Aihab - A linear progression infection map by [user]Berb[/user] and [user]Confused Flamingo[/user] Hey guys, Mingo and I would like to present to you our recent co-forge infection project, currently under the awesome temp. name Aihab. When Aihab was being conceived, both myself and Mingo decided it was a good idea to explore linear progression infection, an area outside of our comfort zones of Invasion and 1v1 respectively. Because we were essentially completely new nubs to infection forging, we browsed and learned from many other linear progressions out there, looking at what they did right and wrong, and how we could create a fun, immersive experience for all players. To try and accomplish this, we focused on two main areas in which linear progressions greatly differ, where proper designs separate from corridors of coliseum walls. These areas are The Experience Playing as Infected and The End of the Map / Objective. I'll explain a little more after these teaser pics: An overview of the zombie's 'raw spawn' with the teleporter hub. The human initial is in the background. Viewing the start of the game as an initial zombie. Protip: Watch your back when entering risky weapon locations. A view of the first and only holdout point on the map. The final stretch - Zombies come from everywhere. Only true heroes make it through here. Now if you're reading this part you must be interested in the two areas previously mentioned that we tried to focus the map on. The Experience Playing as Infected - After looking through maps, we saw one thing that became very common: playing as a human was fun in pretty much all, but only in the best maps was playing as a zombie also a really enjoyable experience. With this in mind, we laid out the map with plenty of space for only zombies to move around in, space to freely roam and utilize their advantageous movement traits. These spaces also doubled up as very efficient zombie spawns, giving zombies plenty of movement options so as to not constrict them (which causes the boring zombie slaughters). If you guys want to see the full map, just send me a message here or on the xbox. Thanks for viewing, and be sure to come to BIOC on Sunday where this map will be tested. - Lots of Love, Berb and Mingo
Awesome guys, I love how heart-poundingly scary it is to play as a human, especially in the damn holdout courtyard. Seriously, in most Linear Infection maps you are focussed on killing zombs, but here you are just plain scared to death. I'm excited to see how the map progresses. And you nailed one thing perfectly: playing as a zombie is incredibly fun.
I'm not a big fan of infection, but this looks great. invite to to a test if you need more people, cannot say much more.
Thanks Shoe, it's good to hear that all of the work put into making the zombie experience enjoyable has paid off. With humans, we have focused on rewarding them for getting to the end, instead of for killing zombs. This defensive attitude with the humans actually helped us a lot with creating good zomb areas and creating that scary mood. Great, can't wait to test.
Can't wait to check it out in BIOC! I love how you used the quote from the FotI map, it saves you a lot of time indeed. I'm not exactly sure how I should picture the advanced zombie movements, I'm guessing they just have a ton of different ways to approach the humans and/or jump down on them. Like I said, can't wait to see it myself.
And only if there are a lot of them. Going through there alone with 15 zombies behind you is suicide as I learned in the first game on this. I think one of the greatest things about this is that it plays similar to a normal competitive game with the significant movement and minimal camping. Normally it's much more difficult to translate from a competitive game to infection.
This was a lot of fun and much different than other infection maps I've played for sure, it actually remained fun while playing as a zombie and a human not once did I feel like I was just slaughtered as a zombie due to being able to pick and choose the path I would take to the humans. While playing as a human you never really know what to expect, the zombies are capable from coming from any and all directions and the tank zombie is just a vicious beast that you must kill quickly and as a team otherwise you end up as the last man standing as I did I believe 3 times . Being the last man standing was a blast it felt like you were swarmed from every direction no matter how many zombies you managed to kill, your adrenaline was constantly pumping. All in all the map plays fantastically, and for the most part seemed to be a enjoyable learning experience for you both as forgers and for the players who got the chance to test the map, everyone I tested it with was a legit forger and experienced player and if you can make them very satisfied with the experience thats when you know you have made something special.
Not a complex one: Pre: Infection breaks out in unspecified city. Officials decide to evacuate the uninfected population and then destroy said city. A: Military orders evacuation, and begins flying the humans out in groups. B: One of the aircraft has an internal failure. The passengers realize this and contact the military via the craft's radio. C: They are informed that they will be unable to evacuate using this particular aircraft, and that their best chance of survival is to crash land at a military outpost equipped with a fallout bunker. D: *Crash* Keep in mind that this is all subject to change.
