Avenue (Beta) Download from: Sn1p3r C "Every Marine may serve a singular role in a fireteam, but we expect a bit more from you Spartans." -Commander Musa Well, here it is, my first actual WIP post on Forgehub! Despite having an account since May of 2008, this will mark the first time I've ever been happy enough with my work to get it out there. Recent Updates (April 1st): Spoiler Check other post... 18,000 character limit prevents me from telling you more Screenshots: Spoiler An overview - A Lane goes down the center, B Lane is on the left, a C lane goes right, to the DMR House. A look toward B Lane and the Scattershot (not visible from this angle) Finally, a look back at Red base, and the awesome gear wall Randy 355 cooked up for me. Not shown here is B Lane and Scattershot, since they don't photograph well. Video Fly-Through: Spoiler A quick fly through so you can get your head around the layout without downloading. The UCC video link at the bottom has some first-person game footage if you rewind the video to ~2:00 minutes. Overview: Avenue is a symmetrical breakout map that tries to embody the idea of lane-based gameplay. I really tried to push the idea of each spawn point creating a "role," something like Top Lane in league of legends. Flexibility for players to change lanes/roles is still there, but the teams that play to their assigned roles will have an advantage. Roles are randomized every round since all the spawn points have the same order, meaning truly competitive players will need to proficient in all the roles. I'll get more into my design behind this when I post the theory this weekend. Avenue supports up to 16 players, though it is designed for the traditional competitive 4v4 experience. So far, it's only been seen by my fellow Creative Force forgers, and anyone unfortunate enough to attend Sweaty Hour or Duke After Dark playtests while I'm in the lobby =P Big thanks to Randy 355 for the aesthetics... he definitely turned the blockout into something beautiful. Theory: My vision for Avenue was a Breakout map that touched the MOBA space by bringing in the idea of players having a defined lane/role each round. The design goals of Avenue are: Goal #1: "Classic" Breakout - Tight, lane-based gameplay Goal #2: Learning depth - individuals can't "just play quarterback" on a comp team Goal #3: Without sacrificing #1, make the map enjoyable to casual/non-Breakout players Expanding the spoiler will let you see more on the design goals and what I tried to do to reach them. I try to explain what I hoped to accomplish, and if you get some playtests in, I'd love to hear where the gameplay falls short of the intention. Spoiler Goal #1 "Classic" Breakout - Tight, lane based gameplay. Map styles The Community Breakout playlist added a lot of maps that that changed the way Breakout felt. Some of them were in the "classic" style, like Havoc, Pylon, Epicenter, and Apparition. Others changed the way Breakout felt, Highrise, forged by Randy 355, was probably the biggest change from the Breakout feel, but Overpass, Absolute and, to some extent, Canal also departed from the Classic Breakout formula in some way. Although these maps were well received, they changed the feel of Breakout significantly... other a few areas on Canal and Absolute, I felt like I never got a chance to use my SMG. The way the sightlines were constructed were comfortable, but they placed a heavy emphasis on headshotting from a distance. I like these new style maps, but Highrise and Overpass especially do not capture the same feel as the 343 originals. I'll get back to them in Goal #3, but I'm definitely of the opinion that "classic" Breakout has a lot of unexplored potential. What is "classic" Breakout?: Going for the classic Breakout feel set my direction on size and general layout. "Lane-based" gameplay has been put forward as a hallmark of classic Breakout, but even the 343 maps don't have strong identification of lanes. Crossfire and Gambol have the most, but Crossfire is dominated by the BR towers on both sides and Gambol becomes a binary fight over camo. For Avenue, I wanted to expand on the lane idea, even going so far as to designate them 1,2,3,4 or A,B, and C. Making Lanes Work I think lane-oriented maps avoid sprawling isolation when they push players toward each other, which lead to my tapering of the lanes in the center. In League of Legends, a key concept to early in the game is "winning lane," i.e, defeating your lane opponent early on and giving your team the advantage for the late game. This materializes in Avenue by having each lane's midpoint as a power position. Lane C gives you the DMR and a high position to use it. Lane B gives you the scattershot and/or a powerful sightline into the enemy's field. Finally, because