Ns_<i need a name>
Rokiyo
A.K.A. .::FeX::. Revenge Join Date: 2002-10-10 Member: 1471Members, Constellation
A.K.A. .::FeX::. Revenge Join Date: 2002-10-10 Member: 1471Members, Constellation
<div class="IPBDescription">Map idea seeking constructive critisism</div>Okay, here's an idea that I've been tossing about and refining for the past week, and I figured it's about time I set it loose and let you guys tell me what you think of it.
<b>Abbreviations:</b>
C1,C2,C3,C4 = Crew Quaters
01,02 = Officer's Quaters
H1,H2 = Hangar Bays
AP1,AP2,AP3 = Auxillary Power
<b>Back Story:</b>
The TSA has been assigned to find and reclaim a battle-carrier class capital ship, which dropped from the radar screens three days ago. It had been fleeing the Ariadne arm after losing both of it's onboard fighter wings, and last reported in 15 hours away from arrival at the nearest gate out of the Arm.
Long range scanners picked up what may have been the carrier, and two light scouting missions later confirmed that. No alien presence was detected on or anywhere near the ship, and the outer hull seemed mostly intact, despite the ship's power being completely gone. Two drop-ships with one escort wing have been dispatched to repair the carrier's power systems so that it can be remotely flown back out of the Ariadne Arm.
<b>Ingame storyline:</b>
The TSA arrives at the scene without much fuss. I plan to have the marines spawn in the dropships, which then approach and land in the carrier, but I'm not sure if it'll work out. The TSA approaches from above the carrier, and the two hangar bay entrances are below it, under two large protective "wings". As the dropships get ready to fly under the carrier, two fighters scout ahead and look on the underside, only to get instantly turned into smoking debris. The drop-ships continue on their course, as their escorts fly to either side of the carrier and prepare to flank whatever is hiding underneath.
What is underneath, is a medium sized gunboat. It looks as if it may have been United American, except that the alien infestation has grown to cover most of the outer hull. The theory here is that the gunboat had been infested for such a long time that all the hives inside eventually linked up with all the ships systems and practically made the gunboat a sentient creature, an alien cyborg of sorts. This gunboat is far more powerful than it previously was. It has extra onboard weaponry (grown naturally ofcourse), organic armour and regenerative abilities (none of this affects gameplay, it's just for the sake of the story).
As the escort attacks the gunboat, the two drop ships make their way to the hangars on the underside, one into each hangar. The dropship entering H1 get heavily damaged on the way in, and the dropship will be all but destroyed (mostly at the rear so the marines inside can survive). Once inside H1, the gunboat will continue firing into the hangar with highly explosive weaponry, causing havoc for the marines who will need to escape into the cargo bay. Because they will be having so many problems already, H1 and the cargo bay will be sealed off from the rest of the level by func_weldables. There will be very few resources in this area so the marines will have to break out if they want to stay afloat. The CC will be located in the cargo bay.
The second dropship will have an easy time landing in H2. This area wont be sealed off from the aliens, but the drop ship's turrets will happily deal to any aliens who thought it would be funny to camp the hangar bay. The marines here play an important role. They have to reach AP2 and restore the auxillary power for the mid-section of the ship before the CC will work. AP2 is fairly far away from all three alien hives, so it should a fairly simple task. I'll need to come up with some sort of failsafe incase all the marines from H2 die...
<b>The map:</b>
Anyway, that is all just fancy stuff to make the map more interesting. The real nitty gritty is below, on this handy .jpg the I prepared earlier. It's pretty self-explanatory, except I have no resource nodes on it yet, and that the wing-bits wont stay that shape, they'll just stay a similar size (I was trying to do it quickly). The little knobby bits attached the hangar (under the wings) are the hangar entrances. The parts labelled "Tunnel" only go from the cargo bay to each hanger. They do not form any intersections with the pathways above it. I have not indicated the width of any of the pathways below, no matter how much it looks like it, okay?
If you feel that my storyline is over-complicating things, please tell me and I'll happily design just the ship alone and set it loose.
<b>Abbreviations:</b>
C1,C2,C3,C4 = Crew Quaters
01,02 = Officer's Quaters
H1,H2 = Hangar Bays
AP1,AP2,AP3 = Auxillary Power
<b>Back Story:</b>
The TSA has been assigned to find and reclaim a battle-carrier class capital ship, which dropped from the radar screens three days ago. It had been fleeing the Ariadne arm after losing both of it's onboard fighter wings, and last reported in 15 hours away from arrival at the nearest gate out of the Arm.
Long range scanners picked up what may have been the carrier, and two light scouting missions later confirmed that. No alien presence was detected on or anywhere near the ship, and the outer hull seemed mostly intact, despite the ship's power being completely gone. Two drop-ships with one escort wing have been dispatched to repair the carrier's power systems so that it can be remotely flown back out of the Ariadne Arm.
<b>Ingame storyline:</b>
The TSA arrives at the scene without much fuss. I plan to have the marines spawn in the dropships, which then approach and land in the carrier, but I'm not sure if it'll work out. The TSA approaches from above the carrier, and the two hangar bay entrances are below it, under two large protective "wings". As the dropships get ready to fly under the carrier, two fighters scout ahead and look on the underside, only to get instantly turned into smoking debris. The drop-ships continue on their course, as their escorts fly to either side of the carrier and prepare to flank whatever is hiding underneath.
