Q&A 5 - Q&A Now, redux
Fortress Forever Team - 2008-08-15 21:59 CDT
Welcome to Week 5 of Fortress Forever's Developer Question & Answer sessions, where we take questions from the community and get devs off their bums to answer them!
All are welcome to participate. Simply visit this thread in our forums and drop your question in!
http://fortress-forever.com/forum/showthread.php?t=16481
And after the questions, we have an interview with one of the devs who have been around the longest, redux! (Apparently, his name has absolutely nothing to do with ducks at all. I'm as surprised as you are.)
Before we get started, I'd like to state a change in the weekly Q&As. A lot of devs get involved in the answers, and I tend to just edit them together into something that covers the subject nicely. Since it comes from multiple people, we'll no longer be listing which devs have answered the questions. I'd really prefer not to show (trepid_jon, Pon, Nezumi, redux) and five other dev names after each answer.
Question 1 ( reaper18 and many, many other people ):
When will the 2.1 changelog be posted? Is there an ETA on 2.1's arrival? When 2.1 will out? etc.
Answer 1:
This is something that was told to the beta testers a long time ago, and I will gladly tell it to everyone else. The dev team has an internal checklist - stuff they would like to get done for the next patch. Currently, about 95% of the checklist is green - green meaning done - but that does not represent the total completion of the patch. If my list was "add a new texture" and "rebalance HW", those are two items on a list but each includes different kinds of work. But yes, the internal checklist is mostly done.
FF tends to shy away from setting a release date. We probably could have been done a month ago, but .dt. (one of our new coders) had a little problem where his laptop got all messed up on him and he couldn't code anymore.
When we do have the patch done, we will probably go with something like a week's advance notice. We'll also probably release the server package a little bit early so server operators can get updates in place and relate any problems to us that might show up. And of course, we prefer to test the installer packages and make sure they work so we don't release something broken to the community.
Question 2 ( reaper18 ):
Have any changes been made to canal zone?
Answer 2 :
2.1 ff_cz2 (Canalzone2) is fun. That's all you really need to know now.
Buuut if you want the details... flags have basically been removed altogether. Now pretty much anyone can walk over a point and cap it. The map's teleporters are useful for helping to move your team to defend a point you still control.
One of the important elements of gameplay design is to get people to play the map the way you intended it to be played. In FF, that usually just means "Have fun". Frankly, cz2 was not getting played. It was slow and arduous - pretty much the exact opposite of what makes FF fun. Beta testers now love playing cz2, and we hope that that same love carries over to the general public.
I'm sure many server operators have taken cz2 off of their map rotations because it's made players leave as if the server were on fire. We hope that server ops will give cz2 a second chance in 2.1.
And damn it reaper18, if you don't stop asking such good questions there's not gonna be any left for other people.
Question 3 ( im2cool4uroflolz, v!be<<<Ampersand ):
What changes are being made to the Demoman in 2.1?
Answer 3:
Most notably, the Demoman's blue pipe timer has been extended from 1.1 seconds to 1.3 seconds.
The devs were caught between a rock and a hard place with the blue pipe timer. Originally, 2.2 seconds was deemed too hard for newbies to be able to use. If you can't get a hit with a blue pipe, then you have to try and aim it so the explosion happens when you want it to. 2.2 seconds was also far too spammable - you could just have a bunch of pipes clogging up a chokepoint which results in some very effective (but very spammy) area denial.
As a result, the timer was reduced to 1.1 seconds. Now we have pro demos saying that the timer is either too short (reduced range) or is too easy for newbies to hit targets with. Initially some of our testers advocated bringing the timer up to 1.5, but we eventually came to a compromise of 1.3 seconds. Those 0.2 seconds counts for a lot towards balance and extensive playtesting has shown that it works pretty well. We think nearly everyone will be satisfied with it.
There are not really any other significant changes being made to the Demoman. Take a look at the changelog when 2.1 comes out for the full details!
Question 4 ( im2cool4uroflolz ):
Are there any changes being made to Aardvark?
Answer 4:
No significant changes are being made to Aardvark. Nearly every map has little hidden optimization and balance changes uring patches, but nothing really big is going to happen with Aardvark in this patch.
Question 5 ( v!be<<<Ampersand ):
Hey guys, new to Fortress Forever here, just in case you're wondering why I popped out of nowhere =P Pretty badass mod so far.
That said, I've heard FF is converting to the Orange Box Engine? I'm definitely a Demoman player and I love the way the grenades from his launcher bounce in TF2. Once the conversion is complete, will they bounce that way in FF? Actually, I guess the better question to ask would be; Will conversion to the Orange Box Engine change the game's physics in any way? [forgive me, I don't know a lot about game engines, so sorry if that's a stupid question = ]
Answer 5:
So we have a huge question that's mostly about the conversion to the Orange Box.
Let's start with the disappointing news: FF will not be converting to the Orange Box for 2.1. We would have to delay 2.1 for months just to convert the code with the staff we have on hand.
And now, the good news. Conversion to OB is one of our priorities for 2.2. There's a 95% chance that 2.2 will be the debut of Orange Box for FF. What does this mean?
We'll be able to take advantage of all of the nice graphical things that OB has available to it, like the particle system used extensively in Half Life 2: Episode 2.
We'd rather not get into the extreme techincal details of it, but Orange Box will give our developers more tools to make the game run smoother and look nicer in general. The conversion to OB will show a much improved FF overall.
We really wish we could tell you more about it, but there's a lot that we're still planning and thinking about. Saying that anything is definite would be lying.
As for the Demoman, the major Demoman change (blue pipe timer) has been addressed in a previous question.
Dev Interview: redux
Ihmhi: Dux, are ye around?
redux: What's up?
Ihmhi: I'd like to do your dev interview now - do you have time?
redux: sure but i may be in and out for a few minutes
redux: im in the middle of painting a repainting a pinball cabinet and its about to rain again
redux: fire away though
Ihmhi: See, that's interesting material. Let's start with that, rather than my traditional starting question. Why are you painting a pinball cabinet, and what pinball game is it? I personally love how they can turn physical information (gears, switches, bumpers) into a GAME.
redux: I collect pinball machines in my spare time. The game is Spirit of 76 by Gottlieb. It is an Electro Mechanical pinball, which means there are no circuit boards. Everything is driven by electrical switches and gear driven mechanisms. I also own modern solid state games which are circuit board and CPU driven. Most of my games are from the 1990's.
Ihmhi: Wow man, that's the kind of shit I like. I'm the same way with lots of stuff like that. I have this handheld (handheld being the side of a football) video game from Radio Shack that's basically a Space Invaders ripoff. I still play it to this day, so I completely understand where you're coming from.
redux: I picked this game up from another collector near Dallas and figured I'd try my hand at a full restoration. It should look pretty close like it came out of the factory when I am done with it. Parts are hard to find however so we will see how it will turn out.
