CP Spamalot A14a

[Yaki]

Spamalot - Ah yes, Spamalot of the Renaissance era...

BLU must fight RED in the ye olde castle of Spamalot (a pun of Camelot).

See most recent updates in the updates section for most recent posts.

- Currently there is only one stage with three capture points (Garden, Bakery and Tavern) and two forward spawns for each team. I'm not sure what else I'm going to do with this map.

Each time a player is killed, they have a chance to drop one of the following:

1. CRIT PUMPKINS : If you manage to grab a crit pumpkin and kill someone with it, it'll refresh the pumpkritz and let you go on a critting spree.
2. VINYL VELLUM OF VITALITY: Remember that unused scroll pickup? Nabbing one gives some overheal and the medicating melody effect (to heal your team)!
3. BURLY BEER (available only on maps a5 onward) : A simple beer, or is it? Drinking one grants a defensive buff for 8 seconds! After that, movement speed is slowed for 5 seconds.

(I don't know if these are good gimmicks but hey medieval)

-------

"I know thee well, oh Spamalot...
May good fortune come to those who lay in your wake, good Spamalot...
And those who may draw their last breath here, stay hatted and wealthy...
And not poor and Irish.

Long live Spamalot!"

 

[Yaki]

• Bug Fix: Medkits weren't showing up (models were invisible).
• Bug Fix: Vellum doesn't give max health anymore after theory-crafting, now only giving overheal + medicating melody.
• Bug Fix: HP Kits weren't making respawn noises.
• Bug Fix: Teleport to RED spawn sticking out of BLU's forward spawn too much.
• Fix: Turned off Halloween mode because it changed the medkits to not meat (didn't meat standards! haha...).
• Pumpkins now drop from enemies even with Halloween mode disabled.
• Fix: RED/BLU team beginning objective messages now correctly state three points.

Read the rest of this update entry...

 

[Yaki]

• Bug Fix: Pumpkin uses the Pumpkin_loot model (was a scroll before)

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[Yaki]

• Drops now make sounds, and disappear after 15 seconds.
• Tavern sign now correctly placed on the wall.
• Fixed scrolls and pumpkins spawning at the same time.

CompilePal is a beast.

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[Yaki]

• Added the Burly Beer. This pickup heals for a very small amount and reduces incoming damage by 35% for 8 seconds, and can be refreshed after a kill. But, after the buff wears out, the player is slowed for 5 seconds.
• All three new items (Vellum, Beer and Crit Pumpkin) have a 1/4th chance to spawn in the place of a health kit. Respawn is 10 seconds.
• All three new items also can spawn by killing someone, at 1/12th chance.
• Added response rules to all the new items. (example: Picking up the Crit Pumpkin makes the character say their battle cry)
• Fixed RED spawning in wrong spawn.
• Garden: Fountain height changed. Reduced visleafs by 400+ by making the water a func_brush.
• Increased round time by 30 seconds (now 3m30s, cap 5m)

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[Yaki]

Layout:
- Bakery's spawn was moved over to the other wall, to reduce travel times.
- Removed Red's forward spawn from outside and moved it into the Bakery.

Bug Fixes:
- Pumpkins now correctly spawn from dead enemies (for some reason it was inputting to a sound before).
- Fixed Garden's CP prop from changing to the according team.

Balance Changes:
- Pickups from enemies have a 1 in 8 chance to drop, was 1 in 4 chance.

Read the rest of this update entry...

 

[Yaki]

Working on an update. Probably won't release until I get stage 1 done...

Here is a teaser:

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PwWHopkNoi8

 

[Yaki]

Layout Changes
- Removed CP2 (Bakery) and removed both forward spawns in the name of simplicity.
- As a result of the above, shrunk the mid arena where the Bakery was.
- Moved RED's spawn back slightly.
- Moved BLU's spawn back slightly.
- Can no longer fire arrows through BLU respawn gates.
- CP1 redesigned.
--Capture point is now elevated, added cover.
--Bushes are now bullet clipped, was player clipped before.
- CP2 back area redesigned slightly.
--Removed flank that went behind RED spawn.
--Additionally, health/ammo kits moved.
--Made RED's respawn door more intuitive. (It looks like a door now!)
-- Clipped the side staircase in the tavern.
- Raised skybox ceiling height outsides.

Balance
- Removed Crit Pumpkins completely because it was too random and powerful.
- Gameplay Mechanics: Engineer can now build dispensers by picking up toolboxes (which are just an item_teamflag).
Pick it up like you would an intelligence, then drop it the same. If dropped, the team that owns the dispenser will not be able to pick it up. However, the enemy team can touch it to destroy it instantly.
It takes 10 seconds to fully deploy, afterwhich you've got your brand new Level 2 Dispenser!
Toolbox respawn time is 25 seconds after pickup.
--In addition, Engineers can just hold the dispenser to heal himself/his team while they fight.
--Response rules also applied when deploying the dispenser.



