now push the australium carrier back a little bit before forcing them to drop the flag, in order to prevent awkward scenarios where several team members would repeatedly be touching the flag and immediately being forced to drop it again.

To be honest, I wasn't happy being forced to do this, since one of the big appeals of the anti-flag doorways to me is that a player can still choose to retreat to safety if they're willing to sacrifice control over the objective, but being bounced back into your enemies doesn't exactly scream "safety" to me.
I could reset the australium instead, but I like that idea even less.

-Added some more ground in the area leading up to the two-floored building, since it was a little too easy to get airblasted to your death there

-Minor detailing changes in the rocket room

-Smoothed the displacements at mid slightly

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[Tiftid]

-Extended the lumps at mid closer to the wood wall to prevent one of the less interesting sightlines and prevent players from sneaking onto the bridge without being contested by the close-range side of mid

-Added a small structure at the rocket room's exit to mid to block a problematic sightline between the rocket room doorways and the top of the lumps.
I may regret doing this, since it might separate the two sides of the map so much that one team just perpetually holds the australium at mid, unable to push into the rocket room.

-Added a grate in the rocket room to block a nasty sniper angle (abp refused to show me this sightline and I think it's cause he's still salty I didn't tell him my phone number during the development of Roofrack)

-Added more ground and a railing outside spawn to prevent cheap airblast kills

-Added a fence outside spawn to reduce the number of cheap sniper angles that let you shoot the feet of people trying to use the bridge

-Reduced the opacity of the anti-flag barriers by 75%

-Raised the death pit trigger so it properly credits airblast kills again

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