Minas Tirith is getting REALLY close!

Hi there all, Kaemon here once more to rant about maps that he has nothing to do with! XD
So, I had been talking with Hannibal and I can assure you that Minas Tirith is REALLY close to be released.
There is no exact release date yet… But it’s almost sure to be released this month. And if we are lucky maybe within the next ten days… As some of you may have noticed on the left, Minas Tirith Progress is up to 97%.
Time can vary depending if Hannibal gets some new big assignment from college (leaving him less free time for mapping for some days/weeks) or if more bugs, problems, balancing issues, etc… than expected are found while testing on single player and on lan.

Hannibal is done with the mapping, triggering and detailing… Aswell as with many other things…
Basically what remains to be done (apart from testing/fixing when it’s completely done and compiled) is:

– Put the barricade items, wich are already designed.
– Finish/Polish the Gandalf and Horse items.
– Finish the two special (won’t be revealed, you will have to find them yourselves) items, wich are half-done already.
– Do some minor changes (brushes appearing/disappearing, etc) to make it easier for Zombies on Extreme Mode.

Now, if you allow me… Let me explain the Rounds, Levels, Items, Difficulties and Gameplay once more for you, in case you missed some old rants, and also explaining it (I think) in better detail…

Stages:

The map itself consists on 4 different Stages, completely different from one to another, on a progressive layout; meaning that Stage 2 will start were Stage 1 ended; and Stage 3 will keep following the route you were already following on Stage 2…
All stages however start in the “Spawn Room” the place where the infection occurs and that allows you to get items (if you have the needed level).
Why not make it all the same stage then, you might ask? Well… For starters the 4 Stages together contain arround 25 minutes of gameplay, on the suposal humans win every time… Not only doesn’t Counter-Strike: Source allow rounds longer than 9 minutes, but even if it did, 25 minutes would be quite excessive… Don’t you think?

Basically you can consider the map as if it was 4 different maps… But with connected progression and saved “Levels”.
It’s this great size, along with Hannibal‘s continual search for new, improved and different gameplay options wich made it a very long map to make…

Spawn System:

I wrote a big rant about Hannibal’s old spawn systems (he always tried a new thing), but since it was getting pretty long (and this rant is going to be pretty long on its own) I just erased it…
Basically, after many tests and tries on his previous maps, realising that server settings can vary too much from on to another (having only 1 zombie spawn, having a percentage of the population spawn as zombie, teleporting them back, allowing them to stay in the middle of the crowd, spawning in 5 seconds, spawning in 35 seconds…) and realizing (specially on Mako Reactor) that many servers had to change the map spawn systems; decided this time to include, along the .bsp (map) file, the text that modifies the spawn for both Zombie Mod and Zombie Reloaded; so servers use just that one instead of a non-suitable spawn, or having to figure out what timers/numbers to use.

The spawn (even if I don’t know the exact data) is going to be quite fast, zombies being based on a percentage of the server population, and if possible Hannibal will also include if they are teleported back or not (not sure however of wich one is planing to use).

On the spawn area (shared by all 4 stages) you will have to fight for your human life and you will be able to get special items, if you have the needed level, and if the “shop” hasn’t run out of them.

Levels:

Ok… Now about Levels… There are many items in this map for the player to use, both for Humans and Zombies. Some of them are implemented in the map, like breakable bridges, items to build barricades, flammable objects, pickable torches… But then, there are also items that can be chosen at the begging of the round, on the “shop” near the spawning zone, if you have the needed level for them.
Those items vary from minor only visual ones (like the Human Standards) to highly effective ones like the mighty Zombie Trols (Trolololol).
The required level of the minor ones is 1, then 2 for the normal ones, and then 3 for the powerful ones. There are also two special items, of great power, that require Lv4 for Zombie one and Lv5 for the Humans one.

