clips are useless in emp, they are only playclips so with vehicleclips the vehicles won't just roll right through them
Sorry, but we will not be making clip brushes to individually rotate, position, and scale to conform with the lost coast rock models. That would take ages, and far more patience than either of us has.
How about making the beach have like a flat shallow part which is in water, and then putting the blimp over land, so you can still jump out into water but the CVs drop on land and it isn't gg. I want this to be official really but I can't help but think an official map decided by just 1 flag seems a little....well yeh.
The new Mirror 4 links are: http://mirror.kane.cx/freeshare/empires/emp_tropicvendetta_rc1.zip http://mirror.kane.cx/freeshare/empires/emp_tropicvendetta_rc1.tar.bz2
Really, the reason I don't want the CVs to fall on land is simple: it would undermine the entire concept, the sole idea behind the map itself. Originally, my raw idea was to create a map in which there was a landmass, and two unexplained "boxes" (each holding a command vehicle, with a way for friendlies-only to enter/exit). The map was going to be called emp_defendtheswitch, and there would be a switch for each team that you would have to defend, for if the enemy team flipped your switch, your CV would be dropped into water. When I confronted Keef with my idea, he had some ideas to bring to the table, and in one night worth of brain storming and conversation, we went from a landmass with 2 switches and 2 boxes in the sky, to a tropical island with SAM sites and blimps. The whole concept of the map is that the CV is immobile and the team is meant to focus on one fixed target area (in the long term), and focus on multiple strategic areas (in the short term). The fact that blimps and SAM sites were added has little to do with the concept, and more to do with the execution of my map idea & the visual representation. A tropical island that each team "flies" to and establishes a SAM site on makes more sense than floating boxes with magically unexplained switches. So, no: CVs will never fall to land. Sorry, but that's just not what was envisioned for Tropic Vendetta. We chose to experiment with the game play by making some game play variables static that would otherwise have been dynamic. Much to our joy, our experiment was a success and many fun and aesthetic rounds have been enjoyed on Tropic Vendetta, whether official or not. In fact, though it is largely unknown to anyone other than Keef, myself, and the devs, Tropic Vendetta is already on its way to becoming official, pending some changes to visual aspects of the map alone, with no changes to its game play. They will take some amount of time, but some day I hope and believe this map will become official. Many maps are already decided by a certain flag, area, or collection of areas or chokepoints. emp_coast is practically decided by its center flag, emp_district is well-decided by the bleeder flags. There's really not a whole lot of difference at the lower level when you consider emp_tropicvendetta. In fact, at least in emp_tropicvendetta, you can pull off repairing your CV for at least a few moments while you rush the enemy's SAM site - if they can't keep up, you've turned the tables on them. I won't let anyone tell me it's never happened because I've seen it myself plenty of times.
It still feels like that end-game is just a bit...It's hard to explain, but "cheap" I guess. Because once a team gets rooted in on that flag, it's impossible to move them. There's so much cover on the flag that they can just camp there. I saw 3 AFVs trying to clear the flag from a small group rev engys, and even with them (not even bad drivers) pummelling away, these engys just kept reviving eachother without really having to move around. I mean, I'm all for having the CV drop with LOW hp, because at least then if you want to kill him, you need to coordinate a vehicle attack or some grens below to get him when he lands, rather than a small squad just camping it and then the water killing him. And as for "turning the tables" I haven't seen that happen since the large CV HP drop you added. Especially now considering a lot of the time someone will lay an 8 mine trap under the blimp so that he lands and instantly dies. I mean think about it aswell, imagine it that way for just a second. Your CV is on the ground. The enemy's isn't. Yours is probably overheated. They're attacking it. Now, this is because of a small squad rooting in on the flag, but at least now you have the oppertunity to hold your CV, and do the same to their flag. I'm not by any means saying "IT WILL BE BETTER" but I honestly think it would be worth a try at any extend. Even if we have a supervised test where, when the CV drops, we simply ungrief it to the land. As you mentioned about it becoming official, I did hear about it and posed this very question to one of the devs involved, and he too thought it would be worth "trying" to see if it made a difference in gameplay. So what I ask is not that you change it, but maybe we can get some organised tests going where, after dropping, we move it to the mainland, and see how it plays there. See if games change a little. The idea of this is to never "remove hope" from the game, never to have the end of the game spent repairing for a large portion of the team, even if you win. And to give a proper 2 (and possibly 3 if they make a comeback) stage match in which there are set situations.
Sorry to bump, but I haven't seen this map on Steampires. Is it broke? This was one of my favorite maps in 2.24d.
It's broke until we fix some Empires related issues, along with other maps such as Insurrection, Silo, Snowbound, Glacial, and others.
Yeah, Keef mentioned that if him and Shandy knew their map (and each own's maps) were broken that he would look into it. If it's on the dev team I guess that's off Keef's to-do list. I love Snowbound, one of my favorite maps; can't wait until you guys finish fixing it (and them).