PL tow (tug of war)_spacewar B29

[Kill_the_Bug]

pl_spacewar_b1 - Tug of War In Space!

There are some of you who are die hard warpath players, there are some of you who are die hard payload players so with that in mind:

I present to you SpaceWar!!

It combines all the best parts of warpath and payload gameplay into a single tug-of-war style map. The battleground that you will be fighting on is an asteroid deep in the vales of space itself.

Be warned though, the map has variable gravity and if you're not careful you will die in space.

The map contains a lot of custom features including the payload model and textures to really make it an out of this world experience.

Enjoy!

 

[Kill_the_Bug]

Well Boys and Girls although I am still officially done with mapping, I needed something to do while sitting at home during Covid Lockdown so I spent a couple of days (maybe a week) making a map just for myself. This was a map that I just wanted to do, there was none of the pressure of, "I hope people like it. I hope it's really playable and enjoyable." There was no real end goal of what I wanted to make or do when I started out on this project.

I wanted to do something that I personally thought looked really good.

Space maps are hard to do and I think I did a good job on this one.

That being said - enjoy!

 

[Kill_the_Bug]

Changelog:

- Since there was an issue the repawn wave times i.e. 24 seconds even though no wave time was originally in the map, I have since added one and made it 1 second - hopefully this will stop whatever was causing the 24 second long thing.
- deleted a lot of the cameras as requested, I also triggered them to enable disable depending what side of the map you are on i.e. if on blue side no need to see red's cameras
- fixed the one cap point alert sound
- added in more ambient sounds, these are stock as my custom ones tended to break the map for some reason < had some cool space ones for you too!
- changed some of the 'battlements' prop over to active arrows to tell payers which way to go put of spawn for eaiser player navigation
- fixed the blue spawn room bug - the trigger to disable blue's forward spawn now works to disable it upon red cap point capture
- Fixed all spawn room door triggers and height of them - all doors are now onstarttouch to open, onendtouchall to close them.

Changes requested but unable to do because of game limitations:

Cart outline - unfortunately the colour of the outline will always be blue, unless someone knows of the coding for it. my MPL (multiple payload) coding would work if it was that styale of map since it works off of a modifid plr code. The only other option would be to hard code it (not sure if that's possible) into client res files and then pack them into the map. have no idea if it would work or not.

Cart telportation for final cap sequence to follow a new path to destruction (you don't see it happen because it happens in the samespot) - am having to use this method instead of breaking the physics on the cart. If I use the physics break, 8 times out of 10 the cart will fly off in some random direction instead of falling down the hole. Although it glitched when we played b1, I have NOT been able to recreate the error after trying serveral times.

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[Kill_the_Bug]

Oh Boy!! Where do I start?!!!

Ok based upon previous playtests and your comments, I have made the following changes:

- I have rebuilt the area around the second cap point for both teams (as this is a mirroed map).
- The rebuild is the addition of a control booth complex that will allow the attacking team to hold and build up ubers, etc.
- this build has three entrances - one from the cap point for the defending team, one for the attacking team and to keep defenders from becoming entrenched, a teleportation room for the attacking team, they can teleport in, build up a force and then attack with ubers etc to clear it out - teleporter is activated via a trigger based upon payload location.
- this should help with the stalemate issue since this was / is the biggest choke hold to conquor.

- have doublechecked all spawn door coding (AGAIN!!) everything seems to be working right.

- fixed the lower tunnel access route - trigger_hurt trigger changed to different logic node so it will work better (the on door doing x function was a bit buggy), the trigger_hurt has the double damage cap activated so it deals more damage the longer you stay in it. I also activated the flag on the hurt so it will kill your buildings i.e. dispensers so you can't sit in the kill zone indefinitely.

- dying in space - you no longer ragdoll and have your bodies falling randomly onto the people below - something that I personally found to be extremely funny, some dude just fallign from the sky from whereever he came from. You will now be teleported and truly die in space!!

- tried to animate the UFO model - it spins when viewing it as a model in hammer but doesn't in game - so I randomly animated it.

