Ball_Tbd_Castle

[Oyster]

Ball_TbdCastle


(Newest Version uploaded) 4/21/15; 2:42 AM

4/25/15; 2:08PM: Now playable on 420's Half Baked and Tadow! servers.

4/22/15; 3:30PM: After much testing with full teams, games seem to last anywhere from 20 minutes to an hour. It probably could be done muCH faster, but it really depends on how well your team coordinates. Trying to get bots, pub randos and campers all focused on the same task is like herding cats.

4/21/15; 2:42 AM: Changed many turrets to make their range cover more area or to have more health. It should be noticeably tougher now to reach the goals; Reworked the turrets in the bookshelf room to remove a slight team imbalance; Replaced the bases with big turrets that have the same hp as a base; Surrounded the center powerup spawns with neutral turrets to help deter bots from creating a 'ball lost' scenario; Fixed a few extremely minor graphical errors.

4/4/15; 7:04PM: Fixed a few turret placements for blue team; Patched some graphical errors; Added color-specific sprites and textures for each team.

__________________________________________________ __________________________________________________ __________________________________________________ ______________________________

Okay, I have a playable version now.
I ran through it like a coop map without scoring goals or smashing bases and it took about 5 mins by myself in bomber to reach the other goal. Probably could do it faster, but I kept dying. Once you cross into dangerous territory, it becomes very hard to just fly through and avoid getting hit. You will have to clear out turrets as you go or be an amazing flyer. The middle of the map is all neutral turrets. As soon as you cross into the grass, you start taking pretty heavy fire. Have to be nimble. It's a pretty fun area and I'm eager to fight some humans here. It will be like a sumo match until the turrets are cleared.

The chambers connecting the throne rooms that aren't blocked by a base are protected by three special turrets that shoot faster and do more damage and have a little more health. This is to properly give incentive to break the outlying TBD base. The special turrets can be taken down safely from a distance, but it requires you to camp out in the room before the hall which is kind of dangerous and flankable. The throne room has a large turret on the back wall that shoots slower but does much more damage, two mini-gun turrets guarding the goal that shoot twice as fast but do less damage and many other regular turrets on the walls. If you are enemy in this room, you are taking fire from many angles.

Bots navigate the castle pretty well... unfortunately if they pick up the ball and the goal hasn't been cleared yet, they just float around uselessly. Same thing with the bomb. But the problem with the bots is going to be more of them not knowing how to handle the turrets. They always just pretend like there are no turrets and get mercilessly mowed down.


http://s000.tinyupload.com/download....41818096792539 The map is ****ing huge yet only weighs in at a laughably petite 79 KB (most maps are around the 1,000+ KB range)
I've combined ball, tbd and coop.

[OLDER OP]
Alright, so I'm trying to jumpstart a new movement for the hybrid mode ball_tbd. If you've never played it before, its basically a ball game with TBD bases blocking the goals and key areas of movement. Until these bases are smashed, the game acts like a TBD. Once the barriers are removed, it becomes a frantic race to score goals or play keepaway with the ball to buy time for your bomb runners.

Right now, there are only two maps of this kind that I'm aware of. With Ball_Tbd_Castle, I will increase the map pool for this blossoming genre by 50%!



Here is my blueprint, sketched in paint. The solid squares are turrets (grey = neutral), crimson lines are bases, the ball and bomb both spawn in the middle of the map. A team bomb will spawn in front of the flyers, as will the ball after a goal. teal circles are powerups

Not sure how long games will take on this map, but it should be fun!

[Kafka]

Awesome! I'll let Jazz know you're working on this.

ball_tbd (formerly ball_trial) is quickly becoming a favorite amongst Dojo players

[Brutal]

Sounds like it could be fun. Let me know if you need some help with it!

[Oyster]

ok, put in some hours and got the walls up. Flying around in the castle in test mode, my initial reaction is "my god, what have I done"

no doubt, this map is going to be EPIC


Here is what I have so far. Next move is to fill in the walls and add backgrounds!

[Mango777]

Bots are going to get SLAUGHTERED. You know how bots still refuse to cross paths with even though a turret in the way is destroyed? Well same thing with bases. On behalf of the bots, a minority in most serious ball servers, please make the thing bot navigable? Please?
N i c e c o n c e p t , I l i k e i t : D
If you can't, oh well, poor bots.

[Oyster]

Alright, made some gains tonight. Filled in the walls, populated the rooms and dug up some old textures for the backgrounds.


Game layer


Background layer

For some reason, it is not letting me take a collapsed screenshot, so I'm relying on manual screenshots.
Surprisingly enough, bots dont do too bad navigating the castle.
This map is nearly ready to play. Two more phases remain: Turret placement and beautification

[Mango777]

It looks nice, keep up the work Oyster! By the way, where did you dig those textures from?

