Changes in v079

- Cleaned up as many broken models as I know about. Hopefully there are no more models that you can hide in or shoot through (mostly ruined tank models).

- Changed the way the portals are done. This may impact framerates (for good or ill).

- Still need to close up a few more terrain holes.

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Trying to decide whether we have a clean enough version to start more open testing... We might be close to that point. I don't think I'm ready for a public beta yet, but I may remove the password from the test server sometime in the next week. Before that, I need to (at a minimum):

- Make sure all those terrain holes are patched
- Fix all of the broken pieces of road.
- Detail the interior of the Farm house
- Detail the interior of the four buildings in the Russian spawn and the tunnel under the spawn

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The PK3 now weighs in at 6.4MB (the DDS in-game maps are 500KB each and I have 3 of them at the moment). unsure.gif

There are a few performance trouble spots. They'll be more noticable during rounds where the visibility is extra clear. Most of the fixes to those trouble spots will involve getting rid of detail.

Problems that are blockers for a public beta:
- Terrain holes (I think there's only one hole left)
- Map edges not quite finished
- Broken road mesh (the pothole syndrome)
- Buildings that are not detailed inside
- Fence lines that have not been connected
- Alpha blends that have broken and display in weird ways
- Treelines that are missing the interior trees (which is most of them)
- Misc cleanup work in numerous places (smoothing out any angular terrain)

That's about 2-3 weeks worth of work to get all of that done

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I've been debating all night as I've mucked with the map some more. Assuming that v079 compiles properly overnight and that I don't find any major flaws, I'll be setting up the Test server in open mode (no password) on Wed/Thu. I'm just waiting for EscapedTurkey to finish moving my server from Chicago to NYC (ETA is sometime Wednesday).

At that point, we'll have entered the second phase of alpha testing. w00t2.gif

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The planned rotation is as follows for gametypes during the second phase of alpha testing:

BEL - 30 minutes
BAS - 35 minute rounds, best of 3, 60 min limit (ends after 2 stalemate rounds)
HQ - 30 minutes
BAS - (same)
CNQ - 30 minute rounds, best of 3, 50 min limit
BAS - (same)

If/when I add CTF, it will interleave between BAS rounds similar to the above pattern. Same thing goes for DOM, which I think will work well with this map.

I want to heavily test BAS since that gametype requires the most balancing and it's the most important gametype for this map. I may also lay CNQ in more frequently as that gametype is another one that takes a lot of work to balance properly.

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Comments on game server settings

BAS - standard rank / arty settings, tank respawn of 60 sec

BEL - arty after 20 points, game over at 40 points (someone who stays alive for 20 minutes), arty 30 sec after spawn with 30-60 sec waves (aggressive arty). Tank respawn of 10 seconds.

CNQ - arty at 40 points (maybe 60 for arty rank), standard timing on arty, the 13 objectives are 10 points each, bonus objectives are 100 points, round ends at 300 points or 30 minutes. Tank respawn of 3 minutes.

HQ - arty at 60 points, 60 sec after spawn with 60-90 sec waves, game over at 900 points (15 minutes of "held" time), no tanks allowed in HQ (or respawn on tanks of 5 minutes with only light tanks available)

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Other notes:

- The area around G1 really isn't finished. I'm waiting to see how it plays out.

- R3 is a bit bare as well, especially the location of the pak45.