Fortress Forever Beta & Dev Roundtables

[Ihmhi]

Hiya fellas, Ihmhi here again. Q&A is suspended this week in favor of a nice discussion about the upcoming patch. Here we have a beta roundtable and a dev roundtable. And this feature is late because my power went out last night! Ihmhi was tired... so very, very tired.

A roundtable is supposed to be a civilized discussion between different people, answering questions presented by a discussion moderator (me) and commenting off of one another's responses. But... these are the FF devs and beta testers. Long story short, it's taken me three hours to clean up the chatlogs alone, and I've become an alcoholic as a result.

Here! Enjoy the fruits of my labor as the testers and devs tell you about all the awesome stuff in 2.1. Enjoy as I weep in solitude.

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Ihmhi: Start with a short introduction about yourselves.

Rutabeggar: My name is Rutabeggar, Im a Libra, I like long walks on the beach barefooted.

Desyphur: I'm Desyphur. Dimhi sucks. That's all I've got to say

Shadow00Caster: Etzell sounds like Pretzel .. without the tasty though.

Etzell: Psh, you don't know

Etzell: I've got all kinds of tasty

Iggy: I am Iggy, 41/m/widowed. Functioning drunk and resident stoner.

Skanky Butterpuss: I am Skanky Butterpusse, the Beta Awesome Lead and one of the Forum Moderators at Fortress-Forever.com. I enjoy sabotaging sentry guns and banning insubordinates.

Skanky Butterpuss: OH MY GOD TAKE OUT THAT E

Etzell: Haha, Butterpusse, you french now?

Skanky Butterpuss: THERE IS NO E

Rutabeggar: rofl rofl

Desyphur: LOL

KubeDawg: Hi, my name is KubeDawg, and I am a Beta Tester. When people talk about me when I'm not present, their conversations usually involve words such as "awesome," "incredible," and even "one of the best scouts in Fortress Forever," when describing me.

(Ed. note: If you think this is bad, you should see what the raw chatlogs looked like... -Ihmhi)

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Ihmhi: What new features in 2.1 are you most excited about?

Shadow00Caster: INVISO-SPY!

KubeDawg: man cannon

Iggy: Spy improvements and ff_2fort.

Desyphur: I'm mostly excited about the spy changes, invisible while cloaked and completly still, sentries not tracking you when cloaked and disguised, etc. etc.

Etzell: 2fort, yeah

Rutabeggar: I'm looking forward most to the HW because his fatness is supreme once again...kinda like Jabba the Hutt without the tail.

Shadow00Caster: Sg Sonar...

KubeDawg: the SG sonar is badass.

Desyphur: Oh yeah, and 2fort

Shadow00Caster: Anticitizen, Jumppad improvements

Shadow00Caster: gg you actually have to jump now

Desyphur: I'd say Anticitizen, but I always forget to bring my sunglasses when i play it

Desyphur: Fucks with my eyes.

Shadow00Caster: /disable hdr

Iggy: ff_2fort is digital sex.

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Ihmhi: Okay, so, the spy staying completely invisible while cloaked seems to be one of the more popular features with our beta testers. I'd like to hear what our resident Spy expert/bastard Skanky Butterpuss things about that.

Etzell: You forgot the E in Skanky's name, Ihmhi

Desyphur: lol

Shadow00Caster: I kill him all the time, even though hes inviso-spy

Skanky Butterpuss: the changes to the spy are the most awesome additions to 2.1, if you ask me. being invisible while standing still really ramps up the paranoia factor, and makes spying and hunting spies more fun and challenging. SGs not automatically locking on and kiling cloaked and disguised spies is something I've been pushing for since before the game came out. people thought it would be overpowered, so now we have this cool little cloak detector on the SG that beeps whenever a cloaked spy is near. it creates a real sense of paranoia for everyone around, but raises their alertness so the spy doesnt just have free reign. its a shitload of fun . and i hate everyone else on the beta team for making this so difficult to type by making me laugh. and my finger hurts

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Ihmhi: A lot of people thought a cloaked, disguised spy not being detected by SGs would be overpowered. Considering all of us have been on the business end of Skanky's sab's countless times, what do you guys think about the current balance of this new feature?

