City Based Map - Ideas/Foreseen Problems.

NaturalCauses

First, here's a concept gallery I wanted to use for inspiration.

Sort of a dystopian, cyberpunk feel to it. This map would be in the "upper atmosphere" of a super city (e.g. suspended between buildings via bridges and platforms) in the more seedy part. Maybe this involves derelict shop fronts, red light district, smuggler landing pads, but the mood would be dark with lots of trash/detritus. The marines pick up their start in what looks like the sector was interrupted in the midst of normal day to day action (food carts abandoned, packages strewn across small streets, storefront doors left ajar)

The problems I see with this is the "containment" of the sector, and making it so that it wouldn't be too open in all places. Ideas for getting around this? Connective skybridges, and security checkpoints between streets would create choke points for marines to hold.

Please add your thoughts, I wanted to make a series of these but the first would be an almost claustrophobic bazaar area, hence the shops and kiosks.

AurOn2

interesting, just one request, make a minibar of the auronator! i want to serve lurks gorges and fades some good, homemade beer, introduce them to our culture, etc etc.

I can see this being a lerk haven and possible jetpak rifle spot of fun, skulks and onoses probably wont have much fun, if it's big enough, shotgunners probably too.

though we can't really know how good/bad things can be if we don't see a prototype or greybox first. those pictures are very vague (duh) and few mix and match between themes, so try to pick one of the themes to go with and we can work on it from there.

how high up do you plan this sector to be? Skyscrapers high or just tall buildings high? You can only have ONE layer of enterable buildings (for commanders) so you may want to open up to some buildings being higher up than others, etc, for more varied gameplay. hmm, ok i think i'm out of ideas.

Ok not yet, went through the pictures and i think you should stick to a http://i.imgur.com/UjsY3VJh.jpg theme, and any interiors you do, Do not come any close to being this detailed: http://i.imgur.com/gKB7bVch.jpg, too much detail means laggy maps, laggy maps means people whingeand whine, which ends up in bad gameplay.

deathshroud

you are going to need a lot of custom textures to get the kind of cityscape you are after.

NaturalCauses

deathshroud wrote: »

you are going to need a lot of custom textures to get the kind of cityscape you are after.

Yeah, I have experience with doing textures for short films in Maya. Not sure how the experience is with spark though.

NaturalCauses

how high up do you plan this sector to be? Skyscrapers high or just tall buildings high?

I was thinking suspended between skyscrapers. That would solve some of the bounding issues with the area being too "open." Think landing pad in Docking, but with higher buildings.

Do not come any close to being this detailed: http://i.imgur.com/gKB7bVch.jpg, too much detail means laggy maps, laggy maps means people whingeand whine

Thanks for that, I have read some of the best practices stuff already. I was thinking that most of the detritus/trash would be texture based and low on the LOD.

DarkSeraph

Though the concept is super cool, I'd be highly concerned about this. If I were to attempt to pull this off it would be by having a small alleyway that was open, with 2-3 sky bridges connecting between buildings. The majority of the map would still be indoors. If going for a full NS2 map (not combat) you might be able to have multiple small outside areas, akin to the size of Crevice in Summit.

My reasoning:

• Gameplay - there are too many classes and situations where having a large open area where you can be shot but are unable to return fire immediately (due to being melee) ruins game balance. This would require a connection between the bridges, and even then onos would be massively disadvantaged vs EXO. The possibility of falling would be annoying to most, and the possibility of jetpackers finding some place to sit on the side of the building out of onos reach would be very high (unless you make flat buildings, which would be boring).
• Performance - anything larger than the above suggestion is going to tank FPS. The larger the open area the less you receive benefit from occlusion culling as the engine can't cut any visible exterior portion out of whats being rendered. In my opinion anything larger or more detailed than Lava Falls can cause some serious issues for people with low performance computers.

Just my 2 cents - good luck!

NaturalCauses

DarkSeraph wrote: »

If I were to attempt to pull this off it would be by having a small alleyway that was open, with 2-3 sky bridges connecting between buildings. The majority of the map would still be indoors. If going for a full NS2 map (not combat) you might be able to have multiple small outside areas, akin to the size of Crevice in Summit.

I am thinking 4 suspended platforms/skybridges to span a gap. 2 enclosed 1 open. The other is a catwalk between buildings. I agree though with the outdoor areas being small and contained.

DarkSeraph wrote: »

The larger the open area the less you receive benefit from occlusion culling as the engine can't cut any visible exterior portion out of whats being rendered. In my opinion anything larger or more detailed than Lava Falls can cause some serious issues for people with low performance computers.

Good god, that sounds like a huge area. No no no, these "streets" are similar is size to say those in Tokyo or Seoul. Very very narrow, with many arbitrary jogs to cut down on line of sight.

Howser

My knee-jerk reaction is that you are being a bit too ambitious with pursuing this idea for (assumption time) your first map. speaking from my own experiences ,shattered dreams and broken hearts; there's an awful lot to be said for keeping stuff simple and playing it safe. As much as I love idea you have to be realistic about the amount of work involved in realizing this concept to any standard worth doing. It would require a lot of custom textures and props as not much of the existing NS2 content would be suitable for this kind of environment!
Most the NS2 maps are indoors because CQC is the most fun, there is engine limitations on draw distances, and invisible walls are just awful! you need to seriously strip down and refine the concept to something that is easy to make and fits NS2's gameplay. I would recommend moving on to making your own concept art and writing a design document so you can really evaluate your ideas.
P.S. I'm a grumpy old man, and have been proven wrong many times before!

AurOn2

well if you put it that way, get us a greyboxed prototype! Sehr interested!