Forging Theory: Forging A Plan

Forging Theory
Forging a Plan

By: AZN FTW
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Map Selection Recap

“Maps encourage boldness. They're like cryptic love letters. They make anything seem possible.” -- Mark Jenkins

Alright let's recap what we covered last time. Many may have taken it as a strike down on Foundry, but it is so much more than that. Each of those reasons for map selection apply to Foundry as well as any other map; this includes future maps like Sandbox. Geometry, Scenery, Coloring, Objects, and Unique Map Elements can be found in Foundry as much as any other. However, the Foundry has been overused for all of those elements. Let's take a closer look at Foundry and analyze it as a review:

Geometry - Simple, symmetrical, and elegant... offering a flat surface to work with that no other map allows. Remember this snippet?

Trying to remake flat ground on any other map is pointless, save your resources.


Scenery - It's got a nice little warehouse feel to it. Maybe you are making a factory, or a warehouse and you want to utilize the feel of the scenery to your advantage.

I changed up this snippet a little bit to cover EVERY map and not exclude Foundry. Sometimes you want that dank and dirty air.


Coloring - Sure the feel of Foundry is now the norm, but if you walk away from it and return, you will regain those feelings that Foundry first gave you when you first entered it.

The green on Foundry may be kinda bland now, but it is unique nonetheless.


Objects - Foundry's objects are appropriate for the scenery... the biggest thing that stands out on Foundry compared to other maps are the Walls. Without those walls we forgers, would be nothing.

Sometimes, walls are what you need for the map you are making. Maybe you are making a building. Well here you go... says Foundry.


Unique Map Elements - Foundry is definitely unique for the fact that it is a wide space to play with that is flat and easy to work with. You can't get that anywhere else now, can you?

Ok, so this doesn't apply to Foundry much anymore. However this doesn't change the fact that there may be something in Foundry not done yet... you've just gotta look closely.


Map Purpose

"To forget one's purpose is the commonest form of stupidity." -- Friedrich Nietzsche

Alright... you have now selected your map, be it the gorgeous Valhalla, the freezing Avalanche, or the flexible Foundry. Now ask yourself... what did you make this map for? You can have different types of goals for your map, so what you need to do is make sure you have them completely spelled out. Here are some examples of goals:

• Make the map extremely suitable for a particular gametype; as simple as FFA slayer, or as complex as a mini-game
• Do something no one has ever tried before; utilize a unique map element or a new technique
• Replicate something that was iconic in another game/movie/etc; like Mario Brothers, Resident Evil, The Eifel Tower, etc...
• Create a particular feel for a map; set confusion, or fear, or excitement

Those are just several types of goals you may have for your map. Make sure your purpose is spelled out. This is your foundation... this is what will set the base for your soon to be featured map. Your purpose is the most important part of your map. Here is the first snippet of this week:

Ahhh... great Convoy Tunnel by TrueDarkFusion, TheYavimayan, and rusty eagle. A great example of a map with a purpose. Their goal was to recreate a classic tunnel chase scene in the zombie movie 28 Days Later. For those that have played this map, they know that it takes teamwork and heavy weaponry to make it through the tunnel... an aspect well captured by this non-foundry map.



The Estate by Asper49, myself, Reap3r 13, ACTIONJACKSON54, and rusty eagle, was made as a residential building that would be able to be infiltrated in different areas and provide many objects to where one may be able to walk around undetected if done properly. And it came along with a very nice theme to it as well.


Aesthetic Theme

"Design is not just what it looks like and feels like. Design is how it works." -- Steve Jobs

So this one is pretty simple and goes hand in hand with the Aesthetically appropriate objects. Pick a theme and stick to it. For every object that you place that doesn't support the theme, you pull away from its natural feel. A map should always feel natural. Anytime that a player notices the differences in the map in the middle of combat... you know you did something wrong. For example... placing a shield door in the middle of a forest. It may seem stupid to think about at first, but people do it. Pick a theme and follow through with it.

Look back up at those two pictures... they feel perfectly natural in their particular setting. If there was an energy door on Convoy (which there is, but let's not talk about that... lol) it would feel out of place. However, as part of the Estate, it gives a nice new Plasma TV feel to it. This includes adding small aesthetics that actually effect gameplay, like the use of barrels and crates. Again, if someone notices outright that there was a crate there in the middle of combat, instead of just naturally using it, then the crate probably doesn't belong. For examples of this, check out the Labyrinth. The barrels are used just right in the right areas...


