[TF2] ctf_aerospace (beta 4)

Thanks RA7! I got a seal!

Could I ask you a little favor?

Over at the Steam forums a buddy of mine has started a thread asking Valve if we could have one more community map release this year.

If you judge my map worth it, could you drop by the vote page and vote for it?

Here's the vote page link: Community Map Vote

And here's the thread discussion: Community Map push

Thanks a lot!

Edit:

New page and a retrospective of the humble beginings of aerospace!

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I've made a walktrough/tips&tricks PDF document about my map esplaining some of the backstory for it as well as the best strategies players have found. It's very cool check it out!

You can download it here: Aerospace strategy report

I have just released the latest version of my map and I hope you guys like the changes. This time most of the bugs you guys found where fixed and there are also some other improvements. Check the changelog below for a list of changes:

No new pictures as the major changes are to clipping and optimization.

Here's the list:

- Removed the collision for the hangar cables holding the platforms

- Added various pick-ups around the map according to the following list:

---- Large Ammo crate on the raised platform in the cave

---- Medium Ammo and Health pack on the back of each base

---- Small Ammo and Health pack in the middle of the wooden walkway in front of the cave entrance

---- Added a medium ammo pack in front of the tires outside the hangar

---- Upgraded the small ammo pack on top of the hangars to a medium one

- Added playerclips to the edge of the cave pits to prevent "sliding" in the pits of death

- Added playerclips to the crystal areas in the base to prevent getting stuck

- Completely reworked the inside of the hangar so that it's less cluttered and confusing

- Added the waterfall sounds (I removed them by accident)

- Added playerclips to all stairs to prevent bumping

- Added a nobuild area to the waterfall platform

- Raised the stalagmites so you don't bump your head on them

- Made the rocks on top of the blue hangar solid

- Fixed the Red base skywalking

- Tweaked the redbaron model to improve performance

- Fixed the place behind the waterfall where a player could get stuck

- Fixed the place by the trees where a player could get stuck

- Added unbreakable glass to the last window of the side top row on the intel room

- Miscellaneous graphics fixes and improvements

And you can download the map from these two mirrors:

TF2Maps.net Forums - ctf_aerospace_b3

FPSBANANA - ctf_aerospace_b3

Don't forget to check out the walktrough/tips&tricks PDF document about the map, explaining some of the backstory for it as well as the best strategies players have found. It's very cool check it out! You can download it here: Aerospace strategy report

Any suggestions, compliments and criticizm is welcome.

Hey guys, working on the next release and following up on feedback from players. I've run in a few issues.

Any ideas on what can cause the waterfall sound to play in the spawnrooms and other areas, seemingly random? I don't get this problem on local testing, even on a different PC with another steam account. The waterfall are just Ambient_generic placed near where the player would be, and works fine for me

Other than that another fix I'm working on is blocking the front hangar windows with unbreakeable glass as people are complaining about snipers killing people inside their own base from the other side. I may also add doors to the intel tower 2nd and 1st floor, not too sure about that though...

As far as optmization goes, I'm tweaking my models and reducing most about 10-20% on polycount. Setting some new areaportals as well.

Feedback is much appreciated guys, I'm aiming for the next release to be close to final

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Time for an update!

Beta 4 is out! get it here:

http://%7boption%7d

http://%7boption%7d

And here's the list of changes:

- Added a small building to the side of each hangar with ammo and health.

- Closed off the path closest to the cliffside by the hangar yard forcing enemies to come by the front of it.

- Created a small alcove for engineers in front of the Hangar with a Full ammo pack and cover to set up sentries outside.

- Added a large ramp in front of the hangars to create more varied height gameplay in that area and provide more options for entering the hangar.

- Added a narrow ramp from the lowest bridge across the chasm to it's roof so players have the option of going up the three paths there as well as going down.

- Added cover behind the billboards atop the shacks.

- Added a set of wood planks to the walkways across the chasm to help players manevour without jumping and falling down.

- Added a small healthkit to the top of the main hangar to help the flying demoman for the great damage they take upon landing.

- Added a set of props to the side of the spawn exit so that enemies will be less hidden when spawncamping.

- Moved the planes inside the hangar so that there is more space for engies to place their teleport entrances hidden from enemies.

- Bug fix: Neither the intel or Stickybombs will be able to hide behind the cliff rocks. The bombs will bounce off and stick to the ground until I find a better fix.

- Bug fix: Players no more die instantly after falling down from the bridge in the chasm. It's still a deathpit, but there is a chance for a lucky double or rocket-jump.

- Minor improvements to graphics all around and minor optmization.

Take a look and tell me what you guys think!

Thanks so much guys! But something new came about and I have some interesting news to share.

I have been contacted by certain figures and there is a real possibility of the map being released in an official patch in the future.

Problem is, the map is flawed in it's current form in a way that I cannot fix unless making significant changes to the basic level geometry. These changes are so drastic that I need to start over from scratch.

Good news is I have the energy to make it and now also have the knowledge to do it. So I ask you to list the features that you like most about the map so that I can keep is as close as possible to the current layout and fit into the technical specs from Valve.

From my own experience I love the way the intel room works. The many ways you can get inside and many paths you can take to leave with the intel make this one of my most liked parts of the map.

The newer version also saw some very good improvements to the area just outside the Hangar. The places to build Sentries and paths spies and pyros can take to ambush the defenders works really well.

The area that's going to suffer the biggest changes is the middle area and the cave area. The middle area with the bridge will have to be severly changed and it's unlikely people on one hangar will be able to snipe people on the other side. This is a technical limitation that right now makes the map very unefficient about filtering what the server and clients see at any given time.

So that's it, help me with comments on what you like about the map with broad strokes so that I can capture the same gameplay with the next version.

They were not very specific, and starting over from zero is more something I thought of and would be easier to fix the issues for good instead of trying to hack something on the map and making more issues arise.

Here's a slightly changed part of the response I got. They never said that the map was going to be released, but rather that it wasn't going to be release in it's current state.

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We've been playing aerospace a bit lately, in our recent testing of a variety of TF2 maps, and having a bunch of fun with it. We'll grab the latest version before we play again. One piece of advice we'd have for your future maps is to break up your spaces a little more so that your PVS is more distributed: Aerospace is almost one big PVS, which makes its performance pretty hefty, both in terms of rendering & networking.

Hey man, yeah I'm still around, but work onb aerospace has stalled for a couple months now.

I'm at a point where I need to dedicate a couple of weeks to wrap the map around and get it in a releaseable (sp?) shape. It's already a great piece for my portfolio. I plan to have it finished by the end of this year the most. The map has gone a few internal playtests with a brazillian community, it's easier for me to test it with a low Ping setting.

I really need to finish it indeed