KubeDawg: SONAR PWNS THE SHIT OUTTA SPIES

Shadow00Caster: it's balanced

KubeDawg: so tharr be the balance

Skanky Butterpuss: i think im the only one here that isnt worthless :P

Shadow00Caster: the sonar is wicked fun too...

Iggy: It's easy enough to expose a cloaked spy in a crowded server. More often than not, you get accidently revealed by your teams spam.

Rutabeggar: The sonar only pwns if Sean Connery is the Capt. of the Red October.

KubeDawg: its fun as hell to be a spy and fucking with the minds of the engis being uber close to their SG and freaking them out

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Ihmhi: And for those who haven't had the privaledge of playing in the beta, please explain what the sonar is.

Desyphur: When the spy is around a sentry and cloaked, it "pings", changing pitch the closer the spy gets to a sentry.

Etzell: Ihmhi, I'd love to help, but my lack of 2.1 experience kinda limits me. I'll play this weekend and get back to you

Ihmhi: Etzell noes!

Shadow00Caster: SG Sonar = Cloaked spy, sonar beeps like sonar of submarine .. lcoser spy is, faster beeps .. LOS affects sonar.

Skanky Butterpuss: but its gotta be in the SGs sight range

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Ihmhi: And what about the jump pad? It was pretty easy to grief with it in 2.0, but that's been fixed.

Desyphur: The jump pad is much better now

KubeDawg: thank fucking god it doesnt auto throw you everywhere

Shadow00Caster: The jump pad not being affected by you jumping was stupid .. it makes sense the way it works now.

KubeDawg: and it being clipable makes it easier to kill those SOB's when typre tryin to build it

Iggy: Jump pad is not only less griefable, but more usefull.

Rutabeggar: It's like standing on a trampoline, you dont go anywhere unless you jump.

Skanky Butterpuss: yeah its amazing what a simple little change can do. now people can put jump pads wherever they want and it wont screw with your teams ability to function.

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Ihmhi: There have admittedly been more than a few mistakes in 2.0, namely the griefable jump pad and the terribly weakened HW. What have you guys been doing as testers to make sure that we don't have similar mistakes in 2.1?

Shadow00Caster: Killing Skanky.

Shadow00Caster: The more he dies, the more bugs we find.

Desyphur: I've mainly been playtesting the changes when I get a chance and see people on the server.

Rutabeggar: Testing everything, thouroughly and often, making sure the new aspects of the game far outweigh the mistakes from 2.0

Iggy: Give more attention to actual GAMEPLAY, rather than the "does this actually function" aspect we had previously focused on. Part of the problem was coordinating playtests.

KubeDawg: playing the fuck out of beta

Shadow00Caster: Simply put, something gets changed, you go and test it for a few hours and try every possible scenario you can think of to test it.

Iggy: These past weeks have been filled with "Hey, lets get people on the server, and just FUCKING PLAY!"

Desyphur: Yep

Skanky Butterpuss: a few times, jon and i went through putting ourselves into the mind of the griefer, doing our best to fuck stuff up for other people. its lead to a few findings of map bugs and such

Shadow00Caster: Just playing is what finds bugs.

Iggy: In short, we acted like a bunch of noob pubbers on crack.

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Ihmhi: I do have to admit that a lot of bugs are found completely by accident. I guess the more you play the game, the more likely it is you'll find one of these random bugs.

KubeDawg: i think we've had more people playing in the beta than in regular servers a few times

Desyphur: Yeah, we tend to find a lot of bugs just fucking around

Rutabeggar: Even as the 2.1 installers were being made people were finding bugs and posting them...there are always going to be bugs, fixing them is what's important

Iggy: Bugs are revealed usually by accident. You can't go looking for them, you have to just let them expose themselves and hope they can be solved before the shit hits the fan...... or the release is made.

Desyphur: Or shit hits the fan AND the release is made

Desyphur: Cause then your fucked

Skanky Butterpuss: haha yeah sometimes shit just pops up and youre like "wait, what the hell just happened there?" so you go back and try and recreate the bug, in hopes that youll find out what causes it and be able to fix it. sometimes it takes a while...

Shadow00Caster: Looking for a bug is like looking for Skanky as a cloaked spy in 2.1 .. you won't find it. You only find it when it stabs you in the back during gameplay.