The zombie movement traits are just the same as any other infection game. By advantageous I mean that in infection zombies have better movement traits than humans, and to counter humans have better damage and health settings. What we are making sure we're doing is allowing the zombies to properly use these movement traits so as they are not thoughtlessly throwing their bodies into a human death machine. Hope to see you in the test game! That's great to hear, because a lot of serious brainstorming and planning went into how we were going to create the map with a very intense, almost competitive-style infection. We wanted to sort of separate ourselves from the masses of nubs who make their own 'best infactun map evur lol' without much thought. Sort of... Thanks for the feedback! I can't speak for Mingo, but for me it has definitely been a great forging experience, especially because of how well we managed to work together and get stuff done in the end. I'm glad to know everyone was generally happy with the map, even though it was only the second test. When and if the map get fully posted, the backstory will be attached. EDIT: Mingo gave a rough explanation
This map looks worse somehow than when I saw it a few days ago. The beautiful memory of the previous iteration still remains fresh in my mind however, the door that looked like it locked, the armored goose, the gazebo...
****ing lol. I'm afraid the gazebo and armoured goose couldn't stay because they were sort of little shenanigans in the middle courtyard while I was trying to forge. Plus they took up a **** ton of budget. The door is still there, it's just unlocked.
I'm not going to lie, this map is amazing! I had a great time when we played on it a couple of times together this week, Berb. At first people were being a bit suspicious when you mentioned that humans wouldn't get points for kills, but it turned out great and I don't think there was anyone left complaining after two rounds of playing. The fact that we all wanted to survive and thus receiving our well deserved points, as well as the fact that we simply couldn't do it on our own, caused really cool teamwork to occur. We divived the power weapons, we put guards at all important locations at the holdout part of the map, we teamshot the green zombie as soon as he approached one of us, and we really looked after each other in general during all the rounds. THIS is what I like to see in Infection. Now I also understand what you meant with the improved zombie movement possibilities, and I'm thinking about trying to use it in my own maps too if the budget allows it, because indeed it is a lot more fun for the zombies to actually be able to use tactics rather than running at the humans like chickens without heads and dying over and over again. I remember advicing you to consider changing the damage done by the fat zombie from one hit to two hits instead, but on second thoughts, I would like to take back what I said. Because I realized that the reason everyone started peeing their pants the moment the green one was coming towards them, was because in fact he was that strong and scary, and could easily kill them unless they were saved by the other survivors. It gives you the same feeling as in Left 4 Dead when a Hunter or Smoker gets its hands on you: you are in a desperate situation and when another humans saves you out of your perilous position, you get a great sense of relief and gratitude. Which, in my opinion, is essential in Infection forging and especially in Linear maps: The feeling of unity among the humans, realizing that they are in this screwed up situation together. (I'll cover that in my upcoming Infection guide too.) I had a few "holy crap" moments on this map myself when I got really scared by a suddenly appearing zombie. This is the one I remember best: Spoiler Also, there were a few moments where we all had to change pants afterwards: At some point, we closed the door at the end, thinking we were finally safe from the horde, only to find out that a green zombie (!) had managed to get in the room the second the crate dropped down. He immediately killed two of our guys, being The 0micron and me. We were really unlucky that game as you'll find out in a second. Spoiler [mouseoverimage=http://img193.imageshack.us/img193/1586/aihab8.jpg]http://img846.imageshack.us/img846/9103/aihab6.jpg[/mouseoverimage] The zombie killing me, even though I managed to block his first charge. [mouseoverimage=http://img831.imageshack.us/img831/4251/aihab9.jpg]http://img254.imageshack.us/img254/8007/aihab5.jpg[/mouseoverimage] Because in the last round, when we finally made it to the end without having lost any numbers yet, I backed up 0micron as he slowly carried his turret to the door. We didn't want to take any risks so we decided to keep the turret, and I was dumb/gentle enough to stay with him until we all made it in the room, under the guise of "we're in this together". Wish I had not done that, because vajra3000 closed the door when we were about to enter the saferoom (he probably didn't realize we were not there yet, or it was just a dickish move of course ). Spoiler [mouseoverimage=http://img684.imageshack.us/img684/8639/aihab13.jpg]http://img560.imageshack.us/img560/4665/aihab11.jpg[/mouseoverimage] Guess what happened next... Spoiler Spoiler The remaining humans, celebrating their survival and mourning for our deaths *ahem* But the coolest moments in the games for me personally, were not these scary meet ups with the zombies, but the ultimate examples of camaraderie and the willingness to risk your own lives for the sake of your fellow survivors. There were three moments, all in the same game, where luckily I was able to save another human, and in two of the cases his entire life even depended on it. This gave not only him, but also me a remarkable moment of joyfullness as we screamed in our microphones and couldn't believe what just happened. The first one was when I saved SpartanTMartin from an assassination by a zombie dropping down from above, thanks to a quick reflex of mine. It's one of those moments where you only realize what just happened after it has already happened, because it took place in a split second and I don't know how I was ever able to save him. I do know he was really lucky that I was at the right place at the exact right time, considering the fact that you can't sprint in this game. Spoiler But this one got me really, really, REALLY pumped when it happened. The green zombie entered the battlefield. SomeRandomDudez and The 0micron, who as always functioned as our turret guy, were laying behind a bit because of the weight of the turret. The green one spotted them, and realized that these were some easy targets. Yummy. SomeRandomDudez got his brains eaten, and 0micron knew he was next. (Click if you don't or do get the reference Spoiler A Scene From Troll 2 - YouTube If not for me and another bud!! While he was taking away the zombie's shields with his AR, I pulled out my sniper, aimed for the chest (normally I go for the head but it's a compliment that on this map I don't have time to do that) and sent this zombie to the moon, saving 0micron from a painful encounter with his reaching hands. You should've seen it from 0micron's perspective though. The zombie LITERALLY charged at him and he knew for sure he was a dead man, but surprisingly enough he was not! We almost died laughing and that was by far the most intense moment in the game for me. It was crazy! Spoiler The second it happened. A better look at the bullet trajectory. What it looked like from my perspective, and I can tell you it felt like crazy when it turned out that I actually killed the zombie and saved Omi. In this final one, I also received the Bulltrue medal, but I found out in Theater that the attacked guy would've survived this extra hit anyway. Although of course it did help him out because you need every single bar of health in this game. Spoiler You get the point, this map is awesome. I can't wait to see it finished and released so we can get it in the Database immediately! Great job.
