Warbell playtest #7

[McNite]

Its time for the

7th Playtest of Warbell[/color]

day: Friday 14th of July
time: 4pm Texas/Winnipeg / 5pm NY / 10pm UK / 11pm Stockholm/Hamburg / 7am (on sunday) Melbourne
server: ]UBC[ |TheRiver| 6maps
IP: 194.105.135.3:27960
pw: ask McNite on friday or check his msn name
TS-IP: 213.114.114.164 its the M8D teamspeak
TS-channel: M8D Gather >> Warbell playtest

Clans invited
]UBC[, =FBF=, B|D and M8D

All participants should have teamspeak for easy communication.

Main testing is about spotting things that look weird or could be improved.


I invited league admins/ referees, admins of popular servers and experienced mappers to this playtest too who are on this

Guest List

EB (mapper from SD forum) - is in
kamikazee (mapper from SD forum) - is maybe in
carnage (mapper from SD forum) - is in
FireFly (mapper from SD forum) -
=SC= Beef (admin, mapper from SD forum) - cant make it
DaBell/ <DJ> (mapper from SD forum) - is in

(This list will be updated.)

[McNite]

WHHEEEWWWWW now that was a happy fragfest playtest ;D ;D ;D

Thx 2 all who visited and participated!

Here are the things I observed:

1 - ladder
There is a ladder in the Guardhouse you can't climb up, and someone complained about it. Since I don't want to open the roof to players, should we remove it? Or rather make it look broken?

2 - spawn bug
It seems that with the change on the script that I uploaded while we were playing with about 10-14 players during the last games that bug got stepped on and squished
We did have Axis players spawn at the very start even while the guardhouse flag was already taken... no idea why though.

3 - iron doors at Guardhouse
They were a bit difficult to open, that s fixed already - thx Kamikazee and carnage.

4 - Gameplay: Sacrifices
It seems that the sacrifices can be done relatively easy - even when there are a lot of players defending. Carnage pointed this out. What do you think? For my money its ok that they can be done fast.

4 - Gameplay: Bell Mechanism
Especially with smaller teams the Bell Mechanism seems to be the hardest part.
It is a dynamitable objective so far, which means an engineer needs more than 1 charge bar. It is dynamitable because then axis have at least 30 seconds to toll the bell.
Suggestion is: make it satchelable instead so the engineer can build it faster. Drawback would be: Allies can destroy it right away (which would suck). So when the mechanism is "satchelable", should it be undestroyable then?
Opinions plz!

4 - Gameplay: Voice Objectives
We didnt put any VOs in so far, but made all necessary info come up as red messages from the server. Also all the important events are connected to a sound that everybody can hear.
This seemed to work out fine, or does someone have different ideas?

[blue]

Hi guys,

Here are my comments on yesterdays bughunt/duckhunt/hugbund/bugwont ;D
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I think the ladder should eighter look broken or be removed totally, now its like you think its a fault or mistake or something.

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I still think the bell should look a little more realistik, with some contour in it mayby, so it looks really realistik.

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I got a little confused yesterday, becouse its possible to ring the bell BEFORE the Book is delivert, and I couldent understand why the lights in the floor diden't changed color, until I discovert that the Book wasent in place ;D - But mayby somehow, IF someone rings the bell BEFORE the book is delivert let them know that something is missing, or something?

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Still think the blood is TO red, I think blood is more dark?, can't remember really, hmm and I don't want to try and see or do something to myself and have a look ;D

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Don't think the Bell Mechanism should be satchelable, I think it would be TO easy then, I like that its touf to play/win.

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I can't remember how long time the Map runs before the round is over, but a couple of times when playing Axis I thouth the time was TO short, but mayby thats only becouse I don't play the Map that well yet ;D

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As Kach pointet out yesterday when we where only like 6-7 players left on the server: "The Map its kinda more fun to play with less people".. I agree on that one.
Don't know if you can use that infomation for anything.

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I LOOVE the little froggy btw ;D ;D - The UBC's Mascot lol
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Thats it for me I guess, can't come up with more comments on the Map.

All in all a REALLY cool Map, that Im looking very mutch forvart to play some more, really good work McNite and Kach, you two can be proud of you self

-
Blue

[carnage]

hi, first off. great playtest again but have to agree that its better with a smaller number of players 7-8 per team. generaly i find the map is very small and tight even in the outdoor areas there is very little plain open ground but this is in no way a fault. perhaps it could make it fun for a TE since it suits about the right number of players

i stand by my coments that the sacrafices are easy. once your inside the castle there is so many corners etc its posible to just run around and the enemy will never get a clear shot so the only realy effective way to win is to stop them at the bell. hower i like the sacrafices in the way that it much favours a team push rather then one player having to lone wolf it three times when a team of players can finish it in 1 go making it a pretty fun objective

imo the bell machanism is great as it is. its very hard to get built with it being so near the allied spawn and so when its built the axis should have at least a 30 second change to ring the bell. although allowing the axis to drop down into the chappel means its a much easier then if they have to find another way into the castle again and also encourages cordination between players. "you get the bell, ill get ready to ring it"

the thing about it though is that with the sacrafice being the final objective and the bell being the main objective it loses a lot of preasure/exitment from the game. maby you could try a playtest where the objectives are

