** INTRODUCTION **

NOTE: This is revision A of Maximal. After the original release (5th July) it was discovered some people were having crashes when viewing the sky in software mode. This revision fixes it. The map is EXACTLY the same, bar an alteration to the sky bitmap. Many thanks to Private Ryan for pointing out the error, and [SLH]Kamikaze & [SLH]Suicidal Tart (aka Sfagel) for helping me resolve it.
(Below text is as first release).



Title			: MAXIMAL (for Team Fortress Classic).
Date			: 8th July 1999
Filename		: Gustavo3a_Maximal.bsp
Filesize		: 3.5mb, or thereabouts.
Author			: Keved, my Half-Life deathmatch/TFC alias is Gustavo.
Email Address		: keved@keved.force9.co.uk (preferably), or keved@hotmail.com
Home Page		: http://www.keved.force9.co.uk




ABOUT THE MAP/ME:
Maximal is my third FPS map (and first TFC map).

Previous maps...
Penitentiary (deathmatch, 72% at Radium, released 5-March-1999).
Maximillian (HL teamplay primarily/also deathmatch, 76% at Radium, released 15-May-1999).

Who am I? I'm 24 yrs old, English, & currently work for an Architectural Practice in NW England. Started playing/mapping FPS this year (1999), so am not a Quake/TF/Quake2/etc multiplayer veteran.



CREDITS TO:
1) Valve/Sierra.
2) [SLH]Kamikaze for his comments along the way. Visit http://come.to/khla/ Also to any other peeps who contributed the odd comment.
3) Records, for salvation from radio/tv hell.



** PLAY INFORMATION **



SINGLE PLAYER:
Just to familiarise yourself.



TEAMPLAY:
D'oh, of course. But then again, many think of TFC as an extension of HL deathmatch!



DESCRIPTION:
For those who have played Maximillian (if not, WHY NOT?! heh), Maximal is Maximillian mirrored, without the 4 blast chambers or nukes. Obviously there are changes, in fact a major spit & polish overhaul...at the point of symmetry, the addition of command point rooms, and Widespread (capital W) re-texturing. But if you know your way around Maximillian, you'll be at home in Maximal within minutes.



PLAYING:
Read the Gustavo3_Maximal.txt file for info on points scoring. Essentially, capture & hold the 5 command points and guard your command centre from enemy detpacks.

Why is Maximal command point based? I can count on one hand the amount of TFC maps released to date that haven't been CTF 2fort rip-off maps (ramp room, spiral stairs, yadda yadda yadda). Sure, I like the map 2fort itself n'all, but the amount of TFC 2fort "influenced" maps released is ridiculous. In the 2 months since TFC was released, I've only seen 2 user-created command point maps from the 50 or so I've downloaded from RadiumTF, Pipezone & Domination, so here is my attempt. It is of utmost importance that your team defends your command centre primarily...there is no "team only" door to get past like in Valve's Canal Zone 2...if everyone just goes off capping command points, the comm points will all be "uncapped" just as often by enemy Demomen exploding detpacks on your comm centre.

Why is Maximal so big? I don't think TFC lends itself well to small games such as 2v2. Even the likes of 5v5 in TFC is generally too few. The limitations in each class means small games denegerate into..."I've just chosen HWguy to defend the flag, so you choose scout and run straight past me...I choose Engineer and build a sentry to stop your scout, so you switch to Soldier/Demoman to destroy my sentry". Half the classes become redundant (Medic in 2v2? spy? sniper? useless!?!)...so imho small TFC games are pretty lame. Play Maximal with 16 players MINIMUM (8 vs 8), ideally 24-32 (12+ vs 12+). Also, like Maximillian, Maximal is ideal for big clan vs clan wars or big LAN tournaments.

Balance; I wanted Maximal to be a DEFENSIVE command point based map, more territory control based not a cheap flag rush (ie, offensive scout flag rushing on mass). I personally hate this scout rushing aspect of TFC. One reason is that there is no/little teamplay when there are lots of scouts carrying flags around (why bother asking team-mates for cover & waiting for them to arrive, when, if you die, there's another flag waiting to be carried once again?). Hence with only 2 flags, there is no point having several scouts, and by the same token more people will choose other classes, meaning scouts will find it more hazardous to charge around without support from other classes. That's the theory anyway!

The most important (and most versatile) places for your team to hold are the two open plan middle sections dividing the bases. You'll find it very difficult to defend in the narrow twisting corridors further back into your base, or at the command points themselves. Therefore I envisage most games will be won by the team who controls both middle sections, and uses their resulting strong position as a springboard to go for the command points under the enemy base (having already secured those nearest their own base). The lower middle area (with the water) is particularly crucial. Lose control of this area and the opposition can easily make attempts to capture both flags under your base.

