Soda

[Boylee]

Looking good matey.

 

[Colt Seavers]

Cheers Really hoping to get some testing on it now as there is nowt else I can do without some direction....

 

[A Boojum Snark]

...every time I see one of your posts... it's there... staring...

...now... in retaliation... I will imbue the curse upon your mind... you will not unsee it.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/98931/pics/sodaman.jpg

 

[The Political Gamer]

Oh god I lol'd

 

[Colt Seavers]

hahaha - now i'm scared! thats a better sig too

 

[A Boojum Snark]

I just realized you renamed the map, so I fixed the thread for you.

 

[Colt Seavers]

a4 release

A4 is now available - would really appreciate some feedback.

Changelog updated

 

[Psy]

...every time I see one of your posts... it's there... staring...

...now... in retaliation... I will imbue the curse upon your mind... you will not unsee it.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/98931/pics/sodaman.jpg

All these faces popping up in level overviews are becoming quite worrying now. :unsure:

 

[Colt Seavers]

hmmm, a4 plays worse than a3. back to basics i reckon. Reverting to a3 layout and reducing play area / dead space, for a5.

 

[lockitup]

hmm theres the place behind the waterfall... theres a wall you can walk behind and put a sentry that cant be killed but im pretty sure can be killed. plus u get stuck back there. not sure the entire purpose of this area seems unneccessary. Also if you go into the pool you cant get out back there..

Also I got stuck crouching behind the waterfall as a scout. Very cool map though.

 

[Colt Seavers]

Cheers - yeah, I've player clipped the areas behind the waterfall now and stopped access to the water entirely - I had made a drop down for a4 and a water part....it made the map even more open and easy for scouts to rule - it's current failing.

I'm really stuck tbh - have had a 24 hours of 'oh dear, this map is very shit'....so it's been nic to find your feedback. It needs a reworking. I want to keep the environment but change the layout a fair bit - maybe make the tower in the middle accessible to all.. For 6v6 anyway. I enjoyed it 12v12 but felt the action gets too spread in 6v6.

 

[Colt Seavers]

Right, tried to simplify the map, condense it a little, and tweak routes and access to improve gameplay 6v6.

a5 is ready and can be downloaded here http://forums.tf2maps.net/downloads.php?do=file&id=3174

I'd love feedback - how is it flowing? Is it fun to play? does the action keep pace? etc - next alpha could be a major redesign if this doesnt get close to playing well.

 

[lockitup]

Well I don't like how you took away of a lot of the stuff in the new version, the map doesn't seem as "cool"...however it might play better. Unfortunately its tough to get people to join the server at night. Anyways I do not like the player clipping on the waterfall itself at all. Something needs to be done about that. We were getting caught on something that stuck out of the wall but it seems you made the wall flat so clipping the actual waterfall seems unnecessary. At the same time though, I think it might be bad if players were able to hide behind the water fall, so thats why the drop down to the pool was cool. Honestly, I'd like to see a pub version of this map where you opened up the pools.

 

[Colt Seavers]

cheers - yeah funnily enough that's what peeps at my community have said. It's hard - I preferred the water open, from an 'interesting map' point of view, as it solved the waterfall stealth engi issue too...but it definitely hurt 6v6 gameplay as a scout could escape away with the intel far too quickly. It wasnt meant to be an escape route - it was meant to allow easy access into the capture - and slow access out as it was a drop down - problem is there are two of them so on the way back with intel, a scout could run up to the top stairs, and jump, in one, into their own water....so they were visible for a couple of seconds. The other team had no chance to stop their escape and it was pretty aweful.

I agree with the clipping. No build may be enough - or i think a better answer would be a displacement to fill the void. It was too problematic having people hide behind the falls though - shooting out at peeps.

Hopefully if I can get gameplay right 6v6, it will also work 12v12 - that's what i'd like. If not, I will be releasing a pub 12v12 version, because my friends have said they liked it how it was too.

For this comp though i'm going to try and keep it as simple as possible, till it works, then see what polish i can give to it.

 

[Colt Seavers]

added new screenies to main post

 

[Colt Seavers]

a6 Released:

download and pics updated

a6 changelog:

remade bridge, much lower.
lowered waterfalls.
stairs to bridge from small utility buildings so all classes can rise.
openned additional door to intel
reduced depth of water to prevent need to swim
removed mid building
player clipped all doors and stairs
additional signage

I am optemistic about these changes and their effect on flow and gameplay.

 

[Colt Seavers]

to do in a7 (following test)

- Player clips on doors need improving
- Intel sign, red cp, in displcement
- add platform in place of airport stairs at CP, with staircase down after CP
- Lower water slightly. Causes crouch glitch. Add fire extinguisher trigger
- Remove shelf at bridge top
- Align spool props same both side
- cut 128x128 void in bridge support to allow scout double jump across map.
- fix shadows / point of origin issues causing baaad shadows.

 

[The Gentlemanne]

C-C-C-C-C-C-COMBO BREAKER

I liked this map a lot it really has some flow..I wanted to post some pics up but unfortunately I don't have access to my PC for the time being..will edit post soon

 

[Colt Seavers]

a7 released

ctf_soda_a7 is now ready for download.

changelog
- fixes to player clips
- replaced airport stairs with walkway/stairs
- first texture pass to decide pallette
- shadows disabled on large off map props
- added cross map scout route - jumping from pipes to bridge middle and on.
- player clipped and nobuild to waterfalls
- opened rear of base to mountainside ready for detailing
- reduced level of middle buildings to assist non fan scouts.
- added props

edit: for next alpha (cheers Cali)
- middle needs a choke point. Somewhere that all escaping teams have to pass. It's currently a little too hard to intercept people taking the lower route with your intel.
- make small intel entrance by resupply into a one way drop down, by raising it. This will alow people in, but make it less easy to escape.

 

[Trotim]

Okay. I just played this on a playstuff server and thought the following:

• Scale of the map seems too big. While the actual playing area is decently sized, the huge cliffs and especially the bridge in the middle with no other defining features make it look giant.
• Additionally, the bridge area barely had any special features and the areas with shallow water near the intel didn't either. They're pretty much flat surfaces with one texture on top - I'm not talking detailing either, it lacks gameplay variety.
• Lighting was off and pitch black in some places but since it's an alpha build you can probably ignore that
• The Novint crates are there but really hard to notice. The Novint signs are clearly visible though.
• The clipping of the waterfalls is iffy. You might consider just not extending the floor through the waterfall, stopping before it, then clipping that whole "wall"
• The Nucleus intel place just doesn't fit. It doesn't look bad, it just doesn't fit. Either put more Spytech around the intel, or less.
• The stairs on either side of the bridge. Those... those are probably the steepest I have ever seen. I heard you want to make a kind of climbable wall out of them, that's okay, but how steep they needed to be should show you one thing: The bridge might also be too high.

That's my humble opinion. The map does have potential and I really like the graphical design of the place, regardless of all these little issues.