Map Gameplay Concepts

Just going to list a few concepts for maps that can be used to make maps both interesting while not being some lulzy stupid map.

Conquest:

Take your average conquest map, like escort. Stick in a CV. Add in a trigger that responds to the CV touching it. You now have a CV escort map.

Idea: The idea of this gameplay type is to guide a CV from one point to the other. The game ends when you run out of tickets or the enemy kills your CV. My specific idea was to have a mountain pass that the NF would be trying to sneak a CV through. The BE garrisons are large, but mostly untrained troops, or troops in training. The NF would send in an elite strike force to deal with the Imperials one checkpoint at a time. NF would have to capture each individual point to take controls of the gates and move on through.

Why this idea could work:

We now have vehicle spawning entities that allow mappers to make some ideal or slightly less than ideal vehicles for general use. They can also manually control how many of a certain type of vehicle can be on a map at any given time. Conquest maps should be easier to make with this.

The commander, with a limited amount of res, could also help by building a VF and Radar to research items to improve their chances. By limiting the amount of res that a team starts with, you can make the commander choose very carefully what research to get to amplify their own capabilities. Conquest maps are usually high point games, so wages should cover a good amount of the cost of a VF bought vehicle, and the Commander can restrict the vehicle creation to protect his res.

Ideally, the areas in which the commander could drop buildings would be very small or non existent.



Straight Chokepoint maps:

We need more maps that are essentially one or 2 large chokepoints with combat areas in between. These types of maps are much better for small populations because they focus the attention of the map. Slaughtered is NOT a good example of this for a couple of reasons. First, the map is imbalanced on the BE front. The third res node for BE is far out of the way. With the distances the players travel in the map, the ability for the NF to get there before the imperials is higher than normal. This also draws BE attention away from the other choke points. Because of this, this map tends to be very NF sided with fewer players because it's so linear for them, but losing that first refinery for NF also means that they will lose, as the enemy already has a foot hold next to their base. The imps can lose the bottom corner, but they can also take it back before being completely over run, and not have to take out the entire enemy team to do so. Often NF would be split between the large area outside of the S bend and the BE southern base, giving the BE team a slim chance to pull off a recapture. In general, if the BE takes the third NF refinery, the entire BE team will be there, and will not be likely to be pushed back.

Taking these faults, I would like to see if people can start thinking of different ways to make linear maps, learning from the flaws in the designs of slaughter. I, personally, like the idea of having the main bases for both teams being in the same corner of the map, only separated by whatever you fancy. This also allows for many more chokepoints in the map, because there is more possible distance between bases.

My personal idea for a choke point map would be to have both bases start in the bottom left, then swing around whatever type of barrier from the outside to the center. At the point where both teams enter the center area, there would be a massive choke point. This choke point would present 2 avenues for the team, one which leads to a refinery tucked away, and one that leads to the center.


Another idea for these types of maps would be to make forward bunkers or barracks with spawn points. There is no fault in multiple spawn points on a map. placing the starting barracks not in the main base is not a fault either. I don't like being more than 30 seconds away from a fight myself. People can always move back and build a base in a safe spot after the game starts. I personally do not like the idea of winning or losing a map because my team didn't run to exactly the right place with speed upgrade or whatever. This is especially important if the map only has 1 route through it.


Commanding maps:

I've seen a lot of newer maps with flag capture points. This is good. They are great tools to use in commander maps. What isn't good is that they tend to be placed in the center of an area as the focal point. Why isn't this good? Because no one will want to go after it or fight over it. Generally I see these flags get captured then left alone, and someone runs along and captures it because it is there.

Well, why don't we just add shit tons of res to make it feel important? NO! Making a flag important by giving it resources is not a good idea. Generally speaking, I like to see these reasons for capturing flags:

It provides a strategically important spawn point. (choke point).
It denies my enemies a spawn point or resource that they otherwise would have had.

I love the idea of having a flag that is obviously more biased towards one team rewarding the opposite team greatly. This is an underused tactic when placing flags. If you want to make a point to gain resources that is about in the center of everything and has no real reason to be there other than to give resources, make it a refinery point. Flags are not meant to be mirrored. They are not mirrored by team in conquest maps where they are used most, and they should not be mirrored in commander maps. Aside from the res rates working differently with flags and refineries, Flags should have a clear advantage for one team, and a clear reason to not let the other team have it. Otherwise, it makes refineries pointless.