[Oyster]

opengameart.org has a lot of cool stuff, textures and art, or just go to google images and search "seamless ___ texture".

After that, I usually hit everything with photoshop or paint.net so it is sized correctly and has close to the same palette

[Mango777]

Judging by the new compressed screenshot(?) thing, it looks pretty decent/fun. It would be interesting to see new players try this though, I can imagine them getting super confused and quitting XD

[Oyster]

updated with prettier team-color graphics and many turret repositionings

[Mango777]

How will you test this in multiplayer? As much as I think most new maps are worth testing in multiplayer, there is no map testing servers at the moment.

The first thing I noticed, when I tested the map with bots, was how easy it was to get disoriented and lost in the castle XD
I guess this could be solved by making the map smaller, but my suggestion is to put little map posters in some rooms, showing the room where you are in and the rest of the map.

[sloppy seconds]

I have put this map up on Half-Baked server, so jump in and give it a crack.

[Oyster]

Originally Posted by sloppy seconds

I have put this map up on Half-Baked server, so jump in and give it a crack.

Thanks man!

I was on earlier today and got a chance to test it out with 5 other ppl. There seems to be a problem with bots or new players grabbing the ball before the bases are destroyed and dying to turrets, resulting in many annoying 'ball lost'. There were a few times I was about to bomb a base, but got reset right before I could drop the bomb.

Kafka suggested I could enclose the ball with tbd bases, which would stall the problem until the game has progressed far enough along to where turrets aren't a major problem anymore. I like this idea, but I'll have to ponder the issue more when I get out of work to see how I can work it into the map.

All that said, I still had a blast flying around today. I can only imagine the fun times to be had when a full cast of people are in the server.

[leggomyeggo]

Originally Posted by sloppy seconds

I have put this map up on Half-Baked server, so jump in and give it a crack.

yo your username is baller. g watsky for life

[Mango777]

Originally Posted by sloppy seconds

I have put this map up on Half-Baked server, so jump in and give it a crack.

I haven't tried this on a server before, let me see how it fares.

EDIT: I'm back after 30 minutes of playing it with some people, the chat filled up with the usual "is this real" and "this sucks/is too big", but my piece of feedback is just to make the bomb spawns faster and more abundant, since with 8 people the game is still very slow. very.

[Oyster]

Well, it seems there is a desynch glitch with the bases for players who join the game after a base has been destroyed. For these new joiners, the bases respawn and retain their collision outlines, yet the respawned bases take no damage from bombs. This ultimately makes it impossible for the newcomers to score the ball if the base goals have already been destroyed before they arrive. For those who have been in the game from the start, there is no glitch and they can fly or shoot the ball through the space without any problems.

To fix this issue, I will replace the bases with huge, backwards-facing turrets with very high HP. I'll still keep the bombs in place because hey why not. I'll try to update the map sometime later tonight. Shoutout to Mango and NinjaGrasshopper for helping me test the glitch.

One final thing I wanted to mention: The map's file size is so small that there literally is no loading screen whenever the game switches Makes me smile.

[Mango777]

I suggest the backwardfacing turrets have a health of 4800 health, that is approximately the amount of health a base has.

[Oyster]

alright, I've updated the map and the download link/picture. Details of the changes are in the op

[Fartface]

Having played this map for somewhere between 2 and 4 hours, I feel qualified to give a full review:

This is a very enjoyable map. What Oyster has done here is nothing short of revolution -- the invention of an entirely new game mode. Yes, the matches are long, but as the Bible tells us, good things will come to those who are "patient in tribulation [and] constant in prayer." (Romans 12:12)

Things that most players agreed would improve the map:
1) make the green turrets into team turrets or get rid of them
2) host it on a server that isn't in the Outback
3) get karlam to fix that bug where bases are resurrected

Players you may want on your team when playing this map:
1) oyster
2) jonus
3) brandon
4) tech
5) leggo (if he doesn't get disconnected or attend class)

Players you may not want on your team when playing this map:
1) clam

Things to do before playing this map:
1) tell your friends you can't make it to dinner tonight

Things to do while playing this map:
1) tell your friends you can't make it to dinner tomorrow

All in all, Oyster has yet to disappoint in either substance or style. This map gets a 9/10. Will play again

[Clam]

WHAT I HAVENT EVEN PLAYED IT YET

sigh caps

[sloppy seconds]

Originally Posted by Fartface

2) host it on a server that isn't in the Outback

Love it =) Actually, the server in the Outback (San Francisco) was an attempt at normalising average pings and having a place where EU, US and Pacific zones can play together. But this may have just ended up increasing client-to-client latency overall. It certainly hasn't done anything to stem the flow of whinging!

