2v2

The more riskier the better. A player should have to know he is taking a chance if he chooses to go for a power weapon. They should be even between both teams' initial spawns. When I develop a basic layout, I think about power weapons during this process and what geometry I will have to alter to make a good power weapon location.

I remember you asking questions before about level design. Here's a good read:
Designing FPS Multiplayer Maps – Part 1 | "On Game Design"

 

not if the path up is obvious and the power weapon uses an initial or random drop so that it shows up on HUD... if it's not obvious how to get up, then yes what you say is true.

 

A map design should not be focused around one time played or first time played and I don't care for when people use that reference. Do you learn the complete layout and every weapon location from the first play through? Of course not. So why should you base anything off that?

The layout does need to be easy to understand and a player should be able to figure out how to get to a jump up location. If a power weapon is out of sight and over seen by first time players, they will learn eventually by catching the enemy team jumping to that location and acquiring that weapon.

A power weapon location needs to be risky. One way is a hard to get to location like a "jump up" location that requires you to focus strictly on the jump making you become "defenseless" and unaware of your surroundings, making the jump risky, but the reward is great. I did this on my Curb Stomp map as the jump up is dead center and very vulnerable to attack from so many directions. Plus the top area provided no extra cover. Many players died attempting to get the weapon, even when it wasn't even there sometimes.

The weapon can also be placed on the ground but in a vulnerable position that has long LoS, like on a vulnerable bridge. This is what I'm incorporating in my next map. A bunch of buildings and other locations overlook this bridge and once you make a run for a power weapon, there is no turning back once you do as you will not have enough time to seek cover.

Remember "The Pit?" The rocket launcher was in the hallway directly between both initial spawns. Players would 'hold the line' at the end of each hallway taking pop shots at each other until one team member would make a move for the rocket. This move was very risky, b/c once you commit, there's no turning back. Moving down the hallway made you very vulnerable but if you survived long enough you would quickly make waste of the other team with the rocket.

 

The jump up location has to be a disadvantage in every way besides obtaining the power weapon itself. If the jump up location provides height advantage and cover, then that is a reward in itself. If the jump up location provides no real advantage, it needs to be logical and not insanely hard to get there. In my curb stomp map, It's not that high off the ground but high enough that a player has to execute a skilled jump to get to it. If you're worrying about players not seeing it, put it in a spot where players can see the weapon from far off elevated positions. Then design a jump up route that is clearly visible but risky.

 

Well, I think you're getting into people's preferences on this. Power weapons of value should be contestable, and map hazards can be used to increase that contestability, but it's all a matter of degrees. I mean, I've seen some maps where people put drops on top of crates that require an extremely difficult jump to get to. I've found that it disrupts flow and turns the focal point from fighting each other for the drop into fighting the jump for it or just picking off players who try. On the other hand, I've seen PWs that were so easy to grab there was no contest and the focus of the gameplay turned toward countering the weapon instead of the players.

Personally, I like the way it has been done in MM for the most part. Generally you don't see any jump-only areas. Jumps just shave time off and give you the advantage. There are ramps there for newer players or players engaged in active combat.

Tac-jumps aren't required for a good map. They can however give a map more depth and variety. I think including some in every map is a good idea. Shaping the flow around them however can result in awkward chokepoints. I find balancing every jump with a ramp or vice-versa often helps.

 

If you do choose to incorporate tac jumps into your map, this is a big point to recognize. Don't make the jump impossible or take more than one or two steps.

Also, the jump will be more interesting if it's part of the map and not just a random crate you stuck somewhere to allow people to jump up.

 

Quite frankly, nobody can offer you a concrete answer because the aspect in question is entirely conditional to design in that there are no concrete positions in which powerful weaponry must be placed. It's really only necessary to consider the factors universal to level design (risk, contestability, etc.) in general when making the decision. That said, placing weaponry dead in the center is an entirely viable option, but one should not harbor the misconception that this is where they should always be placed nonetheless.

Regarding jumps, I personally think you hit it spot on in that they should solely be utilized as a method to break the intended flow while still upholding some significant risk. Although there are no concrete rules with level design, as Xzamplez would put it, utilizing jumps as the primary means of movement is something, in my opinion, to avoid when designing.

 

There are a lot of factors and no one way to do it. Here are some things I consider regarding power weapons on any map:

- If it's a neutral placement it should be as truly neutral as possible. Either the precise midpoint between the initial spawns with both teams having an equal shot to get to it, or in rare cases one team being slightly closer but the other having better lines of sight to defend the weapon.