New add in:

- spawn room teleportation coding added into the map and this was a bitch to program it correctly (because it has to go both ways for both teams). Here's how it works:
- all triggers are disabled at round start, then as cart progresses, players will be teleported backwards or forwards to the next spawn room automatically based upon the cart loaction keeping you as close to the fighting as possible i.e. you just spawn, point is capped and you're automatically transported to the new room without having to run the entire distance to the combat zone

Other:

- More lighting fixes - 90% of the map is actually lit without lights - which saves on the ent count
- Entity count - have been able to bring the count down because of the above line - count has gone down from1430 to 1175 ish. Make the map much more stable
- More detailing, especially around the new building complex.

This version will most likely be my contest entry unless people find major issues with it.

Enjoy!

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[Kill_the_Bug]

Thanks for the play test the other night - I loved watching ERK fly around the map as a demoman in the low gravity in the demo movie.

Changelog:

- I noticed that hardly anyone used the downstairs tunnels so I removed them. I then replaced them with a much shorter side tunnel to the second cap point as a flanking router beside the main tunnel. This should also solve the problem of having the opposite team getting behind you. Access to this tunnel is controled by cart position at the top of the ramp.
- the teleportation booth at the top of the ramp - I removed the ceiling and the walls + put in a teleporter decal since some of you asked what it was.
- fixed 1 health pack which should have been a ammo pack
- as requested, I have put in some yield signs (with exclamation mark) facing downwards on the bottom of the space sucker so you can judge just how far you can jump up before getting sucked out into space.
- you also die much faster in space now as per your request
- got the animation sequences working on the birds in the greenhouse - you will now see them fly or glide depending on where they are on their paths
- fixed a bug inside blue base that caused the red directional arrows to disable making it harder for red to know where to go < the play test revealed this bug and I never saw it before.
- added in env_light which brightens up the overall map, esp mid section
- got rid of the light poles in the center of the maps and am using your suggestion of placing the lights directly onto the bridge arches at either end - this has also dramatically improved the overall lighting in the maps.
- clipped off that one cliff that you guys commented on

Again thanks for all of the feedback - this is probably my best looking map that I've made so far.

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[Kill_the_Bug]

Here's an update for you - not sure if it qualifies for my contest entry but no matter.

Changelog:

Based on your feedback -

- made the trigger edge that sucks you up into the void more easily seen with ! signs and warning light spinners
- mid section size has been reduced a fair amount and slightly redesigned, new flanking route to the cliff added in and if you fall off the bridge and into the trench you now die in space as well - you're welcome!
- have reworked the spawn rooms and teleportation system, as getting rid of the last two points wasn't an option for me. That being said I can see the battle going this way now:

• he who holds the bridge in the center holds the advantage at the start of ther map, if one team caps, the other is forced to run all the way from the last spawn room, this gives the attackers the advantage of capping the next point IF they get their act together and do it quickly, then upon capping that the attackers spawn moves up, while defenders still have to run it. Upon next cap, attacker spawn again moves up so both teams will now be in a more head to head battle. The defenders will have to really get co-ordinated to make it back to the bridge, if they can do that then they will then have the advantage.
• once a team has the advantage, they will have to attack, attack, attack especially at the start

- I have removed all ambient_generic sounds for the forcefields in the doors, this should solve the sound issues of people's sounds disappearing in game. In bot testing I really didn't miss them that much and I think they are more appropriate to a single player game, not where everything is going boom for everyone
- I have tried to do some more optimization of the map but this one's a bitch to do - the exterior for the most part can't be done - if anyone has suggestions please feel free i.e. hint skip placement, area portals, etc. although I had to remove one set as they were doing something really funky with the lighting (making parts of the map disappear although not leaking)
- solved the issue of the lag at one final cap zone. The entire map was being rendered inside the skybox in mat_wireframe 3 even though you couldn't see it in game. the 3d skybox box was moved above the map far far away and now the error doesn't happen.

My changes:

- prepare to be dazzled beyond belief! I have put in more custom textures really giving it that Sci-Fi look since there are so few moonbase/space textures out there.
- made the trench deadly as well as adding in a new flanking route in center
- redecorated center and cliffs
- optimized level more, especially area_portals opening and closing for some of the doors (the solid texture ones, couldn't do it on the see through ones)

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[Kill_the_Bug]

Special Thanks to Nesman for his suggestion of occluders and hint/skips to optimize map better. Framerates have gone from 65-75 to 150-299 dependeing where you are in the map.

Other than that - enjoy! Enjoy the colours too!

