Tuchola Forest PUBLIC Alpha Test, feedback and news Options

[ScrapyardBob]

The map is to the point that I'm comfortable letting everyone play on it. Just be warned, the map is NOT final. There ARE glitches and bugs and things that aren't quite right. The server can and will go down without notice whenever I'm ready to put new changes upon the server.

Please check this thread frequently if you start playing on the test server as I will make periodic announcements of current bugs and upcoming changes here.

Please do not host this map elsewhere. I make changes to it on a daily basis and you will see new versions up on the server on most days. Please wait until the public beta before hosting this map on servers other then my testing server. ETA for the public beta is 2-3 weeks, depending on how this phase of alpha testing goes.

Server IP Address: 70.42.41.170

- This IP should be live in another 2-3 hours, I'm currently configuring the new server.
- There is no password. Everyone is welcome to come and play.
- I will post a private slot password for the MOB/Regs folks to use.
- I'm taking a hands-off approach to policing the server, but if there is disruptive gameplay, I reserve the right to wield a very large ban stick. I would prefer to spend my time working on the map rather then babysitting players.
- If you find a glitch, tell us in this thread or e-mail the demo file to me.

Current version on the server is v081 (v082 will go up on the server late Thursday or sometime Friday). You will want to periodically remove old versions of the PK3s as we update to new filenames on the server.

Currently implemented gametypes are: BAS / CNQ / BEL and HQ. The server is configured to run BAS on alternate games (so BAS -> CNQ -> BAS -> BEL -> BAS -> whatever -> BAS). I'm still working on DOM and CTF support.

[Silver]

with the 3-4 spawn areas in the circle it will be hard to spawnkill for more then a minute. no one used the flanks to get out. you could have easly out flanked us... maybe remove the back wood were the tanks sit by the ammo dumps and bring up the tanks spawns to like 15 seconds like on barb and that will help. one question is why were the germans spawning at the spawn and not at one when we were in the spawn?

[ScrapyardBob]

one question is why were the germans spawning at the spawn and not at one when we were in the spawn?

Darned if I know... seriously... as near as I can figure, I have everything properly set for players to spawn inside of bases, yet they constantly spawn in the spawn area instead. I'll be taking another look at it. Has ANYONE managed to spawn inside base yet during Base Assault? (Bueller? Bueller?) Time to go look at Foy, Barbarossa and Smolensk again... I've read the BAS.GSC twice and haven't figured it out either.

Pretty sure I'll take the smoke grenades back out. You can still force Germans to spawn down in the ammo shelters if you position a pair of tanks directly between the (3) wooden bunkers (staying within 1000u of each bunker).

I could see what happens if tank respawn changes from 60 sec to 10 sec (the default).

I'll think about removing the back panel behind the tanks at the ammo shelters. Since I just added an ammo box behind that wall as well as some foliage bushes around that area, I'm waiting to see what happens.

On the upside, getting spawn raped in those ammo shelters was challenging and not overly frustrating. It took a bit of work to get rid of ya'll but it didn't feel like fish-in-a-barrel. We had places to run to. We weren't killed immediately as soon as we spawned. We had time to look around, spot the enemy, and attempt an action before dying.

Making it harder to spawn-rape that area also helps CNQ play (since the CNQ objectives path terminates in those ammo shelters).

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Base Assault spawn logic tries to put you near teammates and away from enemies. But it only checks for enemies within 1000u of a spawn point. When the two russian tanks were sitting at the two German spawn bunkers (within grenade throwing distance), that's one reason the Germans spawned down in the ammo shelters. However, there's also a slight random adjustment to the spawn scoring so that sub-optimal spawn points can get selected in certain circumstances.

That's the other reason to add the 3rd bunker (closer to the spawn shelters then the two current bunkers). It increases the odds that the random adjustment value will cause the a spawn point away from the ammo shelters to be selected.

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Most of these adjustments won't be seen until v083 (which will go up on the server this evening or maybe Saturday AM).

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The server will always be 'open' now. We're in the 2nd phase of alpha testing, things are in good shape. There's really no major reason to keep it password protected. I've fixed enough glaring issues that I won't get deluged with questions during gameplay (ask the alpha testers what that first night was like).

I probably won't change any "gross" features (locations of bridges, roads, bases, pak guns) unless things are really whacked. There are a few bits of road that I plan on straightening out (the section of South Road east of the SE Bridge that is U-shaped). I wish the Russian side wasn't as wide open (IOW, all of the russian features I wish were about 2000-4000u farther west) but it's probably too late to change.

The major goal of alpha testing is to start testing game balance on a larger scale and to make sure that the map "works" and is enjoyable to play on. While that testing is going on, I'm able to go and fix all of the little detail things when I'm not adjusting game balance.

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Did I mention lately how much the patch meshes are a thorn in my side? (All of the roads are patch meshes... that pothole effect is driving me up the wall.)