DoD: Source update tonight

Actually in the map Jagd there is a very obvious invisible walll blocking a way to the American spawn point.

But is it accompanied by some kind of visual blockade so the player isn't dumbfounded by suddenly being unable to progress, or just a random invisible wall? The first is pretty fine as far as design goes as at least the player understands he's not mean to continue. The second is of course ridiculous and terrible design.

There is no visual blockage.

It gives you a message saying you can't go that way when you run into it and thats about it.

God the filmgrain was annoying.

New maps are sex, don't fancy the gameplay.

Quote from PhilE

There is no visual blockage. It gives you a message saying you can't go that way when you run into it and thats about it.

There are better way's to stop spawn camping, I wish devs would use them.

Quote from Polaris

There are better way's to stop spawn camping, I wish devs would use them.

I think the original DOD had AI controlled machine guns at the spawnpoints

for some maps, so far it's the best solution for spawncamping imho.

Really enjoyed the new maps. Didn't get much of a run on Colmar, but Jagd was good. The spawncamping issues is somewhat unavoidable due to the proximity of objectives to the allied spawn and the layour of the map, but it's a good laugh. Found myself camping near the allied spawn top stop them getting to the bomb we'd put on the half track.

A lot of us here have worked on DoD in one form or another over the years. By the time I joined as a mapper there was already significant debate between among the dev team and LDs about it. Generally map design was the best solution, but not always possible given the intention of the map.

God knows my two maps in DoD "classic" had iffy spawn camp protection. On dod_switch I put colored smoke and gave a warning message to the offending team they were headed into enemy spawn...if they went to far they got insta-killed. not the most elegant solution, but the design of Switch made it hard to fullcap anyway (which made it not a pubber favority) so attackers never really focused much on the spawn camp.

I think the big question is at what point is it fair to start shooting the enemy should you be in their half of the map. A lot of people draw the line at whether the victims are in the "spawn area" or not. but where does the spawn area end and "fair game area" begin? not always clear.

But this is an age old issue that may never get resolved. Even on a really well designed map it may be possible for someone to kill the enemy while they are still in the spawn area. As long as it doesn't dominate the gameplay, I don't think it's a major issue. Part of the responsibility falls on the spawning player to be aware of what combat areas they are walking into just outside the spawn. :roll:

It comes down to the players you play with. As far as I'm concerned, either it's with friends who play the same way I do (respectfully) and then it's fun, or I don't even venture on pubs.

Looks like another free weekend is coming up soon.

Quote from ginger_lord

I wish they'd actually do a code update to the main SDK aswell, its been 13 months without an update to it...

Tell me about it, man. A lot of the major bugs in FF were down to SDK problems, not our own programmers.

Namely: Interpolation problems (sentries would glitch when turning past half way), prediction problems (viewmodel animations would constantly glitch / fail to play), more prediction problems (reload animations would fail to play sounds), even more interpolation & prediction problems (doors freak out at times, lifts are like riding a parkinson's sufferer). We've fixed nearly all of these bugs now, but it has been a total waste of time as they should've never been inherent in the SDK anyway. And yes, before anyone asks, they are all inherent to the SDK, as if you create a new mod and test this stuff, they're all there. Even some of these bugs (such as the rotation glitch) are found in HL2, but some are not. Furthermore, the way the SDK has been handled has been very confusing and poor at times.

Even more annoying is that when the SDK is updated at some point, if valve fix these bugs themselves then we'll have to revert all of our changes and integrate their own. So.. double waste.

ok well the sdk is still broken but now the css config doesnt even LOAD in hammer. And for some reason i can now however use the DOD:S config ... but i dont even own the game.

:roll: