Map Balance Questions
Shoot_me
Join Date: 2002-11-15 Member: 8696Members
Join Date: 2002-11-15 Member: 8696Members
<div class="IPBDescription">Which team should a map favor.. if any?</div> I have just started work on a NS map and about 3 hours into the process I started thinking about some of the balance issues inherent in these team based mods. While I keep hearing one group of people screaming that the marines have been "nerfed" while the other side says the same thing about the aliens I am not sure how to balance out the map. Should I create a layout that favors the aliens by having an abundance of vents, and small passages accompanied by a very dark atmosphere? Or, should I create easily guardable areas that are well lit for the marines to fall back on when being ambushed? Or a combination of each. etc. etc. Right now I am faced with decisions like: 1. Should the marines be able to lock themselves in at their spawn? 2. Should I leave enough room in the passages for onos to traverse to the marine spawn? etc. etc. Well, if anyone has any tips on keeping a map balanced and with lighting, please post'em here. If I overlooked a similar thread just point me in the right direction. <!--emo&:D--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/biggrin.gif' border='0' valign='absmiddle' alt='biggrin.gif'><!--endemo-->
Current map in progress:
Current map in progress:
Comments
It's not organized very well, but that's your bible. It should be as fair and evenly balanced as you can make it. Start by making it simmilar to a map you already know and love. DON'T MAKE THE WHOLE THING DARK! THAT IS STUPID!! Make it bright near the marine start, and then make it get gradually darker towards the alien hives. Put vents between choke points, NOT between hives or a hive and the marine spawn. Every advantage you give to a team should be balanced by a disadvantage. And be prepared to change your map at the last minute after playtesting if someone decides it's not fair.
You should have a couple of free resource nodes between the MS and the Hives.
Ew. That'll mean that anything red or blue will come out as pure black.
One thing I will say, is keep switching sides... I play as marine usually, and I was testing my map thusly, all seemed cool... shooting invisible aliens, etc.
Then I played a skulk - and suddenly that lovely big cargo bay as a marine seemed this horrendous deathtrap that I was NEVER going to go near if I could avoid it. More crates, boxes and etc appeared in the next VIS compile
:-)
Quake 1 + 2 were never that dark, they just had bland colourless graphics, though Quake 2 wasn't quite as bad.
Alien Vs. Predator was very dark... and I don't think anyone favours AvP talk on these forums....!
The map looks really nice, i´ve never seen those blue lights in a map, and they look cool, it looks really nice, get more screens, keep working, i think you are facing the good direction =)
The below pic shows one such area. What I am thinking of doing is placing a trigger in the doorway. The trigger will switch on some light entities located in the middle of the ceiling supports (piping will be in the final build for the aliens. <!--emo&:p--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/tounge.gif' border='0' valign='absmiddle' alt='tounge.gif'><!--endemo--> ) So, I am hoping for a sequence that will trigger a "powering up" sound followed by the lights switching on. The trigger will only work once (probably once per round) and the lights will stay on. Maybe that will add to the atmosphere of an evacuated structure/building/or whatever it ends up being.... maybe I should plan out maps instead of seeing where I end up. <!--emo&:D--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/biggrin.gif' border='0' valign='absmiddle' alt='biggrin.gif'><!--endemo-->
<b>EDIT: Forgot to upload the image that goes here onto my website... will add it once I get it uploaded.... DO'H!!!</b>
The next image shows a BASIC start for the marine start location. The lift you see (pending a remodling) is one of two exit/entry pts. The lift will be poorly lit for the aliens while a hallway choke pt will be well lit, but riddled with corners for aliens to hide behind. Right now I am playing with the idea of a multilevel map. Keeping the upper lever and lower levels from crossing each other will be fun to try. However, I am thinking about keeping the upper level looking cleaner, brigher, and more close quarters areas. The lower section will be the utilities section of the map. Since most buildings keep alot of the ultilites in the lower or lowest sections of the buildings today, why not in the future? So, all the living quarters and similar will be in the upper levels and all the rusting leaking poorly lit stuff will be in the lower sections. What do you all think?
<img src='http://www.aybnetwork.com/mapping/ns_wip2.jpg' border='0' alt='user posted image'>
Quake 2 was never that dark. Quake1 was dark, grimy, scary and evil. Brilliant game Quake1, but not a bright game. <!--emo&:angry:--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/mad.gif' border='0' valign='absmiddle' alt='mad.gif'><!--endemo-->
Yeah, Quake1 was REALLY dark, hell, I had to crank the brightness and contrast on my monitor up nearly to max just to see on that game. Quake2 was dark at times as well, some rooms that required you to power up or down did get almost pitch black. Also, here is a screenshot showing about how bright I plan on making the "marine safe" upper levels.