Ihmhi: Before my next question, I'd like to pimp one of Iggy's favorite websites out to you and the readers - http://www.atariage.com. The guys there know a lot about hardware and odds are there's a guy who knows about machines if you have questions.
Ihmhi: Aaand now to my traditional-first-question-which-is-now-the-second-question: how did you come to be on the dev team?
redux: I've helped test Fortress Forever since before the 1.0 release. I never really had the time to map though because I was taking 22 and 21 hour semesters of college.
Ihmhi: Wow. I'm a newbie mapper, and I personally think I'd be frustrated with trying to do anything in the pre-release environment. Server crashes were abundant and fixed very slowly - it must have been a bear to test out new stuff.
redux: It was tough testing sometimes because of a lot of crashing bugs. It was neat though seeing the list of bugs being reduced before release. The mod really has come a long way since then.
redux: It was great seeing all of the content progress even before the release. A change that I really remember best is the Shutdown2 makeover. We thought it was crazy good as it was, then Defrag made it into what it is now.
Ihmhi: I loved the SD2 remake as well. The first one was a good Source map, but it didn't really have its own identity. Defrag made it seem more alive.
Ihmhi: Speaking of mapping, you're working on a new project - return. I've been working with mapping myself, and honestly every time I look at something you, Defrag, Nezumi, etc. cook up I feel like a kindergartner with a finger painting trying to get into the Louvre. What tips can you give to new mappers to add that level to detail to your maps - basically, how do you make your maps look so damn good?
redux: Return was kind of a reintroduction to mapping for me, as the last map I released was in 2002 or so. I am not sure if I want to continue that map as I did a lot of things wrong with it. It was a great start on Source engine mapping as I hadn't done it before. Source mapping is a lot more time consuming than HL1 engine maps were by a long shot. As far as mapping tips go, when I started out I always had problems with lighting. I had a push style map in TFC titled 'pushed' that I was really satisfied with visually, but never really got the lighting right. After it was released, I learned better lighting techniques which I applied to maps after that. I would say ask for a source file from someone just to see how they did things. Things can look a lot different in Hammer compared to in game.
redux: I would also suggest texture variation and application. Simple geometry can look great if it is textured well.
Ihmhi: That's very useful information that a lot of mappers will appreciate - especially myself. Thanks for that.
Ihmhi: On the same subject, I have some very insane ideas for maps. Like most mappers (especially new ones), I'm very protective of them. Do you have any really crazy and/or outlandish ideas for maps that you'd be willing to describe in detail? Basically, your dream map.
redux: To be honest, I think that maps with simple goals are better received. Back in TFC, some mappers tried some crazy stuff and it just never played out very well. The maps that got played were ones with easy to understand goals, such as CTF, AvD, etc. I did like the map run, as it was kind of a crazy idea at the time but worked really well. I think something like that would be great in Fortress Forever. Though not outlandish, I really enjoy King of the Hill style maps. As far as a dream map, I would like to have a map that is a new idea, but simple enough for everyone to understand and enjoy. I'm still trying to come up with that one.
Ihmhi: So basically, the holy grail of mapping. Well, at least people can't say you don't dream big!
Ihmhi: Hey, why not combine two interests into one and make a map that's a giant pinball machine. I'm sure your implementation would be fun and the scoring would be very accurate!
redux: The funny thing is I thought about doing that, even just for novelty's sake.
Ihmhi: Man, you completely should do it. When this Q&A goes up, I'm sure a lot of people will agree with you on that point. I'd love to see it, and you can combine two of your hobbies into one uber-hobby. It's like quad damage, but for fun!
redux: haha, yeah
redux: It would be a fun project.
Ihmhi: See man, now if you don't do it a whole lotta people will be disappointed. So basically I've just guilted you into mapping. I wonder if that's how the big companies do it, haha.
redux: Start waving Dollar bills at me and it'll be out next week!
Ihmhi: Well I know mervaka carries around a lot of Dollar bills, but that's mostly for strip clubs and riding the bus since he destroyed his van. Maybe he'll chip in!
redux: He'd better.
Ihmhi: Well technically he has Sterling Pounds, so that's like two Dollars in one! Very compact.
redux: hehe
Ihmhi: Back onto the mapping topic. You're working on bases now, correct?
redux: Yes, I am finishing it where Defrag left off.
Ihmhi: This brings up an interesting point - no one mapper has really worked on any FF Dev map. It's usually two or more guys working on it during different stages. What have you personally brought to bases?
redux: When I first started working on the map, most of the geometry was done. The ramp room and the small hallways were just an empty shell, and there was only one spawn room. There were a lot of other touches that hadn't been added in yet, such as some lighting, signs, and other brushwork.
redux: The main problem with the map was that it exceeded the brush and entity limits when the bases were flipped. FPS was really bad in most of the places so that had to be worked out as well. I had to tear down and rebuild some areas to get the limits down, while still trying to add new stuff.
redux: This would not have been possible without Crazy Carl who turned in a lot of brushwork into props. He really helped out a lot.
Ihmhi: The other testers and I noticed this blatant cheating and plan to do the very same for our own maps whenever we get around to doing them.
redux: When everything was almost complete, I handed the map over to Elmo-, who is a genius at optimization. He really helped out a lot at getting the frame rate to a good level. When he handed it back, I was awestruck at how he had optimized everything.
redux: Using props in a map is a great way to go as it saves a ton of geometry to be used for other sections.
Ihmhi: A lot of testers initially complained about low FPS and other graphics issues when they came on-board the pre-release team. Part of it was unoptimized coding, but a lot of it was probably unoptimized mapping as well. I'm sure you must have looked at more than one of the VMFs - are there any maps that could have insanely better FPS with optimization?
redux: Most of the ones I have looked at are optimized pretty well. I could see a few spots that could be optimized to reduce compile time though. I imagine Elmo could spot a lot more things than I could however.
Ihmhi: Have you learned anything looking at the optimizations that Elmo- and Crazy Carl have done? Ideally, the dev mappers would learn enough of the tricks where they can't really do much to improve the maps and then they would be on the street, homeless and naked. Well, good for them, bad for us.
redux: I've learned a lot to be honest. Hint brushes and areaportals were areas I really didn't understand until I saw them used correctly. Elmo- went over with me and showed me how to use hint brushes better also.
Ihmhi: Something I've been meaning to ask many of the devs - a lot of you guys seem to work in the game industry or are going to college to eventually get into the game industry. Do you work on games for your job, or do you do something totally boring and normal?
redux: I am still in college, but am considering a job in the game industry when I graduate. Regardless what I do, I will still do it as a hobby.
