Mapping Q&A

[Bad King Urgrain]

Could someone please answer my question as well?... Asap?

How would I make a traitor tester with a ttt_logic_role? I've looked at the example .vmf's but how would I make it so that when you press a button, it checks for traitors in an area of my choice (eg. the tester box) and outputs the required commands to the entities I will be using?

Both of these things are incredibly easy to do using ttt_logic_role. I can't explain them any more clearly than ttt_traitorcheck.vmf already does. If you still don't understand that stuff, your problem is a lack of knowledge about entity I/O in Source. This thread can't teach you how to map.

edit:

EDIT: I think i figured it out. I make a trigger_multiple start disabled and for the button, OnPressed > trigger > activate, then output ontrigger > ttt_logic_role > testActivator, then the rest is up to me. I hope that's right.

That should work, yes, at least the general idea.

[Joey Skylynx]

Hey Bad King, I was recently looking at the armscripts, and I was wondering if its possible to make it so you can spawn prop houses. It would be kind of interesting to see people try to add rp buildings to gm_construct and use it as a ttt map

[Bad King Urgrain]

If you modify the entity names in the script you can make it spawn any entity (built-in or SENT) that is known to gmod. You can't make TTT do much with the entity after spawning it though, and I think prop houses are made of frozen props? So they'd need freezing to happen. For that you'd have to make a new entity that is basically a prop_physics that freezes itself after it spawns. Setting the correct prop model wouldn't be a problem: you can set a single keyvalue property (it's how the auto_ammo thing works) which could be the model.

I think there's quite a lot you can do with rearm scripts, even without modifying the gamemode, but some of it will require adding new entities (which are much easier for servers to install than gamemode mods).

[Shifty Pete]

How do I use ttt_damageowner?

I'm trying to make a an explosion trap with env_explosion and ttt_traitor_button.
It's exploding fine but not showing who activated the trap in the scoreboard.

Here's how i've set it up:

Traitor button
OnPressed > Damage Owner > Set Activator As damage owner
OnPressed > Explosion > Explode

Damage Owner
Target Entity > Explosion
Target entity's name in round report > An explosion trap

What have I done wrong?

[Bad King Urgrain]

The ttt_traps.vmf example map includes an explosion trap. You can get the example maps here:

http://ttt.badking.net/mapping-guide/mapexamples.zip?attredirects=0&d=1

[Shifty Pete]

From the looks of it, I have to set the damage owner before it actually explodes, not at the same time.

Thanks.

[Bad King Urgrain]

That is correct. There's no minimum amount of time, but it does have to be set before the damage occurs.

[VIOLATION]

Sorry if this has been answered before, but I really need an objective in my map.

I want the players to have to find items that plug in (ex. Batteries, radios, etc.) to wall slots. When all are in, the door will open. Does anyone have any idea of how to do this?

[Shifty Pete]

VOILATION, you should ask on the Facepunch mapping section or another mapping forum. This thread is for TTT-specific questions.

To answer your question, I would give a name to the prop(s) in question, then add a trigger_once where the wall slot is, use a filter to make it only activatable by the prop(s), and have it kill the !activator when triggered. Then have a copy of the prop hidden in the wall slot by making it's render amount 0, and have the trigger make it 255 when triggered.

I hope you can understand all that. Phew.

[craigape]

Hey guys, how many of the various ttt guns need to go in a map for balance, and about how many of what kind? (I figure there would be more pistols than shotguns/snipers, that sort of thing.) Thanks!

[Darkest_97]

Its really whatever you think balances your map.

[GrayScare0]

Hey guys, how many of the various ttt guns need to go in a map for balance, and about how many of what kind? (I figure there would be more pistols than shotguns/snipers, that sort of thing.) Thanks!

This is dependent on a great many factors.  I would say the main two are the size of the map (generally players will not think about all the possible weapon locations when searching; there just needs to be more available so players are not forced to run all around the map for their weapons) and the intended number of players, but it also depends on how you want to direct the map strategies for the different roles.

The balance between innocents and traitors needs to be taken into account.  I personally find that maps with low numbers of weapons (island17, thething) tend to cater more to the traitors in that they direct the pacing of the game, so they are more likely to catch an innocent with limited firepower (all while themselves being able to purchase firepower and steal the weapons of their victims) than the innocents are to catch them in such a situation.  So a map like island17 that is wide open and fairly difficult for the traitors to be stealthy on may benefit from limiting the availability of weapons.  However, for the innocents, having fewer weapons means it is easier to relate the cause of death to the killer.  Traitors are more pressured to hide bodies, deny the innocents firepower, and/or act quickly.  This also means the innocents will need to be wary of traitors lurking in areas that are not in the open, as their kills are safer and less resource intensive in such locations.

Other map mechanics are also important--traitor testers, objectives, traps, etc.  In general, testers are more useful when the killer is harder to determine (so if there is an abundance of weapons, killing mechanisms that are not reflected in cause of death, and so on), and traps are more useful when it is harder to otherwise kill the innocents (harder to hide, people wanting to stick together in certain ways or camp, hard to hide bodies, etc).  So you can adjust the number of weapons depending on how useful you want these mechanics to be.

In regards to individual weapon choices, the layout is the main factor.  Snipers are obviously useful (though that may or may not be something you want--maybe you want the player to work for the sniper to have an application) in large and open areas, the shotgun is useful in corridors and dead ends, the HUGE is useful in corridors with lots of branches, etc.  The one thing I would like to point out here is that you should be very careful when placing MAC-10s, as they are the power weapons at the moment, and access to them is generally one of the main factors in turning a game.  If there are too many of them, the innocents will be much more capable of defending themselves, especially at the end of the game.  ANother thing to look at is if you want to give the players their ammo with their weapon.  Sometimes doing so tilts the game to the innocents because they don't have to hike around for ammo, so if they get into a firefight (especially at the beginning of the round), they are better prepared to defend themselves.  Remember that innocents have the advantage in numbers already.  On the other hand, when maps like shocked place such a huge emphasis on obtaining weapons and ammo, they end up distracting the innocents way too much.  Either way,one thing you don't want to do is place all the weapons and ammo together, nor do you want to put too many grenades in one spot.  The former means traitors are encouraged to camp the weapons and generally put too much emphasis on weapon denial.  The latter means people will throw all the grenades at once for no reason--or, if they are being attacked, they usually have too much firepower with which to prevent their attackers from getting close (the vault on bank).

I'm not going to really cover random weapons.  Sometimes they throw players off because they can't find what they are looking for, sometimes the placement is just bad, and almost always it means that the game becomes more of a game of luck.  I would suggest not adding randoms unless you have a clear goal in mind (like a different reward for opening a weapons cache every time to make players weigh the risks and possible rewards) and just letting the server owners add them if they want to.  It's usually just used for custom weapons anyways.

I guess the best thing to do is just to look at existing maps that have good placement and maps that have bad placement, and just try to make your map as balanced as possible given its features.  You certainly want to avoid it being like thething (scarce weapon placement, a dark ambiance, and a bunch of traitor objectives make this map VERY biased towards the traitors), ttt_office (MAC-10s everywhere), airbus (lags the server with all the guns being at spawn, which is a bad decision in most cases anyways), or shocked (you have to work pretty hard to gain access to ammo).

[craigape]

Thanks GrayScare0, your information is invaluable. I'll try to make sure there are enough guns for everyone to get one without having them run across the entire map and back while keeping the balance of the map, and some of it should be a process of trial and error.

[goose]

I removed this since I did it myself, thanks for not sparing me 2 days.