Iggy: Nice analogy!

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Ihmhi: We have two new maps made completely from scratch making it into this patch: Anticitizen and the much awaited 2fort. Let's talk about Nezumi's new work first, ff_anticitizen. What do you guys think of our newest AvD map?

KubeDawg: awesome?

Desyphur: TOO BRIGHT

Desyphur: GIVE ME SUNGLASSES PLEASE GOD

Rutabeggar: ANTICITIZEN MAKES ME LOVEULONGTIME

Shadow00Caster: -HDR

Desyphur: Otherwise the gameplay is good

KubeDawg: I mean, it's the most fun AvD map I've had a chance to play in FF.

Shadow00Caster: Anticitizen is a fantastic take on AvD.

Desyphur: Much better than Dustbowl IMHO

Iggy: The HDR is more than a bit bright... but damn it's fun!

KubeDawg: I can definitely see more servers being full with this map than with dustbowl.

Rutabeggar: Anticitizen has to be one of the most in depth maps i've played in either FF or TFC...it's beautifully made and designed, very complete and satisfying.

Shadow00Caster: Not only is the map's gameplay balanced and fun, but the maps looks awesome-o!

Iggy: I agree with Desyphur. It is a fun map, and is the epitomy of AvD.

Shadow00Caster: Anticitzen > Dustbowl

Rutabeggar: I think it might become FF's gold standard for AvD

Rutabeggar: just like Dustbowl was for TFC

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Ihmhi *SJB: Points one and two seem to just be throwaways - they've never been that hard to cap. All the action seems to happen at point 3. That hill climb sure is a bitch!

Desyphur: And I've never had trouble with that hill climb..

Desyphur: Of course, I've not played in a 24 player match on it

Skanky Butterpuss: unclecitizen is so incredibly fun. i hear its got bright hdr, but my computer cant handle that shit so I've never had a problem with it. but really, that map is awesome, and it seems pretty fairly balanced during playtesting. CP3 is a bitch to cap, and if your team isnt working together, you arent going to get it. my sabotaging has come in handy quite a few times during the final minutes of a round on unclecitizen :P

Iggy: But that is why it's the epitomy of AvD.... point 3 is the climax of the map. (heh heh heh...I said "climax" huh huh huh")

Shadow00Caster: Most AvD maps tend to come out that way, where the first caps are easy, it's always the last that becomes the huge fight. It's mostly because of design and people want to hold that last cap.

Rutabeggar: The hill is awesome...picking people off from the top is fun...also you have sort of a cover to have epic jumps up to the top cap point...

Rutabeggar: it seems like a huge obsticle...but it's really well designed, there are a lot of ways to get to the top

Desyphur: Yeah, the multiple routes is great.

Desyphur: I especially like CP2, I don't know why, but it's a break from the whole "Open areas! MOAR OPEN AREAS!"

Desyphur: A nice inside area was a good change of pace

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Ihmhi: Alright, alright, let's get to the map everyone wants to talk about. Keep it simple FFags: your first impression upon seeing ff_2fort.

Desyphur: I came

KubeDawg: 2fort made me have an eyegasm.

Desyphur: Is more needed to be said?

Ricey: i ran out of tissues afterwards

KubeDawg: the fucking spiral is PERFECT for FF

KubeDawg: I love it

Rutabeggar: ff_2fort is all about the essence of TFC, FF, TF, Quake...the kitchen sink...it's fast, fun, and....fun

Shadow00Caster: My first impression on ff_2fort: "Where the fuck am I? .. I'm lost." Though the map IS 2fort, there are subtle changes that took a few mins to get used to. Other than that, the map is a god amongst men.

KubeDawg: new skill ways to get to the top of the enemy batts

Ihmhi: Damn. Now shadow's gonna want to recompile and put in a kitchen sink. Thanks a lot Rutabeggar.

Iggy: I made a video. ff_2fort is teh sex. Also, I can say I am quite responsible for having the rafters added in the basement, and the little platform in the FR.

Shadow00Caster: It's gonna be my home.

KubeDawg: i think that might show a few new peeps how to learn how to down/uptrimp?

Iggy: Flagroom needs a urinal, though.

Ihmhi: What, a kitchen sink isn't enough for you?

