I started thinking ... what if i were to put about .... 8 capture points in the map. We would have: - The same map as before: large and open - Everything would still be researched from the beginning - Still nothing more than one vf and one armory for each faction, so no barracks, no commander (no building things), ... - You wouldn't be able to spawn at a captured point. The map is much too open for infantry combat, so everyone will spawn at the vf. - I would lower the money from 90.000 to 30.000 - You would get money from captured flags. A lot of money btw, we don't want you to run out of tanks too easily ... it's a vehicletraining map :D ! - When a faction has captured all points they win and the map will end. Gameplay would be like: 1) ignoring the winning conditions: it would be the training map it was supposed to be. No winning, just tankbattle after tankbattle to learn from and having fun doing so. The only difference with this release would be less money at start, but it's no problem to capture 2 points near your factions base and have an infinite stream of money. 2) if you choose to play a real match: Well you could compare it to Company of Heroes i guess. About 8 areas that can be captured. While you are capturing 2 areas in the west, the enemy is invading the east. Lots and lots of tankbattles, going forth and back, attacking new areas or defending one of yours. Factions slowly trying to drive the enemy back to their base... war ! One problem! 5 men in 5 jeeps could easily win the game How to solve that problem? :confused:
Also what keeps one team form ignoring the flags and just going for the other teams VF or spawn camping? Thought I can see APCs getting alot of use in this map for transporting and capping flags wich is cool.
What about something like this? The no bullet brush would prevent cannon shells from getting through. And players wouldn't get in either. Only difficulty is to make it look realistic. But i should be able to do that eventually. Jeep rushes however keep troubling me. Edit: won't work, since tanks need to be able to get to the armory
For the moment, there is no way to do that. You could experiment with the trigger_hurt brush, using a filter_activator_name filter to only allow the armory entity (emp_imp/nf_armory) to recieve minus health.
No, but you can make it instantly respawn when it is destroyed. Look up "point_template". You could use this for the VF, then place static models for the barracks and armory. Put spawn points / ammo crates in each in their normal positions, and bob's your uncle: indestructible buildings. And to make it so you can still change class in them, enclose it all in a friendly, uncapturable capture point. I really like this idea. An infinite amount of money would certainly bring a whole new level of play. It would be down to pure skill in a tank, which is ace. Do it, do it now! EDIT: Solo may be right, a damage filter might not be out of the question. In that case, it's a whole lot simpler.
The current map is just what we asked silk to make: a giant flat open map where we can practice tank strategies. I agree with these suggestions for a future map though.
I decided to add the capture points, but i won't make any other map changes. This way the map will stay (almost) exactly the same and remain the training map cw has been using sometimes last weeks. It can however be used on a server since you can actually finish the map if you want. Protecting the two vf's and two armories is something that needs to be done first though. I'm trying to do so with solokiller's idea, but nothing so far. About that ... i could use some extra help ...
Using the filter_activator_team works, for all damage except that from the engineer tool. To use it, you must have a modified fgd with the filter_activator_team entity enabled. Search the forums for how to do this, it's on here somewhere. Create a filter_activator_team in your level, and set the team to BE, and the mode to 'disallow'. Name it 'damage_filter_be'. Then you create the NF building as normal, and turn smart edit mode off. Then add a key called 'damagefilter', with a value of 'damage_filter_be'. Do the opposite for the other team. This will create 'unused keyvalue' errors when you press alt-p. Ignore them. If you allow hammer to fix them, it will delete the keyvalues. If it annoys you enough, you can add the values to your fgd. That way, you can have fancy drop-downs and everything, but it's not really necessary. As for the engineer tool problem, I'm not sure. You could use a hurt brush to discourage it, or kill them outright. Thinking back to engineer-buildable entities, there is an option to only allow grenadiers to cause damage. I'm thinking if you used this in conjunction with the damage filter, it may prevent everything from getting through. EDIT: Nope, no luck with the engineer thing.
No luck with the engineer tool problem? Or with the filter_activator_team? Anyway, i'll search for it in a few hours, when i'm through season 10 of stargate. Edit: if it's the thread you started with 2 replies, i'll need you or solokiller to put that fgd file online again.
Just put the VF around a corner or some other obstacle where it can't be shot, and have some sort of one-way drop or some way to prevent people from getting back in. You could make it look like some sort of cave or something with a small bluff at the edge or something. Ask Broccoli how he made his forcefields in emp_tictactoe to hurt only one side and make the only entrance to VF with this stuff so enemies can't enter. Problem solved, and it doesnt have to look ugly.
I just tested tictactoe. I've captured some flags in that map a while ago to see the effect for the forcefield, but i never knew the other team gets hurt being within the field. This is doable! I just make the cave a little bit larger, with only one entrance (like most caves ). It's time for some begging here: Broccoli, dear friend, mate, buddy, ... how ?
@FilterClass base(BaseFilter) size(-8 -8 -8, 8 8 8) = filter_activator_team : "A filter that filters by the team of the activator." [ filterteam(choices) : "Filter Team Number" : 2 : "The team number to filter by. If the filter mode is Allow, only entities whose "+ "team number matches the given team will pass the filter. If the filter mode is Disallow, "+ "all entities EXCEPT those whose team number matches the given team will pass the filter." = [ 2 : "Northern Faction" 3 : "Brenodi Empire" ] ] Add this at the end of the FGD. There are more entities to be added, but that's for another thread.
Okay, find your Empires definition file in the folder 'Empires/mapsrc/fgd/empires.fgd'. Back it up, then add these lines after '@include "halflife2.fgd"': Now you will have the filter_activator_team entity available in hammer. Restart hammer if you had it open before, and place one in your level. Set it up as I described in my last post. Now make a trigger_hurt around your building, and set the damage filter property (not sure what it's called exactly) to the name of your filter entity. Now you should have a BE building which can only be hurt by the NF engineer tool, surrounded by an invisible field which hurts all engineers which approach the building. If you want the source to tictactoe, it's available on the wiki here. EDIT: Maybe we should wiki-ize some of these useful fgd mods too?
@PointClass base(prop_physics) studioprop() sphere(fademindist) sphere(fademaxdist) = prop_physics_respawnable : "This class is the same as prop_physics, except it respawns after it breaks" [ RespawnTime(float) : "Respawn Time" : 60 : "Ammount in seconds this prop will respawn after it breaks." ] @SolidClass = func_ladder : "Ladder. Players will be able to freely along this brush, as if it was a ladder. If you are using a model prop " + "for the visual representation of the ladder in the map, apply the toolsinvisibleladder material to the " + "func_ladder brush." [ ] These are two other entities which work in Empires. Not all keyvalues may be present in this version, as i'm sure every entity can have a Name.
