I made this thread to ask for help on a forge map, in whatever forms I can get. Advice, critique, lessons, "forgepals", or the crushing truth that I should give up and try something smaller first - whatever you can offer. *If you feel that I'm not descriptive enough for text responses, please ask questions and I will work my answers into this post as best I can for future-comers to see. - I'm not much of a map forger, but I recently wanted to try and get better. So I came up with two ideas and thought up as many mandatory - as well as optional - characteristics for them as I could manage, then I started actually forging one of them out. This particular idea is an undersea map, using gravity zones rather than player modifiers to simulate being underwater...and so far they work as intended, though they occasionally cause some weird physics around the seams. After testing if the gravity zones worked as intended, I threw together a rather roughly-made trench that sits a little higher than 3 of the largest cliff objects stacked on top of one another; intended to serve as one of the map boundaries by implementing a soft kill boundary a short ways down into the trench. A few ledges are planned to be added in to allow a player the chance to recover from an accidental fall, while a power weapon could also be placed down on one of the lower ledges as a risk-reward option. I'm also considering raising the height of the trench by another large cliff object, as the bottom of the trench is still seen a little too easily, even with the map fog at 15 (Can't remember which fog setting, but I know for a fact that any higher would penalize low-brightness players even more than currently...though the fog does look fantastic, personally speaking). Beginning at the top edge of the trench is a fabricated "sea floor", which probably needs more terrain work. This area of the map is supposed to be more open, though for gameplay AND aesthetic purposes; details (Like rocks) are intended to be used here no more than what is necessary. This area is planned to look realistically feasible while still accomplishing the requirements of gameplay, which would work differently on account of lower gravity and slower player movement speeds - though the primary function of this "Sea Floor" region should be in providing terrain for vehicular combat (Mostly just Ghosts and Mantises). However I've not progressed much further than laying out the base terrain, and instead of trying to work the terrain to appear more natural and fluent I've taken to sculpting out detailed set pieces using the likes of foliage and FX. I've also scattered soundFX throughout the current area, but the actual scope of what I'm trying to make seems to be too large and undecided for myself to handle. I had also planned for two underwater bases, some ruins, a raised coral reef area, and maybe a junkyard-like area. But no work has been started regarding those. Spoiler: Map Images View attachment 47828 ^In the image above, there is half of the created map with test-ghosts you can use for scale. View attachment 47829 ^The other half of the map with test-weapon pads, and a test-mantis you can use for some sense of scale. View attachment 47830 ^The depth/height of the trench, using a scorpion slightly to the left for scale. Scorpions aren't planned for the map, as the gravity volumes often decide to turn the scorpion into a glider. View attachment 47831 ^Really low-res image of the two flora designs I experimented with creating. View attachment 47832 ^Sight capability (with fog-enabled) from where the test-ghosts are located on one side of the map, looking towards the weapon pads on the other side. This image is lower-res and darker than what my screen actually displays, but perfectly illustrates why I want to raise the map up and extend the trench more. View attachment 47833 ^View into the trench with fog settings on, which is pretty much perfectly how I want it to look. Though you can still see the bottom somewhat with my TV's current settings, as this image is slightly darker. Regardless, this image is what I really want players to see when peering down into the trench. The map is intended to run a custom variant of slayer, with enough spawns to support BTB. Objectives may also be placed to allow the map to function with additional modes.
I thought of doing something like this, but you seem to have more inspiration than I do. One bonus idea I have is to use trait zones to apply screen effects and make part of the map above water. You can do this out of the map on Tidal. Other than that, I like where you're going.
Right, I'll try and get those as soon as my schedule will allow, what with college kicking up and all. Hopefully that means late tomorrow, though... Hmm...well I was debating on having one of the sea bases actually be functional, otherwise both would be trashed. And I think I'd prefer to stick with Depth over Tidal on this one. The entire map I've planned for is underwater, but that's certainly not a bad idea. And thanks.