Skanky Butterpuss: yeah i think 2fort is going to make a LOT of people happy. it stays true to the original while maintaining some of that ff spirit

Shadow00Caster: Plus it looks cool.

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Ihmhi: Shadow's been known to make her maps very offense-friendly. 2fort has always been very easy to turtle. Do you think the slight changes to make offense easier in ff_2fort are going to make the map work better for offense?

Desyphur: Yes, quite a bit,

Shadow00Caster: 2forts design has always been that way.

KubeDawg: not really, i mean a bit, but honestly, 2fort has always been about basement Defense, and I think Shadow's rendition of it stays true to TFC's version of 2fort.

Desyphur: It's not going to be too easy, but the slight changes are enough to make a difference.

Rutabeggar: 2fort has always been a chaotic map, but I think that's what makes it fun, you are almost forced to form strategies around people turtling/toggling...but at the same time there's enough areas to play solid defense if you know what you're doing

Iggy: Definitely.

Shadow00Caster: It's a classic map, and the gameplay that has been born from the map has come from years and years of TFC.

Iggy: I would actually like to see this map reverse engineered for TFC, to be honest.

Skanky Butterpuss: its still a defensive map, so all those turtlers out there arent going to feel like they were raped and pillaged. but at the same time, the offense has a better chance thanks to the wider spiral and the FR vent, so it should be a bit more balanced

Ricey: it is more balanced

Shadow00Caster: Agreed.

Shadow00Caster: The subtle changes make the map more balanced while keeping it's original design.

Ricey: Spiral has been nub friendly

Rutabeggar: I think it gives a better chance for spies to infiltrate and cause chaos

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Ihmhi: There's a lot of people who don't believe me when I say it, but trepid_jon managed to make cz2 FUN again. (The same gameplay changes have already been brought over to ff_tiger as well.) Do you think the changes in cz2 for 2.1 are going to give the map a second chance?

Shadow00Caster: Absolutely.

Desyphur: I love CZ2 now, and I've always fucking loathed it

KubeDawg: jesus fucking christ. I absolutely HATED cz2 in TFC and FF until jon got ahold of it

Shadow00Caster: The new capping system is a huge thing, and it's going to spread to new maps.

KubeDawg: now it's the complete opposite.

Rutabeggar: I think 2.1 is the second chance that every map needs, especially CZ2...a lot of people know what CZ2 was...but I think it's being redefined along with FF itself

Iggy: Yes!!! That map is HELLA-FUN now! We played it for several hours one night. That has never happened before!

KubeDawg: out of all the maps that have been updated for 2.1, I think this is my favorite update.

Ricey: CZ2 Turtling is fun, HW and Solider vs 4 other guys

KubeDawg: but being a spy on it is even more fun

Skanky Butterpuss: you dont need to tell me

Rutabeggar: I can see 24/7 CZ2/Anticitizen servers in the future

Skanky Butterpuss: :P

Iggy: Turtling isn't possible anymore Ricey. The pace has been increased to the point of insanity. It's fucking great!

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Ihmhi: And waterpolo got an upgrade, too. Now it runs nice and smooth. You can really have fun when you can actually see what the Hell is going on!

Desyphur: I'm not a big waterpolo fan

Rutabeggar: ^

Desyphur: It's fun, but meh

Skanky Butterpuss: pfft whatever, waterpolo is the bees knees

Iggy: Waterpolo is another fast paced map. It needed the improvements that we made.

KubeDawg: finally, I can play waterpolo without lagging

Skanky Butterpuss: its such simple gameplay, but its hilariously fun

Shadow00Caster: Waterpolo is just one of those maps thats fun for a few .. it's not a classic TF map, but it's good play.

Skanky Butterpuss: so much hate

Rutabeggar: I will never like waterpolo...just not my style i suppose

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Ihmhi: The community seems to be very divided on push style maps like waterpolo, pigskin, push, etc. Hell, even our testers are divided on it! And yet people drool over murderball. Why the Hell is that, anyway?

Ricey: Murderball is a fuck fest, that is why people love it.