Ihmhi: More than a few devs have already gone off to work for other game companies. I'm personally excited about trying to get them to confirm what games they've worked on. Maybe five or ten years from now people will be playing a game on the XBOX 720 that you had a hand in.
redux: I just hope that if I do get a job in the game industry i won't end up hating game design.
Ihmhi: Things sort of change when you can't pick and choose what you want to make. I've thought about it and would rather be in a creative position like level design rather than a "make this level happen" position like mappers.
redux: Very true.
Ihmhi: My last question for you - something I personally haven't been able to figure out. What does redux mean? Is that replying to a duck's e-mail? A copy of a duck? Or is it not even remotely duck-related?
redux: Haha, its was in a list of something a friend had back when I was in 7th grade. We were coming up with 5 character nicknames so I picked that one because I liked the way it sounded. In the dictionary it means brought back, or returned. It is also the name of a diet pill that was banned many years ago.
Ihmhi: Oh right, like Apocalypse Now: Redux. How could I have forgotten that? Congratulations, you've made me feel stupid.
Ihmhi: Actually, scratch the congratulations, it isn't all that hard. Thanks for the interview!
redux: Thanks for interviewing me, see you soon.
Ihmhi: The same to you!
All are welcome to participate. Simply visit this thread in our forums and drop your question in!
http://fortress-forever.com/forum/showthread.php?t=16481
And after the questions, we have an interview with one of the devs who have been around the longest, redux! (Apparently, his name has absolutely nothing to do with ducks at all. I'm as surprised as you are.)
Before we get started, I'd like to state a change in the weekly Q&As. A lot of devs get involved in the answers, and I tend to just edit them together into something that covers the subject nicely. Since it comes from multiple people, we'll no longer be listing which devs have answered the questions. I'd really prefer not to show (trepid_jon, Pon, Nezumi, redux) and five other dev names after each answer.
Question 1 ( reaper18 and many, many other people ):
When will the 2.1 changelog be posted? Is there an ETA on 2.1's arrival? When 2.1 will out? etc.
Answer 1:
This is something that was told to the beta testers a long time ago, and I will gladly tell it to everyone else. The dev team has an internal checklist - stuff they would like to get done for the next patch. Currently, about 95% of the checklist is green - green meaning done - but that does not represent the total completion of the patch. If my list was "add a new texture" and "rebalance HW", those are two items on a list but each includes different kinds of work. But yes, the internal checklist is mostly done.
FF tends to shy away from setting a release date. We probably could have been done a month ago, but .dt. (one of our new coders) had a little problem where his laptop got all messed up on him and he couldn't code anymore.
When we do have the patch done, we will probably go with something like a week's advance notice. We'll also probably release the server package a little bit early so server operators can get updates in place and relate any problems to us that might show up. And of course, we prefer to test the installer packages and make sure they work so we don't release something broken to the community.
Question 2 ( reaper18 ):
Have any changes been made to canal zone?
Answer 2 :
2.1 ff_cz2 (Canalzone2) is fun. That's all you really need to know now.
Buuut if you want the details... flags have basically been removed altogether. Now pretty much anyone can walk over a point and cap it. The map's teleporters are useful for helping to move your team to defend a point you still control.
One of the important elements of gameplay design is to get people to play the map the way you intended it to be played. In FF, that usually just means "Have fun". Frankly, cz2 was not getting played. It was slow and arduous - pretty much the exact opposite of what makes FF fun. Beta testers now love playing cz2, and we hope that that same love carries over to the general public.
I'm sure many server operators have taken cz2 off of their map rotations because it's made players leave as if the server were on fire. We hope that server ops will give cz2 a second chance in 2.1.
And damn it reaper18, if you don't stop asking such good questions there's not gonna be any left for other people.
Question 3 ( im2cool4uroflolz, v!be<<<Ampersand ):
What changes are being made to the Demoman in 2.1?
Answer 3:
Most notably, the Demoman's blue pipe timer has been extended from 1.1 seconds to 1.3 seconds.
The devs were caught between a rock and a hard place with the blue pipe timer. Originally, 2.2 seconds was deemed too hard for newbies to be able to use. If you can't get a hit with a blue pipe, then you have to try and aim it so the explosion happens when you want it to. 2.2 seconds was also far too spammable - you could just have a bunch of pipes clogging up a chokepoint which results in some very effective (but very spammy) area denial.
As a result, the timer was reduced to 1.1 seconds. Now we have pro demos saying that the timer is either too short (reduced range) or is too easy for newbies to hit targets with. Initially some of our testers advocated bringing the timer up to 1.5, but we eventually came to a compromise of 1.3 seconds. Those 0.2 seconds counts for a lot towards balance and extensive playtesting has shown that it works pretty well. We think nearly everyone will be satisfied with it.
There are not really any other significant changes being made to the Demoman. Take a look at the changelog when 2.1 comes out for the full details!
Question 4 ( im2cool4uroflolz ):
Are there any changes being made to Aardvark?
Answer 4:
No significant changes are being made to Aardvark. Nearly every map has little hidden optimization and balance changes uring patches, but nothing really big is going to happen with Aardvark in this patch.
Question 5 ( v!be<<<Ampersand ):
Hey guys, new to Fortress Forever here, just in case you're wondering why I popped out of nowhere =P Pretty badass mod so far.
That said, I've heard FF is converting to the Orange Box Engine? I'm definitely a Demoman player and I love the way the grenades from his launcher bounce in TF2. Once the conversion is complete, will they bounce that way in FF? Actually, I guess the better question to ask would be; Will conversion to the Orange Box Engine change the game's physics in any way? [forgive me, I don't know a lot about game engines, so sorry if that's a stupid question = ]
Answer 5:
So we have a huge question that's mostly about the conversion to the Orange Box.
Let's start with the disappointing news: FF will not be converting to the Orange Box for 2.1. We would have to delay 2.1 for months just to convert the code with the staff we have on hand.
And now, the good news. Conversion to OB is one of our priorities for 2.2. There's a 95% chance that 2.2 will be the debut of Orange Box for FF. What does this mean?
We'll be able to take advantage of all of the nice graphical things that OB has available to it, like the particle system used extensively in Half Life 2: Episode 2.
We'd rather not get into the extreme techincal details of it, but Orange Box will give our developers more tools to make the game run smoother and look nicer in general. The conversion to OB will show a much improved FF overall.
We really wish we could tell you more about it, but there's a lot that we're still planning and thinking about. Saying that anything is definite would be lying.
As for the Demoman, the major Demoman change (blue pipe timer) has been addressed in a previous question.
