Obvious Instruction

Discussion in 'Halo and Forge Discussion' started by Plasma Blades, May 28, 2011.

  1. Plasma Blades

    Plasma Blades Ancient
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    In one of my infection maps, I've designed a feature that I don't think any other infection map has. However, like any new feature, it's foreign to many players.

    Here's a little description of the issue:

    The humans leave the hanger and make their way into a large hallway. At a certain point, the hallway is divided into fourths, with the outer portions having ramps leading up, and the inner half having a ramp leading down. The way the game should play out is one person going up one of the outer ramps, and the rest going down the center. However, in recent playtests, more than seventy-five percent go up the outer paths.

    Is there any way (that any of you can think of) to either force only one player to go up, or make it more apparent that only one should go up?
     
  2. pyro

    pyro The Joker
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    You could probably make some sort of trap that prevents more than one person from going up. There's always the chance that two people will stick really close together and get through but if a door closes behind the person you can be pretty sure only one will get through. I'm sure you've been here long enough to know you can click the link in my sig and find out how to build a door.
     
  3. Nutduster

    Nutduster TCOJ
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    Unless you're going to spawn them in separate places where the extra players literally cannot access the outside ramps, I can't think of a good way to enforce it. Giving players any idea that they're "supposed" to do that is tricky as well - the best thing I can think of is to phase armor abilities into the floor, with one little player symbol on each of the outside ramps and two in the middle. But I don't even think that is very clear and people will probably still do what they're gonna do.
     
  4. ChronoTempest

    ChronoTempest Senior Member
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    People gravitate toward higher ground, so as they said, you can't stop them unless you do something that physically prevents it. It sounds like you have no other options like creating an incentive, so you'll have to work out a structural fix.
     
  5. Exile

    Exile Forerunner

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    Place a jetpack?
    Use a tripmine/container door that closes after one person passes.

    Put a mancannon with a container infront of it, and 3 grenades to keep the container in place, when the second person walks over the third grenade, the container should fly in his face and block off the path.
    That would work in H3, never tried it in Reach.
    Can always use power ups to let people jump higher or something.
     
  6. Plasma Blades

    Plasma Blades Ancient
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    The problem I have with any sort of switch (some combination of crates/mancannons/explosives) is that my budget just won't allow it - Plus I'm completely out of crates which rules a switch system out of the question.

    The spawning of one individual in that area also isn't an ideal solution. The problem with that is that the room at the top of the ramps utilizes one-way shield doors, meaning that once they're in there, there's no getting out.
    The idea behind this is that one person goes up the ramps, in effect, sacrificing him or herself in order to open a door below, where the rest of the humans are waiting.

    Due to the nature of the concept, the person needs to be willing to do so, therefore forcing a spawn in that location ruins the idea.

    Custom power-ups are already used later in the map, so that possibility is also ruled out. A jet pack is a possibility, but I believe a zombie would also be able to get it, meaning the humans could not move on. Unless there's a way, in the settings, that could make it so that only the humans can pick up power-ups?

    An incentive, such as a power weapon on the lower path, may lead some players towards that area, but others may see that someone else is already making their way towards the weapon and change their course.
     
  7. Exile

    Exile Forerunner

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    What about using soft kill barriers along the upper path, preventing people from camping up there would also eliminate a reason to go up there.
    Placing a few fusion coils along the way could make it seem as there is hazardous pollution in the corridor.

    You dont need to make a full barrier, you can just make one at the start, half way make a minuscule area free of the barrier for the person to take a break and let the counter go back to 10 and then let him continue to the place he needs to go.

    Using 4 soft kills, can create a small enough space for only a single person to stand on, thus when more people go, they will die.
     
  8. Plasma Blades

    Plasma Blades Ancient
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    The problem with that is that I'd like them to be able to move around in there. They're going to die one way or another, I'd like them to put up a reasonable resistance.
     
  9. pyro

    pyro The Joker
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    Making the door would require a crate and either a weapon, armor abillity, trip mine, or mancannon. I don't see how you couldn't spare the budget for those few items. If you've used up all the other crates, you either have a ton of doors (probably more than necessary) or the doors aren't very efficient. If you absolutely can't spare a crate, there are plenty of other ways to accomplish this but you need to post screenshots or something so I can see what the situation is first. I could give you a step by step solution, but without having any idea what the map looks like, I can't decide which of the hundreds would be best for the situation.
     
  10. Exile

    Exile Forerunner

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    you also need a shield door (or 2 even) and some blocks to construct it all, its perfectly understandable if he doesn't have the budget for it.

    Thats one thing about forging tho, you should always use only 75% of the budget for the actual map, the rest u keep for improvements and weapons.
     