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[Kill_the_Bug]

Changelog:

Nothing visual map is essentiall the same - although this time I think we have a winner < or at least much better in terms of gameplay.

- I fixed the bug that caused you guys to get stuck in that spawn room, when I recoded the entire spawn teleportation system and forgot to disable those two (red/blue) starting spawn rooms. They are now disabled and if for some reason they act up again the triggers are one way to open the doors, something I also missed on the last update.

- removed some props at the last cap areas

- after 4 playtests and seeing that virtually no one took the upstairs flanking routes to the last cap area to put the pressure onto the defending team, I rebuilt the access point so that the attacker who spawn in the top spawn room will run out and see the new tunnel that leads DIRECTLY towards the last cap area. This is probably the best gameplay improvement.

- put in a couple of team specific no builds - inside the control towers, no sentries that can cover all three doors at the same time. In fact you can only build in one spot so attackers will know where to shoot on entry.

- after hearing some comments about the force fields and how they interfered with sight in game for some of you, I removed them and replaced them with custom made signs that warn you about the low gravity sections.

- created a telelporter sign for the teleporter after hearing a couple of comments about "What's this? Oh, a teleporter!"

- nobuilds added in the waterfall areas that allowed teams to hide sentries, spies can still hide there.

- moved two frogs

- put the missing lights back into the center, hence center better lit

- reangled player spawns to face doors better

- find the mouse trap and get a surprise

- removed a couple of solar panels near center to help with the fps

Optimization :

Map still a bitch to optimize - have had to us occluders - some fairly large ones unfortunately because they're expensive but they have done the job.
Also was able to fix a couple of troublesome area_portals that I never liked, the good news is that some areas are better sealed, which is good but the adverse effect seems to be that you can no longer see the green house roof from the center combat zone fro some reason

Other:

I did try the warp tunnel suggestion but ti was just too much! Sorry.

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[Idolon]

You have updated this map three times since the contest deadline passed, while the rules state that you may only update the map twice. In addition, you have failed to notify me of any of the map updates, while the rules state that you must notify me of any map updates in order to ensure that we run the latest version of the map in any map tests.

Why?

 

[Kill_the_Bug]

Sorry, I missed the part about updating you personally or it slipped my mind. Version B3 was to be my official contest entry.

The others B4/B5 were changes based upon feenback in testing + Bug fixes. B5 had a teleportation coding break (that occured because I had to completely reprogram it > based upon player feedback) sending players to the wrong spawn and trapping them completely. This broke the map entirely but was not seen until a multi player test.

I'm not sure B4/B5 should be considered even.

B6 is NOT a contest update and I should have put that in at the start of the update.

Sorry for the confusion and please feel free to disqualify me and / or remove the map from the contest entries, trying to get the logic fixes fixed was my first concern, then with tunnel vision I did the other stuff and forget the updates for the official entry.

Edit: Someone also just reported that B6 is missing some textures - I can't see any missing items although I used compile pal to pack it so I might need to redo and do a version 7 which would again not be considered a contest entry.

 

[Idolon]

You may not upload "non-contest" updates to the site or play them in map tests. Voters will likely not realize if they have a non-contest version and score the map based on it, which is not fair to other participants. If you want to continue updating the map, you can withdraw from the minor contest.

 

[Kill_the_Bug]

I'll withdraw it from the contest. I'm making too many mistakes on it probably due to other stress events that I have going on at home - me in isolation, brother in hospital (non-covid) I'll put a post into the contest voting thread that the map is out of the contest

 

[Kill_the_Bug]

Changelog:

THIS IS NOT A CONTEST ENTRY.

I think I have all the bugs worked out of it

Did some more optimization work.

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[Kill_the_Bug]

Changelog:

This is not a contest entry.

- found the cause (or so I hope) why blue was spawning inthe wrong room part way through the match - lol took me two hours of bot watching
- on attacking team capturing bunker - computer room acces door wii now open with arrows indicating the upper router better - bots actually started using it.
- put a protective cover over 1 ammo/health kit so defenders can't using it buring an attackers push
- rebuilt last attackers spawn so everyone will strt out on the upper level, he last play test revealed that onel 1 person spawned up top when I need the attackers to attack from both the top and the bottom, this should help with that
- no build tunnel exit for 3rd spawn room (both teams) - putting tele ent there proved a littel annoying since it's an upwards ramp exit - you had to jump over the teleport to exit

Now for the FUN stuff:

Based upon your feedback and requests....

