Nailed it.

Medusa boss changes:
- Added the Stone Gaze ability. Look away!
- Added 40% damage resistance against Sentries and Miniguns.
- Increased Medusa's damage across the board.
- Medusa now moves more frequently and aggressively.

Map changes:
- Overall code improvements and bug fixes.
- Temporarily disabled post-round Hell arena.

//todo add map layout/geometry changes

Is there a server playing?

Once subscribed, launch the map with create a server option

how do acess this map?

Volvo shoulda added this. Great map.

If you know of any that would be willing to give us a home, please let us know! @Vincent Von Helsing

Man, I really hope that this map gets added to some dedicated community servers. It would be really cool to play this on demand rather than trying to search up the testing server and hope that the rotation has chosen it, since... you know... the map didn't make the cut.

thx valve for (NOT) adding this map this year :I

its Greek myths monster

The reason why Special Delivery never got more maps in the future is that nobody knew what to do with the game mode until vscript functionality allowed mappers to expand and modify it.

As for the visuals, we were aiming for a ancient Mediterranean like city/underground area that was similar to how maps like Egypt were handled, but without being overly greek themed like Hades is. Our aim wasnt to just bring Medusa from greek myth, it was to create a TF2 take of the character itself.

The style of it makes me feel like I'm on a gmod map. Also why do a whole arena if you already capped and won, kinda beats the point like Carnival of Carnage doing the bumper cars but even then that was mostly for duck collecting/Halloween achievement stuff I guess. I loved Krampus its one of my favorite Smissmas maps right next to Galleria but this map really really needs an overhaul I think, maybe for another year. I know one really really pretty Greek mythology Halloween map, Hades, has an amazing look and feel to it that I wish got in which could be good inspo if its at all considered.

Sadly not really excited if this one gets in this year, the team did a good job the take on another new boss is interesting but everything about this just feels unfinished? Medusa herself isn't too interesting to fight from the few times I tried it, her voice is great at least but I can't really say the same to the Merasmus VA, no offense to them of course but I honestly had no clue it was supposed to be Merasmus until he started saying stuff that he would say, it sounds off and reminds me of the Saxton Hale custom lines for the mercs that were a bit iffy, again not anything bad on the VA's part you guys did great but it's okay at best. This being a special delivery map is already kinda meh, special delivery never really got more maps for a reason I feel like and the map design/art pass looks kinda strange.

I think the point is fair that TF2's takes on bosses tend to be different from the stereotypical tale, with HHH being a prime example. Although her name is the same, this Medusa is quite different from other interpretations, not only in design, but in lore implications. There is some allusion to the original tale with Perseus on the wall murals, but the implication in Medusa's lines is that she's taken the form of a curse of sorts. That is to say, the body of the Medusa you're fighting is not the original from myth, but a possessed individual, perhaps from the archeological excavation. It is explicitly said, as well, that this soul of Medusa is well acquainted with Merasmus, throughout her iterations, tying her to the lore of TF2 in a unique manner.

These are aspects we considered in the development of Medusa in an attempt to both follow precedent and supplement fun gameplay (the idea of decapitating Medusa and sending her head to Hell in Special Delivery is just too fun to pass).

I'm still really on the fence about this. Even since Krampus was added my opinions on original bosses/characters being tied to the established lore has swayed the longer I played because I don't think that they're distinctive enough. Not a lot about this version of Medusa feels exclusively TF2-esque

There's always a quirk to the Halloween bosses that make them distinctively "TF2", even those who are based on folklore creatures, it's not really 1-1 with the source material. Like the Headless Horseman, the twist with TF2's version is that the guy also doesn't have a horse. It's a minute and overlooked detail that doesn't impact gameplay but it elevates and makes TF2's take of the folklore distinctive compared to other versions in media

I'm not trying to be mean but from what I'm seeing this is quite frankly, a very on the nose depiction of a Gorgon that I could see anywhere else

Medusa is a classic monster that sadly isn't seen much in games these days. So, I'm all for this.

Give her a snoot THEN I'll be 100% invested...

this looks fun!

Is there bot support?

Fingers crossed!

they added krampus, so theres NO WAY they wont add this

🐍

scary

The map has been updated to b8:

- Fixed the water seams at Medusa's cave.
- Fixed the displacement seam at the lift door.
- Fixed a geometry seam at team spawns.
- Recolored wood on windows, doors, and signs on teams' buildings.
- Lit up the windows surrounding the lift.
- Made new rock props around the lift.
- Minor adjustments to lights and props.
- A clipping pass.

