Unusual Map Idea
teh_fatts
Join Date: 2004-06-21 Member: 29442Members
Join Date: 2004-06-21 Member: 29442Members
<div class="IPBDescription">No, it DOES NOT involve outdoors!</div> Ok photobucket doesnt like me right now (or maybe your forums dont like photobucket so im afraid I can't make any paint visuals for y'all, but here goes...
So I was shoveling rocks today, thinking about general NS strategy, specifically endgame. Now, i can remember back in 1.0 when a half-hour long stalemate with the rines in a hive or holed up soemwhere, or maybe with the aliens frantically fending off repeated siege attempts (though that one doesnt last as long by far usually, unless youve got soem REALLY stupid rines with a great comm, which can be funny) was actually quite common. This is mroe rare now with the more carefully balanced game (in most respects) and in soem cases maps. Now, I rarely if ever play online, so my understanding of the game is skewed by the fact that the group of people I play with is pretty much usually the same people, but the 'rine skills of my group are finally starting to catch up with our alein skills, so we are starting to see the old stalemates again... although this time, they either (A) never end. ever. or (B) the rines make very very slow turretfarming-style progress, making it clear that in a matter of an hour or two they would win, so we quit.
Needless to say, this is no fun at all, or at least it isnt after the first 10-15 min. So I was thinking to myself, how would one design an anti-stalemate map? Well, the battlefield of most stalemates almost always occurs either around a hive or occasionally the 'rine spawn. So I'm thinking, what if i make it very difficult to defend these areas, forcing more defense to be out a little more into the map? Hives (still keeping travel distances where the should be) could be close enough together to actually siege more than one at a time from a completely (or nearly so) uncconnected room, Hives and the Rine spawn coudl have cleverly constructed bile-bomb-friendly-but-not-nades-freindly vents, and vertical skulk "divebombing" vents, and aforementioned siege rooms could be close enough to their associated target for a DChamber's radius to heal attacking aliens.
Of course I realize that a central problem with this is the fact that it makes those areas unnatractive for a 'rine base, they would be quite likely to just move at teh beginning of the match to a more secure location! In order to try and balance this, i would put 2 (3 would allow the rines just too much i think) res actually inside the rine start, and no other res for some distance. Added features could inclusde stuff like lights/klaxxons going off in a hive/rine start when a member of the opposing team enters the siege/dchamber/vent acess room targeting that hive/rine start. etc. I know its a wierd, wierd idea and could lead to one hella bad map, and this IS my first attempt at mapping or modeling anything, and it would be wickedly difficult to balance... but I think its a good idea and has potential with plenty of tweaking. Which is where you guys come in. Any ideas?
EDIT: for clarification, when I said the siege/DCamber/narsty vent acess rooms were "unconnected" i meant unconnected to their target hive/rine start room. The entrances to these rooms would be somewhere on the central matrix, not TOO far but not too close to the entrance to their target hive/rine spawn, forcing the aliens/rines to actually defend two areas in order to maintain one tactically important (hive/rine start) area. Also, other tactically important areas could be "vulnerableized" this way, such as a central (proboably slightly rineside) room with 2 res.
So I was shoveling rocks today, thinking about general NS strategy, specifically endgame. Now, i can remember back in 1.0 when a half-hour long stalemate with the rines in a hive or holed up soemwhere, or maybe with the aliens frantically fending off repeated siege attempts (though that one doesnt last as long by far usually, unless youve got soem REALLY stupid rines with a great comm, which can be funny) was actually quite common. This is mroe rare now with the more carefully balanced game (in most respects) and in soem cases maps. Now, I rarely if ever play online, so my understanding of the game is skewed by the fact that the group of people I play with is pretty much usually the same people, but the 'rine skills of my group are finally starting to catch up with our alein skills, so we are starting to see the old stalemates again... although this time, they either (A) never end. ever. or (B) the rines make very very slow turretfarming-style progress, making it clear that in a matter of an hour or two they would win, so we quit.
Needless to say, this is no fun at all, or at least it isnt after the first 10-15 min. So I was thinking to myself, how would one design an anti-stalemate map? Well, the battlefield of most stalemates almost always occurs either around a hive or occasionally the 'rine spawn. So I'm thinking, what if i make it very difficult to defend these areas, forcing more defense to be out a little more into the map? Hives (still keeping travel distances where the should be) could be close enough together to actually siege more than one at a time from a completely (or nearly so) uncconnected room, Hives and the Rine spawn coudl have cleverly constructed bile-bomb-friendly-but-not-nades-freindly vents, and vertical skulk "divebombing" vents, and aforementioned siege rooms could be close enough to their associated target for a DChamber's radius to heal attacking aliens.
Of course I realize that a central problem with this is the fact that it makes those areas unnatractive for a 'rine base, they would be quite likely to just move at teh beginning of the match to a more secure location! In order to try and balance this, i would put 2 (3 would allow the rines just too much i think) res actually inside the rine start, and no other res for some distance. Added features could inclusde stuff like lights/klaxxons going off in a hive/rine start when a member of the opposing team enters the siege/dchamber/vent acess room targeting that hive/rine start. etc. I know its a wierd, wierd idea and could lead to one hella bad map, and this IS my first attempt at mapping or modeling anything, and it would be wickedly difficult to balance... but I think its a good idea and has potential with plenty of tweaking. Which is where you guys come in. Any ideas?
EDIT: for clarification, when I said the siege/DCamber/narsty vent acess rooms were "unconnected" i meant unconnected to their target hive/rine start room. The entrances to these rooms would be somewhere on the central matrix, not TOO far but not too close to the entrance to their target hive/rine spawn, forcing the aliens/rines to actually defend two areas in order to maintain one tactically important (hive/rine start) area. Also, other tactically important areas could be "vulnerableized" this way, such as a central (proboably slightly rineside) room with 2 res.
Comments
<b><u><span style='font-size:14pt;line-height:100%'><span style='color:red'>NO!</span></span></u></b>
Little unfair innit? I mean, yeh a nice idea, but I don't think it'd go down to well. Dont really see why a klaxon/alarm/blah blah would go off when the Marines entered an area anyway. Unless it was a restricted area. But whatever. I don't think maps should do too much to <b>help</b> the teams, if you get my drift.
<!--QuoteBegin--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> </td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin-->and it would be wickedly difficult to balance<!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Agreed.
<!--QuoteBegin--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> </td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin-->Dont really see why a klaxon/alarm/blah blah would go off when the Marines entered an area anyway. Unless it was a restricted area.<!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
well more specifically, I would use a regular klaxxon or alarm + maybe soem lights or whatev for an alien entering the rine spawn, and some kind of alienesque noise for the rines getting in a room targeting some Hives. I forget, is it possible to make a sound audible only to aliens/marines? Anyway, its a pity i cant magically find whoever did the original "the hive is under attack" and "time to dance" etc etc, because that sort of thing would work great. Although, if I cant find an "alarmed" enough alien squeal or grunt I suppose "our hive is under attack" might have to do... although i might be able to scrounge up a custom sound from somewhere....
as for a map "helping" the players, I think that happens more than you think, though not to this extent. After all, couldnt you say that most vents "help" the aliens and not the marines? But if you think this is way too much "helping," well, thats why i posted here before going off and investing heapton hours into a map; too see if the more experienced mappers think its possible.
OK so so far the vote seems to be 0 for, 1 against and 1 violently against... anyone else got some wisdom for me?
No, you cannot make sounds that are only heard by one team. By the way, a sound for the aliens could be the "the enemy approaches" sound (find it in your sounds/hud/ folder).
EDIT: mormally? dubya tee eff mate!