Well, i decided to write a Guide for this since nobody else made one. This Guide was inspired by the original one from SergeantSarcasm(http://www.forgehub.com/forum/forging-201/89260-theory-infection-mapmaking.html). I'm very sorry if he was already planning to make one. Anyways, here is the Guide, and feel free to suggest stuff i should add. Infection Types: There are different types of Infection. Here are the most important Types and a Guide to it. Type 1: Generator Defense Example: The Turbines(Plasma Blades) This type of Infection Maps have the Humans trying to destroy multiple generators(3 is best) to open up the way to the evac point where a lot of Weapons spawn. The Zombies have to stop the Humans from destroying the Generators. In the Zombie Base, it's good to give them Gravity Lifts and/or Teleporters to reach different places. Custom Powerups that make Zombies fiercer are also common in these maps. Zombies should have 50 percent Melee Damage and Humans No shields and 500 percent Damage Resistance for the right effect. The Map must be completely incampable so people are encouraged to destroy the Generators and get to the evac point. Use lots of Weapons, Scenery and Gadgets to change the flow to your liking. Type 2: House Defense Example: **** Zombies It's very important to disencourage Humans to get out of the Map and start spawnkilling Zombies. Zombies can be made slow but they should spawn close to the house. If there are FX's like Next Gen, Olde Timey or Colorblind then a Plasma Launcher can be used as a Thunder Gun and the Needler as a Thompson. Use Portable Shields or Pallets with a respawn time of 5-10 seconds to resemble Barricades. Use Custom Powerup for the Pack-A-Punch Machine. Use Armor Abilities as Perks. Turn headshots off to make the starting weapon(Magnum) not too powerful. If there's a Shotgun in the house then it can only have 0-1 spare clips if you don't want to screw up your map. Motion Sensor only recommended for Zombies. Recommended Weapons: Assault Rifle, Magnum, Shotgun, Plasma Launcher, Needler, Spiker(Nail Gun), Grenade Launcher, DMR and Frag Grenades. Use same health system as with Generator Defense. Type 3: Linear Objective Example: No Hope Campaign(rifte gifle) and Last Resosrt Campaign(oscarvdhooft(me)) The Humans will mostly spawn in a house with a few weapons in it. When the Humans get out of the house, they'll need to walk till they reach a place where to hold out. There will be new Weapons there to help them and after a while something(like a Grav lift) will spawn to bring the Humans to another place where they need to hold out. This goes on till they reach the final destination where a lot of weapons and other stuff spawn. Same health and "no headshots" system as with Type 2 and 1 is recommended. Survival: Example: Super Metroid Sort of a Mini Game. Zombies are prett strong, slow and there is only one survivor. The Maps are mostly small and dark with no camp places. The single survivor has a limited range of Weapons to grab on the Map: Plasma Pistols, Golf Clubs, Magnums, Spikers, Plasma Rifles, Some Grenades and maybe light power weapons like Concussion Rifles. Spawning: Spawn placement is very important. Spawns need to be impossible to be camped and not too close to the enemy spawn. Zombie spawns are recommended to be put in an unreachable place, like a skyscraper. Near the Zombie spawn it is also recommended to have Teleporters, Man Cannons and Custom Powerups to aid them. Human Spawns need to be in a uncampable place to prevent camping of course. Don't place too many Weapons near the Human Spawn. Force them to travel and scavenge for Weapons, Grenades and Ammo. Starting Weapon: This is where most people fail in Infection Maps. If it's a Gametype where Humans need like 5 hits to die then don't give them a Shotgun and a Magnum. Turn Headshots off and give them a Magnum, DMR, Assault Rifle or Shotgun. Starting Grenades are allowed but not more than 2 are recommended. DMR is ONLY allowed if headshots are off. I tried a Infection game with DMRs. Guess what happened? I got 40 kills in one round. Without it, i got like 15. For starting Equipment use Sprint. Zombies get should get Sword and Sprint at beggining. NOTE: I still recommend Loadouts over Starting Weapons. A few tricks: Do you think that the DMR is too weak when headshots are off? Then give Zombies 10 % shields and 75 % Damage Resistance so Zombies are 2-shot instead of 1-shot. Phase 2 Loadouts are for Zombies, Phase 1 for Humans. Humans= Red Team, Zombies= Blue Team. Remember that when placing spawns. Infectionspread: See here(credit to SegeantSarcasm) a Graph of the Infectionspread in a average Infection map: And here a Graph of the Infectionspread in a good Infection map: See the difference? The purpose of an Infection map is not that Humans rush in the beginning to campplaces and are killed while running to them and the rest camps for the rest of the round with low casualties. A common error are respawning Weapons which are only recommended in **** Zombies. If the Weapons in a Armory keep respawning, people will try to camp there. Loadouts: Loadouts are used very rarely, but when they are used, they are mostly unbalanced since everybody will go for the same Loadout. Try to avoid this by making them balanced. Here are some examples that would work as long as there are no headshots enabled and the map isn't too big or open: Recommended: Recon: Standard Loadout and the most balanced one. You might need to grab some ammo on the way but this Loadout guarantees you a pretty long life. The Assault Rifle rips hordes, Sprint gets you everywhere, the Magnum is useful at medium ranges and the 3 Frag Grenades can save your life a few times. Marksman: Prefered by a lot of people, but this Loadout is only useful when you are travelling with a group. Includes Evade, a DMR and one Frag Grenade. Security: When you choose this Loadout, try not too lose your group. If you do, you're screwed. You should also watch your ammo: You get a Shotgun, a Magnum, one Frag Grenade and a Hologram. That's