Ns_penumbra layout and details
Yamazaki
Join Date: 2002-01-24 Member: 21Members, NS1 Playtester, Contributor
Join Date: 2002-01-24 Member: 21Members, NS1 Playtester, Contributor
<div class="IPBDescription">The wonders of bsp slicer</div><a href="http://www.fileplanet.com/dl/dl.asp?planethalflife/botman/BSP_tool_0_3b.exe" target="_blank">BSPslicer</a>
If you haven't grabbed BSP Slicer, then grab it from the link above. It's a command line utility that makes a floorplan BMP from a complete BSP. Very easy to use, and runs very fast on even huge maps.
Anyways, here's an image of ns_penumbra's layout. I haven't drawn on top of the B&W floorplan that BSP Slicer made, so I'll list the details here.
The large rooms at the four ends of the map are hangar bays. The right bay is the shuttle bay, and is where the marines start, the other three bays are alien hives. The lower bay is for repairs, the upper bay is for cargo, and the left bay is for refueling.
The outer ring has eight security doors, two per spoke. Four of these doors are working fine. Two are blocked (Left door of the top spoke is barricaded, and right door of the bottom spoke has been smashed inwards) and two are always opens (Top door of the left spoke was blown open, and bottom door of the right spoke has malfunctioned). This ensures that players can't completely circumvent the middle ring when navigating the map, so it is possible for the teams to set up static defenses (Turrets, traps).
The rooms at the diagonal corners of the outer ring are crew areas. Starting from the upper right in clockwise order: Operations room, Lounge, Washrooms (Locked, hence why there aren't rooms past the doors), and Boardroom.
The middle ring consists of four service rooms. The rooms on the left and right are service airlocks with cranes. The right airlock room is not operative, but the left airlock runs on a timer. The rooms on the top and bottom are security checkpoints (Complete with a sweeping laser scanner). The inner ring is where the elevators to the other levels reside, but they're inoperative during the emergency.
Also this layout is not finalized. Nothing new is being added, but some areas are being removed. Each of the main bays has two side rooms, in most cases these siderooms are empty and awaiting some details. I've decided to trim off the siderooms and put the detail elsewhere.
If you haven't grabbed BSP Slicer, then grab it from the link above. It's a command line utility that makes a floorplan BMP from a complete BSP. Very easy to use, and runs very fast on even huge maps.
Anyways, here's an image of ns_penumbra's layout. I haven't drawn on top of the B&W floorplan that BSP Slicer made, so I'll list the details here.
The large rooms at the four ends of the map are hangar bays. The right bay is the shuttle bay, and is where the marines start, the other three bays are alien hives. The lower bay is for repairs, the upper bay is for cargo, and the left bay is for refueling.
The outer ring has eight security doors, two per spoke. Four of these doors are working fine. Two are blocked (Left door of the top spoke is barricaded, and right door of the bottom spoke has been smashed inwards) and two are always opens (Top door of the left spoke was blown open, and bottom door of the right spoke has malfunctioned). This ensures that players can't completely circumvent the middle ring when navigating the map, so it is possible for the teams to set up static defenses (Turrets, traps).
The rooms at the diagonal corners of the outer ring are crew areas. Starting from the upper right in clockwise order: Operations room, Lounge, Washrooms (Locked, hence why there aren't rooms past the doors), and Boardroom.
The middle ring consists of four service rooms. The rooms on the left and right are service airlocks with cranes. The right airlock room is not operative, but the left airlock runs on a timer. The rooms on the top and bottom are security checkpoints (Complete with a sweeping laser scanner). The inner ring is where the elevators to the other levels reside, but they're inoperative during the emergency.
Also this layout is not finalized. Nothing new is being added, but some areas are being removed. Each of the main bays has two side rooms, in most cases these siderooms are empty and awaiting some details. I've decided to trim off the siderooms and put the detail elsewhere.
Comments
Sheesh, you seem to covered all the areas, blocking certain doors to help defense and such. My only question is: Are there any weldables?
That looks like a really good layout. It seems very organized and all. You'd just want to make sure people know one place from another, and how to get from here to there. That always seems to be a problem with neat symetrical layouts... for me anyways. <!--emo&:D--><img src="http://www.natural-selection.org/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif" border="0" valign="absmiddle" alt=':D'><!--endemo-->
Great work.
I've got it figured out. I don't see any reason for the player to enter that innermost ring, though, as it looks like it would be the "longcut" unless one or more of the enterances into those 4 small rooms were blocked off.
I've heard you and MonsE talking about the immense size of the map, so how big really is it?
One question though: Maybe it's not apparent to me from the map, or maybe you haven't added them yet, but do you plan on having any utility tunnels/airducts/nooks and crannies that allow the aliens to slip from one area to another more easily?
I think this map is gonna rock!
As ken20banks mentioned, you will definitely want to make it <b>very</b> obvious what sector the player is in at all times. This is especially important when you have a (for the most part) symmetrical layout. You can use wall/floor/ceiling textures with colored stripes, or make the lighting/details in each sector unique. The number 1 complaint I heard about my old cs/flf map, deep6, was that it was too "confusing", even though I had bright signs up on each corridor. Since the corridors each looked very similar and the layout was essentially a hub design like yours, a lot of people seemed to have trouble learning the layout. It got so bad at one point, that I swore that the next map I made would be nothing but a straight hallway so no one could ##### about getting 'lost'.
I agree with the other comments. Make sure you have some weldables, make sure aliens have some flanking opportunities (ie, not all passages that the marines can use) and make every area unique somehow. I'm not sure that color will do it, as some people don't pick up on color details (me) or are colorblind (not me, but I believe it's around 1 out of 20 males).
Nice work so far!
1. Every section of the outer ring has details and landmarks to differentiate it from the other corridors. The wall/ceiling/floor may be the same, but you won't feel like you're going in circles since each area is a little bit different.
2. Numerous hologram signs are being placed at every entrance/exit. Each one basically lists off the nearby rooms and points in the appropriate direction. If a player tells you to go to the Cargo Bay then you can find it by following the signs.
3. Not all the doors on the outer ring work, so you can't run a complete circle around the map anyways. You'll hit a deadend eventually.
I don't doubt that players will be confused at first, even with the steps I've taken, but hopefully most players will figure it out in 10 minutes of playing time. The rest can be branded clueless and fed to the aliens <!--emo&:)--><img src="http://www.natural-selection.org/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif" border="0" valign="absmiddle" alt=':)'><!--endemo-->