koth_roundhouse

    Hey guys,

    Some of you have seen me working on this off and on for a while, and I've finally gotten off my ass and put together the first playable alpha: http://www.button-masher.net/download/level…undhouse_a1.zip

    I'm hoping to get some games together this weekend, but feel free to also play it on your own - just send me any notes you have! Also, if anyone wants to host a game, let me know - I know we have a CS:GO server, but I can't remember if anyone runs a TF2 one as well.

    Here's what the current build looks like:

    Roundhouse is a bit of an interesting beast, and admittedly more of a technical geometry experiment than anything else (though I certainly intend for it to play well). The entire level is created out of axially-constructed instances that have been chopped (yes, the dreaded carve tool, put to good use!) along the edges. This allows me to build a nice, clean, on-the-grid level while still having a clean "curve" with no floating point errors. Here's how it works:

    Admittedly, the level is more detailed than it should be for being only just playable now, but part of the trial-and-error process of getting these instanced wedges to work properly required taking things a bit further to get a sense of how

    It is also a very flat layout, mostly by nature of it being a roundhouse (sorry, JeanPaul! you'll like my next one if I get around to it), but I've been working on getting some elevation into the interiors and spawn areas so it's not too flat.

    Some known issues right now:

    • The back door clips up through the roof. I'm an idiot and forgot I copied a non-animated door for that one. Oops.
    • The area behind the short side of the roundhouse is too empty, and that dump truck won't cut it. I'm playing around with a few options for more structure, but I'll have to be careful around the secondary spawn exit.
    • For some strange reason, you can build on part of the low roof, but not all of it. Some segments work, and some don't. Probably some weirdness with the rotated slope vs. the collision check in the engineer placement code. One possible option is adding some little flat ledges a la the little planks that roofers put out, and limiting roof-building to those locations. Another is not letting engineers jump up there.
    • There's some ugly displacement blends on the ground. The gravel/concrete blend is incredible valuable for hiding the texture seams and repetition rotated around the center of the layout, but I've taken it as far as the proof of concept and no further.
    • I'm not happy with the big stairwell extending out behind the back entrance. Feels like it takes up too much X/Y space and makes an awkward extension from the building. If you have any ideas how to streamline this, let me know!

    Enjoy! I'm looking forward to finishing this one off.

    Edit: I should also add that I picked up this technique during my time at Gearbox from the illustrious Joe Swinbank - after making some neat circular stuff in UE3, I decided it'd be fun to see if the same concept worked in Source. It does!

    I tested it this aftenoon and I really like it really cool and original idea. My big concern right now is about "maybe" (because we need test to says that first) the lack of cover in the middle and all those windows on both side for snipers.

    Also you should clip all those tracks because they make my head bumping

    Does the central point will rotate ?

    For test, tf2maps.net have good ones even if a few members are real troll and will bash you for doing something original. A lot of people here gave me good feedbacks during koth_lakeside playtest

    Got my friends in the Studio Rumble to hook it up, tf2.studiorumble.com / 173.234.253.21:28015 - I'm jumping on now, if anyone wants to join.

    Edit: Done for now, thanks to the guys who joined. I'll do a less impromptu session later.

    Can't comment on the gameplay yet, but one thing I do notice in the screens is that the shots could use some skybox love, and I also agree with the idea of making a circular pit around the wheel device.

    Nice! Love the originality and the rounded brushwork. Gameplay permitting, underground path FTW! It is rare to see such curvature in source, so it would be good to see the shapes pushed even more.

    And thanks for the tutorial. I was wondering how that was done.

    3Dnj: Those rails have annoyed the hell out of me; I had meant to func_illusionary them but those don't work when rotated in instances (they maintain their original rotation). I forgot about the ol' func_brush, though, and I'm going to try that to make them nonsolid. Will check that next compile.

    Ravage, that's an idea I've considered before to get some more elevation. I wasn't sure if I was going to try it or not, but given that I randomly woke up at 4:30 this morning and had some spare time, I decided to take a crack at it. I think it might work! I'll run around it a bit next compile and see if it makes the cut for the next update.

    I'm planning on running another playtest today at 1pm CST (-6 GMT) on the same server before I get too far on the next version. I'll post here as well as Twitter/FBfor those of you who have me there when that gets rolling.

    I fucking love this design.

    in conjunction with what others have said, I can definitely tell (from the screens alone) that mid needs more cover. You could easily slap some trains on those tracks (maybe with some partially in the garage) and youd then have some more height variation which is always welcome.

    I really liked it (even if my ping was a bit awful). A few things tho:

    - Yeah, middle needs some additional cover.

    - The opening with the container door learning towards the street lamp was really irritating navigating through, maybe make it just a tad wider or ditch the street lamp (or whatever it is, metal wire holding pole thingy )

    - We probably weren't enough for it to really start being used, but the sides inside the train depots felt unnecessarily large.

    It's good tho, I really like that the actual CP makes you feel super exposed, yet you still have sort of half protection from the metal structure of the bridge.

    JP: Thanks! Glad to see your love of curves outweighs your distaste of flat levels I tried the train halfway in the garage a while back and deleted it for some reason... I think it's the right call; it'd help the ground cover without having to slap in more of those angled metal plates from Hydro, and might also help engineers on the roof place more valuable turrets to defend the point (I'm also considering popping open one of the upper windows to allow direct roof --> sniper ledge access and vice versa)

    Mazy: Thanks for joining the game! I need to adjust that open container and the pole; that'll be in the next version. I'm also already working on some reductions to the roundhouse interiors, like the big giant 180 staircase near the back entrance. Hopefully some more action will fill in there on the next playtest.

    I'll keep cranking on updates this week; hopefully I can have an update next weekend!

    Another thing you might be able to do to make some of the curves even more rounded is displace the brushes, and move the corners inwards/outwards a unit or two. This could make it harder to see on the roofs for example, where each brush starts, and each brush ends - so that it appears as if it is made from a perfect circle.

Participate now!

Don’t have an account yet? Register yourself now and be a part of our community!

Register Yourself Login