(Technical Stuff
- When dropping a flagspenser, it changes into the other team's flag. Once picked up, it resets the flag (basically, killing the Dispenser before it spawns).
- Dispensers are sent a Kill input after the round it over (otherwise the game bleeds into overtime).
- If a team mate picks up a dispenser, it immediately tests a filter to see if the game should send a trigger to remove the flag entirely.
- There is a func_capturezone in front of the spawns that causes the Engineer to drop->return->destroy the flag.
- The response rules is actually a level_sounds file mod. It replaces the lines when the Engineer captures the intelligence.

Read the rest of this update entry...

 

[Yaki]

After feedback from credible sources I've reverted a lot of the changes back from a6.
These include:

• Added CP2 back (now 3 CPs).
• Lowered CP1 "RED Garden" back to ground level. (Reason: The ramp itself was bait for Snipers to spam arrows. Not fun.) Most of the cover from A7 was kept.
• Moved entire RED spawn back to A6's location, and removed the flank behind red spawn.
• Added Forward Spawns back for RED and BLU (Reason: Pacing was better. Walking to battle is, again not fun.)
• Capturing CP2 "RED Bakery" now closes the building doors again.
• No more BLU spawning in RED spawns at the beginning of the round! And, teleports to new spawn points are set to unique locations (to prevent people from clumping up).
• Removed Heal-On-Kill from the Beer pickup (Reason: wasn't understood)

Reason for A7's Changes:

• I had initially wanted this to be a multi-stage map. To do so, I thought consistancy in CPs (having 2 for each stage) was necessary.

However this meant gutting a lot--Shrinking the map, getting rid of the forward spawns, and overall making the map generally worse off.

Other changes to stage 2:

• Made it so you can stand on the tall hedges overhanging the door by CP1 "RED Garden".
• Didn't keep the health packs by BLU spawn (prevent spawn camping).
• Fixed table model from faded away before player was out of sight range.
• Engineer's dispenser toolboxes now have an Engineer decal under it to give a hint on what it might do.

Lastly, I've added Stage 1.

• Stage 1 includes two capture points: RED Bridge and RED Keep.
• Let's see how it tests out with a new mechanic! This stage has a new pickup that increases your jump height by about 140%. A lot of the stage 1 is built on vertical height variations.
• Please see the screen shots below for more info. (First four are stage 1. Last three are stage 2.)

In other news, map now supports HDR!

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[Yaki]

A8a Changelog

• Improved player naming logic.
• Welcome Point spectator camera now correctly points to Stage 1's camera.
• Spectator camera added in RED Keep
• Spectator cameras made visible to all players.

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[Yaki]

A9 Changelog

Stage 1

• Magic Boots now only last 3 jumps before disappearing (at which your character only jumps regular height).
• Magic Boots can no longer stomp people. Instead, it negates fall damage (only when the boots are on).
• Magic Boots now glow purple.
• Magic Boots now have lift-off and landing particles/sounds.
• Removed FOV on all spectator cameras.
• Changed color of the ground on BLU side.
• Changed steepness of hill to be able to walk up on every possible angle.
• Added missing soundscape.

Stage 2

• Added some cover for the RED Tavern spawn door.

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[Yaki]

A9a Changelog
-Changed most env_soundscape to env_soundscape_proxy to reduce errors and possibly lag.

Stage 1
-Brightened up main doorway to RED Keep.
-Addressed learning curve for boots. RED Spawn now requires boots to leave by jumping over a gate.

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[Yaki]

If anyone wants to know why this map lagged and crashed the imp today... here's why.

 

[Yaki]

Main highlights:

• New Stage 1: Featuring lots of snow. Also, now is 3CP (from 2CP).
• New Power-ups: Pick up the Soldier's Concheror, Heavy's Dalokohs Bar or Spy's Invisibility Watch.
• Spy Can Die by Fire: Spy is banned from the map. Any time you pick the class you're sent to a snowy hellscape. (Where you burn, and perish ya sleuthy-scum!)
• Soldiers can build Rage in spawn by attacking the dummy.

Other stuff:

• Adjusted some spawn packs
• Raised the final CP in stage 1 so players won't take fall damage.

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[Yaki]

• Adjusted HDR / Bloom.
• Disabled custom drops gotten from kills

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[Yaki]

• Fixed Spy from being playable. (Spies now teleport outside the map on Stage 2)
• Fixed darkness in Stage 1 BLU spawn.
• Added some area portals and changed some curved architecture to func_detail.