^In the image above, there is half of the created map with test-ghosts you can use for scale. ^The other half of the map with test-weapon pads, and a test-mantis you can use for some sense of scale. ^The depth/height of the trench, using a scorpion slightly to the left for scale. Scorpions aren't planned for the map, as the gravity volumes often decide to turn the scorpion into a glider. ^Really low-res image of the two flora designs I experimented with creating. ^Sight capability (with fog-enabled) from where the test-ghosts are located on one side of the map, looking towards the weapon pads on the other side. This image is lower-res and darker than what my screen actually displays, but perfectly illustrates why I want to raise the map up and extend the trench more. ^View into the trench with fog settings on, which is pretty much perfectly how I want it to look. Though you can still see the bottom somewhat with my TV's current settings, as this image is slightly darker. Regardless, this image is what I really want players to see when peering down into the trench.
I hate triple-posting, but checking this thread for responses made me re-read this comment and now I'll use this post to make a note to use trait-zones to separate regions of the map via screen and fog effects. I can lighten/thin the fog in the "sea-bed", while keeping fog in and around the trench significantly darker/thicker. Likewise, the reef could exhibit the lightest/thinnest fog, aside from an operational base which would exhibit no fog (And probably no screen effects, for that matter). Extra precautions could be taken in order to prevent exploitation of fog-effects by overlapping region effects...
So, you want to make a BTB map or? I didn't see any specific info what the goal of this map is going to be or which gametype is going to be used.
Ah, right, I forgot that part. The map is primarily intended to test a concept, but would run a tweaked variant of slayer with enough spawns to support BTB. In short, yes. Sorry for any awkwardness, I'm terribly new at forging *functional* maps
It also helps to first draw out the map on paper so you can see how things play together before you start forging. So far your trench is a small piece of the map... what is the rest going to look like? And what is your end goal?
Yes, of course, but as my map is mostly just open terrain I feel that free-forming makes for a much more naturalistic style. Plus I have no idea where I want to put some of these things yet. As for the map size, I'll probably include around 8 more individual gravity volumes of the size I used in the images. I'm not really sure, I might postpone this map and start on my alternate idea.
I like where you're going with this. Here’s a few things to keep in mind. The gravity volumes can be tricky, when you first step inside one, it seems like half of the gravity has been removed. What is actually happening is 50% gravity is being added in the direction of “up” relative to the gravity volume. What that means is when you place a gravity volume, the objects inside don't get any lighter. In fact, you are adding a second gravitational pull in the opposite direction that is only 50% as strong. In other words, you're canceling out half of the default gravity. Gravity volumes affect any object they touch, long as that object is on normal physics. One gravity volume adds 50% gravity, when you add another gravity volume you get 100% gravity. So any object on normal physics that touches two gravity volumes will free fall in whatever direction the gravity is moving. You can stack that effect exponentially, the more gravity volumes you add, the faster the object will fall. For whatever reason, welded object groups on normal physics will automatically enter free fall even if they are only touching a single gravity volume. This seems to create a clash with the vehicle welding glitch, I think it's because the game doesn’t see the vehicle as part of the group. When inside one gravity volume, the vehicle wants to follow the default gravitywhile the rest of the group wants to follow the gravity volume. That causes the welded vehicle the get stuck in place. Most UNSC vehicles don't take the gravity volumes well. A mantis should be fine as long as it stays grounded. Wraiths work best, followed by ghosts. Flying vehicles should be fine as well.
The only issue I've had is around the seams where two gravity volumes touch, which for some reason turns Scorpions into helicopters. Occasionally the player flies up too, same with the Ghosts I've got...kinda just framing that occurrence as "underwater current". The Mantis works fine so far, at least...y'know, if you ignore it's ridiculously fast movement speed for being "underwater". Thanks for the additional info, though. I didn't know gravity volumes were worth 50%. And I was worried that the seams between them were registering as double the gravity in upwards lift...
You might be able to cancel out the extra gravity at the seams by using a third gravity volume turned upside down.