Work On A Map- Looking For Insight

[Stormcaller3801]

I went and did a silly thing. After playing on Hotel Hell, Cyberpunk, Dreadnought, and several other maps, I asked myself, "Do you think you could do better?"

Well now I'm going to try. And with some luck, it will either work out, or none of you will ever have to suffer through the results. One or the other.

My basic idea is fairly simple: I want to set up a multi-height map that has a place for all of the classes to excel. It's going to be a capture point map using five points. I'm hoping to get some Sketchup designs done to show off.

The map itself is 1200x2400 Hammer Units. This means that a Scout could cross the length of the field in approximately six seconds, running full out in a straight line. Comparatively, it would take a Heavy spun up or a Sniper scoped in thirty seconds to cover the same distance. Most classes you're looking at between eight to ten seconds. Also important, a Sentry Gun has a maximum sensing range of 1024 HU, so setting up a Sentry Gun somewhere near the center line of the map will give you the ability to sweep the map from one side to the other, but not anywhere close to the length.

The map has a below-surface depth of 300 HU. Given that the minimum height for a room or other area is 95, this should provide more than enough room for developing two distinct subterrain areas. The first is simple: I'm doing trenchworks that will be 100 HU deep. This provides enough room to set up a teleporter and have someone show up on it without being sniped (if I'm reading things right); due to minimum jump heights, there will be one to two steps to allow people to fire or jump out of the trenches. The trenchworks will connect to one another through several bunkers, allowing someone to cross the length of the map through the trenches without rising up to ground level.

The second underground layer will be very dimly lit and connect to both ends of the boards as well as the trenches at various points. This is, at least conceptually, a Spy's best friend. It will also prove useful for bypassing defensive lines, providing an additional way to assault the enemy or cross the map while slowing travel and opening yourself up to the potential for backstabs, Pyro ambushes, Sentry gun defended rooms, and general nastiness. Not terribly unlike the sewers in 2Fort, only more complex.

The surface will involve the upper levels of bunkers, sniper towers, and scattered obstacles. These will serve two purposes: first, to allow Snipers and Heavies (and Sentry Guns) a killing ground where they can excel, as well as engaging in duels and such if they see fit. It also provides the most direct route, assuming you can get past the other team. Scouts will hopefully like this area because it will allow them to use their speed to zig-zag between obstacles and outflank the enemy, dropping into trenches, blasting a few opponents, then double-jumping back out and finding a place to hide.

The spawn areas will be twofold: first, the main base, and second, a forward observation bunker. The main base will sprawl across the width of the map, and connect to all levels. This will include a bridge to the forward observation bunker. The main base will have two sniper decks that will allow sight across the majority of the map with the FOB blocking some angles; the decks will be able to engage a significant portion of the bridge as well. Moving to the FOB will allow Snipers a larger field of fire. These buildings will also represent the capture points, with the fifth being located in the center of the map. This point will likely end up being at surface level, making it a difficult capture. Four additional buildings will be on the map: two sniper towers and two bunkers. The latter will be set up specifically to allow Heavies to rake fire, though Sentry Guns will be able to be set up atop them. The former will provide angles to fire down into enemy trenchworks, but will be trading safety for convenience, as there will be no health boosts and little in the way of cover.

My thoughts are that the Demoman and Pyro will excel in the trenchworks, the Heavy will be blissful in the bunkers, the Spy and Scout will have ample ability to take advantage of their unique mobility, the Engineer will prove invaluable for defense and moving people to forward positions, the Sniper will have a field day with the wide open spaces and ample opportunities for duels, and the combination of confining rooms (and trenches) and a good array of clear firing lines at surface level should provide ample opportunities to blow things up. And the Medic? It's an ideal layout for Ubering someone and then going over the top, charging through no man's land to drive the enemy back or eliminating them so you can cap another point and deny the enemy resources.