Bot support?

Love the design of Medusa herself. Great adaptation to TF2's style.

really nice

Noted. Will be on the look on whether this happens again.

we played it today

@Captain Bloodstone are you sure you were playing the latest version? Some community servers are known to download the bsp, instead of using the workshop maps directly.

A new special delivery map in the year of our lord 2025? As long as it's better than Carnival of Carnage, count me in!

problem the round doesn't end in hell when one side all dies

The map has been updated to b7:

- Fixed the Hell Arena not working correctly.
- Fixed the arrow trap sounds being too loud.
- Updated Medusa's death and slither animations.
- Optimized Medusa's materials to avoid double-draw.
- The flag compass now points towards Medusa's cave at the beginning of the round.
- Fixed Medusa's projectiles not moving under certain conditions.
- Removed Skeletons and Minify spells from the spell pool (they didn't work correctly anyway).
- Fixed Merasmus' voice lines overlapping.
- Fixed various script execution errors.
- Added trim to arches in Medusa arena.
- Added archways to lower middle.
- Clipped areas with guard rails.

she should have some movement in her tail

Some facial expressions would be good for her i imagine some like her loking at the book and whispering some words before her does her spell, overall the medusa is a good boss didn't find anything wrong fighting her, my only critics is that sometimes i was lost going to the capture with the medusa head, my opinion maybe adding something like a glow to the objective when you are holding the head would be neat. Good Map

The map has been updated to b6:

VScript changes:
- Fixed Special Delivery HUD not being applied (blame the Workshop's back-end).
- Increased Medusa's voice lines volume.
- The "flag" has new trail effects.
- Fixed the "flag" sometimes being seen in 2 places at once as it spawns.
- Fixed the "flag" not having the correct pickup range for the initial spawn.
- Fixed some announcer lines mixing up the teams.
- Fixed the rare "too many indices for index buffer" crash.

Map fixes:
- Clipping added in many areas that did not have it previously.
- Fixed mirrored props having improper rotation.
- Reapplied overlays that lost their brush faces.

this needs to get added

Cobra gostosa

IS VERY VERY NICE

Special Delivery in my eyes, was the next logical step for integrating a boss into a map. Unlike with Krampus, Medusa is more organically tied to the objective because she drops the necessary item needed to complete the map, and acts as an additional challenge in capturing the flag. You can then choose to either mess around and play deathmatch until she comes back or capture the lift and end the round. That was the most crucial aspect I wanted to improve on, giving the players more freedom to do what they want in the game.

Besides that already functioning as a perfectly reasonable usage of that character, knowing our plan to make SD but with boss character, who else would you think of putting in that spot @馬🐴:horse:سباق الخي ?
HHH? He's taken...

My main explanation as to why Medusa and not, idfk, some actual random character is because her was ACTUALLY fitting the objective we were aiming for.
Medusa is a well known character whom you cut the head off (and display as victory). Special delivery is a game mode where you take an object both teams fight over and deliver to a point.
We want to make a SD map with a boss feature. Put 1 and 1 together and BOOM! You have Medusa functioning as the perfect boss character to deliver the objective from.

Are there any plans to give her facial expressions and phonemes?

@馬🐴:horse:سباق الخي I say this respectfully, but this is a faulty comparison. The reason Thanos doesn't work is that Thanos is a hyper-particular property built for a certain universe. You can't remove Thanos from Marvel. Medusa, on the otherhand, is as public domain as it gets. She's far more of a parallel to the Headless Horseman. Except Medusa is even older. She's even older than Dracula or Frankenstein by 2000 years. Nobody 100% honestly believes in their heart of hearts that Medusa is a parallel to Thanos.

mfw Aquarius and Pressure exist

petition for dotflare to help create a Megalodon water based map

@馬🐴:horse:سباق الخي judging by your arguments, your brain is same as animal's brain you portray yourself as.

If Medusa can be in a game like Castlevania, I dont see why she cant be in a game like tf2. Just as long as she isnt overtly greek themed, and is a take that tries to adapt to the world of the game.

Fighting Medusa, a figure of widely known historical fiction, in my honest opinion is absurd enough for it to be "acceptable" in Team Fortress 2's "lore" as an old pal to Merasmus, she doesn't push the boundaries of absurdity too far.