Hope that gives people some ideas on things they can do, or gives them ideas on ways they can improve their designs. There is nothing wrong with complexity in a map. If it is fun, people will learn it. If it isn't, you should probably redesign the complexity.

 

flasche we already saw that kind of map. I can't really think of the length you used (what the hell is one unit, really)
Differences:

• I think it was smaller then you suggested
• with Flags instead of refinery points
• It was nowhere S-shaped

It turned out to be very fun for some time, but as soon as we got some flags of the enemy's team, our resources were impossible to deplete. If it is possible to set resource rates for both teams, just ignore this point, but a team should not loose the entire game just because is looses some meters of ground.

 

Can someone give ideas for aircraft maps?

 

Just take an open map like emp_moors and add the aircrafts. APCs can reach any destination without problems on these maps. Aircrafts will just be another kind of APC.

 

You've seen my aircraft, do you think they'll be good in a commander map?

 

They aren't good in anything in comparison with what we WILL add soon.

 

Just try it. On open maps I see no problems.

Soon in Empires means tomorrow, next year or never.

 

Sucky sucky 5 dollar.

 

There was a map like this, it was snowy and shitty. Essentially one long S shape through the entire map with an infantry path along the top through the center. It really wasn't that great because all there was to do was run towards the center, die, and take forever to run back.

I think to be successful, the linear map will have to be mostly flat in areas that are narrow to allow the placement of buildings and such. Major fighting areas where it widens out, those should be much more diverse in the landscape. I find tank combat much more fun if the main area you are fighting in has dips and things that you can drop down to dodge homing missiles or something.

Another point is that offshoots are good things. Allowing a team to lose something without making them doomed is good. I like this aspect of the BE side of slaughtered, it's just not mirrored at all on the NF side. I would prefer it if the mirroring wasn't a copy paste over though. Symmetrical maps annoy me for some reason. There are just only so many ways you can make a large circle or square.

One other aspect of this that seems to be greatly under used. You can trigger things to happen based upon the team who is building a refinery. This is mostly used to turn smoke trails on and off. I think that it would be interesting to use this to turn spawn points on and off in the same way flags do. I think it would greatly add to the gameplay if the spawn point you are trying to protect was an actual building. It would make it much easier to capture and much more interesting to defend if all you had to do was mortar the refinery from behind the wall.

As far as the max grid size, I'm not sure that's necessarily a good idea. I'm thinking of linear maps being good for games with around 10 people on each team. If you make the map too large, it becomes a pain in the rear to move around to the fighting. The map simply needs to be as big as it gets in order to make the desired layout of the map.

In regards to aircraft, I think the mod would be much better off seeing more island maps or something that looks like the Florida Keys. Balancing the fun with the run will be much more extreme in those maps. I would suggest in these types of maps something like 2k starting res and a VF already placed. Jeep spam ftw.

 

emp_glycenpass - hit your face on a brick wall until it goes away.

 

There were multiple maps like those. The map I was talking about was one street with accessible buildings in which the flags were situated. I think it was the first map of it's mapper who I think was Grantithor.
The Refthing I mentioned, flasche, was about the refmultipliers, which I don't know whether they can be set differently for the teams or not. If not, how will you make refineries far away from be base give be less resources then the nf, who the refs will be closer to?

 

it's better than what you have for the community

 

woa carefull with your words harry
just an advice

i had an idea too
when you mentioned refs that are more far away from bases should give less res, the resource system of Company of Heroes with the Royal Army came to my mind

in short: making those multiplayers variable and not static hence you can move your main base
that would probably lead to a whole new gameplay overall
so moving the cv nearer to a ref will increase this refs resource output
this could be done just in normal direct distance
or the idea i like more:
just like in CoH making zones with one or more ref points
when the cv is in a zone the refpoints in that zone produce more res

and maybe additional: when a zone is completly cut off from the rest
ie. got no direct path to the team cv it only gives a reduced amount of res

 

well its not meant that you have to conquer it
just build a ref as usual
its just a way of determining whether the CV is near the ref or not
(besides that part with the cut-off zones)

 

in that case your idea sucks.