Welcome to a preview of my map that will never be finished because I can't be arsed to figure out the problems with it. Have a gander and let me know what you think i should do differently: Walkthrough: http://xboxclips.com/A 3 Legged Goat/d196a306-1b5c-4ca0-86ab-120815eca088 Alright, here's my centerpiece. Aesthetic liberties were taken of course, but it's functional first and foremost. view from blue base with the "way tower" in the background overhead of red base and the small tower area. the floating rock will be connected to the water. bottom mid And here's a scratch sketch i've been using to try and map out the routes As there are a billion different versions with different concepts being tested, the above media is outdated and subject to change. Here's an idea of what I'm looking to change: The small tower area looks really lame. It needs more cover and more room to dance, but it's difficult to do that given the design I've chosen to go for. I've experimented with arches and a variety of walls, but I don't want that area to be too closed off because this is the shortest route between the bases. The small tower is designed to be a powerful position that's somewhat exposed because it has a direct route into the middle (and will likely house a Sniper). Again, this direction is subject to change, but it's been part of the intial design (and budget allocation) for a while. I need to redesign the bases. I like how they are functionally until i factor in the small tower area. The problem is the transition to this area from the base. I want it to be more predictable because there's a lot of deadspace in the air and it doesn't feel properly closed off with this current base design. Once players learn there is a Sniper there, they'll just jump off of the side and probably miss the rock, which is not how I intended for it to be accessed. My only idea so far is to wall off most of it and create a window in this space; however, this is difficult to design due to the angled geometry of the base. The other main things i wanted to change were the "way towers", or the transitioning portions of the map opposite of the bases. These need to support very crucial spawn zones, but also need to be designed in a way that makes moving directly into the middle less desirable due to the other "tower" area that i need to account for. I've experimented with lifts to the middle and a few alternate paths but I haven't settled on anything yet. The big tower area is the only place that has not seen a consistent design through the many iterations. The travel distance needs to be "short", but it also needs to be designed in a way that gives me more spawning opportunities. Since it's a direct connection to the middle, it needs to be a desirable position on the map. I have no idea what weapon or powerup i can throw here though. The only idea that comes to mind is to create a small forward room with a blocked off back ramp for camo, which connects to the landing of the lower lift (which could always become a hard route if necessary). I'd appreciate any feedback you can offer - especially unfiltered criticism - because i need to find a new angle to approach the design. The first major change i've done to this current iteration is to wall off the last portion of the carbine ramp. this makes that path more predictable and helps mold the way tower area better. that of course assumes i still keep these routes.
I like the overview painted one the most. So far its looking cool. It be intresting to see how you tie it all together
Finally got around to building the big tower area. well it's several big towers at the moment. so that plus the new pathing improves the flow and rounds off the map very nicely. going to play with the height a bit to make it slightly more vertical, but i have a better idea of where to take it now. i think the only thing still bugging me is that corner of the base, but i might have a few ideas there.
What would you think of having the rock jump being between the middle and side and having hard routes from the bases?
not sure where you mean. if i replaced the current rock jumps with hard routes, it'd make that path very convenient since it's the shortest distance between bases (well technically top mid is, but that lower route is hidden from most of the map). i am worried about the new jumps i added by the way towers though. kinda limits how much verticality i can get away with in that portion of the map and it means the middle is accessible almost exclusively via jumping, which i'm uncertain about. i will still need to tweak it. the hallway from top mid to the way towers is very long and narrow and it's also been bothering me for a while.
I really like the triangulation in the design and love your photoshop sketch. Is that what you used to make that 'painted' overview image? I would think that you could get some inspiration from 'Opticon' from Halo 4 by SaltyKoalaBear. There are some really great texture uses here with your pieces but I feel that you are going to get into trouble with your budget and density...lovely to look at though. So far the sniper tower seems out of the way, the rock jumps don't bring that section of the map close enough to the outer perimeter. Perhaps you could throw players onto snipe (small) tower with man cannons? Had to say without being able to walk around for myself. Really interested to see where you take this and hope you stick with it. Also please add me. GT: WARH0LIC
i use Paint Tool SAI for my sketches. Photoshop hasn't been working recently so i need to figure out what's wrong with it. I'm more comfortable with SAI as far as sketching goes. the sketch in the OP is sloppy compared to stuff i've spent more time on but it's mostly to help me start with an idea before i build. I'm definitely going to run into some density problems once I start throwing rocks and platforms on the map. I need to find a way to minimize redundant piece usage and streamline the map. I've gotten the hang of the Rock 3 Larges, but it's still kinda sad that it takes so many of them to accomplish what a Rock 3 or Rock 2 from Forge Island could. And i want to avoid the tan rocks because of how detailed they are. I'm still unsure of that whole connection around snipe. The bases still bother me and I'm worried that route isn't as inviting as it should be to begin with. I think if I can manage it, I'll add a hard rock route there somehow and make the tower more vertical to push it closer to the middle. What's throwing me off though now is the lift in bottom mid. When you're at Big Tower, it takes a long time to intercept anyone near bottom mid because you don't have any direct routes there. I'm experimenting with paths under the middle, but they're inherently awkward and it's causing some problems. Hopefully I'll have them sorted out this week so I can finish this and test before the month ends.