Thunder Mountain

Thunder Mountain
Basic Information
Variants:	Mannpower
Developer(s):	Unknown
Map Info
Environment:	Alpine
Setting:	Daylight, raining
Hazards:	Pitfall
Map Photos

“

Aw, now you don't look like a happy camper. Click to listen — The Engineer finding the Sniper's hidden camping spot

”

Thunder Mountain has multiple variations, including Mannpower.

Thunder Mountain is a Valve-developed Payload map included with the Engineer Update, revealed on Day 4 thereof. It is the third official Payload map to be developed and released since the Heavy Update, and one of three Payload-based maps released during the Engineer Update, the others being Upward and Hightower (a Payload Race map).

Thunder Mountain is a multi-stage Payload map, like Gold Rush and Hoodoo. Unlike other Payload maps, Thunder Mountain features new gameplay mechanisms not used in earlier maps, including a bridge which must be raised in order for the cart to cross, and sloped tracks, marked with yellow and black caution stripes.

Locations

Stage 1

• First Courtyard: Just outside BLU spawn is a courtyard that resembles Gold Rush's Stage A, Checkpoint 1.
• Bridge: At the end of the First Courtyard is a small, tighter section of woodwork that leads to an unraised bridge. By pushing the cart onto the point the bridge raises slowly until it is high enough for the Payload to cross.

Details of stage 1 (large file).

Stage 2

• Tunnel: After crossing a bridge at BLU spawn, the cart is then pushed among a bottleneck track and to the first capture point.
• Final Cap: The final capture point is right after the first capture point. The cart is pushed into a tunnel and among a ramp, and after the ramp lies the final capture point.

Details of stage 2 (large file).

Stage 3

• First Cap: Just below the final tower is the bomb cart's start, it is pushed into a covered track and back around to the second point.
• Second Cap: The second cap is on a bridge on the outskirts of the map. The cart then proceeds up a ramp to the final cap.
• Final Spiral: In Thunder Mountain's final stage is a large tower, which the BLU team slowly climbs over the course of the round until they push it into a hole in the center, detonating the cart.

Details of stage 3 (large file).

Strategy

Main article: Community Thunder Mountain strategy

Gallery

• 

  Stage 1 Checkpoint 1

• 

  Stage 1 Checkpoint 2

• 

  Stage 2 Checkpoint 1

• 

  Stage 2 Checkpoint 2

• 

  Stage 3 Checkpoint 1

• 

  Stage 3 Checkpoint 2

• 

  Stage 3 Checkpoint 3

• 

  The BLU characters as seen on Thunder Mountain, Stage 1, from BLU spawn.

• 

  The train as seen on Stage 1 of Thunder Mountain.

• 

  The RED team in the swimming pool, as seen from inside the swimming pool as seen on Stage 2.

• 

  Close-up on the camping Sniper as seen on Thunder Mountain, Stage 3. The camper van is not visible on this screenshot.

• 

  An aerial picture of Sniper's tent and camper van on Thunder Mountain, Stage 3.

Update history

July 8, 2010 Patch (Engineer Update)

• Added Thunder Mountain to the game.

August 17, 2010 Patch

• Clipped off sticky outcrops for smoother movement.
• Clipped various exploit ledges.
• Increased environment ambient exterior light level.
• Stage 1
  • Fixed hole in respawn room brushes in RED spawn.
  • Shifted respawn times to favor BLU by two seconds.
• Stage 3
  • Clipped rocks off by BLU's spawn exit that leads to building B. (allowed Snipers to snipe the entire area)
  • Removed embedded displacement. (building B interior roof)
  • Removed rogue clip brush from building A balcony.

February 14, 2011 Patch

• Updated the final stage to have the train begin receding after 25 seconds. (15 seconds on the final stretch)
• [Undocumented] Reduced the cart speed on the final two ramps in the final stage to 1/2 normal speed.

May 3, 2012 Patch

• Fixed a build-in-spawn exploit in the Blue spawn room for stage 2.

July 10, 2013 Patch

• Fixed gate visible through ceiling in stage 3
• Fixed clipping in stage 3 Blu spawn
• Prevented players from building in the cliffside kill zone in stage 1

March 17, 2016 Patch

• Fixed being able to build on rocks outside of the fence by the capture points.

July 7, 2016 Patch #1 (Meet Your Match Update)

• Fixed the first and second cap points of stage 3 each awarding 2 points to the capturing team instead of 1.

Bugs

• Players can get stuck on Stage 1 of the map if they crouch at the end of the bridge near the control point whilst it rises. The bridge will rise halfway and the player will rise with it, but then the player will stop rising while the bridge continues on.

Trivia

• On Stage 1, in the BLU spawn, the player may see some BLU characters in an area similar to the Soldier Training map, around a blackboard. They will occasionally taunt, albeit with no weapons, and will also occasionally do the Thriller taunt regardless of the time of the year. [1]
• On Stage 2, in the RED spawn, one may see the RED team swimming in a pool.
• On Stage 3, near the second checkpoint (third dot), off in the distance the Sniper can be seen near his camper van (the same one seen in Meet the Sniper), a tent, and a fire. He only appears after BLU team has pushed the Payload past the first checkpoint.
• Thunder Mountain was originally teased on Day 1 of the Engineer Update, on the map of Badlands, an area that a number of game maps occupy.
• There is an actual mountain named Thunder Mountain in Sierra Nevada, California.
  • However, this map's name references the history of nuclear weapon development at Los Alamos National Laboratory (see also the mushroom cloud reference on the Engineer Update page), with a few underground nuclear tests occurring just north of where this map is located.

• A.D.M.E. locomotive 105, seen as a static model on many previous maps, is animated here, occasionally pulling a logging train across a trestle off the map near the lumbering near Stage 1 BLU Spawn:
  • In spite of the playback of steam exhaust and steam whistle sounds, A.D.M.E. 105 is in fact a model of a 30 ton Davenport diesel locomotive.
  • It is modeled on D&RGW #50, the only narrow gauge diesel locomotive that the D&RGW railroad ever owned.
  • This model is particularly identified by the unique custom mounting of an airbrake cylinder as a coupler-adjusting device on the front, which allowed #50 to be coupled to cars of different gauge. While the real #50 was a narrow gauge locomotive that could couple to standard gauge cars, the in-game A.D.M.E. 105 is usually rendered oversized as a standard gauge locomotive coupled to narrow gauge cars (check the undercarriages with noclip in Badwater Basin).
  • In the 1960s, the D&RGW operated this locomotive in Durango, Colorado, which is across the mountains northwest of Valles Caldera, and so, corresponds with the label "Thunder Mountains" on the Map of Badlands. In particular, 1968 was the last year that D&RGW #50 serviced trains from Lumberton and Chama, New Mexico (in the Thunder Mountains on the Map of Badlands) as the tracks from there to Durango were being abandoned.
  • Archer Daniels Midlands (A.D.M.X.) operated a few superficially similar locomotives.

External links

• The Engineer Update