Dev Interview: redux
Ihmhi: Dux, are ye around?
redux: What's up?
Ihmhi: I'd like to do your dev interview now - do you have time?
redux: sure but i may be in and out for a few minutes
redux: im in the middle of painting a repainting a pinball cabinet and its about to rain again
redux: fire away though
Ihmhi: See, that's interesting material. Let's start with that, rather than my traditional starting question. Why are you painting a pinball cabinet, and what pinball game is it? I personally love how they can turn physical information (gears, switches, bumpers) into a GAME.
redux: I collect pinball machines in my spare time. The game is Spirit of 76 by Gottlieb. It is an Electro Mechanical pinball, which means there are no circuit boards. Everything is driven by electrical switches and gear driven mechanisms. I also own modern solid state games which are circuit board and CPU driven. Most of my games are from the 1990's.
Ihmhi: Wow man, that's the kind of shit I like. I'm the same way with lots of stuff like that. I have this handheld (handheld being the side of a football) video game from Radio Shack that's basically a Space Invaders ripoff. I still play it to this day, so I completely understand where you're coming from.
redux: I picked this game up from another collector near Dallas and figured I'd try my hand at a full restoration. It should look pretty close like it came out of the factory when I am done with it. Parts are hard to find however so we will see how it will turn out.
Ihmhi: Before my next question, I'd like to pimp one of Iggy's favorite websites out to you and the readers - http://www.atariage.com. The guys there know a lot about hardware and odds are there's a guy who knows about machines if you have questions.
Ihmhi: Aaand now to my traditional-first-question-which-is-now-the-second-question: how did you come to be on the dev team?
redux: I've helped test Fortress Forever since before the 1.0 release. I never really had the time to map though because I was taking 22 and 21 hour semesters of college.
Ihmhi: Wow. I'm a newbie mapper, and I personally think I'd be frustrated with trying to do anything in the pre-release environment. Server crashes were abundant and fixed very slowly - it must have been a bear to test out new stuff.
redux: It was tough testing sometimes because of a lot of crashing bugs. It was neat though seeing the list of bugs being reduced before release. The mod really has come a long way since then.
redux: It was great seeing all of the content progress even before the release. A change that I really remember best is the Shutdown2 makeover. We thought it was crazy good as it was, then Defrag made it into what it is now.
Ihmhi: I loved the SD2 remake as well. The first one was a good Source map, but it didn't really have its own identity. Defrag made it seem more alive.
Ihmhi: Speaking of mapping, you're working on a new project - return. I've been working with mapping myself, and honestly every time I look at something you, Defrag, Nezumi, etc. cook up I feel like a kindergartner with a finger painting trying to get into the Louvre. What tips can you give to new mappers to add that level to detail to your maps - basically, how do you make your maps look so damn good?
redux: Return was kind of a reintroduction to mapping for me, as the last map I released was in 2002 or so. I am not sure if I want to continue that map as I did a lot of things wrong with it. It was a great start on Source engine mapping as I hadn't done it before. Source mapping is a lot more time consuming than HL1 engine maps were by a long shot. As far as mapping tips go, when I started out I always had problems with lighting. I had a push style map in TFC titled 'pushed' that I was really satisfied with visually, but never really got the lighting right. After it was released, I learned better lighting techniques which I applied to maps after that. I would say ask for a source file from someone just to see how they did things. Things can look a lot different in Hammer compared to in game.
redux: I would also suggest texture variation and application. Simple geometry can look great if it is textured well.
Ihmhi: That's very useful information that a lot of mappers will appreciate - especially myself. Thanks for that.
Ihmhi: On the same subject, I have some very insane ideas for maps. Like most mappers (especially new ones), I'm very protective of them. Do you have any really crazy and/or outlandish ideas for maps that you'd be willing to describe in detail? Basically, your dream map.
redux: To be honest, I think that maps with simple goals are better received. Back in TFC, some mappers tried some crazy stuff and it just never played out very well. The maps that got played were ones with easy to understand goals, such as CTF, AvD, etc. I did like the map run, as it was kind of a crazy idea at the time but worked really well. I think something like that would be great in Fortress Forever. Though not outlandish, I really enjoy King of the Hill style maps. As far as a dream map, I would like to have a map that is a new idea, but simple enough for everyone to understand and enjoy. I'm still trying to come up with that one.
Ihmhi: So basically, the holy grail of mapping. Well, at least people can't say you don't dream big!
Ihmhi: Hey, why not combine two interests into one and make a map that's a giant pinball machine. I'm sure your implementation would be fun and the scoring would be very accurate!
redux: The funny thing is I thought about doing that, even just for novelty's sake.
Ihmhi: Man, you completely should do it. When this Q&A goes up, I'm sure a lot of people will agree with you on that point. I'd love to see it, and you can combine two of your hobbies into one uber-hobby. It's like quad damage, but for fun!
redux: haha, yeah
redux: It would be a fun project.
Ihmhi: See man, now if you don't do it a whole lotta people will be disappointed. So basically I've just guilted you into mapping. I wonder if that's how the big companies do it, haha.
redux: Start waving Dollar bills at me and it'll be out next week!
Ihmhi: Well I know mervaka carries around a lot of Dollar bills, but that's mostly for strip clubs and riding the bus since he destroyed his van. Maybe he'll chip in!
redux: He'd better.
Ihmhi: Well technically he has Sterling Pounds, so that's like two Dollars in one! Very compact.
redux: hehe
Ihmhi: Back onto the mapping topic. You're working on bases now, correct?
redux: Yes, I am finishing it where Defrag left off.
Ihmhi: This brings up an interesting point - no one mapper has really worked on any FF Dev map. It's usually two or more guys working on it during different stages. What have you personally brought to bases?
redux: When I first started working on the map, most of the geometry was done. The ramp room and the small hallways were just an empty shell, and there was only one spawn room. There were a lot of other touches that hadn't been added in yet, such as some lighting, signs, and other brushwork.
redux: The main problem with the map was that it exceeded the brush and entity limits when the bases were flipped. FPS was really bad in most of the places so that had to be worked out as well. I had to tear down and rebuild some areas to get the limits down, while still trying to add new stuff.
redux: This would not have been possible without Crazy Carl who turned in a lot of brushwork into props. He really helped out a lot.
Ihmhi: The other testers and I noticed this blatant cheating and plan to do the very same for our own maps whenever we get around to doing them.
redux: When everything was almost complete, I handed the map over to Elmo-, who is a genius at optimization. He really helped out a lot at getting the frame rate to a good level. When he handed it back, I was awestruck at how he had optimized everything.
redux: Using props in a map is a great way to go as it saves a ton of geometry to be used for other sections.
