Snowdrift

CTF Snowdrift b4a

Radaka

L420: High Member
May 24, 2009
491
244
I lol'd at Turkey's post.

This map is coming along very well.

I'm sorry that I didn't take any screenshots, but there aren't any areas in particular that i can think of that need improving that require screenshots, but here's my two cents:

1. Move the first cp into the room behind where it is now, where the full health kit is (expand the room into the open area the cp's currently in).

2. Move the 2nd cp back about 10 feet and put it on a raised platform that forces blue to run around to the back first :)
 

captainAngry

L420: High Member
Feb 1, 2009
434
247
Played this last night. We had a lot of fun and it actually seemed to be pretty balanced. The only problem we had was that it was easy to get lost on the defending team headed towards the first point. It is very easy to overlook the spiral staircase and head right out the door, completing a circle. In the beginning of each match we always had people complaining and it took a while for everyone to get it down.



 

jpr

aa
Feb 1, 2009
1,094
1,085
After a while of thinking, I thought it might be best if I left the first cp area as it is, but removed the cp, so that there would be only 1 cp per stage (If it'll be staged). Kinda like how goldrush was supposed to be when it still was an a/d map. What do you guys think about this? This would also remove some causes of confusion such as has the first point been capped or not. Also, the announcer message, "The intelligence has returned to our base" would make sense also.
 

Psy

The Imp Queen
aa
Apr 9, 2008
1,706
1,491
Though I haven't played this map, having 2 caps per stage gives a nice sense of progression that's lost when you only have 1. When the attackers have got the first cap, it gives them breathing space to build tele exits and to charge some ubers whilst the defending team are pushed back to the final cap.
 

grazr

Old Man Mutant Ninja Turtle
aa
Mar 4, 2008
5,441
3,814
ctf_snowdrift_a20000.jpg


Remove the collision physics from these lights, i kept bumping into them whilst bunny hopping.

First point of fact: It takes about 40 seconds to get from Red spawn to CP1. Couple that with 14 odd seconds spawn wait time and you're looking at about a minute of waiting/travelling. THIS IS BAD. It was annoying. Like. Really annoying. You seemed to extend setup time to compensate, i imagine, but this doesn't negate this problem during an active game. This is simply down to bad spawn location.

You need more signage. I didn't even see CP1 until half way through my second turn as defence because i kept getting lost, and i only got out of the second CP area because i saw you respawn and followed you.

There was A LOT of health and ammo, and sizes seemed eratic. You shouldn't really put health and ammo on sniper decks as this over powers the snipers camping away in hard to reach places. Less health packs please, There wasn't a single corner i turned where i didn't run into a medium or full health kit, it seemed. Remove some and reduce others to small. Some medium are ok. No need for large. Having so many health and ammo packs encourages people to go off on their own and die which is exactly what you DON'T want in CTF assault mode.

Second CP was easy to cap. After capping CP1 it didn't take a scout a minute to rush it through the corridor/alley that comes onto this CP. Move the CP back a bit atleast, there's no real defence oppotunities here, mostly because of the instant cap style of the map. Standing on the point is fine but it gets spammed to hell because of it. I had to move away from the point or die several times and ended up giving away captures. No idea what the rest of the team was doing, presumably waiting to spawn or running off trying to counter attack and accidently letting the courrier through.

the CTF hud is confusing. Shmitz made a perfectly valid point that the ctf hud allows people to know where the flag is in general, whether it's at home or dropped. But the games happen so quickly all this information is useless. Often i didn't know which CP to defend and ran into a wall of attackers. I prefer the CP hud as it tells you exactly what to do. Either defend CP1, or CP2. CTF hud encourages people to hunt the courrier but this is not the tactic to employ in this mode. But this is my opinion. Knowing which way the courrier comes from was pointless as attacks came from each direction anyway, and you were given text warnings when the flag was dropped or picked up as well.
 
Last edited:

captainAngry

L420: High Member
Feb 1, 2009
434
247
There is a problem with the latest build. I didn't notice it before but it could have been there. When you are on the blue team and you cap the first point, the flag will spawn at the first point. If you then take the flag and drop it, it spawns back at the starting point and blue then has to cap the first point again.

Every time blue caps the first point they gain two minutes. We were doing a good job at defending the first point and we ended up holding them in a stalemate that would have lasted until the map ended because they would gain a couple minutes every time they capped the first point again.

I'll post the demo and ratings for a4 in the morning.
 

jpr

aa
Feb 1, 2009
1,094
1,085
Yep, I noticed it too, dunno why that happened.
I've decided what I'm going to do. I won't remove the first cap, but I won't make it harder to cap either. The real problem is the second cap.
 

Hanz

Ravin' Rabbid
aa
Jan 18, 2009
844
479
- I think in stage 1 the first cp is too far away from the blu spawn. You have to cross 2 places where always a lot of reds were.
- You already know, I think, but the spawntimes were a bit weird, 14 for blu and 6 for red or something. :/

I can't really say many other things, but I think you should make it atleast more easy for blu. :) And except those things, the map was quite fun to play. :)
 

Psy

The Imp Queen
aa
Apr 9, 2008
1,706
1,491
Here's a quick list of what I thought could be improved. I might add more tomorrow after being able to ponder some more.

  • The intel is too far from the cap. Move it to the second area (the next section after BLU's spawn) and make BLU spawn around there.
  • Some of the arrows were rather confusing. You'd have two red arrows facing to the left but inbetween you have a blue arrow pointing in the opposite direction.
  • I didn't witness this myself but some people claimed they couldn't block the cap.
 

Ida

deer
aa
Jan 6, 2008
2,289
1,372
You might want to add some more metal in a few of the Sentry spots, or that's at least what some Engineer said. In fact, the metal lack sometimes gave me problems as a soldier.

Stage 2 was incredibly hard to win, mainly because of the final area. I found it impossible to push through in any meaningful way, but I'm not sure what RED was up to because I didn't play on that team.