GIMP is free and allows you to draw straight lines. You can also try Google Sketchup, it only takes about an hour to get the hang of, trust me. EDIT:http://sketchup.google.com/download/ http://www.gimp.org/
I'll give Sketchup a shot. I've heard of it in the "how do you create maps" (or whatever the name was, you probably get the point) thread. Thanks guys Back in a few. Plus I have to get on my xbox and give some feedback I said I'd give today
Alright guys. Here's a sketch of a 1v1/2v2 idea I had the other day. Let me know what you think. I'm a little worried that it's way too reliant on teleporters to get around the map. At the moment there would be only one way to get from the right side of the map to the left side on foot. So lemme hear it The sketch may be a little confusing so let me know if I need to clear anything else up. -Each arrow represents one 2x2 ramp, and points upward. -Black = not playable. Walls go up to ceiling. Blocks LoS -Only other LoS that is blocked: Purple path bottom right is blocked from looking over yellow -Areas of the map that aren't visible from sketch: ---Path from red to yellow under purple (Right side of map) ---Light blue path under incline (Left side of map) ---Area under the four diagonal catwalks
Hey there Dax, You're right in that the sides of the map do look too isolated. Perhaps a lift near the bottom middle of the drawing would be in order? Or a ramp? The current entrances to the left side from the right are directly next to each other. \ Right now, the only way hard route to the power weapon is a long catwalk. 3 rad 2 units long, if I'm not mistaken. That's ~4.5 units long and only .5 wide. The route could use some widening. Either that or open up a tac jump from the green receiver. It's a much harder position to get at from the left side. By the way, where are the red and blue team spawns? It might be just me, but the verticality here is just too much. (By that, I mean you have a lot of ramps that are 3 tall, and one that's 5 tall, etc). Maybe tone down the height of your map by a unit or two (shift the heights around a bit, if it's at all possible?) At a certain point, it becomes hard to look down for enemies - especially in the right side of the map. For instance, the only hard entrances to the red room (i'll call it that) are downwards. There aren't any level ones. That room could do with some raising. I know you put in the sender node to balance it, but the receiver is visible from almost anywhere the sender node is. Hence, it's not the greatest idea for desperate players, with a height disadvantage, trying to run away. For a 1v1/2v2 map.. I think that four sets of teleporters is too much. It's probably necessary because of the extra height change. Reduce the unnecessary height variance and maybe a few of the teleporters will lose their use. Wow.. that was long. I need to get out of this habit. EDIT: Oh god... sketchup is soo complex... I can't even figure out how to draw with negative space...
@Dax: Wow that is a very clean sketch, but the complexity of the layout is hard to understand from a 2d perspective. If you would make that in sketchup, that would be much easier to leave feedback on.
Here's a sketchup for it. I rushed it, so it's lacking some things and some scaling is off, but you get the gist. Spoiler
I definitely need to try it, I just need to find a mouse considering I only have a laptop. btw, IT BETTER ONLY TAKE AN HOUR TO GET THE HANG OF Edit: @Sketch: Wow, somehow I didn't realize that was Dax's sketch turned to 3d. Damn, nice work. Now is that from Google's sketchup?
Holy ass Auburn, your fast with that ****! Like you said Dax, you relied on teleporters for connection. I honestly couldn't see a layout this complex without some kind of forge limitation holding you back. As crappy as it sounds, I would try to simplify it, open it up in some areas, and rework the connections. @Ben: It's easy to learn, but it's hard to do quickly (for me anyway).
Auburn, I totally love you right now. Like seriously. So much <3 That is 99% accurate to what I had in mind. Only two things: the diagonal catwalk is missing on the left side of the map, and on the purple path leading to the light blue tele on the right side of the map, you shouldn't be able to view/drop down to the yellow path. But seriously thanks man. You are awesome. Seeing it in 3d is so much better. And props for understanding everything! And actually taking the time to make that. Would've taken me at least 3 years to figure out sketchup... <3 u.
We used CAD last year in school and it's basically the same thing, so i'm pretty quick with it, although this did take a little longer than usual. I think you relied too much on teleporters. In my opinion, maps such as these where there are several levels, teleporters should only be relied on to have an immediate connection from a lower floor to a higher one. However, It seems like a few of the teleporters in your design were added just because an area needed an extra path. That's not necessarily a bad thing, but it becomes a problem when they are so heavily relied on in that fashion. Also, I don't like the idea of a sender taking you to a reciever on lower ground, kind of defeats the purpose. Just my opinion though, feel free to ignore it. EDIT: ah, somebody beat me to it.
@Bold: Rape. @Underlined: I try to avoid statements like this, because no rule applies to every map. It is conditional. @Italicized: Same as above: This is conditional. I have used teleporters as dropdowns where you are on high ground, but there was a powerup through the teleporter. Once you went through, you had to travel back to the top. It was a great way of creating flow, but the layout was broken. Maybe I'll try this concept again, and make you eat your words, lol.
I never got around to posting this in my map thread, but here's the drawing I did for Basis way back:
Had a go at Google sketchup. I'm pretty bad at it though, I mean, look at the water. Still I feel it could be a pretty decent BTB map. Feedback is welcome. RED= Red base BLUE= Blue base GREEN= Green base ORANGE= Orange base WHITE= Sniper CYAN= Spartan Laser
WOW... that looks goooood... this motivates me to get back on sketchup.. Anyway, yesterday night at around 10:00 PM I finished drafting a new version of my old Aerowalk inspired map (which had some.. unavoidable... design flaws). @Xzamplez I may try to limit going down with teleporters.... Hmm... especially since I have a couple dropdowns... *lightbulb*
You're right, I shouldn't have made that statement factual haha, but I still stand by the idea that teleporters shouldn't be used sporadically to simply add routes to locations that otherwise lacked enough. For example in Dax's sketch, the yellow teleporter line serves as a connection between the left and right side of the map. I'm assuming he placed that there simply because there are only two other hard routes connecting them. I'm not trying to call you out Dax, just using an example. I do very much like the design, but it just needz less teleporter. If anybody wants me to put there design through sketchup I will, so long as it's on graph paper and not overly complex
I beleive that's Dax's map you sketch-uped? anyway I don't like that 2 entrance loop on the upper area. Similar issues seen present around the whole of the edge of this map.
Wow, thanks for all the feedback guys I'm going to try to rework the design with more hard routes between the two sides and less reliance on teleporters, haha. Auburn, you are very correct in saying I simply ran out of connection ideas and just threw down some teles. And xzamplez, yeah I was worried about the forge limitations as well. If I do get a final design that I think will work, I'll probably just hold off and see what limitations halo 4 holds. @Sausage, did you want feedback on that or were you showing how far you've come with sketchup? Either way, you're better at it than I am
..... Emmm well feedback I guess. [br][/br]Edited by merge: Wait a second, how do you do that so fast? My skecth took ages to do.
So since you're new to sketchup I won't jump to any conclusions about specifics yet Overall it looks like it lacks a little complexity and height variation. A lot of height variation isn't necessarily needed but in this case there looks to be none. Also, there's a lot of empty space in between blue, orange, and top white. Same goes for the space in between red, green, and bottom white. The corners between blue and orange, as well as red and green, are what I call "dead space." The orange/green bases are actually curving into the corner, which is never really a good idea to have. It leaves no incentive to go over there. Instead I suggest rounding out the corners in the opposite direction. I'm assuming you would make the bases more complex in ForgeWorld, correct? If not then I would suggest adding a bit more complexity to each base. Also it doesn't seem as if there are any routes to get up on the bridge. But again I'm assuming it's due to your lack of knowing how to do it in Sketchup haha. Other than that there's not much to go by from the picture. I would suggest adding some type of dimensions or a little explanation to give us a better idea of the scale though. Hope this helped
Thanks Dax. I actually went into forge and started to make this. I made alot of changes, like Red and Blue bases are now Green and Orange bases. Actually there's so many changes I'm not going to say them all. But I could show you in forge if you'd like. Edited by merge: Okay just finished a 1v1 concept. I know you'll say oh no height variation, but I dunno how to do ramps so bear with me. Here is the pic and feedback is welcome. Yellow= Teleporter Red= Sniper Green = Plasma Lawnchair Cyan= Camo