ns2_Orion
FAIL_Murdoc
Join Date: 2013-08-30 Member: 187257Members, NS2 Playtester, WC 2013 - Gold, Subnautica Playtester
Join Date: 2013-08-30 Member: 187257Members, NS2 Playtester, WC 2013 - Gold, Subnautica Playtester
in Mapping
Hello everyone
I used to make maps and models for Battlefield mods, but since thats not possible in BF3/4 I decided to look into mapping for NS2.
I learned the ways of the Spark editor in the past few days and it didn't feel very complicated so I've come up with a first layout.
This is the TSF Orion.
Story:
The TSF Orion is a medium sized battleship, able to carry a couple fighter jets.
It is the most modern ship of the TSF Army and the fastest in its class. Its powerful fusion reactor allows it to travel further than any other ship.
Its weaponary contains 4 main cannons, 6 defensive turrets and heavy guided missiles.
After several kharaa outbreaks on human stations this ship was sent to investigate.
It was Commander Williams who was sent, along with a crew of 60.
They were well aware of the brutality and mercylessnes of the alien race, but crew and commander were optimistic, since the ship has strong shields and plating.
Goal of the mission was to find out more about the aliens: Where do they come from? How many are there? What are they?
The estimated time for the mission was 130 days.
On day 60 the TSF Orion encountered a system containing many planets with alien life on them.
It appears the Kharaa are able to live under very extreme circumstances, since none of those planets were suitable for humans.
On day 74, Commander Williams reported unusual organic activity on board, but noted that it was probably a sensor failure.
He couldn't think of any way foreign life could have invaded the ship.
Since everything on board seemed intact, and nothing could be seen or heard, Williams decided to ignore it. Also he didn't tell his crew about it, because he wanted them to feel safe aboard.
On day 81 contact to mission control was lost.
It is not yet clear what happened to the crew, whether they are alive or not.
Please tell me what you think about the layout. It is the first draft, so basically everything can be modified.
It has similarities to Veil, but instead of the double res there is a techpoint in the middle.
Marines start in Bridge, Aliens in Engine Room or Shield Generators.
I'm really looking forward to realising this project with your help, so thanks in advance
I used to make maps and models for Battlefield mods, but since thats not possible in BF3/4 I decided to look into mapping for NS2.
I learned the ways of the Spark editor in the past few days and it didn't feel very complicated so I've come up with a first layout.
This is the TSF Orion.
Story:
The TSF Orion is a medium sized battleship, able to carry a couple fighter jets.
It is the most modern ship of the TSF Army and the fastest in its class. Its powerful fusion reactor allows it to travel further than any other ship.
Its weaponary contains 4 main cannons, 6 defensive turrets and heavy guided missiles.
After several kharaa outbreaks on human stations this ship was sent to investigate.
It was Commander Williams who was sent, along with a crew of 60.
They were well aware of the brutality and mercylessnes of the alien race, but crew and commander were optimistic, since the ship has strong shields and plating.
Goal of the mission was to find out more about the aliens: Where do they come from? How many are there? What are they?
The estimated time for the mission was 130 days.
On day 60 the TSF Orion encountered a system containing many planets with alien life on them.
It appears the Kharaa are able to live under very extreme circumstances, since none of those planets were suitable for humans.
On day 74, Commander Williams reported unusual organic activity on board, but noted that it was probably a sensor failure.
He couldn't think of any way foreign life could have invaded the ship.
Since everything on board seemed intact, and nothing could be seen or heard, Williams decided to ignore it. Also he didn't tell his crew about it, because he wanted them to feel safe aboard.
On day 81 contact to mission control was lost.
It is not yet clear what happened to the crew, whether they are alive or not.
Please tell me what you think about the layout. It is the first draft, so basically everything can be modified.
It has similarities to Veil, but instead of the double res there is a techpoint in the middle.
Marines start in Bridge, Aliens in Engine Room or Shield Generators.
I'm really looking forward to realising this project with your help, so thanks in advance
Comments
That techpoint seems to far away from the rest and/or Shield and Engine are too close together.
Maybe connect AI core to the south of Hangar and remove the direct link between AI core and Shield and Engine? This forces the aliens to cyst more to the contested area instead of giving them a sure cyst pathway in the far south of the map.
I like the space ship story.
I made a shitty paint setup for you, feel free to say its crap:
Start mapping, faster!
Nice idea! Years ago I have made a map like this for Natural Selection 1, it was called ns_Hulk
The idea with the asteroid is pretty nice, but for my first project it really is too ambitious:)
I will change the south a bit, so that aliens dont get to AI Core that easily.
Also I think there are too many tight hallways so I will make some of them into small rooms.
Thanks for your feddback so far
Make hangar less....huge? or at least design it to be so as a room.
Move shield generators/engine room left/right respectively.
other than that it's very solid.
Changes:
"Bridge" moved further south to make access to "Med Bay" and "Communication" easier.
