For HQ, I have the following points setup right now (going from memory):

- The (4) bridges
- The South Forest Bunker (at the T-intersection)
- The (3) bunkers in the Farm area
- The south trench and the east trench in the farm area
- The two radio shacks (the SE one somewhat values infantry)
- The bunker surrounded by dragon's teeth near R2 (might delete this one)

I could also add one up on the Glacier Pass in the westernmost ambush nook (near the North Bridge). And possibly a second one up on Glacier Pass in the middle nook between exits A and B.

I definitely need to adjust where you can spawn during HQ (limiting players to spawning in the middle third of the map). However, I need to rebalance the CNQ spawn points first. The CNQ spawn points are TDM spawn points, so they get used in HQ. Since CNQ has the most spawn points of any gametype, I want to see where they end up before I setup HQ-specific spawn points.

I may also revert the wave time to 30 sec. A lot of players don't understand the ebb and flow of HQ. Plus, I don't think the splash screen messages about the point totals are correct (they don't reflect what is in the config file).

Due to the large size of the map, I've set the initial spawn delay on the HQ radio to 60 seconds. This means that the question mark will appear on the compass for a full minute before the radio actually shows up and can be setup. That gives both teams time to start heading towards the new radio objective. (It was like that last night, but the testers never got past the first radio position without complaining about the size of the map. So we rolled the map into CNQ instead.)

So some of the complaints have to do with unfamiliarity of the map. Others are valid (such as having HQ radios towards the ends of the map rather then the middle). Some issues have to do with how I have the server configured (respawn wave time, point totals, etc).

Other game balance things for HQ:

I'm going to change the GSC file to change how points are awarded to the players. Right now, the default is that every player on the defending team (team in control of a radio) gets 3 points every wave. The attacking team players get 3 points once they destroy the radio.

I'm going to change this to 1 point every wave tick for the defenders and 4 points for the attacking team once they destroy the radio. It doesn't change the outcome of the match (which is based on the # of seconds that you hold the radio) but it will get rid of some of the player score imbalances. Attackers basically get 3 ticks to get to and destroy the radio before their personal scores will start to fall behind the defender scores.

...

Reworked the HQ spawns... there are now only 29 spawns (instead of 280 due to using the CNQ's TDM spawns...). I'll need to add another few HQ/TDM spawns to the pool. None of the HQ spawns are on top of radio locations now. All of the HQ spawns are in the middle half of the map (nothing on the far ends). Most of them are close to jeeps or rocket ammo.

Overall, there are 60 spawns for TDM/BEL (an additional 31 spawns that are not used in HQ). The CNQ spawns are a separate issue and not used in the other gametypes anymore. BEL needs a more widespread set of spawn locations in order to give the allied prey a chance to evade and escape after spawning.

Basically, TDM spawns are used for BEL, CNQ, HQ and TDM gametypes. But I can limit them to a subset of the gametypes (such as making a spawn only work in CNQ or making it only work in BEL and TDM). So out of the 60 TDM spawns (not counting the CNQ-only spawns), 31 are used for BEL+TDM and 29 are use for all three gametypes.

Even as I write this... I just went back and whacked a few of the TDM spawns that aren't used in HQ... (about half a dozen). That should allow for enough spawn variety in TDM/BEL without the lag issues that we were experiencing tonight.

posted by Wuphon's on Friday, March 31, 2006

v070

Removing some of the HQ radio spawns. Mostly the ones on the east and west ends of the map. This will keep the action in the middle of the map for HQ. (It's a marginal HQ map due to the size. Putting radios on the ends made it worse. But then, folks play HQ on maps like Rhine Valley... so I'll leave the gametype in.) I may also turn off any spawn points that are on the ends of the map for HQ. That will push players towards the middle as well.

HQ probably also needs more jeeps and light (fast) tanks rather then heavy / slow tanks.

South Forest area needs more rocks (and more trees... if I can find some).

Not sure if I'll leave the South Forest Bunker location in for CNQ. It's a very short distance from the two bridges, but it's also a logical capture point. I think I'll add some roadside trenches, some dragon's teeth and some hedgehogs to dress up the area.

I need to fix the mortar position on the North Pass. The side walls and foliage are a bit too tall. It's too difficult to see the target areas.