Running speed; I've ensured Maximal runs (even) faster than Maximillian. A few people said they found Maximillian runs too slowly, which I couldn't understand...I get a very playable 30fps MINIMUM on my home PC (300mhz, and not overclocked, so it's by no means the fastest out there). EVERY Maximillian playtester had no problems with speed whatsoever. Radium even scored "speed" in Maximillian at 81% (from memory), higher than the overall 76%. So, seeing as though Maximal runs faster than Maximillian (I'm finding around 10 fps faster generally), if anyone finds Maximal runs slowly, I recommend you ditch your 286 and buy a new PC. Wpoly maxes out at 600 (evened out by the low epoly of 600 in the same spot), and epoly reaches a max of 3000 (evened out by wpoly of 200 in the same spot), which means that my fps stays above 40 at all times. No-one should have any problems running Maximal speedwise.

Hope you like Maximal. I'd appreciate feedback too...to my email address at the top of this text file (preferably), I'm a regular reader of/poster to the alt.games.half-life Usenet newsgroup, and often read the Radium forum...contact me at any of those places really. It's a major commitment putting in the time to design these damn maps, so I fully welcome any & all constructive encouragement / ideas / criticisms / praises.



** WHAT'S NEXT **

Gustavo4_Maxilla.bsp
A quick conversion of Maximal to the Jailbreak mod. By the time you read this, Maxilla should be complete, or at least available to those who want to help playtest it. I'm not changing much in the conversion from Maximal; scraping all the TFC command point entities of course, adding cells where command points 1-4 are currently situated, and the buttons to open the cells will be located inside each base. Like I say, a quick conversion. I think Maximal lends itself well to big teamplay stand-offs (big in size, lots of ways to get from A to B, etc), so if you want me to convert Maximal to your mod/a mod you think Maximal would be ideal for, give me a shout. (Note: DON'T ask for the Maximal rmf/map file to do any alterations yourself, as I won't supply it for editing purposes, only if you're making a TFC command point map yourself and want to see how I got it to work in Maximal. See copyright info at the bottom of this text file).

Gustavo5_MadBF.bsp
Full name; Mad Bucking Fastards. MadBF was due to be released earlier than Maximal/Maxilla and is currently finished all bar playtesting, so should be available imminently. It's the smallest map I've made BY FAR (for 4+ players), and also the weirdest. Get egged-on by a marine, stripped of weapons, loaded into a cage, paraded before a jeering crowed, thrown into huge steel mosh pit with only crowbars at hand, at the mercy of a snark nest, the only way out being to tramopline out on either of the 2 bounce pads. I kid ye not. If you survive that you have 4 minutes to collect weapons and maim as normal until the process starts again. Those feelin' frisky and not wanting to get back into the cage & surrender their weapons, well, in the spirit of all reputed lunatic asylums, they get electrocuted. "Mad Bucking Fastards"...quite an appropriate name for the map I think. :8O)

Lopan
I still have my long-term project Lopan (pronounced Low-Pa) on the go. Still a few months off release though. Set in a mansion. Do I hear cries of "No! Not lots of little office-type rooms??" hehe. Nope it isn't like that at all.



** INSTRUCTIONS **

Make sure you put the Gustavo3_Maximal.bsp & Gustavo3_Maximal.txt files into the following directory:

...\\tfc\maps

And of course keep this text file. 8¬)



** CONSTRUCTION **

Base                    : The base map was Gustavo2_Maximillian.bsp (my own map, so no copyright issues).
Editor(s) used          : Worldcraft v2.1
Known Bugs              : Just that I've stretched lots of textures, so decals may be out-of-shape/size.
Build Time              : Not long, just to convert Maximillian into a TFC format and learn the TFC specific entities. Maybe...hmm...30-35hrs, including playtesting. Define "not long"!
Compile machine         : Intel PentiumII 300mhz, 8mb Ati@Work AGP, 224mb ram, 12mb Creative Labs Voodoo2, DVD, 120mb floppy, etc, blah blah.
Compile Times...
QCSG			: 50 seconds
QBSP2			: 44 seconds
QRAD			: ~3000 seconds
VIS			: ~2000 seconds



** PERMISSIONS **

Copyright K.Edwards 1999.

You MAY NOT sell this map for money without my permission. You MAY NOT alter this map or use it as a base for a new map without my permission.

If a magazine wants it on its CD - that's fine - *BUT* you *MUST* send me a copy of the mag and credit myself with it's construction, AND INCLUDE THIS TEXT FILE. If you review this map for a website/magazine, I'd appreciate an email/whatever so I can read the review...not essential, but just to be appreciative of the time I've put into this map. An email only takes a minute.

You have yerself a nice day, y'hear?

Oh btw, if you see me on a server, I *CANNOT* speak Spanish/Portuguese/Smack talk/whatever...just so I ain't assumed to be a Colombian drug baron like I have been a few times before (or corderoy wearing Uruguayian goat shepherd, that happened once). 8¬)



KNOW YUR ROLE.
--
Gustavo.