Townsquare

Townsquare might be a Booty-based map like any other, but the use of the urban layout makes it stand out from the others due to its chaotic gameplay.

Stats

• Map file: bt_townsquare
• Mode: Booty
• Author: Tschoppo
• Release Date: Beta 2.5 (October 2012)
• Theme: Urban, medieval, with assets correspoinding each team
• Number of Chests: 4
• Timer per Team: | Pirates 180 | Vikings 180 | Knights 180 |
• Pick-ups: Food (x ), Armor (x ), and Ammo (x )
• Stage Hazards: Chest cage, cave pit.

Overview

Townsquare utilizes unique variations of the Booty game mode. It's the map in the genre with the least amount of collectable chests, four, and they're all concentrated in the central landmark of the map, the town's plaza. Its gimmick is the lever inside the chapel that lifts the cage that guards the chests; if a player pulls the lever a second time the cage drops, causing severe damage to anyone who steps in the chest area.

The Pirates have an alternate path to the Vikings' base via a cavern and a burnt house. In the Knights' side the path goes through the river, followed by the library. the path for the Knights to reach the Vikings and vice-versa always lead to the plaza. Most of the paths are tight and unfeasible for combat, so detours are always a crucial option.

Each chest area feels unique in its own way: the drakkar in the Vikings' base functions exactly like the one in Island, with no possible way to jump into the water; the Pirates' boat has two entrances and it's very often when fights occur inside it. The Knights' is the most open area of them all, specially for being a bridge, however the chest stealers can become victims of ranged attacks.

Presentation

Being one of a handful of maps with a urban setting (others being Town, Tortuga and Cara), Townsquare has rich detail in the environments, where every corner has unique characteristic while maintaining the same aesthetic. The chapel in the plaza stands out for having an arabic influence in its architecture, while each base has specific details, such as the cast away ship in the Pirates' base, the drakkar in the Vikings', and pretty much nothing in the Knights' base.

Development

Tschoppo started building the map in May 2011. Initial reactions of the map were somewhat mixed due to the tight corridors and other level design nuisances that made the map unfeasible. After making the layout acceptable for the game mode, a lot of input on the visuals was added in the following six months. By november 2011, Townsquare was in a nearly complete state, despite some unfinished brushes and placeholder props being in the level. The following months authorized creator ProgSys worked on props exclusive to Townsquare, while Colonel Sanders made some tweaks over the map. Several bug fixes, details and optimizations were made during most of 2012 until its eventual release in Beta 2.5.

Shortly after the initial release, a couple of fixes were made, including an exploit where any class could jump to the Pirates' spawn with the chest special, texture issues regarding shaders, among other things. These fixes were adressed by Tschoppo and released in the next update, a year later.

Trivia

• The sheep seen in the level received nicknames from the developers: Maeci and Macie.[1]
• the pub in the Pirates' spawn, Octopussy, can either be a reference to the James Bond movie of the same name, or a filthy pun of the name Octoshark Studios, or both;