Some people have asked me what the standard for new maps to be added to Tempus. While there isn't a clear cut list of points to follow, I can give a list of things we look for in a map to be fixed before it can be added. After testing maps for 3 weeks, I can see some stuff that keeps reappearing that always need fixing, this is a compilation of all that.
This post doesn't speak about quality of lvl or difficulty/spacing things. This is done on a map by map basis and it's impossible to put guideline to follow. Overall, just make your map fun to play (:
- TELE DESTINATION HEIGHT --- Tele destination NEEDS to be 1 unit above the ground (not 2, not 36, 1). Just use the entity report in hammer to go through every destination once you're done with the map, you select one and click goto and check if its at the right height. It took me max 10min to go through all 111 destination in jump_depression, it really doesn't take long, is very easy to do, and it avoids annoying telehop or getting stuck in the ground after teleing.
- CLIENT FLAG --- Make sure the client flag is tick on your teleport and all your trigger_multiple. again very easy to do by selecting every tele trigger at the same time in entity report and looking if the flag is tick.
- MULTIPLAYER FRIENDLY TELES --- Avoid having teleports that gets enable/disable with triggers or buttons. This won't work well in multiplayer and there's ALWAYS a way to make it work flawlessly with multiple people doing the jump. Lookup how to use filter_activator_name and filter your tele. Ask around if you need help with that, the mapping channel in RJWeekly discord is a good place to ask.
- BUTTONS SETTINGS --- If you use buttons, make sure to use OnDamage output withtout the damage activate flag OR if you do have it tick then also tick the DONT MOVE flag. OnDamage will work independently from the flag, and if you have the Damage Activate flag your button will start to move when you damage it.
- NO GIANT NONADE --- For soldier maps, please avoid using giant nonade trigger. It may do nothing for soldiers if you have a 512units off a wall, but it is very annoying for demoman. 1 unit nonade trigger is usually the only thing you need for soldier maps. I can't stress this enough, don't be lazy on your nonade. It may be a soldier intended map but we try our best to make the maps enjoyable for everyone and giant nonade just doesn't work well.
- NO MIDAIR NONADE --- For soldier map, do NOT use physbox_multiplayer for midair nonade. While it can be annoying on soldier depending how well it's made, it can also be very annoying for demos since the sticky will bounce on it. Usually, this can be fix with good spacing/better geometry instead of midair physbox_multiplayer. If you absolutely need a midair nonade, use a displacement with no hull and no physics collision and nonade around. Rockets will collide, but players and stickies won't.
- OVERHEAL TRIGGERS --- If you use overheal triggers around the map, please tell us if they are needed or not for demo. Tempus removes every overheal trigger usually because soldier doesn't need it but sometime they are useful for demo so we need to know to keep them where needed.
- FAIL TELEPORTS TOO LOW --- Don't put your fail teleports too far down where the player ends up falling for 10 seconds when failing a jump. Or if needed put one way teleports to help shorten the fall (good idea to filter them for demo usually, but that's case by case). Use this guide for one way teles: https://jump.tf/forum/index.php/topic,3272.0.html
- TELE DESTINATION POSITION --- Tele destination being too far from the starting point of the jump. it is not fun to walk for 5 seconds before starting the jump again. Don't put them too close tho, that's even worse falling off the start right after teleporting!
- MOMENTUM CANCELLING CATAPULT --- Put momentum cancelling catapult on your teleport triggers. Prevents any annoying telehop. It is generally a good idea to put them on every fail tele and tele doors unless you want to allow telehop strats, wich are questionnable in most scenario. To do them, just copy paste your tele trigger, change it to trigger_catapult with player speed 0u/s and make sure it overlaps perfectly the teleport trigger (not the destination, the trigger itself).
- AUTOAIM PREFIRE --- For soldier prefire jumps, angle the info_teleport_destination so it auto aims the player towards what he needs to shoot. It helps showing remove confusion about what/where the player needs to shoot, and its a nice thing for speedruns.
- CONSISTENT AUTOEB --- Use this prefab for auto-edgebug to make them consistent: https://jump.tf/forum/index.php/topic,3051.0.html
I will add a note to that, where its better to name the teleport trigger "autoeb" so the landmark destination points to the trigger itself, instead of having a tele destination named autoeb that you have to place. You could messup the position of the teledestination whereas using the trigger itsellf as landmark will never fail. - INFO_TELEPORT_DESTINATION --- PLEASE use info_teleport_destination for you jump teleport destination and not info_target or player_teamspawn or anything else. It just a nice thing for us on tempus since the plugin detects only the info_player_destination in the map when zoning. It makes our life easier!
- TEXTURE CONSISTENCY --- The most important point of all: Texture consistency. It is not fun to shoot a wall on 1 jump and the next jump the same texture being unshootable. Make your maps as consistent as possible for nonade, nostick, illusionary, shootable, standable plat, tele plats, etc. Also for soldier specific stuff on demo map and demo specific stuff on soldier maps, try to be as clear as possible and as consistent as possible with those so the player doesn't spend 30sec on each jump shooting and landing on everything to know what he can and can't do
If I think of anything else I'll update this post.