KubeDawg: fuck murderball

Shadow00Caster: 4 teams = more carnage

Ricey: It's Kill the man with the ball, god i remember getting wtfpwned in school when i played that

Rutabeggar: Murderball seems to be one of those maps that forces people to work together...I think it's interesting and fun when you have to team up with people who you were previously destroying

Shadow00Caster: yep

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Ihmhi: But hey, trepid_jon's main projects (ff_hunted, ff_waterpolo, and ff_cz2) seem to be pretty much as finished as they can be. Now he can start working on some new shit instead of just porting over old TFC maps.

Shadow00Caster: Like OB [Orange Box] port.

Ricey: New Shit plox

Skanky Butterpuss: hunted is the best thing to ever happen to FF now that it doesnt crash computers

Skanky Butterpuss: and i can be spy

Ricey: While TFC Ports are good, we need or FF needs it's own maps

Rutabeggar: Hunted is now bearable...I don't think there will be mass exoduses of people when it comes up in the rotation, although I think that FF could use a few more original maps like anticitizen.

Skanky Butterpuss: yeah i cant wait to see what jon cooks up as far as original ff maps

Iggy: Yes. Hunted is seriously fun to play now. It's time for him to work on something new. Preferably another Uber-Sexy map...... and one that is original to FF.

Ricey: ff_asswars

Ricey: that's jon's next map

Shadow00Caster: Though FF is considered by many to be TFC - Source .. it is it's own game too.

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Ihmhi: One thing we're currently lacking in FF is a 100% completed escape map. There's tons of them for TFC. If any one could be ported over, which one would you want to see brought over to Fortress Forever? Ditto on Fun Maps, what one Fun Map would you really like to see brought over to FF?

Iggy: thegame.

Shadow00Caster: k_thegame2_r

Iggy: That would be a BADASS FF map.

KubeDawg: THERE IS AN ESCAPE MAP

Shadow00Caster: Also some surf maps for FF would be fun.

Skanky Butterpuss: i never played enough escape maps to know the names of them.

Shadow00Caster: k_thegame2_r, crunch2k

Rutabeggar: skate2!

Skanky Butterpuss: haha yeah, skate2 would be fun

Iggy: thegame. It was easy enough for newer people to finish, but was always a bit of a challenge

Rutabeggar: skate2 with jumppads =O

Iggy: k_thegame2_r wasn't bad, but newer players can easily get bored with it. that's more for advanced players.

Desyphur: k_thegame2_r

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Ihmhi: Okay, last question, and then you're free from the tyranny that is Ihmhi. What would you like to see put in 2.2?

Ricey: HIDDEN PORN ROOMS

Iggy: female player models.

Shadow00Caster: HUD enhancements/client side Lua

Ricey: Female models would probably draw in a new crowd of people

Skanky Butterpuss: ff_**** (Ed. Note: really awesome map which we all want to release, but it needs a good bit of work still... keep it on the down low guys!)

Rutabeggar: Female player models have been discussed...I think they shouldn't be made madatory...but I think they could bring a fun aspect in to the game...It could be set up like the old HL1 models...if you didn''t have it you'd just see the default...could be fun.

Shadow00Caster: that too

Desyphur: And, uh...well I can't think of much. Everything I want got put in the game *shrug*

KubeDawg: Honestly, I'm all about options. I'd love to see more options available to players in 2.2

KubeDawg: such as being able to switch backgrounds, add/change songs/sounds

Rutabeggar: I'd like to see a customizeable menu screen too with preloaded pictures and a tutorial on how to make your own.

KubeDawg: oooh

KubeDawg: customizable HUD

Ricey: Better loading screens

KubeDawg: that would be awesome

Ihmhi: Alright guys, thanks for your time!

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That concludes our beta tester roundtable discussion about 2.1. Now let's hear from the devs!

[Ihmhi]

Ihmhi: Let's start with the first question. What are your personal contributions to 2.1?

trepid_jon: I worked on stuff.

trepid_jon: updated waterpolo, cz2, and hunted, and did a lot of coding

squeek.: made pitfall ready for official release, and a whole lot of balance testing

Pon: Some boring Lua shit that no-one really understands nor cares about, I guess...

squeek.: i care pon

squeek.: i just want to let the whole world know pon

Pon: i care too, but lets keep work and our private lives seperate for the time being, ok...?

Pon: I know, I know, but the time isn't right just yet...