I had more fun on Aihab than on any other infection game before, excellent work. i still strongly think that a slightly enlarged rack atrium and a side path aside from the locked door would be very beneficial though. I would be interested to look it this in forge with you guys, to see exactly how or if this can be done. Overall I had a great time, but the punishment of the zombies just seems a hair too much in that zone.
I remeber playing this last night.... Rorak was a *****. you definatley had to watch each others backs to make it, if you made it, it got really hectic, but fun. good job guys.
Wow! This map looks awesome. I really want to try it out, also, invite me to a testing lobby, I'll be glad to help! I'll make sure to play it in a BIOC lobby!
I wanna thank you so much for your kind words and encouragement; it means more than you might realize. :'] Everything was on plan. We WANTED humans to HAVE to watch each others' backs: Although Aihab was largely inspired by the concepts used in Rifte Gifle's map (what we considered to be the best lin/prog/inf map at the time), we wanted there to be an element of team skill involved. In The Sewers, 90% of the time, somebody would make it, regardless of how much they watched out for their team. Here, if you lose more than three guys on the initial run, the holdout will have to be flawless for anyone to survive (something very difficult to do). The final area is meant to whittle down the surviving population and stop humans in their tracks if they don't have a sizable group. We did NOT want teams that weren't working together to make it; we wanted it to be skill based (something a little new in the realm of lin progs). Because of our fidgty goal (when doing something that hasn't been done before, you're bound to run into these inherent issures now and again). We ended up with a map in which NO humans could make it. Lots of tweaking, failed versions, hair tearing out, me falling asleep as we worked, and conceptualizing later, we got what we were looking for: Infection with a skill gap. It's still a challenge for the humans to make it (some zombies are VERY skilled at the game as well, because there are plenty of unique strategies). In lieu of last night's fantastic testing, we added two more magnums to the begining area (so up to a third of the humans can have power weapons to watch the rest with). And REM, I don't know if you've even seen the (newest) version with the expanded endzone; I want you to check that out, too! :] We did so much research to bring this to fruition. Studying all of the existing lin progs, finding out what made the good maps good and the bad ones bad. Working towards concepts proven to add strategy and enjoyment for both sides: Rooftop/selection dropdown zombie roots rather than chokepoint ones, stealth rewards systems, the importance of watching each others' backs, areas all meant to achieve certain roles, countless tank strategies and human strategies for defeating the tank (the game changer), a saferoom that humans HAVE to go for to survive, ect, ect, ect. I cannot describe how happy I am that we've managed to pull this off.
I know this. I've been involved with Infection enough to be able to tell. And no problem for giving you that long ass post (and by doing so apparently releasing another chain of comments), I meant every word and I'll make sure to check out the final thread whenever you guys post it in the forums. Feel free to use the pictures in your thread to give examples of how people like me experience this map. The map can function as a great example to many Infection forgers, including me. I absolutely love the focus on teamwork as I like doing the same in my own maps. (An already released example is LSIALM.) In my opinion, teamwork is what makes Infection. What's more, I actually have been working on a new concept encouraging this which I will release in a preview soon, and I'll be using that concept in all of my Linear maps from now on. (I couldn't do it in Favela Run though because of the budget restrictions.) But especially your point system has given me even more and new insights on how to encourage teamwork and I already decided to use it in (yet) another map I'm working on with [user]Elliot[/user], along with the cool zombie spawn positions feature to set this theme we're going for. I won't reveal anything yet though, we'll do that by the time the map is wrapping up and ready for a preview. I don't know, last time I played the map was last Wednesday or Thursday, maybe if you look at the pictures in my post you'll be able to tell. If not, I can't wait to test it in BIOC in 45 minutes!!