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This topic has moved here: Subject: What do people look for in a competitive map?
  • Subject: What do people look for in a competitive map?
Subject: What do people look for in a competitive map?
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deej pls

Could you all please fill out this survey for me, as I am trying to forge a competitive map, and need the forums opinion on different types of maps.

Questions:
Two Way symmetry, or four way symmetry?

Man Cannons?
(How many?)

Teleporters?
(How many?)

Scenery (Boxes, Fusion coils, sandbags)?

Hazards (Kill balls, falling, flying traffic cones)?

Weapons?

Lights?

Turrets?

Viewable outside scenery (i.e walls or not)

Sight lines?

Cover?

Shield doors?
(One ways?)

Vehicles?

I'd really appreciate it if some more competitive community members could please give some input on what they like/ don't like in competitive multiplayer. I am an experienced forger too, and if you'd like to veiw some screen shots on some of my maps, click here, and scroll to my screen shots.

  • 03.24.2012 8:30 PM PDT

There are three people I serve. God, Chuck norris, and Evilcam.

Something other than forge world.

  • 03.24.2012 8:32 PM PDT
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deej pls


Posted by: Scaryghost1
Something other than forge world.

Forgeworld had the most areas were you can forge. The only reason its always stale is because all the maps are the same.

They all...

Are in the middle of the ocean/sky

Build from building blocks

Have texture errors

don't use scenery

are unoriginal.

Me and my friend, who has since gone inactive on xbox live have had more than 10 years combined experience. NONE of our maps are the stupid- wall& building block crap.

  • 03.24.2012 8:36 PM PDT

Avoid hazards. They just clutter the space up and add nothing of value to the gameplay.

Also, try to keep things balanced. Whether you make symmetric or asymmetric maps, offer players equal chances at accessing power weapons and powerups at the start.

  • 03.24.2012 8:39 PM PDT
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Posted by: Achronos
It isn't our shiznit anymore.

It's really not anything specific from your survey. Just like with weapons, vehicles, and core game mechanics, Competitive maps need a fair skill gap. Symmetry is preferred (unless you can make an asymmetrical map whose differing characteristics cancel each other out. I would not recommend doing this). Having map geometry knowledge should be rewarded with shortcuts like "jumps". Power weapons rewarding map control, map layout giving the controlling team an advantage but not too much of an advantage that the rest of the game is decided in the first minute (a la Reach maps).

Teams getting spawnkilled should always have a way out, but it should not be handed to them. There should be multiple ways to get to every part of the map, so no bottlenecks. People shouldn't be able to turtle inside their bases the whole game (Boneyard). You really won't be able to get a specific formula for what makes popular competitive maps good, these tips are only guidelines (and pretty common sense ones at that). My advice would be to check out some of the popular competitive maps on other FPS games like CS, Quake, UT.

To make it easier, you'll notice every good competitive map has great "flow" to it, which is the sum total of everything I've just listed above and more. It's how a player gets around a map and how firefights play out on your map. Bases, power weapons, "jump"-ups, vehicles, pathways, they all affect how a player gets around. The smoother the flow, the better.

A word of warning: competitive maps aren't complicated at all, and many of the most famous ones are very simple to understand yet at the same time have great depth to them (Midship, just a big circle). You don't need complexity to spur depth (often times I see a map's overly complex nature actually hindering its depth and from that, flow), and this is what I see to be the fatal flaw of a lot of potentially competitive maps. Just make the map simple, smooth, and rewarding.

  • 03.24.2012 9:37 PM PDT