I'm hoping to get the german terrain finalized on Friday or Saturday. Then I can work on models and implementing base assault.

CNQ spawn positions need work. Some are too far from the action.

posted by Wuphon's on Friday, March 31, 2006

More changes coming in v069 (or later)

- The general idea behind anti-tank weapon spawns is that spawnpoints in the main team spawn areas will be on 10 second timers while weapon spots in forward battle areas will only be on 30 second timers. Ammo spawns in the bases will be on 15 sec timers. The faster respawn in the home territory allows spawning players to load up without excessive wait. The slower respawn in forward territory keeps infantry from holing up in a bunker with infinite ammo.

- That design guideline also applies to satchel spawns. Ten seconds on the two spawns in each home area and thirty seconds for forward locations.

- Adding two flamethrower spawns to the middle of the map. I know the young pyros get excited by all the lovely flames. I may add two more flamethrowers elsewhere.

- Experimenting with smoke grenade spawns and binoc spawns. Not even sure if they can be handed out via ammo spawns.

...

More v069 notes

- Cleaning up the treelines. Added the border foliage to make it more obvious where the borders of the map are. All of the short, white, spruce tree borders should be properly placed now.

- Started reworking the interior of the treelines. While I haven't started putting the fake trees back in, I'm starting to make room for them by making the core of the treelines narrower.

- Smoke grenade spawn definitely works. There won't be many of them and they'll be in out of the way places. Now you won't have to suicide to get more smoke grenades if you managed to evade an engagement. Plus, they'll be on a 60 sec respawn timer.

- Added a bit more detail to the V2 launch sites. I'm debating adding a rocket ammo spawn to the North V2 Site, but I'll decide that once I add in the North Road Bunker. Instead, I may put a smoke grenade spawn inside one of the truck beds.

- I'll be adding a foliage noise to the border foliage. If you get within 16u of a treeline wall, you'll make noise. (You almost have to be touching the wall to run afoul of this noisemaker.)

posted by Wuphon's on Thursday, March 30, 2006

Upcoming changes in v068

- Added a few dozen rocks in areas that didn't have rocks before. Cross your fingers and sacrifice a chicken and hope that these rocks don't cause the dreaded "winding vertices" error.

- Turning off CNQ debug. Capture times will now be 30 seconds instead of 8 seconds. I may even bump those capture times to 60 seconds (they go a lot faster if there are multiple players doing the capture). With the 8 second capture time on a 2v2 match, the defenders could not get in front of the advance in time. By the time they'd figure out where Silver and I were, we'd be 3 zones away capturing positions on the other side of the map. There were some very good battles even with 2v2. The big issue was not enough places to hide for infantry on the german side of the map.

- Spawn distance from vehicles or the next objective is an issue in CNQ. There's a trade-off between spawning the player closer to the next CNQ objective versus spawning them back closer to where the tanks are.

- Added a rock wall around the North V2 launch site area. Added in the trucks and barrels. Moved the hedgehogs around and moved the dragon's teeth around. Other than possible issues with trees being in the wrong spot, this area is basically done.

- One lag complaint is when entering the farm area for the first time. Due to the use of models in this area that aren't found elsewhere on the map, players will experience a brief lag while they load models and textures. I'm not sure how to fix this.

- The test server was a big laggy at times tonight. Not sure why and I didn't investigate.

posted by Wuphon's on Thursday, March 30, 2006

Notes for v067 (Wed evening) - This was never posted.

- Added HQ mode, server will now rotate between CNQ/BEL/HQ. Game lengths are all pretty short (<30 minutes). Only CNQ is longer due to being multi-round. The server is testing modifications to the HQ gametype (allowing additional CVars to control respawn wave time, max hold time, etc). Respawn waves are 20 seconds instead of the default 45 seconds, allowing for a more fluid HQ game.

- Compass range is broken in HQ, I'll have to fix that in the server-side mod. It's sticking at 1024u when it needs to be 3000-5000u.

- Points per rank on the test server is set to 5, so you will get arty pretty quick (at 20 points instead of 40 points).

- Added more terrain on the german side. At least you can now get to all 3 bases without needing wings.

- Fixed a lot of odds and ends such as messed up spawn points, broken textures.

