KotH Uzaugi A5

[BigfootBeto]

Falls* - Early detailing phase. General map layout complete.

My very first map.

Set at a Waterfall, this map is unique in that the Red and Blu teams decided to build their bases right beside each other. Of course, ignoring the yet-to-be beautiful landscape, and the at the moment deafening waterfalls, one is left with a creative map that still offers balanced gameplay (in theory).

*Needs better name. Falls is just...plain.

Version 0.6 (pre-alpha 6)


=Known Issues=
-The Red side of the rock walls has some clipping issues.
-The flank routes are insanely huge (I know. The Blu side will have a cavern, and Red will have machinery).
-The waterfalls are too loud.
-Where I used area portals on the flank routes, the water has to be cut away, if not a weird "portal becomes water" bug occurs (I have no idea why).
-When returning to the upper spawns, you might be blocked by part of the rock (at the end of the wooden ramp).
-The spawn rooms are horrible and oversized.
-It may be too dark in some places.
-The buildings by the control point are too tall.
-Snipers have too many sight lines from spawn.
-There is supposed to be an announcement for when the cp enables, but it doesn't work for some reason.

[No pics because they are outdated]

=Extra Info=
-Where there are small, dark gray, dev brushes all clustered together will eventually be proper rocks (Displacements).
-Originally, the cavern walls on Blu (including the rock wall in the middle) weren't there. It was just an open area (all the spawn camps), so that's why the tree and displacement may seem off.
-I may add another exit from the spawns underneath that branches off into the flank routes, so that's why there are health kits there to mark where the paths would meet (might be hard to picture).


Congratulations on reading all of that, or congrats on skipping to the bottom
Either way, thanks for taking the time to at least see that the map exists.

 

[DeleteMyAccount]

EDIT: Sorry have just realised you covered a lot of these in your OP but still worth reading.

I'm not a pro mapper so maybe some stuff I'll say is unnecessary/irrelevant, I don't know.

• Not much cover on the point, it can easily be sniped and spammed with rockets from the safety of the roof.
• It's really big, there are loads of rooms that are huge, for example the lower spawn room is massive. There is good height variation but there is just so many rooms and ways you could be attacked from I think there could be some problems. Maybe I'm wrong so get it playtested on an imp or gameday. HUGE sightlines in a lot of places which will make sniper really OP.
• The big flowing corridor at the edge of red and blu bases may be redundant but playtesting may say otherwise.

Some stuff that maybe doesn't matter because it's alpha:

• Lots of the brushes don't marry up
• A lot of the architecture doesn't make sense, there are huge overhanging buildings with no support that wouldn't work and hurts believability. (Unless they are part of rock/cliff but I can't tell yet?). Example of this is the RED/BLU balcony type room that are just above the waterfall.
• Add some visual cue on the top to tell the player that they can't get on the middle roof. You can get up on the team roofs so it is surprising when you try to jump across to the middle roof that is the same height that you hit an invisible wall.
• Obviously problems with the water brushes. I think there is a whole brush of water missing on the red side.
• No visual cue to show the spawns of health/ammo packs.
• Irrelevant fenced off room between the two spawns.
• Don't really know why there is a huge inaccessible room windowed off in the RED corridor at the edge. Maybe this will become clear with more detailing.

Map naming convention would be nice but isn't that important.

I'll edit some more stuff in as I find it. Good job getting a map out there.

 

[BigfootBeto]

Thanks for the feedback! I really appreciate it

Now here is my feedback to your feedback.

1. Not much cover on the point.

I know.​

2. It's really big.

I know.​

3. The big flowing corridor at the edge of red and blu bases may be redundant.

Maybe.​

4. Lots of the brushes don't marry up

Probably.​

5. A lot of the architecture doesn't make sense...Example of this is the RED/BLU balcony type room that are just above the waterfall.

