most of my map ideas tend to be seen as too big...from the few people i ask. i was wondering if there was a rule of thumb for very basic measurement. for a 4v4 map no more than say 4 wall colisuem wide a 2v2 is 2 8v8 no idea! only basic. a guideline that i can consider when attempting map layouts. i know that there isnt going to be a perfect size... i find that what i consider a reasonable size isnt necessarily what everybody else thinks!
The size of any design is conditional given there isn't a set measurement limit based on the intended player count. For example, if I wanted to put emphasis on long range engagements, the map design would be much larger than other designs of the category generally are. That said, you can never truly be positive on that subject until running some games. Obviously, if during these games players are running around endlessly looking for the enemy, than the design is probably too large for that player count. On the flip side, if encounters occur directly upon spawning, the map design is probably too small. Beyond that, I would also say that the ideal player count also depends on other aspects such as the structure, LoS, spawning, etc. That is the reason simply scaling up a design that is too small doesn't generally solve the problem in various cases. In the end, as long as design aspects were not included with a certain player count in mind, than increasing or decreasing the player count is the better option if the design ends up too small or too large. Goodluck and such.
It depends upon a number of factors. I am writing an article on this very topic now, but it won't be ready for a while. But consider how haven is 4v4, but is only about 1000 square units in size (small). The reason it works is that there are a lot of spawns all around the outer most edge, making spawning safe. It is possible for a team of 4 to induce spawn control, where they can force a team to spawn in one corner of the map. But they cannot spawn trap, and they certainly cannot spawn kill due to the various elevations and LOS blockers. Also, I have been working on a map lately that was originally designed for 4v4 in size, but it turns out that it was also designed for vehicular play (Mantis, Hog), and you don't see vehicular play in the 4v4v playlists in MM. So I now have to consider it 5v5 or 6v6. For 6v6, I have a problem - the map size is a bit small. I am running into one spawn trap scenario (not spawn kill), and this is leading me to think I need to simply grow the map by about 10%. Some commented that the map was best sized for 5v5 or 6v6, but that it was a bit too big for 4v4, and now after studying the issue, I can see they were right - it is ideal for 5v5, but vehicular play comes in at 6v6 in MM. In my maps' case, the size of play area is roughly 2250 square units. To put this into perspective, Adrift is 1600 SU, Complex is 2700 SU, Shatter is 2900 SU, Wreckage is 3600 SU, Longbow and Harvest are 4200 SU, and Vortex is 4800 SU. There is also the question of whether you are using zones. If so, you make it easier for a team to induce spawn control/traps if they know what they are doing.
My 1v1 map is ~25x30 forge units big, and it plays very fast. So I guess you could use that for a reference for 1v1, but i think it is too small for 2v2.
Use a grid to keep things in perspective when forging. A 4v4 map should be around the size of a grid, which I think is 32x32 units. As others have stated, it is very conditional so don't worry too much about making your map a bit bigger or smaller depending on your player count, verticality and LoS management.
Using any of these rules is only limiting your imagination and abilities. There is no such rule. There are 4v4 maps small and very large and of many different sizes that all play very well. There are too many things to go into account in this... way tooo many things. Keep it stupid simple... a 1v1 map is small, a BTB map should be very big and fill in the rest in-between. Only way to find out how your map plays @ set # of people is to test and adjust. Having a "rule" to go by for size will make every 4v4 map the same size as all the others and would get very boring very quickly. You should be more worried about the fundamentals of good map making. Edit: and how many maps do you see in matchmaking that are used for 4v4, 5v5, 6v6, and BTB and regicide. Many maps are used for different playlists and still play well with all the variation... now that is a map with great fundamentals... and not limited by this theory rule of map size presets.
As already stated here, there's no hard and fast rules. You can come up with good basic guidelines but so much depends on lines of sight, how complex and segmented the map is both horizontally and vertically, how many safe spawn areas there are, etc. The most popular 4v4 maps in matchmaking through various Halo games have been a pretty wide variety of sizes.
There are constraints. A map too small relative to the team size and you can't avoid spawn traps. This is a mathematical fact. Actually, the larger the maps the larger the team size. This is also evident if you measure the maps and look at their use in the playlist. Even 343i knows not to place a map too large for 4v4 or too small for BTB. [br][/br]Edited by merge: Ya, we are past answering his question and debating it amongst ourselves...
1.) Ok brother some stuff is common sense, lol. Like having too small of a map, which I was actually hinting is wrong. But there is no such rule of a certain size... here let me be more specific, they say "use a grid and your 4v4 map should be that size." LOL, no, there is no such rule and if you need to go off that then you haven't been making maps very long. 2.) Uh yeahhhhhh, Ragnarok is used in CTF (4v4 & 5v5) as well as BTB. I didn't exactly mean one map can house all playlists, I stated one map can house more than one set playlist and 343 does DO that with many of their maps... hopefully that clears up your confusion.