all. Optional: Sharpshooter: This one is very cool. I remember once when pretty much everybody had Security and Sharpshooter... We got our ass raped off by those zombies. You'll get a Sniper Rifle, a Magnum, a Frag Grenade, and Hologram. Demolitions: A fun challenge for anyone. Decently armed and good against single targets as well as small hordes. You get a Grenade Launcher, a Spiker, Sprint and a single Frag Grenade. Maverick: Not really recommended to put in your Gametype. Luckily this Loadout has very limited ammo. Includes a Golf Club to smash , a Magnum as last resort, a grenade for a last saving throw and Sprint to flee or get closer to Zombies to beat them up. Vehicles: Not many people use this in their Infection Maps since most Infection Maps are build in a way that Vehicles are overpowered. It's okay to make some sort of highway put put a lot of obstacles and give Zombies the chance to attack from a lot of different places. It's also recommended to put the Zombie's Weapon Damage and Human's Dmg Resistance higher in the same ratio so it only affects Vehicles. Covie Vehicles are heavily disreccomended since it'll break the feeling of an Infection Map. Neither are Falcons, Scorpions, Rocket Warthogs and Gauss Warthogs recommended. Use some Mongooses and maybe 1 Standard Warthog. NOTE: An Infection Map can't be completely based around vehicle warfare. Humans should get the option, but have should also have the same chance of survival when on foot. Custom Powerups: These are used very often in Infection Maps as Pickups for Humans or Zombies to earn an advantage. This can either be extra health, grenade replenishing, switches or a Pack-A-Punch Machine. Some people think they can spam it all around near campplaces so Humans can earn invincibility and other ****. Most Custom Powerups give People more Damage Resistance or more damage. But Custom Powerups can also have everything unchanged so it can be used for switches or it can give a Human 4 Frag Grenades so they can replenish them. If the Humans aren't allowed to pickup Weapons, then you can make a Powerup that gives them the same weapons(Don't set it to unchanged but to the Weapons they spawn with or else it won't change anything) that they spawned with so they will get the Weapons again, but fully loaded.
Hey, I see my map! Anyway, This is a nice start, but no where near as thorough as it should be. Plus I can see other types of maps, such as free roam, or single-destination. You can go into detail about weapon usage, health and shields, movement, etc.
No skin off my back man. The more the merrier. And yeah, I do have 2 more planned but they won't release til Forgetacular results are posted, since me losing or winning will shape the articles themselves.
Alright, time for an edit. Like Plasma Blades said, i need to add single destination. I think No Hope would be a good example.
You may want to mention strategies to help you achieve personal goals in the map. For example, if you want people to tend to split up, you'd need a large, structurally complex map with a)People spawning apart or b) Spawning together, but without any teammates in eyesight. Like I said, I think this could be really nice if it was more in depth. You can discuss features that work and don't work in maps, popular mistakes to avoid, etc.
Oh my, this just became much better. A lot more thorough, this looks great. What I do like, is I'm sure it will vary the types of maps we see, since you listed more than just the standard "Run anywhere. Kill anything". This is a great improvement to the original thread. I'll read it over and give it a more depth review, but by looking at the headers alone it looks very nice. I've gotta admit, this has inspired me to write a guide of my own. Mind if I write one for the Journey-type maps? And objective ones (since, as far as I know, I'm the only one to create infection gametypes like that)?
A COMPLETE Guide just for that?! Don't you think it's better to give some suggestions so i can add it. Since you have more expereince with Infection Maps... Or you could just come up with something and i will just Copy & Paste it
There's actually quite a lot to consider when thinking about those gametypes. I came up with 10 points of interest, and I'm nearly done with the second - I have two pages of work (in Microsoft word). There's some key groundwork that must be laid before discussing the maps in general. So, hopefully, I'll have that done by the end of the weekend. Perhaps then we can discuss, compare the similarities and differences among our articles, and collaborate on a joint guide.
For reference, if you're going to use stuff that is explicitly taken from my guide (which is fine) you need to link to it directly, not just credit it.
Now the one thing you didn't talk about much was the use of custom powers ups in infection mapmaking (and gametype making). Just something you might like to bring up in the future.
another thing you might like to discuss is the atmosphere for a map. for example you don't usually want an infection map to feel all cheery and happy. Unless it is a Carnival or Playground and even then you want it to feel somewhat creepy > .
Some useful advice, after playing black ops recently i wanted to try to replicate the zombies off it. Spawning outside the house is a good idea, i'm just having difficulty keeping uninfected in house from spawn killing. I never realised so many different types of games could be simulated from the infection game type. Has definitly broadend my horizons , thanks
One thing you could try (not sure how well this would work in you map) is put one way shields in the door ways that prevent the humans from leaving the building while allowing the zombies to enter. Another thing I did was confine the humans to the house and have the zombies spawn in the attic with "vents" that allow them to infiltrate the lower levels without fear of being spawn killed.
I also made a Guide dedicated to **** Zombies. http://www.forgehub.com/forum/halo-reach-forge-discussion/122506-guide-remaking-****-zombies.html