Ihmhi: A lot of testers initially complained about low FPS and other graphics issues when they came on-board the pre-release team. Part of it was unoptimized coding, but a lot of it was probably unoptimized mapping as well. I'm sure you must have looked at more than one of the VMFs - are there any maps that could have insanely better FPS with optimization?
redux: Most of the ones I have looked at are optimized pretty well. I could see a few spots that could be optimized to reduce compile time though. I imagine Elmo could spot a lot more things than I could however.
Ihmhi: Have you learned anything looking at the optimizations that Elmo- and Crazy Carl have done? Ideally, the dev mappers would learn enough of the tricks where they can't really do much to improve the maps and then they would be on the street, homeless and naked. Well, good for them, bad for us.
redux: I've learned a lot to be honest. Hint brushes and areaportals were areas I really didn't understand until I saw them used correctly. Elmo- went over with me and showed me how to use hint brushes better also.
Ihmhi: Something I've been meaning to ask many of the devs - a lot of you guys seem to work in the game industry or are going to college to eventually get into the game industry. Do you work on games for your job, or do you do something totally boring and normal?
redux: I am still in college, but am considering a job in the game industry when I graduate. Regardless what I do, I will still do it as a hobby.
Ihmhi: More than a few devs have already gone off to work for other game companies. I'm personally excited about trying to get them to confirm what games they've worked on. Maybe five or ten years from now people will be playing a game on the XBOX 720 that you had a hand in.
redux: I just hope that if I do get a job in the game industry i won't end up hating game design.
Ihmhi: Things sort of change when you can't pick and choose what you want to make. I've thought about it and would rather be in a creative position like level design rather than a "make this level happen" position like mappers.
redux: Very true.
Ihmhi: My last question for you - something I personally haven't been able to figure out. What does redux mean? Is that replying to a duck's e-mail? A copy of a duck? Or is it not even remotely duck-related?
redux: Haha, its was in a list of something a friend had back when I was in 7th grade. We were coming up with 5 character nicknames so I picked that one because I liked the way it sounded. In the dictionary it means brought back, or returned. It is also the name of a diet pill that was banned many years ago.
Ihmhi: Oh right, like Apocalypse Now: Redux. How could I have forgotten that? Congratulations, you've made me feel stupid.
Ihmhi: Actually, scratch the congratulations, it isn't all that hard. Thanks for the interview!
redux: Thanks for interviewing me, see you soon.
Ihmhi: The same to you!
Q&A 4 - 2.1, HW Guy, Pon Pon Pata Pon!
Fortress Forever Team - 2008-08-10 12:11 CDT
Welcome to Week 4 of community Q&A! We love listening to your questions and we'd love to see more - send 'em our way in this thread:
http://www.fortress-forever.com/forum/showthread.php?t=16481
Now onto Q&A 4...
Question 1 ([AE] 82694):
What plan does the Dev team have for FF after the 2.1 release?
1) Will you be concentrating on models.
2) More maps with all the new mappers the Dev team has.
3) What your plans for FF in general are.
Answer 1 (-pF-)
1) There will be changes to the models. From what it looks like right now, there will be tweaks in size and proportion to help distinguish classes. Also, we will probably switch to a new skeleton to facilitate the addition of new animations. Finally, we'd like to retexture some, if not all of the models. So texture artists with prior experience in texturing characters, please apply (like, now)!
2) There's a few really good brand new maps being made up by beta testers and devs alike. When 2.1 comes out, you'll enjoy them for sure!
3) We plan to keep refining the game and make it as fun and balanced as possible. We'd also like to add features to help new players understand the Fortress genre better.
Question 2 (cfive):
Why don't you just make hardcap a serverside thing so people can choose?
Answer 2 (Nezumi):
Since this question has been asked and answered many times in the past, I'll answer again now: different bhop mechanics in different servers would divide the community, and segregate people to their own prefered play style, which we don't want. We want everyone to learn to play together. It's okay for maps to have different and interesting playstyles, but the basic look and feel of the game should stay roughly the same no matter what you're playing.
Question 3 (cfive):
I want to help FF gain popularity, is there anyway I could join the PR team?
Answer 3 (Implode, Iggy):
We do not have any specific plans for community involvement ready at this time, but they are being worked on. When we have something we need you guys to do we'll let you know about it! However, please feel free to continue to invite new potential players to the mod. Basically, tell your friends, and try to get them interested. Hopefully they will like it, and do the same.
Question 4 (reaper1):
What changes, if any, have been made to the Heavy Weapons Guy?
Answer 4 (Ihmhi):
I'm just going to paraphrase the general reaction of the beta testers for this question: "Holy shit, the HW Guy destroys now!"He's not overpowered, but he's not a pansy anymore.
Question 5 (reaper1):
Have any core changes to the mod been made that have had an effect on the frames per second for clients?
Answer 5 (-insert any mapper here-):
As for maps, any FF mapper can tell you this: framerates are a result of map optimization. That said, Elmo- has busted his butt improving the FPS for Monkey. Waterpolo no longer drives your FPS into the ground. Most other dev maps are getting little FPS improvements here and there.
And as for code, we haven't focused very much on optimizations, but rather fixes, tweaks, and additions. We're going to wait to do a lot of code optimizations until the Orange Box is our code base, simply so we don't have to do a lot of Orange Box merging once again and so we don't spend a lot of time fixing what Orange Box might have already fixed.
B-B-Bonus Content:
This week, we have an interview with one of the devs. Ihmhi asked Pon (one of our Lua guys) some questions about Lua and his experiences with FF in general. If he can wrangle the devs into a corner for a few minutes in the future, we hope for this to be a regular feature until we run out of devs.
So with that, here's the interview!
Ihmhi: We'll start with an easy question: describe your position on the Dev Team.
Pon.id: Well, my position is that of an Lua scripter. Generally, our mappers come to me, ask if 'such and such' a feature can be done with Lua, and if it can, can I get to work on it. If it can't, I tell them to bug the programmers until it can
Ihmhi: How did you manage to join the dev team? Did you apply, or did someone invite you?
Pon.id: I was invitied by squeek., who seemed to notice the work I was trying to do to help community mappers with their Lua, I guess.
Ihmhi: A lot of people, including myself, view Lua as this sort of mystical language invented by insane people. Could you give us a little insight into how Lua works with FF maps and why it's such a powerful tool for us?
Pon.id: Well, insane is a bit strong... close, but a bit strong The main reason it's so useful and is a powerful tool, in my opinion, is the control over damn near everything it gives you. You can use it to dictate how most everything in FF should work if you want, from map entities to the damage dealt by each weapon. Alongside that, you can customise the feedback your map gives the player via the HUD. Most importantly though, you can use it to build pretty much any gamemode you can think of. Technically you could have a Fortess Forever map that plays like Counterstrike, for example.
