Has anyone else struggled with keeping the sight lines of open areas pretty even for those who are using a jetpack? I'm working on a map that has a number of small to medium exterior open areas that take advantage of Forgeworld's beautiful vistas. The difficulty I'm having is in preventing anyone with a jetpack from being able to see the "back-side" of the set pieces... Besides building tall walls that hide the views or creatively concealing the "not so pretty" parts of the level by using large amounts of desperately needed objects, has anyone come up with ways of avoiding this?
I feel your pain. I often have to push myself to resist making my map pretty before it plays well. A very simple solution would be to use gametypes that do not include the jetpack as the option, but it sounds like jetpacks would still work gameplay-wise on your map. I think I understand what you're going for, but it'd be nice to have some specifics. Right now I'd suggest becoming friends with the soft kill boundaries.
No Jetpacks? But on a more serious note, add a soft kill pretty close to the top of the map to avoid Jetters from going high enough to view the 'not so pretty' area. Stand on the highest point in your map THAT YOU CAN REACH IN-GAME without a jetpack. Jet Pack straight up, then add a soft kill about half - 3/4 the height you could reach. Then even a Kill Area at maximum height.
Absolutely! Soft kill boundaries are my friend. As a specific example: I have a open area that is enclosed by fairly high walls that limit visibility for even those who are using a jetpack. However, there are a couple of ways (rock jumping) to get above the high walls with a jetpack. From this position you can see a whole mess of objects poking out of an interior space's geometry ("the ugly back-side)... I've got a soft kill boundary that prevents the player from staying up there too long, and in the critical sight line areas, I've set kill boundaries... I really dislike using kill boundaries in the sky though... In the same map, I have another open area that takes advantage of some views and cannot have high walls. I would rather not have to set kill boundaries around this area, but maybe that's really the best solution though... Related to this, how do people feel about kill boundaries surrounding maps? CombatGam3r: Thanks for the suggestion. I'll give that a whirl.
Soft kill barriers can keep jetpackers where you want then, but the problem of them shooting over cover is more difficult to solve. The best way I have found is to make all the cover taller. Don't about 2.5 times a players height should be enough to keep jetpackers from becoming overpowering, but still give them a small advantage. (All armor abilities should be advantagous in some way.)
In a word: strongly. Unless you have a map the for some reason you know for a fact cannot be escaped (i.e. a map that is hovering in the air, out in the water, or one that is completely enclosed by walls and the like), I would reccomend putting kill boundaries. In my experience, there are some people who just want to screw around and try to get out of the map, so placing kill zones in potential problem areas, or around the whole thing in general, is a good idea--better safe than sorry, in my opinion. I personally will, if the map is open enough that someone could screw around outside the map for too long given the ten-second soft zone, place a hard kill zone roughly three seconds of a run past the soft zone's limit. It's sort of my way of saying, "I gave you a warning that the end of the map was coming up, you ignored it, so you die earlier than you though. Cheers."
Rofl, so true On my maps I plan on placing at lease a soft safe zone encloseing my whole map, unless the map is boxed in, because even if your map is far away from land, jetpackers will make it their mission to escape your map.
You can make it look like your wall continues further than it really does by placing it at a 45 degree angle away from the viewer. By having something come to a point in the distance, it effectively makes it look like the structure continues, but is simply hidden around the corner. It's a great way to imply a barrier without actualling putting much there, use your kill zones to keep them from going so far they can actually see it from another angle. Examples: Spoiler I use this technique for Collapse on Red's side, if you download, take a look!
Someone may have touched on this but also ensure you place small soft kill zones covering all the rocks/structures they are using to get out of the map. then ensure they are big enough to discourage continuing. Then get a few friends into a custom game with the sole objective of getting out of the map using jetpacks etc... use their feedback to place more soft kill zones! That should sort it.
I think the consensus is to go ahead and use soft kill and kill boundaries, but to be careful with there placement and make sure to test the map thoroughly... As for forced perspective geometry, it can work in certain situations... The problem is they only look like their in perspective from a very limited area. Outside that area, they just look like weird-shaped objects. If I were using a "true" level builder where I had more control of the geometry itself, rather than the limited objects in Forge, this would be easier to accomplish. Thanks for the help everyone!