[AE] 5316: I worked on the IC texture (world and viewmodel), contributed to the creation of its new sound, and created a new graphic for cz2 cap points

Circuitous: Animated medkit screen, objective arrow, Hunted door status icons, railgun-gives-cells-on-overcharge concept, cloaked-Spy-triggers-SG-sonar concept, and some other miscellaneous stuff.

[AE] 5316: I also provided moral support in the form of strippers and beer.

Ihmhi: Hey now Pon, without your Lua stuff none of our maps would work right.

Ihmhi: I don't think there's a single dev who hasn't fucked up their Lua and you've subsequently fixed it.

Pon: nah, it'd just be another job for our overworked jon

trepid_jon: yeah, I don't think I would have done that lua stuff, so it's a good thing someone else did

Pon: you seem to do most of your own anyways, like the new cz2 stuff

trepid_jon: Pon and other lua scripters will get to do a lot more scripting after 2.1's released and we start working on more game modes

trepid_jon: yeah, I try to do as much of my own scripting as possible just so more people don't have to feel forced to do it my way

trepid_jon: I had a vision for cz2's new lua, and I probably would have been annoying as hell to anyone else making it

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Ihmhi: The changelog is up to something like 120 individual items. I've just recently been added as a dev myself and I noticed you guys have these internal lists for what you want to get done for the next patch. Now, FF is pretty much not led by anybody right now, so... how do you guys decide your goals for that list? How do you pick what features go into the next patch and what goes in later down the road?

squeek.: hmm

trepid_jon: I think we'll figure out how to improve our current system when we start working on 2.2, because there will be a lot of things that should probably planned and prioritized more properly

trepid_jon: or probably be...

squeek.: for 2.1, we did a lot of deciding in game, and then add stuff to the list based on playtesting and new features we came to an agreement on

[AE] 5316: Yea, I noticed it really was a group effort. Somebody says this or that needs fixing, and the list just keeps growing. As the list is made, people just start picking at it as they have time

trepid_jon: yeah, especially with 2.1, everyone has mainly just done what they've wanted to do based on what everyone else was suggesting

Ihmhi: Well, isn't that how you've always done things?

Ihmhi: Pick out what you want to do and what you can do, organize a list, and then do it?

squeek.: (jon can answer that)

Pon: I thought we used the dartboard method...

trepid_jon: yeah, everyone's always done what they've wanted to do, but there used to be leaders that specifically told people what to do

trepid_jon: probably was, that didn't mean anything got done

trepid_jon: er, problem was....what's with probably giving me probablies

trepid_jon: they could be told to do, but it always just came down to whether that person was capable or willing

Circuitous: That's not how it used to be - there used to be decided lists of what had to be done, what was absolutely required. This was mostly bugfixes, though, pretty much all of the new ideas were people brainstorming or just coming up with shit.

Circuitous: That said, 2.1 seemed to have way more people just coming up with shit.

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Ihmhi: So since it's basically a matter of what you CAN do... if you had the resources at hand, what would you guys have wanted to get done for 2.1? I'm sure there's stuff that you thought would be awesome but you just didn't have the time, skill, or people to do it.

squeek.: i would have liked to finish training, but... yeah, that didn't happen


trepid_jon: I would have liked to get the motorcade finished in hunted, but it's mainly requiring custom props and lots of effects...effects that'll probably be worked on in 2.2 with the Orange Box engine

[AE] 5316: I woulda like to have more texture stuff to work on... but the lack of modelers and animators doesn't leave me with much unique work

[AE] 5316: Hopefully that'll change w/ 2.2

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Ihmhi : Interestingly enough, everyone here has tried their hand at mapping, some more succesfully than others. What kind of mapping stuff would you like to do for FF in the future?

Pon: AvD, simple answer, I don't think there's enough of it in FF

[AE] 5316: agreed

[AE] 5316: warpath...

Circuitous: Once, a long time ago. I've come up with a couple ideas for maps, but I'd rather have someone competent actually bring them to life.

Circuitous: I'll stick to coming up with map ideas and concepts rather than actually trying to wield Hammer.

trepid_jon: vote maps, fun maps, odd maps, surf maps...and maybe some normal ones like avd

trepid_jon: that's what I'd like to work on

squeek.: new gametypes, i want to eventually finish torch, and of course training

Ihmhi: Absolutely!