Ihmhi: Is there anything you can't conceivably do with Lua in FF?
Pon.id: Hmm, well, yes, I guess there will be. Most everything has limits. But, given that FF is in active development, anything that can't be done, and is needed, can be added. For example, for one map, it was nessecary that the player's health be drained, which currently wasn't possible. So, someone set the AddHealth function to accept negative values, and that was it, job done. So, I guess that, conceivably, I can't think of anything that can't at the very least be added if needed.
Ihmhi: So if FF's lua functionality can't do something, the other devs can code it in for you?
Pon.id: Yeah, pretty much. It's also something I should learn to do myself as well, I guess.
Ihmhi: One of my personal peeves with Lua (and coding in general) is uncommented code. Pretty much all of the core lua files and nearly every single released map's Lua is uncommented. Will there ever be an effort to get the Lua code commented so it's easier for people new to Lua to get a handle on it?
Pon.id: Hopefully. It would would be useful to a lot of mappers, I think.
Ihmhi: What was the hardest bit of Lua coding that you've had to do recently?
Pon.id: Probably for a map called Impact which is currently in development. Without wanting to give too much away, the main problem was to have a system in place that allowed for multiple flags to be in play at any one time, without spawning a new one every time one was needed and being a massive resource drain. And that also switched teams each round.
Ihmhi: Last question (and make it quick as I have to leave for work now). Did you ever regret mercilessly beating on chickens in a Legend of Zelda game?
Pon.id: Never.
Ihmhi: Thanks a bunch!
http://www.fortress-forever.com/forum/showthread.php?t=16481
Now onto Q&A 4...
Question 1 ([AE] 82694):
What plan does the Dev team have for FF after the 2.1 release?
1) Will you be concentrating on models.
2) More maps with all the new mappers the Dev team has.
3) What your plans for FF in general are.
Answer 1 (-pF-)
1) There will be changes to the models. From what it looks like right now, there will be tweaks in size and proportion to help distinguish classes. Also, we will probably switch to a new skeleton to facilitate the addition of new animations. Finally, we'd like to retexture some, if not all of the models. So texture artists with prior experience in texturing characters, please apply (like, now)!
2) There's a few really good brand new maps being made up by beta testers and devs alike. When 2.1 comes out, you'll enjoy them for sure!
3) We plan to keep refining the game and make it as fun and balanced as possible. We'd also like to add features to help new players understand the Fortress genre better.
Question 2 (cfive):
Why don't you just make hardcap a serverside thing so people can choose?
Answer 2 (Nezumi):
Since this question has been asked and answered many times in the past, I'll answer again now: different bhop mechanics in different servers would divide the community, and segregate people to their own prefered play style, which we don't want. We want everyone to learn to play together. It's okay for maps to have different and interesting playstyles, but the basic look and feel of the game should stay roughly the same no matter what you're playing.
Question 3 (cfive):
I want to help FF gain popularity, is there anyway I could join the PR team?
Answer 3 (Implode, Iggy):
We do not have any specific plans for community involvement ready at this time, but they are being worked on. When we have something we need you guys to do we'll let you know about it! However, please feel free to continue to invite new potential players to the mod. Basically, tell your friends, and try to get them interested. Hopefully they will like it, and do the same.
Question 4 (reaper1):
What changes, if any, have been made to the Heavy Weapons Guy?
Answer 4 (Ihmhi):
I'm just going to paraphrase the general reaction of the beta testers for this question: "Holy shit, the HW Guy destroys now!"He's not overpowered, but he's not a pansy anymore.
Question 5 (reaper1):
Have any core changes to the mod been made that have had an effect on the frames per second for clients?
Answer 5 (-insert any mapper here-):
As for maps, any FF mapper can tell you this: framerates are a result of map optimization. That said, Elmo- has busted his butt improving the FPS for Monkey. Waterpolo no longer drives your FPS into the ground. Most other dev maps are getting little FPS improvements here and there.
And as for code, we haven't focused very much on optimizations, but rather fixes, tweaks, and additions. We're going to wait to do a lot of code optimizations until the Orange Box is our code base, simply so we don't have to do a lot of Orange Box merging once again and so we don't spend a lot of time fixing what Orange Box might have already fixed.
B-B-Bonus Content:
This week, we have an interview with one of the devs. Ihmhi asked Pon (one of our Lua guys) some questions about Lua and his experiences with FF in general. If he can wrangle the devs into a corner for a few minutes in the future, we hope for this to be a regular feature until we run out of devs.
So with that, here's the interview!
Ihmhi: We'll start with an easy question: describe your position on the Dev Team.
Pon.id: Well, my position is that of an Lua scripter. Generally, our mappers come to me, ask if 'such and such' a feature can be done with Lua, and if it can, can I get to work on it. If it can't, I tell them to bug the programmers until it can
Ihmhi: How did you manage to join the dev team? Did you apply, or did someone invite you?
Pon.id: I was invitied by squeek., who seemed to notice the work I was trying to do to help community mappers with their Lua, I guess.
Ihmhi: A lot of people, including myself, view Lua as this sort of mystical language invented by insane people. Could you give us a little insight into how Lua works with FF maps and why it's such a powerful tool for us?
Pon.id: Well, insane is a bit strong... close, but a bit strong The main reason it's so useful and is a powerful tool, in my opinion, is the control over damn near everything it gives you. You can use it to dictate how most everything in FF should work if you want, from map entities to the damage dealt by each weapon. Alongside that, you can customise the feedback your map gives the player via the HUD. Most importantly though, you can use it to build pretty much any gamemode you can think of. Technically you could have a Fortess Forever map that plays like Counterstrike, for example.
Ihmhi: Is there anything you can't conceivably do with Lua in FF?
Pon.id: Hmm, well, yes, I guess there will be. Most everything has limits. But, given that FF is in active development, anything that can't be done, and is needed, can be added. For example, for one map, it was nessecary that the player's health be drained, which currently wasn't possible. So, someone set the AddHealth function to accept negative values, and that was it, job done. So, I guess that, conceivably, I can't think of anything that can't at the very least be added if needed.
Ihmhi: So if FF's lua functionality can't do something, the other devs can code it in for you?
Pon.id: Yeah, pretty much. It's also something I should learn to do myself as well, I guess.
Ihmhi: One of my personal peeves with Lua (and coding in general) is uncommented code. Pretty much all of the core lua files and nearly every single released map's Lua is uncommented. Will there ever be an effort to get the Lua code commented so it's easier for people new to Lua to get a handle on it?
Pon.id: Hopefully. It would would be useful to a lot of mappers, I think.
Ihmhi: What was the hardest bit of Lua coding that you've had to do recently?
