ns2_colony
WhiteDevil
Join Date: 2012-09-16 Member: 159559Members, Reinforced - Shadow
Join Date: 2012-09-16 Member: 159559Members, Reinforced - Shadow
avp themed map with no name has now a name. It's now ns2_colony and the alpha release is in workshop.
steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=132151982
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I've been toying around with the map editor since launch and I've been itching to make a map. So I've come up a concept for a marine colony type of map which will take heavy influence from the 2010 Aliens vs. Predator. I'm not recreating anything, just refining ideas from it to fit to NS2 universe.
Key features about the map:
- most tech points inside buildings
- most pathways are outdoors
- custom content
This layout does not represent anything but the very basic things which is 9 res nodes and 5 tech points (as in summit) with my quick sketch on top.
I'm struggling to think of a easy layout which would be easy to execute. If anyone would have an idea what would be more ideal number for tech and res nodes I'd be appreciated.
steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=132151982
----
I've been toying around with the map editor since launch and I've been itching to make a map. So I've come up a concept for a marine colony type of map which will take heavy influence from the 2010 Aliens vs. Predator. I'm not recreating anything, just refining ideas from it to fit to NS2 universe.
Key features about the map:
- most tech points inside buildings
- most pathways are outdoors
- custom content
This layout does not represent anything but the very basic things which is 9 res nodes and 5 tech points (as in summit) with my quick sketch on top.
I'm struggling to think of a easy layout which would be easy to execute. If anyone would have an idea what would be more ideal number for tech and res nodes I'd be appreciated.
Comments
I'd say the quick sketch is probably a bit too simple! On personal preference, I think there's enough ring and center tech point maps out there. Its a fun simple layout and its easy to execute but it brings nothing new to the table. Summit does it very well, Not sure I need another.
On tech points the officials are all 4 or 5 but rules are made to be broken! You shouldn't limit your design but rules or preconceptions. It's possible a three tech point map could work,It would be niche, small in scale and fast paced but it certainly could be fun for smaller games. A six point could also work but would require a LOT of thought and work to balance correctly. 5 tech points is most common because its normal means the map is spread enough for some in-depth tactics, variety and (best of all) can enable the game to end in an epic show down, where marines have exo's and jetpacks but aliens also have end game evolutions!
The layout kinda reminds me on a map from Empires mod. Most of the time that lead to fights in the middle and one side, leaving one side open. But then again that is the same in summit. I am interested in how many vents and sideways you will add
Empires mod was really quite good too! But in NS2 you'll probably need more routes than 3 in the entire map!
This map is all about similarity to the colony as in AVP, not copying, just refining and expanding on the idea suitable for NS2.
i think 3 routes is just fine - as long as you have some vents in there too
The scale is pretty far off so things only get better once I start greyboxing the map.
Blue areas are building interiors and the brown crap suppose to look like rocks.
Here's a little detail test I made a month ago with some test props, this is where I'm aiming for my main routes, it's clear this is way too open but this was just a test for my custom models.
While you tweak the grey box I recommend doing a room or some small area up to a near final polished state, with textures and props and lighting to test the vision of your theme - i find it really helps visualise the rest of the map, and also its very motivating once you see how pretty you can make it
Things are a bit small at the moment, need some time getting used how to get things in the right scale.
basically you want all of your thinnest paths to be 128" wide - main walkways 256" to 386" wide (or however wide the big door frame is). 128" is probably also the lowest you'd want your roof to be - unless its a vent in which case you can make it 48" high
edit: for example in your top left AvP screenshot, either side of the stairs would be 256" wide, and the stairs themselves would also be 256"wide - with that small gap inbetween the stairs and the side platforms being about 64" wide. The length of the hole that stair case goes down looks at least 512" long.
Then of course all the way around the hole is also a 16" x 8" trim.
the walls:
the straight part looks about 128 high, with the diagonal part about 96" high and then slanted (maybe 64" high i'm not certain cause its on a 45degree angle).
I got a idea for the street lights which would be these suspended lights over the streets that would sway and flicker by the strong and sandy winds. I hope I could implement the swaying for the light entities and not just for the props.
I also fleshed out my first tech point which is going to be a night club. I'd love to make some green laser lights beaming across the club but it depends if I can get the atmospherics behave as a narrow column for the laser and getting it moving. Would be frigging awesome.
The other tech points are going to be:
"Uplink" which is a communications station with a huge satellite dish on top.
"Garage" or "Maintenance" which is a vehicle depot of sorts.
And I'm still missing a good place for the 4th one, might be a barracks,a laboratory, a warehouse, a store, a tram station, or a power station. Don't know yet what to make.
don't forget you can make sight blockers vertically too not just horizontally - you can have a S bend vertically - e.g. a stair case or a hill that goes down, under a building and then back up again. Like going into an underground carpark.
Or just by using crates and overhangs
Kinda funny how it just bloated in size about 2/3rds bigger than the original shape. But I think it needed the extra size.