Lane A passes through the low center of the map, turning it into a power position is difficult. However, you do earn control of the flag, which lets your team determine the pace of the gameplay if you can hold it. In order to reward team communication like callouts and allow shifts in team strategy, I added "bailouts" before the contact point in each lane. Lane C can go to the main contact point through House... or it can go to A and pick up the Railgun. Lane A can go the main contact point through Mid, or it can take the Bolt-shot cut-through to the Scattershot room. Lane B can go to the main contact point on Platform, or it can take the high wall to BR. The "bailouts" are meant to let teams shuffle their strategies - overloading on a given lane, moving their battle rifle to another location, etc. But they also (try to) open up cross-lane sightlines, meaning teams can roll their advantage from one lane to another. Sizing The last piece of the classic Breakout feel I want to touch on is tight sizing. It's been stated many times that Breakout is supposed to emulate the feel of speed ball (paintball). I'm not much of a paintballer, but close quarters, teamwork, and quickly-resolved rounds seem to be the desired feel. (This is why Altitude feels so grindy compared to maps like Trench and Crossfire.) Although it's not strictly necessary to constrict the size of your classic Breakout map - Havoc and Apparition both have that classic feel yet maintain some pretty long sightlines - I think it's a good rule of thumb to start with a size that is either short, narrow, or both. Each configuration brings it's own problems. A narrow map, like Trident, can feel very isolated and have a messy cleanup phase as players struggle to get visibility between the blocky geometry after the initial contact. A short map, like Crossfire, runs the risk of letting the BR and early nade spam dominate a round. And small maps that aren't segmented properly can feel like there's no room for strategy, a criticism that Epicenter draws from the competitive crowd. For Avenue, I settled on a narrow but long map for a couple reasons. A narrow map with the right amount of crossover between lanes enabled the cross-lane gameplay using the pistol that is so important to rewarding teamwork in a classic Breakout map. Assuming you open enough sightlines, the close distance actually helps in this regard. Also, constricting one of the dimensions made it easier to fit close-quarter spaces into the design where the SMG would be a viable choice, something that I felt otherwise great maps like Canal and Havoc left out. Finally, having a long map (hopefully) makes a long range grenade spam less effective - I think it's a better experience when players use their frags tactically, rather than lobbing them and hoping for a kill. I also cut down on the number of grenades on the map to punish players that decide to try their hand at the frag lottery. Goal #2: Learning depth - individuals can't "just play quarterback" on a comp team Breakout maps, classic or not, have a problem. Namely, there's a lot less to them than Core maps. Less playspace, shorter game rounds... it makes them somewhat easier to design for, but it creates the problem that Breakout maps have the potential to become stale faster than Core maps. Here's a video from Unyshek on the "perfect game" from the Beta.. It's a fascinating video, where Unyshek breaks down the strategy used by his team on Trench to get an Immortal for the whole team. I'm a big fan of trying to reverse engineer competitive strategies to see what map components are needed to enable them. If you don't have time to watch it, the behavior I want to highlight is that Unyshek does the same thing every single time: Round 1 - 30 seconds - "I have a set role..." Round 2 - 1:30 seconds - "I'm going to go back up on my platform and do the exact same thing..." Round 3 - 3:30 seconds - He doesn't explain why he's jumping on the platform this time. Unyshek only starts narrating when the action starts, as it's clear what his role is in this strategy. Round 4 - 4:20 seconds - Once again, no narration here except for him executing the strategy. Round 5 - 4:50 seconds - "You don't mess with a perfect strategy..." (Unyshek does the meercat role again) Variety and Strategic Depth The meercat strategy is both great, but also problematic. It's great because Trench is enabling his team to utilize a strategy, a setup, and respond to the other team. Even better, the strategy that Trench enables is flexible - Depending on what Unyshek sees, he'll give a callout and his teammates will respond. This allows a meta-game to develop, and is the key to Halo maps in general being successful long-term. Like chess, if you play it a thousand times, the