  11. DavidJCobb

    DavidJCobb Ancient
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    Depending on how much budget you have, you could "write" a sign or icon that signifies risk or death -- a skull and crossbones or a "ONE-WAY" sign above the door, for example.

    If rearranging and remodeling the general area is an option, you could integrate the one-way entry with the door being opened. One cleverly-designed mechanism could lock the first door and also play a role in opening the second, which could save you some budget.

    Another possible option would be to remodel the one-way hallway. If Humans spawn without AAs, then place a Jetpack at the entrance. Remove the hallway's floor, so that one must Jetpack across it. The moment a Human touches the AA, they'll grab it, and they'll be the only person that can get to the door-opening switch.
     
  12. ChronoTempest

    ChronoTempest Senior Member
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    I'm sort of curious about the mechanic of having someone sacrifice themselves at all, now. Do they have to do it in order for the others to progress? If so, they might as well spawn up there. If not, why bother then?
    From what little you've said, it sounds like a poor mechanic to begin with, and you might want a different approach altogether.
     
  13. pyro

    pyro The Joker
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    I fixed the grammar mistakes while I was fixing the conceptual ones. Shield doors are not at all necessary for any of the switches I had in mind.

    [br][/br]
    Edited by merge:


    Then someone will go pick up the AA then jump down the hole and laugh because the rest of the humans can't continue in the game. Although any method seems open for people to be jackasses, I feel like the Jetpack idea would promote it more than anything else.

    I also just realized that if you're short on budget, the door tech will block off the room so you would not need a one way shield door.
     
    #13 pyro, May 28, 2011
    Last edited: May 28, 2011
  14. Exile

    Exile Forerunner

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    Hey buddy, i speak 3 languages and English is not my main one.
    You want to get picky because i called out your budget thing, then get lost and be immature somewhere else.
     
  15. Reign

    Reign Forerunner

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    Make a door that is only big enough to fit one person [so other people dont try to all go in at the same time] and then when one person has went through the door/ramp, make a switch that makes a crate fall?
     
  16. Plasma Blades

    Plasma Blades Ancient
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    Here's some pictures:
    Normal View
    [​IMG]
    Simplified view
    [​IMG]
    Top Room
    [​IMG]
    Mechanism
    [​IMG]

    And a problem that I realized with the Jetpack is pretty simple. In designing this room, it had to be made so that humans can get in, and zombies can as well. However, unlike humans, zombies must also be able to get out. For this, I put a hole in the ceiling and gave zombies lower gravity, allowing them to get back out. However, if a human has a jetpack, they can get up through the hole and into a zombie spawn.
     
    #16 Plasma Blades, May 29, 2011
    Last edited: May 29, 2011
  17. pyro

    pyro The Joker
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    It looks like you could make a small hole in the wall to fit a crate or barricade. Place a mancannon behind it to spawn at 5 seconds after start. The person walking through will cause the crate or barricade to be re-noticed by the physics engine so the mancannon pushes it forward into the doorway. Alternatively (if you don't have mancannons to spare) you could make a hole in the ceiling for a crate or barricade supported by a trip mine. At the right height, someone walking under will activate the delayed fuse so the trip mine explodes after they are through the door, killing anyone else who tries to go through and allowing the crate or barricade to drop and block the entrance. A fixed weapon or grenade can accomplish the same thing as the trip mine, but you might need to use something like a sniper rifle or gravity hammer that is large enough to block the path.
     
    #17 pyro, May 29, 2011
    Last edited: May 29, 2011
  18. Plasma Blades

    Plasma Blades Ancient
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    Placing a crate in the wall is out of the question - It's a wall colosseum and I'm strained on budget as is. The best option that you proposed would be a fixed grenade holding the crate up. But even so, there's two ramps leading up which would still allow for two people up (plus all of the crates have been used).

    From what I've seen, in consideration of my budget, an armor ability is the best choice here (though feel free to propose alternate ideas as well). However, unless someone can think of a way around the jet-pack issue that I mentioned I don't think that's a possibility. Humans are already given sprint, so anything involving that isn't an option. Can anyone think of any other AA uses that would limit one person to accessing this area?
     
    #18 Plasma Blades, May 30, 2011
    Last edited: May 30, 2011
  19. pyro

    pyro The Joker
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    Make an evade jump. You could even place another evade AA merged in front of each door and two or three spring AAs in front of the low ramp to show people where to go.
     
  20. Plasma Blades

    Plasma Blades Ancient
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    In theory that sounded like a perfect solution, so I tested it out. Unfortunately, the lower gravity of humans means that a mancannon is necessary. However, no matter what mancannon is used, anybody - even those without the evade AA - still make it perfectly into the room with the button.
     

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