Map Ideas, For Anyone Who's Interested
Chopper_Dave1
Join Date: 2002-11-01 Member: 2353Members
Join Date: 2002-11-01 Member: 2353Members
<div class="IPBDescription">Cause I can't map for sh|t</div> Ugh, the agony of having some awesome NS map ideas, but nowhere near enough skillks to implement them. I decided to make this thread for myself, and anyone else who thinks their ideas are the right stuff won't ever see them happen without a little help =). Who knows, someone might actually pick up the ideas...but probably not. At least I can dream, and share meh hopes with the public:
<b>NS_Cygnus</b>
This map would be set on a barren, all-tundra planet in the far frontier of human expansion. The humans, having captured some Kharaa bacteria specimens after a brief run-in in a nearby system, transported the alien specimen to a small base on the snowy planet. The hope was that the incredibly cold weather would help supress the Kharaa bacteria's breeding capabilities, allowing for the safe studies for them. A week went by without any problems - when a TSA orbital station received a distress call. Apparently, the main generator and 2 of 3 auxiliary generators went down, and the computer mainframes automatically sent out the distress before the third one succumbed as well. When TSA forces arrived, they found the base inoperational and the science team slaughtered. Scouting showed that the Kharaa had been the culprits - a stray bacteria must have escaped from the quarintine area, adapted to the harsh cold, multiplied exponentially, and overrun the base before the humans had known what hit them. The TSA marines, with no reinforcements in sight and a newly awakened and entirely too **obscenity** Kharaa alien force, set out to do what they do best...
The basic premise behind the map is that the marines start within a complex compound, surrounded by unihabitable ice regions and some angry aliens, and of course have to fight for superiority once again. The science facility is mostly indoors, with separated buildings once connected by trams and glass hallways. However, with the alien onset, the auxiliary generators powering much of the base (including the trams) are down, and many of the glass transport tubes have been broken open. With the power failure, some blast doors have also malfunctioned, making certain rooms inside inhospitable due to the extreme cold. The marines, at least in the early stages of the game, cannot stand the cold. The aliens, however, CAN....giving them an immediate early advantage. As auxiliary generators are taken over by the marines, power will be restored to different parts of the base (via good old welding) and the aliens won't have so many places to go safely. However, each auxiliary generator houses a hive as well...interesting situation, no?
No overly strategic areas - such as the marine spawn and the auxiliary hives - will have cold areas near them for the aliens to abuse. However, paths to them, as well as areas near resource nodes, will be...emphasizing that the marines get their butts in gear to get those auxiliary generators up. Outdoors areas would be shrouded in fog, to emphasize the extreme cold. When marines venture outside, they start to lose health, and are extremely vulnerable to alien attacks (and will die if they spend too much time outside). Aliens and mariens alike can access the outdoors areas through holes in the walls (due to the previous fighting), maintenence hatches, broken glass tubes, etc, and can travel more quickly outside. Blue flare-markers (anyone play the Thing?) would lead all players to the closest entrance in large outdoor areas.
Marines, with welders, would have the ability to restore functionality to certain trams, weld shut broken-open walls, and bring down blast doors to close off rooms from the cold (and the aliens, to boot). Most things, however, will not be functional or repaired until the nearby auxiliary generator is welded. Perhaps manable machine-gun cameras, operable from a mainframe within the marine spawn, could come up as soon as a nearby aux generator is repaired. And the aliens can re-destroy aux generators with enough biting, making them must-defend areas. However, once marines get heavy armor, they need not worry anymore...the self-preservation modifications on the armour will preserve body temperature for the marine inside.
So the marines have two options: secure the auxiliary generators and restore power to the base, allowing easy transport and machine gun camera access. Or, they could secure nearby resources and save for HA's, then surprise the aliens by setting up sieges outdoors =). Aliens, meanwhile, would have the added benefit of the cold weather to add to their vent repitoire, and could use it to their advantage when securing certain resource nodes and attacking certain areas (hit-and-run would be wonderful in this map). And by quickly assuming ownership of the auxiliary generators, aliens could deny the marines access to many parts of the facility.
...
Phew, that took a while to write. Don't think I ever expect all of these features to make it into one map, or even half of them. But it certainly would be cool, eh?
I have more map ideas, so if you guys care, I'll post 'em in this spot later.
