TC Strata (version 538) b1c

[Tarry H Sruman]

If the song doesn't play in Red's base in the final version you will have lost my respect forever.

 

[YM]

Well shit. it's gone.

 

[Tarry H Sruman]

Please explain.

 

[Micnax]

Lemmie guess, you tried it in the SFM SDK and it rendered it useless in normal Hammer?

Are you sure you don't have a backup?

 

[tyler]

He told me earlier he'd have lost about a weeks worth of work if he reverted, by the time he realized what happened.

 

[Harribo]

That highlights an interesting statistic. Between versions 15 and 17 I added 25 seconds of setup time, the average round length rose to almost double, but the percentage of stalemates rose tenfold, from 1.68% to 20.4%

I wonder if it's not the setup time as much as it's us having more experience on the map and knowing how to defend it these days, would be interesting to see how _a15 now plays, assuming you only changed the setup time between now and then

 

[YM]

I was referring to Tarry's respect.

 

[Micnax]

I was referring to Tarry's respect.

Oh okay, phew. Don't scare us like that!

 

[YM]

Noooo, it's nearly done!

 

[Fruity Snacks]

I wonder if it's not the setup time as much as it's us having more experience on the map and knowing how to defend it these days, would be interesting to see how _a15 now plays, assuming you only changed the setup time between now and then

not necessarily true. Set up time can affect those types of things.

I still stand by my belief that there is layout flaws that are inherent to standard TC.

And yes YM, I am working on my own fix to TC.

 

[YM]

Well the 2% to 20% jump between versions where basically nothing changed but setup time (including how well players know the map, we've all been playing it enough to know it) is pretty clear.

I'm pretty certain what you're talking about as inherent flaws of TC now is just personal taste.

 

[Fruity Snacks]

I'm pretty certain what you're talking about as inherent flaws of TC now is just personal taste.

Perhaps, but when I see hydro and strata, I don't see much a difference between them layout wise.

Don't get me wrong, I think strata is a fun map, really I do (I also think Hydro is a fun map). I just don't think that your "new take" on hydro to be less corridor oriented is working. And if you look again at what some people are saying about your _a17 in the feedback, you still have a lot of work to do if you want to make it "a new take on TC."

Advice from me: You should stop detailing and rethink some design decisions you've made. There is no deadline for you to finish, so why rush?


But, ya' know, this is just my opinion. I think we both know that we both share very different design theories.

 

[YM]

Yes, feedback on _a17 is generally negative, but a17 was the first experiment with setup gates which drastically altered how it played out, in a very negative way.

The goal with strata wasn't to revolutionise tc, just to make it work without stalemates. Strata is both fun to play on, and does not stalemate. It's also open to the quickfire rush rounds as well as the heavy defense slog rounds that take nearly the full time. I'd say that's mission accomplished.

If I'd wanted an entirely new take on TC I'd have changed the gamemode.

 

[Tarry H Sruman]

And yes YM, I am working on my own fix to TC.

KOTH TC doesn't count.

There is no deadline for you to finish, so why rush?

I can fully understand not wanting to work on it anymore after what, four years?

 

[YM]

I still want to work on it, but there's no need to make serious revisions to the layout now. Perhaps continuing to widen the routes where possible, but nothing drastic. Just a little detail push and it can be done ready for everyone to jump up and down at Valve about. Cause everyone knows the TF2 community is dying for a new tc map.

In fact, I bet they could make an update page for TC Hydro and put it in the patch notes and 50% of players would never even know it wasn't there to begin with!

Anyhow, this is my 6000th post excluding off topic posts. That makes me the first 6000 post member. Go me.

 

[Fruity Snacks]

If I'd wanted an entirely new take on TC I'd have changed the gamemode.

Then you should remove the first sentence of your release post.

I'm not trying to say Strata is bad, I'm not saying are bad; I'm just saying that whenever someone talks about Strata (even you sometimes),it sounds like they are saying "It's the new and better TC!" which, in my opinion just isn't fully true. Yes it's new. But I don't think it's better. I'm just urgeing you to think about the map layout again just for 2 weeks. You can make this work REALLY well if you just think about it a little more. I know it's been a long work in progress, but you don't want to waste all those years just making another map that is going to fizzle out in 2 weeks.

Would I say that in its present state the map is better than Hydro? No. Do I think it'll take more than just spawn timers to make it better? Yes.

Again, this is just my opinion and advice.
Congratulations on post #6000

 

[YM]

If you have more specific things in mind than "Think about the map layout again", now would be the time to say it.

 

[YM]

So I opened Strata in the new SFM hammer to take a look around, I must have hit ctrl+s by mistake and then I could no longer open it in Source MP hammer. So no problem I think to myself, I'll just copy some files over and then work in SFM. This goes well for a few days until I try to compile, I find that SFM uses BSP version 21 and TF2 won't open anything beyond BSP version 20.

"Oh no!" I cry.

"I am doomed" I cry.

Then I remember about a little tool called VBCT that might save my skin. I hastened to download it and try it out. In a few short minutes I'm back up and running with a version 20 BSP. My skin is saved.

"Hooray" I sigh in relief. "To celebrate, I'll post a screenshot!" I exclaim joyously.

Then I came to the forums to post such a screenshot.

"O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!" I chortle in my joy

 

[Tarry H Sruman]

There needs to be something awesome on that roof.

 

[YM]

You're right, there does need to be something awesome on the roof. I still have some UV space on the roof texture sheet left so I can add some awesome signage later.

Here's some interior as well.