You gain a Level every time you win a round as a human (exterminating all zombies doesn’t count, you need to activate the round’s victory event that makes you advance stage).
This means that no one will be able to get any item on “Stage 1: Ossgiliath’s Retreat” (since everyone will be Lv0), there will be Lv1 maximum during Stage 2, Lv2 for Stage 3, and up to Lv3 for Stage 4 (Final Stage) if you won all rounds. This means that the special items (Lv4 required for Zombie one, and Lv5 for Human one) won’t make any apparition before the Extreme difficulty, and even then they will be hard to see since require numerous victories from the same human…

I personally like the system and idea quite a lot… Since you only get levels as a wining human, and you certainly want to get them for the cool items, I’m pretty sure it will make the people fight more for their humans lives…
But what it’s more important is that zombies will become (I think) way more aggressive, since unlike other maps when sometimes you are more like “I rather let them win to see the map advance” here you will want to make them lose so you can get a chance of leveling up on the next round on that same Stage instead of them…

Also notice that the available number of each kind of item is limited (some having only 1 on stock, like the two special items), so having the level won’t assure you the item if other people with enouhg level are faster than you.

Difficulties:

Hannibal mentioned that he will only make Normal and Extreme difficulties for Minas Tirith. He didn’t feel it was necessary to make a Hard difficulty (like in Mako) or other kind of difficulty because of the map’s length…
Mako Reactor was a 7 minute round repeated 3 times (Normal-Hard-Extreme) for a total of 21 minutes if humans won all rounds; while Minas Tirith contains 4 different round/stages, getting a total of arround 25 minutes to conquest them all if humans don’t lose any round… Just on “Normal”.
So… With a single extra difficulty (Extreme) it gives up to a minimum of 50 minutes of different gameplay wich was considered more than enough, and is not espected to be played at full on all servers.

Extreme, as always, will have some minor changes of old brushes that covered you from zombies disappearing, or new ones that allow them movement appearing… It may also have some timing changes that increase the time you need to hold on some position, or reduce the time before “zombie helpers” appear…
However, the main differences (apart for it being more zombie friendly in general) will come from some events that Hannibal call “contasnt siege” (wich force humans to advance or die) and the Level of the players itself…

The player’s level, increased on the normal walk-through will allow them to get all kind of items (up to everything except Special Human Item Lv5) right from the first Stage if there are players with enough level; and since those items not only include Trols and Gandalf himself, but also portable ladders, explosive barrels, and speedy horses, they will probably change the game play of the Extreme rounds drastically, allowing new strategies, like reaching new places (or getting to them faster) with the use of the ladders; or activating events faster with the use of the horses..

Gameplay:

Hannibal, as always, wants to go one step beyond with the gameplay; something that has done in all his previous maps, inspiring other mappers on the process.

With Minas Tirith (as with the future map Last Man Standing), Hannibal doesn’t just want to do more and better of the same, but want’s to give players completely new experiences and gameplay options… Some will succeed, some maybe not, others may need some changes or improvements… Future will say (near future!); but Hannibal is really trying hard to give a new and unique experiences while playing Minas Tirith.

There will be more freedom of what to do or where to go. Dynamic objects on the map will allow you to create fires or chose were to set your barricades instead of defending fixed-holds. Multiple routes that not only allow you to choose, but to turn arround if zombies appear in front of you, and even leading to a different “hold position” than the other humans… Also, in general the players will have more freedom of what is happening with the map aswel… The time a door stops you can depend of your skill and speed going for the lever on the upper floor instead of a random timer; the crates those poor humans are climbing can be broken being shooted under their feet screwing them but also closing that route for the zombies, instead of it broken automatically… you can choose to blow up some walls or bridges (those zones are marked with cracks) using powder and a torch if you feel it’s the best strategy to follow…

On the past maps (including some of Hannibal‘s works I must admit) mappers have changed lately many things to help the un-skilled and humans in general, from zombie-stoppers, to anti-edgers, to close skies that don’t allow fail-nading a zombie inside, or breakables that apprear/break auomatically on zombie presence… Hannibal is doing his best so none of those shows up on Minas Tirith… Skilled players will once more need to learn others and rage on those who don’t know what to do!

Will this prove as fun, challenging and well-done as Hannibal hopes it to be? I guess we will find quite soon 😉

(Sorry for not adding new screenshots; Hannibal doesn’t feel like revealing more when the map is so close…)