Download: Trial By Fear (DARK) Absolute glory, or eternal regret. How did you get here? Dragged to the edge of a cliff, armed with only a pistol, and surrounded by certain soft-death on three sides. Six minuets from now you will either return to your family as a champion, or remain in this place for forever, driven by your eternal spite to cut down all who pass. This is a linear infection map. My goal was to make the journey as long and arduous as possible, while also maintaining a constant, and steady level of fear. I wanted the scenario to be ever changing. What seems like a strong new defensive holdout one moment, will turn into an absolute death trap the next. It became evident early on in development that the best way to accomplish my goal was to concentrate on the zombie transportation system. It needed to be central, elevated, inaccessible to humans, and set on an inside track. (Think that terrible Matt Damon movie, or the Kansas City airport.) I also wanted to find the very best section of Forge World geographically. It had to both save me resources by creating a natural path, while also providing stimulating aesthetic variation. The result is what you see here. Even though every single Zombie re-spawn point is located on just one platform, a zombie can reach any accessible point on the map within 8 seconds of re-spawning. Meanwhile, the fastest possible travel time across the map for his Human counterpart is just under 4 minuets. The Zombies altered movement settings are only 120% speed, 125% jump, and the Evade ability. The system is surprisingly intuitive for the zombies, especially considering how complex this description is going to be for me to write... TBF has exactly the atmosphere I was looking for. There can be a real false sense of security. No matter how remote, tucked away, or wide open and clear your position may seem; The Zombies can always see you, they can always find you, and there is always a good chance that they are right behind you. I couldn't decide on which effect I liked better for this map; Next Gen (apocalyptic dusk), or Purple (night), so I am going to upload both a regular (NexGen), and "Dark" (Purple) version. Obviously I suggest you try them both. Each will give you a slightly different game experience. Anyways, this is how it works... This is an overview of the map progression. (yes I know zone 3's GRID isn't beautiful, and that the bunkers are pre-set buildings, but just trust me. They make the map better, and as you will see, they are very, very worth having!) This is the Zombie re-spawn platform. On the left side there is a Ramp that drops the zombies down onto the ramparts above Zone 1. There is also a man cannon that will shoot the zombie back atop the Ominous Crescent. On the right side of the platform is a ramp that will drop the Zombies down into Zone 2. (The humans will not have access to Zone 2 for the first 75 seconds of the round, but it is very easy for the zombie to run back through the cave into Zone 1.) There is also a teleporter. This teleporter will not activate until 180 seconds into each round. When it does, it will connect the Zombies to the second Zombie platform. I will now get us caught up to 180 seconds from the Human perspective. The Humans start here along the edge of this cliff. The Zombie will start on either end of the ominous crescent overhead. The Humans must climb down the cliff face into Zone 1 of the gauntlet. Now the Humans have moved to a slightly safer position on the ground in Zone 1. The Humans must hold up in Zone 1 until at least 75 seconds into the round. Zone 1 has no good stronghold locations. It is very cluttered, and the zombies are always coming down from above. Either down from the cliff face, or off of the ramparts. The man cannon on the ramparts will shoot zombies up to the original cliff-top starting position of the humans. After the 75 second waiting period, the gates to the first cave tunnel will blow, and the humans are able to move on into Zone 2. Once the humans enter zone 2 they will be presented with a very serviceable base/holdout, armed with a lot more weapons. This base will remain a decent stronghold until the 180 second mark is reached. At 180 seconds the gate to the 2nd cave will blow to allow the humans to move into Zone 3.The humans might think that they want to stay on the base, but the teleporter between zombie platforms one and two also activates at 180 seconds, and that will effectively mean the end of the zone 2 base... Back to the Zombie progression now... The teleporter to Zombie platform 2 has now been activated. On the left side of Zombie platform 2 you will find the 2-way teleporter back to zombie platform 1, and you will also find the ramp down into the human's zone 2 base. On the right side you will find a long ramp down to the 2nd cave's exit/the narrow end of zone 3. Also on the right side, you will find what is my personal favorite part of the map. It is a visually intuitive, 1/5 scale teleporter system. When standing on the platform above, and looking out over zone 3 through the grid, the tele sender-nodes will line up perfectly with their receiver nodes on top of each bunker. Due to the height of the grid, and the perspective of the zombie, the nodes have only about 1/5 the distance between them as compared to the bunkers. This allows the zombie to see exactly where everyone is, and what is going on, before jumping straight into the action from the position of his choosing. And finally, back to the Humans... The humans must now move through the 2nd cave and into zone 3. Once in zone 3 the remaining humans should have two goals in mind; reaching the far ridge, and then having one of them activate the custom power-up. There is a warthog, and a mongoose parked in front of the first bunker on the left. There are also weapons inside each of the bunkers. The custom 90 second power-up will give that human 200% speed, 150% jump, and he can now survive one hit from a zombie when his shields are charged. In order to keep out zombies, the power up holding chamber requires a gun to open without killing yourself. Once open, it must be picked up within 10 seconds before a land mine re-apears below it. Portfolio: Championship Zompound Trench Run Civil War Find God
I dont like it. I see lots of zfighting, there is no theme here and the grid just killed it because it there for no reason. Floating platforms also kill it here. sorry but ill have to pass on this one
Thanks Narf, let me know how it goes. I have only seen it beaten a couple of times. Things get crazy. Cheiyijei - I really can't tell you how frustrating it is when I spend a couple of hours writing the description, and then people who clearly haven't read a word, or even looked at all of the pictures say stuff like this... ----------------- ...but thanks for the feedback anyway I guess?
