Tuchola Forest Alpha Testing, feedback thread for alpha testers Options

[ScrapyardBob]

(Since there are some non-MOB folks testing the map, I'm going to start an alpha testing thread here in the open forum.)

The map is not ready for public testing yet (in case some are wondering) and is on a password protected test server in Chicago. It's still undergoing extensive internal testing and changes. All MOB members are welcome to test (see the MOB Regs forum for server info) and I have also sent server information to a few friends from past clans or people who are excellent at map design.

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State of the map (v067):

- CNQ is implemented with 13 capture points and 2 bonus objectives (one at each end). The bonus objectives do not work yet. There are 10 spawn points per objective for each team (240 total TDM spawn points for CNQ). Right now the server is running in debug mode which means 8 sec capture times and no need for multiple players in order to test CNQ.

- TDM/BEL need a few more TDM spawn points (ones not used in CNQ) to spread players across the map into areas that aren't used during CNQ.

- HQ will probably be added to the map tonight along with an HQ server-side mod to change some things that are annoying about stock HQ (such as the long 45sec wave time).

- BAS might get implemented this coming weekend.

- About half of the vehicles are usable. I still need to finish (or obtain) collmap files for the rest of the vehicles.

- Some models are not solid. Again, there are collmap files that I need to create (or obtain) in order to keep players from walking through them.

- The bases are not solid... not sure why, but I'll probably address that later this week.

- AFAIK, there are no broken spawn points. Please post feedback if you find one that results in the player being stuck in terrain / models / walls or one where the player falls to the bottom skybox.

- There are still holes in the terrain. Please only report holes on the east side of the river for the time being. The german side (west half) is still a work-in-progress.

- TDM gamestate is 22500 bytes with a single player.

- The russian side of the map is about 90% done with gross features. There are two bunkers that still need to be detailed (creating the interior) in the russian spawn. Also, the 2nd floor of the barn and the russian spawn house need work. The russian tunnel also needs to be finished.

- The german side of the map is about 60% done with gross features. Numerous things still need to be fixed.

- I'm always on the lookout for reports of rocks / terrain where vehicles can get stuck on non-obvious things. (Mostly where the tank gets stuck in the terrain at an odd angle.) Please give loc info or e-mail me screenshots to scrapyardbob@mobclan.com, make sure that screenshots are taken from an angle that makes it apparent where you are on the map.

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More notes as I think of them.


- There are sections of the road which are textured in an "odd" texture. These sections of road are broken meshwork that needs to be ripped out and replaced. They have hidden potholes that cause vehicles to go screwy and can allow players to fall through. (I feel like PennDoT in the spring, patching potholes everywhere.)

If you find a section of road that is screwy, but is *not* textured with the marker texture, please report it. That means you've found a road section that I don't know is broken or have forgotten to fix.

- CNQ vehicle placement is pretty final on the Russian side of the map. The german vehicles still need to be moved into their final locations.

- I'm not too worried about obviously broken detail (like a line of fences that have not been connected). What I am interested in hearing about are the little things that may be overlooked. (Such as an alpha blend that doesn't look right from a certain angle or a model that looks funny or small gaps in buildings.) Usually, when I find something that I know I want to fix later, I break it in a big way so that it's glaringly obvious that it's broken.

[ScrapyardBob]

DRAFT of the ADMIN README

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Tuchola Forest 1945 - Multiplayer map for CoD:UO

ALPHA TESTING VERSION 000 - APR 6 2006
(scrapyardbob@mobclan.com)
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NO PART OF THIS PROJECT FILE, MAP .BSP, CUSTOM TEXTURES,
LOADING SCREENS, IN-GAME MAPS OR ANY OTHER CONTENT MAY BE
ALTERED IN ANY WAY FOR ANY PURPOSE WITHOUT MY EXPRESS
CONSENT. ANY SUCH ACTION WILL CONSTITUTE A VIOLATION OF
INTELLECTUAL COPYRIGHT.

