md_bridge waypoints update
 

OK this map has given me a lot of little headaches but to get it off my immediate plate I have brought it up to a playable stage that is almost beta stage 2. Almost? :blush:well in campaigns the bot teams get stalemated when their XP gets higher (typically second or third cycle). So I am inviting comment for single objective or stopwatch play only. You will note that I have had to partially "remove" the storage teamdoors so that the engineers can access their dynamite objective. I have also used the map to try out a couple of things like engr camps and a underwater leap node that may seem irregular.

The map is a classic style ctf map with identical halves for each team. Each team has one dynamite objective, one steal and deliver objective. Included bot file is defined for 8-vs-7+1 human play. The files and map links are available here.


With all of my "in progress" maps now in some sort of beta release, I can get back to working on supplydepot2 next week.

Re: md_bridge waypoints update
 

Ok Release 0.98 version available now cleaned up with better routes and a couple other things. It remains a map intended for single objective or stopwatch with small teams only (6 vs 6+) to avoid stalemates.

Re: md_bridge waypoints update
 

I find with this map, if I man either of the mgs for my team, not one enemy ever makes it across the bridge. The bots are not very good at taking out the mg nests. Furthermore the bots do not seem to use the mg nests themselves.

But in spite of gunning down all the enemies in sight, my teammates still cannot penetrate the enemy base and get the objective back. Maybe the respawn time needs to be longer? And/or destructible command posts added to influence that?

Re: md_bridge waypoints update
 

Thanks for the feedback.
Unfortunately a steal objective is higher priority than a mg camp so the bots will man the fixed mgs but the attic mg only gets manned (botmanned?) rarely. The opposing team is given sniper camps and airstrike actions to try taking the attic mg out, but like most Fritzbot ET mg nests if you play the whole game camped there as an engineer fixing it as needed then what is the point? No point in a boring win or in this case a boring stalemate. Anyway the routes should direct almost 1/3rd of the spawned bots stealing to swim under the bridge unless they get fired upon coming out of the spawn. Alas those that choose the steal action after first doing a camp will take the shortest (bridge) path.
Making the respawn time longer might make the stalemate less likely but it would make the human mg camper even more effective. I think I could remove the attic mg at the game start but not later in the game.
Anyway this is not a very popular ET map so I don't think it is worth the work to script in 2 command posts. I suspect this map is only used (if at all) for warmups in the non bot community.

Re: md_bridge waypoints update
 

Hmm I never even noticed the attic mgs - was just using the ones out in the open. Don't even need to be an engineer. I think maybe part of the problem is that the mgs are just too accurate at long range. The bots are much more effective at using and attacking fixed mgs on other maps. What if it was foggy, so the other side of the bridge cannot be seen?

Re: md_bridge waypoints update
 

Normally the lower 2 mgs get taken out by artill in the first half of the match.

The script command to change fog (setglobalfog) only appears to work on maps that already have fog defined. And so far my testing on those maps makes the fog look like crap. A search on the net seems to indicate that fog probably should only be defined in the map by the mapper. Now what I can do is add a few smoke entities like I did on ammodepot (for the burning crates when you blow the shells) but note these effects are seemingly just available in the one size. And of course the bots see through them...

Re: md_bridge waypoints update
 

Ok, well I found how to change the target_smoke size and color to simulate a fast moving ground mist so I will play around with it some more and see If I can make an unpredictable weather effect that can then be optionally added to this map. The effect might be usable in some other small maps or areas but looks increasing fake as I scale it ever larger so I don't recommended it for larger areas (unless perhaps you add multiple target_smokes).

Re: md_bridge waypoints update
 

Here is the smoke effect as a wind blown river fog. There is a new cvar to control it fritz_weather. When zero it turns off immediately at the start of the match, when 1 it remains on for the match. And if set to -5 (as I have done in the map cfg file) then it will disappear after about 5 minutes (likewise if you want different timing use a different negative value in integer minutes). The lateral speed of the fog waves are faster than I would like but I don't seem to be able to control that directly (nor the smoke going under the water).

Re: md_bridge waypoints update
 

Ooops moving from 1 target_smoke effect to 3 with the same scriptname changed the timer count down by a factor of 3. Why I don't know but have fixed it with this version. And for those of you looking how to script timers I have also included example code for an alternate method that uses a func_timer entity rather than the recursive trigger calls method I am using.

Re: md_bridge waypoints update
 

cool effect!