[WIP] rctf_Random_Run_Round_b1

[TheDarkerSideofYourShadow]

The map is Random Capture The Flag. There are 4 possible spawn points for the flag, and both teams are competing to bring it back to their base.

I feel that all 4 flag spawns are complete. I'm really leaning towards redoing the bases, and the center area deffinatly needs to be altered. This map is actually based off of one I did for TFC (the spawn rooms are a copy), and in the map there was also an underground exit out of the spawns/bases to the center, as well as a 3d hologram that showed where the flag was in the map. I need to determine the need for any of those, as well as any changes in lighting or level of detail.

Now, I had posted this at game-edit.org for their weekly playtest, and when the person in charge was testing it out, he ran into an error at point 2 which would actually crash his game, though everywhere else was fine. I would like it if people here would download this map and give it a shot, on a solo server. If anyone else has issues like that, or anything else of such a serious nature, please let me know. There are, of course, other issues, which have begun being posted about at the game-edit.org forums. If you've got anything to add, post them here or there, and I will take care of them. I have already begun working to fix what has been found.


Here's all the links you'll need.
http://game-edit.org/
http://www.game-edit.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=133
(download link is at the top in both cases)

And here is an SS of the point where one he was having issues.

Hopefully I can find out how bad the issue is with that one point, and fix it quickly, so I can push beta2 and start getting some play testing going.

Thank you for your time

 

[Snipergen]

Hmm you need to spice it up a bit. Because this doesn't look very believable yet. How is the gameplay though? Put it on for gameday.

 

[YM]

Looks like you've fallen victim to the subdivide tool.....
http://forums.tf2maps.net/showthread.php?t=798

 

[TheDarkerSideofYourShadow]

Snipergen,
Each flag spawn is modeled after a different map experience, so I'll get a couple more SS's up As far as gameplay, I do not know since the one server I was going to have it tested on had issues running it, and they were in the point from where that picture was taken.

Youme,
I'm old fashioned, and didn't get into displacements for anything but textures until after that area was done. The cliffs are done the old school way, make a block and clip corners. But I agree, I'm betting thats where the issue is, and I was thinking using a displacement instead would probably fix it up.

 

[Snipergen]

Well, post more screens man, we want to comment

 

[kimangroo]

^^

be afraid... be very afraid...

 

[TheDarkerSideofYourShadow]

Here are some SS of the other points, as well as 2 of the 3rd flag area.

 

[phatal]

The last screenshot you will be scaling up the cliff textures right? As is, it is quite repetitive.

 

[TheDarkerSideofYourShadow]

Yeah, the walls there I'm probably going to be redoing anyways, probably with a displacements or something that makes it look like there is more farm up there.

 

[Narkissus]

Also try to scale up the water texture a bit, looks too repetitive right now.

 

[VelvetFistIronGlove]

So, after getting the hang of how this map worked, I really had fun on it. Playing scout mainly, but then switching to soldier after some smart-arse engineer decided to set up a sentry at the crossroads.

I won't comment on the visuals, because everyone else is doing so, but rather on the game issues I had.

First is where the intel is. The message you're using at the moment doesn't (as I expect you know now) show up at all for people with minimal HUD turned on, and is not very noticeable even for those who don't. It would be better if you used the message style that e.g. dom_complex and dom_bootcamp use, or better still if you used voice announcements (and lit up the sign leading to where the flag is). Some creative editing of the announcer sounds should yield usable "Point 1" "Point 2" etc. sounds. You could prefix it with announcer_capture_intel for betterness.

Second, the distance to the points isn't equal in length; points 3 and 4 are far longer than 1, and 2 is easily the shortest. Making those slightly more equal would be better in giving the team that didn't pick up the flag a better chance to recapture it before the scout gets home with it.

Finally, the spawn rooms are annoying; the lowered area in the floor, while it looks neat, makes it awkward to get out the door; also, the stairs up to the capture point are a little too narrow.

Apart from that, I like it. It's fast, and fun. I wouldn't want to play it for very long at a time, as I imagine it'd get quite repetitive, but as a quick filler between epic battle maps (e.g. dustbowl and gravelpit) it'd be good for catching a breath and relaxing.

 

[TheDarkerSideofYourShadow]

Thank you Velvet.

I think I'm going to bench the map for now. It was by first map since steam came out, let alone HL2. But I will one day come back to it, slowly rebuilding things from scratch. Besides that...

I agree, I don't like that the message appears for such a short time. In the TFC version I had custom sounds, and I think those would work here. However, the message I use is a game_text_tf, which it seems is the same as those in complex and bootcamp. I've thought that maybe just retriggering the message, so that it shows up longer, might be a good idea.

Tracking the flag is also currently and issue, and I'll have to try a couple of things with that. Heres what the cross roads looked like in TFC.

I also used a 3D tracking system. The room the flag carrier was in would blink.

I figure that, at least to make the 2nd point a "longer" run, I should just make the pit wide enough that a scout can't jump it. Another thought would be to make it so that the flag reduced movement speed, possibly causing more epic battles, and making class choices like heavy much more viable for the center area. Thoughts on that?

Yes, I know about the spawns. Originally, there was another exit there, which led to an underground tunnel that exited either inside the base or in the center. Basically, it was a way to get around being camped at the center. I kept the spawn design thinking I might do something similar, but since then I've scrapped the bases altogether. Heres what the TFC version looked like, and what I did over this weekend when rebuilding.