I know a few folks in the FH community have helped me test the primary map I'm working on for the Forgetacular contest - Solitude. The map has four chief areas - the ground level, a platform/courtyard area in the center of the map, an outer walkway at the perimeter of the map, and an upper walkway/platform system above the courtyard. In testing, it seems that the vast majority of the fighting takes place within the upper tier. Since this is the first map I've forged, I can't help but wonder... is this normal? I'm not surprised that it's a popular area - altitude is pretty clearly King in a lot of ways (psychology as well as sight lines.) But a lot of players seem to charge straight up over exploring the map. I've removed all weapon spawns from the upper level, but there are still a lot of people who'll charge in with AR's blazing. How can I tempt them to either root around for a better weapon, or get them to explore a little more? My respawns aren't clustered near the center, and I've removed several respawn points from the upper level itself. (I'm thinking about removing all of them since it seems to be the focal point of the map.) For my next test, I've moved the rocket launcher to the courtyard below that upper level. I'm hoping that the presence of a power weapon might tempt players to come down. (Though I think I need to figure out how to put in a delay to keep it from spawning immediately.) Does anybody have any advice?
This always tends to be an issue with maps that have center/high ground areas. It's hard to make specific recommendations without looking at your map in forge, but here are some general ones, a couple of which may have already occurred to you. - Put good weapons and power-ups somewhere else. People chase after these things and that encourages movement away from the high traffic zone. - Give good cover to other areas, and make the high traffic area more vulnerable. One reason people go up there is that it's easier to stand up there and pick off people spawning or moving around down below, or off to the sides. If the high ground is more exposed or has key vulnerabilities (like a couple of well-placed fusion coils) they may not be as tempted to just sit there. This is a big failing of a lot of forged maps I see - good high ground with too much cover and no real downside to just hanging out there. And I believe that's why Bungie put fusion coils on the major top level areas of Lockout - it was a key balancing feature that occasionally forced people off those platforms (or resulted in their deaths from a well-placed grenade!). - Health stations elsewhere. Works on the same principle as the power-ups and power weapons but even more so, because everybody gets hurt and needs health at times. Put them down low and out of the center area; force people in need of health to drop down and fan out. - Add structures that break line of sight from the top. The big reason people camp the top level is to dominate those down below. This is harder to do if there are large objects of whatever type blocking off parts of the map from view. It looks to me like people on your top platforms have a very good look at all the outer walkways and large chunks of the ground; throwing a few large braces or rocks or similar line of sight-breakers might help with that.
Thanks for the reply. The desirable weapons and health packs are both situated away from the top. (I purposely avoided putting health packs on that level for that precise reason.) I don't think that good cover to lower areas is the deciding factor (though perhaps others who've played the map might argue?) It seems to function more like a big game of King of the Hill, where the teams clash over control of the area - but without exploiting it's tactical location. (All of the accuracy weapons are well away the top, so the only ones up there are those that get dropped when people die.) I've been thinking about how to increase the upper ring's vulnerability. (Even to the point of splitting my one sniper with one extra clip into two snipers with zero clips placed with the best vantage I can give on the upper ring, but I think that the altitude does too good a job of keeping the area covered.) It's got multiple means of entrance. There are five separate ways to reach the upper ring, so I believe it's a difficult area to bottleneck. (My fear was producing something like the yellow lift/break room in Sword Base.) I'm going to take your suggestion about the fusion coils and see if lightly spreading the explosives around has a positive influence. Thanks for even the general tips! I was hoping to have at least one more map ready for Forgetacular, but I want to have Solitude as polished as I can get it first. It's been a true labor of love.