- If it's a non-neutral placement it should of course be offset in an equivalent location for the other team with either another of the same weapon, or one that confers a similar level of advantage. You can only get away with handing one team a free power weapon if the other side has a big geometric advantage on an asymm map, and even then it's a risky choice that may result in a lot of lopsided games. And even non-neutral placements should encourage forward movement into the map, and not make it too easy for players to just grab the magic death-maker and then retreat into their cushy lair.

- The placement for weapons on map should not cater exclusively to new players but it shouldn't be an Easter egg hunt either. Generally it's a good choice to put power weapons in places players will be drawn to or through on their own: open middle areas of the map, key corridors and chokepoints. And whenever possible give the weapons a "forward" placement from the initial spawn, meaning players will encounter the weapon as they move forward in the direction suggested by how they spawn. Power weapons propped up against the back wall of the map, behind the initial spawn, is a no-no in my book.

- Risk is a good thing to add to a power weapon position. Some key ways of creating risk: location is very open; location is neutral and hotly-contested, and you expect to see a lot of traffic around it; a jump is required (though it shouldn't be TOO hard - you don't want only adept trick-jumpers to have a weapon that will turn the tide of the game regularly); location is hazardous due to the presence of fusion coils or proximity to a death pit; location is geographically non-advantageous and even life-threatening if you're caught there (which is why rockets are in a dead-end trench in both Ivory Tower/Reflection and High Ground, and at the end of a dead-end walkway on Boardwalk).

- Another good thing to add to a power weapon spot is positioning that takes away some of the weapon's natural advantage. Newer forgers have a tendency to stick shotguns in campy little cubbyholes and snipers in god-towers that can only be accessed from one direction and have a view of the entire map. It's better to do the opposite - or do what Bungie was more prone to do on their map designs, which was put the weapon NEAR a good location to use it, but still requiring some travel time and exposure, e.g. the sniper locations on Pinnacle - which aren't in the towers but proximate enough that you need to stick your neck out a bit before doing the obvious thing and running for high ground and cover with them.

- Finally, good weapon placements will promote (or at least not hurt) player movement and map flow, and in some cases the right weapon in the right spot can change how a map plays for the better. But at the same time, don't try to fix a broken design by sticking rockets in a corner of the room no one ever goes in. If your map needs work to get players to use more than 25% of it, do that work first with the geometry, not the weapons. Once you have a solid design, then you can use weapons as bits of gentle encouragement.

 

Keep power weapons in a central spot between the team spawns, both teams need to be able to get every power weapon just as easily as the other team, if you want to get it exact, time how long it takes for you to get to the weapon spawns from each team's spawn.
As for whether to put the power weapons out in the open, I'd say you should do that for certain weapons, but not all. For example, making the sniper spawn somewhere in the open discourages people from going to get it, but on the other hand it also encourages people to go to the open area, balancing out the map a bit if there's no other reason to go there.

Jump ups only break the flow if they're the only way to go, and even then you can handle them differently. There's a massive difference between a 0.5 meter, 1 meter or 5 meter jump up, and you can also break them up into smaller jumps. I usually make sure that having to jump up something is always a choice, I don't want to force people to jump, although it would be faster in some cases.

 

A factor to consider when building jump-only areas is controller layout. If you're forging with bumper-jumper, jumps will seem far less challenging. I play boxer. Jumping 'costs' more for me because I have to take my thumb off my right stick to do it. Difficult tac-jumps are less attractive to me as they leave me at a greater disadvantage. Jumps like Simplex's mid are a good example of how to selectively punish particular controller layouts. Very open, easy to miss, and brutally harsh once you miss them. Having accurate aim during that jump is usually extremely important, because you're generally staring down at least one BR barrel. Jumps like the one up to snipe on Sanctuary are more boxer-friendly because you have height variation as cover and more structural cover beside and behind you.

 

I believe that the power weapons should be out in the open so that players will have to really fight for it. Not just accomplish a few tricky jumps but actually use their skill in gunfights to get the power weapon.

 

Certainly trick jumps leading to power weapons isn't a bad thing (Sniper on Lockout). Something helpful; imagine the power weapon in its current spot with none of the jumps ups to it. Is that weapon balanced / accesible? Having the answer be yes will help you when dealing with Jetpack being OP in gametypes with it and will help players on your map while the map meta is developing. Although the optimal goal is to have everything balanced when map metagame knowledge is complete for every player, no one's going to reach that completed meta when a previous stage is entirely broken.

BTW, saw that newly posted map of yours. Looks good.


EDIT: Also, super open power weapons is somewhat of a silly idea. Making it difficult to get the weapon is good (above Pit example), but you shouldn't be left in a terrible position once you get the weapon, especially so in Halo 4 because it'll despawn very quickly.