Almost restarted again, but I am happy enough with it~

Got complete navigation and the saferoom works, now to start the gameplay tweaking, infected ladders, navigation pass, basic texture pass, and so many other things. Still going to take me a bit, but forward progress is being made... might even be able to get some closed testing done before the end of the month assuming nothing terrible happens~

Chapter 2 is "playable"... big quotes on playable...

It works, the saferoom transitions... Focusing on infected ladders, general path improvements, and items first before I make it look visually good~

I do apologize this is taking longer than anticipated... between my job demanding more time and family turmoil, I can't dedicate full days and nights like I did when I was able to take time off to focus on a small little project between friends...

There is also the problem of trying to make sure the theme doesn't overstay its welcome... All of CH2 is upsidedown, and it has been a challenge... part of that challenge is figuring out what to do next. I do have a plan, and I really do hope it will be worth the wait~

Give me patience and I will give you the most unique map I can~

Chapter 2's horde event is being completely remade from the ground up...

The train and tanker will stay, but the whole arena is being remade as well as the series of events...

Still taking a break to beat Silksong... great game~

Anyway, I've had time to think on the chapter 2 event.
It is without any asterisks attached... a failure.
This was made after so many failed attempts to make something coherent... and looking back at it, the previously events were not the problem as was the level itself, since the final version was when I landed on a level structure I was happy with while having a horde event I was luke warm on... Not to say the past events were flawless, but there are elements I was to strip from each and make something better~

Very first version of this event, it was one train that you had to battering ram through multiple doors. Electric rails was the excuse for this, and the power constantly failing and needing to blow fuses to get power back was the bulk of it. This might have been the best version of the event... IF it was not upsidedown.
So then the second version had a similar concept, but now on the other end of each door was the same warehouse flipped 90 degrees. It worked, I think it even looked good... but now I was leaning WAY to much into spectacle and so little substance... the arena itself was so small and unremarkable.
Third version was just a shot in the dark, new arena, massive turntable house... you had a chain in the middle of it you had to destroy by launching four trains at it, one guaranteed, three of them randomly chosen to be spawned in around the house... And you launched them by using one of 4 guns to destroy power boxes on all the like... 96 pillars in the arena to cause a power surge and send them forward...
This one had some bad problems... First why? Why are we destroying this chain? I have an idea for "shifting earth" I want to use later but without tutorializing it before had, why would you want to crash trains into this massive chain?... Second, why the hell does shooting power boxes cause the trains to launch forward, and what would be stopping a team of from from speedrunning the event like it was a bump in the road?... Also because it was a round arena, the navigation was a nightmare and so was getting this building without detail to actually fit together without seams...
And the fourth version is what we have now, except the backhalf was to the side... which if you think it plays bad now you should have seen how just dumb it was prior...

So here is where my head is right now...
I am remaking the event from scratch. It will still be a warehouse under construction, but it will be a more continuous roof, little jumping around this time. The sight lines will be better too because of this but not entirely opened~
It will still start by using the gun to break the generator and launch the train... I was proud of that and am still keeping it... but now when you have to blow up the tank to course correct the explosion is going to cause some additional things to happen that will change the arena a bit... think like "a trap door opening and you needing to climb out of it" in vibes~
Probably also going to move the gun and the gens somewhere else because instead of using a saw to cut through, I'm thinking the initial shockwave closes the garage doors and I can really only do that if no one is standing on that awning...

I'll be workshopping some ideas... but in short, it will still be this standing gauntlet idea I am working with, it will still be a three stage event, but I am hoping this time that the playable space will be better. No ETA on when this is happening quite yet, since until I beat Silksong that is my priority... but when I dos tart on it I'll push out an update with the next version of the event asap before working on the list of other changes.

vA2.1 will be out soon... Taking some time to make some of the area's easier to path.
(soon as either tomorrow or next week)

The event is better I feel... Follows a similar structure but the area itself I hope is better to play in. Had an idea to force the player to throw throwables into a crane from a distance, but that destroyed the pacing pretty bad, especially when it was pipebombs...
Also started to add some of the custom stuff I wanted to add, obviously the title cards were one, but now I also have the custom sound I wanted, as well as the custom sound for a mechanic I'll be introducing next chapter.
Also also!... I am trying to introduce more routes. One of the gameplay themes I wanted to do and stay true to was to have a A to B to A to B format, where A is an open area with multiple routes and B is a choke point... I didn't really have that previously but I am trying to organically bring it back~

I don't know if anyone sees these or reads these... but for the handful that might, I appreciate you~
I'll see this campaign through... that is a promise I know I can make!~

I'm proud of the pain and suffering I will put you all through with Ch3~
even if it only happens in a few select areas...
https://youtu.be/3Ef-dOrdaSc

Thanks for sharing your thoughts! well appreciated.

Good progress has been made on Chapter 3.
Just got the logic done for the event. It won't be as "involved" as the other two chapter's events, less running around and more holding out while you break down a... "door"~
Haven't really started implementing the solar flare mechanic yet, not sure how hard or time consuming that will be, but if nothing else I have a plan B to make it work out easier and still have a presence.