I like the idea of the zombies working like hunters, planning their route each time they respawn. Could create some fun and scary zombie gameplay. I agree that the grid should be removed. Most forgers that have seen hundreds of maps turn away from maps with the grid because it just doesn't look very good unless used to make a row of windows. If it is necessary for the map, that's ok, but just remember that if you want more views and DL's, the grids, buildings and big walls and windows will turn people away. But since you stressed the purpose of the grid here, that may help a little. The big coliseum windows can also be an eyesore, but if they work with the gametype and purpose for your map, then I'd leave em in. Great effort here, maybe work on the look of it a little more, trying to make it more eye appealing without altering the gameplay design. Nice job
Well, this isnt really the map that is aesthetically pleasing. But i guess that is not what you wanted to achieve with this map, gameplay mostly goes over aesthetics. But.. didnt you already post this map? Im sure i have seen it before, cant remember where.
Savage - Thanks man, I know exactly what you mean. I just could not make that teleporter system without using the grid, and the teleporter system is totally worth it to me. I realize that this map will never get as many views or DL's as some other stuff, (including less fun maps that I have made myself) but I think of it as an independent, experimental film or something... SpartanP - Yea I put it in the map preview/discussion thread a week or two ago. It is a bit ugly. It actually looks a slightly better from inside the game, but definitely not photogenic.
Yeah that makes sense, these days great aesthetics are hard to achieve that stand separate and unique from other maps. For big maps like this one, focusing too much on aesthetics will weaken the game play experience and cause FR issues. What I like is how you stepped over the boundaries and used what you needed to make your idea work. Who cares if the community doesn't like it. You're proud of your work and want to share it, just like me. Hit me up on live if you get a big game on this, I'd like to try it out GT: SaVaGe ExtenZe
Awesome, sounds good to me. Maybe we can work together to stay alive. Honestly I have only survived this map twice, and I have seen two others do it, out of about 50-60 ten-plus player rounds. It's very challenging, and it will certainly takes some cooperation. To be fair, I have played it mostly with a group of very ADD kids, or these guys from Mexico, (I don't speak Spanish.) but at least they bring the numbers. Hit me up any time you are playing customs as well. LeadingChimera3.
One thing I was noticing about this map that I did like and did not like at the same time was how open it was. I like it because it gives breathing room for everyone. The map doesn't feel cramped. I don't like the openness because that spreads out the zombie spawning, causing the zombies to have to run more and take more chances of getting killed, resulting in unfair disadvantages. I think your approach on the spawning system for the zombies is certainly unique and more user-friendly compared to the traditional one. I agree that while your approach to the teleporter system is new and interesting, there really would be no way to get rid of that grid without getting even partially rid of the teleporter system. Must be frustrating. Like what Cheiyijei said, the map doesn't have too big of a theme aesthetically. Yes, while you do have a theme with decorative objects (which I do like), the structural objects don't go well with each other when it comes to looks, but, of course, looks aren't everything. I will be trying to get games on some of the linear progression maps I've seen lately, mostly just to see what some of these maps' gameplay is like. If I'd have to give one piece of feedback for helping you build better maps in the future, just try to work on aesthetics. Looks draw people to the map. People will notice!
Thanks for the comprehensive comment minister. I do think that you will see some of the issues resolved if you play the map. The map's openness increases as you move through the levels. The first zone is actually very cramped, the second is slightly more open, but then turns deadly, and the third is rather open. However, the teleporters in zone 3 allow the zombies to pick their point of entrance so accurately that the relative dimensions are cut greatly. Also in all likelihood there are going to be quite a few zombies running around by the time you make it to zone 3... As I said before, the aesthetics have been sacrificed. I know that. I just feel like it had to be done. However, the map really does look much, much better from inside the game. The part of the aesthetics that I sacrificed most were the ones on the outside of the containment zones. i.e. The parts of the map that you will never see while actually playing. Unfortunately in order to show how the map works I needed to take a lot of overview shots for the description, and they look god awful... You make a good point, looks do draw people to maps, and these pictures are never going to look very good. I gave up on this map being a hot download a long time ago. Honestly for the last infection map I made (zompound) I felt like I did a pretty good job of combining gameplay and aesthetics, and it still didn't fare very well with the downloads... I do wish that I had a theme, it was very hard, but maybe I should not have given up on that as easily. The overview shots look terrible, and it is going to scare a lot of people away. I just wanted it to play as well as I could possibly make it play. I wanted to do something that I have never seen done before, and I feel like I accomplished that to some degree. If for no other reason, I would suggest people downloading this map just to mess around with the teleporters. It is fun