Reactor_a3, available for general public testing (gameflow)

(Ifurita) #1

Still a fairly unpolished alpha, but I need to get this out for gameflow testing before I continue with detailing. Overall FPS is pretty high. The screenies below were taken at 800 x 600, r_gamma 2.0, r_intensity 1.5.

There is still a lot of missing and misaligned textures. I will eventually get to those, but need feedback on how the map flows and plays. Cheers. Feedback can be left in the etnation or splashdamage forums.

http://www.pcgamemods.com/8265/

Allied spawn (1 and 1a), Explosives (2), Axis initial spawn (3 and 3a), Truck (4)

Lower floor of allied spawn (1). Allies spawn top and have exit doors or can drop thru floor to lower level

View from the truck (4). Allies have to take explosives from garage (opposite, 2)) to truck

Once fixed and explosives are loaded, the truck bomb rams the main gate

Interior rooms. Both primary routes are downwards sloping ramps (no stairs in this map)

Coolant room is protected by a dynamitable team door on either end. Axis can use it to in and out, Allied have to dyno it.

View from inside the initial axis spawn (3). Control panel gives some protection from panzers getting fired into the spawn. Axis have 4 exits from spawn (side passage (3a), 2 large balcony exits (shown on right) and a ground level team door

Axis side exit (3a)

Hallways from Axis rear spawn

Coolant room, showing 2 vent exits. One vent tunnel leads from the axis spawn, one leads from the forward spawn

View of the 2 coolant tanks and the control panel, which can be satcheled and rebuilt

Cheers

(LaggingTom) #2

Alright! I love this map, I must say, and it flows pretty well… eeeexcceeppppttt! :wink:

The security doors are a bit sided toward allies with the dyno. You may want to make them satchelable and rebuildable by Axis.

The Allies always win the map. Even if they don’t blow it in time, they win. Period. :frowning:

The Allied spawn is easily camped with a few panzers and medics. A couple more crates to hide behind would be a godsend.

Health/Ammo crates? :frowning:

That’s just minor problems, I know, but there were truly no major flaws in this map. I must say, I’m quite impressed. It’s already a favorite of mine.

(Ifurita) #3
  1. The map is supposed to have a strong offensive bias. It’s designed for SW play. Time is king
  2. Great catch - fixed. That’s what I get for using the Vengeance script for a template
  3. Will add more crates. In league play, the number of panzers is limited to 1 per side, I believe. Point is still good though, maybe I’ll make the doors a tad wider, or make them sliding doors
  4. no Health or ammo racks, or CP. Map is too small for them and adding ammo racks just feeds the medic train. nope, you’ll need all classes on this map.

Thanks for taking the time to look through it and the quality comments

(sparky) #4

Good map and I’m sure it will be a favorite to many very quickly. Good luck in this endeavor.
I like that there are a few places to trickjump outside the garrison.
The item that is picked up by allies to place in the truck is probably explosives(I’m assuming), and then the truck is serviced. At this point, the truck moves far too fast. It jolts out unbelievably quickly so that needs to be slowed down a bit. I like that the truck is destroyable.
When the truck runs into the gate, if it were the impact of the truck that opened it, then a dynamite should also be able to open it. If it were because of the explosives in the back of the truck then please create a explosive cinematic for it. Some kind of loud explosion and brilliant visual effect would seem to make sense because the truck is only moving 5 miles an hour when it hits the gate. If this were the case then like I said before, at this slow truck speed–a dynamite should be allowed to open the main-gate also. If you do change your mind and make the gate dynamitable then please also add a trickjump ability to get down there fast enough because axis spawn immeidately above which is difficult to get through.
In one of the test runs I did, I captured the flag(as allie) and axis captured after me. 10 seconds later, I spawned at the flag again. When I played with other people on the server, this was corrected. I am not sure but there might be a bug there because the first time the axis restored their flag, I (as allie) respawned there with their flag still waving in the wind.
After entering the main foyer, there is a split. Either side goes down into a U shape. The boxes and walls that are all around make it impossible for a team to get through. They have the hiding advantage. Even if allies came in as a group of 6 against 3axis on one side and 3 defending the other side; one side can sound the alert for the other side to come and help. The side that was there already has half their body covered by those boxes while the allies are out in the open on that long hallway in the sites of a panzerfaust.
The ventilator system is a good balancer for that but once in, and the alert sounds, it takes too long for the fluid to drain. It takes 30 seconds for the dynamite to blow and another 30 for the resevoir to drain so that’s 60 seconds for axis to difuse, respawn (just a few meters away) and disarm and defend. Either the draining has to be shortened or redlimbotime has to be increased.
When the axis opens these sliding doors, they open far too fast. Please slow them down a bit.
The graphics display of the console controls when destroyed looks a bit cheap still. I know this is still alpha but posting that just in case you were going to leave it like that. The cracked glass looks a bit like pencil marks of jagged edges.
The central duct system that leads to resevoir area is for axis use only. Nice that the axis have another way in but if an axis is using that to get in, it means that the allies have the area too heavily guarded. If he knows that, it means he must have died recently which means they planted. So–allies entered and killed, planted, a few seconds later (maybe 10 on average) axis respawn, they take the central duct which takes them about another 30 seconds to get there, dyno has blown already, when he is spotted he is immediately killed. This central duct system for axis would really probably be better utilized by allies. Allies really need another way in and if you could somehow connect this vent to an allies reachable point then that would be the solution.