-deliver the book
-sacrafice players
-toll bell

since your doing pretty much the same objectives i doubt you would even notice much differeance in gameflow

then end the map with a shot of the outside of the church with the bell rininging slowly in the distance. even end the map this way anyway since the end of round shots dint look all to spectacular cosidering the extreamly good looks of this map. it has much more to offer. maby even script a camera to switch between some of the differnt shots of the level with the bell still ringing

i much preferd the castle interior and the lighting was very nice inside this time around. also the little pray thing is just clasic. i love it

other then that there are just some minor visual issues like the foam pond bit etc

there is some feedback. hope its something to go on. i also wana give some advice without trying to sound too up myself. i can sorta sence a amount of "rushing ness" now the final realse is coming up. its understandable that you want to get it out as fast as posible but keep it calm. it would be a shame to have such a great map and then have a part of it that looks distinctivley "last minute". keep up the great work.

carnage

[blue]

there is some feedback. hope its something to go on. i also wana give some advice without trying to sound too up myself. i can sorta sence a amount of "rushing ness" now the final realse is coming up. its understandable that you want to get it out as fast as posible but keep it calm. it would be a shame to have such a great map and then have a part of it that looks distinctivley "last minute". keep up the great work.

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I agree.. take your time guys, no rush, a week or two/tree more dosent matter

[McNite]

Here comes the feedback from Kamikazee that he sent to me on the SD forum:

Hi McNite,

I've taken your major points from the UBC forums since I have no account over there.

1 - ladder
I tried to climb it once, but didn't bother after I couldn't. It looks like the top floor is sealed off anyway, so I would keep it closed and clip the bottom part away so the ladder looks like it's broken. The castle is open at that place, so you could make it look heavily weathered as well.

This allso makes me think of another spot in the guardhouse: when you're coming down from the spawn flag using the stairs, you meet a brown door. You can't open it, so an extra wood brush across the door would make it more obvious that it won't open.

And whilst I'm nitpicking, there's yet another spot. The architectural part of the secret room made me wonder how one could build and decorate a secret room without a (hidden) door.
It's just a sugestion, but I wonder if it wouldn't look better if the wall has a bricked up doorway in it.
Of course, this would allso imply that the wall should look more like a blown up door after the dynamite exploded which is quite a pitty after the work of making the hole in the wall look good.

So take it with a pinch of nagman.

2 - spawn bug
Saw it once too. Quite annoying, and I thought that I didn't select a spawnpoint before causing the game to bug... However, it was only once, and didn't happen again afterwards.

3 - iron doors at Guardhouse
They were a bit difficult to open, that s fixed already - thx Kamikazee and carnage.
Done, and a "You're welcome".

4 - Gameplay: Sacrifices
I think it works out quite well. The first two are easy, the last one is possible if you storm the room.

Quote:
4 - Gameplay: Bell Mechanism
I thought of making it satchable before, but it would really make that objective less exciting.
It's OK as it is right now, plus it might actually push the players to use two engineers.

Quote:
4 - Gameplay: Voice Objectives
The only thing I'd mostly miss is when the book is delivered. I was mostly defending at the bell tower. That's not really a problem now, the bell still needs to be rung anyway and the bell sound is obvious.
I've read someone a post from someone on the UB forums saying that he was trying to ring the bell when the book wasn't there. To solve that, you could place an axis-only trigger_multiple pointing to a target_print so the "ringer" knows he should deliver the book first. Setstating it when the bell is sounded at the right time, and he knows. Anyway, that's just a little enhancement but isn't really worth bothering.


What's more up to discussion is carange's idea: switching the belltower and sacrifice order. There are positive things about it, like the fact that the allies can defend the ceremony room continously so they're not spread up, that it's far more obvious at what moment the bell can be rung (All sacrifice spots are then yellow) and the axis can stom to bring the book and make those sacrifices at the same moment. The negative side is that probably everyone will be in the ceremony room whereas the bell tower will be undefended, in that case the bell objective is way easier if the bell has been built before the sacrificing and that objective might become less exciting as well.
It's a radical change after all, so it would be worth some more playtests if you would try it.

To end my comments, I had a great time. Pytox had no complaints other than the fact he lost his way in the castle on some ocasions,which is obvious when playing this map the first time.
Once more a big "thank you" for the invitation and a you did a good job.

// Kamikazee: