emp_atomic is now available

Discussion in 'Mapping' started by Chris0132', Mar 29, 2011.

  1. Chris0132'

    Chris0132' Developer

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    http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1579090/filehost/emp_atomic_rc6.zip

    NEW VERSION

    [​IMG]

    Having done a few small scale tests, I figure I may as well release this, given that a large scale test is probably not going to happen unless it gets into regular rotation.

    The map is a conquest map with no set victory objectives, you win by reducing the enemy's 800 tickets to 0. As the map is designed for 64 players and features a bleeder flag, this should not take too long on higher playercounts. I would like to scale the tickets with number of players, but I can't, so I'll settle for big games over small ones, although it is entirely possible to play a small game on this, it works with 16-20 people and there's certainly stuff to do. The lack of set victory conditions means that you shouldn't suffer a cheap loss or victory because you don't have enough people to hold your main base, because there is no main base. All you have to do is hold one spawn (and ideally the middle) and kill enemies faster than you lose tickets, how you accomplish this is up to you.

    The map offers a number of strategic options, all of the flags offer you some assitance in controlling the middle, but aren't important otherwise, essentially the map mirrors a classic map, in that no one part of the map is vital, but controlling it is helpful to winning. The intent on making it was to bring elements of classic to conquest, so playing this in an organised match should be interesting, but it works just as well in public games.

    So download it (if you're a server owner preferably because dropbox doesn't have limitless capacity) and tell me how it goes.
     
    Last edited: Jan 29, 2012
  2. OuNin

    OuNin Member

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    needs more screenshots and minimap in the release post
     
  3. LordDz

    LordDz Capitan Rainbow Flowers

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    Go play it instead, it's worth it.
     
  4. flasche

    flasche Member Staff Member Moderator

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    cant wait to play it, hopefully it finally is an inf map i like (which i doubt), but it looks great chris, respect :bow:
     
  5. Chris0132'

    Chris0132' Developer

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    Given that only one person actually needs to download it and that's vicki, I doubt it really matters.
     
  6. dizzyone

    dizzyone I've been drinking, heavily

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    Another unplayable map by Chris. Congratulations Chris, this map far exceeds the unplayability of your last map. I could give you constructive criticism, but I know it will be a waste of time.

    For everyone else thinking about designing levels. Heres a good example of how you should not approach level design. Play it and learn from its mistakes.
     
  7. Chris0132'

    Chris0132' Developer

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    Odd considering we had a game where both teams took all of the map at one point, both ended up on opposite sides of the same situation, both killed at least 600 enemies, and my team at least had lots of squad coordination and strategy, and the game ended in a very close victory for NF while both teams were at 0 tickets. And this on the first time anyone had played.

    Generally this is what we would call a good game, the only thing I am going to change at the moment is the basin flag, apparently it isn't as easy to cap as I expected, so it either needs to be easier to cap, or it needs a way out other than across the vehicle area. Not sure which yet, as both will require a bit of thought.

    Honestly with a bit of work on a couple of areas, I would expect this to end up as a quite unique map, it is definitely doing some of the things I intended, and I have a couple of modifications I can make to stop it doing the things I didn't. Otherwise I'm fairly pleased with it.

    Given that you don't really know how it's designed, and you played one game on it which was a bit of a mess because nobody really knows the map, and therefore strategy was kind of lacking, I'm not particularly inclined to trust your assessment of 'it's universally terrible never play it ever'.
     
  8. complete_

    complete_ lamer

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    How long did it last?
     
  9. Chris0132'

    Chris0132' Developer

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    Not sure, probably around 40 minutes I think.

    You blow through tickets quite quickly on an infantry map.

    Trickster said it was too long but it was slightly shorter than a good classic game, so I don't agree. The main thing I think confused people was that it isn't a linear flag map. Apparently the idea of a flag map that is best played like a commander map is hard for people to understand, or possibly just unexpected, I imagine that will go with time though.

    Definitely been getting comments about 'how do you win this' and the answer is 'same as you do a commander map' more or less. Fight better then the enemy and gain ground, then go for the important locations (or location in this case as there's only one). Hold them until the enemy runs out of steam (or tickets in this case) and you win.

    If I was going to cut the tickets it'd only be by a hundred. I wouldn't mind the round a little shorter, but certainly not by much. Short games usually feel a bit artificially cut short to me.
     
    Last edited: Mar 29, 2011
  10. complete_

    complete_ lamer

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    dude that is too long for an infantry map. a close-game infantry map should be at most 30 minutes (and im assuming this was a full server, imagine if it was 10 players less). I recommend cutting 200 tickets or more.

    however, on the people not knowing how to play non-linear maps i sympathise with you greatly.
     
  11. Chris0132'

    Chris0132' Developer

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    I did originally have it set at 600 tickets rather than 800, but I upped it because of playercounts.

    We only had 48 players, and the tickets are balanced for 64.

    I know it isn't ideal, but I don't know of any way to multiply tickets based on player count, so it's either slightly long games on medium servers and good games on large servers, or too short games on large servers and good games on medium servers.

    As the map design encourages max playercounts, seems silly to discourage it with tickets.

    I could probably release different versions for different playercounts, with areas blocked off, but that might be confusing with people not knowing where they can go on which version.
     
  12. dizzyone

    dizzyone I've been drinking, heavily

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    I'm not talking to you Chris, criticism is wasted on you. My congratulations were purely rhetorical.

    This is a public forum, I'm giving my opinion to others who want to read it. Map blows hard balls.
     
  13. Chris0132'

    Chris0132' Developer

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    Feel free, I'm still going to tell you you're full of shit.
     
  14. complete_

    complete_ lamer

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    if you made it for 64 players then why bother trying to get it on viper? its practically a 48 slot server
     
  15. Chris0132'

    Chris0132' Developer

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    I'm not trying to get it anywhere, I'm just releasing it. I'm not likely to play it, but it's made, so it should be released.

    I have seen a few high population servers full recently, so I figure it will get some usage.

    Besides, it works with far fewer players, it just takes longer. Much like classic maps really, although the bleeder flag helps to encourage a slow but steady ticket loss even with fewer players, I might add another .05 tickets per second to it. And 100 tickets off the total won't hurt anything much I don't imagine.
     
  16. PredatoR[HUN]

    PredatoR[HUN] Member

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    It's kind of hard to find your way around the south east part of the map but I enjoyed it altough I left because it got boring, we had like 200 tickets left.
     
  17. dizzyone

    dizzyone I've been drinking, heavily

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    Blows hard.
     
  18. Chris0132'

    Chris0132' Developer

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    Mm probably a hundred off the max then, it does work with 40-50 players so may as well shift the ticket balance there a bit, and if most folks don't mind a short game it should be ok.

    Core room is a bit confusing in the dark I agree, actually I kinda got lost in there while testing once or twice, need to think of a couple of visual cues to denote important doorways. Or maybe make it more open plan in general...

    As the core in general seems to work OK, I can see about redesigning it to fix the confusion. I had to change it once because of FPS and I wasn't sure the lighting mechanic would work, but people seemed to figure it out fairly quickly so that's good.

    Maybe if I make the outer areas of the control rooms not connected to the ceiling, and add a little glass roof to them instead, then you can see the walls when you look up and that should help keep you oriented. Can also add some lights that don't go out so you can use them as landmarks.
     
    Last edited: Mar 29, 2011
  19. Trickster

    Trickster Retired Developer

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    Chris, it lasted 83 minutes, not 40.
     
  20. Chris0132'

    Chris0132' Developer

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    Really? That went fast.

    Didn't seem very long at all to me.
     

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