Keeping Maps Fresh
HanzGruber
Join Date: 2002-01-25 Member: 47Members
Join Date: 2002-01-25 Member: 47Members
<div class="IPBDescription">Things we can do as mappers</div> Replayability (spelling?) is a big issue for a mod that has such stringent submission and acceptance... It's a good thing that "any old map" can't become official but it also means that, with a limited map rotation, the maps have to be so damn good that people don't get bored of them...
A few ideas that come to mind on how to keep the maps fresh...The main one, which has been spoken of (a long time ago) on this forum, is using trigger_random to change the layout of the map... Using just a trigger_random, multimanager and some togglable func_wall's - you can easily make the map completely different and new each time the player joins the server and a new match begins... This idea has limitless applications - sealing off resource nodes so that resources are tighter or allowing more to be utilized - so the game is more intense...you can change the layout of corridors and hallways so that they go in different directions or have more or less crates/objects...
In the picture below there are 4 possible scenarios for one area...
<b>Scenario A</b> - No Blockages, all areas are open
<b>Scenario B</b> - Access is blocked off to the room on the right and makes that room only have one entrance (from the north)...this room could have a resource node...so it makes it easier or harder to defend...
<b>Scenario C</b> - The room is blocked off all together...again, if it was a resource node room - it would dramatically change the way the game is played..
<b>Scenario D</b> - The adjacent room is blocked off...
These are really simple ideas and I'm sure people could come up with better ones...things like a silo that has a bridge which is sometimes there and sometimes not - so marines/aliens have to go around the area to pass through....etc etc
What do you think?
A few ideas that come to mind on how to keep the maps fresh...The main one, which has been spoken of (a long time ago) on this forum, is using trigger_random to change the layout of the map... Using just a trigger_random, multimanager and some togglable func_wall's - you can easily make the map completely different and new each time the player joins the server and a new match begins... This idea has limitless applications - sealing off resource nodes so that resources are tighter or allowing more to be utilized - so the game is more intense...you can change the layout of corridors and hallways so that they go in different directions or have more or less crates/objects...
In the picture below there are 4 possible scenarios for one area...
<b>Scenario A</b> - No Blockages, all areas are open
<b>Scenario B</b> - Access is blocked off to the room on the right and makes that room only have one entrance (from the north)...this room could have a resource node...so it makes it easier or harder to defend...
<b>Scenario C</b> - The room is blocked off all together...again, if it was a resource node room - it would dramatically change the way the game is played..
<b>Scenario D</b> - The adjacent room is blocked off...
These are really simple ideas and I'm sure people could come up with better ones...things like a silo that has a bridge which is sometimes there and sometimes not - so marines/aliens have to go around the area to pass through....etc etc
What do you think?
Comments
But maps are already complex enought without random paths.
for example,
The pipe hive is very open and hard to defend but it has a double node nearby
The fortress hive is huge and it has four large water tanks in it, making it easy to defend, but it doesn't have many nodes nearby
The third hive (which is the only one I haven't made yet) will be a comprimise between the two
The maps are so big and official maps already eat most of the mapping limits that does not allow much
blocked rooms or corridors. And if you make lots of corridors with full of func_wal/trigger_random so that it looks different, might lag the map / server really badly as seen when you use too much entities. And probably the hardest is the commander mode, if you make rooms that blocks only the entrances to them , commander might get confused where him should send the marines.
Anyway this is really good idea but propably it wont work in ns.
Marine 1: OK! i'll take the bridge route! *runs off*
Commander : What bridge?
Marine 1: This bridgeeeeeeeeee....... *splat*
NS : Marine 1 was killed by Worldspawn
Angel - You picked a scenario and said that's the best... in the context of the thread - you made (and still make) absolutely no sense...