(Ifurita) #5

The controls are also satchelable.

Will look into the spawn flag issues. Of course, it there are any good texture artists out there who want to assist with the damaged control panel look, don’t be ashamed of stepping forth and offering your services.

(nUllSkillZ) #6

Has there been a test already?

Unfortunately I’m alone.
So I can not test maps for gameplay/-flow.

But I have just had the idea to make some kind of meeting to test new maps.
Could be done one time a week or month.
And all the new maps that have been released within this time period could be tested by the regulars of this forum for gameplay/-flow.
Source for new maps could be http://www.etmaps.de .

We would only need a server + admin that is willing to help us.

The last post in the following thread is a little bit old.
But we could ask there for support.
http://www.splashdamage.com/index.php?name=pnPHPbb2&file=viewtopic&t=2377&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0

Sorry for hijacking this thread.

(Oxygen - o2) #7

looks very nice :banana:

whats the green glowing stuff?

and if it did glow, that would rock, some dlights would make a nice effect

(ZeAvIs) #8

Great map, I think it has some good potential. But a few things I think might need to be adressed.

  1. When you put the explosives on the truck, it starts really fast then slows to normal speed, also, the truck moves even if you’re not next to it. Not sure if you intended that or not.

  2. There is at least 1 trickjump that would allow you to bypass the whole trcuk scene. On the window on the far side of the map, left side if you’re in the allies spawn, you can trickjump into there from a little hill, then from there go and get the flag. You can also probably stack the other 2 windows.

  3. When the axis are defending the coolant tanks, you can shoot through the grates and all that. I think that should be removed, if would be very easy for axis to camp with a flame thrower or an mg and just shoot right through it.

  4. As for the coolant tanks, maybe either increase the speed that they drain, or make it so it takes more engineer energy to rebuild the control panel. Like as much energy as it takes to build tank/truck barriers in goldrush. That way 1 engi wont be able to rebuild it very fast. Im not sure if that would make the map overly allies balance. I havent had a chance to actually play this with people so it would be easier to test if someone would host.

(FireFly) #9

I’'ve been gone for only 1 month and you allready created a new map :smiley:
nice job Ifurita. Unfortunally I did not yet have a change to play the map online but the screenshots are looking great. specially the last 2 ones…
Can’t wait to play it online: do you happen to know any servers that currently have the map in rotation?

FireFly

(sparky) #10

I will be running this map 11/13/04 in its beta form unless a newer update is put out before that on our server for all to try. If we could get 5on5 or 6on6 that would be a good size for this map to be tested. For all interested please visit WWW.PRIMUS-TEAM.COM for server info.

(Ifurita) #11

I plan to add some cover in those ramped hallways, but the spawn times as is still favor the attacker, or at least continual attacker pressure.