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[Yaki]

A11 Changelog

• Fixed wrong mission goal strings
• Spy is now unbanned from the map (since the trap didn't work right)

Stage 1

• Reworked some displacements so most are walkable.
• Fixed a hole in the wall in BLU spawn
• Added an extra route inside the castle
• Removed the main entrance doors from the castle
• Increased respawn time for RED when first two CPs are captured (6s, was 5s)
• Reduced final CP capture time to 2.5s (from 5)

Stage 2

• Fixed everybody teleporting to Spy hell (it doesn't exist anymore)

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[Yaki]

A12 Changelog

• Made some capture areas bigger
• Experimenting with displacements
• Detailing
• Fixed unwalkable displacements
• Added three new powerups: Battalion's Backup (+20 HP, -35% dmg Buff for 10 seconds), Ubercharge (Ubered for 8 seconds), Crit-a-Cola (Mini-crits for 8 seconds, marked for death after attacking)
• Optimized framerate with Hint+skip and areaportals
• Fixed double Medieval fanfare at round beginning

Stage 1

• Added terrace on left side of castle
• Changed textures of BLU's spawn cavern
• Opened up area between 1st and 2nd CPs
• Fixed BLU's magic spawn rock being blockable
• Raised ground level around the capture area / entrance of RED Keep

Stage 2

• Reduced cap time of last CP to 2.5 seconds.
• Added new resupply locker in forward spawns
• Added lights near resupply at BLU's first spawn

Other powerups

• Invisibility Watch (Cloak for 8 seconds)
• Concheror (Regeneration, Speed Boost and Vampire buff for 10 seconds)
• Dalokohs Bar (+50 HP for 30 seconds)

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[Yaki]

A13 Changelog

• Removed Uber Powerup
• Fixed bug where players would gain Dalokohs Bar buff on all power ups

Stage 1

• Moved CP2 over to where it can't be seen from the doorway

Stage 2

• Major layout changes for CP1 + CP2
• CP1: Added flank
• CP1: Moved BLU entrance door over so it cannot be shot at from the CP
• CP2: Completely revised

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[Yaki]

Been nearly two years since I updated this baby!

Here are some of things I've been working on:

• Spamalot now supports more weapons in Medieval. I've installed my own custom logic prefab to complete this mission.
  • Tying into this, Engineer can now build new, "olden" contraptions! Will update that soon.
• I'm reworking the Stage 2.

Here are some guidelines I'd like to follow for this map (and Medieval in general):

Spoiler

This is a BIG WIP about things I've learned and am still working on for mapping for this game mode.

Here is a small guide I've written about mapping for Medieval Mode.

• First I need to Medieval Mode has a few flaws... Most notably:
  1. Hitting your own team mates absorbs your attacks (sometimes preventing you from hitting the enemy),
  2. Snipers are difficult to deal with in melee mode,
  3. It's melee mode. Hurrah!
• I believe all of these points can come in different ways, based on how the map is designed.

Let's go through these points, one-by-one.

• Point One: Hitting your team mates absorbs your attacks.
  1. The collisions can never be fixed map-side. You're always going to hit team mates.
  2. "Encourage freedom of movement while keeping players apart."
     • This is a strong point that needs to be emphasized when mapping for this game mode. "Freedom of movement" is important for people's sense of direction in the game (and in life). It's about positioning--Ask yourself questions like:
       • "Is this area small enough to encourage melee fights?"
       • "Is this respawn close enough to get to the objective to walk to in a reasonable time without advanced mobility (ex. rocket jumping, etc)?"
       • "Is this interesting to run, jump, fight on?"
     • Objective control can be used to spread out players. See: cp_degrootkeep A and B caps.
• Point Two: Huntsman Sniper are a bane to melee players (and TF2).
  1. Height variation is SO IMPORTANT in Medieval Mode.
     • If you've played Sniper, they have to predict their target's movement. When you add the vertical axis to this, it makes head-shotting a lot more unpredictable.
     • This gives melee players some edge over Sniper to get into close range.
     • The opposite of this are flat areas. You might want to avoid them or put them into your map sparingly. (unless you have cover)
• Point Three: It's melee mode. Good sire!
  1. Combining the last two points, Keep areas small (good size is 300x300 HU).
     • This reduces travel times
     • This makes engaging in melee easier
     • Keep the games flowing consistently
  2. Have little to no setup times for pre-rounds.
     • Walking distance and positioning is the only thing players should consider.
  3. TIP: Use gimmicks. A lot.
     • Trimp ramps (angled geometry) let Demo charge off them to gain elevation. I don't know the correct angles to make this work consistently.
     • Hiding spots
     • Braziers (for Sniper)
     • Water (ankle-high) to let Pyros use the Neon Annihilator as an option
     • Conditions (like Jarate water, or slippery ice) might be fun if placed right
     • Feel free to experiment.

Closing Point: The main philosophy behind this flawed mode is, in my eyes, "Medieval Mode is Dumb-Fun; a gamble every life."

Just experiment and be casual about your approach. Good luck.

I'm going to update this post later.