Hydro repurposed as multistage A/D with the worst paths gutted.
This effort tries to simplify Hydro by maintaining the same core gameplay, but dedicating teams to either defense or offense. It also removes the chance of stalemates everyone seems to love so much.
For now, testing is needed to fine tune certain areas to ensure a smooth and fair experience for both teams. If you've got feedback or gameplay demos, feel free to share.
Album: http://imgur.com/a/O651e (spoiler: it's hydro)
Workshop: http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=875788392
TF2Maps: https://tf2maps.net/downloads/hybro.3865/
Hydro repurposed as multistage A/D with the worst paths gutted.
This effort tries to simplify Hydro by maintaining the same core gameplay, but dedicating teams to either defense or offense. It also removes the chance of stalemates everyone seems to love so much.
For now, testing is needed to fine tune certain areas to ensure a smooth and fair experience for both teams. If you've got feedback or gameplay demos, feel free to share.
Album: http://imgur.com/a/O651e (spoiler: it's hydro)
Workshop: http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=875788392
TF2Maps: https://tf2maps.net/downloads/hybro.3865/
Hydro has some of the neatest cap points in the game, but the paths to get there stand only above 2fort in how bad they are, not the mention TC sucks.
This should be interesting.
Hydro has some of the neatest cap points in the game, but the paths to get there stand only above 2fort in how bad they are, not the mention TC sucks.
This should be interesting.
I used to play nothing but gravelpit, hydro, and dustbowl way back in 2007 and 2008. Please dear god PLEASE revive this glorious map! I love the visual style of it, and the general theme. It just needs some more love to be a truly amazing map again.
I used to play nothing but gravelpit, hydro, and dustbowl way back in 2007 and 2008. Please dear god PLEASE revive this glorious map! I love the visual style of it, and the general theme. It just needs some more love to be a truly amazing map again.
Wow, multistage A/D seems like a really cool concept and I've wanted Hydro to be actually good since forever. MEGAthanks for deciding to work on this. If any folks end up playtesting, I'd love to participate.
Wow, multistage A/D seems like a really cool concept and I've wanted Hydro to be actually good since forever. MEGAthanks for deciding to work on this. If any folks end up playtesting, I'd love to participate.
I think that you might want to consider moving the 3rd point back a little bit, it's like 1 jump from blu spawn, and it seems pretty impossible to hold. You could also move the 4th back a little bit as well to compensate, as there is a lot of open space not being used there. I understand that it might be part of the charm of old maps like hydro, but getting rid of some of the useless space, hiding spots and props that you can place stickies in might help out if you have a competitive focus for this. It's all up to you though, just suggestions. It seems that this porting between gamemodes has turned out pretty smooth, which is really impressive to me. I love hydro, and I think this is an interesting approach that has a chance of bringing back even the smallest bit of relevance for it. Do you have any ideas for moving forward with this project?
I think that you might want to consider moving the 3rd point back a little bit, it's like 1 jump from blu spawn, and it seems pretty impossible to hold. You could also move the 4th back a little bit as well to compensate, as there is a lot of open space not being used there. I understand that it might be part of the charm of old maps like hydro, but getting rid of some of the [url=http://imgur.com/Huln1bu/]useless space[/url], [url=http://imgur.com/VhzgEwk]hiding spots[/url] and [url=http://imgur.com/k0ew1FP/]props[/url] that you can place stickies in might help out if you have a competitive focus for this. It's all up to you though, just suggestions. It seems that this porting between gamemodes has turned out pretty smooth, which is really impressive to me. I love hydro, and I think this is an interesting approach that has a chance of bringing back even the smallest bit of relevance for it. Do you have any ideas for moving forward with this project?
Luckily, the gameplay between linear A/D and TC are very similar. If you took TC, locked one point, and made the attacking team spawn faster, you'd essentially have 1CP A/D. Hydro is huge, making most other gamemodes impractical with how spread out everything would be. Breaking it up into stages solves that problem and allows me to retain every single point. From there, it was just a graph theory and logistics problem of what points could be concatenated well, which paths were preferred, and which paths needed to be avoided. I can walk you through that if you really want to know how I solved it.
I'd love to go for a competitive focus, but what exactly makes a good linear A/D map hasn't been determined. As doubtful as it is, it'd be great if this map held the answer to that. At the very least I'm aiming for a pub map featuring what folks like about Dustbowl, but overall be better for everyone.
As for future plans, that awkward first point in stage two is going to get attention. Plan for that is to carve out a new area adjacent to the cave and sewer segment to be its new home, as well as give attackers a better hold in sewer. Attacking the second point in stage two is hard enough, so I'm against pushing it back for now.
I'm keeping an eye on the garage due to the height advantage it gives defenders. If it does become a problem, and unless I get any better ideas, the plan for that is to raise the entirety of Blu base out of the underground so it's more level with the garage.
The entirety of the last stage needs attention as well to ensure good balance. Options for attacking the first point might be too limited. Final has a reputation for being an incredibly difficult point to cap against a good defense. Once I get good play data for these to analyze, I'll be figuring out ways to address them.
Luckily, the gameplay between linear A/D and TC are very similar. If you took TC, locked one point, and made the attacking team spawn faster, you'd essentially have 1CP A/D. Hydro is huge, making most other gamemodes impractical with how spread out everything would be. Breaking it up into stages solves that problem and allows me to retain every single point. From there, it was just a graph theory and logistics problem of what points could be concatenated well, which paths were preferred, and which paths needed to be avoided. I can walk you through that if you really want to know how I solved it.
I'd love to go for a competitive focus, but what exactly makes a good linear A/D map hasn't been determined. As doubtful as it is, it'd be great if this map held the answer to that. At the very least I'm aiming for a pub map featuring what folks like about Dustbowl, but overall be better for everyone.
As for future plans, that awkward first point in stage two is going to get attention. Plan for that is to carve out a new area adjacent to the cave and sewer segment to be its new home, as well as give attackers a better hold in sewer. Attacking the second point in stage two is hard enough, so I'm against pushing it back for now.
I'm keeping an eye on the garage due to the height advantage it gives defenders. If it does become a problem, and unless I get any better ideas, the plan for that is to raise the entirety of Blu base out of the underground so it's more level with the garage.
The entirety of the last stage needs attention as well to ensure good balance. Options for attacking the first point might be too limited. Final has a reputation for being an incredibly difficult point to cap against a good defense. Once I get good play data for these to analyze, I'll be figuring out ways to address them.