What is underneath, is a medium sized gunboat. It looks as if it may have been United American, except that the alien infestation has grown to cover most of the outer hull. The theory here is that the gunboat had been infested for such a long time that all the hives inside eventually linked up with all the ships systems and practically made the gunboat a sentient creature, an alien cyborg of sorts. This gunboat is far more powerful than it previously was. It has extra onboard weaponry (grown naturally ofcourse), organic armour and regenerative abilities (none of this affects gameplay, it's just for the sake of the story).
As the escort attacks the gunboat, the two drop ships make their way to the hangars on the underside, one into each hangar. The dropship entering H1 get heavily damaged on the way in, and the dropship will be all but destroyed (mostly at the rear so the marines inside can survive). Once inside H1, the gunboat will continue firing into the hangar with highly explosive weaponry, causing havoc for the marines who will need to escape into the cargo bay. Because they will be having so many problems already, H1 and the cargo bay will be sealed off from the rest of the level by func_weldables. There will be very few resources in this area so the marines will have to break out if they want to stay afloat. The CC will be located in the cargo bay.
The second dropship will have an easy time landing in H2. This area wont be sealed off from the aliens, but the drop ship's turrets will happily deal to any aliens who thought it would be funny to camp the hangar bay. The marines here play an important role. They have to reach AP2 and restore the auxillary power for the mid-section of the ship before the CC will work. AP2 is fairly far away from all three alien hives, so it should a fairly simple task. I'll need to come up with some sort of failsafe incase all the marines from H2 die...
<b>The map:</b>
Anyway, that is all just fancy stuff to make the map more interesting. The real nitty gritty is below, on this handy .jpg the I prepared earlier. It's pretty self-explanatory, except I have no resource nodes on it yet, and that the wing-bits wont stay that shape, they'll just stay a similar size (I was trying to do it quickly). The little knobby bits attached the hangar (under the wings) are the hangar entrances. The parts labelled "Tunnel" only go from the cargo bay to each hanger. They do not form any intersections with the pathways above it. I have not indicated the width of any of the pathways below, no matter how much it looks like it, okay?
If you feel that my storyline is over-complicating things, please tell me and I'll happily design just the ship alone and set it loose.
Comments
As for a name: ns_celestia
For tha name of the ship, BCC Celestia
Good luck!
The yellow lines are currently the alien-only vents.
I did realise that about the horribly long vents I have, I'll definately being changing like you said.
The "tunnel" connects H1 to the cargo bay, and H2 to the cargo bay. By tunnel, I mean more of a tunnel you drive through. I intend for the marines set up camp in the cargo bay, and for the only two exits to be the two tunnels leading back into the hangars (so a forward defense would guard both hangar entrances...).
As for the marine spawn, each of the 16 possible spawn locations for the marines must be placed manually. If I place 8 on each drop ship (alternating them so that I get an even distribution on both ships) I should be able to get what I want.
As for the hives, the top two can only be accessed from each other by going through that central area, or by jumping in the vents and getting off at one of the Auxilary Power stations. Even if you take into account the weird routes you have to take, are they too close? I could move a hive and switch around which corridors/vents are blocked or unblocked...
For the record:
The bottom hive can be seiged from the tunnel in Engine 2, the hive in 01 can be seiged from C2. My scale on the drawing is quite out, and a lot of rooms are either bigger or smaller than they should be...
The spawns you see there are only for the initial spawns. They start the map apart, complete their respective missions and then they set up camp in the cargo bay. So after a marine dies they should be respawning all together in the cargo bay.
If I ditch the part about the drop ships and entering the ship via the hangars, I could just put one spawn in the cargo bay and remove all the temp blockages.
Also, if you haven't already, be sure to read the <a href="http://www.natural-selection.org/MappingGuidelines.htm" target="_blank">Mapping Guidelines</a>.
It's also what got my imagination really fired up over doing really complicated stuff that looks good on paper but probably wouldn't play very well... I will design the map just as that, a map. Besides, it'll always be easier to add complications to a complete map rather than having to take a map apart and redo parts to simplify it.
Thanks, second option it is.
btw is the "alien" gunboat going to be FIRING on the marines when the game starts?
To, quite possibly, fly. And your layout looks great, as long as the map doesn't "feel" as square as it looks. I think this is one of those layouts where we go "good, now map it".
I have it all drawn out on paper and I even have an elevation sketch, which I couldn't be bothered drawing out on paint. Notice the funny numbering of the C sections?
C1 and C4 have both been destroyed, so C2 is on the top level, while C3 is on the lowest level. 01 and 02 are in the middle level (height wise).
The "wing" thingeys are angled down quite a bit and serve to both protect the entrances to the hangar bays and to be platforms for a few clunking great big turrets.
The whole alien gunboat thing was only an idea for the intro and for the map ambience (huge fire-fight goes on outside the ship, faked with mp3. As the map progresses the fight would subdue as the TSA finally damage the gunboat enough so it runs away.
Has anyone here played Starlancer? I loved how in some of the missions you (in a fighter) had to protect boarding ships that would fly to capital ships and take them over. It was really cool once you had killed all the enemies and disable the cap ship, watching the boarding ship dock, and you just sat there getting a few reports on their progress as they went.
I basically want this mission to be <b>like</b> a starlancer mission, only from the marine perspective. (Yes, it will be within NS context. I will only apply some of the atmosphere tricks from SL).
Unfortunately, my plans for this mission were a tad too complicated to begin with, so what I'll do is map this out and then think about intros, ambience and stuff flying around outside later on...
NS_EXISTENCE