Theres nice fly path for a lerk to fly across the 3 res points going from SW to NE.
SE res point is closed up between the buildings but still on open streets.
Base4 is still the weakest part of the map and needs more work.
The hive looks pretty sexy too with my laser lights.
It's very close for the alpha release. I'll be getting it to the workshop when that happens. I did a lot of refining with the current routes which just seemed like they were not going to work out. Added some vents for the aliens but only to places that just felt like the aliens need some hiding places and shortcuts. The map now feels like it's ready for some play testing...
Now I just need to think a good name for this map
Don't forget to add some height differences and ramps, especially on the street. Like it is shown in the bottom part of the screenshot in the first post. I think that will add a lot to gameplay and looks.
For the name.. how about ns2_colony?
A small, remote colony overrun by Aliens... this is what the original screenshots and your diverse themes (a club, streets, technical stuff like the sattelite dish thing) feel like for me
So I'd probably call it ns2_infested as in infested colony or something more creative which I'm really bad coming up with.
or something similar ^^
steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=132151982
I tried the map for some minutes, testing Cyst distances and stuff. I can't really say much before playtesting, and when it's no longer a greybox it will probably change a lot with gameplay details, but here are my first thoughts:
- SW RT should be moved to the right side of the same room, it's too close to Uplink and too far from Club
- The scaling is fine, but I think some rooms are too wide/big in general. For example Club, North Street and West Bend. Rooms like NE RT and Backalley/SE RT look much more fun to play.
- The map is asymmetric as there's no RT between Uplink and Garage. Not sure how this will play, but it's better than the usual wheel design so let's see. I like how it forces people to go to the center. This is good.
- Garage Lobby + West bridge is a very long way with no options to choose where to go (except for Skulks through the ceiling window). But it might be working well with the asymmetric design so it's fine for now.
- Club can not be ARCed from outside, while Garage can easily be ARCed from North Street, so spawns are a bit imbalanced. Club is just too big I think.
- The one way routes (you can drop down somewhere, but not everyone can get back up) are interesting. It's a good way to make the map varied and balance distances without having to change too much of the map itself. I'd like to see more of that.
Subscribed and looking forward to see how this developsYou spotted a lot of things that I need to take a closer look at.
It's still very much in a concept phase where I'm just poking around with different ideas. For now I'm just trying to get the points to a comfortable distance so I have a better understanding how to make the routes work better. So there isn't much gameplay yet in the map to speak of. But it's getting there.
I was surprised how comfortable it played but was really shocked the huge scale of the map. It was a giant
I don't know if I should tighten up the routes so I don't mess with the distances or I should just scale the whole map down a bit so the distances become shorter also.
I think the distances are more or less fine, just the hallways are often too wide. So don't make the map itself smaller (maybe a little where it fits, like north street and backalley), just narrow some spots.
Examples of rooms that worked in size quite well: center RT, NE RT/Bend/Garage backalley, SE RT, SW RT
Examples of rooms that are probably just too big: Club, West Bend, Backalley (this one surprised me, didn't expect that)
I like how the (outside) rooms (streets) are relatively tall, which is great for Skulks and made attacking/approaching in these wide open spaces easier. I'd like this to stay. This, along with the street design itself, is a major characteristic of your map (for me). If you narrow the streets, this will even be emphasized.
For example, you could make the streets "2 story" with a ground floor accessible for everyone, and an upper level (not really another level, just some continuous/everywhere available semi-cover like a bigger protrusion or a big pipe running along horizontally at half height) for Skulks.
Another funny idea I had: make some house roofs accessible for Skulks (very much like the "block" south of base4 which only Skulks can get on which seemingly allows them to walk between hallways). You can use that instead of vents in some places. It could fit the outdoor parts of your map quite well.
base4 harvester lacks a starting cyst i believe.
The size reduction will probably be just temporary, it's just to see how it would work since it's quicker than going through the whole map and rework the routes individually.
@hozz Thanks for the great and thoughtful feedback again. I will do a big overhaul for the streets in the future, I've had the idea of giving aliens a 2nd level to access for more cover but haven't got to work on it yet. I also had a idea similar to your rooftops but I imagined a open window access to a apartment room which would have a quick way across.
For anyone who haven't followed the thread, download link is in the opening post and here:
steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=132151982
The re-scale did seem quite nice to play in the streets and main routes but altered the bases a ton. So much in fact that they need to be re-routed, moved and rebuild to work better... I'd be throwing about half of the map down the drain.
The spawning bug in garage was a weird one. I had to rebuild all the geo in there to fix it but it wasn't because the tech point was submerged inside the geometry. :P
This reminds me alot of AvP 2
I think you should maybe consider getting a night skybox, that would be the tip of the iceberg for these shots and some lower valued but more positional lightning!
If you can get rain into this walkway aswell, NERDGASM!