Rough Drafting

"A goal without a plan is just a wish."
-- Antoine de Saint-Exupery

So one of the long forgotten steps of forging, and probably the most crucial step, is rough drafting/planning. Without a plan one runs into problems easy. One must go forth and measure out your map as well as estimate resources. Getting a feel for the height of ceilings and the width of walls, as well as planning out your geomerges is crucial to say the least. Here's an example of one of my older drafts w/ a snippet of course:

I had this idea originally from Longest/Elongation. This is a more scrunched and vertical version of it. The only thing I never really liked is the fact that it was all jumping and there was no smooth path between the top and the bottom, that is a whole 'nother theory on its own though which will be covered next week. If you look carefully, I setup a general layout as well as test the height of each of the bridges. Those bridges are at perfect crouch jump height (for those that don't know that is about a door high). There were going to be ramps setup towards a center platform (one that would be great for KOTH) and there would be connecting ramps linking the two sides and the center. By rough drafting I am able to properly place all my bridges and guestimate the approximate amount of resources I will need. Obviously I would need to block off the edges, but I did that planning later on.

Here's a post by Lieutenant Dan that is a good example of what you could do offline: Corridors [Sketchup]


Major Components

"Architecture is one part science, one part craft and two parts art." -- David Rutten

Alright this is the real meat of the article. This will be the setup for next week's article on Path Manipulation. I will probably cover Detours and Incentives as well depending on the article's size. Before you learn about path manipulation however, you need to know the objects that the paths are traveling between. These are the major components of your map; spawns, meeting areas, landmarks, power weapons, objectives, etc.

Everything else on the map is there to either help or hinder your path. That brings me to a good point that Insane54 brought up to me. As he states, there are many aesthetic objects on maps that serve no purpose in most of the recently posted maps. Every object should first and foremost be able to be utilized for a mechanical purpose. There are many different reasons that something could be used for; be it as a step up to the next level and to jump on, or as a landmark so that one may know where they are, or even as an obstacle. You should be able to ALWAYS explain why an object is there. If you can't then there is something wrong.

Geez Insane... always dragging me off-topic. Lol... however that is a very important snippet, don't forget it. When I start criticizing maps you better have a good explanation for everything when I ask. Not to be picky or anything. Anyways, we will start by describing the different types of Major Components that can make up your map. Always keep in mind your Map's Purpose when placing these components. Your map can play completely differently based on where those parts are. Each type of Major component will get their own article, but right now here is your overview.

First things first, obviously, is your objective. Be it flags, bombs, balls, goals, return points etc. your objective is a major part of your map and should never be placed carelessly (as with every other part). Based off of your map goal it can be placed as the center of all paths and attention to promote a sense of adaption with constantly shifting roles of play (offense/defense) like here on KOTH Island (it was never posted) by Cottage and myself:



Or in contrast to that you may setup your objective in an easily defendable position to promote a focus in one style of play (offensive/defensive yet again). Obviously the gametype itself lends to control of play, but think about it. If in the above example that was the defender's flag the game would start with the defenders defending. But if and when the attackers gain control of the area, they defend it so that they may score with additional ease and the defenders go on an offensive role. It's all about placement. Placement also determines how often roles shift and for how long. Here's an example of an easily defendable flag that takes a good offense to overcome the defense and focuses on long lasting roles for the appropriate teams. This is from Octodeath's Octoplex which has been accepted for the Team Objective hopper in matchmaking.



Now the next component we will cover, and an article that people are getting very anxious for is the topic of spawning. Spawn points and spawn areas are a major part in gameplay. Most components remain static and never change, however spawns are a good example of something that must take "variable change" into account (I just watched 21 a second time this weekend... great movie for those that haven't seen it). Don't get me wrong, everything in a game must react to change, just spawns more so than others. I won't get too complex with this topic because I've gotta have something to write for that article.

Now that's just about spawns in general. For this article you need to worry about the spawn areas as a major part of planning a map. You must know where you want you teams to spawn, where you want a high concentration of combat, and where you want safe areas to be. Just know where you want your teams for now and where the huge open areas will be, because spawn areas are important in open areas. Here's some team spawns for Mario Tower... again by Cottage and myself.