- Started adding "fake" trees in the treelines to spice them up. The best example is in the southeast corner of the map, near the southeast bridge's pak45 gun. Here's to hoping that they don't cause a compile error.

posted by Wuphon's on Wednesday, March 29, 2006

Current CNQ locations (v067 and later)

#1 RUSSIAN HQ
#2 RUSSIAN AMMO DUMP
#3 SOUTHEAST RUSSIAN BASE
#4 HILL 17 RADIO SHACK
#5 SOUTHEAST BRIDGE
#6 SOUTH FOREST BUNKER
#7 SOUTH FOREST BRIDGE
#8 FARM RADIO SHACK
#9 HILL 75 BUNKER
#10 NORTH V2 LAUNCH SITE
#11 NORTHWEST GERMAN BASE
#12 WEST V2 LAUNCH SITE
#13 GERMAN AMMO DUMP

...

Note: You may need to bump up your hunkmegs setting in order to play Tuchola Forest.

...

Current Vehicle Balance (Max of 48 entities for each gametype):

18 tanks (6 less for CNQ/CTF/HQ)
7 paks
5 mortars
12 jeeps (2 spawn, 2 at edge bases, 2 forward), 6 more for CNQ/CTF/HQ
6 trucks/HTs (3 trucks, 3 HTs - 1 in spawn, 2 forward)

German Tanks (BAS:9, BEL/TDM:9, CNQ:6, CTF:6, HQ:6)
- German tanks are in the spawn unless noted

(2) JAGD
- BEL/TDM/HQ moves one of these forward
- CNQ/CTF/HQ eliminates one of these tanks from the spawn area

(1) StugIII
- BEL/TDM moves this forward
- CNQ/CTF/HQ eliminates this tank from the spawn area

(3) PzIV
- BEL/TDM/HQ moves two of these forward to the flanks
- CNQ/CTF/HQ eliminates one of these tanks from the spawn area

(3) PzIII
- one at each german base

(6) Horches (jeeps), (9) in CNQ/CTF/HQ
- two in spawn, CNQ/CTF/HQ adds a 3rd
- one forward at West Farm Bunker
- one on north flank at the North Road Bunker
- one at G1
- one at G3
- CNQ/CTF/HQ adds one near the North Farm Bunker
- CNQ/CTF/HQ adds one near the South Bridge

(3) Halftracks
- One near G3
- One near G1
- One near G2

Russian Tanks (BAS:9, BEL/TDM:9, CNQ:6, CTF:6, HQ:6)
- Russian tanks are in the spawn, unless noted

(2) KV1s
- BEL/TDM/HQ moves one of these forward to the north side of the R2 Mortar Bunker
- CNQ/CTF/HQ eliminates one of these tanks from the spawn area

(1) Su152
- stock Russian heavy tank, could be swapped for another KV1
- BEL/TDM moves this tank forward to the NE Farm Bunker
- CNQ/CTF/HQ eliminates this tank

(2) T34_76s
- BEL/TDM/HQ moves one tank forward to the Russian's south flank
- CNQ/CTF/HQ eliminates one of these tanks from the spawn area

(1) Stock T34
- BEL/TDM/HQ moves this tank forward to the Russian's north flank

(3) BT7s
- one at each Russian base

(3) Gazaa trucks (ice cream trucks)
- one in spawn (middle), pointed at R2
- one at R3
- one at R2

(6) Jeeps (9 in CNQ/CTF/HQ)
- 2 in spawn (north and south end), CNQ/CTF/HQ adds another in middle of spawn
- one at R1
- one at Southeast Bridge
- one at South Forest Bunker
- one at Northeast Farm Bunker
- CTF/CNQ/HQ adds one at the South Radio Shack
- CTF/CNQ/HQ adds one near the North Bridge

posted by Wuphon's on Wednesday, March 29, 2006

The map is not ready for public testing yet (in case some are wondering) and is on a password protected test server in Chicago. It's still undergoing extensive internal testing and changes. All MOB members are welcome to test (see the MOB Regs forum for server info) and I have also sent server information to a few friends from past clans or people who are excellent at map design.

...