I am mostly happy with the path I've made, the sideways sections feel a bit short, but at the same time I would rather make 100 upside down maps than another sideways map... that ♥♥♥♥ is insane... >.<

I am hard at work to get this ready, and I can't wait to show it all in full and what I have planned for the rest of the campaign, and hopefully I'll have a working 3.0 build in this month~

This chapter has been a ♥♥♥♥♥, and it might look "the worst" out of the 3, just because there is alot of sight lines I will need to block in the future. But the path is complete, the horde event area is ready, I'm starting the process of clipping specifically for navigation purposes... Maybe next week? There is alot to do still and some house keeping to do for the previous 2 chapters, but progress is progress~
Trying to get it out asap so I can get some opinions on the horde event in particular, going to be more stand~ish, but you still need to ram a train through a gate seven times by hand, so maybe not as standard as I am giving it. We will see I suppose~

In the mean time I did a little something for the Ch3~ch4 saferoom... you can see what my mind is churning up for the future~
https://gtm.steamproxy.vip/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3590255586

Navigation is done enough for the saferoom transition to happen as well as infected to spawn...

I like the idea I have with the event, but I definitely need to tweak the numbers on this one is people are already mad at what I have made so far~
It is definitely going to stay as a "race against the clock" type of event especially since there is guaranteed safety as soon as it ends, but I think I need to make sure some SI don't spawn as often to get the effect I am looking for... Less to no smokers, less spitters maybe, but you are definitely going to be hardcore swarmed this time, and it will be a rush to the end... can't wait for the next wave of death threats for that this one~

Might be able to get something playable this weekend if this is all I am doing for the nest week... so maybe this or next week, but I am close that is for damn sure~

Ch3 is definitely taking longer than I had anticipated, partly due to the layout, and the event, and the gimmick of the solar flare storm... so some progress and some notes!~

The layout after much tweaking I feel is good. Definitely some areas I might need to rework a bit, but it is only a few areas as opposed to "all of it"... I definitely have my eyes on one area in particular that I will be axing and replacing with something so much easier to traverse through if I see literally anyone having troubles with it, which since I do usually have my wife and her friends do the first cold playthrough, most of you might never even see it~

The event was a thorn in my side for a good while... I knew what I wanted, and know what exactly I want to do, but I was loosing sight of the fact that "This is L4D2, not Darktide... you can't just throw 10 SI at the players at expect them to survive"... which fun fact, the end of the event DID have all SI max's bumped to 2, dominator limit to 5, SI limit to 8, 5 second respawn interval. My justification was that the event can end quickly if you just rush the objective... but in practice it went as bad as you would expect... to no one's surprise...
Now the end of the event has Boomers, Hunters, and Spitters as the doubled ones, smoker's axed entirely... Dominator limit of 3 and max of 8, with respawn set to 2 seconds...
This is all subject to change, but this event is meant to have ramping difficulty as you take down a wall with a train, and the last punch is meant to be the deadliest... it will have to be playtested extensively, but this doesn't feel so bad so far, but my cold playtesters will be the final wall for this to make it to live~

And the solar flare storms... An idea I got way back when I first released this mod... and 90% of the comments I saw was "the sun is to bright"... Yes, this gimmick exists entirely because of how often I heard it~
It has been a pain in my ass from day one, from the dynamic lights crashing the vrad compiler, to learning that there is physically no way to have a color correction volume move, and that there is no real good way to have a map wide CC fade in and out with some trickery or choppiness from brute forcing it, to the intended method of making the hurt boxes whereever the light was touch also crash the compiler... I have found some solutions~
1. I can still have my dynamic lights without doing much to the lighting compiler, by disabling the lights ability to cast shadows... which has actually also solved the issue of "which shadows to use for the hurt boxes"
2. I might still be able to have the CC if it is accompanied with a fade entity, however it might not be that necessary anymore... though now that I think about it, I need to decompile my old EOTL map, because I was able to get map wide CC transitions to work there... >.<
3. Instead of having it be exactly where shadows are, I am instead going to designate spots that are safe with the scavenge borders and custom sprites... which is basically anywhere that has large shadows or indoors with small exceptions. There will still be two versions of the hurtboxes, one for survivors that will do a total of 30 damage if you don't leave it, and one for infected will do 1 billion damage accompanied with a ragdoll fader.
It will do that little to survivors in the likely instance that bots just won't move out of the ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ way. Which I will be doing my best, but if I can't do so, the next best thing is to make sure the storms have long cool downs and that there are plently of supplies...

Maybe next week I will have it ready... biggest things on my list right now is finishing the infected ladder pass, denoting the safe areas for the storms, lots of nav refinement, and more to help denote path forward... The list is shrinking and I am approach a point good enough for release so I can start on Ch4~
Oh... also fixing all infected ladders in all chapters, fixing the rubble blocking the ladder in ch1, slowing down the text speed in ch2 and moving it to the beginning saferoom, and general bug fixes on the list...


This campaign is ambitious... and the ambition is only going to keep increasing...
In the past that same ambition killed so many of my past levels, but I am not going to let it claim another. Even if I have to pivot and change plans, I will finish this map, or I will die trying!~

For anyone and everyone giving me patience, it is much appreciate!~
I'll continue to work on this and make it a one of a kind campaign... and if is to be my last, I'll make sure it is a campaign worthy of ending on~