Pon: problem is, my mapping would aembarass a 5 year old

trepid_jon: embarass....damn, that's the word I should have told the cops

trepid_jon: I need to think faster

squeek.: haha

Pon:

Ihmhi: Fun maps, yes

Ihmhi: But where the hell are the escape maps?

trepid_jon: I lump those into fun/odd

Ihmhi: Like, I love the maps that the devs have made, but we really need new shit and not remakes

trepid_jon: yeah, I've said I'm not doing more remakes

trepid_jon: if others want to, that's fine

trepid_jon: but I want to work on originals, and I want to encourage others to do the same

Pon: I'd like to see ravelin. Just because i've never actually played it in anger... I know everyone thinks it sucks for some reason. But, I quit TFC for a bit, it was released, and by the time i played again, every server had removed it

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Ihmhi: Conversely, we also could use standard CTF style maps. The league's maplist is pretty bare.

squeek.: if leagues pick up, i'd hope to see more people pumping out _classic maps

Ihmhi: It just goes a bit against what FF should be in my opinion... I mean, we have tried very hard to stay true to our roots, yes...

Ihmhi: ...but we're focusing so much energy on that. There's not a whole lot of new shit getting done. I hope you guys crank out more stuff like anticitizen and other map names I can't mention. You know what I'm talking about.

squeek.: yeah, official maps are likely to be 100% new from now on

squeek.: and most likely 90% non-ctf

Pon: I can maybe finish up duckhunt and add it to 2.2...

trepid_jon: we've laid out a plan to focus on prototyping new maps, and some people like blister and mushy are actually doing that already

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Ihmhi: On that subject of non-normal maps, this is a question I asked the beta testers in their roundtable earlier, and I'd like you to answer it as well.

Ihmhi: If you could see one fun map and one escape map ported over from TFC, which ones would you like to see most?

Circuitous: Leetskeet. I didn't really play escape maps.

[AE] 5316: warpath is the only map i want from tfc

Ihmhi: Warpath, Avanti, and Schtop are givens, and they're neither escape maps or fun maps. Gameplay style and all that.

trepid_jon: it would be nice to have a version of waterpolo like ukfootie or pigskin, with a stadium and cheering and all that

Pon: fun map> ukfootie I think. Though it is essentially waterpolo just on a football themed map

squeek.: no comment, i stayed away from funmaps and never had played an escape map...

Pon: I never really played escape maps, so I dunno

Ihmhi: There's some football maps out there, but it's not ukfootie unless it has the ole football cheer.

Ihmhi: Wow, holy shit. I need to arrange getting my hands on a TFC server and get you guys into an escape map. They're a shitload of fun.

trepid_jon: any of axl's maps, and then smurf escape

Pon: I was thinking it'd be better as Scotland v england

Ihmhi: Maybe even add a bonus

Ihmhi: At the end of the round

Ihmhi: We get like, Shadow00Caster or Ostrich_Eggs to say "HOLY SHIT SOCCER RIOT" and everyone gets quad damage and crowbars

Pon: you'd need the crowd to invade the pitch though, and smash peoples faces with bottles and coins... dunno if thats possible

Ihmhi: We could just add a +headbutt function?

Pon: yeah, that'd be nice

Pon: I'd like a speedball map

[AE] 5316: i didn't play 'fun' maps... I usually just played skill maps, and warpath/2fort

trepid_jon: shoulda played in axl's tfc server more, 53...was awesome

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Ihmhi: What do you personally believe our players will be most excited about in 2.1?

Circuitous: The fact that it's out.

Ihmhi: True dat.

squeek.: HW, 2fort, and new maps

squeek.: and updated maps

squeek.: and general balance

squeek.: and everything in 2.1

Pon: probably 2fort

trepid_jon: I think they'll be most excited about the drop shadows on message fonts

squeek.: LOL

Pon:

trepid_jon: trumps everything else

trepid_jon: in greatness

Pon: yeah, they are pretty sexy, gotta admit

trepid_jon: I like all of the 2.1 changes, they really make FF more gooder

squeek.: people will enjoy the new IC model I betcha

Ihmhi: Hell yeah, I play Pyro just to hold the damn thing. I love the new model and the new sound.

trepid_jon: yeah, it's very nice

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Ihmhi: Aaaand lastly, any shoutouts you guys want to give?

trepid_jon: no, hang up the phone

squeek.: lol

[AE] 5316: i like banana cream pie

Circuitous[42h]: Yeah, big thanks to nixon, vile, exo, and everyone else who believed in me.

trepid_jon: I like to make werewolf movies.