State of the map (v067):

- CNQ is implemented with 13 capture points and 2 bonus objectives (one at each end). The bonus objectives do not work yet. There are 10 spawn points per objective for each team (240 total TDM spawn points for CNQ). Right now the server is running in debug mode which means 8 sec capture times and no need for multiple players in order to test CNQ.

- TDM/BEL need a few more TDM spawn points (ones not used in CNQ) to spread players across the map into areas that aren't used during CNQ.

- HQ will probably be added to the map tonight along with an HQ server-side mod to change some things that are annoying about stock HQ (such as the long 45sec wave time).

- BAS might get implemented this coming weekend.

- About half of the vehicles are usable. I still need to finish (or obtain) collmap files for the rest of the vehicles.

- Some models are not solid. Again, there are collmap files that I need to create (or obtain) in order to keep players from walking through them.

- The bases are not solid... not sure why, but I'll probably address that later this week.

- AFAIK, there are no broken spawn points. Please post feedback if you find one that results in the player being stuck in terrain / models / walls or one where the player falls to the bottom skybox.

- There are still holes in the terrain. Please only report holes on the east side of the river for the time being. The german side (west half) is still a work-in-progress.

- TDM gamestate is 22500 bytes with a single player.

- The russian side of the map is about 90% done with gross features. There are two bunkers that still need to be detailed (creating the interior) in the russian spawn. Also, the 2nd floor of the barn and the russian spawn house need work. The russian tunnel also needs to be finished.

- The german side of the map is about 60% done with gross features. Numerous things still need to be fixed.

- I'm always on the lookout for reports of rocks / terrain where vehicles can get stuck on non-obvious things. (Mostly where the tank gets stuck in the terrain at an odd angle.) Please give loc info or e-mail me screenshots to scrapyardbob@mobclan.com, make sure that screenshots are taken from an angle that makes it apparent where you are on the map.

...

More notes as I think of them.


- There are sections of the road which are textured in an "odd" texture. These sections of road are broken meshwork that needs to be ripped out and replaced. They have hidden potholes that cause vehicles to go screwy and can allow players to fall through. (I feel like PennDoT in the spring, patching potholes everywhere.)

If you find a section of road that is screwy, but is *not* textured with the marker texture, please report it. That means you've found a road section that I don't know is broken or have forgotten to fix.

- CNQ vehicle placement is pretty final on the Russian side of the map. The german vehicles still need to be moved into their final locations.

- I'm not too worried about obviously broken detail (like a line of fences that have not been connected). What I am interested in hearing about are the little things that may be overlooked. (Such as an alpha blend that doesn't look right from a certain angle or a model that looks funny or small gaps in buildings.) Usually, when I find something that I know I want to fix later, I break it in a big way so that it's glaringly obvious that it's broken.

posted by Wuphon's on Wednesday, March 29, 2006

Getting the following error when the player dies in my map.

Couldn't find weapon ""

******* script runtime error *******
cannot cast undefined to bool: (file 'maps\mp\gametypes\tdm.gsc', line 815)
if (level.teamkill_penalty)

*
called from:
(file 'maps\mp\gametypes\_callbacksetup.gsc', line 65)
[[level.callbackPlayerKilled]](eInflictor, eAttacker, iDamage, sMeansOfDeath, sWeapon, vDir, sHitLoc);

*
called from:
(file 'maps\mp\gametypes\_callbacksetup.gsc', line 63)
CodeCallback_PlayerKilled(eInflictor, eAttacker, iDamage, sMeansOfDeath, sWeapon, vDir, sHitLoc)

*
called from:
(file 'maps\mp\gametypes\_callbacksetup.gsc', line 56)
[[level.callbackPlayerDamage]](eInflictor, eAttacker, iDamage, iDFlags, sMeansOfDeath, sWeapon, vPoint, vDir, sHitLoc);

*
called from:
(file 'maps\mp\gametypes\_callbacksetup.gsc', line 54)
CodeCallback_PlayerDamage(eInflictor, eAttacker, iDamage, iDFlags, sMeansOfDeath, sWeapon, vPoint, vDir, sHitLoc)

*
************************************
********************
ERROR: script runtime error
(see console for details)
********************
----- Server Shutdown -----
==== ShutdownGame ====


posted by Wuphon's on Saturday, March 25, 2006

posted by Wuphon's on Wednesday, March 22, 2006

More screenies. Russian spawn area overview.







posted by Wuphon's on Thursday, March 16, 2006

Old trenches





New style trenches (more like Foy's):



V2 launch site near the German spawn





posted by Wuphon's on Wednesday, March 08, 2006

Tank ambushing from the Glacier Trail area on the map (N flank, Russian side).







