The idea: NF and BE are separated by a mountain range. They each start on opposite sides of the mountain range. The land is flat/hilly near their bases so they can build there. The bases should be far enough apart (and the mountains wide enough) that arty can't just shoot from one base into another base. The mountain range should be steep and craggy. Pretty bare of vegetation near the top... maybe a little brush/bush. On the ascent there can be pine trees, but not at the top. You should have to research good engines to get tanks up the steep roads. Maybe 4 narrow foot paths to get to the other side. 2 "road"-sized passes. However, teams should have to research 3phase/fission before having the necessary engine strength to climb the thick passes. I invision fighting along the ridgetops. Maybe the range should be 3 mountains thick/wide. However, the area in between the mountains should remain at a high altitude (not valleys). Thoughts? General Layout: Remember that a mountain is not a hill. A mountain is MUCH bigger than a hill. They should be steep enough that you need to use the paths (and can't just climb up the side of the mountain) For inspiration:
is this what you think about on those lonely mountains evan? I thought of something similar when I was in Bosnia, except with fully navagatable forests (lol fps death)
There are two maps I have to think about when looking at this idea: The first one is emp_money, because the layout doesn't look like you'll be fighting over refs a lot. You have two bases where it's difficult for the enemy to get close, and a set of paths dictated by architecture between the bases. The question is how much fighting you want to take place in the hills area. If you want it to be more money-style with base-paths-other base, the hills region can't be very large. This would concentrate everything on the paths, which will mean pre 2.0 emp_money, complete with arty-whoring and without possibility to change paths. On the other hand, if there's one thing that's missing from money in my opinion, it's decent inf paths, and in your map grens sneaking along the mountain paths will become deadly. The second map is El Alamein from Battlefield 1942. It had a ridge with three passes in the middle and some sort of desert field on both side. It's been a while, but I remember the fighting being distributed equally between the flat desert and the mountain pass. El Alamein has been my favorite map in BF1942 (Desert Combat). If you want it to be more like this, there might be too many mountains. There will be lots of action in the hills. Also, you have placed one base near the middle (horizontally) and the other one near a corner. (which, again, looks like El Alamein tilted 90 degrees). But Empires differs from BF in that places for forward bases are very important. For example the team that starts in the southeast will have a very hard time when the enemy manages to build a forward base in the southwest, while the northern team can reach both corners quickly and kill every engie before he builds a forward rax. Imagine Duststorm with NF starting in the lower middle. BE would have a hard time capping the ruins or SW. Another thing to worry about is arty fire from the mountain pass. Depending on how big the hill region is, an arty might reach an enemy base from the exit of one of the paths (the "1" chains) because it can fire from an elevated position, and since the arty driver's team has to control the pass anyway for that, he might be extremely hard to get to (enemies have to fight uphill to attack him, too). But if the map is huge ("aircraft-grade") maybe this won't be an issue. Suggestions: -Start bases symmetrical -Intersections between passes -Something to counter arty whoring if the map is not big enough (elevated bases, maybe?) -
Reminds me, if anyone here ever wants to make a map w/ Mediterranean-style land, I can take random pics of California.