[Stormcaller3801]

That's what I have so far. I doubled up the size of the map due to issues fitting everything I wanted to put in it; anything else would be difficult to do the way I want to do it. As you can probably guess, this is the start of the trenchworks, the Heavy bunkers, and the two main buildings with FOBs. Very basic, but I can get fancy once I start using Hammer. I have a lot of empty space there in the backfield, so I'll be working on that, as well as adding in the Sniper towers, and developing more trenches closer to the center. There will be small bridges over the trenches. I'm debating whether or not to try and add more civilian elements to the map; I could probably toss a road down the center, with the middle CP atop it. Add some chain link, a few construction vehicles and road signs, and so on. Or maybe a train. Can you put a cp under train tracks? That could get interesting.

[Stormcaller3801]

Started working on further development and shifting this plan into something more fitting for a TF2 map- meaning making it all look relatively normal, minus the occasional death ray. To that end the 'trenches' are going to look more like drainage canals, the center point will be in the middle of a lonely stretch of highway, culverts will connect the trenches under the roads, and so on. I'm also thinking of filling in space by doing something closer to a parking lot to the side of the bases. Just a few trucks and chain link, easy to get and out of, niches to hide in between the vehicles, and a way down to the lower levels of the map.

I'm debating how to make the underground areas more important; they offer a useful means to move around the battlefield as it is, but so do the trenches. Furthermore, they're going to be very out of the way relative to the capture points. If I do it the way I want to, large areas could end up being useless. I'll either need to scale things back, or abandon it altogether. Probably the former; I can break it up into several useful sub-sections.

[iller]

[Stormcaller3801]

Oh, I'm sure the process of creating the map will be complex and depressingly long. But the idea is simple.

[Stormcaller3801]

Save for a couple L-shaped trenches that will wrap around the sniper towers, this is the major features of the map. As you can see the central trenches are set up to encourage very fast, short range fighting. I may drop a couple underpasses in order to give a bit more distance to them, but I don't want it to get too long range. All classes can leap across the trenches to get to the next section of ground, but you have to rocket-, grenade-, or double-jump to get out of the trenches at any given point. Otherwise you'll have to rely on ramps and steps. You can also go around the edges of the map, but that's the long way.

Underground areas will include all respawn points, including in the bases- there will be three, two per side, with the starting point basically beneath the bridge and forcing you to run backwards and up, then turn around and head out onto the map itself. The others will be set up so that once you capture the other side's FOB, you spawn and run out from the trenches on their side of the road. I figure that deals with the potential boredom of running the full length of the map. I might open up a door from the primary point up into the trenches if you cap the center. Otherwise, all underground areas are going to be fairly sparse, though I'm thinking I may play around with water. These trenches are disguised as drainage ditches, after all. Might as well give the Spies a couple underwater passages.

Center point is not elevated, of course. Just did that for ease of identification.

[iller]

Without water, Pyros tend to dominate EVERY map

[Sekh765]

[Stormcaller3801]

There'll be health pickups and ammo scattered around in the trenches, with the general theme being that the closer you get to the bases the bigger the boosts. The 20.5% boosts will be closest to the road (possibly inside the culverts), 50% boosts will be further back, and the 100% boosts will be in the bunkers. Sniper towers will probably get a small ammo boost but health will be down below, possibly on an unprotected mid-level.

As for water, I'm of two minds about it. First, I don't want to make it too easy to get to. If it's easily accessible along with the health boosts, the area where Pyros should be best (in the trenches) will become one of their worst areas because they'll effectively lose afterburn. At the same time, I'd like a few spots to be available for people. I may end up making a few spots in the trenches where you can kneel to put the fire out (like you can do in the sewers in 2Fort), but I don't think I want to get too pervasive with it. At least not on the basic version.

Might be fun to do a flooded version of the map, just to see how that works out. Fill the trenches with water, have large lakes of it around. That sort of thing.

[Stormcaller3801]

After a quick consult with Bob Vila, to get a better idea on how to do stairs, I got to work on the underground portions of the map:





Players will spawn underground, head back towards the edge of the map, split off, and then go up into the two side rooms that will lead into the main base (and the final capture point). Given that my primary goal for the evening was to figure out how to do underground areas without messing up the rest of the map, I think it worked out pretty well. As you can tell I also added in ramps for the trenches, to allow people to get in and out relatively easily near the bases and with more risk as you get closer to the center. I may still end up closing off a couple of the tunnels.

Still, I think this is turning out well. Which probably means it's going to be a giant mess of heachaches when it comes time to translate it into Hammer.