Irontaxi Here with a quick Dev journal about the new map i'm working on...
not sure how far it will go but thought you guys might be interested in the process...
First stages...
I thought about what kind of map I wanted to do.. had a few ideas..
1. Very steep all up hill or downhill (depending on the faction) map. heavy forest and cliffs etc..lots of hidden bunkers and almost a series of checkpoints making your way upo the mountain side. damns and steep roadways. (2km)
2. Coastal map with forests as I havent yet done coastal, possibly a port belonging to the british in keeping with the Brits vs. Militia series. Brits would be defending the port (their toehold on georgia) from a miltia assault. Primary objective would be for the miltia to push the brits out of the port to their carrier or sea based base. (2kim)
3. Large desert map. MEC defending a large complex of interconnected bunkers and ammo depots via fixed locations and AA emplacements. First US wave would be primarily aircraft and helis assaulting AA positions with sappers/engineers/scout crawling up the fenceline in support. Near dusk or dawn map to hopefully take advantage of bright tracers off all the AA...a real fun mess
I decided on map 2 for this project... why?
Easy to implement and contained alot of elements I wanted to try out.. also thought it would fit well to help finsih off the militia series and make it whole (another is still coming)
So.. where to begin...google earth of course! scan the georgia coast line for possible locations...
some of the candidates...
(to be continued)
SO.... here they are...
I already chose one.. BUT...
which would you choose?
candidate 1?
Candidate 2?
Candidate 3?
Candidate 4?
OK....so ive chosen map 2 and decided to establish the map area...
using approximate landmarks I establish an actual bf2 scale sized piece of map that I will use for my map... chopping it square at approximately 2km sq.
which is what we see here..
then I determine all the key areas and points of interest and mark them on the map or generally review the whole area in my head...
which is what you can see here...
yellow = rivers
pink = railroads
light blue = roads
bright blue = interesting peers...
my goal will be to incorporate all these features into the space of the map....asssuming that maps are not actually theses little self contained worlds but in fact part of larger functional spaces...
after applying the terrain image in bf2... I raise and lower the terrain to establish the basic terrain layout...
(TBC)
which you can see here...
SO....ive delved into the base quite a bit at this point...
My objective is 3 fold..
1. A heavily industrialized space with lots of obstacles
2. A unique space that doesn't look like anything we have seen thus far
3. Give the Militia a wide variety of attack avenue while still allowing the brits to defend with some strength
So how to make a unique space out of stuff that people have seen a bazillion times?
well lets find out!
The first thing I like to do is think about the vertical levels in the combat area...
You don't want players looking only in 2d preferably you would like them to have to look in 3d.. In this map the area is quite flat.. so pulling this off will be quite a feat.. but there are a few things I can do to create levels.. and more so there are alot of things I can do obstruct views and create firing areas... or create fighitng avenues etc..
although not fully developed this area has alot of things already to make it a nice area to fight in...
So... we have a bunch of warehouses which is typical.. the pipe system in the middle will be the key to this space.. All of the purplish areas are walls and obstructions used for both cover and to control flow of players..
The red trench in the middle adds a very useful level mid way across the opening ..it allows players to flow up and down it with some cover as well providing a break for players running across...not to mention the middle makes a great bootleneck for machine gunners like me to cover and mow people down..
the yellow areas on the right provide a vertical level of fire BUT i've chosen to break the lines of fire close to the windows by using the green highlighted coverings..they make the windows less useful..which is what i want as they can be a really powerful position if anyone remembers good station map...
in addition we have the all purpose bf2 port crane highlighted in blue which can be a great fire point or recon point..I think this is a well controlled space and should provide some fun tactical action...not done yet but well layed out..
SO....continuing right along..
the port has been laid out more or less and I have added some long peers out into the main bay.. I could actually see one on the original image.. 2 looked even nicer...
the peers can be seen here...
they are made up of damn pieces set down so that you should be able to boat through the opening underneath.. functionally i guess we could say the opening reduce wave pressure against the peer...
then we have the port.. i decided early on to use the port cranes to add height to the scene.. they will be accesible and I think I've made them fit pretty well..
