This is Sacred, my return to forging after a years hiatus and my debut with reach. I've stuck to my initial concept of a map surrounding a temple and having a similar theme. It's had some changes along the way and this is in no way the final product. I'm yet to put down all the weapons and spawning system but this is the skeleton of the map with most of the flesh. So before I clean up the rough edges and put down the spawning system, I'd like some constructive criticism as to the general look of the map and any potential issues people can spot. After collecting the comments on here and spawning the map up I'll be popping over to the testers guild and posting this, so I'll update this thread when that's happening. The map is intended for 4v4 but i'll see in testing whether it can support more, I'm aiming for a good CTF and team slayer map but we'll see what happens in testing. So here's what you're after, the screenshots. Oh and if anyone knows of any good guides to spawning I'd be very grateful, need to get up to speed with reach. Cheers! Updates:
Initial Spawn- Beginning Spawn Respawn Points- Where you respawn after dying Loadout Camera- What you see when choosing Sprint, Jet Pack,etc. Respawn Zone- General area where you respawn(mainly for Invasion maps) Soft Safe Area- If you leave this area, will have 10 secs. to return Safe Area- If you leave, you will die immediatly Soft Kill Area- If you enter, will have 10 secs. to leave Kill Area- If you enter you will die immediatly Hope I got everything you need about spawning!
Thanks for the clarification for some of those items, would love some comments on the map itself and any potential issues people can spot?
I would suggest you to add rocks on it . You will give more covers for the player and a better look ! And the base are just amazing !
Thanks frenchy, i've added some rocks and whatnot and the map is looking really good now i think, will update the thread with some pictures when i can access my screenshots again. Anyone got any comments regarding the main structure? Reckon it needs any adjustments? just trying to get it as good as possible before i give it to the tg.
I think the respawn zones need a little clarification: Respawn zone- A team will spawn in any neutral spawns or spawns which match their team in the area. Unless all the respawn points in the area are unsafe (i.e. a spawnkilling nubcake is present) Respawn zone weak- Like respawn zones, except they only make it MORE LIKELY to spawn in the area, if these are placed within a respawn zone (strong) or their are no respawn zone (strongs) then the team will spawn primarily within the respawn zone weak. If a respawn zone strong is present and it is outside the respawn zone strong then it will do nothing. Respawn zone anti- A team will not spawn within the area, period. Some people say you should only use one kind of respawn zone in the map (though you can have as many of that kind as you want) as the different kinds can mess with the algorithims of one another or some boring crap like that. I don't know if this is true though... Summary: RZ -Team will spawn in here (provided there are neutral or matching team spawns present) RZ weak- Team will likely spawn here RZ anti- Team won't spawn here. Final word of warning, if you set a RZ to neutral, then ALL different teams will spawn there...So don't do it. Also RZs don't affect initial spawns.... Did I overcomplicate things? [br][/br]Edited by merge: Maybe put soft kill zones on the roofs of the bases?
Thanks james, that and reading some bungie guide's has cleared things up for me. So I've added some more structures, including rocks to make the map a bit more scenic and to break up those long LOS's. Oh and I shifted blue base towards the middle so you cannot see from base to base. What do people think about the updates and of the map as a whole, still waiting for comments about how the map might play. Updates:
the trouble I have with this is: it's all random geometry. It doesn't really stick to a theme or anything and because of the random geometry, it'll hinder gameplay. For example, if there were players battling it out near the Needle Rifle / Medkit spawn, they'd be bumping into and ramping up all of the random pieces sticking out of the floor. I'm guessing you were trying to go with the rundown look, but it doesn't look like it'd help with anything gameplay wise at the moment. I can't see it ingame, but I'm guessing it's too small pieces to be standing cover? I'm not sure what style of gameplay you were really going after with this one, but if I were to play it, I'd be avoiding all the structures. Non of them really seem to show any dominant positioning or height variance. The orange structure does appear to have the most elevation (and I'm guessing it has a weapon inside) but it has a lot of ways in and most of the ways I can see are very open leading up to it, so ideally, you either want to spawn in there... or not bother with it at all in a players point of view. What I do like about it though is the lines of sight (albeit, the pieces look a little rough and random at the moment) as it looks as if it would promote mid-range to long-range combat well. I'm not 100% confident the ghosts would be too effective as again, with random pieces merged into the floor players judgement will be inaccurate and you'll probably find the players flipping the ghosts more often than killing with them. I also like the location you've built in, but i dislike the collesium wall borders. I'd recommend placing boundary markers out there of rocks and soft-killing them so players know they don't go beyond a certain point.
Really appreciate the honest feedback steve, exactly what i was looking for. You are probably right about the fact that most of the fighting will be done on the ground, thats fine but i may add incentive in order to get people up there at a later stage. Also good point about the 'temple' stucture, I had thought people would automatically go inside but you may be right in that they might not want to. Theres a gravity hammer on the ground floor and a concussion rifle up top but I'll watch out for that in testing, thanks. I'll also watch out for the ghosts, i think you might be right about it being too cluttered for them. I was thinking about the collesium walls.. they're not that pretty are they. Might take up your suggestion of a soft-kill boundary. Many thanks!
No worries Other than a little bit of a clean up, it should be pretty good. Is it going in the tester's guild?
Yup, once I get it up to scratch. I'm out tomorrow night so probably have it in there monday/tuesday. And I saw your screenshot btw, looks promising.
From those screenshots it looks a little too open for me. Thats just me, though, I like tighter maps. But the temple structure looks the most interesting, but the rest of the map still looks a little bare for a 4v4. It looks more like a BtB to me due to its size. Like Stevo said though, I dont know if Ghosts would go well with it either. They are more nimble and maneuverable than a Warthog, but it needs to be a bit more open if you're going to include vehicles, ie, less clutter in the middle. Also I think there needs to be more of a common theme among the pieces you've placed down. Again, like Stevo said, it looks a little random concerning whats there. I like the premise of a run-down, possibly destroyed structure being strewn across the landscape, but they should probably be more similar pieces to what you've constructed the temple building from. This is why I dont like making large open maps, because I find it hard to effectively fill up the middle parts with interesting and functional pieces. Looks like it has promise though, so keep at it. Once you get it submitted to TG and possibly start internally testing it you'll understand where all the problem areas are.
Cheers xun, I've replaced some of the older pieces with some 4x1's and 2x1 ramps to create that 'common theme' you and stevo were talking about. I've also posted it in the TG so we'll see what they have to say about it - http://www.forgehub.com/forum/testers-guild/130928-sacred.html Heres a shot of those 4x1's I've got all over the map and the new structure over the grenade launcher pool.