They will basically be the same, but go ahead and get the newer architecture: (i5-3570k) as it will save you a bit of power.

That's a lot of theory crafting, but really I'm not sure why it would be a bad thing if a map isn't specifically designed to cater to either a forward hold or a point hold, instead potentially being viable for both, with both methods having potential drawbacks that you will need to account for.

you can't use them because that's one of the points of the sv_pure setting. It prevents people fiddling with materials to get competitive advantages.

if anyone that is around today wants to playtest my map it's going to be playtested sometime between 12-2pm pacific time today: http://www.reddit.com/r/truetf2/comments/12mc6u/bored_today_help_the_tf2mapsnet_community_test/
Specific timeslot should be shown on the forum link on that post once it's settled.
If you could upvote the truetf2 post it will also help all of the other folks testing their maps, so thanks!

Dave, when you decompile a map it doesn't do it perfectly. A lot of the brush errors you are experiencing are likely the result of the decompile process, and not present in the original vmf. (it can happen with decompiling valve maps too)

I have posted an early early alpha of the map I'm talking about above here: http://forums.tf2maps.net/showthread.php?p=276594

Note that the game mode is not functioning as I ultimately want it to on that posted version because the community that is going to playtest it doesn't like mappers messing with the flag captures per round variable. I'm just doing early testing though so I should still be able to get a feel of whether I need massive changes in spawn times, chokes, etc.

Valve will never allow greater fov's because it basically negates the effectiveness of flanking/ approaching from the blind side which is kind of big deal for a few (non competitive) classes in TF2. They designed the gameplay of classes around limited FOV's. Scout's benefit from it quite a bit too in comp. Yeah it would be nice to run with fov 120, but it's silly to pretend it's not providing an advantage. That extra awareness is and always has been a noteable advantage.

This doesn't fit into the 3 CP thing, but hopefully fits into the "faster map" thing. I'm getting close to an early version for a reverse ctf map based on torch2 from tfc, but it is not a mirrored base map. I've tried to design it from the ground up to play well with TF2's mechanics, so it is not a faithful port except for the main capture area which is pretty darn close.
One team is on offense for a ~ 10 minute round, whereafter teams are switched. Most caps at the end of both rounds wins. Caps are not a sure thing just because you get it close to the point (the ideal cap is to drop perfectly into the 'pot' on a jump). If you are killed short of the pot it may require a wipe of the enemy team to get it in and it becomes easier for the defense to hold it. There's going to be some wrinkles to success on the map that are probably different than CP...I'll just say I'm optimistic that this could bring something different to the table. Demoman or soldier are likely to be your main 'flag' runners. Quickfix might even be viable on offense for a few reasons.

There's certain choke points which I really need to see how they play out to know if it needs some tweaks or added routes. Also...respawn balancing may need larger tweaks since I'm kind of making a first stab at the timing and where I think teams will hold and most often clash.

Hoping to roll it out for playtests in a week or two.... "so excited!"

are you on the west coast?

I believe the 7850 radeon offers the best bang for the buck for graphics card. If you do some very simple overclocking on the Vcard you can unlock pretty massive performance with no risk, so I would favor that over nvidia.

For CPU I would really recommend i5-3570k, its around the same price as a 3470 but easy overclocking ability if you ever decide to do that in the future...and it definitely fits the "best bang for the buck" metric by far.

Power supply you can get decent 600W power supplies for around 45 bucks.
If you can be patient with your build you can snag good prices on components here:
http://slickdeals.net/

so your goal in getting her number is to what...text her? Seems you already skype with her, which is like talking on the phone...so yeah. What do you think you're going to accomplish that you aren't accomplishing over skype :)

Interest rates are artificially low. The main purpose of the zero interest rate target on fed funds and the quantitative easing program itself is to help put downward pressure on interest rates. If the low rates are natural why on earth is the fed taking these extraordinary measures?

I don't think most banks even carry student loans on their books, isn't it mostly government run now? I think federal loans account for the vast majority of loans now...so maybe banks get juicy commision but the liability is on us :)
Student loans are handed out like candy without any regard for the possibility of the person to pay it back. There's people getting 100k in approved student loans for liberal arts educations...I mean come on.

Here's one article that touches on the potential problem.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/greatspeculations/2012/06/04/student-loan-bubble-sets-up-to-be-subprime-disaster-part-deux/2/

I'd say student loans are a massive bubble, it's basically the only thing that is propping up consumer credit at this point. And they can't be discharged through bankruptcy....that's downright scary and is going to continue to be a drain on the economy. I didn't know we legalized slavery!

When you bring interests rates artificially low you are basically assured of creating bubbles somewhere.
Seems like the stock market's run since 2008 and student loans are the only beneficiary's so far, neither seem sustainable.

This new generation is going to take a lot more time to buy houses and other large purchases if they do at all. Combined with boomers downsizing as they retire I think it's going to cause huge problems. We're going to need a lot of immigrants to increase the workforce to support them...but then dey tek er jerbs.

People give too much credit to the competency of large organizations to carry out massive, detailed agendas.

Even the best large organizations are a blubbering mass of humanity slowly lurching towards little milestones, trying to figure out what the hell they are doing all along the way. At the end of the year they look back and wonder how the hell they accomplished anything. Join one that you hold up as some kind of well oiled machine and I'm sure you'll have the same disillusioning experience.

The government as a whole is no different.

Characterizing public education as a government run program to stop critical thinking?? People rail on public schools all the time but I'm trying to remember a time when we WEREN'T encouraged to think critically. Critical thinking certainly wasn't suppressed. This doesn't mean the majority of kids will develop it, but if there's an agenda to stop critical thinking they sure have an interesting way of going about it in making education accessible to all. And who is 'they'? Does this guy actually think that all of these individual teachers are in on some vast agenda to stupify our kids? It sounds like his exposure to public schools is through "shocking" anecdotes of what they allegedly teach in schools.

As for the nutrition situation- I tend to believe the junk people are pushed to eat is less of an intended opiate for the masses and more the coincidental result of select corporate interests winning out over time versus proper nutrition. Carbs are cheap to produce and can feed a lot of people for less, and US farmers produce a ton of them. HFCS (our favorite sugar) is cheap and exists as a defacto subsidy to our corn farmers. More inherent profits in these foods leads to more $$, which leads to more lobbying power for companies producing these foods to ensure their dominance.

Now, while large organizations like the government lack the competency to carry out sinister plans, that is not the case with smaller orgs. So a group like the federal reserve bank, or individual companies CEO's and lobbyists can exert influence on the blabbering idiots in the government to lurch towards their desired result. But they are still idiots and are just trying to secure their own personal interests.

tl;dr people are idiots, have always been idiots, and will continue to be idiots

for the ramps instead of stairs - is it just the clipping on the stairs that is the problem? (for explosions and such?) I'm getting ready to post a map for initial balance testing and I do have some stairs but they are clipped to behave like ramps.