Pon.id: Probably for a map called Impact which is currently in development. Without wanting to give too much away, the main problem was to have a system in place that allowed for multiple flags to be in play at any one time, without spawning a new one every time one was needed and being a massive resource drain. And that also switched teams each round.
Ihmhi: Last question (and make it quick as I have to leave for work now). Did you ever regret mercilessly beating on chickens in a Legend of Zelda game?
Pon.id: Never.
Ihmhi: Thanks a bunch!
Q&A 3 - P.R., the Spy, and other wonderful things
Fortress Forever Team - 2008-08-02 20:59 CDT
Welcome to this week's Q&A, where the devs answer your questions! If you would like to ask the devs a question, just register for the forums and go to this thread:
http://www.fortress-forever.com/forum/showthread.php?t=16481
The best questions will be picked out by a certain dev and submitted to the devs for their responses.
Question 1(Rutabeggar):
A lot of the people I know have written off FF since they played it way back in 1.0, is the dev team is planning to reach out to the players that was so unjustly isolated by the majority of the first team and new players in general, we all talk about "PR" but what kind of "PR" is being planned, if any?
Answer 1 (Implode):
We have recently created an active "PR" department that has already begun working on several things...just a few of these include: Getting FF listed on the 3rd Party mod, an update notification on steam list, and also advertising on national gaming and CPU sites. And of course, answering questions for people, just like yours.
Question 2 (Rocketrunner):
I don't know if this has been asked before, but, in 2.1, will the Nailgun and Super Nailgun have individual pros and cons so that, nobody keeps using medic ALL the time?
Answer 2 (squeek.):
No changes to the nailgun or super nailgun are being made in 2.1.
Question 3 (reaper18):
Will there be more notification of players who accomplish goals?
For example, who captured the flag, or who secured Command Point X?
Answer 3 (squeek.):
We have talked about this a bit, but it will likely not be implemented in 2.1.
Question 4 (reaper18 / im2cool4uroflolz):
Also, are the tranq effects going to eventually resemble TFC more so than they do? Like giving hallucinations of bullet impacts, grenades, gunshots, and explosions? What changes have been made to the spy cloak and are there any more planned features/optimizations? What sort of changes will be made to the Spy in 2.1?
Answer 4 (squeek.):
These questions are very similar, so they've been grouped together as one. When reaper18 says "tranq effects", I believe he is referring to the hallucination effects of the TFC Spy's gas grenades. There will likely not be any changes to the effects of the Spy's gas grenades this patch.
The Spy's cloak and disguise dynamics have changed a bit regarding Sentry Guns in 2.1. When you are disguised as the enemy and cloaked, enemy Sentry Guns will not see you. Being cloaked and disguised as the wrong team or just being cloaked will still result in the Sentry shooting you.
*EDIT* Actually, now a cloaked spy disguised as an enemy will be detected by enemy sentries, but only within a shorter range than the regular lock on distance. *END EDIT*
The spy is 100% invisible when cloaked and standing still. No shadow, no talk icon, nothing.
Question 5 (Hammock):
Would it be at all possible to display the Time Remaining of the current map when selecting the option "View Server". It displays the players, their scores and how long they've been in the server.
But there's been many times I don't want to join a server playing a map I don't care for. It'd be nice to know how much longer the map has without actually joining the server, or maybe you can't join cause it's full and know the best time to join is during a map change, also good to know when that map change will occur.
Answer 5 (dt):
"It might be possible to show the time and other game info in the server browser, but that's something we really haven't messed with yet. Our coding staff is working hard on things with a higher priority and this is something we might get into a future patch if it can be coded."
http://www.fortress-forever.com/forum/showthread.php?t=16481
The best questions will be picked out by a certain dev and submitted to the devs for their responses.
Question 1(Rutabeggar):
A lot of the people I know have written off FF since they played it way back in 1.0, is the dev team is planning to reach out to the players that was so unjustly isolated by the majority of the first team and new players in general, we all talk about "PR" but what kind of "PR" is being planned, if any?
Answer 1 (Implode):
We have recently created an active "PR" department that has already begun working on several things...just a few of these include: Getting FF listed on the 3rd Party mod, an update notification on steam list, and also advertising on national gaming and CPU sites. And of course, answering questions for people, just like yours.
Question 2 (Rocketrunner):
I don't know if this has been asked before, but, in 2.1, will the Nailgun and Super Nailgun have individual pros and cons so that, nobody keeps using medic ALL the time?
Answer 2 (squeek.):
No changes to the nailgun or super nailgun are being made in 2.1.
Question 3 (reaper18):
Will there be more notification of players who accomplish goals?
For example, who captured the flag, or who secured Command Point X?
Answer 3 (squeek.):
We have talked about this a bit, but it will likely not be implemented in 2.1.
Question 4 (reaper18 / im2cool4uroflolz):
Also, are the tranq effects going to eventually resemble TFC more so than they do? Like giving hallucinations of bullet impacts, grenades, gunshots, and explosions? What changes have been made to the spy cloak and are there any more planned features/optimizations? What sort of changes will be made to the Spy in 2.1?
Answer 4 (squeek.):
These questions are very similar, so they've been grouped together as one. When reaper18 says "tranq effects", I believe he is referring to the hallucination effects of the TFC Spy's gas grenades. There will likely not be any changes to the effects of the Spy's gas grenades this patch.
The Spy's cloak and disguise dynamics have changed a bit regarding Sentry Guns in 2.1. When you are disguised as the enemy and cloaked, enemy Sentry Guns will not see you. Being cloaked and disguised as the wrong team or just being cloaked will still result in the Sentry shooting you.
*EDIT* Actually, now a cloaked spy disguised as an enemy will be detected by enemy sentries, but only within a shorter range than the regular lock on distance. *END EDIT*
The spy is 100% invisible when cloaked and standing still. No shadow, no talk icon, nothing.
Question 5 (Hammock):
Would it be at all possible to display the Time Remaining of the current map when selecting the option "View Server". It displays the players, their scores and how long they've been in the server.
But there's been many times I don't want to join a server playing a map I don't care for. It'd be nice to know how much longer the map has without actually joining the server, or maybe you can't join cause it's full and know the best time to join is during a map change, also good to know when that map change will occur.
Answer 5 (dt):
"It might be possible to show the time and other game info in the server browser, but that's something we really haven't messed with yet. Our coding staff is working hard on things with a higher priority and this is something we might get into a future patch if it can be coded."
Q&A 2 - the Engineer, resupplies, and some AvD lovin'.