Ambush position in Glacier Pass (east of the river):



There's really a tank hidden in the next shot. Good luck spotting it.





Tank hunting in the South Forest







posted by Wuphon's on Wednesday, March 08, 2006

German #2 defensive positions. This shows an open-top defensive position that houses both a pak40 and also has firing slits for infantry.







The nearby mortar position showing the protective walls around the gunner.



posted by Wuphon's on Wednesday, March 08, 2006

Finally came up with a name for the map. It's loosely based on the Soviet offensive in Jan 1945 in the Tuchola Forest area in Poland.

Here's what happens when you have a bad piece of patch mesh. The mesh acts partially transparent and you can fall through it if you walk or drive on the wrong spots.


Two shots showing snow decals applied to the base of the retaining wall.




posted by Wuphon's on Wednesday, March 08, 2006

Examples of the standard wooden bunker designs:















posted by Wuphon's on Monday, March 06, 2006

Two overhead shots. Key thing to know is that north is DOWN and south is UP. So the south forest area is at the top of the map. German side is on the right, russians will spawn on the left.

The first is an earlier version and is what you would see in Gradiant. This was only about 15% complete. The roads and river bed were selected to color them red.



Here's a newer shot with texture colors added to the 2D view. Purple splotches are the tree models. Tan areas with dark brown cores are treelines (unpassable). Large grey squares are the proposed base locations for Base Assault.



posted by Wuphon's on Monday, March 06, 2006

Things are progressing nicely, I'm about 25% done.

The first batch of images are from the northern glacier pass. These five images show the views from infantry and tanks as they move through the pass (and make use of the infantry-only trail). In the very last image, you're looking dead-on at one of the exits from the trail. It's not easy to see, eh? In the last 3 shots, the tank never moves, if you want a better idea of what's going on.











Now for examples of lighting issues (and other problems) with my old method of doing the treelines. This first image illustrates the "gap" issue when I was only using a pair of layers. The foreground (short, snow-covered trees) looks fine as most of the trees are the same height. But the background (tall, snow-covered) trees has large and deep gaps in the graphic. As a result, it looks out of place. The other issue is that the background layer was not shading properly (compare the left vs the right).



Here's another example of lighting issues with the original "tall tree" texture that I was using. It makes it look like the trees are backlit instead of properly shadowing them.



Here's the new, fixed, 3 or 4 layer version. Notice that the treeline on the left is properly shadowed. You can see the 3-layer effect on the right side above the bunker.



Overview shot of the north end of the river. You can see the middle fields on the left, the north bridge in the middle, and the glacier pass on the right.



Close up of the north bridge. This shows what the first layer of treeline looks like as it's being laid down. The inner two layers have not been added and they will make those treelines twice as tall and throw most of the road into shadow.



posted by Wuphon's on Saturday, March 04, 2006

Lots of screenshots from version 11. (I periodically rename my map files. Even though I have a backup system in place that stores the last 10 snapshots, I still prefer to freeze the map about once a day. Plus it makes it easier to go back and see progress or to rescue something from the trash heap.)

The first image is an example of an infantry-only passage. The middle fields area is in the background and the south forest is on the right side. This is an early version which had not yet been populated with trees and rocks.



Middle fields showing the JAGD winter-camo tank.



The pak40 at the east end of the middle fields (german side).



German side of the map. Just one of the generic passages with a road prior to being prettied up. This mainly is to show what a rough-cut of the treelines look like. Although the "tall" tree portion of the treeline is missing.



Another shot of the german side of the map, showing treelines and the road. Of particular interest is that the rock on the right side hides the infantry-only trail.



South forest, west bridge. We're looking northeast towards the middle fields (not visible).



The north bridge out of the south forest (looking west). There are still half a dozen things in this image that need touching up.



The south defensive position in the middle fields.



posted by Wuphon's on Friday, March 03, 2006