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ALPHA TESTING NOTES:

Since this is an alpha test version, please do not host this on public clan servers. Revisions will be happening on a daily basis and you will be constantly chasing your tail trying to keep up with the latest alpha version. It is best for everyone if you come to the Tuchola Forest Alpha Test server to play with other alpha testers.

Please leave any and all feedback / bug reports in the {MOB} forums. You can find the latest feedback thread at:

http://www.mobclan.com/forums/upload/index.php?showforum=73

If you have screenshots or demo files of problem areas, please e-mail them to scrapyardbob@mobclan.com. Please be sure to include enough contextual information in your screenshot (rather then focusing tightly in on the problem area) so that I can locate these spots in the map. Locational information (using the console, type /viewpos) is also extremely helpful. Bugs that might warrant a screenshot:

- Messed up textures
- An abnormally high vert/tri count (/cg_drawFPS 2)
- Terrain holes
- Exploitable glitches (get in behind the treelines, inside of models, or other exploits)
- Other things that are too complicated to describe in the forums

If you need help recording demos, see:

http://www.mobclan.com/forums/upload/index...?showtopic=7047

The latest information about test changes can be found at:

http://www.mobclan.com/forums/upload/index.php?showforum=73

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SERVER REQUIREMENTS AND NOTES:

1) THE AFTER-HOURZ VEHICLE PACK IS REQUIRED TO BE ON THE SERVER

This map requires that the server (and any players) have the After-Hourz vehicle pack on their machines. You can find the AHz vehicle pack at:

http://www.after-hourz.com/cod/BarbVehicles.php

If your players have ever played any of the AHz maps like Ardennes 1944, Barbarossa or Smolensk then they will probably already have the vehicle pack PK3 installed on their machines (z_ahz_vehicles.pk3). The vehicle pack provides a wide variety of tanks (making more interesting battles) as well as a working mortar.

I will NOT be releasing a version of Tuchola Forest that uses ONLY stock vehicles. (Thanks for asking, but it would require weeks of game testing to ensure that play is still balanced. Plus, the stock Russian/German heavy tanks are *SLOW* and do not perform well on a map of this size.)

2) In order to reduce gamestate issues, I recommend that you remove any unneeded PK3s from the server. Each unused PK3 adds to the gamestate and can lead to gamestate crashes during heavy player loads. If you encounter a gamestate crash, I will want a copy of your server console log showing the crash error as well as information on what PK3s you have installed and how many players were connected.

3) I'd strongly recommend that you download and install the Conquest gametype server-side mod. Conquest is a linear version of DOM that requires that teams seize and hold objectives as they progress across the map. Spawn points will change depending on which objective is currently being fought over. It works well as a replacement for standard TDM as it funnels players into smaller sections of the map. Gameplay tends to be very intense and fluid.

4) Players may need to increase their "hunkmegs" settings if they get that error. This can be done by:

(press the tilde key "~")
Type this into the console: /seta com_hunkmegs "256"

5) Please do NOT modify the contents of the PK3. There are some unscrupulous server admins out there who remove the splash image from the PK3 and replace it with one emblazoned with their clan tags. Please alert us if you find server admins who resort to low down tricks like this so that we can make fun of them.

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GAMETYPES: BAS, BEL, CNQ, HQ, TDM
(Future revisions will probably add support for CTF and DOM.)

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FEATURES:

1) Random weather engine

The Tuchola Forest GSC file has a random fog / weather engine. This will result in a randomly picked ambient sound, fog distance and optional rain effect at the start of each round. Some rounds will be crystal clear visibility (around 10000u max distance) while others will be foggy and rainy with very poor visibility. We believe this will add another dimension to the gameplay on Tuchola Forest.

The downside is that it will make no-fog hacks slightly more difficult to detect in the Punkbuster screenshots.

The current settings for the weather engine are as follows:

5% chance of super-clear weather. Little / no background noise. Fog distance of 9000u-10000u. Framerates will drop a bit as you can see farther then normal.