- I give you WARP SPEED on the cart < yep you wanted the cart to move faster - it will now move much faster based upon the number of cappers on it. 3x faster if you can get 10 peeps on it.
- I would also like to thank those who noticed that the cart slowed down from some reaon at one point - there indeed was a coding bug in the logic. this got fixed when I did the above.
- Higher concrete blocks in the final cap areas to help protect against snipers - they looked ugly so I got realley create, it cuts down some of the sightlines making it harder to shoot AND looks really cool - scouts and other classes will have a LOT of fun on these. The solution also keeps the map even - no verticle advantage for either team
- The trench is back to a trench, deathpit removed.

Some future version will have a new custom model (if I can fiure out how to get propper working again on my machine).

Unless, something's wrong with the map - nto sure what else needs doing.

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[Kill_the_Bug]

Changelog:

Ambience
- brighter map all around
- new blue texture in blue base- lighter and easier to see blue players
- retextures planter boxes in last point
- fixed an occulur bug that was causing a couple of models to appear/disappear at random

Gameplay
- redid coding for last cap point, cart will now fall into the pit correctly
- the hallway of death - sightlines greatly reduced, more areas for engies to have cover to build, hallway is now more of an escort zone for the cart with the main battle switching to the balcony above to attack/defend the payload
- to facilitate more battle above - new balcony added in last cap pint to get defenders up top
- new dropdown in the u shaped choke to allow attackers to shoot from above and vice versa
- more signs to help you navigate since the forwards and backwards motion was confusing some people.
- fixed team specific door trigger
- faster doors as requested.

overall no a big change just a lot of pain in the ass coding

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[Kill_the_Bug]

Major Stuff

Choke Point in Sector 03
- got rid of glass floor - you can now jump down onto the cart from above if needed
- put in balcony extension in the greenhouse
- removed 1 wall (lrg) put in glass wall - gives attacking engies another defensive/offensive spot to set up
- new logic at the cap point to re-open the starting spawn room and get's it back into play - not only for defense for the attacking team but also gives new access around the choke point at ground level that I added into the map
- these modifications resulted in me having to rip out a LOT of path_track nodes reducing the overall entity count = yahoo map now even more stable

New payload model
- spent some time on this one and I personally think it looks super cool
- also ads in some suspense when it falls into the pit

Minor Stuff
- fixed a door bug (team filter) with a greenhouse door
- tweaked some lighting
- put the gravity back to .3 because .5 didn't effect the players float time long enough to effect how you had to play the game. i.e. curving your direction of movement in space while shooting somewhere else.

Haven't got time to do a bunch of pics - so here's the ones of just the updates



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[Kill_the_Bug]

Changelog - and I think this might be the last one

- Reduced redundant payload logic making it more streamlined
- Ensured that the new coding matched to display the correct speed text on screen
- modified cart speed slightly
- found one missing interior gravity brush inserted replacement
- changed coding on push zones - it was 'onstartcap' etc. have changed it to 'onstartcap team x' this should solved the can't push cart bug that occurred randomly because now both zones are labeled team specific
- modified red and blue textures slightly to make them more appealing
- modified size of payload train(smaller) this should help prevent early misfire at final cap point since the payload is fairly long
- added in two resupply cabinets as requested
- moved the supply cache at cap 3 to inside the room
- marked one way doors with one way texture sign or overlay to help players distinguish between one wat rooms vs two way rooms

- will be adding in new pics shortly

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[Kill_the_Bug]

- removed 1 entity cause a capture delay
- fixed a version 11 bug where the cart would got right through you

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[Kill_the_Bug]

Changelog:

- based on your feedback, I changed a lot of the textures, hope you find these more palatable
- modified gravity, made it a little stronger
- recoded (again) the last greenhouse door and HOPEFULLY the dam thing is fixed
- removed some of the cap point signs
- removed or reduced health/ammo packs

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[Kill_the_Bug]

- reworked the final cap point logic, think I found the cause of the bug at the end - I forgot to kill the train, should workout now without any issues
- did some more texture work
- reworked section 03 cap point to make it larger at your request
- did some more optimization although this map is still a bitch to do

Enjoy!

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