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Shapes

The first showcase of the artpass is now! Version b0.25 showcases a first look at the art pass of this map (but only for blue side for testing purposes). Nav_mesh still here so feel free to play with bots.

Version a65 is here, lots of transition changes after a second round of feedback from B4nny. Am no longer testing custom textures (they are here to stay) so leaving beta 0 stage and going back to alpha for more testing. Nav_mesh is back and much more improved! Engie bots should actually leave spawn now and try to build nests.

Version b0d adds in new custom textures, displacement domes, better lighting and completely reworks the left flank route. It is now both much more open, much more interesting to play in and much more viable to push into last from. It also changes the pyramid pillar on mid to a diamond, giving soldiers a lot more space to have fun!

My first map, a 5cp map, with some main goals in mind from the very start of the design process:

1: Use interesting shapes to create varied gameplay patterns that are different from standard fences, boxes, cliffs and displacements.
2: Focus on 12v12 gameplay over 6v6.
3: Remove lobby as in 12v12 it results in so much of the team focusing in one area making it very hard to push into, and requiring two consecutive ubers a lot of the time.
4: Reshape the common design of last to encourage pushes into it a lot more, differing from normal lasts, hopefully such that making last take longer to cap feels natural along with the lack of a lobby.

Some of the changes from a standard 6v6 5cp map include:

1: Shorter respawn times. 20 second respawn times have always been a big gripe casuals have, and the fact that the respawn time changes only happen upon capping of mid and not also on second has been a particular gripe of mine.
2: Longer last cap times. Most captures on last is a scout or spy getting behind the enemy team and capping uncontested.
3: Reducing the timer to 5 minutes from 10. If the attacking team doesn't win shortly after capping second they typically aren't going to cap last based on skill or organisation. This makes it so that the game reaches a stalemate faster so both teams can now utilise the reset to properly attack and undermine each other's defenses before they get set up. Interestingly this is the one factor of 6v6 5cp that I'm utilising here, but rgl.gg's 5cp typically does 3 minutes but I thought that might be just a little too short for casual.
4: No lobby.
5: Putting the last cap point in the center so that every player can see it when they walk out of spawn. The number of times I've capped the last point in casual but all the new players just walk by because they don't see the point is ridiculous. New players do not hear announcements or see the UI. They are too overwhelmed and only respond to what is directly in front of them.
6: You can re-enter spawn of the associated forward point you spawned from instead of waiting for a teammate to open the door for you. This just improves engineer UX. In order to make it so snipers can't camp in a spawn, you can ONLY enter the forward spawn of the associated point.
7: An extension of above, you get auto-teleported to the newly associated spawn room when cap point changes hands. Snipers cannot sit in a forward spawn forever waiting and now players do not need to know about respawn binds to move forward. Also encourages those bloody engineers on last to MOVE THE EFF FORWARD YA DINGUSES.

(The winger/atomizer is also pretty good on this map.)

Nav meshes are fully functional. So in console, type "sv_cheats" 1 and then "tf_bot_add 21" to play with bots.

Check out the tf2maps posting to see update details.
https://tf2maps.net/downloads/shapes.16910/

Check out the tf2maps demo site to be able to watch past games of this map. (put the downloaded file into your teamfortess2/tf folder, then in tf2, type "playdemo" in console and it should give you auto-complete options for that demo file.
https://demos.tf2maps.net/search/cp_shapes