65% chance of moderate weather. A slight more noisy background with fog distance of 6000u-9000u.

20% chance of rain. Ambient sound will be a light drizzle (making it easier to sneak through bushes without being heard). Fog distance will be between 4000u and 6000u.

10% chance of snow. Ambient sound will be blowing wind and fog distance is 4000u to 6000u. Note: I do not have a working snow effect yet.

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COMMENTS ON GAMETYPES (AND SUGGESTED SETTINGS):

1) BASE ASSAULT (BAS)

Tuchola Forest was envisioned as a Base Assault map during planning stages (with secondary support for CNQ). It is the primary reason that the map was created and should be well suited for Base Assault. Due to the size of the map, you may wish to change the bomb plant time to 30 seconds instead of the default 15 seconds.

Base Assault runs very well using stock settings. I'd suggest a round time of 30-45 minutes to give each time multiple chances to mount an offensive.

2) BEHIND ENEMY LINES (BEL)

BEL has been a great way to encourage testers to explore the map and look into nooks and crannies that would otherwise be overlooked in other gametypes. I know that it's not a popular gametype, but we found that it works rather well. The best players are those who use jeeps to chase down and corner the allied players even if they don't personally get the kill.

We use the following to load the BEL gametype in our sv_maprotation string:

exec bel_large.cfg gametype bel map mp_uo_tucholaforest_077f

In our bel_large.cfg file, we have the following settings:

scr_rank_ppr "5"

scr_artillery_first_interval "30"
scr_artillery_interval "30"
scr_artillery_interval_range "30"

set scr_bel_alivepointtime "30" // One point every 30 seconds, default 10
set scr_bel_scorelimit "40" // Scorelimit, default 50
set scr_bel_timelimit "30" // Time limit, default 30
set scr_bel_positiontime "6" // Position update frequency, default 6 sec
set scr_bel_respawndelay "0" // Respawn delay, default 0
set scr_bel_showoncompass "1" // Show allied positions on the compass

Rounds will end after 20-30 minutes. The aggressive points-per-rank means that players get artillery strikes at 20 points instead of the standard 40 points. The short interval on artillery drops ensures that allied players cannot simply hide somewhere (as axis players will have plenty of artillery to flush them out with).

Tanks work fine in BEL. They are more of a liability then a help against fast-moving allied players who are running away in jeeps. The 10-second default respawn has no real impact on gameplay. Most tanks will end up sprinkled around the map as allied/axis players kill each other and change places.

3) CONQUEST (CNQ): http://www.after-hourz.com/cod/

This map makes a very good CNQ map. If your players have not played CNQ, but they enjoy games like TDM / DOM then you should give CNQ a trial run for a week. Due to the fluid and ever-changing objectives in CNQ, campers will earn fewer points then players who are actively trying to take and defend objectives.

One note is that you will find CNQ gameplay to be a very intense TDM. Everyone is fighting over two spots on the map (the current objective and the previous objective) so there is a lot of combat. Long round times are probably not a good idea, especially if you are doing a "best of 3" configuration.

Our sv_maprotation line (adjust as needed):

exec cnq_large.cfg allow_tanks 1 gametype cnq map mp_uo_tucholaforest_077f

Contents of the cnq_large.cfg file:

scr_rank_ppr "20"

set scr_tank_respawn_wait "90"

scr_artillery_first_interval "60"
scr_artillery_interval "90"
scr_artillery_interval_range "30"

