Pinohkio's Competitive map design & Theory

Competitive Map Design​

& Theory​

Ok, here is my guide that I thought up and wrote up in my study hall. It consists of what I believe the majority of the great (featured and nonfeatured) competitive maps consist of. I believe this guide will help you, if and only if you take the time when making a map and follow the directions/steps/whatever they're called. Please remember that the guide is not finished, and I'll be updating it often.

/Current version; 1.2

WELL, HERE GOES.​

A good competitive map should consist mostly of, if not all of the following. I will go in detail about each after.

• Multiple different LoS (Lines of Sight)
• Multiple height variations
• A balanced weapon set
• Multiple paths to the same area
• solid flow
• Most importantly, Game play > Aesthetics

Now, for more detail...​

Multiple different LoS (Lines of Sight)​

If you want to build a great map, you need multiple lines of sight, don't let that fool you, it’s pretty easy. In most cases, a competitive map involves one of the following two map types.

1. A two base map, often with a chasm or open space (really open) is generally un-accepted because they are so generic and unoriginal. The lines of sight are all about the same, you can see nearly everywhere, from nearly everywhere.
2. Another, less posted, type of competitive map that is generally un-accepted are the super close quarters, death around every corner, takes one guy to camp to ruin the game, maps. These also have mostly one line of sight, extreme close quarters. This is bad, because it makes the map get very old, very fast.

However, there is a third type, of lesser posted maps, and these are the good ones. These are the ones that make you say "I want to download that." These are the ones that:​

• Have a good mix-up of both close and long range lines of sights.
• The ratio I believe is about 4 Close quarter LoS to 2 Mid range(BR) LoS to 1 Long range LoS

Now, this isn't a guide to Line of sights, just too how they are implemented into a good, solid competitive map. If you want to learn more about LoS's, there was a forge academy on it, so I'm thinking there will be another academy for it in the future, so you should definitely sign up.

Multiple height variations​

A lot of competitive maps also fall into the category of having only one or two height variations. This is really bad for game play, as it promotes only having to strafe left or right to win BR battles,

A good competitive map contains multiple height variations to promote fun, yet challenging BR battles.




A good way to set up your map if it is 3-tiered, is to have it have 3 main floors, a lower, a middle, and a top floor, but have them each have their own little dips and bumps, so it's not all one flat surface.
If you do set it up like this, a generally well accepted may to set up a map with upper ledges is to have it play so 10% of the map is downstairs, 60% main floor and 30% upstairs. Them, have multiple variations on the main floor.

Balanced Weapon Set​

Balanced weapons play just as important a role as spawn points themselves. If you give one side heavy weapons on a symmetrical map, they will win. Unless of course, they are n00bs and can't aim to save their lives.










Also, it is important to know that for a balanced weapon set, you should keep armouries off limits; they promote camping and weapon whoring. You should keep power weapons to a minimum as well, if you don't know what counts as a power weapon, see the following list.

• Sniper Rifle
• Beam Rifle
• Rocket Launcher
• Fuel Rod Cannon
• Gravity Hammer
• Shotgun
• Energy Sword
• Machine Gun Turret
• Plasma Cannon (Plasma Turret)
• Spartan Laser
• Missile Pod
• Mauler (sometimes.)

Multiple Paths to the Same Area​

Multiple Paths to The Same Base basically deconstructs the ability for the other team to camp. For example, think of the letter 'I', the horizontal lines are bases, and the vertical lines is the path, if your team is decent, you can just camp the path and win, making the game not very fun for the opposing team.

To fix this, change it to the letter 'B', same basic shape, but more lines. Now there are two or more paths to each area, making it much harder to camp.

*NOTE, the more paths you have, the better, but also the more confusing the map is, so you should add markers, like half merged over shield or active camouflages.

Example of the letter 'I'

Spoiler

Example of the letter 'B'

Spoiler

// for the pictures, black is the bases, the light colour is the pathway, and white is out of play.

FLOW ​

Flow is one of the most important aspects of a map, bad flow makes for bad game play. Flow basically means how easily a player can get from here to there.

Think of the player as water and the map an intricate setup of pipes. How does water get through pipes the easiest? Through smooth transitions of height and direction. If you want the water to move faster, you make a smooth flat transition, instead of a jagged one; meaning take out all those crouch slide wall bounce ninja jumps, and just put in some @$&!#^%$ stairs.

It's okay to have a few tactical jump, but don’t go over bored. There is nothing more frustrating then getting killed because you were trying to get somewhere.

However, flow is also basically everything. It is in essence, the map itself. You can place power weapons in specific areas to divert the flow of the map, just as if you were addind dams to a network of lakes and rivers. and your starting points should generally be on the outside of the network.

Also, it should be noted that as the network of streams and rivers and lakes gets more intricate, it will also become more confusing. Basically, the refers back to the point about multiple paths to the same base.

Game play > Aesthetics​

In the ever going battle that is game play V.S aesthetics, unless you are going to post it in the aesthetic map section, always go for game play.

Build up the layout, to see if it works, then when you know it all works well and with no issues, take the last of your budget and go wild on aesthetics. Do everything you can to make the map look as sexy as it is fun.

That way, you won’t substitute any of the potential success of your map, on making it look good.
It's like painting a rotten Easter egg, it'll look cool, but inside, it's just plain bad.

*Closing notes*
Well, there is my guide, mind you; it’s not a guide on how to do specific things, but on how to implement them into a good, solid competitive map.
Most of the guide will work for any type of competitive map, from capture the flag. To VIP.

The reason why I didn't include spawns is I don't know how to explain them, however, all is not lost, there are several good guides, one of which has been on the front page, albeit about a year ago.
*Here is TrueDarkFusion's spawn placement guide
Also, I will try to answer questions.





CREDITS

Spoiler

Dirt Jockey, for reminding me about the missle pod and giving me the link to TDF's spawn guide, and telling me to add a visual reference for the letters 'I' and 'B'
pyro6666, for telling me to elaborate on flow, which I kind of just did, and will do more on.

CnC and follow.​

 

alright, I forgot to fix the typos, as it was all typed in within 20 min. I'll put in TDF's guide to spawns, and add the missle pod.

I'll try to add some visuals for the analogies an about an hour or two.
also, thatnks for the CnC

 

good point, I'll add that in the next update. (probably tomorrow)



//Updated to version 1.2;

added:
- about a paragraph and a half to the flow section
- pictures to clarify the "I" and "B" map pathway analogies.

Keep the CnC comin guys!