I had some fun with the port layout.. made it tight and messy .. tried to avoid too many straight lines and create more chaos which i think adds to atmosphere...
also created a tiny island off the leg of the one dock crane which should be a cool holdout.. ill put a small shack or something on there as well as some various garbage..
notice all the accesses from the port.. if the militia are brave enough to boat in the center of the port they should be rewarded with easy access.. of course it will be a major kill zone as well...hehe
Thought i'd drop some process shots just to show you guys how i go from base to more decorative areas.. had a nice mapiphany today as well which has added a nice touch to the uniqueness...
first of all.. a basic warehouse...
add some covering against the wall.. to change the overall shape of the building then slap some walls along the pole bases and slide some piping in.. alot more interesting than the standard crates against the wall. nothing to write home about but adds levels, cover, directs traffic...and can be dressed a bit more.
Some pipes running through the warehouses.. basically take up space and create chaos in the scene and make it hard to see clearly through.. but they could be much better...
Clone the pipes and drop them down and add and subtract some bits.. and wowo a really cool level obstacle that adds chaos directs traffic and acts as cover.. better than the standard pipes on stands IMHO..
And finally my mapiphany.. I was wondering what to do with all these ramps as they were just a little tooooooo accesible.. but i liked that it wasnt a flat wall..which is just way too easy..and boring..
well...thinking in levels (which flat maps always lack) i found a creative way to clone the piers and drop them to create ship berths that add another level of cover to the space.. I can slap some ladders on them and create a VERY useful area/feature requiring players to think and use the space well...not to mention they look realistic and accomodate ships very well.. I can even say to myself that they merely allow low tide access to the piers!
I'm just going to run my fingers and talk about one thing I really think adds alot to maps in general. Setting scenes...
what does it mean? Well.. your statics imho should be telling a story to the players.. there should always be a rhyme or reason to where and how a static is placed...even the terrain should tell a geological story and not just be bumps on the ground...
the most basic example of this would be the layout of crates and small obstacles in a level...I think its really telling how good a mapper is by how these things are layed out... (and I am guilty of not spending enough time on these details)
an example
straight cloned piping.. I can get away with it.. its just decoration..but..how in hell did the crane operator get those things sooooo damn straight when he dropped them in????!!!
as I walk past them they present a uniform angle..which isnt very immersive and feels far too precise...maybe the players wont notice but I think even on a subconcious level you follow the lines and natural flow of things (ie your brain notices..just we is just too dumb to knows it)
so here is what you should do....it only takes a min or 2 and looks a bazillion times better.
and in the walk past (or run while under fire) we have a much more organic line which will force us to consider the bump out of the pipes in navigation adn possibly even log it as a cover position if necessary...again..not much...but over a whole level it pays off...
Hehe... well...
I'll give you guys a quick look at 2 of the big scenes im setting up for this new WIP map...
the first is a train wreck...ive added a few minor wrecks in some maps but mostly out of the way or not impacting gameplay.. so i decided to add a real meaningful one that will have function in the level. It will provide a very good in route for the miltia into the brit base.. (in theory)
every car is layed out then rotated in a realistic looking jumble as if the train had been derailed.. the ground was after raised in the most logical areas where it would pile up under/in front of the crashing cars..
its interesting to note that the jumbles of dirt and cars are also hiding the connections of the rail system to the warehouses and main line.. I had no way to connect them via standard statics.. so the scene also became a cover for a lack of statics...
(ie. now they look connected.. but in no way are)the next scene im working on is a cover approach to the west wall. The idea is to use the large boilers and create a swampy field with lots of interesting cover for the creeping infantry.. the idea being the old boilers were dumped there at some point and have been slowly rusting and sinking into the ground.
this approack to the wall will have some sort of access from outside and will be covered by small bunker manned by the defenders.. hopefully with enough overlapping fire from the main gate to keep miltia elements out..
from the militia side the treeline will end just at the boilers and a swampy/bushy terrain with lots of holes will be their route to the defenders walls.. the walls themselves should provide a nice cover for the attakers if they make it there...
and finally something fun...which should be included in any map... (in fact there is one thing that is always in all my maps but i wont say what)
my objective here is soley to have people walk by and stop and say... "huh?" and then carry on...haha...
anyway....
