This is an official message for all of my loyal TTT Exclusion fans out there and everybody who does not hate me, the map is coming along nicely and it won't be long until it is unleashed upon this world.
Images above are showing the last area of the map that I'm willing to implement, mainly for size and optimization reasons, the trainyard. I borrowed a few Episode 2 models for the train and cargo, although the warehouse type structures were made by me in Blender, originally for Lonely's Fightclub 2.0. This location is very open and only worthwhile visiting for the following reason:
There are now teleport anomalies in this map!!! isn't that cool? These anomalies are scattered around the map and take you to a random location each time you go through them. I went through the extra effort to implement a teleport animation of sorts, instead of it being something simple like a screen fade. I decided to make this feature a reality because not only is it valid canonically (S.T.A.L.K.E.R Shadow of Chernobyl), but also to move around more quickly, add a feeling of randomness and make the map more dynamic.
Also implemented is a traitor room with a unique teleport that brings you to a handy sniping location (not the one pictured above, that one can be accessed by anyone)
Right now optimization is my number one concern as we're talking about the same engine that brought you Half-Life 2. Essentially, there's too much world or brush geometry being rendered at once. This isn't too bad for me as my rig is powerful enough, but anyone else should experience noticeable frame drops while looking at certain spots in the map. This is my first time using the func_areaportalwindow entity, which unlike a regular func_areaportal entity, it will become fully opaque and obscure anything behind it if the player is far away from it. It was used all over the place in the coast levels of Half-Life 2 and the open world sections of its episodes, and I'm using it for that exact same purpose.
One issue with this entity is that, for instance, a sniper overlooking an area through a window could see a player, but the target who is far away would see nothing but black abyss beyond the window frame, essentially rendering the sniper invisible. Luckily I doubt a situation like this could arise in this map, as the foliage can cover up anything from a distance regardless.
Other than the optimization issues mentioned above, I believe this map is ready to go live. My good man Figardo will be doing some playtesting sessions in his server on 30th January so I hope I can get this map ready.
There are other quirks and features about this map that I haven't made public yet, nor do I have the time right now to go into detail. Going through a teleport anomaly has a 1/100 chance of something reaaallllyyyyy crazzzyyyyy hapenning!!!!. Traitors can trigger an army raid on the compound, or as refered to in the map, calling in reinforcements, as part of a T trap by interacting with a radio in one of the offices. Doing so while the Brain Scorcher is turned on (which is a random event in itself) will result in Monolith fanatics raiding the area. This is essentially the same event, except that monolithians will be hostile to everyone and not just innocents.
I got PDA or chat messages working on a player by player basis with a bit of Lua and some networking between the server and the clients. Mind you this is still inside of TTT. These happen at the beginning of the round as well as a response to events going on in the map.
Well guys, I guess that's it. I wanted to push one last article before the end of the year. It's been an interesting year.