When deciding for teams, always keep in mind distance to objective components. This is important for keeping things balanced or off balanced (again based on your map goals). For Mario Tower we wanted symmetrical gametypes to result in equal travel time for all teams, however for asymmetrical, defenders spawn closer or have a means to get there faster. Here's a picture of varying distances from starting spawns to meeting areas.



These are the team spawns for Boss Battle on The Last Level by Asper49 and myself. These spots are different distances from their meeting area. Which is the next type of component that must be taken into consideration for placement. Knowing where and setting up where teams/players meet will allow you to control the flow of combat much better. You don't want things to get out of control now do you? The purpose of a map is to make people play within your means. They can do what they want, within the limitations you give them. Here's the meeting area for Boss Battle:



All the heroes get to the wall of crates before the boss gets the chance to blow it up to create a memorable opening battle scene. As I stated you can control what happens in a meeting area. You can add support for one side, or you can even things out and add things to change the flow of battle. Here is the vehicle meeting area for Side Longest by Asper49, myself, and Lone Diety:



Here we control the flow of combat with turrets supported on each side as well as a grav lift and a spartan laser on the mountain to create some good conflict in this area. Speaking of the mountain on Side Longest, that brings me to my final major component for now... Landmarks. Landmarks are important for players to know where they are and what is accessible to them. They also split up the map in sections that can be easily distinguished allowing for tactical play. Here are some of the landmarks on Side Longest.



Landmarks are a good place to layout power weapons and make your map unique. As with all other major components, placement of these is crucial. Landmarks are also a good way to show off your aesthetic skills for all you intermergers out there. And finally for the last example, the only landmark on The Labyrinth by Asper49, Titmar, BOSS SAVAGE, and myself... the Sniper Tower:




Conclusion

"Thou arnt finished..." -- oWNo Beebo

Alright peepz I'm running out of time... I gotta head to work. It looks like I'll just start posting this every Monday morning for something to take up your day at school. I'll spend my Sunday making it good for you. Look forward to next week, where I cover Path Manipulation... a key theory for competitive maps. Post your comments yet again and spread the word. We all want to have fun custom games to play, right? Laterz foolz...

AZN OUT!!!

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Next: Path Manipulation >>​

 

Aesthetics are considered a mechanic of the map. My point is that you should have a good reason to have everything that you do on a map. It's like trying to put a building a skyscraper in the middle of a wasteland. If you answer was that it looks cool, then that isn't a good purpose. However you can have a reason like "It was to emphasize the feel of the wasteland taking over the city. It adds to the theme of the map." To have a purpose is to be able to fulfill your goals for the map, either aesthetic or mechanical. If your theme is a treehouse you wouldn't have a bunch of energy doors for looks.. it takes away from the purpose of the map. Unless the purpose is to have a highly technical treehouse like "The Kids Next Door"... then you have to make everything else match that purpose to. You get what I'm saying? Having an aesthetic theme is as much of a purpose as having a gameplay setup...

I'm not downing aesthetics, I'm just pointing out not to put things where they don't belong... without a purpose... please reply back with what you think... I may cover this in more detail in the recap of my next article if it is too ambiguous. I encourage the article criticism and discussion, it helps the article grow and the community better itself... I appreciate your comments everyone. Thanks for the support and spread the word to all your friends...

 

Btw... thank you for the Article Name... definitely very fitting... YOU ROCK!!! lol... and you don't have to draw out maps. If you can do them in your head well then that works too... I just through together a rough draft like the one shown... it works pretty well.

I've been looking through some of the other level design guides (MLGPro, quake, etc...) and seeing how the other theorists are explaining their topics, and seeing if I can include something that they don't have. It seems proper spawning theory is still kind of a mystery, so I plan to cover that after "Path Manipulation".

Keep up the comments I'm enjoying seeing what I can do to help better the community...

 

I should be ready Monday morning next week, as with all the other ones... I'm thinking about doing a gametype creation special edition article... anyone up for that?

 

I'm just wondering if it was worth diverting from the standard timeline to discuss some basic tricks to creating fun unique gametypes. I would probably post it in the middle of the week or somethin... in addition to that week's article... I could do a bunch of different special additions... like eventually I'll put together all the snippets to create a tricks of the trade kinda guide... as well as cover individual weapon theory and whatnot... or eventually a map critique applying all the theories to analyze a map that the community wants me to critique... whatevs... it's up to you guys... the article is for your benefit, ask and you shall recieve... lol