Distance and times (running, no strafe jumping)

Axis

  • spawn to controls (East route) 15 seconds
  • spawn to controls (West route) 12 seconds
  • spawn to controls (Vents) 15 seconds)

Allies

  • flag to controls (East route) 17 seconds
  • flag to controls (West route) 15 seconds
  • flag to controls (Vents) 22 seconds

With the spawn differential of 5 seconds, the attackers might face defenders behind cover, but they should be able to continually push them back and gain control of the coolant room.

(ZeAvIs) #12

i’d be happy to try and get a 5 on 5 or something like that going. Just give me the time and server and im there.

(nUllSkillZ) #13

@sparky:
That’s great.

(thore) #14

@ sparky

hopefully i won’t miss that test :slight_smile:
always gives a better impression than running around alone, looking for mapping mistakes :moo:

@ ifurita

erm, check your pm :wink:

(sparky) #15

We (Primus) have been running the alpha version 5 recently on the server and most bugs have been taken care of but just 2 remain as far as I can tell.

  1. The Truck still starts up far too quickly
  2. The Truck hits the gate slowly and it then explodes with a fury but there is no visual explosion just a little bit of shattered airborn pieces. If the gate is destroyed while the truck is only moving about 5 mph then it should be dynamiteable. If the explosives in the truck is what caused the opening, there should be a bigger explosion.
  3. Another thing, The explosives in the back of the truck is still in tact when the explosives are used to open the gate. It should vanish.
  4. I notice that the truck is destroyable with grenades. This is futile because it takes 5 grenades to kill the truck and there is no way to throw 5 in time for it to stop before hitting the gate. Could you make it die within 3?
  5. Not really a bug but maybe you could just lift the car in the Z-axis a bit because the tires look like it’s running through the floor.
(Thunder) #16

Hey Ifurita,
As Sparky just said, we’ve been running the latest version (I think) of reactor and I just wanted to make a few comments.

First off, just have to say, you did a very good job on designing this map. It is laid out very well, and have great objectives.

  1. Allies spawn point. I played the map as axis and noticed that everytime I died and got back to the coolant tanks, there was most likely an allie either planting or placing a satchel on the controls. A suggestion would be to possibly move the allied spawn point back a bit, or make it take longer to get to the coolant area.

  2. As others have said, it would be great to be able to rebuild the east and west doors leading into the coolant tank room. There is no way that I know of to hold the allies out of the room. Might want to make an option for the axis to be able to defend more easily.

As I said before, great map. It is becoming a favorite for me. Keep up the good work :D.

(Ifurita) #17

I haven’t touched the truck much, except to adjust the path so that it doesn’t submarine thru the ground. Honestly, it will be the last thing I tweak. The intent is to make the truck go from start to stop in X seconds, and that’s about it. It shouldn’t even be damagable by grenades, so I should fix that. In any case, IMO, the speed and animations are aethetic issues and don’t really impact gameplay.

I’m still tweaking game balance and TBH, I think we need to run some scrims on the map. I’ve been in a couple of pub games where the axis held full, but those have been the exception. Options for adjusting balance are:

  • Make doors repairable and satchelable
  • Move allied spawn back, though this would require a bit of adjusting of the map since they are back quite a ways, though I could move their spawn points to the second level
  • Add a sliding door at the first level, leading down to the ramp - this would only add a second or so, but would also help prevent axis from camping a panzer/mg42 at the bottom of a ramp and shooting up allied respawns
  • Changing the drain/refill rates. Currently tanks refill at ~80% of the rate of discharge

Given that the axis can refill the tanks, I don’t want to make it too easy for them to defend.

(sparky) #18

What size teams was your intention for this map? I know that it can be anything we (the public) will play it as, but at this point of your creation–what size team would you like us to play it in order to run more gameflow tests on? This is very important as far as the timing of everything you posted above.

(Ifurita) #19

6 v 6

(Ifurita) #20

Another option, instead of making the dyno doors repairable, it to make the doors more grate-like, so that defenders can shoot thru it and defend the doors. THat might be a better option.