Ihmhi: Anyway guys, thanks a bunch, I 'preciate it. You guys crazy alright.

[squeek.]

Good god that's long.

[trepid_jon]

And a lot of words without pictures................

[Firefox11]

tl;dr

As in, twas long; (but) did read (it) ;D

Now I'm dying even more to play 2.1 and try that new IC model, new cloak and of course, cacterr... anticitizen!

Thanks as usual for the read!

[KubeDawg]

that was good, but why wasn't TURKEYBURGERS mentioned?

[Private_Joker]

mmmm..Butterpussy.

Kamikaze's escape map "nightshift" was epic--my clan uses the rolling obstacles challenge to haze new members. I want that, and warpath.

Sonar sounds erotic.

-Joker

[Skanky Butterpuss]

Originally Posted by squeek.

Good god that's long.

THATS WHAT YOU SAID LAST NIGHT LOL

man i sound like a professional twat in the knights of the roundtable thingermabob. i tried to act like i was a real developer and not one of those beta twats, look how that turned out! just a twat with a different twatty name!

[BoltR]

That's not long, what he started with before cutting out the hooligans was long!

Also jon, that whole crowd thing? Patent pending, I got there first and you know it! Unless of course you want to take it off my hands and spend a day making it not suck.
I restarted the map to make it much cleaner (brush wise) and add an actual flagroom, but I forgot I changed the grid size and now everything is micro-sized so I get to remake a bunch of the map again

[Rutabeggar]

Damnit, you edited out all the whitty comments about Skanky's nub finger...I think the Betas are cooler than the Devs...maybe that's cuz the Devs are all near death because they busted their asses to get this to the community...

[eternity94]

Holy shit thats long...

Well im hyped for 2.1... ya.

[Downtownman]

Has a release date been decided then?

[Rutabeggar]

Soon...very soon...

[Ihmhi]

Originally Posted by trepid_jon

And a lot of words without pictures................

Well I don't have anywhere to host them. I was going to get Shadow00Caster to help me... I messaged him a couple a times but he wasn't round. >:

Don't worry, the 2.1 preview with pictures and much better stuff will replace it soon enough.

Right now, the most details ever about 2.1 are pretty much jammed up into that post. It's worth the read!

[squeek.]

Originally Posted by Ihmhi

Well I don't have anywhere to host them.

Trepid.net? Maybe? Yes.

[Ihmhi]

I'm betting there's info on the dev forums about uploading to a section of the trepid.net server which can be used for hosting images exactly for this purpose, but I was too much of an arr-tard to think of looking it up.

I'd love to go back through that stuff and add pictures, but I have other things to work on now. You know what I'm talking 'bout squeek. I'm talking about that stuff. Yeah.

[Ricey]

I would truely say I am sorry about all the cock jokes that you had to edit out, but I am not.

I still own Squeek though.

[4est]

HI!

I'm 4est and I make installers when I'm around.

86694 does not let me out of the basement much though.


MOO!

[mixer]

nice to see a sign of life ... but ... not a single word about the sniper? will he stay useless? and with the detpipe-delay still in place the demo still cant do his job properly ...

Ricey: Spiral has been nub friendly

"nub"'s are what keeps the game alive you know ... the maps need to be newbie-friendly. If you change the maps to make you enjoy your excellence even more then dont be surprised what will happen and already has happened ... its always the same ...

[squeek.]

Originally Posted by mixer

nice to see a sign of life ... but ... not a single word about the sniper? will he stay useless?

No. He's very not useless in 2.1.

Originally Posted by mixer

and with the detpipe-delay still in place the demo still cant do his job properly ...

The detpipe delay is very, very intentional. Don't expect it to go away, ever. The demo can do his job very, very well.

Originally Posted by mixer

"nub"'s are what keeps the game alive you know ... the maps need to be newbie-friendly. If you change the maps to make you enjoy your excellence even more then dont be surprised what will happen and already has happened ... its always the same ...

We know.