Fortress Forever Team - 2008-07-28 22:28 CDT
Here's this week's Q&A, brought to you remarkably late on account of every dev is too damn busy to talk to me. As always, remember to hop over to the FF Q&A thread and ask more questions: http://www.fortress-forever.com/forum/showthread.php?t=16481
Question 1 (Rutabeggar):
What would you say are the most stark contrasts between 2.1 and the mods previous patches as in are there any new game breaking/making things being added such as the heavy becoming important again?
Answer 1 (Circuitous):
For starters, the HW is much more useful now. We are still working on some of the finer points of the class but overall it is better than the 2.0 HW. The Engineers will be able to resupply a bit easier. (This is expanded upon in Question 2.) The Pyros are slightly less spammy, and the flamethrower's push has been notched up a bit. Snipers are more efficient than their 2.0 predecessors.
Question 2 (Agent Buckshot Moose):
What's going on with the Engineer in 2.1?
Answer 2 (Circuitous):
This is an interesting list.
- Dispensers now start with ammo and armor, regenerate twice as much per tick, dispense twice as much per tick, and dispense faster than before.
- Carrying your Railgun regenerate rails.
- Railgun Charging is quite different,
--- each charge level only takes 1 second and 1 rail,
--- after fully charging, you can continue to hold it for up to 3 seconds,
--- after 3 seconds, the Railgun overcharges. This costs an additional rail, but gives you 40 Cells. Great for SG spots that don't have handy resupplies.
--- overcharging in this way does not hurt you anymore.
- lastly, and this may not make it to patch time, we want dispensers to "pick up" any bags dropped nearby.
Question 3 (Gwarsbane):
Will there be more no build stuff put into all the official maps to stop people from building stuff in the spawn rooms and in doors? Will all the spawn areas in official maps that don't have them get the no grenade code? Well and Aardvark come to mind as they seem to be the ones spammed the most.
Answer 3 (Circuitous)
They absolutely should, but it's a matter of what we have access to now. All of the new maps, and any maps that are actively being worked on or reconstructed, have nobuilds and noannoyances where needed. We'll see what we can do.
Question 4 (Gwarsbane)
Will spawn bags ever heal broken legs, medic infections, tracer tags, put out flames and stuff like that? That would help in most cases against people spamming the spawn room with spy gas, or a medic running in, or a scout concing the spawn room.
Answer 4 (Circuitous)
Will they ever? I think they should. Do they now? Not yet.
The good news is this should just be a Lua change - it'd be quite easy to do. Assuming no one finds a reason not to, this should be in the next patch.
Question 5 (Tsukasa)
Whats the status on all the AvD maps?
Answer 5 (Circuitous, squeek., Nezumi)
Dustbowl has been re-optimized, and now includes HDR and a slew of bugfixes.
squeek. is working on the updated version of cornfield. There are some minor changes to the map that should make gameplay a little more interesting: the cap triggers are now 1 unit above the cap point, and the defender's spawn points are moved forward.
The AvD crowd will be glad to hear that they will be getting a brand new map in 2.1. Nezumi has an awesome new AvD map called anticitizen. It's currently being playtested to death and it's a lot of fun.
Question 1 (Rutabeggar):
What would you say are the most stark contrasts between 2.1 and the mods previous patches as in are there any new game breaking/making things being added such as the heavy becoming important again?
Answer 1 (Circuitous):
For starters, the HW is much more useful now. We are still working on some of the finer points of the class but overall it is better than the 2.0 HW. The Engineers will be able to resupply a bit easier. (This is expanded upon in Question 2.) The Pyros are slightly less spammy, and the flamethrower's push has been notched up a bit. Snipers are more efficient than their 2.0 predecessors.
Question 2 (Agent Buckshot Moose):
What's going on with the Engineer in 2.1?
Answer 2 (Circuitous):
This is an interesting list.
- Dispensers now start with ammo and armor, regenerate twice as much per tick, dispense twice as much per tick, and dispense faster than before.
- Carrying your Railgun regenerate rails.
- Railgun Charging is quite different,
--- each charge level only takes 1 second and 1 rail,
--- after fully charging, you can continue to hold it for up to 3 seconds,
--- after 3 seconds, the Railgun overcharges. This costs an additional rail, but gives you 40 Cells. Great for SG spots that don't have handy resupplies.
--- overcharging in this way does not hurt you anymore.
- lastly, and this may not make it to patch time, we want dispensers to "pick up" any bags dropped nearby.
Question 3 (Gwarsbane):
Will there be more no build stuff put into all the official maps to stop people from building stuff in the spawn rooms and in doors? Will all the spawn areas in official maps that don't have them get the no grenade code? Well and Aardvark come to mind as they seem to be the ones spammed the most.
Answer 3 (Circuitous)
They absolutely should, but it's a matter of what we have access to now. All of the new maps, and any maps that are actively being worked on or reconstructed, have nobuilds and noannoyances where needed. We'll see what we can do.
Question 4 (Gwarsbane)
Will spawn bags ever heal broken legs, medic infections, tracer tags, put out flames and stuff like that? That would help in most cases against people spamming the spawn room with spy gas, or a medic running in, or a scout concing the spawn room.
Answer 4 (Circuitous)
Will they ever? I think they should. Do they now? Not yet.
The good news is this should just be a Lua change - it'd be quite easy to do. Assuming no one finds a reason not to, this should be in the next patch.
Question 5 (Tsukasa)
Whats the status on all the AvD maps?
Answer 5 (Circuitous, squeek., Nezumi)
Dustbowl has been re-optimized, and now includes HDR and a slew of bugfixes.
squeek. is working on the updated version of cornfield. There are some minor changes to the map that should make gameplay a little more interesting: the cap triggers are now 1 unit above the cap point, and the defender's spawn points are moved forward.
The AvD crowd will be glad to hear that they will be getting a brand new map in 2.1. Nezumi has an awesome new AvD map called anticitizen. It's currently being playtested to death and it's a lot of fun.
ff_2fort teaser
Fortress Forever Team - 2008-07-22 01:32 CDT
What would a Team Fortress game be without 2fort? Fortress Forever hasn't had an official version of 2fort yet, but luckily we have a mapper named shadow making a really great rendition of it. So finally, the upcoming Fortress Forever 2.1 will include ff_2fort.
One of our beta testers, Iggy (aka [AE] 81206), made a video of the map to the tune "When I Grow Up" by Crack the Sky...
Again, thanks to shadow for making this great new version of 2fort, and also thanks to Iggy for making this cool little video.
One of our beta testers, Iggy (aka [AE] 81206), made a video of the map to the tune "When I Grow Up" by Crack the Sky...
Again, thanks to shadow for making this great new version of 2fort, and also thanks to Iggy for making this cool little video.
Fortress Forever is a Team Fortress mod being developed by our independent team for Half-life 2's Source Engine.