variety ultimately comes from the strategy your opponent uses. We can (and should) take steps, however, to provide a learning curve for our Halo maps. In Core maps, we can lengthen the time it takes to get a map to the point where it relies purely on opponents for novelty by adding in things like skill jumps, shortcuts, and visual easter eggs. Since Breakout maps typically have less playable space, there are naturally less spaces to add these. Lanes This is where my non-traditional spawns come in. Namely, the spawns I have launch a player into a specific lane. And, because of the power positions being in the middle of the map, the time-delay of changing more than one lane means players are pretty much required to play the role they are assigned at the competitive levels. At lower skill levels, the time delay won't make a huge difference, but I try to balance gameplay with top level play in mind and treat the low level play like a learning experience. That time delay, coupled with the way the game handles spawns (randomizing players between lanes), means that individual players will have have to execute a different part of their setup every round. And, on top of that, players won't know their starting positions until the round starts, meaning the team will have to adapt on the fly. This undeniably makes the map harder to learn as a team at first, but My hope is to add a level of depth to the learning of this map's metagame, which will keep the experience fresh for a longer period of time for competitive players. Although you might have mastered spawn position 1 and 2 on Avenue, spawn positions 3 and 4 can still offer room to improve, which I believe to be a big draw for the competitive crowd. Disclaimer, I still need to find some competitive players to play Avenue enough to the point where they can develop a strategy. The vision for this map is specific lanes for each spawn, but it would be nice to validate that this is a good experience before shipping. =) Goal #3: Without sacrificing #1, make the map enjoyable to casual/non-Breakout players So with all this focus on competitive depth, won't the lanes just alienate casual players? That doesn't seem to be the case. Namely, most of the playtests I've had to this point have been casual players, or players who typically don't play Breakout. They've all been quite positive on the map, and a lot of them have said they'd prefer it to many of the matchmaking ones. My hypothesis on why it's been working is the strategic direction the lanes give to players. Without a team, players in Matchmaking tend to not really execute a strategy, instead preferring to go wherever they feel is the strongest place to rush. By dumping players into a specific lane, the map is telling them "Hey, you need to go forward and win this contact point." What this leads to, for the most part, is that uncoordinated players end up having a very basic strategy, which is much better than the uncoordinated base-huddling that happens in many lower-level matchmaking games. On top of that, I tried to leave the cover in the bases sparse, limiting the incentive for players to not rush and contest their lane. A chicken in every pot, a weapon in every hand The other piece of satisfying casual/non-Breakout players comes from The Pit. Namely, on the Pit, it felt like there was always something to do. Rockets are down? Go for sniper. Sniper is down? Maybe try sword. Sword is down? That overshield sounds tempting. In essence, players always had a clear goal in mind when they were navigating the space. I tried to apply that to Avenue by having each lane bring a different style of gameplay and offer a specific weapon. Lane C lets players choose between contesting the DMR or picking up the Railgun. Lane B lets players choose a splinter grenade and power position or contest the Scattershot. Lane A gives one player the BR, and lets the other float, either taking the Railgun and supporting mid, or taking the boltshot and supporting Scattershot. Furthermore, the lanes go from very open (pistol gameplay) in Lane C, to moderately crowded in Lane B, to downright clausterphobic in Lane A and the Scattershot room (SMG gameplay). This change in environments coupled with the weapon differentials creates a different experience, and thus goal, for a player, no matter the lane they spawn into. Tying it all together, a player then has a set goal when they spawn in, leading to more predictable flow in games where teams don't communicate (helping with frustration for casuals) and specific strategic elements in games where teams do communicate. Not there yet: Dynamic vs. Linear Breakout There was an interesting post of Reddit around the time of the Community Breakout playlist that discussed which maps a competitive player