At some point I will be firing up a server nearer to east coast US, or possibly Germany. Not that we need more bloody servers.... Except that mine will have some special treats I've been working on. And I'll happily host Oyster's stuff there.

Meanwhile, hopefully someone else picks up the map and hosts it nearer to your perceived idea of civilisation than the empty wasteland of the west coast USA.

[Kafka]

Sloppy --

Thanks for hosting half-baked. It's the only server I know with some really unique Altitude maps. If you're looking for some other old school and out of the ordinary maps, this page has links to dozens of rare maps

[sloppy seconds]

Oh cool thanks for that. I wouldn't mind picking through that list. It's about time to cycle some maps through the server.

[Oyster]

Just a friendly reminder, slop - most of my maps on your server are outdated versions

[CmdrNoval]

Originally Posted by Kafka

Sloppy --

Thanks for hosting half-baked. It's the only server I know with some really unique Altitude maps.

Half-Baked has revived the tradition of hosting the rarely found maps and unique user-created pieces... To honor that further, and in the spirit of Tadow!, we are making some changes to our server. Starting today, we began hosting unique & rare maps. Also, the server will no longer be dedicated to ball mode. FFA, TBD, TDM, Co-op hosting is also in the works.

Originally Posted by Kafka

If you're looking for some other old school and out of the ordinary maps, this page has links to dozens of rare maps

49 maps from this site were uploaded to the Tadow! server and are undergoing testing. Kafka has volunteered his time to verify all these maps are in working order.

The search for unique maps continues....

Users: Forward your map requests to me, we will attempt to find them.
Co-op: Eager to add some good co-op maps to a 24-slot server.
Map Makers: Submit your maps to me when ready for mass testing. Since the official Map Test Server no longer exists, we will host your completed maps for testing.

[Oyster]

Originally Posted by CmdrNoval

Half-Baked has revived the tradition of hosting the rarely found maps and unique user-created pieces... To honor that further, and in the spirit of Tadow!, we are making some changes to our server. Starting today, we began hosting unique & rare maps. Also, the server will no longer be dedicated to ball mode. FFA, TBD, TDM, Co-op hosting is also in the works.





49 maps from this site were uploaded to the Tadow! server and are undergoing testing. Kafka has volunteered his time to verify all these maps are in working order.

The search for unique maps continues....

Users: Forward your map requests to me, we will attempt to find them.
Co-op: Eager to add some good co-op maps to a 24-slot server.
Map Makers: Submit your maps to me when ready for mass testing. Since the official Map Test Server no longer exists, we will host your completed maps for testing.

î This feels like Christmas !

[Mango777]

Originally Posted by CmdrNoval

...
Map Makers: Submit your maps to me when ready for mass testing. Since the official Map Test Server no longer exists, we will host your completed maps for testing.

Yay!

[Brutal]

Played ball_tbdcastle for the first time this evening. It's a lot of fun except how long it takes. Well done though

[Woofy]

Love map. Hard to play with high variation in commitment

[Mango777]

I guess ball_tbd_castle is like a coop map. It takes TIME. (and practice)

[CmdrNoval]

-This map is now available for play on the Tadow! server.

Filename: ball_tbdcastle_by_Oyster

Enjoy.

[sloppy seconds]

Originally Posted by Oyster

Just a friendly reminder, slop - most of my maps on your server are outdated versions

If you want to keep them up to date, you may need to be proactive and send them to me. =) As you can see, I'm not a particularly active forum member, and I won't go hunting around to see if you've changed stuff.

[sloppy seconds]

Originally Posted by CmdrNoval

Half-Baked has revived the tradition of hosting the rarely found maps and unique user-created pieces... To honor that further, and in the spirit of Tadow!, we are making some changes to our server.

That was indeed the philosophy. Good on you for getting amongst. =)

[Mango777]

Sloppy seconds, while you are here, I would like to tell you that the last time I checked, your dodgeball map on Half-Baked seems to be broken. Did you implement the server scripts for it yet?

[sloppy seconds]

Originally Posted by Mango777

Sloppy seconds, while you are here, I would like to tell you that the last time I checked, your dodgeball map on Half-Baked seems to be broken. Did you implement the server scripts for it yet?

Do you mean the Ball Tag map? I have scrapped the 6-ball dodgeball experiment. Ball Tag has been running this week in my test area, but I haven't been monitoring it. I've just made some changes this morning, and will test it if a few people are interested.

[Mango777]

No, I meant the dodgeball map. A few days ago, I went to Half-Baked to look if you threw out my missile dodgeball, and I found your dodgeball map, just sitting there without any scripting and stuff. At least I think so, because the two bots that spawned started gunning each other down.

[sloppy seconds]

Oh yeah, that's my mistake. I stupidly gave my one with the same name so yours was replaced. Have restored yours. Anyway, I will stop hijacking this thread with unrelated banter. =)