ahh... I get your point on the wording... The navs unfortunately must overlap a little at a distance. Otherwise, if you separate them far enough not to cause that, it will be so far away from each other at their sources that it would be very strange... I also think it's not an issue if the nav diamonds overlap, so long as the labels usually do not. They do not at normal distances. On a very large map someone may choose to alter this... ...though this line of thinking did just give me an idea... stay tuned...
A couple things. Also, I did not read all of the walls of text. First the time it took to capture the point seemed to be inconsistent. This made me think that the longer someone held the button even after capture the longer it took someone else to capture.( I did not get a chance to test this thoroughly because Hex keeps his custom lobbies open.) A way to show capture progress. Make 5 small lights that are attached to the objective and as someone captures the point the lights light up 1 by 1 as similar to a battery charge but vertical instead of horizontal. Also, I would suggest using an object that allows you to capture it all around it.
Weird, ill see if i can replicate the inconsistency of timing, because i thought i had it fixed but i havent tested with others yet. All it probably needs is a little extra error trap somewhere. Progress indicator is a good idea. Ill think of something that hopefully wont increase object count by much. Lastly, switches are laid in a semi circle to give access to the objective, so we can always add more density etc. Increases obj & script budget of course. Which location? Bravo? (The othes are against a wall so i assume those are okay as a semi circle)
Full circle would be best. If the progress indicator comes into play it could potentially have a dual function. Like, after the cap or plant it starts to show the countdown progress (would only make sense to have if a number timer can't be implemented).
numbers are next to impossible because they are so impractical to implement... extremely expensive on scripts and pieces.
the inconsistency is coming from the switches not coming backfast enough after some of the presses, and therefore the number getting reset.. I have a suspicion it happens when the dead body of that same player still hasn't despawned after they have switched teams? Did this occur for you guys within 30-45 sec of changing teams? I did some things to hopefully minimize the chance of it happening, but I still see it like once per match (just me constantly switching teams). I will be done for now so that we are not making it go invis for Ascend's lobby here in a few...
Things I took from Ascend's lobby - Beacon is too bright - The button combos seem to not click very well, personally I think you should try some other method. If people can't get it immediately, they won't like it. - More visual queues - 45 second countdown instead of 60 Pretty sure he writes his feedback in a spreadsheet, so see what he says.
I worked on some changes late last night, but they are not implemented on the public copy yet, and there is more to be done. Hopefully, I'll have something that incorporates the feedback from last night before Max's lobby. One thing that seems to work (to me, trying to imagine I didn't know how it worked) is that there is now an indicator that shows the color of the team trying to capture, turns very light yellow when pressed first time, bright yellow second time. If it is a conversion, obviously there will be a third press that just activates the beacon, so no color change is needed there. This seems to let the player know they are making progress toward something while pressing it. The beacon is also much, much different. But, uses more pieces... The gametype is sitting at 20 pieces per site at the moment so I don't want to go much higher. (That is 60-100 pieces depending on your map's configuration for the gametype!) it is less bright, and changes glow color dpending on which team holds it.
I made a bunch of changes: go try it out! Same basic functionality, but works much better IMHO. Max should be testing tonight... nvm he is just forging tonight. scratch that... go to next post for update.
Okay so I think I FINALLY have that consistent buttno press and timing all worked out. THere was a bad bit of "code" if you will, which took me a while to figure out. Anyway, this is totally ready for rigorous testing now! IMPORTANT: New Map Link (a piece went rogue and wouldn't let me select it so the best solution was to start over completely) Noteworthy changes: new Fx for Beacons consistent button presses to initiate/convert beacons tweaked timing of buttons - 2 sec between presses, and resets at 3.5 sec 45 sec holding beacon to score visual notification and more intuitive (hopefully)
Got some more games in, people seem like they're starting to get the jest of it. The only concern I really have is the light-boundary implementation. Personal gripe for me is how it's aesthetically put in, just kind of looks weird floating above the beacon. More importantly are the color choices, they don't seem to give off the message that the button should be continuously pressed. Multiple players kept pressing the button once and stood there, it took a bit for them to catch on (I had to do the handy work to keep the game going lol). Also Iv'e noticed defending players kept pressing the button a bunch after their capture as if something else was going to happen. Maybe you could figure out a way to prevent the button from being pressable once the beacon is capped for the defenders. That's all for complaints minus the hint-string spam from dropped weapons. It'd probably be best to raise the trigger and blue circle screen a tad, but I can't be sure if that will fix it. As for feedback on other things it's all gone smoothly for me. The new beacon looks great and those animations are amazing to say the least. The button pressing is a ton more consistent too. Believe it or not Iv'e been getting more positive messages than bad so far, so this could definitely go somewhere.
cool... glad to hear it is mostly going well! I've had some good moments in test matches tonight too I have largely seen the same issues you did. Especially that people keep pressing the button after their team already owns the beacon! The bad thing about that is that it delays it 3 sec and causes confusion. I have some ideas for each of the things you mentioned. If it goes offline or doesn't seem to be working, its probably it is being dismantled partially
Okay it's back in a state where it's playable. It now has slightly improved visual indicator (I have plans for something better) and a vastly improved button deactivation for team owning the beacon, scheme. That part was VERY hard, but I came up with some cool tricks to make it work. For those who haven't encountered this before -- the challenge with switches is that you can duplicate all of your switches and have some belong to either team, or you must come up with a sophisticated method of deciding when they should be made available (interactive on/off setting) based on which team is near the switches. I was already using this to divide the scoring logic into two paths, one for each team, and so it was a natural fit! I will be testing with randoms here in a few...
Any suggestion for another Dev map to add this to? I'd like to have at least 2-3 Demo maps for running through a rotation in Customs. I could take a guess at what would work well, but thought I'd take suggestions too If you have a good idea of the specif points to place beacon sites, also note them. (3 points, for the "1-site" mode still at this time) Thanks,
Looking at Dev maps, I prefer to lean towards asymmetrical maps or multi-tiered symmetrical maps. Only problem with that isn't even so much of a problem. Most asymmetrical maps that feature Strongholds already feature optimal positions for Extraction point placement. Maps like Plaza, The Rig, and even Overgrowth. Literally you could just mimic the Stronghold locations on those at the moment. As far as symmetrical ones, I'd pick something that's not really used map-wise, like Tyrant, Torque, or Fathom moreso for 2-site. Edit: Just out of curiosity, do scripts on maps work in other gametypes, or do they only work with the Mini-game gametype loaded?