<b>NS_Cygnus</b>
This map would be set on a barren, all-tundra planet in the far frontier of human expansion. The humans, having captured some Kharaa bacteria specimens after a brief run-in in a nearby system, transported the alien specimen to a small base on the snowy planet. The hope was that the incredibly cold weather would help supress the Kharaa bacteria's breeding capabilities, allowing for the safe studies for them. A week went by without any problems - when a TSA orbital station received a distress call. Apparently, the main generator and 2 of 3 auxiliary generators went down, and the computer mainframes automatically sent out the distress before the third one succumbed as well. When TSA forces arrived, they found the base inoperational and the science team slaughtered. Scouting showed that the Kharaa had been the culprits - a stray bacteria must have escaped from the quarintine area, adapted to the harsh cold, multiplied exponentially, and overrun the base before the humans had known what hit them. The TSA marines, with no reinforcements in sight and a newly awakened and entirely too **obscenity** Kharaa alien force, set out to do what they do best...
The basic premise behind the map is that the marines start within a complex compound, surrounded by unihabitable ice regions and some angry aliens, and of course have to fight for superiority once again. The science facility is mostly indoors, with separated buildings once connected by trams and glass hallways. However, with the alien onset, the auxiliary generators powering much of the base (including the trams) are down, and many of the glass transport tubes have been broken open. With the power failure, some blast doors have also malfunctioned, making certain rooms inside inhospitable due to the extreme cold. The marines, at least in the early stages of the game, cannot stand the cold. The aliens, however, CAN....giving them an immediate early advantage. As auxiliary generators are taken over by the marines, power will be restored to different parts of the base (via good old welding) and the aliens won't have so many places to go safely. However, each auxiliary generator houses a hive as well...interesting situation, no?
No overly strategic areas - such as the marine spawn and the auxiliary hives - will have cold areas near them for the aliens to abuse. However, paths to them, as well as areas near resource nodes, will be...emphasizing that the marines get their butts in gear to get those auxiliary generators up. Outdoors areas would be shrouded in fog, to emphasize the extreme cold. When marines venture outside, they start to lose health, and are extremely vulnerable to alien attacks (and will die if they spend too much time outside). Aliens and mariens alike can access the outdoors areas through holes in the walls (due to the previous fighting), maintenence hatches, broken glass tubes, etc, and can travel more quickly outside. Blue flare-markers (anyone play the Thing?) would lead all players to the closest entrance in large outdoor areas.
Marines, with welders, would have the ability to restore functionality to certain trams, weld shut broken-open walls, and bring down blast doors to close off rooms from the cold (and the aliens, to boot). Most things, however, will not be functional or repaired until the nearby auxiliary generator is welded. Perhaps manable machine-gun cameras, operable from a mainframe within the marine spawn, could come up as soon as a nearby aux generator is repaired. And the aliens can re-destroy aux generators with enough biting, making them must-defend areas. However, once marines get heavy armor, they need not worry anymore...the self-preservation modifications on the armour will preserve body temperature for the marine inside.
So the marines have two options: secure the auxiliary generators and restore power to the base, allowing easy transport and machine gun camera access. Or, they could secure nearby resources and save for HA's, then surprise the aliens by setting up sieges outdoors =). Aliens, meanwhile, would have the added benefit of the cold weather to add to their vent repitoire, and could use it to their advantage when securing certain resource nodes and attacking certain areas (hit-and-run would be wonderful in this map). And by quickly assuming ownership of the auxiliary generators, aliens could deny the marines access to many parts of the facility.
...
Phew, that took a while to write. Don't think I ever expect all of these features to make it into one map, or even half of them. But it certainly would be cool, eh?
I have more map ideas, so if you guys care, I'll post 'em in this spot later.
Comments
Got any more NS-able ideas?
Personally, I'd love to take a stab at the map, but I <b>know</b> I'd be in way over my head. I'm having more than enough trouble with my own map now as it is. <!--emo&:p--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/tounge.gif' border='0' valign='absmiddle' alt='tounge.gif'><!--endemo-->
More ideas would be very useful, however. I've already got a forceshield idea in mind for my map, but that'd be a late-development addition (<i>ie: 6 months from now, if I'm lucky</i>). If more ideas are being thrown around, I might make space in my map for some of the more interesting ones. <!--emo&:)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/smile.gif' border='0' valign='absmiddle' alt='smile.gif'><!--endemo-->
Belg
However, NS maps should stay away from hurting players too much (if someone lags out, they'll die unfairly) and also an Alien-friendly environment would make the map extremely hard to balance.
Maybe the generators could just power-up Marine-only trains to counter a lot of Skulk passages or something.
Otherwise, the idea ROCKS.