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Jb Downtown v1d Mod for Team Fortress 2 | TF2 Mods
A Team Fortress 2 (TF2) Mod in the Maps category, submitted by BlaCk TriggeR
On Hold Thread '[JB] Add JB_Downtown'
Downtown is a map that was suggested way back in August 2023, over two years ago. It passed 22-14. It wasn't until March 2024 that a map pool update happened; Downtown was supposed to be among the maps added, but was put on hold due to its large file size (356 MB). It has been stuck in limbo ever since.
After over two years of passing the suggestion phase and being stuck in map purgatory for one reason or another, I feel it wouldn't hurt to do a re-vote on this map, or if possible, even another playtest, for many reasons, with one being particularly major that breeds it own set of problems. First, the general reasons:
- We have a lot of new regulars, and a lot of the players that voted on the suggestion from two years back no longer play on our server (at least regularly)
- The votes were relatively close, with a fair amount of people who were against adding the map despite it still passing.
- Map addition or removal suggestions tend to get a lot more votes these days.
- The original suggestion thread had a lot of complaints about the map, particularly the large, open sightlines, but it still managed to pass despite this.
--- Adding on to the large sightlines, this was a major factor to Bootcamp's unpopularity among many and eventual removal, and Famouz is disliked among many for the same reason.
And then, there's the major reason: the MVM upgrades. There is a money system on this map, just like Miami...but this time, it's poured into upgrades. There is an upgrade station in the armory, as well as one near the Calassic gas station (yes) that both BLUs and REDs can pour any money they collect into weapon upgrades (the same ones from MVM). Exploring the map I have not found any money drops or breakables anywhere across the map, meaning the map's sole source of money collecting is BLUs killing REDs and vice versa, to my knowledge. To me this is probably going to be the big factor in this map's fate. There is a whole host of problems that this could breed:
- A kill from either team to the other gives you $300 (this also applies to killing someone on your team during FF), and if a player dies for another reason, everyone currently alive gets $100. If a single BLU manages to get a lot of kills, they'll be able to upgrade their weapons, mobility, and resistances pretty easily, making them even more difficult to kill or avoid then they already are and making rebelling incredibly difficult. To my knowledge it appears MVM upgrades reset each round so it'll likely prevent players from maxing out everything, thankfully.
- Given the BLU/RED ratio, BLUs are more likely to accumulate more money than REDs and reap the benefits of the upgrades.
- As kills are the only source of money on this map (that I know of), there's potential for BLUs to fight amongst one another for kills, and for BLUs to become trigger happy in an attempt to gain money.
Regarding the file size, while I realize that 356 MB is large for a JB map, I don't think it's THAT much of a stretch from our current biggest map in our rotation right now (Miami, which is 290 MB). Adding to this, the old District, which we used to have, was 306 MB. My previous laptop (before its motherboard bit the dust) and my 2012-2017 laptop which I use as a backup, both of who's framerate were generally garbage on any map no matter the size and were slowed down by a lot of other stuff, were able to load Miami fine and run at a framerate that, while bad, was still playable. Just something to consider.
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