[OFFICIAL] DM-Cannon

[EGTomB]

Hey guys, this map was just added with the 12/12 build, so I wanted to see what everyone thinks of it so far. We've only playtested it a few times at this point, so I'm still trying to refine it and would appreciate some feedback on the layout, item placement, etc.

The level features a trap in the form of a large cannon with the UDamage sitting on its barrel (see second screenshot). If a player is standing on it when it's activated, they'll be launched far out of the map.

Currently you trigger the trap just by shooting any part of the cannon, and then there's a cooldown of a few seconds before it can fire again. I'm not sure yet if this is the best way to trigger it (initially you had to shoot a small button, but players were hardly ever successful), so I'm curious to hear how this works out once people have played a few times. Ideally there'd be balance where you can get the occasional kill with the trap without it being too effortless.

There's also a small flooded area at the lowest level of the map, which I'm interested in hearing opinions on too. It's possible to move reasonably quickly underwater now if you hit it at high speed, and you can jump off the bottom to get back to the surface faster too, so it might not necessarily be a deathtrap when you're moving deliberately.

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Updated 12/19/14:

I've made these changes in the latest version:

- Added proper bot support
- Layout tweaks around the shield belt/minigun area. You can more easily view the shield belt and its timer from the ground below, and there's no longer two health packs next to it. Upper level of the minigun room can now be accessed via jump pad from the big tower
- Shifted pickups and weapons around to try to balance out the map more. Replaced thigh pads with body armor, removed the helmet, and moved the jump boots to the front of the big tower. The Shock Rifle is now on top of the bridge on the opposite side of the map
- The cannon can now only be triggered by shooting the green glowing areas, and has a shorter cooldown before it can fire again. You should no longer be able to survive being launched unless you use jump boots in mid-air

Updated screenshots:

[the_lc]

I just found an invis powerup on this map. \o/

[Skerion]

That brushwork of yours looks great.

[Fartuess]

Played it a couple of times and i like it quite much. Gimmick of this cannon doesn't brake map which is a big plus. Maybe later i will post some screenshots of places that felt a bit off for me.

[SX]

A fun map and looks good so far.

I did think up a map description for this map.

"It should be no surprise by now that Liandri loves to purchase ancient pieces of land to be reconverted into tournament arenas and this castle is no different. Originally, it was a unique castle that was built alongside a canyon wall that gave it an advantage of giving it's would be attackers a hard time to invade it. It also had a gigantic cannon that would destroy those who would dare to besiege it. But all that explosive power and natural causes caused the land to erode away, leaving nothing more than a long fall, stranding the people inside and was left to starve.

When Liandri purchased this arena, they re-configured the cannon to become a high powered air cannon, leading those who stepped on it to take a flight into the abyss."

[MΛuL]

Fun map and amazing brushwork. When playing against bots, they seem like they are getting stuck quite a bit in some of the more closed spaces under water.

I'm always a sucker for gimmick maps. One of my favorite things in UT was draining my friends down the hole in Fractal .

[Nonemm]

We played a 2v2 yesterday on it. It was quite fun.

(Incoming Chumbo rage at 11:10 , hilarity ensues )

Eventhough, there are some things I noticed on my first playthrough(and im not mentioning that invisibility is broken :P ).
To me it felt like the whole are around belt is very strong itemwise and also in terms of having a view over the map. If I remember right the only thing you can get when you go near amp is a link gun, thighpads and a flak. Compared to the amount of health and armor(+boots) on the other side. That made it so that most of the time when you where around amp, you felt isolated from the action. (Watch the video and you will propably get the idea )
Im also not a big fan of the cannon mechanic as it stands now, you can shoot at it from nearly every given point in the map (even with enforcer after spawn). I would rather like to see a trigger you have to use or a button you have to shoot at rather than the full cannon working as a trigger.

We are going to play some more today (hopefully), more feedback incoming!

[GreatEmerald]

Yea, the place with the shieldbelt certainly is advantageous. But yea, it's a pretty nice map. I was quite surprised when I got launched out the castle.

[RPGWiZ4RD]

I felt this way too, that side is generally preferred since shieldbielt + helmet is very easy to get and close-by and it's a nice sniper place. The other side isn't rewarding enough and generally a more risky place. The map itself is pretty fun though despite the pickup placement woes.

[EGTomB]

Thanks for the feedback - and for the gameplay video, Nonemm. That stuff is always really helpful to watch.

I agree that the distribution of pickups feels lopsided at the moment, so I'll see what I can do to fix that. I also want to try making the cannon trigger a glowing ring around the outside of the barrel or something along those lines, so you'd have to be a little more deliberate about triggering it.

[Nonemm]

Thanks for the feedback - and for the gameplay video, Nonemm. That stuff is always really helpful to watch.

I agree that the distribution of pickups feels lopsided at the moment, so I'll see what I can do to fix that. I also want to try making the cannon trigger a glowing ring around the outside of the barrel or something along those lines, so you'd have to be a little more deliberate about triggering it.

If you could replace thighpads with chest armor and link with shock, the map could already play completely different. The main issue atm is that when your opponent has the belt area locked, you literally have to fight hitscan with linkgun and Flak(maybe bio and rocket), considering the line of sight on this map... not fun :P .
Im very much in favour of something more challenging to trigger the cannon.

[RPGWiZ4RD]

^ Agree, these are good suggestions/feedback

[FK_nero]

at the shieldbeld on the cannon alot of pll shooting away fun !

[Kronos[X]]

Thanks for the fun map! I have a few ideas for the cannon and trigger. I also want to show a jump boot trick with the cannon. I made a quick video to explain my ideas, please check it out. I tried to keep it short, and to the point.

[EGTomB]

Thanks for the video, I hadn't realized you could get quite that high. In the next version the tower will go all the way up to the roof of the cave, so the highest point you might be able to reach would be the curved outer wall:



There's also a new property we can tweak to reduce air control for a short period after being launched, so I've got that set to a level where you can't fully steer until you're through the tower. It should be a guaranteed death unless you have jump boots, in which case you can just barely make it back onto solid ground if you jump in mid-air. I kind of like the idea that jump boots can give you a chance to survive the trap if you're quick enough.

I'm not keen on the idea of the cannon only being active when the powerup is available, unless people feel they're catching players with the trap too often? In my experience with internal playtests almost no one gets caught on it, so if anything there might need to be more opportunities to launch someone with it. I have a couple of ideas I want to experiment with, but for the moment it's probably best to let people play it some more and figure out how they feel about it.