What Maps Are Missing
GSHound
Join Date: 2003-08-05 Member: 18940Members
Join Date: 2003-08-05 Member: 18940Members
<div class="IPBDescription">2 cents worth</div> Hi, I'm a relatively new mapper. I am, however, an experienced gamer and enjoy the small things in maps. I've been looking at alot of maps and over the course of my NS career I've played many, also. They all seem to be missing one thing; an interactive environment.
What do I mean by "interactive environment"?
Well... it's pretty simple. I'm looking for more breakable objects in game that could yield a certain advantage or disadvantage...
For example - navigable pipes that can be shot down, thus hindering alien movement.
On this note: I don't remember the name but the map had a weldable point which forced a laser beams to blow up a new way to get into a hive.
Turning on lights through weldable means, in order to add a little strategy. (I've never "turned on" lights in NS before.) Or if you're alien, destroy the light's power source, thus turning em off. It's tough when you can't see the enemy. It's also nice when you can... you know, when the lights are on?
Other things I can think of that could make the environment just a little more interactive... perhaps raisable water levels (impossible?)... maybe breakable walls... more weldable areas yielding different results...
There's alot you can do to make maps more interactive...
What do you guys think?
What do I mean by "interactive environment"?
Well... it's pretty simple. I'm looking for more breakable objects in game that could yield a certain advantage or disadvantage...
For example - navigable pipes that can be shot down, thus hindering alien movement.
On this note: I don't remember the name but the map had a weldable point which forced a laser beams to blow up a new way to get into a hive.
Turning on lights through weldable means, in order to add a little strategy. (I've never "turned on" lights in NS before.) Or if you're alien, destroy the light's power source, thus turning em off. It's tough when you can't see the enemy. It's also nice when you can... you know, when the lights are on?
Other things I can think of that could make the environment just a little more interactive... perhaps raisable water levels (impossible?)... maybe breakable walls... more weldable areas yielding different results...
There's alot you can do to make maps more interactive...
What do you guys think?
Comments
edit: typo
but we should be honest: it is possible to add a lot more interactivity to maps, you talk about entity counts as the limit would be 20 entities per map. only take 10 entities from the official limit and place them well and there might be the possibility, that the players love thos features. example: a standart door that opens when used, is only one entity.
this one entity can change the gameplay maybe of the whole map. just remember the 3 doors on ns_tanith at the cargo storage (one wa weldable), after they had been removed, the maps gameplay changed, the aliens have less chances in this area.
an elevator can be a very interesting alternative to a ladder. a ladder takes only one entity but often are a obstacle for onos-players. a well crafted elevator can be lot more interesting. shure, you will at least need 4 entities, one for the moving platform, two path_corner and at least one for te buttons (2 separated buttons tied to ONE button will prevent some negative sideeffects of the elevator).
Im a big fan of interactivity but this is shurely an art. so one of my next projects will be a small map as a "combined project". maybe there will be a lot of releases necessary to create an interesting overall geameplay. but I think its worth it.
but we should be honest: it is possible to add a lot more interactivity to maps, you talk about entity counts as the limit would be 20 entities per map. only take 10 entities from the official limit and place them well and there might be the possibility, that the players love thos features. example: a standart door that opens when used, is only one entity.
this one entity can change the gameplay maybe of the whole map. just remember the 3 doors on ns_tanith at the cargo storage (one wa weldable), after they had been removed, the maps gameplay changed, the aliens have less chances in this area.
an elevator can be a very interesting alternative to a ladder. a ladder takes only one entity but often are a obstacle for onos-players. a well crafted elevator can be lot more interesting. shure, you will at least need 4 entities, one for the moving platform, two path_corner and at least one for te buttons (2 separated buttons tied to ONE button will prevent some negative sideeffects of the elevator).
Im a big fan of interactivity but this is shurely an art. so one of my next projects will be a small map as a "combined project". maybe there will be a lot of releases necessary to create an interesting overall geameplay. but I think its worth it. <!--QuoteEnd--> </td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'> <!--QuoteEEnd-->
Yes, 1 interactive event can change parts of a map, but what this guy here wanted (what I interpeted it as anyway) was a completely interactive map where you can pretty much destroy all the doors, make new paths to areas, seal off hallways and rooms, activating cranes that lift away cargo so that you can access a new resnode, etc. By the way, an elevator can be done with a func_door instead to save entities, just fyi. And yes, you're gonna have a very hard time trying to balance this.
With 2.0 there was an Entity limit, so the mappers had to reduce the entity counts, with 3.0 the entity limit is even smaller, so... they had to remove even more entities...
So, well, if you want to play with 400 ping... load the 1.0 maps, NS is backwards compatible with old maps...
Swinging things in the opposite direction is a forcefield (activated by welding) to allow only marines through it. If the situation is in the aliens' favour and needs to be balanced I can incorporate this to even the gameplay by cutting off a route to the marines' base (assuming they stay there).
If the aforementioned light situation can be achieved the marines would be less successful at relocating to take a hive or significant vantage point in the initial stages of the game (I will not be having a 'double res' feature in this level). The only problem with this is that marine teams may feel that the mapper has too much control over their movement and decision-making.
I am going to try to implement as many of these interactive elements to the map as possible (without going overboard). Providing I can think of techniques to give both lifeforms an advantage I can pick and choose which to leave in the map as it goes through beta-testing.
Sound good to you?
P.S. I'm looking for modellers to create some custom models for my map (and possibly texture artists too). If anyone is interested send me a PM.
ns_tbc@20% (tbc = to be confirmed)