The overhanging roofs and walls are going to be fixed, and the balcony will become an overhanging gazebo ​

6. Add some visual cue on the top to tell the player that they can't get on the middle roof.

I know.​

7. Obviously problems with the water brushes. I think there is a whole brush of water missing on the red side.

I know, and the Red side needs more detailing for the missing water to be understandable.​

8. No visual cue to show the spawns of health/ammo packs.

I know.​

9. Irrelevant fenced off room between the two spawns.

It's decoration/detailing. It was originally unblocked and more developed towards being able to be walked around in, but that was sacrificed for the sake of gameplay. If you want to see what is used to be, then I can probably put version 0.5 (p5).​

10. Don't really know why there is a huge inaccessible room windowed off in the RED corridor at the edge.

Just more decoration to make the corridor the same size as the Blu cave. Will be more detailed eventually.​

 

[zahndah]

if you know these things, you should get around to fixing 'em.

 

[AlexCookie]

Looking better than the most first maps.

 

[Mikroscopic]

The geometry looks very modern-art...ish. Interesting. I will say though, it seems quite large for a koth map. The point is way over on the end of the map, almost like it's more of a special delivery map.

 

[BigfootBeto]

Fixed general issues and added more detail.

==Update Log==

• Fixed various clip brush issues.
• Added slightly more cover over the point.
• Marked the capture zone.
• Faster capture rate (6 seconds)
• Added Nobuild zones on the roofs
• Made some roofs more detailed.
• Added more detail outside of spawns (the rocks).
• Lowered the volume on the small waterfalls.
• Moved the "Stairs" that are behind the buildings beside the point to be against the far walls.
• Added support columns to minimize some sniper sightlines.
• Adjusted the spectator cameras.
• Added some particles to the main waterfall.
• Alligned the temporary ramps better.
• Added more textures.

Next Update is Alpha 1, where the side routes will be properly sized.

Read the rest of this update entry...

 

[DeleteMyAccount]

Personally I still think it's a bit big and also the point is still too open. It's easy for soldier to spam from here and he has height advantage and plenty of cover and there is nothing the capper can do to avoid it. The roofs and rocks are looking good.

 

[Pocket]

Most of your attached screenshots are broken.

 

[BigfootBeto]

The largest change is the removal of the two side routes. There just wasn't a way to make them reasonable routes to take.

==Change Log==

• Removed side routes.
• Resized the rooms that let you get to the balconies overhanging the main waterfall.
• Fixed some clipping issues (I had missed some).
• Waterfalls no longer solid (still not "water" though).
• Marked some of the healthpack spawns with overlays.
• Slightly more cover around control point (This will be a recurring issue).
• Some Optimization.

Read the rest of this update entry...

 

[BigfootBeto]

In this update I mostly fixed the height of the buildings by the control point. Maybe now it won't be so overscaled. Also, I removed sightlines and changed some flank routes.

=Update Log= (Change log?)

• Lowered the buildings by point (Because, "Ugh why is everything overscaled").
• Made the control point accessible from all sides (I also made it easier to jump to the back ledge).
• Changed/removed some flank routes.
• Moved the point slightly closer towards spawns.
• Made the fences at the point taller.
• Added windows in the middle building (removed sniper sightlines from spawn to the point).
• Added some rocks to block sightlines.
• Added walls to the path that led to the roofs.
• Moved the stairs that led to the roofs so that they lined up better with the wall.
• Adjusted the positioning of the particles.
• Lowered the volume of the waterfalls (again).
• Adjusted the side rocks to get on the point.
• Moved stairs in spawn to be more reasonable (temporary).
• Made the overhanging area on Blu look slightly more like a gazebo.
• Fixed clipping issues.

Read the rest of this update entry...

 

[Vel0city]

I want to remind you about two facts about TF2 and water.

1: rocket jumping is somehow accelerated enormously. You'll fly about 2-3x as high/far. It's a Source engine quirk, nothing you can't fix, but with all that water around the map it becomes pretty common to see Soldiers going at mach 3 around the map.
2: there is this thing called the Neon Annihilator. It gives Pyros a guaranteed crit on wet players. Problem is is that TF2 doesn't check if a player is fully submerged in water or not. Even a small puddle is enough to flag a player as "wet" and so a Pyro wielding the Neon Annihilator will crit him/her for 156 damage every single swing, killing 4/9 classes instantly and another 4 with just 2 swings. Since your map is covered in ankle-deep water, Pyros suddenly become very, very, VERY overpowered.