Switched names of "Engine Room" an "Shield Generator" because of reasons.
Lengthened hallways to "AI Core"
Split "Hangar" Vent
Made some of the tight corridors into small rooms
I like your cat.
The scale generally feels a lot better. So you don't have to worry about that too much going forward.
Also the 2 lower techpoint rooms are good. Just watch arch ranges (1024 units).
Both marine start entrances can be bothered from the same position. This makes turtleing fairly easy.
Hangar needs redesigning, its not a viable Hive location due to the layout of the room. Its snipeable, too open and the drop ships just make it feel clustered.
some of the vents seem a little long, try short and often. Sticking to 48x96 units to ensure they can be used. A few were inaccessible for gorges.
There seems to be a lack of rooms. try break the map up into corridors and defined, distinctive rooms so teams draw front lines on choke points.
I feel that there needs to be mores choices for the players in terms of routes. I played as marine last so the numbered arrows show the only options we had to push through the map. While I don't think you want to add much more complexity to the map the routes do need spreading out a bit to force the players to choose a route of assault rather than just having hangar as a super OP hub.
The loops frame should illustrate the issues around hangar and hopefully help you come to a solution. I did a quick paint-over of the layout to illustrate how I would fix the spacing issues. Its ball rough so don't follow it but it should help you think about ways to improve the existing layout.
I really like the fundamental layout, its original and fun to play considering how early it is in development. I look forward to seeing it develop.
Hope this helps
Hangar is very op for marines indeed, but I have an idea how to change that. I think I will make it into a room with similar design to Hydroponics on Biodome, just bigger.
The techpoint goes to the south of the room and gets a little wall to be protected from the south entrance.
Also the vents will get some tweaks.
The changes you did to the southern routes seem very important aswell, so I will implement those in the next version.
Thanks for your help mate:)
With regards to tech point rooms; you are kind of limited with the basic shape and layout of them. I find putting a twist on ones from existing maps is the easiest way. They always come out different enough to looking original so just pretend its yours. Hangar really needs to be an expansion option for aliens early game, Try make the routes in and the room itself suitable for aliens to expand into and hold.
So now I need to change it in a way so that marines have to make some decisions on where to go.
To achieve that I want to increase the distance of Lab and Laser Batteries to thze center of the map.
I have some Ideas how to solve that, but i'm not sure which one to go for: (top left is layout as it is currently)
Suggestions or ideas?
Which layout seems the best?
sry for the horrible picture
I see you love the triangle shape! While it may look unique and interesting I believe its the cause of most the maps problems. Now last week I made the statement that maps need to be round(ish) to work. That's a statement I stand by and I'd like to explain why this is the case with NS2 maps.
I believe the biggest reason for this is the need for fair timings and good flow. You need fairly even distances between RT's/TP's and you need a map layout that is easy for the players to follow. Spinning a player around in zig zagging corridors may increase the times but ultimately you'll leave the players feeling confused or worse still frustrated. You need to avoid making the players 'comeback on themselves' with U turns are 90 degree turns in close proximity. You also need an easy to follow layout; If i want to go to the West RT, I should generally just be heading west. With Line-of-sight considerations you will need to break the rules some times but keeping things simple. The best solution for good flow, and even spread of RT's is a circle with one central hub.
Secondly you shouldn't have off-shooting/isolated sections of the map, especially ones that have their entrances/exits in close proximity together. In makes it too easy to turtle these areas or lock a team in and again it affects flow. This is essentially the case with marine start. If aliens do manage to lock hangar down its game over for marines as all routes take them past hanger (now an alien base), removing the option for marines to sneak through or spread the aliens thin on the ground by causing distant pressure points. Also these kind of rooms (like the south west and east RT's) just don't flow well. Adhering to these rules will mean that you map has is built within a ring.
Arc's! that 1024 range is deceptively long. Place a circle in your map on top view with a radius of 1024 move it around to see what spots can be hit from other rooms. Arcs should be able to hit TP's and rt's from outer rooms but the spots need to be intentional, with fair counters for aliens. Also when they can hit multiple targets from the same room you know things are too clustered up. Giving us a nice even spread of key locations.
This doesn't really apply to your map, but thin ellipse or rectangle maps don't really work as alien expansion is almost always linear and if marines can cut the map in half with ease aliens will get locked down and denied any expansion. If the aliens are to be locked in, it should happen from two fairly distant fronts, not one.
I don't believe these rules aren't set in stone and I'm sure there's imaginative ways of making offset sections or alternatively shaped layouts work. But I haven't seen any examples of this to date; all the best maps (veil, tram, summit, caged etc) follow these rules. Play it safe, ultimately you'll have an easier time balancing the map and in turn releasing something fun. A Unique and interesting layout may catch the eye but to retain players in the long term you need something fun and balanced. The fundamental concept behind the layout is sound but I don't believe it can be executed within the triangle shape. Try something more 'radial' and I think you're on to a winner.
Example: