Forum Discussion

New Ace

2 months ago

Unique Maps and Portal Love

Now that the newest wave of bot farming has subsided, isn't it nice to be able to join and host Portal servers again!? It's a sad state of affairs when what we once enjoyed and miss in the old, old Battlefield games feels so gone and so hard to feel again. Portal really feels like the only option we have to experience our Battlefield nostalgia. Portal has persistent servers, searchable, a player count, a ping, and keeps players together round after round. It has everything most of us want, except for stability and full control. It's the closest thing we have.

Let's celebrate and share what we have.

I'll start.

Here is a Golf Course map I made. I call it King of the Hill, but it isn't everyone's version of King of the Hill. It is a literal hill -- the one with Club House at the top -- and two teams of 20 spawn on either side of the map and try to capture the Club House.

YouTube Preview

There is a Hardcore version and a Standard core version. It has bot fill with AI that has a purpose.

Custom Layout and Spawn Protection

I have added a crumbling highway to one side of the map to give more attack options. The spawns are chosen based on having cover or hills protecting them, or stone blocks are strewn around the map to provide that protection. In addition, the overpass has a break in it and out of bounds lines in such a way that neither side gets a great opportunity to spawn kill the opposing side.

Custom AI

Like I said, the AI is customized to give it a purpose. You won't join a game by yourself and just see the AI wandering aimlessly, idling, or waiting for you to appear. The AI that just waits for you and then instantly nails you is not fun. This AI is different. Aside for the ones who get stuck in vehicles and can't figure out how to drive, you should see the AI quite active. Although still dumb as rocks, you should not be too annoyed with the AI bots while waiting for the server to fill. I may disable AI from entering vehicles in the future. I have considered it, but have not yet decided if that is a good or bad idea. At least the AI chilling in the carts gives some additional variety.

Feedback

Now here is where I need you. These maps haven't been properly tested. Besides a few players every now and then, none of them have got a very good shake-down. The XP farming really screwed everything up for a while, and no one could very well host or join anything without a lot of effort. I need traffic and feedback so that I can tweak things.

Maps?

I said "These Maps", but there is only one here! I have more. All of them are similarly unique in one way or another and have custom AI and can be won or lost.

I can only host one map at a time, so I chose the one I thought would get more interest; but I have others. Please feel free to join or host any of these maps and enjoy and share the experience.

Free to Play:

"F2P REDSEC - Team Deathmatch" : Golf Course and Tech Sector map rotation of Team Deathmatch. Golf Course features the same design you see above. Tech Sector is mostly un-modified and can be based on feedback. Deathmatch AI has a purpose and you will see them on a mission.
- Hardcore: Z3Q8X
- Standard core: Z91ZJ
"F2P - Golf Course - King of the Hill - Clubhouse" : I described it above.
- Hardcore: Z6ZFK
- Standard core: ZAEF4
"Golf Course - Custom Bots - Infantry Conquest": 20 v 20 small conquest at golf course with many objectives in close proximity. The chaos some people crave.
- Hardcore: ZC34V
- Standard: ZC2RY
"Friends vs Friends F2P TDM with Team Switching": 16 vs 16 (max) TDM to play against your friends. Bots are off by default. Each spawn area has a sign you can interact with in order to switch to the other team, or to turn bot fill on. Host it with a password if you don't want randoms to join.
- ZG383
"Friends vs Friends F2P Infantry Conquest with Team Switching": 20 vs 20 (max) Conquest Small to play against your friends. Bots are off by default. Each spawn area has a sign you can interact with in order to switch to the other team, or to turn bot fill on. Host it with a password if you don't want randoms to join.
- ZGGTZ

Battlefield Owners:

"Hardcore Team Deathmatch - Small Maps - Bot Fill" : A rotation of Empire State and Saints Quarter. Experience the experience that EA forgot to make. Tons of fun and action!
- YKBXU
"Casual Conquest with Bot Control and Team Switching": Large scale conquest that is a faithful reproduction of the real thing, except with the ability to play against bots and ability to control which team you are on.
- ZGQ1G and ZH6YV (it's complicated)

If you like any of them, don't forget to give a thumbs up on the scoreboard screen at the end of the round!

Share and Get Involved

Please share your favorite Portal experiences! Please tell me what scratches your itch! We need to give everyone some real love and make Portal the best thing we can make of it!

Thank you for your time!

... oh... and we are all learning together! Ask for help or share your expertise. We all need eachother!

20 Replies

Mainfold
New Traveler
21 days ago
Portal has a MASSIVE ISSUE affecting it and the expansion of community created content; the sign-in page for portal to be able to download the portal builder.. doesn't work, it doesn't let players sign in, it just refreshes the page
Ty_Ger07
New Ace
21 days ago
It works for me. Maybe click it a few times?
Ty_Ger07
New Ace
21 days ago
Yeah, no problem. Please do.
It should be back up and published within an hour or two.
I test it for hours and it works good. But then, sometimes when I try, I get disconnected randomly. The server just goes away. I don't know if the server crashes or has a network issue or what. But, assuming that the server crashes, I made some changes that should make it perform a little better. All I can do is look at the server frame time and tweak until the frame time drops and test and hope it is good.
Time will tell. But it should be back up and ready for public use soon, and should perform better.
Ty_Ger07
New Ace
17 days ago
I added Eastwood and Mirak Valley as well.
matteokoppier
Rising Novice
17 days ago
Hey, I just played Mirak Conquest and I`m very happy, great work :)
I also sent you a PM but I will also ask here, please also add the other levels to your work, it would be the best :)
I do miss vehicle loadout options and the vehicle reticles and friendly fire enabled, but thats just my preference.
Therefore my question in my PM. I really hope you will add the other levels, anyways, thank you very much :)
matteokoppier
Rising Novice
17 days ago
You are doing a wonderful job, keep it up :)
matteokoppier
Rising Novice
17 days ago
My I also make a suggestion concerning updates and them pending?
You could leave the old version, create a copy and work on the updated version and add version numbers, that way people can keep playing your work while you progress.
Ty_Ger07
New Ace
17 days ago
The conquest experience is currently 48 player (44 bots max). Do you think it feels like enough? Should it be pushed to 56 or 64, or does it feel like there are enough intersctions as it is?
On a 30hz server, I didn't want it to start playing like crap with too many people. I joined someone's hosted experience that was full to the 48 player max, and it felt okay-ish, but there were some lag spikes and crappiness. But the server also said it had an up time of 77 hours, so no wonder. What do you guys think? On a server with less up time, and a decent number of players populated, does it feel good enough to try 56 players, or is 48 fine?
matteokoppier
Rising Novice
17 days ago
The larger the map, the more "quiet" it will be naturally. 48 for the small and 64 for large would be ideal I guess.
77 hours?? Well, its not your work that creates problems, thats for sure then..
Ty_Ger07
New Ace
16 days ago
I think I should go with what makes sense for the intent of the server. As it is, when a server fills, there are no bots. That's not very casual... So, I figure I will set the bots to fill the server to 64 players, but leave the humans maxed out at 48.