preferred, and he brought up the idea of Linear vs Dynamic Breakout. I'm not sure where Avenue fits on his scale, but I suspect it's more on the Linear side of things. I haven't decided if that's good or bad yet, but one thing I know for sure is that there's not a big opportunity for anything other than a bifecta as far as comebacks go. This is definitely something I'd like to explore changing before releasing a final version of this map. On one hand, 3v1 or 4v1 comebacks are exciting. They make great montages and really get the heart pumping. On the other hand, a team that wins initial contact convincingly deserves the advantage they earned... and each round is a chance for the whole team to stage a comeback. This spoiler contains a short video showing the progress the blockout has made, from the initial layout of walls to the polished beta you can see screenshots of in this thread. Past iterations: Spoiler A video walkthrough of the changes from blockout to beta, so you can see the design evolve. 15 Minutes of UCC Feedback: (New!) Spoiler A link to the review section of the UCC lobby pro feedback after 3 consecutive games on Avenue with two pro teams. (Check out Merder Smerf's submission thread if you want to put your own map through there) If you get a chance, please leave your feedback on gameplay, aesthetics, or both!
I still think players should have more lane choice considering how poorly the game cycles spawns between rounds. Back up that insert point towards the launcher and let people make a choice broooo.
This was a really fun map for out custom game night. I really enjoyed the play style compared to other maps that you would find in the break out playlist. I really liked how the fights for this map had players equally meeting at the middle of the well defined lanes but also allowed for some fighting between lanes. I also like the choice of weapons and the newer variety(boltshot, railgun). I do agree with Captain Punch though i would say dropping the players in the center of the lanes to allow for more choice would probably be a more ideal and fair way to have spawns work.
I played this with you last night, and though I got my ass handed to me it might have been my favorite map of the night. As someone in the lobby said, it's better than most of the maps featured in 343s community breakout playlist. I really dig having the railgun in the level. Because of the recharge time and the lowered health it's not too OP - it's actually kinda terrifying waiting for it to charge up while another spartan charges at you when you know you're so vulnerable. I think you mentioned not being sure about having one or two shots in the Railgun...IMO I think it's fine to have two in it because of the risk / reward element to getting a kill with it. All in all though, this map is the jam. I love it!
Updated my post with content in the fly-through, past iterations, and theory sections. 2900 words total. o.o The TL;DR is that I'm pretty attached to sending players to different lanes, but I'd really need to test it on a wide audience. If you guys have time, I'd love it if you could check out the "Theory" section and respond to how well the lane starts match up with what I'm trying to accomplish. As a cookie for digging through my huge writing block, I'll totally review any map/blockout/writeup you need!
Posting recent updates here, because I talked too much above... Edited original post with UCC video link at the bottom. After getting some pro testing (which was amazing) from the UCC lobby, I've made a couple tweaks to the map. A link to that feedback is at the bottom of the post. Specifically, the neutral scattershot and DMR have been replaced by neutral, 1-shot railguns. The old team railguns have been replaced with low-ammo DMRs. The scattershot had to go, as it was not providing the utility it needed to justify its risky position. And, there were concerns that the middle was too dangerous. I really loved the way the dueling railguns made for a unique experience, however, and didn't want to lose that. Hopefully, including them as the neutral weapons will create that same dynamic. By placing DMRs in in the access point to bottom mid, players are able to grab them and back up to a defensive position, reducing the danger of A lane. The most interesting part of all of this was the disparity between the pro testers and the other testers who have played this map. In my previous playtests, the railguns had almost no impact on the game, even when bumped to two shots. In the pro tests, they defined rounds - missing your shot if the other team didn't would frequently lead to a loss. The next step is to revisit the base designs and flag distances. I'd also like to took at the center platform and make it worth jumping on.