CP Snowplow Final Version

[Crash]

Here's some videos I put together from the early versions of the map and from some of our testing:

 

[Freyja]

Valve probably just didn't want to code the hud.

 

[Zed]

To be honest, all of this is just reinforcing my doubt of how well the TF Team understands the game and the content they're releasing.

They completely ditched Gravel Pit-style A/D as a gamemode "because it split up teams", even though Gravel Pit plays better than most of the Attack and Defend maps in the game.

Asteroid has archaic 2fort-style design.

Then there's the weapons and the completely unnecessary Heavy nerf from Love and War...

And now this. They cut a map from an update that desperately needed something extra, a map that's fairly straightforward... for being too complicated and difficult.

WHY?

Maps like Steel and Standin (Asteroid, even) weren't cut for being complicated or difficult for new players! Snowplow is practically Attack and Defend with a glorified timer, for Christ's sake! This seems like a bit of a double standard on the behalf of Valve, and it's making me question their judgement more than ever.

Regardless, best of luck to the two of you in the future. Snowplow's gathered a bit of a following, and I think it's come to be something quite nice in the end. Hopefully it will pave the way for custom maps in the future, even if it got left behind.

 

[puxorb]

I am really upset that this map didn't make it. But I can't really say anything about it that anyone has not already said.



So instead, Joe and Tim; Good work. This is a fantastic map that incorporates some interesting elements. I personally think its going to be hard not seeing a lot of people enjoy this map, as it really did turn into something special as you progressed with it and released new versions.

There is a lot of hate on the internet about the map not being included. Some blame you two, others blame McVee and still others--Valve. I'm not here to start a flame war or accuse anyone of anything. In the midst of all this chaos I think people forget to take a step back and appreciate all the work gone into things.


Sometimes people forget to say the things that matter.

This map is fun.
This map looks cool.







Take care, your work is not unappreciated.

 

[TMP]

To be fair, people who are saying "Standin is complicated!", you can literally just run out and shoot people on that map in whatever direction you want and have a major impact. It's a great "Just go out there and shoot things" map. Not really that complicated unless you make it complicated.

Still, pretty bummed that's the reason they said.

 

[MystycCheez]

https://www.change.org/p/valve-corp...d-of-the-line-update-in-tf2?just_created=true

 

[PMAvers]

Although I *am* glad that the map's going to actually be finished. Not enough maps out there do that.

 

[Fruity Snacks]

Updated to RC2, speaking of finishing.

 

[ics]

Too challenging and confusing. I find that amusing. The map is as simple as any. Capture points. Thopugh it could use more pointers but i guess that's because it's unfinished. Though a great pr stunt would have been if it had everything intact (textures, actual train, some more details) but it's understandable that when you learn something like that, interest goes away.

Valve seems to think players are dumb and not able to learn new things and that's why they told me my map was confusing too that i asked feedback for. A bad assumption. I have found some maps being great after couple of playtimes when i have found out they have a catch that keeps on playing. I get tired of simple maps too fast.

I've setup a server to run the map also, not sure how long (depends on players) but 89.166.50.126:27025 (Finland)

** EDIT **

Dammit ninja, now i have to update the map again to the server (no time to look for the map new version now, work calls :/)

 

[TheGhostThatWas]

T^T

 

[Pocket]

To me it's more like this is a tipping point about the general lack of care Valve has shown towards community mapping.

Valve doesn't care about anything anymore except whatever they're currently obsessed with. They set up a GitHub for people to report bugs, only to silently abandon it after failing to fix several major bugs people had reported. They continue to allow game developers to sell broken games and community-ban people who point out issues with them. The last time I tried to send a message to Steam Support, it claimed to be closed due to the volume of support tickets they had to get through. They have projects that have been effectively abandoned because the people they were assigned to quit working there and never passed them along to anyone else. And, of course, it's been seven years and five whole new games since the Half-Life series ended on a cliffhanger.

And why? Because there's no accountability for anybody. As long as everyone is consistently doing something with their time, they still get positive peer evaluations, even if that something was starting five projects they never finished. I'd call them a collection of modders who treat their job like it's still a hobby, but even modders have a more reliable track record of finishing what they start at this point.

 

[bobotype]

Didn't get to play this map but it looks really cool and the update sucks without it.
[woah... reskins.... and ducks... woahhhh...]

 

[hINDUs]

too sad that valve turned it down, but then again - i wanted to put it on my pub server, and whaaat, 146 MB unpacked? (its actually the biggest map in my collection... ever)
b2 which i playtested was lacking of some models and stuff but it was more than twice as small as rc2 (65 vs 146 MB)
putting that "monster" on servers and expecting that every player has patience to download it is... dunno, that can be hard to pull of
can we expect some optimization on that front?

 

[Fruity Snacks]

Probably not, as we've done our best already. We were banking on Valve accepting the map (we were being lead to believe that this was the case up until a few weeks ago), which would remove the issues with filesize and stuff. So, yea. With all the necessary models, we can't really reduce the size too much.

 

[Muddy]

I still stand by my opinion that this map is far less complicated than Steel.

What really gets me is how the update page had absolutely no mention of the map whatsoever, besides a very half-arsed and tacked-on "oh yeah and well done to these guys I guess whatever" on the credits page. At least give 'em some credit. An honourable mention or something. Jeez.

 

[Fruity Snacks]

I still stand by my opinion that this map is far less complicated than Steel.

What really gets me is how the update page had absolutely no mention of the map whatsoever, besides a very half-arsed and tacked-on "oh yeah and well done to these guys I guess whatever" on the credits page. At least give 'em some credit. An honourable mention or something. Jeez.

It was my understanding that Valve said they were 'more than happy' to make a mention to the map on the blog post. We're currently looking into why that wasn't happening.

 

[Fruity Snacks]

Main post update with new images, video and link to the asset pack.

 

[ics]

There is serious issue with this map on servers, which is running out of edicts. The server where i put the map in, has crashed several times today. The map uses 1750 on the go when i am alone at the map, this is way too much.

 

[Fruity Snacks]

There is serious issue with this map on servers, which is running out of edicts. The server where i put the map in, has crashed several times today. The map uses 1750 on the go when i am alone at the map, this is way too much.

Yea, we discovered this issue last night. We're looking into getting it fixed, but it'll take some time to reduce because of all the necessary ent backend stuff to run the hud and gamemode.

 

[ics]

I'd say try to hurry up and do something, because this map seems quite popular atm. Cut off everything that isn't necessary, like reducing spawn counts etc. Players can spawn in same spot too.