// CNQ (v3)
// http://www.after-hourz.com/cod/cnq.php
// http://www.after-hourz.com/cod/cnqadmin.php
set scr_cnq_scorelimit "300" // scorelimit, default is 500
set scr_cnq_timelimit "50" // timelimit, in minutes
set scr_cnq_roundlength "30" // round length, in minutes (CNQ 3.0 only)
set scr_cnq_winlimit "2" // limit of number of rounds won (CNQ 3.0 only)
set scr_cnq_roundlimit "3" // set the maximum number of rounds per game (CNQ 3.0 only)
set scr_cnq_startrounddelay "20" // time before a round begins, in seconds (CNQ 3.0 only)
set scr_cnq_respawn_wave_time "10" // time interval between wave spawns, in seconds (CNQ 3.0 only)
set scr_cnq_captime "30" // default capture time, if not specified by the mapper, in seconds (CNQ 3.0 only)
set scr_cnq_clearscoreeachround "0" // whether to clear player scores between rounds (CNQ 3.0 only)
// set sv_log_damage "0" // turn off logging of damage (keeps log file size reasonable)
set scr_cnq_player_objective_points "2" // Points to award player for achieving objective
set scr_cnq_team_objective_points "10" // Points to award team for achieving objective
set scr_cnq_player_bonus_points "5" // Points to award player for achieving bonus objective
set scr_cnq_team_bonus_points "100" // Points to award team for achieving bonus objective
set scr_cnq_defend_score "1" // Points to player for defending an objective from capture (CNQ 3.0 only)
set scr_cnq_campaign "0" // Set Conquest to run in "campaign mode". Winners of current CNQ map will be attackers on the next map.
set scr_debug_cnq "0" // whether to run Conquest is debug mode, allowing a single player to play on their own

4) HEADQUARTERS (HQ)

Headquarters works moderately well on a map of this size. We have attempted to make sure that all of the radio spawns are in the middle third of the map area with spawn points in the middle half of the map. This keeps players closer to the new radio locations but you are still at the mercy of the HQ spawn algorithm. (In HQ, players will spawn near teamates, but if all teammates are dead then everyone will spawn at the opposite side of the map.)

I recommend installing the server-side mod (user_svr_hq151a.zip - Mar 31 2006) that allows you to configure additional CVars for HQ. See the following URLs for details on that server-side mod:

http://www.iwnation.com/Forums/index.php?showtopic=21158
http://www.modsonline.com/Forums-top-18862.html

Tanks should probably not be used during HQ. The HQ gametype has a bug that allows tanks to respawn as soon as they tank respawn timer runs out (default of 10 sec) before the tank that was at that position is destroyed. If you do use tanks on an HQ map, you should make sure to set the tank respawn value to a large value (120 or even 300 seconds). Heavy tanks are not recommended

We call for HQ using the following sv_maprotation string:

exec hq_large.cfg allow_tanks 0 gametype hq map mp_uo_tucholaforest_077f

The contents of hq_large.cfg are as follows:

scr_rank_ppr "15"

scr_artillery_first_interval "45"
scr_artillery_interval "90"
scr_artillery_interval_range "30"

set scr_tank_respawn_wait "240"

//HeadQuarters Default Description
set scr_hq_timelimit "30"
set scr_hq_scorelimit "900"

set scr_hq_zradioradius 50 // default 50u, max Z distance for capture/neutralize
set scr_hq_radioradius 120 // default 120u, max X-Y distance for capture/neutralize
set scr_hq_wavetime 30 // default 45 sec per respawn wave
set scr_hq_radiomaxhold 8 // default 6 "waves", max waves held before radio blows up, should be around 3-5 minutes
set scr_hq_radioneutraltime 8 // default 8 sec
set scr_hq_radiocapturetime 20 // default 10 sec
set scr_hq_radiospawndelay 60 // default 30 sec, time before next radio appears

5) TEAM DEATHMATCH (TDM)

I do not recommend running Tuchola Forest in TDM mode. The map is rather large and players will have trouble finding other players to kill. Instead, you should consider using the HQ / BEL / CNQ gametypes which are all objective-based TDM. Objective-based games will automatically funnel players into smaller areas of the map leading to more kills and more action.

We did not test the map in TDM mode, use at your own risk (although there's not much that could go wrong since BEL worked).

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CREDITS: Please see the other README file.

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THIS MATERIAL IS NOT MADE OR SUPPORTED BY ACTIVISION.

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