Discussion: what makes a good map?

personally i dont think aesthetics (funny word) are completly necessary. As long as the gameplay is good (spawns, fun-nis, repeatability) and the map is smooth then the map itself is fine without the aesthetics. this is just my opinion however.

 

Gamergimp asked me about his map, and since I could offer no more suggestions specific to his map, I decided to post my reply here so that his map thread stays on topic. Also, this thread should be revived.

Gimp, Your map is beginning to fade from memory, but I think it was mostly nondescript hallways and bridges. While playing you'd go from hallway "A" to hallway "B" to bridge "C". I meant that there should be some kind of geometry or some feature that stands out to help orient players in the map.

I think the best maps have several major encounter areas where the majority of the action takes place and then a bunch of lesser areas to connect the major ones. Let me try to elaborate.

Take Last Resort, for instance. The major areas are the Beach, the Beach Wall, the Fan, the Tower (formerly Camo Tower form Halo 2), Camp Froman, and the Base. Each area is unique. There are enough interesting obstacles that encounters between two or more players can unfold in many ways. The more options, the better.

Now, between each of these areas there are mini areas that connect them. One example is the path between the Tower and the Base, with all the rocks.

In your map, and many maps out there, there are a bunch of areas, but none of them are very different from the rest. It's especially hard to make interesting maps out of tunnels and bridges, since encounters tend to progress linearly. By that I mean that you can only go forward or backwards. I prefer areas where I have lots of options, like places I can jump, things I can hide behind, and things I can throw grenades around. Again, when you give players more options you increase the variability of encounters, and that makes your map more fun and more replayable.

I think when you make your next map, think about giving players lots of options. Put several ways to get from one area to another. Think about how players might take shortcuts. Think about line of sight. Also, put objects down in interesting ways for no reason. Players will have a blast figuring out ways to use the map geometry for their benefit. They'll do things you never even expected. But make sure you test your maps so there's nothing game-breaking going on.

Hopefully this helps you understand what I look for in maps. Other people might look for other things, so these are just my opinions.

 

Since this thread is about what constitutes a good map - I have a question for you FH'ers out there.

Is it good to have random factors in the map, so that every game is basically different? Random factors as in cover, like the rocks on Standoff. Nothing major like different vehicles or weapons or anything like that.

 

What do you mean by random?

I don't think the rocks on Standoff are random. Do you mean that they aren't symmetrical with respect to map sides? There's nothing wrong with asymmetry, just as long as things are relatively even.

As far as randomness, it's fine for casual maps but has no place in competitive maps. In the early days of Forge, many people made "gamble" teleporters. That's where you have a sender node tied to two receiver nodes: one node takes you where you wanted to go and the other takes you over a cliff or something. The gimmick was if you wanted to go to the armory or wherever, you had to risk certain death. Competitive games should be based on skill, not luck.

 

What I mean by random, is if I create a system where various crates and boxes will be available on the map, however their locations will change randomly every game. By the nature of how I'm going to do it, I'll be able to control, to a certain degree, where the boxes will end up, so one side won't have a clear advantage over the other.

How I'm seeing it is, with changing areas of cover every game, you'll never find yourself in the exact same position as before, so it requires extra versitality and adaptibility to move up the map.

 

Furious; thank you for linking this topic, and especially for relating it to my map. I never had the benefit of playing the extra maps or any of the H1 and H2 maps on anything except up to four players on LAN and split screen so I'm still obviously learning what makes a balanced and fun map.

This thread has already given me some huge ideas for tweaking layouts and concepts that I've been thinking about and have pretty much convinced me that all of my maps need extra work that I simply hadn't been aware of before.

Cheers,

- gimp

 

How is this possible? The only thing I can think of is having a fusion coil and a crate spawn in the air at the start of the round. When they fall the fusion coil will send the crate to a predictable, but variable location. The fusion coil would be set to never respawn.

I'm very interested in hearing how this would be done, but it is off topic here. I'd suggest either sending me a PM or starting a new thread to discuss the possibilities or random features, the techniques for creating them, and their effects on the game.

 

I just want you to know that The Cellars, breaks half of the points in your first post... lolz but it is still any amazing competitive map.

And no I did not read the walls of texts that followed that first post.

 

For me, it's wether it's fun with a few people, and a lot of people. Because it needs to be very playable with less people because for some people it's not easy to fill a room up

 

Wow, I am really disappointed to hear that. That's like saying, "I don't care what other people think makes a good map." I'm curious to hear why you did not read the rest of the thread. Is it because you don't have time, or is it because you think you already know everything about making good maps?