 

[BigfootBeto]

I want to remind you about two facts about TF2 and water.

1: rocket jumping is somehow accelerated enormously. You'll fly about 2-3x as high/far. It's a Source engine quirk, nothing you can't fix, but with all that water around the map it becomes pretty common to see Soldiers going at mach 3 around the map.
2: there is this thing called the Neon Annihilator. It gives Pyros a guaranteed crit on wet players. Problem is is that TF2 doesn't check if a player is fully submerged in water or not. Even a small puddle is enough to flag a player as "wet" and so a Pyro wielding the Neon Annihilator will crit him/her for 156 damage every single swing, killing 4/9 classes instantly and another 4 with just 2 swings. Since your map is covered in ankle-deep water, Pyros suddenly become very, very, VERY overpowered.

I am aware of both of these. I plan on adding grates or rocks to minimize the surface area of water. This is Alpha 2 anyway ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Edit: Added to the known issues section (probably should've done it sooner, but I was tired)

 

[BigfootBeto]

So apparently, water is bad. This version attempts to alleviate the occasional *WHACK* crit again by that pyro.

=Change log=

• Added grates & wooden "bridges" to take players off the water in some places.
• Removed sightlines.
• Adjusted the positioning of some health/ammo packs.
• Rearranged upper spawn area.
• Made ceiling lower in spawn.
• Added more textures
• Added RED and BLU signs over the side buildings.
• Added more rocks.

Read the rest of this update entry...

 

[BigfootBeto]

So this update plans to fix many of the issues of A3. Specifically, the new version is hopefully no longer overscaled. Everything is much lower, and most of the corridors and rooms are smaller. However, the spawnrooms had a massive redesign. They are pretty open and large, but if it becomes an issue, I can fix that as well in the next version.

==Update Log==

• Lowered height of buildings again.
• Redesigned the spawnrooms.
• Added new route to upper spawn area.
• Added more elevated walkways & made some larger.
• Removed the small and topmost spawn exit.
• Reworked the side rooms and overhanging platforms near the control point.
• The empty area in between the spawns has been slightly reworked into a spawn exit route.
• The upper spawn exit area (big door) is lower.
• The "bridge" now resembles more of a bridge.
• Added a train on the bridge (Does not move).
• The cover on the control point now has its "proper" roof that blocks sightlines from the sides.
• Slightly shortened the entire control point area (falls moved back, so the buildings were shortened to accomodate).
• Adjusted existing routes.
• Replaced temporary square rocks with prop rocks at the edge of the falls.
• More displacements made.
• Added "Ressupply" signs outside the lower spawn exits.

Read the rest of this update entry...

 

[BigfootBeto]

This update was primarily to "deboxify" my map. In other words, I started out with a box, then I filled it with stuff. Thus, in this update, I basically remade the entire map, but I did it properly. No more giant box with stuff in it. As a bonus, the map probably runs alot better now (for me it did). Also, there were numerous problems that were fixed.

=Changelog=

• Remade entire map to make it into a proper map with "rooms" (not just a giant box with stuff in it).
• As a result, all hidden textures are now nodraw.
• Compressed the lower spawn area significantly.
• Widened mid (red and blu bases are now physically apart by some distance).
• Compressed mid to encourage going to control point.
• Switched the positioning of the control point and the center tree.
• Closed off bridge to opposite sides with gates to prevent an opening to enemy base (forces players through mid).
• Adjusted spawnrooms to make lower exit more obvious.
• Adjusted the lower right/left spawn exits to immidiately be an exit (not stairs).
• Cut the height of the upper spawn room exit to the upper water deck in half.
• Replaced the trees near the spawn exits with stumps (also added some smaller stumps near the point).
• Adjusted ammopack and healthkit spawns.
• Walktime to control point as stock heavy from back of spawn: ~19 seconds (from ~22-24).

Read the rest of this update entry...

 

[Kreg]

Map looks good, the center point vaguely reminds me of an Endor map in that new star wars battlefront game. I like it.