Mapping Idea
NefariousNSP
Join Date: 2003-02-05 Member: 13148Members
Join Date: 2003-02-05 Member: 13148Members
<div class="IPBDescription">Indoor, BUT OUTDOOR</div> Alright, i've been thinking awhile how to give this game a planetside feel, rather than floating research facility, space station, or deep underground refinery feel which is what it seems to have. All of it very indoor. My new idea is this: A mine. Give it a real earthy feel. Underground in a treacherous cavern. I could imagine all the awesome possibilities for underground rivers, elevators, and cool tramways. It would definately be multi-leveled to get the right feel, though that shouldn't be a problem as long as no rooms are overlapping. There would be some facilities on the top level, which could be somewhat out of the ground. This is where scientists could do there research, and the marines start would be located here, just at the entrace which is locked down. There would be a few facilities in this area and then a gigantic elevator, which would lead to maybe 3 different cavernous floors (none overlapping though) each one would intertwine and eventualy lead to hives or res nodes.
This is just an idea i'm tossing around that i'd love to see implemented into the game. Just imagine walking through a large underground cavern, filled with lakes of dark ominous water, with dripping sounds falling from stalactites to the floor. At the current moment I can't map, but maybe someone who is experienced enough at this thing could give it a shot.
This is just an idea i'm tossing around that i'd love to see implemented into the game. Just imagine walking through a large underground cavern, filled with lakes of dark ominous water, with dripping sounds falling from stalactites to the floor. At the current moment I can't map, but maybe someone who is experienced enough at this thing could give it a shot.
Comments
I have a mine, deep elevators, a refinery, Facilities, 3 levels (upper level open on top), Marine spawn is at entrance...
Guess I need to release my map faster before ppl think its a ripoff.
btw EVERYONE wants a mine.
Just watch out for detailed rock structures consuming your planes and clipnode count, and be careful of making your level vary too much vertically--remember, the commander needs to be able to see everything without having to squint at his units far down in the distance.
1) With the requisite size and average complexity of NS maps, organic architecture (e.g. mine shafts) is going to eat up your available planes/etc very quickly.
2) Multilevel is good, but make sure it works for the commander - height changes that are too extreme will make the marines fill his view in one room and barely selectable in another.
Have an elevator where the doors close and there's a jolt and humming noise... and you wind up going down like 3 feet in 5 seconds <!--emo&:p--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/tounge.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='tounge.gif'><!--endemo--> .
People have solid boundaries (mines), liquid boundaries (undersea stations), gas boundaries (Tanith), and vacuums to choose from. From there, you pick the kind of solid/liquid/gas/lack-of-all-three you want to use. If the choice is too hospitable (surface of a landmass or sea), you can toss in an environmental factor (extreme temperatures or extreme atmospheric pH, for instance) to explain why people don't walk outside. Even using that additional parameter, you're going to see variations on a theme rather than unique concepts.
If somebody said they were creating a research station buried under a billion metric tons of whipped cream, that'd be a new idea (if nonsensical) solely because the specific composition of the barrier has changed--it's still submerged in a liquid.
It's important to remember that no matter where you place a level (I'd eventually like to do 3 maps set in space/a volcanically active mountain range/underwater in that order), the fundamental limitations stated above apply. Don't be surprised or upset if you see your idea somewhere else; other items like architectural themes (arcs & hexagons for my first map, ns_janus) and texturing themes can give at least as much character to a map as what's visible outside the windows.
EDIT: bad spellchecker replacement fixed
But as coil said you really need to watch your planes and r_speeds when working with rocks, so it's not a completely good idea to have a complex NS level that's -completely- rocks. A nice thing to have would be the normal hi-tech grungy corridors and rooms of NS interdispersed with rocks sticking out of walls or small mined areas that haven't been built into yet.
But yeah, don't go -too- overboard with the multi-leveled idea. As good as it is, you don't want the commander being forced to view the proceedings on the bottom level with a magnifying glass <!--emo&;)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/wink.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='wink.gif'><!--endemo-->
the second thing a tryed to mapp fore ns , was a mine
i werent a very good mapper by then so it never became anything more then some tunnels and more files on the hard drive <!--emo&;)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/wink.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='wink.gif'><!--endemo-->
anyways... it realy is a good ide , go fore it my swet gorgs !!! <!--emo&::gorge::--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/pudgy.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='pudgy.gif'><!--endemo-->
edit: in retrospect using the words mine and mine in a sentence was a bad idea.