Hey, I'm going to post a bit of a progression of one area of a map so people can see the layout stages.. pretty straightforward but might be interesting to some..
So this is the zone we have.. I want to create an industrial area which will provide an interesting visual area and have lots of things to break up the lines and make people look carefully when fighting through the area.
Initially i've added the walls to define the area leaving some holes which line up with firing paths.. ie..you could camp the holes in some way to get a good kill chance from the firing line on the other side..
I'm also going to somehow try to attach this platform via pipes and a tank to the area
Next I choose a few tanks and stuff to attach some piping to.. I'm planning to make some raised piping to add elevation and create nice shadowing on the ground.. as well as keep peoples eyes moving..also added a few more walls to control movement through the space a little better.. a bit of a broken bottleneck..
Next I'm going to add alot of pipes and intersections and different directions and angles and make it look all official and technical..linking all the tanks into a system and trying to make it seem functional. not sure how well I did but im liking it better than just tanks..
the gap to the port side will need some sort of supports to be believable.. but ill add something later..
and finally I added some supports to alot of the pipes...kinda hard to see...but gave them something to hold them up..
not done yet.. but pretty close..of course.. I need to add terrain details and some weeds etc at a later point.. as well as deforming the ground a bit or making it tarmac.. but static wise I might just add a few random things to make it look a little less linear..
thats all for now..
Some quick development shots for all you budding level designers out there..
Just to give you a point of comparison in your mapping process.
each shot is accompanied by a brief explanation
Tried to use these xpack objects to create a loading station for the train system in the base. Think it makes a nice visual mess which players have to navigate.
I really interesting location which will probably become one of the natural strongpoints on the map. tried to create some decay with the broken pipe on the left as well as the old unfinished cement forms out in the water. with some scraggly bushes and a few more statics it will be a nice looking location and very
fun for cqb
Mainly included this to show an organic layout of derelict containers in a run down port. while still in development, im trying to develop a sense that the port has become rundown and misused.. notice containers in the water and at odd angles. dont be the mapper who just throws a bunch of ocntainers on a pier in a straight line as filler!!!! purpose!!
A typical rail line thorugh an idustrial area. Ive added the barriers to break up the space and make players navigate through the rail line area. makes them feel more purposeful as well as providing a place to get pinned down. might develop this space a bit more.
Another effort to create visual and strategic levels in an otherwise flat map. assuming the tanks have a host of pipe networks and was added after the initial port was built. so they raised and covered the tanks pipework. breaks up a corner of the port. provide both cover and height.
Still fighting with this space but essentially wanted a non linear rail terminus. a few side lines to park rail cars. the cars also cover the approach to the raised base of the silos which will be a strong point of sorts. still WIP..not quite what I want yet.
This raised tower and tank area breaks up 1/3 of the port and will be a way point when moving across the port en masse. towers can be accessed via rear ladders but highly exposed. also middle section has a drain to open water.. watch you dont fall in! hehe..
basic layout of a town that will just skirt the port. Will serve as a gathering point for attacking militia forces. will not be directly involved in game play so will not be detailed too much. Maybe just painted roads. some bells and whistles. would make a good command area for the militia commander.
A practical looking pipe and tanks system that will break up the main flow area of this 1/3 of the port. May still add a wall or 2 along the water. really breaks up the cisual from left to right. Hopefully make the player concentrate on what they are looking at. cause some tension. still need decoration as well.
So just some devlopment shots as I said. hopefully inspire someone or give poeple some ideas.. feedback welcome.
Some quick screens for all you players out there..
Getting into the finishing stages..
lightmaps were done in max.. still need some tweaking..
still need to
1.add the sounds / ambients effects..
2. Have someone do the team layouts and assets
3. Fixed tree LOD bug
4. tweak some other stuff..
enjoy..
LeMazing.
