So I decided to finally take the covers off of Odamex CTF the other day. You can download the latest beta
here. 8CTFDUME had the cumulation of about a months worth of modifications to it.
Now for what I've got in the oven. For 8CTFDUMF, I spiffied up Ralphis' map and put in lights like he wanted (even though the light sourcing looks like an AlexMax light source and not a Ralphis one, so I'll have to ask Ralphis' opinion on that). I then took a long look at my CTF maps (MAP01, MAP02, MAP03 and MAP05) and decided to simplify each of them, because I felt too many of them were being encumbered by the tons of switches I had put in there for gimmick features that in retrospect were kind of a bad idea in the first place.
MAP02 has been changed around AGAIN. This time, I put the switch to lower the rockets in front of the lift itself. I might put it back where it used to be in older betas, but they're kind of out of the way already, I want them to be used, but out of the way enough to not be abused and not be picked up if you're in a hurry, which happens often on this map. I also changed around the 'behind the weapon' teleport on each side, now the hallway is deeper and enterable from two sides. I also made an identical 'behind the weapon' corridor on the opposite side near the flag, minus the teleporter, but I have no idea what I want to put in there. Not armor, I don't want defenders getting cozy. Not health, I already have the health in an easily accessable yet really vulnerable position already. Maybe ammo, but I dunno, your mortality is so guarenteed on this level that it might not be worth going in for. Blur sphere maybe, to spice things up, I mean seriously, when was the last time you saw a blur sphere in a map?
MAP03's gimmick that I introduced in recent betas kind of bugged me, because if you got trapped in the blood pit, your only recourse was to teleport out. I remember in earlier betas where the middle would become a chokepoint and battleground, and while I didn't like how people blazed through in the origional version, the redo actually made it worse, and I wanted to fix that. So I raised the blood river and the wooden passage to the north to be 8 below the rock formation so it's now a three way intersection again. The only difference is that it's now possible to spam the shit out of that corridor because the staircase that was in earlier betas was replaced with gradually increasing rock steps, which aren't as restrictive in terms of spammage. However, the wood paneling in the middle is still there, so not only is it not possible to spam from one end of the level, but it also prevents you from just zooming straight through the middle like in earlier betas. Now you HAVE to turn in one direction or the other, which would encourage use of the teleporters, which is what my whole experiment with the middle was about in the first place. Also, I suppose the wood paneling gives you a barrier to juke your way around or have a SSG battle around, more of those situations is always a good thing. The plasma is still down the long dark hall, but it's a damage floor, so you can't camp it, and it's out of your way, and you're also pretty vulnerable to getting your shit ruined by a rocket. Maybe being able to camp the plasma is a good thing though, we'll have to see how it playtests.
The other two remain unchanged. MAP05 in particular is to remain untouched. I had considered putting in a platform in the back that would allow spamming in without allowing access, but I couldn't figure out how to impliment it right and I dropped the idea. I still don't know how I came up with such a cool map design, espcially one with so much room for depth and strategy.
Wow, that turned out longer than I had exprected. You guys probably have no clue what I'm ranting about, so I'll see if I can get some screenshots. I should seriously jot down a few tutorials about good CTF level design, because aside from Toke, who came up with a few brilliant ideas which I wanted to incorperate some of which in my own maps, I really haven't seen anyone consiously trying to bring something new to the table...or they try and their grand map design doesn't work out quite like they expected because they play too much Unreal Tournament or something.
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