I don't know if it whas posted before. Your map shoud have being a CTF-. Great visual map, really great map. But the bots are simply terrible whit the vheic: always stuck here and there
Hey, I can hopefully clear up some stuff on these topics
. I should start by pointing out that the map was designed as a VCTF map from the very beginning, and is a pure-blooded VCTF map through-and-through. It was not built or designed for any other gametype. We gave the map design a lot of thought and planning, and there are several reasons why we chose VCTF:
Firstly, VCTF is the most popular gametype online that is still open to custom maps (Warfare gamers, for example, seem to prefer their stock stuff... such a shame, really) and we definitely wanted our map to be enjoyed as large a number of people as possible.
Secondly, neither Andrew nor I play DM or CTF online, and Andrew doesn't play Warfare either (he's a very busy guy afterall
). As a general rule of thumb, I don't design maps for gametypes I don't play. That's just ludicrous when you think about it really. I mean, can you image a novel written by an author that doesn't read novels?
Even writing for a genre you've never read doesn't make sense as you're basically just taking a shot in the dark or "best guess" about what readers of that genre like
.
Similarly, I have no idea what CTF players like or dislike (I dislike all of CTF myself, actually... way too close to DM for me, mostly reliant on your aiming skills, not much strategy involved IMO (heh, watch me get berated by CTF players for that)). But when you look at it, tons of stuff will break with Hanging Gardens in CTF. Breaking glass to thow off pursuers is now no big deal because enemy players will just translocate back up. Energy bridges will have no real purpose because players can just translocate over them. Strong powerups will be very accessible now because players will translocate up there no problem. Flag carriers will find it nearly impossible to get away because enemies will translocate to catch up (i.e. getting from a spawn point to the enemy flag room will take all of 8 seconds by translocating, whereas flag carriers have to walk the whole way, and can't even use a hoverboard to speed them up when they're in cover).
Now, VCTF, on the other hand, is a gametype I play all the time (pretty much every night for the past 8 months or so since I switched over from Warfare
). The smaller size for Hanging Gardens (as I said, it's only slightly larger than VCTF-Kargo) besides working with pureLIGHT better, is due to the clear shift in popularity of VCTF online to smaller, more compact maps. If you look at the most popular custom VCTF maps online, the maps you see are VCTF-AnarchyHalls, VCTF-FeelGoodInc, VCTF-Shoebox, etc. All are small compact maps. Even my old VCTF-TrainCrossing (which is about the same size as VCTF-Suspense) is losing out to these smaller compact maps
. HangingGardens is still larger than all the maps I just listed. By the new shift in VCTF map size standards, it's probably soon going to be called an "average" sized VCTF map (what an unreal world we live in
). There's plenty of reasons for the shift I'm sure. Smaller maps are quicker to learn, faster to download, generally perform better, and work well with servers that have few players (play better with Greed too). "More approachable" might be part of the reason too. The people know what they want...
I've been fortunate to play it online quite a few times now, and the feedback in-game has been very positive. Players comment on the good action, performance, and visuals, and how it's something different that breaks away from the norm, the unwritten "rules" (breaking away from the norm was one of our primary goals
). There were a few comments about the need for more Avrils, though, something else to look at for version 1.2). I'd love to play all you guys online sometime and give you the grand tour! I'm usually on dFb and Hedsteem in the evenings! See you guys there!
Regarding the bots, yeah, I've seen them sometimes get caught on geometry with scorpions, but that's hardly surprising behavior coming from them
. I think you'll find the bots are much the same way in Kargo (they don't really use the jump-ramps either) but with the map being about 50% foot/hoverboard based anyways, it's not exactly a show-stopping issue
. Attempting to improve vehicle handling is another goal for version 1.2, but there's not much more we can do other than manually block the path nodes for vehicles in these high-trouble areas (in which case, they might start abandoning them in the middle of the roads instead... a slight improvement I guess
).
Oh yes, high-resolution screenshots are a good idea too
. We didn't have any in our initial post in accordance with server rules prohibiting forcing massive downloads on people with slower internet connections (or possibly using mobile devices), but it should be fine if we post the images on a separate site and just link to them. Perhaps they'll be hi resolution shots on the pureLIGHT site soon. Keep an eye out for 'em!
